Another VRMMORPG anime has entered the ring: Shangri-La Frontier. Unlike .hack or Sword Art Online, these gamers aren’t stuck in their digital worlds, but there’s no shortage of action to be had on the battlefield. The online game they play is considered a “crap game” though.
Studio C2C is set to air Shangri-La Frontier in October 2023, and they’ve left us with this brief trailer in the meantime.
The minds behind Shangri-La Frontier have also helpfully established a home page and official Twitter page to keep in touch with their potential fans and viewers. Bonuses such as the key art below can be found there.
Login, Do the Impossible
Shangri-La Frontier‘s protagonist, Rakuro Hizutome, is an avid gamer. The time he lives in has seen numerous leaps and bounds in technology, and gaming had certainly benefitted from it. Any game that required a normal screen was considered “retro.” Enter full-dive VR games, a truly immersive experience for gamers. These types of games are mainstream, such that developers of all skill levels sell their wares.
In a time similar to the video game crash of 1983, the industry became full of VR shovelware. While they were derided as “crap games” for being full of bugs and glitches, a group of gamers decided to master these low-quality games and completed them 100% despite the difficulty in doing so, giving rise to the “crap game hunters.”
Rakuro Hizutome is one such crap game hunter, a seasoned veteran with the online name Sunraku. After clearing Faeria Chronicle Online, a large crap game that gave him burnout, he decided to play a regular game. His choice was the incredibly popular VRMMO game Shangri-La Frontier, a game with 30 million consistent players. Equipped with his usual moniker, and the skills he gained from clearing numerous crap games, he begins a new adventure.
Shangri-La Frontier Origins
Shangri-La Frontier first logged in as a web novel series written by Katarina. It began its online presence on the user-generated story website Shosetsuka ni Naro in May 2017.
Kodansha picked up the series for a manga adaptation, with the artist Ryosuke Fuji providing the illustrations. It began publication on July 15th, 2020, with eleven volumes currently available for fans to purchase and enjoy.
The title is obviously taken from the fictional valley in the Kunlun Mountains known as Shangri-La. It was originally featured in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by English author James Hilton.
Are you looking forward to the anime adaptation of Shangri-La Frontier? How long do you think we have to wait for VR technology to catch up to .hack or Sword Art Online? Why do you think Rakuro made a character with a bird head? Let us know in the comments below.
Want to keep a VRMMO waifu nearby during long gaming sessions? Might I suggest the lovely Albedo POP UP PARADE Figure from Overlord? She and other such figures can be found at our very own J-List shop.
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