Shangri-La Frontier

Shangri-La Frontier (シャングリラ・フロンティア～クソゲーハンター、神ゲーに挑まんとす～) is a Japanese web novel series written by Katarina. Its serialization began on the novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō in May 2017. A manga adaptation, illustrated by Ryosuke Fuji, has been serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine since July 2020. An anime television series adaptation produced by C2C aired from October 2023 to March 2024. A second season is set to premiere in October 2024.

By April 2024, the manga had over 8 million copies in circulation. It won the 47th Kodansha Manga Award in the category in 2023.

Plot
The story is set in the near future, where games that use old-fashioned display screens are classified as retro games, while full-dive VR games have become commonplace. As a result of these games becoming mainstream, there exist many so-called "trash games": rushed, full of glitches, faulty games, the systems of which have not kept up with the improved visual technology. Rakuro Hizutome is a "trash game hunter", a great admirer of these usually shameful games, which he plays with the nickname Sunraku, until he is able to master them regardless of the difficulty due to their glitches. Rakuro has cleared the oversized "Faeria Chronicle Online" trash game, and is suffering a sort of burnout syndrome. At the suggestion of the owner of his favorite game store, "RockRoll", he buys the best-selling and excellent "Shangri-La Frontier", a full-dive VR game with 30 million registered players. He enters the world of Shangri-La Frontier as Sunraku, his bird-masked player character, where all the skills he has attained as an expert trash game hunter will come in handy as he progresses in the game.

Characters

 * Sunraku (サンラク) / Rakurō Hizutome (陽務 楽郎)


 * Psyger-0 (サイガ-0) / Rei Saiga (斎賀 玲)


 * Arthur Pencilgon (アーサー・ペンシルゴン) / Towa Amane (天音 永遠)


 * Oikatzo (オイカッツォ) / Kei Uomi (魚臣 慧)


 * Emul (エムル)


 * Vysache (ヴァイスアッシュ)


 * Psyger-100 (サイガ-100) / Momo Saiga (斎賀 百)


 * Animalia (アニマリア)


 * Orcelott (オルスロット)


 * Bilac (ビィラック)


 * Peatz (ピーツ)


 * Setsuna Amatsuki / Setsuna of Bygone Days (遠き日のセツナ)


 * Wethermon the Tombguard (墓守のウェザエモン)


 * Tsukuyo Tsukuri (継久理 創世)


 * Ritsu Amachi (天地 律)


 * Sakai Tsukuyogi (木兎夜枝 境)


 * Kyoju (キョージュ)
 * Aramis (アラミース)
 * Aramis (アラミース)

Production
The author Katarina read The Irregular at Magic High School on Shōsetsuka ni Narō while living overseas. He found the novel interesting and therefore started to think of writing novels. At that time, reincarnation-type stories were popular in that website and there was a period that he read only fantasy stories. However, he once read a virtual reality-type story and found it very amazing. Inspired by that work, he started writing Shangri-La Frontier.

The anime project was proposed in February 2020, which was before the serialization of the manga series.

Web novel
The series written by Katarina was serialized online from May 2017 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. No printed version of the novel series has been released.

Manga
A manga adaptation illustrated by Ryosuke Fuji has been serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine since July 15, 2020. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual volumes. The first volume was released on October 16, 2020. A promotional video, narrated by Azumi Waki and featuring Yuma Uchida as Sunraku, was posted on July 7, 2021, for the series' first anniversary. As of July 17, 2024, 18 volumes have been released.

In North America, Kodansha USA announced the English language digital release of the manga in November 2020. In November 2021, Kodansha USA announced that they would begin releasing the series in print, with the first volume released on September 6, 2022.

Chapters not yet in tankōbon format

 * 176. "Holding the Heavens Aloft, United (Part 4)"
 * 177. "Holding the Heavens Aloft, United (Part 5)"
 * 178. "Holding the Heavens Aloft, United (Part 6)"
 * 179. "Holding the Heavens Aloft, United (Part 7)"
 * 180. "Holding the Heavens Aloft, United (Part 8)"
 * 181. "Holding the Heavens Aloft, United (Part 9)"
 * 182. "Holding the Heavens Aloft, United (Part 10)"
 * 183. "Holding the Heavens Aloft, United (Part 11)"
 * 184. "Holding the Heavens Aloft, United (Part 12)"
 * 185. "Holding the Heavens Aloft, United (Part 13)"

Anime
On July 7, 2022, an anime television series adaptation produced by C2C was announced. The series is directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka, with Hiroki Ikeshita serving as assistant director, Kazuyuki Fudeyasu supervising and writing the series' scripts, Ayumi Kurashima designing the characters, and Monaca composers Ryūichi Takada, Kuniyuki Takahashi, and Keiichi Hirokawa composing the music. It aired from October 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, on the Nichi-5 programming block on all JNN affiliates, including MBS and TBS. The first opening theme song is, "Broken Games", performed by FZMZ, while the first ending theme song is, "Ace", performed by Chico (singer). The second opening theme song is "Danger Danger", performed by FZMZ feat. Icy, while the second ending theme song is "Gajumaru: Heaven in the Rain" (ガジュマル ～Heaven in the Rain～), performed by Reona.

A second season is set to premiere on October 13, 2024.

Crunchyroll has licensed the series for streaming outside of Asia. Muse Communication licensed the series in Southeast Asia.

Video game
On July 7, 2022, a video game of the same name developed by Netmarble Nexus and published by Netmarble was announced.

Reception
By April 2024, the manga had over 8 million copies in circulation. The manga ranked eleventh on the "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2021" by the Honya Club website. It placed fifth in the 2021 Next Manga Award in the print category. The manga was nominated for the 46th Kodansha Manga Award in the category in 2022; it won the 47th edition in the same category in 2023.