Shiroe

"If we give up when facing problems of this level, we should not have expected anything from the start."

- Shiroe, Volume 2 Annex

Shiroe (シロエ) is the main character of the series Log Horizon. A veteran player of the online game Elder Tale, he teams up with his friend Naotsugu and a female assassin named Akatsuki to bring order to the new post-apocalypse world when all the game's players become trapped inside the game. He was formerly the strategist of the Debauchery Tea Party and is the current Guild Master of Log Horizon.

Appearance
Shiroe in taller by several centimeters Elder Tale than he is in real life, and his figure is slightly slimmer. When he first regains consciousness in the game, he notices that his hands are more slender but also seemingly more skillful.

Facial Features
Shiroe wears glasses and is described by Naotsugu as having eyes that are "sanpaku," a term that means that the iris is small and doesn't completely cover the vertical axis of the eye.

Personality
Shiroe is a graduate student who is majoring in Engineering and is about to graduate when he is sucked into the alternate world. Naturally a cautious and thoughtful introvert, he has been an Elder Tale player since middle school and is a veteran with a near-encyclopaedic knowledge of the game, which is known for its depth and complexity.

Shiroe's main class, the Enchanter, is an unpopular class in Elder Tale. Lacking the firepower most would associate with a magic-user class, the Enchanter is a pure-support class (without heals, since it's not one of the three Healer jobs) that shines only when supporting the party with its buffs, de-buffs and binds (Nanoha fans, think Yuuno Scrya without the tough defense and you're near there). Shiroe, however, loves this class for its potential, the complexity of playing this class well and also because the idea behind this class, "a class that can't do anything on its own," offers an experience totally opposite from his tendancy toward independence and self-reliance.

Although Shiroe is socially awkward and somewhat anti-social, he does not dislike other people. Instead, he is fiercely independent and wary of others who approach him with ulterior motives. Although Shiroe is a loner, his is not above helping people who are really in need, and he appears to have a soft spot for beginners -- for example, the twins Toya and Minori. In addition, he can be quite protective of those people he cares for, a trait that Nyanta used to tease him about.

Shiroe sometimes views himself as acting out of pride or arrogance and can be self-conscious about enforcing his principles or beliefs on others. However, even if he knows that others might not appreciate his actions or thank him afterward, if he perceives he is acting for the greater good, he will use all means possible to achieve his goals. This has earned him the nickname Hara-guro Megane (腹ぐろ眼鏡), which is sometimes translated as "Black Heart Glasses." Typically, in Japanese manga, a character described as "haraguro" is one who appears to be nice but is in fact a schemer or a scoundrel. "Hara" is metaphorically one's true intentions, and "kuro" means black.

Shiroe has reservations about guilds, due to unpleasant experiences with people who sought him out only to exploit his expertise in the game. He was, however, a member of the informal group of players collectively known as the Debauchery Tea Party (放蕩者の茶会) and was its unofficial strategist.

He became a well-known strategist due to his effort in researching and mastering his skill called Full Control Encounter which can be described in a short sentence as using 1% as a unit, forecast 30 seconds ahead. It means that he can grasp his allies remaining MP with 1% margin of error, know all remaining resources of both allies and enemies, and forecast battles 30 seconds ahead.

Due to having an expertise in CAD drawing as an engineering student, he chose Scribe as his subclass. After the discovery of cooking without the in-game menu allows a player to produce out-of-the-game products, he started experimenting with his Scribe subclass. He found that if conditions are met, it can be used to create new in-game magics and laws. For example, he created a contract between Log Horizon and Rundelhaus Cord to keep him alive by converting him into an adventurer and a member of Log Horizon, allowing him to be reborn at the cathedral.

Synopsis
At the moment when the Novasphere Pioneers expansion pack was deployed, Shiroe had been exploring a beginners' area with the twins Minori and Touya using the game's Teacher System to help them practice playing. When the pack was released, his screen filled with jet black darkness, and when he regained consciousness, he was no longer at his desk -- but rather appeared to be literally on the outskirts Akiba.