© MBS
Part of me was dreading this episode because I could tell within the first five minutes that it was going to be the type of episode I didn't like from season one. I'm fine with watching a show where there aren't really any stakes and just a bunch of geeks running around playing a really cool video game. My problem with season one of Shangri-La Frontier, however, was that it focused too much on parts of watching other people play video games that I didn't really find interesting, such as grinding and collecting items. However, this episode is the best example of how you can do that while still keeping things quite interesting.
This episode serves multiple purposes: it sets up and foreshadows things that will happen later in the story, we review things with the guilds, we establish that Bilac will probably create some weapons incredible gas at the end of the series, and we even know a little more about those game updates. This episode balances giving us that information while also showing scenes of Sunraku gathering materials and upgrading his abilities. We don't just watch him grind for an arbitrary reason. Everything has a purpose and I get more emotional when I see him accomplish smaller goals because I know they are tied to a larger goal.
I feel like season one was more believable in terms of not telling the audience what it was setting up so that it would serve as a more dramatic payoff when that information was revealed later. I would rather the series handle things the way this episode did. Seeing Sunraku manipulate the game's physics engine is something I'm all too familiar with after playing a group of Elden Ring with friends, and I also understand the frustration of discovering that a game exploit has been patch. This episode simultaneously made me a person who wanted to see the story unfold and as a video gamer. There's not much more to say other than asking for more on this, please.
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Shangri-La Frontier is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
