#studio c2c

First of all, C2C is an incredibly underrated studio considering the quality of the projects that they enjoy. This is one such project. Right from the start the quality is insane. 2D camera movement, detailed animation and character acting, the whole nine yards. Just look at this walking cycle! There's no 3D and their shoulders move!

It's just crazy to see the detail they put into these pieces early on. Walking cycles are super neglected due to how "plain" they are, but there's just something incredible about seeing that effort put into it with stuff like these examples.

And then there's this (sort of misleading) litmus test. Does your anime have really good art for a random cut? Odds are the production's doing really well. And, well, there's this really good looking beetle shown early on in the episode.

Anyways, to Shangri-La Frontier the game. The direction understands the assignment right away. This is a video game, we need to know it's a video game. So they show us it's a video game. First person perspective is our very first cut shown in the welcome screen and once we enter the world, setting the tone perfectly for what's to come.

But of course, a video game has more to it then just first person perspective, and of course C2C grasp that as well. Slow motion (which you'll see later), and more importantly camera movement are important in establishing that feel. The slow draw towards an endless expanse of world, the bird's eye view of a landmark or feature as the camera slowly rotates. It gets it, and it's able to create a living, breathing trailer for Shangri-La during the episode because of that.

And then, there's the fact that it's a video game. There's talks of skills and abilities and levels and whatnot, but I think most understand that that's a "staple" and that C2C/Shangri-La handle it quite well.

Let's talk about the good stuff, let's talk about action. C2C nails it. They put incredible effort into video game-styled choreography, and it pays off in spades. The slow motion, the harsh camera angles to accentuate the fight, the camera rotation, the way that attacks linger in the air. It's incredible stuff that's augmented by insane animation and visual effects. Seriously, pay attention to the fight and you'll see that they did an impact frame for a crit. Not in the traditional sense, but that the impact frame was the crit. This sort of stuff just makes me so excited because of how well it's handled.

And then there's the worldbuilding. The OP comes into play as well of course, but the details are super great. The enemies Sunraku faces in the starting forest are (mostly) beginner enemies. A goblin with a stone axe and some sort of large pig seem to be the "typical", but there's more to it than that. The Vorpal bunny is a "rare" enemy which makes sense, but the pig enemy only appears as Sunraku ventures closer to the second town rather than the first.

There's considerable detail and effort placed in the creation and appearances of these creatures in the world. The Vorpal Bunny featuring a better crafted weapon than the others that most likely came from somewhere else. Don't forget - we saw a rabbit in the opening.

It's just insanely cool stuff. The world is already shown to be more broad and deep than "it's a big video game world!". There's all sorts of little pieces like this peppered about, and it's just so damn good. Even the concept of Sunraku's "Wanderer" dropping him in a forest rather than the starter town. The detail to really sell this game as god-tier is so damn good.

But it's important to not forget, the god-tier part of the game is only one part of the puzzle. Sunraku here is famous for playing garbage games.

And it's a great way to offset the story and provide a fun angle, I'm serious. It allows them to add fun commentary and responses in regards to frustration from playing bad games, and at the same time provide a novel and excitable approach to a genuinely good game. The best of both worlds that sets the perfect stage for how they want to explore this story.

First and foremost though, a little detail or two from the start of the episode. We got another bug shown. I know bugs are already associated with the Hizutome household, but I wonder if we'll continue being shown them as a sort of connection from the family to Sunraku's buggy game loving tendencies.

Second, this really fun detail from the game store. On the one TV in the scene they actually bothered making a little video game demo to put on it. A very fun addition to add a bit more life and feel to the scene.

Anyways, let's talk actual episode content. Right away they put focus on exploring Shangri-La Frontier outside of the game, and I think it's a really important piece to take a look at in this sort of context. I'm always big about VR game series taking a minute to exist outside of the game, so seeing stuff like this is really good.

Even better I feel is how they build the game up. Sunraku isn't the first to find Rabituza, which I think is really important in selling the world. It's existed for a hot minute, so people should have discovered things like it and shared that information online. It really creates the feeling of a fleshed out and lively world that Sunraku is taking part in.

Back into the game though, the art in closeups in this episode are really just something else. The detail and shading on them is incredibly good, and is only further accentuated by the strong camera angles.

And then there's the "best" part: the collar. I think it's really great for two reasons. First of all, it's effectively saying that Vysache "owns" Sunraku, but there's also its effects. Before that though, I really like that they snuck something creative in with the collar. It's an unequip-able item, so Sunraku's pretty outraged by it, but he did agree to it. That is, he agreed to the trigger that would equip the collar, so it's not like it was forced on him.

Anyways, the effect of the xp drop, I think it's a great idea. They're building Sunraku up to play a "shitty" game within Shangri-La Frontier effectively, and I think that's really awesome. It's not shitty by nature, like a lot of the game Sunraku plays, but it's shitty because of how he plays it. It's a really thoughtful approach to the concept of the series, and at each turn they find great ways to use it to their advantage.

And the author gets that fighting an impossibly uphill battle can be a little monotonous, so they actually counterbalance the collar with Emul! Just really really smart decisions that put a really great level of awareness into the idea of game balance.

And you know, there's been a lot of talk about Kusoge as of late, so it's great to see Sunraku get back to his roots as a way to establish a party around him. It just makes sense, and is a very fun way to stay true to Sunraku's ideals while providing strong backing for him in this video game world.

Also, goofy glitchy fights. It would have been fun to see them go all out with the idea, but I wouldn't say I'm disappointed.

Getting into the back half of the episode, time sort of flies. There's some good humor thanks to layouts like this one, but for the most part it's talk about expanding the worldview of the viewer.

And I mean, it has to be done at some point or another, so I think filling the gap between area bosses as Sunraku speedruns the early game is the most suitable spot for it. They do a good job of folding it into the natural flow of things and playing off of it, so I don't really have any complaints.

Well, that's a lie, I do have one complaint. They went and showed us such an insanely good looking area boss that I can't wait for next week's episode.

Even better is that, like the Ravenous Python, Sunraku has to face an uphill battle here due to his lack of preparation. Though instead of it being the hidden challenge of poison, this time it's the explicit challenge of being unable to run in a swamp. Just really great ideas that challenge Sunraku's playstyle directly rather than being mostly random obstacles.

So let's talk worldbuilding first. While the wolf does show up in the opening, it's actually featured somewhere else more importantly. Yeah, in the image that I used for the cover of this post.

One of the new players actually points out the emblem that adorns this massive suit of armor. That emblem being a wolf holding a sword. Hmm, interesting choice for what's noted as an "achievement focused clan". To put two and two together, the clan's chasing after the unique monster that appeared to Sunraku at the end of the episode. Mostly because after we're treated to its appearance, we've learned that zero unique monsters have been defeated.

What about sneaky boss mechanics then? Ravenous Python is the area boss that blocks beginners from making it to the second town. Forcing them into parties is a great way to foster communication and interaction in this big world, so it's a great idea for a starter boss. Even better than that though is its design, with hair/fur on the head and the tail.

Like me, Sunraku didn't really think it anything important, but we find out that the python can spew poison from its tail. Immediately, the pieces fall into place, it's a little hint/giveaway at the fact that the tail is also a weapon/danger. Very very neat detail.

Some more boss details! While it's not officially stated, while Sunraku is stacking crits on the Python, it looks like it's potentially being staggered? That is, being hit with a critical temporarily stuns/staggers an enemy which provides an additional opening. Of course, being able to stack crits means that the stagger would be overpowered, so the python recovers rather quickly.

After the python dies we finally make our way to the first (though really second) town of the series, where we get some time with different players before seeing Sunraku. Not anything crazy, but the fact that they're telling us about what denotes a PKer is pretty interesting. What they don't say though is if there's any debuffs or real purpose to killing players, and where you can do it. They're only just outside the town so there's most likely not a safe area, but is it possible for them to fight in the town? Just some random thoughts I got from the episode.

So, Sunraku's in the second town now, and because he's died and has a skill penalty, he's decided to do some shopping. Really plain and simple idea, but they show off the armor he purchases as being from Mud Frog's, which are a rather simple/passive mob with a gimmick in the area. Really great idea for starter items, since they're easy to farm and only provide specific/simple defenses. Also, Mud Frog's another monster name from FFXII (though it doesn't bare any resemblance). Starting to think that the author might have a favorite game.

And this is where things start to get interesting with the world. When the NPC blacksmith says that nighttime's dangerous, they mean it. I love this idea and how they execute on it, starting with a Redcap Goblin. It might not have the iron greaves that typically denote a Redcap (though Overlord's do have them), it's still undeniably inspired by the D&D monster.

Even more interesting is the approach. It wears more complicated clothing than the beginner Goblin, sporting a necklace even as decoration. Further, it has a proper metal axe, a weapon even nicer than the blades of the Vorpal Bunnies in terms of quality.

The icing on the cake though is its intelligence. It's got a fighting style that can resemble the reckless abandon of the original goblin, but has far more refinement and a much more intense attack pattern, featuring things like even throwing their axe.

One step above that is how they treat the creatures of the night. This thing is clearly intelligent as it summons allies to its side. Like Sunraku says, this is typically a weak monster's trait, but when applied to a high level one makes them even more dangerous, essentially enforcing a time limit on the fight for viability. Really really cool stuff that doesn't just use overpowered monsters to make the night difficult. It ups the intelligence of them in several ways, arguably the most notable being the fact that these monsters roam at night when there's less people (making it safer for the monsters). Really really cool ideas.

So, where to start? Maybe with the fact that about six minutes of the episode is action? Yeah, a pretty insane number considering it's the third episode and this isn't some sort of final or last fight with the boss. Even crazier is that they animate this massive wolf in 2D. No CGI or anything, just a damn good looking 2D wolf, with a surprising amount of full body shots.

Let's rewind though for something fun. For exposition we return to our pair of "noob" gamers as they talk about Rei's in-game character and the "lore" behind her clan. First of all, it's a great angle to use for exposition. Placing the onus on explaining it to a new player is far smarter than any sort of vague reasoning. Second, I really hope that this pair of characters will continue to be our source of explanations as the series goes on. Gimmicks and recurring jokes are something that I feel will work really well with this series so keeping the characters the same would be a fun little side story to add.

Anyways, the actual worldbuilding to come from this exchange. At this point in time we know that there's currently 7 known Unique Monsters, labelled as Colossi, in the game. From that, seven different clans have appeared to try and take them down. Now, we don't know if each is dedicated to a unique colossi or not, but most of the emblems are in fact unique, and speak to the fact that not all "monsters" are "inhuman". They're obviously not normal humans, but they would not be classified as beasts.

Okay, now we're at the wolf fight, and man there is a lot of detail here. And I mean a lot. The way that the wolf fights is so intelligent. Much like the Ravenous Python, it doesn't expose its full kit off the bat with Sunraku. But it's also not "saving" it for later.

What it's doing is testing Sunraku. How can I say that with confidence though? Well, just look at how it employs its kit. It has a paralyzing howl that it could have used to kill Sunraku immediately if it wanted to, for one. But that's the second to last move it uses on him.

Similarly, it engages with Sunraku in a head on fight to start, but as Sunraku consistently lands hits on it, it changes up tactics. It uses invisibility/teleportation. The exact mechanism I'm not 100% certain on, but a general overview would be that during the invisibility, Lycaon can't interact with anything, and it's not instantaneous movement from one point to the other. So it's more like a dimensional slip maybe?

And last but not least, the taunt/feint. It sees the calibre of fighter that Sunraku is and essentially invites him in saying, "cmon, take the shot where you think you should, you can do it". Before Sunraku can gouge out an eye though, Lycaon blocks his attack and swiftly dispatches him.

A wildly intelligent monster, no? Well, maybe "monster" is a bit of a misnomer for a beast carrying the name "Lycaon". In Ancient Greek mythology, Lycaon was originally a human, believe it or not. It was only when he angered Zeus by offering human flesh (the flesh of Lyacon's own son) to see if the God could tell the difference that Lycaon was transformed into a wolf.

Anyways, the nail in the coffin for the incredible intelligence of this creature, Lycaon's Curse. It's essentially a mark that commends the ability of the fighter, and restricts them until they can beat the beast itself. Very very cool stuff. Though, I should say the point about Lycaon recognizing Sunraku isn't mulled over until after the fact, but immediately viewers are able to grasp the reasoning behind the curse.

Moving forward, the keen-eyed in the opening for Shangri-La Frontier will recognize a familiar face (or two) in this episode: Emul and Vysache.

This part was very very interesting to me, because clearly, Emul is meant to be party member to Sunraku (given the opening), and this sequence immediately confirms that Vysache is meant to train Sunraku. I mean, the use of the Vorpal Choppers and the idea of duality exists comfortably in Vysache and Rabituza's style. What an incredibly interesting idea to follow through on, I'm incredibly curious to see how it ends up.

And this part is also where the episode ends. This series is really good at leaving off in very very interesting points that make me incredibly anxious to see where we go in the next week. I don't think there are many series out there that can entice viewers with a world as large as their imagination and do it as well as this. We only know of two towns and a handful of monsters, but the scope of the world feels like extends so far past it that you can't begin to fathom it.