Soujiro Seta

"Of course I'd cut down an enemy. Wouldn't anyone?"

- Soujiro Seta, Volume 2 Annex

Soujiro Seta, commonly referred to as Souji, is a Human Samurai-Master Swordsman in the MMORPG Elder Tale. He is the guild master of West Wind Brigade, as well as a former member of the Debauchery Tea Party.

He is one of two known Master Swordsmans, the other being Takayama Misa. His Overskill is Clairvoyance.

Appearance
Soujiro has a long dark teal hair which is tied in Edo-period style ponytail. He wears a light blue haori with gold diamond patterns, purplish blue kimono, green checkered scarf and red samurai armor when in battle. During the Shibuya Raid arc he wears a white kimono with a red dragon symbol on the right shoulder, which he reprises when trapped in the dungeon the Genius Eirenus creates based on Akiba.

Personality
Soujiro is quite popular with the opposite sex, and Naotsugu comments that "all the girls want him." Almost his entire guild consists of his fans, and there is another separate fan club dedicated to him that numbers over 200 members. Unfortunately for his fans, he's far too obsessed with gaming and Elder Tale to have any desire for romance.

A large number of women are into him not only for his looks, but because he is always quick to defend them should they be in trouble. Even if he has no romantic interest in the members of his guild, if anyone touches them, he starts going after them with murderous intent.

Nazuna notes that although Soujiro treats all women courteously, he isn't doing it out of interest or to be kind; it's just his nature to protect women. However, the "warm and kind Souji" that most women see him as isn't completely his "true self." Case in point, he doesn't take Nazuna's advice as well as he does Shiroe's or Kazuhiko's simply because she's a woman. In the Tea Party relationship chart, he only comments on other men and has nothing to say about any of the women, even the five that are in love with him.

By his own admission, he is not particularly bright and has trouble explaining how he arrives to some of his conclusions, though he is said to come to oddly insightful conclusions despite this.

Before the Catastrophe
Little is known about Soujiro's real life circumstances. He started playing Elder Tale with a real-life friend, but ended up getting separated while getting involved with the MMO's events. From there, he made some more friends before meeting the Tea Party.

The Tea Party was still relatively new at the time, though its senior members had already become permanent fixtures in the group. Soujiro, a newbie to the game, participated with them in raids a few times before they scouted him to join their group in earnest, which he accepted.

The Catastrophe arc
In the anime, Soujiro briefly appeared assuring a group of scared players not to worry.

Saving Serara arc
In the anime, Soujiro appears in Shiroe's flashback, lightly scolding Naotsugu for speaking filth in front of the girls. Naotsugu then remarked on Soujiro's popularity with the ladies which the samurai neither confirmed nor denied.

Round Table Alliance arc
Soujiro is given a Crescent Burger after Isami, Dolce, and Kawara try it out. Later, he is contacted by Shiroe and Nyanta; his popularity with girls is once again brought up, a question he attempts to avoid. Because Shiroe declined to join his guild, he mistakenly believed that Shiroe didn't like him, a misunderstanding that the older man clarifies. Soujiro is then seen assisting the Crescent Moon refreshment stand as part of Shiroe's favor, where he remarks that "there is no end" to Shiroe's plans.

Libra Festival arc
Following his poor treatment at the cake-eating contest, Shiroe decides to make himself feel better by recommending the contest to Soujiro, who readily agrees to do it. Later, when Shiroe comes back into contact with Soujiro, it turns that the West Wind Brigade had eaten the establishment out of cakes due to the boy's expansive harem.

Fallen Guardian arc
After Kyouko's death at the hands of the murderer, Soujiro goes into a rage and vows to hunt down and kill the murderer. By this time, Soujiro has reached level 93, putting him one level below his opponent. He interrupts Nelles before the Guard could kill Isami and Kawara, and begins engaging in a duel against him, with Nazuna supporting him with her shields.

Akatsuki interrupts the fight, joining Soujiro in battle. When she tells him to run, he refuses and instead decides to show her his Overskill, Clairvoyance, which allowed him to predict where the opponent would strike and thus parry or dodge it. Despite the impressive show, however, he is nevertheless defeated and killed. Afterwards, he decides to take his hands off the situation and allow the Akiba Raid Party to handle it.

Noosphere arc
After the magic circle protecting Akiba is shut down, Genius monsters begin attempting to infiltrate the city. One such Genius was Camaysar, who disguised itself as a male Earthling and started hypnotizing girls into falling in love with him, so that they would be his "beautiful bride". This angered the members of West Wind Brigade, particularly Kurinon, especially after Sara was abducted. They were further angered after the monster asked Soujiro if Soujiro would be the monster's bride. This led to a skirmish with the monster, finally resulting in the monster's death. When giving his report on Camaysar to Shiroe, he notes that Camaysar was the most Elder Tale-like enemy he had fought since coming to Theldesia, like he was fighting the monster behind a computer screen.

Soujiro later participates in the Shibuya Raid Team along with Nazuna and several of his guild mates.

Collapse of the Round Table arc
Soujiro and the West Wind Brigade side with Raynesia's faction during the Akiba General Election and helps establish the New Round Table Council.

Nightingale's Song arc
When the Genius Eirenus invades Akiba and creates a dungeon based on the city, Soujiro is sucked into this space, as he is an Adventurer. Moreover, due to his high level, he is affected by the Genius' abuse of the Teacher System and has his level forcibly reduced to 35 in this dungeon full of Level 65 raid rank enemies. Nonetheless, thanks to his defense and evasion-oriented Overskill, he is able to make it well into the Guild Hall while other veteran Adventurers like Shiroe and Isaac had long since fallen. Upon seeing that the Akiba Guild Hall Raid Party led by Minori has arrived, he uses Samurai's Challenge to draw a group of enemies away from the Raid Party so they can make it to Luquenjé Hall, where the Genius mastermind is located.

After he is defeated and returned to the regular Akiba, he rendezvouses with the senior members of Log Horizon and the Crescent Moon Alliance outside the regular Guild Hall, informing them of their juniors' progress.

Log Horizon: West Wind Brigade
Among one of the 30,000 Japanese trapped in Elder Tales, Soujiro is the only one seen to be excited about it. He manages to open his menu to obtain a panacea for Nazuna's hangover-induced headache, giving hope to Isami and other players that they could log out. When Isami's suggestion fails, he defends her from other adventurers that start complaining at her. The three of them travel to Kawara's location, where she was defending two low-level players. He, Isami, and Kawara fight goblins, and quickly comes to the aid of Isami when she becomes overwhelmed by her opponents. Whereas he was enthralled by actual combat, she was terrified, and he realizes how he had failed to understand other people's point of view. After the battle, he apologizes to her with his head bowed and vows to protect them.

When D.D.D, led by Krusty, arrives, they initially believe them to be hostile, especially after Krusty attacks Soujiro. However, it turns out that the two newer players that they were protecting were invited to the game by a member of D.D.D, so they had come to retrieve them. As Krusty is about to leave, he asks Soujiro how it felt to be attacked by another human. When the younger man is wordless, Krusty reminds him that it wasn't just monsters that posed a threat. He returns to the guild hall to reunite with the other guild members, where he discovers that food has no taste. He realizes too late that all the ingredients, which were the only ones to have flavor, would be bought up by the larger guilds. That causes him to decide to go outside the city to hunt for their own ingredients in order to "protect the guild's food."

After the guild realizes that Earthlings like Sara, who cleans their guild hall, are now sentient, he goes out with most of the guild to explore outside the city. He and Kawara return battered due to their experimenting with their physical capabilities, leading to Dolce's suggestion to spar at the guild hall to figure it out. He suggests that they grapple with Soujiro as practice, which highly interests the females in the guild. Although Kawara, who fought him first, managed to surprise him with a kick, he promptly defeats her. Isami, in her spar with him, is able to block some of his moves, but he dodges her kick and flips her onto the ground. As he shakes her hand, congratulating her on her effort, her robe accidentally comes loose, much to her embarrassment. After Isami talks with Sara, Soujiro ends up "taking the best part" by charming Sara with his offer to help her clean, much to Isami's disdain.

Although he and the other members of the guild had mostly adjusted to the alternate world, Isami was still distraught and sought a way out. When Soujiro fails to pay attention to her, she becomes angry at him and storms out of their guild hall in frustration. Although he attempts to pursue her, he is stopped by Nazuna, who decides to have a talk with him. After learning that someone had attempted suicide, he begins crying and is comforted by Nazuna. Their touching moment is interrupted, however, by Dolce, who noticed Isami and Sara's disappearance. He contacts her, only for her to yell at him again when she felt that he was being overprotective of her.

Soujiro arrives just in time to see the guard about to arrive after Isami stabs Passhita. Although she is prepared to accept her punishment, Soujiro blocks the guard's sword just before it can hit her, although his katana ends up broken. The two Hamelin members attempt to escape with Sara in tow, prompting Soujiro to cut off Passhita's left arm, redirecting the guard's attention from Isami to him, and the guard begins to attack Soujiro when Soujiro takes Passhita and uses him as a living shield to frighten him. The guard halts his attack right before he hits the man, and the two Hamelin members run away after he lets go. He is given a fatal wound by the guard after Sara fails to negotiate with the guard, but continues fighting until the guard leaves. He dies afterwards with his body disintegrating into petals that are seen by other guild leaders. When his guild finds him, resurrected at the cathedral, they swarm him in a shower of tears and hugs.

Several days later, he goes to retrieve his newly-repaired katana from Michitaka and finds that Krusty and Isaac were also present, having had their own equipment repaired. They discuss how Soujiro's death and resurrection would lead to a change in Akiba and the rest of the server—which would most notably be the rise in Player Killing. As he and Isaac are leaving, two members of the Black Sword Knights greet them as Isaac's escorts. After waving off the two members' reports, Isaac offers Soujiro to merge guilds. Soujiro jokes around by asking Isaac if he "wanted him," much to Isaac's aggravation. Soujiro ultimately rejects both Isaac's offer and mindset after putting the Black Sword Knight members through some discomfort over its female members, causing Isaac to leave him with the notion that the two guilds were now enemies.

He goes to where his guild is training, a plain with several boar monsters, and is in time to see them defeat several boars with their teamwork. When they notice his presence, they bicker over who should get the credit for defeating the boars. He ultimately turns his attention to Kyouko, who was reminded of the happy days of when the guild first formed. While the group is celebrating, however, Nazuna flatly tells them that not all of the monsters were defeated, and Isami is sent flying when she is the only one who fails to dodge. He runs to her side, where they find some PKers attacking two low-level players. Just as they are about to intervene, the rest of the guild approaches and end up causing the ground they were standing on to collapse, sending them down to the battlefield in a heap. Recognizing them as the West Wind Brigade, the PKers flee, leaving the guild to accompany the girl whose partner had just been killed. When he tries comforting her, though, she knocks his hand away and blames him for the rise of PKing.

Log Horizon: New Adventure Land
Soujiro is an acquirable character in the mobile game. He currently has 15 versions in the game.

Volume 10

 * White Shroud: A white outfit that Soujiro dons during the Shibuya Raid. Its effects are unknown, but it may amplify Kogarasumaru's abilities.

Trivia

 * Soujiro's name is an allusion to Okita Souji, a member of the Shinsengumi, a special police force in Kyoto, which was organized by the Bakufu during the Bakumatsu period of Japan; his guildmate Isami is likewise an allusion to Kondo Isami, the leader of the Shinsengumi.
 * It may also double as an allusion to Seta Soujiro from Rurouni Kenshin.
 * He shares a birthday with Eltendiska.
 * Souji possesses an impressive sword collection, which he named the Juppongatana ("Ten Swords"). Although it contains more than ten swords, Souji likes the name of it and doesn't care about such details. (Going back to Souji's name being an allusion to the Rurouni Kenshin character, the Soujiro in Kenshin was a member of the Juppongatana.)
 * In volume 9's relationship chart between the Debauchery Tea Party members, Soujiro's comments about other people are only with other male characters. Despite having five girls vying for his affections, he has nothing to say about them.
 * In the anime, Soujiro is shown eating with his chopsticks in his left hand, suggesting that he is either left-handed or ambidextrous.
 * In the light novel, Soujiro almost accepted Isaac's offer to merge with the Black Sword Knights before Nazuna changed his mind, whereas Soujiro immediately rejects Isaac's offer in the West Wind Brigade manga.
 * In Chapter 19 of the West Wind Brigade manga, Soujiro is interrupted during training and is seen dual wielding his swords as well as holding a sword in his mouth, which is a direct nod to Roronoa Zoro from One Piece.