is a Japanese web novel series written by Katarina. Its serialization began on the novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō in May 2017. No printed version of the novel series has been published yet. A manga adaptation, illustrated by Ryosuke Fuji, has been serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine since July 2020. An anime television series adaptation produced by C2C premiered in October 2023.
It won the 47th Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen 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. , is a "trash game hunter", a great admirer of these usually shameful games, which he plays with the nickname , 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 the player character Sunraku, where all the skills he has attained as an expert trash game hunter will come in handy as he progresses in the game.
Characters
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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.
Media
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 published yet.
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 tankōbon 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 October 17, 2023, fifteen 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.
Volumes
Chapters not yet in tankōbon format
146. "The Brave and Gallant Breaker- Dead Weight" 147. "High-Spirited Outrage – Highlight" 148. "Foolishly Courageous Forbidden Star – Overheat" 149. "Stalled-Out Overtime Mastermind" 150. "The Struggles of Evil" 151. "Middle Reliever to the End- Finisher Hold" 152. "Hurling the Baton at the Anchor" 153. "Road to Fruition" 154. "Pursue the Shadow, and Surpass It Now"
Anime
On July 7, 2022, an anime television series adaptation produced by C2C was announced. The series will be 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 premiered on the programming block on all JNN stations in Japan, including MBS and TBS, on October 1, 2023. The opening theme song, "Broken Games", is performed by FZMZ, while the ending theme song, "Ace", is performed by Chico. Crunchyroll has licensed the series for streaming outside of Asia. Muse Communication licensed the series in Southeast Asia.
Episodes
Video game
On July 7, 2022, a video game of the same name developed by Netmarble Nexus and published by Netmarble was announced.