The manga “Shangri-La Frontier: Kusoge Hunter, Kamige ni Idoman to su” or simply Shangri-La Frontier shares the tale of an off-kilter gamer, the highschooler Rakurou Hizutome, who prefers to play trash virtual reality games than join the trend of god-tier games. Games that have unresolved glitches, bugs and anything crappy that can make the gameplay torturous is his cup of tea. His gaming skills have been honed by his relentless obsession with conquering notorious games, but even heroes need to take a break. So, following the suggestion of a game store shopkeeper, he thrust himself into the popular full-dive MMO game, Shangri-La Frontier, expecting it to be a little time-killer. Obviously, he was blown away, and what even made it more interesting was his encounter with one of the boss monsters that drive the world’s storyline. Of course, he loses against the boss and was unceremoniously cursed to have a glass-cannon build.

The strongest suit of this manga is the battle scenes. While the protagonist is a highly-skilled gamer, it isn’t to the point that he breaks the balance of the game like being a one-man army of some sort. He is still vulnerable to surprise attacks or being mobbed by players and monsters alike. True to his fondness for trash games, he doesn’t shy away from exploiting some of the game features which does get patched in a short time. Meanwhile on the battle aspect, the game’s combat mechanics is very down-to-earth making it a breeze to suspend your disbelief. Major boss fights often require team work which keeps it grounded as an MMO game.

Ultimately, he is playing an MMO, so he does get joined by a cast of characters who can actually hold a candle to him. Many of whom are acquaintances from the trash games that he’s played before. They do have their own back stories to help flesh out their personality… and that’s as good as it gets. The protagonist is quite a vanilla character which makes him easily likeable, but he neither has that much of a personality apart from being a gaming buff nor any compelling reason that pushes him forward. Well, except for the “I want to be the best in this game” reasoning.

When it comes to the overarching story, the manga was good and logical until the author decided to segue into e-sports. So much nonsense was thrown around just to move the plot, and the new fighting game was so imbalanced for something that was made with the help of Shangri-La Frontier’s creator. It just doesn’t feel right compared to how The King’s Avatar and to a lesser degree, Rise, did their e-sports.

Reading this manga is like watching a playthrough of a skilled gamer. I will not suggest this to anyone who is looking for a good plot-driven action/adventure VRMMO manga. The story’s quite meh frankly speaking. But, this manga is for you if you want a:

  • Strong protagonist but isn’t overpowered,
  • Excellent cast of party members that doesn’t hold back the protagonist,
  • Well-written combat mechanics,
  • Party-based battles,
  • Funny side characters.

Having read up to chapter 156, I rate this manga 7.5/10. It may get better in the future, but for now, I’ve read VRMMO/E-sports manga/webtoon that are better than this. By the way, I enjoyed the anime adaptation of this manga although I can’t be sure if it was because I haven’t watched any of this year’s seasonal anime.

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