For high schooler Rakurou Hizutome, he enjoys playing games like any teen. However, his pleasure in gaming comes from playing trash games.
The broken, the janky, the terribly designed, the ridiculously difficult – he has conquered all of the trash games that no one plays!
After his most recent conquest, the games clerk recommends that he try something that isn’t trash – a new VRMMO game called Shangri-La Frontier. While he decides to give this VRMMO a try, his min-maxing trash game play style allows him to discover some little known secrets of this incredibly popular game that even the major tryhards haven’t found out.
Too many anime about actually playing a VRMMO focus surprisingly little on the action, Shangri-La Frontier proves that should change by providing some stunning fights. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Shangri-La Frontier, head on down below.
Anime Like Shangri-La Frontier
For Fans of VRMMOs
Log Horizon
Thirty thousand Japanese players of the popular Elder Tale game all log in to explore the new update of their game, only to discover they are unable to log out.
The story focuses on the socially awkward college student Shiroe, a master strategist in-game, and his friends as they try to navigate their new reality.
Like Shangri-La Frontier, Log Horizon is about players in a VRMMO. However, Log Horizon has the added caveat that those players are also trapped there, but it isn’t as big of a plot point as you might think.
Aside from the VRMMO aspect, both series have the core similarity of following experienced gamers as main characters who, while overpowered, are often most overpowered due to their ability to strategize and adapt on the fly. However, as Log Horizon specifically follows a strategist and mage, he is a back-line fighter compared to Sunraku’s front line, solo play style.
Although both Shangri-La Frontier and Log Horizon explore a lot of different game mechanics, Log Horizon is not a solely action-focused series. It explores less interesting aspects of the game like economics and politics that slow down the pace on occasion.
Infinite Dendrogram
Infinite Dendrogram is the world’s first successful full-dive VRMMO. It can replicate the five senses and provides infinite possibilities.
College freshman Reiji has just started playing with his brother Shuu and is ready to set off on adventure.
Both Shangri-La Frontier and Infinite Dendrogram are about people who log in to play a VRMMO. The core similarity aside, Shangri-La Frontier takes full advantage of its concept while Infinite Dendrogram is often just a fantasy anime, but VRMMO.
While Shangri-La Frontier became addicting with its flashy and interesting battles as well as watching Sunraku stumble upon game secrets by being his trash game-loving self, Infinite Dendrogram doesn’t have a lot to set itself apart from other VRMMO anime. It is very much just another usual adventure in a fantasy world.
Sword Art Online
With the aid of NerveGear technology, video game players can now experience their playable worlds like never before – in virtual reality. For Kazuto Kirigaya, his game of choice is Sword Art Online.
After beta testing the game, he logs into the launch and finds himself, as well as ten thousand other players, trapped in the game world.
While Sword Art Online goes on to explore other things at times, it is – like Shangri-la Frontier – an action-focused VRMMO anime.
Both series feature experienced gamers as main characters who are able to speedrun their way through the early levels of the game and amass unexpected amount of power, unique weaponry, and see uncommon game events.
However, while both series feature interesting battles, Sword Art Online does have a lot more plot to it than Shangri-La Frontier as well as other elements like romance and harem.
In The Land of Leadale
After an accident put her on life support, Keina took up playing the VRMMO game, World of Leadale.
After a power outage at the hospital, she wakes up fully inside the game as her avatar, Cayna. Furthermore, it seems that 200 years have passed since she last played and no other player characters can be found.
While In The Land of Leadale is an isekai, it is about a girl isekai’d into the VRMMO game that she was playing before she died. As such, it is pretty indistinguishable from just playing a VRMMO.
While Shangri-La Frontier is focused on growing stronger and fighting stronger enemies, In The Land of Leadale has a different sort of plot. As the main character is already max level, it is instead focused on investigating what happened to all the other players and why time advanced 200 years in the game. So while Shangri-La Frontier explores some more hidden aspects of the game, In The Land of Leadale is more about exploring the history that happened within the game.
For Fans of Unique Play Styles
A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life
Taichi Tanaka is a middle-aged office worker who enjoys playing video games in his free time. Upon the release of a new VRMMO called One More Free Life Online, he decides to give it a try.
In One More Free Life Online, the player is free to do as they like, and for Taichi – now logged in as a player named Earth – he decides to master skills that are deemed to be useless by the player community. However, the skills he picks turn out to be increasingly valuable to not just his character, but others as well.
Both Shangri-La Frontier and A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life tell the simple story of a man who plays a VRMMO in a non-meta way. Even more similarly, their not-meta build ends up making them very powerful.
While they tell essentially the same basic story, these two series go about it in different ways. A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life is what would best be describe as a more ”cozy” VRMMO experience. He levels, he makes friends, and he fights occasionally – he enjoys his game time. This is in stark contrast to the intense and visually beautiful battles in Shangri-la Frontier.
Bofuri – I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense
After receiving an invitation from a friend, Kaede Honjou starts playing the VRMMO game New World Online as a character named Maple.
However, in her desire to not get hurt, she puts all her stats in Vitality. This makes her move very slowly, unable to use magic, and get attacked by even the smallest creatures. However, it does allow her impenetrable defense, and the gear she finds while wandering grants her a one-hit counter skill.
And so, her adventures begin.
Both Shangri-La Frontier and Bofuri are VRMMO anime about characters who dumped all their points into one or two stats and ended up pretty overpowered because of it.
In Bofuri, she starts as a walking tank, but has little offensive abilities. It is her weapons, armor, and friends that provide the offense. Alternatively, Shangri-La Frontier has the main character be virtually all offense-focused with his defense being his skill at games.
Although both series follow overpowered main characters playing a VRMMO, Bofuri has a lot more softer wholesome moments as the main character is more of a pleasant normal person and not a trash game connoisseur who loves a difficult challenge.
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear
Yuna much prefers staying home and playing her favorite VRMMO instead of going to school.
During an update, she receives a strange and powerful bear outfit. It was overpowered, but too embarrassing to wear in-game.
However, she finds herself suddenly transported to the world of the game, and her bear suit becomes her best chance of surviving.
Both Shangri-La Frontier and Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear are VRMMO anime about an overpowered main character who dresses ridiculously. However, while strength is honed in Shangri-La Frontier, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear is about a girl given magnificent abilities from the bear suit she wears as armor.
While Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear loves it overpowered action scenes, it is a bit of a softer series. It has some more wholesome, non-action moments and is also notably different in that it is an isekai.
For Fans of Adventure on Hard Mode
Full Dive – This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life!
Average high school student Hiro Yuuki obtains a copy of the full dive RPG game called Kiwame Quest. This game is uses the pinnacle of gaming technology to create an experience as close to real life as possible.
Unfortunately, while the sights, smells, and sensations are very realistic, it does make it a difficult game to beat. For players, their real life abilities are reflected in game and being hit also leaves serious wounds on your character that hurt and heal slowly.
It is not a game for casuals, but with a supreme sense of accomplishment on the line for beating it, who could say no?
Both Shangri-La Frontier and Full Dive feature main characters who are connoisseurs of beating VRMMO games. However, they have a bit of an opposite set up. Full Dive is about a guy playing an obscure trash VRMMO after conquering all the others while Shangri-La Frontier is about a trash game connoisseur finally playing something mainstream.
Aside from the reverse set up, both series feature the main character essentially playing that VRMMO on hard mode. However, Full Dive adds an extra element of threat by being able to hurt him in real life if he gets hurt in the game. As such, it has more of a focus on properly planning, if not avoiding, battles rather than just accepting the extreme battles head-on like in Shangri-La Frontier.
I’m Standing on a Million Lives
Bored with the world that surrounds him, loner Yotsuya Yusuke is one day transported to a new world with two girls from his class.
There, he finds out that they have been playing a game with ten increasingly difficult rounds. After beating each round, they get to pose a question to the game master before heading back home.
On this, the third round, Yusuke finds himself excited for the first time in a long time, only for his battle class to be rolled as a weak farmer.
Together with his teammates, they struggle to survive and move forward or face certain death.
While I’m Standing on a Million Lives is more isekai than VRMMO anime, it does follow a gamified sort of isekai story not unlike playing a VRMMO.
In both Shangri-La Frontier and I’m Standing on a Million Lives follow main characters who are almost immediately put at a disadvantage in the situation they are in by either playing the game a strange way or the battle class they are given. However, they overcome these situations with pure skill and strategy.
Shangri-La Frontier and I’m Standing on a Million Lives are both action-focused fantasy anime with a main character who progressively grows stronger, but his most useful ability is his brain. Furthermore, when it does come to action, both series can be particularly vicious despite pretty low stakes.
So I’m a Spider, So What?
On one normal day in high school, the lives of many students ended unexpectedly. Some were reincarnated as nobles or strong heroes. Others were reincarnated as wondrous fantasy creatures.
Unfortunately for one girl, she was reincarnated as a lowly cave spider.
No stranger to hardship given her difficult school life, she vows to not give up, and through an RPG system, grows stronger each day.
While So I’m a Spider, So What is an isekai – and an isekai with a spider at a main character, at that – it has a strong focus on battle and leveling up abilities.
Like Shangri-La Frontier, you watch the main character struggle a bit at first, but slowly level and become increasingly more proficient. That happens a lot faster in Shangri-La Frontier, however. So I’m a Spider So What is a lot more focused on the struggle. However, both series are interesting in seeing what new abilities the main character gets and how they creatively use them in the frequent, flashy action.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Shangri-La Frontier? Let fans know in the comments section below.
