Shangri-La Frontier – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Episode 1

Shangri-La Frontier, based on a manga of the same name, is a new fantasy anime. In Episode 1, we start with the comical figure of a gigantic and monstrous figure crumbling before a man dressed only in underpants and a red mask. His companion, an elf girl, cries while stating he defeated the dark lord. To make things more amusing, the hero celebrates this moment by destroying the girl’s face with a flying kick.

That’s when our protagonist, Rakurou Hizutome, removes his VR glasses, and it becomes clear it is all a game. Actually, he has an obsession: playing trash games. He gets so much joy from beating that type of campaign that the narration describes him as a ‘Trash-Game Hunter.’

Hizutome’s house is full of butterflies and a few other insects.  He gets his breakfast, warns his mom about one of the butterflies escaping, and heads to school. There, Rei Saiga, a girl from his year awkwardly plans how to start a conversation with him. While deciding how to talk to Hizutome about the games he played, another person approaches him. She stays there, sad about losing her chance, and the scene cuts.

At Rock Roll, a game shop, Mana Iwamaki — the owner — puts up the poster for a game called Shangri-La Frontier. Rei arrives right after, obviously looking for Rakurou. They talk a bit about Faeria, the game the protagonist finishes before going to school, and how it’s tough. It has tons of bugs, awful AI, and powerful bosses.

Rakurou arrives wanting a new trash game, and Rei instantly hides herself. Mana surprises herself seeing he beat Faeria so fast, and he starts going on a rant about the elf girl. She causes every problem in the game and even kills villagers and party members. She is horrible, but the possibility of kicking her and getting your revenge after you finish the game makes everything worth it.

Instead of playing another horrible game, Mana suggests he play something good for a change. She points to the poster on the wall, explaining it’s incredibly immersive and has over 30 million players. The opportunity to play a god-tier game like Shangri-La Frontier interests Hizutome, so he buys it.

Before he starts the game, we get a brief explanation of Utopia Entertainment Software (UES), the company that created it. A genius programmer called Tsukuyo Tsukuri founded it and made it the leader in software, hardware, and internet service provision.

Rakurou, unaccustomed to good programming, gets overexcited with the character customization options. He creates a twin-blade mercenary wanderer, but his only clothes are a bird mask and shorts. He prefers to have strong weapons, but as they are costly, he sells all of his armor.

When Hizutome finally starts the game, he, again, gets overexcited with all the features and the beautiful designs. He encounters a Goblin and easily beats him, winning a hand-axe, and levelling up. However, he suddenly meets a Vorpal Bunny, which could one-hit kills him. After parrying many of its attacks and dealing a few blows, he destroys the enemy and gets a ton of XP.

He starts grinding to get stronger and to win a pair of the Bunny’s weapons. As they unfortunately have a low drop rate, he stays in the woods fighting monsters for more than 2 hours. Now, with new skills and at level 12, he charges to the nearest city. Soon, he encounters Ravenous Python, a boss blocking his path. How it will be defeated is going to be shown only in the next episode.

However, the first episode doesn’t end before a post-credits scene. We see the players in the town astonished by another player, reaching the city in a beautiful and strong-looking armor.


The Episode Review

Shangri-La Frontier has a decent start with a cool protagonist design (in the game), many good goofy moments, and a funny concept. The “trash game hunter” definitely is a different idea, and it’ll deliver a lot of laughs throughout the show for sure. We also need to see how that’ll affect Rakurou’s interactions with other players.

We can’t say much about the characters yet, but a few seeds have already been planted. Rei probably will join the game in the future, which will be nice. Also, the programmer, Tsukuyo Tsukuri, will either become a rival or a companion of Rakurou.

Although the battles are quite fast, it feels like Shangri-La Frontier could become similar to One Punch Man, which gets you hyped and also makes you have a few laughs. The fight against Vorpal Bunny is cool and makes good use of parrying mechanics. It really feels like you are in a game. If the anime continues to use and develop that idea, it’ll be great.

 

Next Episode

Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!

  • Episode Rating
    (3.5)
3.5

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