Written by Rei Caldombra 11/22/24 Video: https://youtu.be/H_FuVFTTcaY

Hello fellow gamers, let’s talk about why Shangri-La Frontier perfectly encapsulates everything we love and hate about gaming. Out of all the video game-inspired media I’ve seen, this series gets gaming the most by far. I’ll be focusing on the elements of this series that lends itself to being the best representation of gaming. There will be spoilers for what is covered in the 1st and 2nd season of the anime, but I won’t go into things more than necessary so people new to the series can still have a lot to find out for themselves.

The basic synopsis of Shangri-La Frontier is that it is a show following gaming-obsessed Rakurou Hizutome (whose online alias is Sunraku, and who I will refer to him as) as he takes a break from his trademark garbage games to dive into the God-tier game that is Shangri-La Frontier. This is not an isekai nor a stuck-in-the-game situation, this is a normal world with highly advanced VR games that allow for complete immersion. This simple and realistic scenario is critical to why this series works so well as an encapsulation of gaming.

Let’s start by talking about our main character, who is the ideal representation of the gamer spirit. The love and enthusiasm this series has towards gaming is shown perfectly by Sunraku, who wears that passion on his sleeve and constantly shows it throughout the series. Sunraku is a person who commits fully to his passion for overcoming difficulties in video games. He is steadfast in his dedication to doing whatever it takes to accomplish his goal. Whether that’s fighting the same enemy 50 times or 500, he is principled in how he plays so he can reach his goal of victory.

His skill and victories we see in this series feel earned. We see him struggle both in Shangri-La and in various garbage games he manages to get through. He worked hard to beat horribly designed games and we see how he learned from those experiences. This is just like how a modern game in a platforming series can feel effortless after playing an older one with janky physics. Shangri-La coming easier to him than others is justifiable to me. He’s not some convenient genius, he’s just a guy with Determination and EXP he gained because of pushing through adversity rather than running from it. He represents how people can get good at games and enjoy every aspect of them through dedication and tenacity. His excitement towards the things he does in games is so endearing and further conveys how much this series loves games.

Sunraku faces pretty much every gameplay scenario you can imagine, anyone who plays video games will have moments to relate to. He gets distracted by pointless collectibles, he agonizes over wanting to save good items but also knowing they may never get used at all, he experiments with different games but tends to stick to his preferred style (in his case speed), he gets bothered by other players when he just wants to do his thing alone, he hates being stuck with a task he wants complete that is just out of reach because of one condition, he forgets what he was doing in a game he is playing again for the first time in a while, and jumps between games when one frustrates him too much. The last is especially great because it functions as a way for both Sunraku and the audience themselves to get a break from Shangri-La. The variety of games you see in this series is really great at keeping things fresh and interesting. Senku and the series properly exhibit the joy of exploring new worlds in games and celebrates the diversity of games as well.

My favorite gameplay scenario is that he has trauma over being hit with ridiculous levels of RNG across games. People seemingly have better or worse luck than others as a whole as well as for specific things. We see this with Sunraku having horrible luck with randomized drops but generally fine luck everywhere else. When it comes to games you see this spread across various luck-based mechanics. You can see a 70% chance to dodge an attack fail 5 times in a row but a 30% chance to crit happen 5 times in a row. If I’ve learned anything playing gatcha games and other highly luck-based games like Pokemon, it’s that statistical odds are BS. I am a victim of Blizzard’s 30% to miss feeling like 70%.

We see his struggle against a live service game with complicated mechanics most prominently through his battles with the crystal scorpions. Like a smart gamer, he takes advantage of the game’s physics engine to take out high difficulty enemies with good loot. In this case, using fall damage to kill the scorpion’s that he had no way of fighting head-on. I remember doing stuff like that in Skyrim all the time. But he was in for a rude awakening when the dev’s patched out the exploit he was taking advantage of.

Sunraku getting killed because the devs patched an exploit of the enemy’s patterns is really funny, and is a scenario gamers who utilize exploits face all the time. Whether it’s speedrunning, no challenge runs, etc. I’m not big on either of those things, but I do watch some and have seen people’s frustration over things getting patched. It represents this side of gaming while also being another moment where we see Sunraku’s unbending drive to push forward.

He really is the ideal gamer. He finds a way to make every part of the game his own and let nothing stand in his way. He always finds a way forward. Sunraku can indeed feel overpowered at times as a person with how proficient he is at picking up game mechanics, reaction time, etc. But he has reasoning for that, he built these skills upon persevering through awfully designed games. Moving around in-game and utilizing the mechanics in Shangri-La is easy for him because he is used to working through games that don’t function properly. The series takes the time to show various garbage games that he has played to make his competency feel believable and earned. Someone who has played terrible video games knows how frustrating they are to play, and can relate to Sunraku’s desire to complete them anyway. And this also makes the viewers respect Sunruka for being someone who consistently does that, rather than giving up. He is a gamer that most people would highly respect for his skills and dedication. All these traits make for a great protagonist who is likable, believable, and relatable.

On the topic of being overpowered, you could argue his speed and luck-based build is too. Shangri-La really shows why speed is king is movement-based games. Sunraku is able to accomplish a lot of his solo play thanks to it. His focus on solo playing is also great for representing this side of gaming, as many video game inspired series are very focused on parties. But if overpowered mechanics are used well I don’t think it’s a bad thing. We enjoy playing games because of the rewarding feeling that comes with it. Sunraku gets his main reward from the satisfaction of beating something hard, but he also likes the material reward from beating a boss in Shangri-La. One way we are awarded is through better skills, gear, etc. That’s what we see here. Will he be truly overpowered once he gets the gear in the inventoria? Honestly, I feel like he would, but he wouldn’t be getting overpowered just because. He would be because he defeated a special enemy that was meant to be incredibly difficult. He is getting a reward that justifies the effort. And that is what gaming is about, that’s the basic gameplay loop. Sunraku should be rewarded handsomely by defeating a near-impossible enemy, you want players to feel like the time and effort they put into this game was worth it so they continue playing. Overpowered mechanics will always exist in games. A lot of people, including Sunraku, find enjoyment in breaking games. So why not represent that in this story that is a love letter to gaming? This series balances mechanics that could be considered overpowered very well, and this is part of what makes this feel like a proper game.

We cannot finish talking about Sunraku without going more into detail on his main design, that being his bird head with light clothing. While not only being a very unique and memorable design, it also functions as a representation of the goofy designs players use. So many main characters in video game-inspired fantasy either have a super bland design or one that tries way too hard to be cool. While a lot of people do design playable characters in one of those two camps, there are a lot of people who like goofy designs that are barely functional enough. Sunraku was designed long before this legendary player came to prominence but just look at the coincidence of how much Sunraku resembles “Let me solo her”. I’m pretty sure he didn’t design it after Sunraku, it’s just nothing but a pot on his head and weapons. This is very rare representation that is very much appreciated as someone who has also given himself silly designs just for the fun of it. This series has a lot of great video game meta humor as well, poking fun at tropes, how players stereotypically act, etc. I can’t wait until we get more about the game developers, the small bit we did get from the insane weirdos working who made this nearly perfect game was hilarious. And feels accurate when you look at interviews, both in terms of a lot of the creatives being weird and extremely hard working.

Talking about Shangri-La itself, this is a god-like game that genuinely is godlike. The game world itself and how it is portrayed is done wonderfully. It does a fantastic job making the game world feel like a game without being too stiff and bogged down by mechanics. And that fits with the setting of a highly advanced VR game that uses your whole body. Shangri-La portrays the idea of how video games can be treated like other sports and involve skill and intelligence. Shangri-La also treats the modern scenario of this properly, not having characters act like this level of a game is not the norm. This isn’t like crappy isekais where we are expected to believe modern teenagers act like someone shooting a fireball out of their hand is something they’ve never seen before. The game’s story is also one that feels very well crafted to fit a video game. It has a basic story that is simple enough for most players to understand and get into, but also has deeper lore for the game theorists and story lovers. It drip feeds just enough to keep people interested continuously, then hits you hard in specific moments. Many of us have had times like Setsuna did where we didn’t expect to be drawn into the story but suddenly found ourselves crying over an NPC. The game’s sounds effects are also excellent, being very satisfying for us as viewers of an anime but also feeling accurate to a game. Skills like parries have a very satisfying and cool sound that make you feel even more rewarded for landing it. We’re not rolling our eyes over people geeking out about Shangri-La, we’re right along with Sunraku in saying that this game is awesome. I completely buy that this is the greatest game in the world in-universe. if it existed in real life I have no doubt it would be one of the biggest games ever.

The other characters in the story also represent the real-world social aspects of the gaming space very well. In a game like this, there would be tons of players who commit to singular aspects of the game they are passionate about rather than focusing entirely on fighting like Sunraku largely does. We see this through the different clans, each focusing on a unique aspect of the game. We are shown how the game appeals to a variety of people, both casual and obsessive. This is how a lot of players go in expansive multiplayer games. Some people just raise pets, roleplay, focus on pvp, etc. The general player base is also portrayed much better than other series. Players outside of the main characters use the game mechanics competently rather than just floundering around with the bare basics so the main character can look cool when he uses them properly. People recognize the value of a unique scenario, so they try to monopolize it. People debate the ethics of taking pictures of players without their permission and player killing in a game that allows it. They understand that people want to keep things secret, but still will try to expose those things for their own benefit. We have a guy who is trying to use the game to get closer to a girl he likes. The game truly feels like it has a strong community of players, which helps majorly with feeling invested in the anime as a portrayal of video games. This series feels like it truly gets how the gaming community functions.

The series is also great at portraying interpersonal social relationships between people who play games. Sunraku and his two main friends are such a nice portrayal of online friends who primarily play games together. They have the right amount of distance, not being the type to be talking to each other all the time while still getting along super well when they do. The banter between them is on point. They are constantly calling each other out and trolling each other in the best way possible. While still supporting each other and feeling like people who have played games together for years.

I touched on Shangri-La’s difficult enemies a bit before. If you want representation of what fighting a big bad boss in a video game feels like, Shangri-La will give you everything you want.

The fight against Wethermon is just plain awesome. He is the boss with a massive healthbar that felt like it was never going down, but you know has to be defeatable. Slowly figuring out your enemy’s patterns, getting surprised by new attacks, your confidence wavering with every hit you take and item you use, recalling the things you’ve learned over the course of the game to try to take down this seemingly impossible foe. This is exactly what an awesome boss fight against what feels like an insurmountable enemy should be. Like many games, it takes a long time to get to this, but it is well worth the journey.

Shangri-La Frontier also captures some of the negative aspects games can have, but this is not really intended as representation. In the same way games can often have slow and questionable pacing that makes it feel like it is trying to rack up play time, the anime shares a bit of this problem. I felt this primarily with the segments following Sunraku fighting the crystal scorpions. While it was cool to see him exploit game mechanics to his advantage, and it does have plot relevance, it did not need as much time as it got. Just like how Shangri-La Frontier was throwing a seemingly endless amount of crystal scorpions at Sunraku so that he could not make progress, it felt like the scenes with the crystal scorpions were slowing down the progress of the anime too much. Padding can be a little frustrating, but on its own didn’t bother me that much since it was still enjoyable and Shangri-La already built up a ton of goodwill with me. But we’ve only talked about how this is slow pacing, now to talk about why it is questionable. And this is what makes this padding sting more. There was a lot of buildup towards Bilac becoming an Ancient Craftsman and fixing the Non-Standard Ether Reactor going on around the same time as the crystal scorpion. But much to my surprise, the actual moment of both those things coming to pass happens completely offscreen. This feels very strange since we’ve had multiple scenes focused on the craftsmen crafting things. The scene of Vysache crafting Sunraku’s Moon Blade is awesome and truly felt like an important in-game cutscene that fully pulls you into the world you are playing in. The camera angles, his singing, along with the music, and the length of time it lasted, I thought it was perfect at portraying this kind of cutscene. After seeing that, I was hoping Bilac would get something similar. And it would feel different because Bilac would be fixing a piece of sci-fi technology that could have had completely different vibes from Vysache’s. This is especially frustrating since it comes right after Sunraku finishes his series of bouts with the crystal scorpions. Which as previously stated, felt like it had too much time given to it. I would’ve liked to see Bilac go from a craftsman using a hammer and anvil to a craftsman using ancient (but effectively futuristic) technology rather than another 5 minutes of Sunraku fighting the crystal scorpions. A much more balanced way of speeding up the pacing would have been to cut down the time spent with the crystal scorpions and giving that time to Bilac. Thankfully this is where my criticisms of the series end, it’s basically just this. Like a really good game, I can get over this misstep in what is otherwise a great experience.

Shangri-La Frontier is my favorite gaming-related piece of media that is not gaming in itself. It fully understands all the aspects of games and the community surrounding it that makes it so beloved. Sunraku is an awesome main character who is a unique and believable person who gushes with love for gaming. Anyone who has played a game has something here that will remind them of the fun they’ve had playing games. If you have any passion for gaming I highly recommend you give Shangri-La Frontier a watch or read. Thanks for reading!

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