by Lisa Nystrom

Year:  2024

Director:  Toshiyuki Kubooka

Rated:  MA

Release:  13 October 2024

Distributor: Crunchyroll

Running time: 20 min x 25 episodes

Worth: $10.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Yūma Uchida, Akio Ōtsuka, Azumi Waki, Hiromu Mineta (voices)

Intro:
... manages to be engaging on both a story level, and as an action-packed battleground where the conflicts might be with avatars and pixels, but the consequences feel all too real.

[review of Episode 1]

In the near future, where state-of-the-art Virtual Reality has made it possible to become fully immersed in a game, 17-year-old Rakuro Hizutome hones his skill by taking on the most unlawful, imperfect games, which are so filled with bugs that they’re near impossible to beat. This is how Rakuro, or Sunraku as he’s known in-game, finds himself in Shangri-La Frontier, an expansive world filled with millions of players and equally as many dangers lurking within.

Shangri-La Frontier’s first season was a fresh entry into the Isekai genre, transporting audiences to a whole new world with thrilling action and striking battle sequences, including a memorable fight against giant shadow wolf, Lycagon the Nightslayer. The second season returns equally on form, with Sunraku still finding his feet in the mystifying game world, now joined by his band of sidekicks as he begins the next stage of his quest.

While the plot itself is nothing revolutionary, the execution is compelling. Sunraku moves through the world as a half-naked birdman surrounded by forest critter sidekicks with the ability to blow holes in the side of mountains. The lore of Shangri-La Frontier is expansive and acknowledged to be deeply complicated, but it never seems to weigh down the momentum. The quirky banter and mid-battle references to real-life video game mechanics and gaming tropes keep things fun and light-hearted, never allowing the plot to become too exposition-heavy.

What started off as an exciting romp through an impossible world of adventure and fantasy promises to transform into something a little more character-driven in Season 2, scratching the surface of Sunraku’s motivations and just what lies beyond the Iron Ruin of The Divinity. Visually electrifying and unexpectedly funny, Shangri-La Frontier manages to be engaging on both a story level, and as an action-packed battleground where the conflicts might be with avatars and pixels, but the consequences feel all too real.

5.3good
score
5.3
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