Shangri-La Frontier

Episode 12

Last week, Shangri-La Frontier introduced one of the show's strongest features. Through its fantastic production values and presentation, I was able to get lost in the story's lore and foreshadowing. It truly epitomized what I thought were some of the best aspects of playing video games. This episode arguably does the opposite, showing some of the worst aspects of those games, which is, of course, the grinding. Almost every game with a skill and a level-up system has some degree of grinding in it, and some games mask the tedium that comes with grinding better than others. My problem with grinding is how it can emersion break once it reaches a certain point of tedium, and that's exactly how I felt during this episode.

Seriously, what happens during this episode? We spent a third of it watching Sunraku walk to a place where he can grind monsters in a lake…and then he grinds monsters in a lake. The presentation is still good; I particularly liked a lot of the animation revolving around Katzo, who revealed himself to have a tank/brawler build for their character. I also like the trans allegory that came with trying to explain to an NPC why a female avatar would go by masculine pronouns. However, they could've cut this episode out and not lost anything. There was already an entire episode dedicated to leveling up, but at least that episode had some creative circumstances and a strong hook. This episode feels like walking in on somebody quietly streaming Elden Ring in a secret dungeon. I might watch passively to support the streamer, but I am barely engaged.

Rating:

Shangri-La Frontier is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.