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Shangri-La Frontier: Crap-Game Hunter Challenges God Game (Kusoge Hunter, Kamige ni Idoman to su) is a webnovel started in 2017, with a manga adaptation published by Kodansha and available on k-manga or Bookwalker beginning in 2020, and an anime adaptation that just notched its third episode on Crunchyroll. New episodes are out early Sunday mornings in the states. At its core the story basically goes "what would happen if a guy who was good at video games played a good video game", and while the answer to that is "he'd have a good time and see some cool stuff", the specifics of that answer make this one worth coming back to. Shangri-La Frontier (SLF) is one of those VRMMOs full of AI-driven NPCs that all the kids are into these days, but it's not powered by a forsaken child or connected to an alternate dimension (that we know of), just helmed by a couple of rockstar programmers who really liked the Sleeper raid in Everquest and as such have populated their world with unique bosses that will advance the world story when killed. Now, the greater tech needs of the gaming industry's jump to VR have left a whole, whole lot of games deficient in the design department. Nonsensical plots, bugged hitboxes, getting autosaved in a bad state and having to wait hours for a cell reset... there are weirdos who find something to enjoy in the vast sea of crap games, but SLF is widely recognized for its quality. It's a god game, running for just a year but already having racked up thirty million players. None of them have defeated a unique monster yet. But let's meet some of them who might!  Front and center is our protagonist, Rakurou Hizutome, in-game name Front left is the triple-skull player-killer, in-game name Arthur Pencilgon. Real name Towa Amane, a hobbyist gamer with a penchant for ruling the social scene and making stationery puns. She has a history with Sunraku beginning from Unite Rounds, the going-too-far of Dark Souls whose absolutely abysmal "realistic" drop rates resulted in the players who were meant to unite and protect the kingdom dividing into factions to hunt down and loot the respawning friendly NPCs. SLF sees her as the second in command of the player-killer guild Asura Kai, but she's a little dissatisfied with her current position. Front right is the hard-hitting Spirit Monk, in-game name Oicazzo. Real name Kei Uomi, a pro gamer who loves up-close fighting, fish puns, and avatars of any gender though he's definitely a dude. He's also got a history with Sunraku, mostly through terrible fighting games like Berserk Online Passion, colloquially "BerP", a game which ran its rollback netcode a little too strongly resulting in its players being able to turn themselves into Doctor Octopus with the right inputs to duplicate and stretch their limbs. Sunraku gets him into SLF with talk of the whole unique monster hunt thing. Back right is the actual reason Sunraku's playing SLF, though he doesn't know it yet: Saiga Rei, in-game name Psyger-0. She's a veteran of the game and has been trying to connect with Sunraku for a while in real life, so her friendly local game store owner decided to play matchmaker a little. She's not as prominent a character as the other three, at least not this season, but has her moments. She's a member of one of the largest guilds in game, dedicated to hunting down unique monsters, and has sufficient experience and gear to set the current in-game damage record. Back left is the friendly vorpal bunny, Emul. She's one of those "interesting plot pathways", responding to Sunraku's "vorpal soul", the dodge-heavy, crit-heavy way he proved himself to Lycagon. The boss of the friendly vorpal bunnies took an interest in Sunraku's development and assigned Emul as an NPC companion to keep an eye on him, so even when his other gamer buddies are doing other things, as they do, he'll always have Emul to talk to. She's powered by the same AI that drives the rest of the world, and unlike all those player characters, if she dies in the game she The anime has paced itself a little slowly so far, but the manga's been pretty good at showing what there is for all sorts of people to enjoy in all sorts of games, and based on the season preview this double-wide run is at least going to end somewhere satisfying.
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Oct 16, 2023 00:27
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 23:45 |
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even though the first three eps have been slow i'm enjoying it. i love how successfully they've captured the vibe of a particular type of gamer and this part of gaming culture, and it's tons of fun having a low-stakes story about this intersection.
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Oct 16, 2023 01:10
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watched ep 1 when it premiered, and then blitzed through the manga in two days afterwards and then peeked at some of the ~900 chapter webnovel. if the anime maintains a healthy production schedule, it'll end up being a really cool series about the vicarious thrill of watching some guy be better than
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Oct 16, 2023 16:32
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Coaaab posted:watched ep 1 when it premiered, and then blitzed through the manga in two days afterwards and then peeked at some of the ~900 chapter webnovel. if the anime maintains a healthy production schedule, it'll end up being a really cool series about the vicarious thrill of watching some guy be better than If he inspired Let Me Solo Her(web novel predates Elden Ring), I should hope he is.
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Oct 16, 2023 16:44
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I've binged the manga, considered the webnovel but decided to wait for the manga to get there. I am ENJOYING the anime but I think they could up the pace a little bit, I am a huge fan of our friendly shoot first, ask questions later archer newbie
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Oct 16, 2023 16:49
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AtomikKrab posted:I've binged the manga, considered the webnovel but decided to wait for the manga to get there. I am ENJOYING the anime but I think they could up the pace a little bit, No idea if they appear more in the WN, but I really hope they become recurring characters.
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Oct 16, 2023 16:52
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doomrider7 posted:If he inspired Let Me Solo Her(web novel predates Elden Ring), I should hope he is. To be clear, I wasn't saying he did, just noting down the obvious parallel - naked dude in funny headgear outplays the game's biggest challenges. If you found something that says so, feel free to share, but most of what I found links Let me solo her's aesthetic to a meme series of Dark Souls 3 videos with a similar vibe.
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Oct 16, 2023 17:54
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Glazius posted:To be clear, I wasn't saying he did, just noting down the obvious parallel - naked dude in funny headgear outplays the game's biggest challenges. If you found something that says so, feel free to share, but most of what I found links Let me solo her's aesthetic to a meme series of Dark Souls 3 videos with a similar vibe. LOLMAO. Was expecting either him or Lost my Sanity's Pale Man series.. There's also people like Prod who often wears the most absurd possible headpiece he can find(unless his face is over the top ridiculous). I was just making a statement that if he possibly inspired one of modern gamings greatest folk hero's, he really should be as good as implied.
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Oct 16, 2023 19:11
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In case anyone else wants it, there's a full-length lyric video (flashing lights warning) for the OP.
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Oct 16, 2023 19:53
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Gotta say, the OP is one hell of a banger. Certainly one of the best this season. Some of the naming schemes in this game are hilariously bad, like all the town names, but there's a few that are amusing, especially the rabbits. I didn't pick up on Vysache's pun until I hear him pronounce it himself. vicious Ah, how the Japanese love their puns. I was also amused to find out his VA is the same one who's the voice of Batou from Ghost In The Shell. Not sure about Emul's name, since I came up with several possibilities. It's the name of a plant, it's also a common contraction used for "emulsion" and it can always be short for "emulator." Last one seems most likely.
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Oct 17, 2023 04:50
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Glazius posted:At its core the story basically goes "what would happen if a guy who was good at video games played a good video game" Glazius posted:the answer to that is "he'd have a good time and see some cool stuff", This is great. I’m tired of everything having to be the fate of the world/galaxy/universe. Just people being happy playing video games. Also I love the sky in this anime. It was great how it was accentuated in the big fight this episode, but I like how they put effort into it no matter what scene it is.
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Oct 17, 2023 06:13
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CrazySalamander posted:This is great. I’m tired of everything having to be the fate of the world/galaxy/universe. Just people being happy playing video games. I 100% agree and I think it's an overall issue with the "greater fandom" where a series has to have "tension, stakes, drama, etc" for it to be good or worthy of existing instead of just being cool or relaxing stuff with little in the way of those things.
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Oct 21, 2023 23:23
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Finally we start getting some quality Emul time. And I really dig that background music that started up when they were talking about Pencilgon.
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Oct 22, 2023 11:10
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The small slices we see of the other trash games is really good and sells the whole idea of Sunraku's character.doomrider7 posted:I 100% agree and I think it's an overall issue with the "greater fandom" where a series has to have "tension, stakes, drama, etc" for it to be good or worthy of existing instead of just being cool or relaxing stuff with little in the way of those things. Another thing that makes SLF so refreshing is how there's no harem bullshit.
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Oct 22, 2023 14:24
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there's exactly one (1) girl in the entire world that likes sunraku romantically and she's kind of weird.
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Oct 22, 2023 14:27
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:there's exactly one (1) girl in the entire world that likes sunraku romantically and she's kind of weird. To be fair, that's kind of obligatory. Nemo2342 posted:Finally we start getting some quality Emul time. And I really dig that background music that started up when they were talking about Pencilgon. Lot of comments on Emul being super cute and adorable as well as comments requesting to be stepped on by Pencilgon. Katzo's voice was super to me and jothing like I envisioned.
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Oct 22, 2023 14:52
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I've been watching youtube videos about abandoned games recently and it's interesting how many of them just become someone's weird little social space. Just some BerP-adjacent thoughts.
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Oct 22, 2023 18:25
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never read the novel or the manga. this show's cool but i do hope more of the cast starts arriving soondoomrider7 posted:comments requesting to be stepped on by Pencilgon. thanks for letting us know
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Oct 22, 2023 21:17
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Patware posted:never read the novel or the manga. this show's cool but i do hope more of the cast starts arriving soon We should just about be at the end of Sunraku being mostly solo; after this he'll spend more time working with other people. Also, here's an 8-bit remix of the OP if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GrZrCgvw6o
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Oct 23, 2023 08:16
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Watching the show in English as well now that there are dubs, its hitting pretty good in English
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Oct 25, 2023 01:46
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AtomikKrab posted:Watching the show in English as well now that there are dubs, its hitting pretty good in English How far up is it?
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Oct 25, 2023 02:51
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doomrider7 posted:How far up is it? Just the first two episodes so far.
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Oct 25, 2023 03:33
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This manga series is very good and the animation is top-notch. I love the way that this VRMMO anime actually treats things like an MMO and they analyze things in gaming terms. Emul is the best mascot character I've seen in a long time. I also appreciate that this is a power fantasy VRMMO series that isn't horny and filled with fanservice.
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Oct 25, 2023 04:13
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PringleCreamEgg posted:This manga series is very good and the animation is top-notch. I love the way that this VRMMO anime actually treats things like an MMO and they analyze things in gaming terms. Emul is the best mascot character I've seen in a long time. I also appreciate that this is a power fantasy VRMMO series that isn't horny and filled with fanservice. The power fantasy isn't even "I have god tier cheats" Its "I'm just good at video games, playing the video games by the video game rules and having fun."
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Oct 25, 2023 11:24
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imagine having time to play video games
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Oct 25, 2023 11:39
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Today's episode should be a delightful fustercluck at the gates of the third town, unless they spend the whole episode with Sunraku fighting that overblown mudskipper.
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Oct 29, 2023 08:11
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I'm glad they've spent no expense on showing just how extra Emul can be. And I'm still really digging the incidental music.
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Oct 29, 2023 11:12
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the absolutely INTENSE desire from Animalia, it's loving perfect
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Oct 29, 2023 13:24
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AtomikKrab posted:the absolutely INTENSE desire from Animalia, it's loving perfect She's the leader of the resident Furry Patrol. Were you expecting anything less?
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Oct 29, 2023 14:11
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Cute frog pile
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Oct 29, 2023 15:53
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I busted out laughing during the forums segment and how accurate it was. It even had people who were all "Can we PLEASE add this info to the faqs in the OP?" as well as someone who said, "y'all, posting someone's pics here without permission is a bannable offense. Lurk more before posting, dummy." Wanna know more about Curry Jones.
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Oct 29, 2023 16:50
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I would like to see more of Emul shooting the poo poo with random zone filler, not gonna lie.
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Oct 29, 2023 17:02
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doomrider7 posted:She's the leader of the resident Furry Patrol. Were you expecting anything less? Yeah... I know my people. If Animalia was ever to find their way to Rabituza permanently, they'd have to hire Arthur Pencilgon and every PKer in the game just to drive 'em off. And don't ask about their fanart. Watching the forums discussion was hilarious. Pick any thread in Games and you'll find exchanges just like that with every new game that comes out, especially RPGs. And the two minis with Emul were just...  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get mochii.
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Oct 29, 2023 17:21
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Watching this show is torture, every episode feels like it is 20 seconds long and then I have to wait a week for the next one.
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Oct 29, 2023 18:50
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I mean to be fair, this episode covered about ten minutes of ‘realtime’ so it makes sense that it felt short. Also we had two SLF minis instead of just one, so it was slightly shorter anyway. Still looking to be one of the best shows of the season even with such a loaded lineup. I’m really looking forward to the next episode.
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Oct 29, 2023 21:49
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This show is fun and quite pretty, but yeah, those episodes feel like they pass by in an instant. Maybe it's better to wait until the end of the season and binge them at once. I do like Emul, I had worries she might be an annoying mascot character, but she's genuinely delightful.
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Oct 30, 2023 00:47
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cant cook creole bream posted:This show is fun and quite pretty, but yeah, those episodes feel like they pass by in an instant. Maybe it's better to wait until the end of the season and binge them at once. Wait til you meet her many siblings
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Oct 30, 2023 01:11
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doomrider7 posted:Wait til you meet her many siblings every thread i see you in that has a novel or a manga or something, you are doing this tee hee spoiler poo poo in
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Oct 30, 2023 01:37
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amigolupus posted:I busted out laughing during the forums segment and how accurate it was. It even had people who were all "Can we PLEASE add this info to the faqs in the OP?" as well as someone who said, "y'all, posting someone's pics here without permission is a bannable offense. Lurk more before posting, dummy." I love that the discussion got more and more serious about this shirtless bird guy and his talking rabbit friend. Everything really is more fun if you take it seriously. Also I can't believe I didn't get the name "Arthur Pencilgon" until it was revealed that they used to go by "Pencil Knight"
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Oct 31, 2023 15:34
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Latest episode is absolutely loving lit. Also I stan for Mia and drawing her bow at other players.
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Nov 5, 2023 16:20
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