Shangri-La Frontier

Episode 17

This is the first time an episode of Shangri-La has left me speechless at the end. I have praised the show's action which has been the most consistently good thing about it. But the dramatic buildup and intrigue during this fight reminded me why I like well-choreographed action sequences in general. It might not be something as intricate as Naruto or Jujutsu Kaisen, but the blow-for-blow commentary made it feel like watching an unbalanced boxing match where a lighter boxer had to rely on strategies and counters to beat a heavier boxer.

Stuff like this happens in action RPGs all the time; you make your build specifically to counter to a specific unstoppable boss and hope it works. One thing I wish we saw a little bit more of in this episode was how different types of combat could be used to take down the same boss. I would've liked to see a bit more from Katzo without being boiled down to a joke—and while we did get a bit more, it wasn't enough to satisfy that itch. Still, the fight between the Boss and Sunraku was more than enough to keep me hooked. The helmet counter was a cool reveal and led to some pretty unique combat exchanges—and we finally got to see Sunraku utilize his "new" weapons that he's had in his back pocket for a long time now. We even have some good lore in there too.

A lot of what the Boss revealed in his broken speech was interesting. The mention of a girl named Alice—and that Sunraku seems to be wearing part of an ID—blurs the lines between the real and virtual. Maybe he's just lost his mind over the years or maybe there's some miscommunication going on. It's interesting and considering the escalation of the fight, we're bound to get a decent explanation by the time the fight ends in the next episode. While I am curious to know what exactly this boss is underneath the armor, I'm more interested in how our cast is going to react because this has the potential to take everything that they know about this game and turn it upside down.

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Shangri-La Frontier is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.