Shangri-La Frontier – Season 1 Episode 6 Recap & Review

Episode 6

After Arthur Pencilgon and Sunraku meet in Shangri-La Frontier, the anime returns to their first meeting. And, obviously, it’s in a trash game. Unite Rounds is a game in which players cooperate and fight against hordes of monsters. However, because of terrible drop rates, players must exhaust themselves to get a single item.

Thus, the players start stealing each other or NPCs to get what they want, eliminating the “cooperation” aspect. 

Suddenly, one person builds their kingdom and reunites players to fight for them. And others to abuse and get a laugh of. That’s Pencilgon. She’s a cruel player who loves having fun killing or making other people’s lives harder. Katzo and Sunraku arrive at her castle, using the rebel army as a distraction. She gets interested in both of them and starts to fight. We don’t get to see much of it, but learn she and Sunraku had a draw.

Back in SFL, Pencilgon quickly jumps at Sunraku, almost slashing his head. She throws poisoned arrows at him, but he avoids two and parries the last one. Then Animalia remembers who Pencilgon is. She is the second in command in Ashura Kai and has the nickname “The Giant Killer.” People call her that because she used to focus on ambushing higher-level players. Also, at the worst time possible, Emul’s transformation starts to fade.

After making fun of each other, both get angry and fight with full force. Pencilgon says Ashura Kai’s leader wants her to send Sunraku a message. They say that Sunraku will wear a target on his back until he shares information about the unique scenario. 

Sunraku is having a hard time, but he realizes Pencilgon doesn’t want him to reach the town’s gate. If he does that, he might be able to escape.

Animalia touches and surprises Emul, which makes her undo the transformation. But that gives Sunraku a strategy. He uses Repel Counter on Pencilgon, calls out Emul, and runs to the gate. When his trash game rival tries to attack them, Animalia protects them, as she doesn’t want the bunny to get hurt.

However, when he’s about to reach the gate, other Ashura Kai members stop him. While he tries not to get hit by them, Animalia casts a powerful spell against Pencilgon. Sadly, that doesn’t turn the tables, as Pencilgon has a way to send it back to Animalia, almost killing the player.

When everything feels hopeless, Rei arrives and one-hit kills one of Ashura Kai’s members. Psyger-100, a player interested in protecting Sunraku, is her sister and sends her on a mission to find someone. To her surprise, that someone is Sunraku, so she finally finds out his whereabouts and saves him.

Pencingol thinks to herself that Sunraku’s skills are even more valuable than unique items and high-level stats. With Sunraku and Katzo playing SFL, her project might be possible. The episode ends with Animalia saying she has one last card up her sleeve.

The Episode Review

Honestly, even though it was good, the episode is a bit underwhelming too. There’s a good explanation for Sunraku not being able to fight Pencilgon, but it’s shorter than it needs to be. Seeing them fight more would be great. And we need more of the dynamic, as it seems quite funny. Surely, we’ll get both later, so it’s not a problem.

The pieces are finally coming together. We’ve been expecting to see more of Rei since episode 2, having her find Sunraku will shift the gears of the narrative a bit – but it also brings a few questions. Will she be able to go to Rabituza with him too? Let’s hope so, as it’d make things more interesting.

Animalia is a bit annoying, but she has the potential to be a better character. Her shaman skills are different from what we’ve seen up until now, which is a positive point for her. Many spectators might be wondering what she’ll do in the next episode and if she has a chance of defeating Pencilgon. 

And, speaking of her, we have a new mystery on our hands. What is her project? Does she want to take on the unique monsters too? It would be cool to see her against one of them and get to advance on that plot point. By the battle’s conclusion, we might learn something, so come back here next week to learn all the new things that happened.