REVIEW: ‘Shangri-La Frontier’ Season 2 Episode 4 — “When Humanity Dreams of the Impossible and Takes to the Skies”

Talks between the Wolfgang clan, the Schwarz Vulf clan, the Library clan, and the SF Zoo clan continue and conclude, as Pencilgon proposes, they all form an alliance. Shangri-La Frontier Season 2 Episode 4, “When Humanity Dreams of the Impossible and Takes to the Skies,” finishes the roundtable discussion on allying. Then, the rest of the episode is a nice change of pace, showing Sunraku trying to take down some Crystal Scorpions. This whole episode is an accurate depiction of a typical pro gamer grinding EXP to accomplish a goal.

With the newly formed alliance, Pencilgon is pleased since she wants the Wolfgang clan (her, Sunraku, and Katzo) to become the top clan in the game. Post-meeting, Pencilgon explains to the other two how information is so powerful in SLF, especially the combined information pool of the three of them and their new alliance.

This justifies why Katzo was angry at Sunraku earlier in the meeting when Sunraku revealed the unique monster Lycagon’s attack patterns to Schwarz Vulf’s leader Psyger-100. These interactions are significant character details. Katzo and Pencilgon prefer to keep the information as hidden as possible, and Sunraku tried to do that, too, but still revealed too much. It shows Sunraku still has much to learn on social reads of being a gamer in SLF.

The three Wolfgang members split, and Sunraku attempts to go grind out, killing some Crystal Scorpions to collect new materials from them. However, he quickly learns that warping in and out to make the Crystal Scorpions smash into each other isn’t possible because of a new patch update. Shangri-La Frontier Season 2 Episode 4 shows an accurate display of a gamer realizing there must’ve been a recent patch note update, specifically when a player is used to using the game exploit so often. This is the first scene of this season where Sunraku dies, and he reads the patch notes in the real world.

Sunraku respawns in Rabituza Inn to reunite with Emul, who goes over to check on things with Bilac. This scene in Shangri-La Frontier Season 2 Episode 4 is important because Bilac explains that the magic operations unit they collected back in their side quest through the Ruins of Past Glories is a headgear to analyze Legacy Weapons (essentially, they’re like top-tier weapons in RPGs). This is vital information because Bilac continues to say that once she becomes an Ancient Craftsman, she could repair Legacy Weapons and make them!

Thus, she wants Sunraku to bring her crystal materials from the Crystal Scorpions to craft her first Legacy Weapon for him. This is even more motivation for Sunraku to grind out the Crystal Scorpions. There’s even a tease here since Sunraku tells Bilac he doesn’t want another pair of twin swords when she makes him a Legacy Weapon. He says he wants “that,” leaving off on that suspenseful note.

For the rest of Shangri-La Frontier Season 2 Episode 4, every scene leads back to the accuracy of the life of an MMORPG gamer. Sunraku realizes he needs to level up to get a new skill called “Sky Walker” to help him defeat the Crystal Scorpions. This new skill would allow him to double jump. Many gamers know that a double jump feature is good for vertical versatility in combat or reaching new areas of the map.

To show how much Sunraku wants to guarantee his plan is executed perfectly, he also sells a 300,000 mahni-worth of an idol he picked up in the Ruins of Past Glories. He uses this ‘mahni’ to buy Emul a new spell, which they immediately put into action when they grind out killing undead in the Canyon of Ancient Souls.

Emul’s new spell, “Magic Chain,” is a restraining spell that helps Sunraku deal with finishing blows more easily to low-level mobs who are more elusive than other-level monsters. The payoff is worth it, as Sunraku finally levels up and gains the skill he wants. The fight to take down the undead monster in this scene is another excellent example of what makes Shangri-La Frontier a great isekai anime series. C2C knows how to animate dynamic fights and not solely rely on the protagonist to do everything independently. This is almost a commentary to say that Ashes of War is worth using in Elden Ring rather than grinding a mini-boss for hours on end, not using an Ash of War.

With Sunraku’s new Sky Walker skill, he drops Emul back to Rabituza since he wants to face the Crystal Scorpions again. This made me question Sunraku’s strategizing skills a little in Shangri-La Frontier Season 2 Episode 4  because wouldn’t it be good to have a magic user help as well? Maybe he cares about Emul getting hurt, but it doesn’t make sense. It must’ve been Sunraku’s ego as a typical solo gamer that led him to that decision.

Sunraku’s plan works as he corrals the Crystal Scorpions off a cliff, just like the scene in the movie 300 where the Spartans force some of the Persian armies off a cliff. Except in this case, Sunraku let the Crystal Scorpions chase him, and he baited them off the cliff—allowing him to jump to the side and collect the materials afterward.

Shangri-La Frontier Season 2 Episode 4 continues to hit its stride with good storytelling and great animation and dialogue to back it up. While Sunraku’s voice actor, Yuma Uchida, is not as loud and rambunctious as Black Clover’s Asta (Gakuto Kajiwara), he has a fantastic evil laugh when Sunraku’s plans come together. Every note of this episode is purposeful and always has a way of dangling a carrot of teasing information that’ll be brought up later.

Minusing the summation of the clan alliance meeting, Shangri-La Frontier Season 2 Episode 4 had about 15 minutes to tell a simple gamer-grinding story, and these scenes nailed it. The structure of the problem, the idea of the solution, working towards achieving the solution, and executing the solution to the issue are very well done in this short time. Many other shows may have spent two episodes trying to show this grinding moment for Sunraku and Emul, but not this show.

Shangri-La Frontier Season 2 Episode 4 is now streaming on Crunchyroll.