Well, over the last years of watching way too many anime, i believe i have now the ability to spot well produced trash. These are those anime that at first look, seems promising, and maybe the next big thing. But ultimately fall off, to the point where a season later no one remembers it. Or maybe it is actually hyped until more seasons drop and people start realizing it wasn't that good in the first place. I believe Shangri-la Frontier falls into this category. Yet, i also believe this was one of the best of its genre.

Now, way to start a review, right? Let's start with the basic. What is this anime about? In a near future, where non-VR games are considered oldschool classics, the game industry is suffering from a similar event that us anime fans are. There are way too many carbon copies of sucessful titles, and most of them are absolute trash. But, like in our case, there are some people that choose to specialize in this type of trash media. The MC of Shangri-la Frontier is one of such people. Actually, he is one of the best at this. He is a high school average student that has this big breasted girl secretly crushing on him blablabla, it isnt important. What is important is: he is only interested in playing the so called Kusoge (trash games) in his free-time. He is well known in this niche community, where he managed to beat the most obscure trash games, even those that had gamebreaking bugs that made them impossible to beat normally. He is kind of a glitch hunter, if you will. There is even a pvp game where these madlads play by only exploiting glitches.

But, this isn't what Shangri-la Frontier is about. This anime is about the time when the main character, that calls himself Sunraku in games, meets the opportunity to stray from the Kusoge for a while, and instead experience the recently hyped Kamige (god game, it is a term the japanese use for the GOATs) Shangri-la Frontier. Yet, he is still in the mindset of a Kusoge master, so he will approach the game with his own quirks, making a birdhead character, with a glasscannon build and try to parry and evade everything. In the first moments playing the game, he unintentionally skips the first town, notices it way too late, and decide to go to the second town, that is closer to his current position. But to get there, he has to beat his first boss. Which he does in a very well made action sequence.

This was the first red flag for me. One of the things i expected from this was a closer vibe to when i play MMORPGs. I know this was way too compared with SAO, but one of the only things SAO did well was the beginning, where it really felt like a game, and the players needed to grind, and get better at the game to pregress through the floors. Shangri-la Frontiers approach, however, is closer to that anime "I don't want to get hurt, so I will max out my defense". Remember how Maple unintentionally kept discovering unique hidden quests and exploits in the system and became way too much overpowered? This is kinda of what happens here. Sunraku, while playing the game his own way, will discover a questline that no other player ever did, by chance meet with a legend boss that no player ever encountered, receive buffs, weapons, and so on. It feels like Sunraku is playing a whole different game from everyone else in Shangri-la Frontier, because while other players can discover new things, generally it will be discovered and shared by others eventually. But as someone who played a lot of MMORPGs, Sunraku's adventures in the game feel too distant for me to hype it.

Ultimately, this anime is another Isekai power fantasy in disguise. Remember how people hyped Shield Hero, but as the seasons went by, people realized Shield Hero without the revenge arc is just another powerfantasy isekai? Well, i think the same applies to Shangri-la Frontier. It uses a lot of plot devices to convince you it is different, but it is actually the same formula. The main character has access to powers, opportunities and npcs no one else does. Every secondary character is there to make the MC feel like god. Hell, the characterization of Sunraku, the player, is generic, with the goal of making the watchers self insert.

Now, i feel i'm shitting too much about it. But it does have it's qualities. Despite the aforementioned, Shanri-la Frontier is still one of the best representations of game systems in anime that i've ever seen. The reason people hyped this was that the writer actually plays and understands games. Also, from a storytelling standpoint, this is a solid one. The Weathermon arc was very well written, and was the reason i decided to watch it to the end. I also NEED to talk about the visuals. This anime project value is what we all want for action anime. It was no Jujutsu Kaisen, but when it mattered, the fight scenes are breathtaking. This anime has amazing special effects on the skills, as well as great photography, camera work, and fluidity on movements. The charaterization of players felt a little boring, but the monsters and enemies look amazing. Also, going back to the Weathermon arc, the visuals there came close to JJK levels.

Overall, it is okay if people liked this. I also did. I just want to make sure people are aware this is nothing new. This anime is an application of a tried and overused formula, but still a successful one. Still, i believe it is not a good experience for those that hyped it for its gaming aspects. If you want to turn off your brain, watch an anime with an ok plot, and really well done fights, this is the anime for you. Still, i find it ironic that, just like Sunraku sometimes thinks Shangri-la Frontier is a well produced Kusoge (trash game) in disguise, i think Shangri-la frontier is a well produced trash anime. But we all like our trash, don't we?