Shangri-La Frontier

"Listen, do you want to know the truth about this world?"

Shangri-La Frontier is a very entertaining anime. In terms of entertainment alone, this would be my pick of the season. It's about a very imaginative, grand and subtly mysterious video game. It's the kind of video game that you'll love to play yourself, because it's just that cool.

There's a lot to like about SLF. First of all, let's get to our protagonist - Sunraku. I thought he was a great protagonist and he was somewhat inspiring and I'll tell you why. He sets very high standards for himself. He never shied away from a challenge. He wouldn't forgive himself if he did.

Next, we have world-building. And that's one of the main reasons why SLF is so entertaining. The world of this game is vast and full of surprises, which is perfect for an entertaining story. I loved seeing Sunraku figure this game out as an experienced gamer. The side characters are also very likeable. Pencilgon and Emul in particular were my favourites. There was also that little mystery about how good the AI of the game is because you could hardly distinguish an NPC from a player if you compared their behaviour. There were many of these little mysteries surrounding this game and I'd love to see where this story goes.

The one thing about this anime that surprised everyone, was the technical aspect. Studio C2C has made okay-ish animes before. But SLF right here is their big break. The animation might not be consistent, but it's absolutely brilliant in the important scenes. And I think that's perfectly fine. The Wethermon fight scene was jaw-dropping in terms of visuals. The soundtrack too was very entertaining throughout the anime.

Overall I had a lot of fun with SLF and I can't wait for season 2!!!! I can't believe we'll get about 50 episodes in just 1.5 years. Thank you C2C! I'd definitely recommend watching this anime if you haven't.

In short there is no twits, no drama, nothing to lose or gain here... It is like drawing a straight line to the infinity! You don't' worry and you don't cheer for any of the characters.

Characters - development mehhhhh! So far I watched every released episode and not much to relate to. You really cant be empathetic about anything with any of them. They just don't touch any emotional aspect of a viewer.

Fight scenes - I would not say it is horrible or bad, but it has nothing special about it.

Drawing - only thing that was more or less fine here.

You know what, find out for yourself. If you wanna kill some time and do some work/study or any similar activity while playing this on background, you won't be missing anything important.

It's basically some gamer guy, who starts out OP, narrating what he does... like some streamer. 😑 "Look how good I am!" "See how fast I am!" It's some dude's fantasy to be good gamer... 😆

The animation is above average.

Voice Acting is average.

Story is... "See how good I am at playing a video game!" That's the entire story.

Storytelling: Poor. It's just following around some trash-talking dude as they play a video game... Like a streamer.

Character development: Non-existent. They start out OP.

It feels like this entire series is someone *wishing* they were good at video games, but in reality they *really* suck at them.

Overall, it's not terrible. It's watchable, but definitely a far cry from good anime. Want Great anime in the same genre? Solo Leveling.

This feels like it was written by someone who actually plays games or at least did their research. The MC is a guy who hunts and exploits glitches and unlike a lot of the protags I see for this kind of thing he isn't a sad friendless loser, which is a nice change of pace. He actually has friends he chats with across games who each have their own weird approaches and playstyles. I liked the understanding the writer has that games are communal. The people who are breaking this game have a history of doing the same kind of thing across other games.

They're good at games because they test each other in competition and swap ideas. The protagonist wasn't born special, he's someone with a long standing hobby of playing unfair games and using solid meta understanding or exploits to get through them.

The world of the game itself is interesting, and actually sounds like something I would enjoy playing. It leaves the game's main story a mystery and then drops hints at it instead of front loading the viewer with infodumps over explaining everything like a lot of anime do. I think the show is building a mystery on the real life side on why the game works the way it does, and I'm interested in seeing how that pans out.

I think this anime biggest plus is the main character he is so fun seeing him yelling about I am the master of trash games I can beat this new good game. Is fun seeing all of the different ways. He has to do it because he's under levelness and his curse. It's what I am about. I think that is the funniest part and god I love the rabbit. She is god damn cute. I want her in every single frame.

I think the plot is fine. It is entertaining the character is very cheeky. So it is fun to listen them talk to each other and it has the right bro feeling to it. It's just that it's not really too much to the anime. It is what it is and what it is. Just a good fun time but nothing more nothing against it but that's just it what it is.

The fight scenes are good and it is very detaining to see him figure them out and how to do it by using his trash gamer skills. It's just that it can get too long in the tooth. It's one of the fights. I'm mostly thinking about ways. Just feels like it takes way too long but most of them are very fun because they only take one episode any short and good though out.

But the problem I have with the show is I'm trying to think about it and most of it is already gone. It is mostly it is for in the moment I enjoy it but it's gone I have watched all of the First season and I'm always forgetting most of it. It's just a fun forget about show and that's okay.