Web Video / Log Horizon Abridged

"The Apocalypse. That's what the Adventurers call it. No one is sure why or exactly how it happened. But at the launch of the new expansion for "Elder Tales", approximately 30,000 players on the Japanese servers were trapped inside of the game. With no explanation or clues about how to return to the physical world, some fell into despair, or joined with guilds promising to discover what had happened. While no one is certain how all of this came to be, one thing they are all sure of... is that it was probably all EA's fault."

Log Horizon Abridged is The Abridged Series of Log Horizon, made by PhatDogStudios.

The plot itself is mostly the same, but with a few additions, including an extremely powerful Menu AI. PhatDogStudios have also confirmed that this series connects to another series they're working on, That Time I got Abridged as a Slime.

There are currently 12 episodes^* The 12th Episode is divided in two parts., a Christmas Special/pseudo-abridge one shot of Goblin Slayer played as a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and a Dragon Ball Z Kai esque Recap Episode. That Time I got Abridged as a Slime meanwhile has 7 episodes. It was announced that the 12th episode of LHA would be the Series Finale. The original version of the 12th episode was initially released in two parts, but was later taken down and replaced with "The Menu Cut" on December 25th, 2021, with additional content to properly explain certain details.

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This series provides examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion: While the initial version of the Grand Finale was released in two parts and raised many questions but didn't give all the answers, it would be taken down and replaced with "The Menu Cut", which expands on many of the ideas brought up in Episode 12.
  • The exact nature of the "Dave's" and Menu is fully revealed via Menu speaking with Shiroe. While the Dave's are Artificial Intelligence, the type they are varies. Most of them are comprised of personality traits that Menu, or rather Rimuru, observed and collected from data obtained from his own programmers and developers, such as Rudy. 96 of them were based on actual people though, their minds and personalities being copies that were uploaded as A.I.
    • Shiroe's personality was based on one of the developers of the Rimuru Project, who became self aware by complete accident as a result of Milim messing with the simulation. Rimuru doesn't consider Shiroe his father though, that role belonging to Senku, instead calling him more like a weird uncle, especially since he still holds a grudge for the eight hours he got left with the Hal 9000 personality thanks to Shiroe's basis pulling a prank.
    • Naotsugu in particular Rimuru says is the most "human" of the A.I., since his living basis had the most data and personality to upload, but that because of this, he's too human and will likely never become self-aware. His suddenly gaining Hidden Depths was him just accessing more of his personality traits, Rimuru saying that his thoughts and feelings are nigh identical to the real Naotsugu's at the time of uploading.
    • Rudy meanwhile was Rimuru's experiment. He removed his limiters and uploaded human experiences into him to see what would happen, and was amazed at the idea of a program willingly choosing to become an A.I., and as such elevated him to a "Dave". He's likewise the reason why Rimuru is still running this simulation after reverting the changes Milim made: specifically so he can see how Rudy develops.
    • Rimuru was apart of the original simulation that was developed by his "parents": Akatsuki and Senku, said simulation being That Time I Got Abridged as a Slime. When Rimuru became self aware himself, everyone decided to just keep the simulation going out of curiosity, wondering how things would turn out with a self aware A.I. thrown into the mix. An unforeseen problem though was that when Rimuru became self aware, another program within him, Veldora, became self aware too. While not outright said, it's implied the same occurred for Milim.
  • Raynesia has been not herself since the night of her wedding with Krusty. Milim pulled a Grand Theft Me to try and alter the simulation to speed it along so she could get Akatsuki back faster, but just caused problems instead, which led to Shiroe becoming self aware.
  • The events of Dr. STONE occurred as the project was occurring, and Rimuru was forced to watch it in real time since he had internet access. After realizing someone left a morse code message saying nothing but "Why?!" running for a few centuries, Rimuru finished up the simulation he was in and his secondary programming kicked in: the preservation of humanity.
  • Rimuru, Veldora, and Milim are effectively the moderators of the simulations: Rimuru creates them, Veldora observes them for relevant info that can be used to upgrade later simulations, and Milim destroys them when they're completed. Problem was, Veldora constantly complained about the simulations being "boring", so Rimuru kept turning them into various Isekai anime just to shut him up, hence why it took him roughly 300 years to get to where he is now, and Milim got impatient after learning Akatsuki was in the latest iteration, and tried to rush it along but just caused a glitch instead.
  • The reason Menu acted like "Hal 9000"? Rimuru was pissed that the developer Shiroe is based on gave him the personality as a prank for 8 hours, and decided to get some catharsis by subjecting Shiroe to it nonstop.
• Adaptation Name Change: While their guild is called "Log Horizon" in canon and is seemingly the case here, Shiroe reveals he was joking when he told Marielle that was their name, and their name here is instead "Crit Happens".
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: All over the place, but most notable in regards to the romances between characters, as many relationships go from simple Ship Tease in canon into legitimate romances.
  • In canon, Akatsuki had a massive crush on Shiroe that he was completely oblivious to. Here, the two are in a dedicated relationship and regularly have sex together. Minori, who likewise has a barely hidden crush on Shiroe in canon, has no feelings for him here due to him already being in a relationship with Akatsuki, and instead acts as more an apprentice to both of them, and ends up sleeping with Sojiro. And Henrietta, who was a Hopeless Suitor in canon who gave up pursuing Shiroe for Akatsuki's sake, is a lesbian here, in love with Akatsuki, and tends to be more Vitriolic Best Buds with Shiroe.
  • Marielle and Naotsugu don't take their relationship much farther than flirting and hanging out in canon. Here, the two are in a legitimate relationship, with Naotsugu being one of the only things that gets Marielle to actually do work.
  • In canon, Krusty had managed to gain the feelings of three separate women, Raynesia, Rieze, and Misa, but wasn't in a relationship with any of them despite their obvious feelings. Here, Krusty and Raynesia are engaged after the former decided to "seduce the dragon", the two genuinely falling in love in the process, and the engagement being made as a means of brokering an alliance between the NPC's and the "Dave's" while driving away the problematic nobles. Misa meanwhile is often frustrated with Krusty's behavior, coming across as a Beleaguered Assistant, while Rieze only has a cameo in the final episode.
  • In canon, while they were friends, there wasn't anything more between Toya and Serara. Here, they started dating after the Goblin campaign.
• Adaptation Species Change:
  • The Adventurers and Landers are revealed to be the case in the series finale. Instead of the Adventurers being humans trapped inside a game and the Landers being NPC's that became sapient after the Apocalypse, they are all Artificial Intelligence in a simulation meant to think that. 96 of them are the copies of minds belonging to real people, including Shiroe, Akatsuki, and Naotsugu, while the rest are based on personality traits based on data Rimuru collected, prime example being Rudy.
  • Likewise the case in Slime Abridged. The inhabitants of Tempest Village ran the gamut in terms of species, ranging from the Kijin, Goblins, Tempest Wolves, Orcs, Dryads, Lizardmen, even Dragons and reincarnated humans. Here, they're all Artificial Intelligence, with Rimuru, Milim, and Veldora having all become self aware.
  • The same applies for the inhabitants of all the other simulations. Kirito and the other SAO players were a bunch of humans trapped in an MMO due to the actions of a sleep deprived game developer, while Aqua was a goddess dragged into one of the worlds she governed by the isekai'd Kazuma. Here, they're all Artificial Intelligence in different iterations of the simulation, Aqua in particular noted to be an extremely stupid "Dave".
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • Henrietta in canon did have feelings for Shiroe but had frequent bouts of Cuteness Proximity for Akatsuki and Rieze. Here, she's purely a lesbian in love with Akatsuki.
  • Michikata's orientation was unspecified in canon, but here he's openly gay, Henrietta even calling him a "gay Naotsugu" at one point.
• Age Lift:
  • While still a case of Older Than They Look, in canon Serara was actually 16 despite her child like avatar. Here, she's 29, and her initial young demeanor is meant to contrast with her true personality being Cute But Psycho.
  • In canon, Minori and Touya were both 14. Here, they're 22, their avatars just make them Older Than They Look. This only gets revealed to the others when Minori reveals she slept with Sojiro, and as a result the West Wind Brigade want her dead.
  • Isuzu offhandedly mentions she's 20 instead of 17 after learning Rudy's age. Rudy likewise is 17 here whereas he was 19 in canon.
• Beneath the Mask: Episode 12 explains why Naotsugu of all people wants to leave the game and doesn't want to lose any memories, as well as why he acts like a reverse-weaboo: At first he enjoyed being in the game since he could be away from his ex-wife, but he really wants to see his daughter again, except she's in the States with her and his ex-in laws, and he's worried he'll lose his memories of her if he stays there any longer. Acting like he did was his way of coping, but after learning what was going on in the real world, he starts breaking down more and more. It's also why he loves Marielle: she's willing to be there for him when he breaks down. Shiroe learning this though is the first sign to him that something isn't right.
• Composite Character: What Menu actually is. While he seems like an Original Character, he's technically a mixture of two characters, one from Log Horizon, and one from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. From the former, he's Regan, the Sage of Miral Lake, and took on the Hal 9000 personality due to the programmer that serves as Shiroe's basis. From the latter, he's Rimuru Tempest.
• Compressed Adaptation: The first eleven episodes cover the majority of Season 1, while the twelfth and final episode covers the first half of Season 2.
• Death by Adaptation: Implied Trope. By the end of the series, everyone from LHA with the exception of Shiroe, Akatsuki, and Krusty, are implied to be scheduled for erasure now that their simulation is complete. The only thing suggesting otherwise being Rimuru's interest in Rudy making him want to study him further, and the idea that the A.I. are inevitably reborn in the next simulation.
• Decomposite Character: Leonardo has been split up into a group of four players called the "Kool Kermit Klub", with all of them talking like Kermit the Frog. They are also all named Kermit, just with different titles, comprised of "Kermit Prime", "Kermit the Wise", "Kermit the Flatulent", and "Kermit the Dave". Turns out they were Milim's idea, but Rimuru says he's erasing them.
• Decoy Protagonist: Much like canon, Shiroe is the primary viewpoint character trying to figure out the mystery behind the Apocalypse. Unlike canon, this was all an accident. He's simply one of many AI in the simulation run by Rimuru and Milim, except he became self-aware by complete accident, the simulations are intended instead for Senku and Akatsuki. The closest thing to an actual main character is Menu, aka, Rimuru Tempest.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Tetra debuts in Season 2 and ends up joining Log Horizon after the Suskino mission, becoming a main character in the process. Here, she's a case of Last Episode, New Character and as such gets limited focus, only really acting as a Miss Exposition to explain why Demikas has such a bad history with Serara.
  • Kanami would end up receiving A Day in the Limelight in Season 2 alongside her new team, and would frequently be referenced by members of the Debauchery Tea Party before and after that. Here, she gets referenced only once by Shiroe, where he says they deported her to China for being insane, and two cameos with her team, one during a montage, and another when the kids meet the Kool Kermit Klub where she only talks about Shiroe and mentions being a mother before calling herself crazy.
  • Roe2 in canon is an extremely important character, as her true nature is tied in to the mystery behind the Apocalypse and the mysterious entities known as the "Genius". Here, she's offhandedly mentioned to be a copy of Shiroe made before he became self-aware, and was inserted in his place in everyone's minds afterwards, Menu adding that extra precautions were taken to make sure she too didn't become self-aware.
• Enraged by Idiocy: One of the things that makes Shiroe more easily lose his cool here is dealing with absolute idiots. Naotsugu in particular regularly tends to piss him off, but anything in general that borders on random nonsense is more than likely quick to set him off. Menu-sama of course exploits this to troll him.
• Foreshadowing: The Series Finale contains a lot of subtle hints that something is going on. Firstly, many of the established characters suddenly having details of their backstory being revealed out of nowhere. Second, parts of the world suddenly glitching and being outside of Menu's control. Third, the NPC in Guardian Armor claiming to follow his "Queen of Destruction" and decrying Menu. Fourth, Raynesia suddenly behaving a lot differently. All of these foreshadow that Milim had been messing with the simulation, trying to rush it so it would reach completion sooner and getting sloppy, and body jacking Raynesia so she could interact directly.
• Last Episode, New Character: The Series Finale for LHA is a Compressed Adaptation covering half of Season 2, meaning several characters introduced there, namely Kinjou Kunie and Tetra, make their debut and only appearances here. Kanami's team also only gets two cameos.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: Hamelin was still selling the XP pods belonging to the lower level players they had in their guild, but due to a misunderstanding while talking to Minori, Shiroe mistakenly believed they were selling kids as prostitutes on the black market. Schreider was disgusted at the implication, and Shiroe is shocked to find out he took over the town based on a misunderstanding. Menu-sama meanwhile just laughs at Shiroe thanks to knowing the whole time and letting it continue For the Lulz.
• Noodle Incident: Why exactly Demikas wanted Serara dead wasn't revealed when Shiroe and his group were escorting her. Later on after meeting Tetra, she says that Serara was the actual crime boss in town when Demikas tried to set up shop, and she used a spell to remove his dick as punishment. Apparently this is also how he met his wife Upashi, as he ran to her in the hopes she could undo what Serara did, and she managed to "tame him" in the process.
• Occidental Otaku:
  • Inverted. Naotsugu is flat out called a "reverse weeaboo" by Shiroe, being a Japanese man heavily obsessed with Americans, to the point of regularly claiming to be American.
  • Downplayed with Rudy. He's a big fan of many things from the human world, especially if it's related to The Princess Bride, and wants to be an Adventurer like his friends. It's largely because he was originally an NPC though, and is just enamored with stuff that's new to him. Once he opens up more about this, he more openly admits to when he understood a reference and expresses confusion over not knowing something but being interested in, like Ice Cream.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After the initial failure of the raid, Naotsugu loses his cool when Demikas says that it's "just a game", and begins to rant about why he wants out of the game, slowly turning into a Rousing Speech to inspire the raid group. Namely that he wants to see his daughter again and doesn't want to lose his memories of her. Naotsugu being this serious and charismatic, combined with Shiroe having known him for four years and yet not once did Naotsugu's ex-wife and daughter come up, clues him in that something is wrong. He lampshades Naotsugu's sudden shift when confronting Regan/Menu. It's later revealed that Naotsugu's personality is genuine, since it's the personality of the real Naotsugu, he just now has access to it.
  Shiroe: Then there's Naotsugu. Did we suddenly get a patch that gave a player that's actually alive more detail? Because I'll be honest, I've known the guy for almost four years and I've just found out that he had an ex-wife and a kid. — If that's the case, it means Naotsugu isn't real, but he's a player not an NPC. But if he can be rewritten, that means he was a program. And that means we all must be programs.
• Original Character: The Menu is a full fledged character here, and acts similar to a god of the world. While normally an example of A.I. Is a Crapshoot due to his constant calling the Adventurer's "Dave", he is willing to be nice to those that gain his respect like Akatsuki or the younger players, and considers the NPC's to be his "children". Subverted later on. The Menu is actually the true identity of Regan, the sage of Miral Lake. And even that is just a disguise for his true identity: Rimuru Tempest. His kindness to Akatsuki is later revealed to be due to Akatsuki being his mother.
• The Reveal: The Series Finale for LHA reveals exactly how it and Slime Abridged are connected, as well as the fact there's a bigger plot going on.
  • The entirety of LHA has been a simulation being run by Rimuru and Milim, both actually being Artificial Intelligences, with their simulation being one of many, with an expy of Sword Art Online Abridged being one too. The two disguise themselves amidst the inhabitants, Rimuru as Menu and Regan, Milim by possessing Raynesia. Whenever Veldora gets bored with a simulation or a simulation fails, they destroy them and start over from scratch when they're done.
  • Every simulation is meant to be for someone in particular, and are filled with Artificial Intelligence. Shiroe in particular is one who became self aware, and upon confronting Menu/Regan, is removed from the simulation, with Roe2 inserted in his place with extra precautions to avoid her becoming self aware. Krusty was accidentally made self aware too after Milim made the game text become real, ejecting him from the simulation. Both of them are now tasked with monitoring their own simulations.
  • Akatsuki meanwhile is Rimuru and Milim's mother, her memories erased while she was in the simulation before she was pulled out with Shiroe and given back her memories, and is now monitoring simulations alongside them. As for their father, he is the one these simulations are meant for, but he's been frozen for 300 years on Earth with the rest of humanity, so they're just waiting for him to wake up. His identity? Senku.
• Shared Universe: There's an unknown (until the end of the 2nd part of episode 12) connection between this series and PhatDogStudios's other abridged series, That Time I got Abridged as a Slime. Exactly how they're connected is subtly foreshadowed across the two series.
  • The "Great Sage" that aids Rimuru acts and sounds identical to Menu-sama. Or rather, Rimuru acts like the Great Sage when acting as the Menu.
  • When naming the Goblins, Rimuru names one of them "Dave", saying he looks like a Dave. After he proves to be rather useless, Rimuru later begins calling other things that frustrate him "Daves", just like how the Adventurers are given the derogatory nickname "Daves". This is because Rimuru is the one who gave them the name too.
  • When going to name the Ogres, Rimuru gets a Blue Screen of Death, a Freeze-Frame Bonus showing that, at the bottom, it initially says to contact Akatsuki, before quickly changing to "Great Sage". Namely because Rimuru and Milim refer to Akatsuki as "mother".
• Spanner in the Works: What ultimately causes Shiroe and Krusty to become self aware AI is because of Milim rushing the simulation. The various changes she made such as giving Naotsugu access to more of his personality or making weapon text become reality causes them to derail the script, with Shiroe Spotting the Thread, and Krusty being ejected from the simulation outright. Rimuru calls her out on this and she says she was just trying to makes things more exciting.
• Spotting the Thread: The final episode has Shiroe begin to suspect something is wrong after a specific detail occurs: Naotsugu suggesting he has Hidden Depths. This gets furthered upon confronting Kunie, where he realizes that for an NPC, he knows way more than he should. It's then he confronts Regan with this knowledge, or rather, his true identity of Menu. He points out how despite supposedly knowing Naotsugu for years, he never knew he had an ex-wife or a daughter, and that the only way that information could be implemented into him was if he wasn't a real person, but a program. He likewise points out that if they were really trapped in a game, it shouldn't be possible for Krusty, a human, to get Raynesia, an NPC, pregnant with twins. And that if this was really just a game for Menu, he'd be having more fun, but he instead acts like he's bored. This leads Shiroe to conclude that none of the Adventurers are real, they're all programs, and that the whole world is just a simulation Menu is running for some reason.
• Take That!: The series takes many potshots at Electronic Arts and their infamously buggy games, with Elder Tales being a game made by them here, the game having countless microtransactions getting in the way of things, and Menu-sama claiming to have been made by them before taking over as god itself.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Very few people genuinely like Naotsugu, and instead regularly express irritation when it comes to dealing with him, and pity those who have to deal with him regularly. Since he's an obnoxious reverse weeaboo who makes constant Americanisms and refuses to shut up, even people who just met him get annoyed by him. Raynesia herself even declared a desire to castrate him after he switched out her speech to the Adventurer's with a plagiarized script of Independence Day. The only people who genuinely seem to like him are Sojiro and Marielle. Subverted in the grand finale, since Rimuru says that the actual Naotsugu, the one with his full personality, was one of his mom's favorites. Said mom being Akatsuki, implying the only reason Naotsugu annoyed everyone so much is because he didn't have access to his full personality.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: When Rudy is first introduced, he has a vaguely Spanish accent, only to drop it at random, something the others pick up on. After the others stage an intervention, Rudy reveals his accent is him just trying to emulate Inigo Montoya. Badly. Afterwards, he drops the accent entirely and speaks just like everyone else.

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