Of the current wave of video-game isekai, this series stands out, even with flaws

IN BRIEF: There's a fairly popular video game called Elder Tale, that has been played around the world for almost ten years and is due for a major update. However, the moment that update rolls in, the players who were logged in at the time black out and wake up in the world on the other side of their screens. Trapped in their characters' bodies, and with the in-game teleportation system broken, players need to figure out how to work together and build a community... before the realities of this new world catch up with them.

***This review is for Seasons 1 & 2, and may include spoilers.***

OPINION: I have a lot more caveats for Log Horizon than I do for most shows that I enjoyed. It's a testament to the overarching plot and engaging characters that I didn't find the occasional irritant to be a dealbreaker. I'm going to split this into likes and dislikes.

THINGS I LIKED:

1) The worldbuilding. I really appreciated how the focus of this story was on creating a working and mostly-just society, rather than on subjugating the "People of the Land" (the non-player characters of the past, which seem to be real people now) or on building up hard power over soft power (hard power being a more traditional shonen goal).

2) The various plotlines. I liked some more than others, but there were plenty of interesting storylines going on, concurrently and consecutively. For example, the secret that Rudy was keeping turned out to have a world-changing result when Shiroe found out about it and used his skill to fix the problem (I'm trying very hard here not to spoil the nature of the secret or the solution).

3) How the characters interact. With a few exceptions, the previous Elder Tale players all realize that they're in this mess together and they need to learn how to get along and lead their guilds. This is a realistic challenge, since many of them were socially awkward outside of the game and lack experience with in-person relationships; their comfortable zone of the game has been effectively removed once it became their reality.

4) The sense that there IS an underlying plan and the story is moving toward an end goal. It's amazing how many works lack this - some deliberately, some from lack of craftsmanship.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:

1) The gender essentialism. This is partially mitigated by the fact that the female characters are as free to kick ass as the male characters. Still, there's an underlying tension, in that the female characters are much more obsessed with romance (see Serara and her constant yearning for Nyanta), and are leaning into Women Be Competing in the specific cases of Akatsuki & Minori (who are two of several women lusting after Shiroe, but who stand out because of their competitiveness).

2) Sexual harassment from guys and violence from girls being depicted as comedy. This isn't the dark '90s, folks - let's move on from characters who are obsessed with panties. Honestly, Naotsugu almost drove me away in the first few episodes, as it was nearly his entire shtick at the beginning, and Akatsuki's violent response bothered me as well.

3) Mild transphobia. On the one hand, Log Horizon acknowledges the game as a welcoming space for people who wanted to experience a different gender through their character. And for someone who isn't actually trans, like Akatsuki, it makes sense that she couldn't handle the dysphoria of a male character body and switched it out. However, for those like Tetra who seem to enjoy/lean in to their new identities, the show depicts them as weird at best. Tetra is apparently "obviously a guy" to everyone but Naotsugu, even though Tetra doesn't say anything about it and is using a female voice (at least initially, the voices match the real-world identity, so it has to be through effort). Other characters chat about whether Tetra should be addressed as a boy or a girl, and complain about their confusion, but never ask Tetra for a preferred pronoun.