Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Today we continue our look at Shnagri-La Frontier the hit novel turned anime. When we last left our gamers, they were preparing to take on the unique boss known as Wethermon. Since he gets stronger depending on the size of the party, Rakuro and friends decide to take it on in a party of 3. Can these three tough gamers overcome the odds and become the first players to defeat a unique boss? Or will everything be for naught? Let’s find out in the second half of Shangri-La Frontier.
Opening and Ending Theme
For the second half of the anime we have “Danger Danger” by FZMZ featuring Icy. Overall, I like this opening more than the first opening. It puts you into that mindset of an intense battle is on the horizon and we’re about to be caught in the middle of it. I especially love the sound effect of the sword they add in during the middle of the song.
The ending this time around is “Gajumaru: Heaven in the Rain” by Reona. Considered an underrated song by many, this ending gives us a peaceful and relaxing melody. Once again, I like this ending more than the first ending as it feels and sounds like an ending. Also, Reona’s voice is beautiful here.
Episodes 14-18
In the second half we start with Rakuro going to the skill garden to upgrade/combine his skills for better ones. He also receives a necklace from Emul for good luck. He then goes to a meeting with Arthur and Katzo. Arthur informs them that during the night of the fight her guild Ashura Kai will likely show up and cause trouble. So she decides they need to be taken out (you’re going to take out your own guild just to beat a monster? You crazy girl, and I love it). Thanks to the game’s new update players get a reward for taking out PKers. All of their items including those in storage will be given to the player who takes them out (PKers are essentially walking treasure chests. Pick the lock and the gold and riches are yours). Ashura Kai has a lot of enemies and Arthur knows the location of their HQ (which means for one night only the purgers become purged).
Episodes 15-18 gives us the epic battle against Wethermon. We start with Ashura Kai getting raided (how do you like it?). Many of the members get killed and those who survived make a run to Wethermon’s arena for safety only to discover they can’t enter because Arthur, Rakuro, and Katzo are in there. Orcelott, the leader of Ashura Kai quickly pieces together that it was Arthur who betrayed them and he is pissed (to make matters worse. Arthur and Orcelott are siblings. Betrayed by his own sister. That’s going to make dinner time awkward). We then go inside Wethermon’s arena where see he’s a futuristic samurai (reminds me of that one guy from Blazblue) and the fight begins (taking on a raid boss with only three people. They’re either the bravest fools or the dumbest people in the game). Based on past encounters, Arthur pieced together that Wethermon has different stages and they’ll have to survive all of them in order to win. Rakuro takes on the first stage which is 10 minutes long (which is like an hour in videogame time). Thanks to his speed he’s able to dodge Wethermon’s attacks but does get hit and dies from them. Luckily, he gets revived thanks to Arthur who went around and brought up every resurrection item in all the towns (crazy! Crazy girl!). After surviving 10 minutes, Wethermon summons his horse (which is amazing) where they have to keep Wethermon from mounting his noble steed (https://youtu.be/6nSKkwzwdW4?si=Nd87cyziNX-P-v1C) for another 10 minutes. While Rakuro keeps fighting Wethermon, Kazto attempts to tame the noble steed by strapping himself to it, and Arthur provides support to keep them alive using rare and expensive items. After surviving 10 minutes, Wethermon gets ready for phase 3 where it’ll unleash a massive instant kill attack, but Arthur came prepared and dosed him in holy water since he’s an undead. As Wethermon burns, his horse reconfigures itself into a robot (this is becoming a sentai boss battle). Arthur and Kazto fight while Rakuro decides to go on offense and take down Wethermon all by himself (he’s got the gamer’s high). Thanks to his high luck and weapons he’s able to deliver high critical attacks which brings Wethermon to his knees where he notices the necklace Rakuro received from Vysache and stops fighting mentioning the name Alice, an ID key fragment and Shangri-La’s true frontier. Wethermon returns to his fight and resumes the fight where he’s faster and more vicious than before (he’s going into berserk mode). Rakuro comes to the conclusion that the only way to win is to do a perfect parry on Wethermon’s instant kill attack. With no health items remaining and his health down to just one, Rakuro manages to do a perfect parry shattering Wethermon’s sword and armor to get the win. Wethermon congratulates him on his victory as the once barren field becomes filled with cherry blossoms (holy shit, that was awesome. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/HtYgzWRq8sk?si=SBpCRKjcy-oH1POf and https://youtu.be/ruQ0MNcr5Zk?si=3FMhGjwZY8MeYyLQ).
Episodes 19-21
In episode 19 we get the aftermath of Wethermon’s defeat. Rakuro gets named the Descendent of the Frontier by Wethermon before he crumbles into dust (rest easy great warrior. Kind of a shame we couldn’t get his sword. That thing must have had incredible stats). Setsuna appears revealing she’s not Setsuna but instead of recording of her she left behind. She thanks them for everything but before leaving she gives them the mission of finding out the secret of this world by finding Bahamut. Before they can check out their loot an announcement goes out to everyone announcing the defeat of the first unique boss (it was defeated by the three bravest idiots you will ever see). With this victory the world story of SLF can finally progress (from 11% to 12%. Talk about progress. We’re not even a quarter of the way done with this world’s story. I wonder what else this game has in store for the players). After leaving the area they get confronted by Arthur’s brother and the remaining members of Ashura Kai who want revenge and plan on taking their loot. Luckily, Arthur uses a friend-summoning ability to bring Rei here to save them. She defeats them in 50 seconds flat and Arthur asks Rei to kill her as well to bring an end to Ashura Kai once and for all. They have a short fight with Rei winning (scene here: https://youtu.be/9QgwpZKjdTc?si=AoEdJ9Ii-AMjbAaZ, way to look good in front of your crush).
We begin episode 20 with Rei taking a sigh of relief knowing that Rakuro and Arthur are just friends and nothing more (you still have a chance). Meanwhile, back in the real world, Utopia, the developers of SLF are in a panic over Wethermon. Not because he was defeated, they expected that to happen, it just wasn’t supposed to happen this early, and he wasn’t supposed to be the first one defeated. So the game’s writer and designer are blaming each other for this and throwing fists (this is pretty much an average meeting between game designers and writers). The next day Rakuro goes to meet Vysache who offers to tell him the secrets of this world after he finishes a fetch quest. Before going on his quest, Rakuro checks out the loot he got from Wethermon. First off, he’s level 78 now (that’s good). He got a tomb detailing Wethermon’s life (that’ll be a good read later on). A sphere that contains Wethermon’s unique sword skills that Rakuro can learn after acquiring a divine weapon (those sword skills were OP). Finally, a unique storage bracelet that will protect his items even if he dies. He gets transported inside the storage space where he sees it’s already filled with armors, vehicles, weapons, and other items he can’t use (it’s like waving a glass of cold water in front of a man dying of thirst).
Episode 21 sees Rakuro meet up with Katzo and Arthur where they also got some goodies just like him. Arthur says they’ll need a power source known as Non-Standard Ether Reactor an item she’s never heard and has no idea where to get (meaning all those goodies might as well just be art pieces). Katzo has the reactor but it’s damaged and there’s not a blacksmith in the game who can fix it (at least in the regular portion). Rakuro thinks the rabbits can fix it and Katzo gives it to him in exchange for information on how he activated the Lycagon scenario. Rakuro tells him but he doesn’t believe it entirely and decides to move on. The three then decide to form their own clan called Wolfgang which specializes in hunting unique monsters instead of just one. After this, Rakuro takes the reactor believing Vysache can fix it but he’s nowhere to be found. Rakuro then takes the reactor to Bilac but she can’t fix it either. Only an ancient craftsman can fix it and Bilac is only a master craftsman so Rakuro decides to help her become an ancient craftsman.
Episodes 22-25
The quest to turn Bilac into a master craftsman begins in episode 22. Bilac will requires two items: a legacy weapon and a magic application unit which can only be found on the Road of Past Glories. Rakuro decides to head to Past Glories first but it’s pretty far away from his current location (don’t tell me we’re going to have fillers?). Rakuro and the two rabbits make it to the next town and then arrive at the Canyon of Ancient Souls that’s covered in miasma and full of undead. Thanks to Lycagon’s markings, the miasma has no effect on Rakuro and the monsters in the area leave him alone (this curse is starting to pay off). As they traverse the canyon they run into the Dullahan general, a rare enemy in the game (time to get some rare loot). They easily defeat the Dullahan and get his sword where we find out that Bilac is level 98 (damn~ strong rabbit) and they make their way through the canyon to fight the area boss.
In episode 23 Rakuro and the others find the area boss the Humming Lich. The boss can only be damaged by holy weapons which Rakuro doesn’t have (wait, you went to a canyon of undead and didn’t bring a holy weapon? That’s JRPG 101, always have a holy weapon when facing the undead). Luckily, Bilac doused Dullahand’s sword in holy water to get rid of the rust and gave it a holy attribute. With Bilac’s help, Rakuro decapitates the lich to win (as a whole, this fight was okay. Nothing too crazy happened and there was never any doubt that Rakuro was going to lose here). With the lich gone the miasma clears up allowing them to leave the canyon and enter the next town Eighthold. Bilac and Emul teleport back to Rabituza to rest and Rakuro heads back to the canyon to crystal scorpions, rare monsters that can only be found in that area.
So in episode 24 Rakuro heads back to the canyon to fight the crystal scorpions despite warnings from Bilac and Emul not to fight them (when there’s a mountain does a man walk away? No, he climbs the damn mountain). Once at the canyon he climbs up to the crystal nest where he’s immediately attacked by the crystal scorpions. Whenever there’s one you can bet a dozen are nearby ready to attack. He gets killed but comes back and finds a deposit of black crystals known as Aroncaleth Lapis which has high concentrations of magic. He gets killed again but comes back this time determined to get one of their stingers as a trophy. He comes up short but does manage to get a few shattered shells.
In the final episode not much happens. Bilac says the crystals would be better suited for magical jewelery than weapons and takes them to the cait-sith kingdom who are nortorious for stealing. Luckily, she told them about Rakuro and they offer their full support to him in the form of a party member named Aramiys. Why the change because of Rakuro? Well since he’s marked by Lycagon and slayed Wethermon, Rakuro in terms of political power is as strong as an entire kingdom (basically, the NPCs recognize him as a one-man army who could crush them if he felt like it. So it’s best to stay on his good side). When Rakuro decides to explore Eighthold he gets approached by a magical girl with a deep voice who turns out to be a player known as The Professor, master of The Library, a clan that’s dedicated to collecting and recording the history of the game (strangely enough there are players like this. They do deep dives into the lore of these games and explain it to others). He wants to form a partnership with Rakuro to discover the true meaning behind the game and Rakuro doesn’t mind assisting them in discovering the truth.
Final Thoughts
Shangri-La Frontier is an MMORPG anime done correctly. Everything in it is everything you would expect to see in real life. Rakuro and his friends act like real gamers. They strategize, they enjoy the challenge, they poke fun at each other and even though they have different motives they enjoy each other’s company and recognize the talents and abilities of each one brings to the table. The world isn’t anything new but they do a good of letting us explore it and making us fall in love with it. If this was a real game I would definitely be hooked. It looks and feels like a fun game to play and explore. I do like their boss battles. Especially the unique monsters. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a concept like this put in an MMORPG and executed as well as they do it here. They’re tough, challenging, and require a lot of strategy and preparation in order to beat them let alone find them. The animation for the most part is good. There are some good character designs sprinkled throughout the anime and even though I said the world wasn’t anything new the areas we see look good and take advantage of their theme and surroundings. The music is also good and there’s a good amount of laughs throughout the anime as well.
Final Score
My final score for Shnagri-La Frontier is a 7.5/10. A very good anime that does the MMORPG genre justice. If you’re a fan of MMORPGs or videogames in general then definitely check this anime out. The second season is set to come out next month so I’m excited to see what secrets and monsters Rakuro and others will tackle next. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.