Shangri-La Frontier

Episode 9

When a third of your episode is taken up by your main character standing on the sidelines, doing commentary over bugs fighting for territory, it's safe to say that the pacing has come to a screeching halt. There were some likable things in this episode, but the only legitimate thing that happened was that the cast changed location. The monster designs and scenery are lovely as Shangri-La Frontier encapsulates that feeling of wide-eyed wonder when discovering something new about how a game works. But things felt incredibly surface level which sucks because the episode starts strong.

The episode starts from Arthur's perspective; she has a specific goal and probably needs Sunraku's help. Maybe she knows more about this game and how it operates. Maybe there's some legitimate drama with a player she interacted with, or her former comrades will stab her in the back because she's suddenly not on the same wavelength as them? That's all interesting, but when will the show get to it? Psyger's interactions in this episode were cute. Good for her for finally sending out that friend request. The contrast between her cute schoolgirl actions and her appearance as a hulking mass of armor is adorable. Will this interaction result in anything down the road? Doubtful, especially when you consider how cautious Sunraku was. This is one of the weaker episodes and, hopefully will improve next week.

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Shangri-La Frontier is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.