Shangri-La Frontier: Episode 11 Review

Kanshou and Byakuya: SLF Style

The eleventh episode of Shangri-La Frontier is out. Sunraku gets pulled into a meeting with Vash, who tells him he’s no match for the Unique Monster he intends to face. But in the wake of his Vorpal Soul, the old rabbit chooses to give him a hand and forge a new set of blades.

Let’s go over it in my Recap and Review.

Recap

The episode picks up after Sunraku brings up his impending fight with Wethermon to Emul. Vash calls him up to personally ask why he’s getting ready to fight someone who outlived his time when he’s so weak. Sunraku uses roleplaying to get information from him about the boss by explaining how he’s being used as a tool by the Ashura Kai.

Vash states that if there’s no chance of a victory it’s still foolish. But Sunraku states his friend came to him with their earnest desire, and they only had one shot to clear it, so he feels honor-bound to offer his aid. Vash states if they’re going to put Wethermon to rest, then he’ll walk back his decision not to get involved with “them” and offers Sunraku some aid.

Said aid involves taking him to a forge, where one of his other daughters named Bilac (or Veerack depending on your translations) happens to be. He asks for the Vorpal Choppers from Sunraku and gets to work ascending them after he takes some materials to use. Bilac tells him he’s got good luck since Vash hasn’t taken up the hammer in years since his son inherited rulership of Rabituza while she inherited his forge. Vash is a unique NPC in that not only is he Master Craftsman and Ancient Craftsman, but because he possesses both titles he’s considered a Divine Craftsman.

Then we get some fine forging as he ascends the blades. Bilac explains the process as reading the memories and experiences the weapons have acquired in their battles and then coaxing them into a more suitable form. Since Vorpal weapons remember battles against strong foes, he can mix them with those of the materials and thus get something truly unique. Then he starts to sing, which has both of daughters tell Sunraku to be quiet so they can listen.

And it’s a damn good song too.

Anyway, the new weapons are eventually done and are basically stabbing versions of Kanshou and Byakuya called the Waxing and Waning Moonblade. The weapons both have unique effects, with one dealing extra damage on a successful critical hit at the cost of HP against enemies stronger than you, while the other heals HP under the same circumstances. They also have a fusion gauge that goes up with the number of critical hits, meaning they can even combine.

Sunraku’s all about this, but unfortunately they gained a stat requirement that his min-maxing butt didn’t meet. He needs 150 stat points to use them, meaning he has to be Level 50. Something that brings him to tears since he wanted to use them now.

Anyway, he then meets back up with the other two who tell him he’s three hours late. He tries to buy his life and explains that he got information on Wethermon, which works out for him since Pencilgon wants it. Learning he’s an Undead seems to change a lot considering she thought he was a Cyborg, so she goes to take care of prep before giving them a map and a fishing pole to gain some Levels.

She also states Emul’s disguise is pretty bad, but Oikatzo was fooled until she finally spoke up. He realized it was an NPC and was envious as they formed a three-man team, heading to the Iron Ruins of the Divinity as the episode ends.

The SLF Mini for this week has Sunraku showing the others the song Vash sang while working on his equipment. They love the song and state that Sunraku should sing his own theme song, which is nowhere near as good…

Review

It was a slow episode, but for it to have been all about talking, I was thoroughly entertained by having my forging fetish appealed to… don’t give me that look.

Anyway, this episode is basically an infodump and getting a new weapon for Sunraku. The infodump reveals to us several things about not only Vash but Wethermon himself. We also get to meet another one of the Vorpal Rabbits, which is kind of important since she’s a smith by trade.

As it turns out Vash isn’t the current ruler of their homeland, but he retired after passing the rulership to his son and the forge to one of his daughters. He’s a Unique Blacksmith as well, having two titles that grant him a third, which allows him to go beyond simply upgrading weapons and instead ascending them. He also had a darn good singing voice that went along with the clanging of the hammer.

Makes me miss my time in the forge, making my own knives even though I sucked at it.

Anyway, the explanation for ascending was nice as well in-universe. The weapons have memories and, by drawing those experiences out, the smith can reform them to become something more fitting. Since Vorpal weapons favor facing off against significantly stronger foes, they accumulated those memories in the wake of the bosses that Sunraku faced.

And since he’s a filthy crit-stacker who can’t take a hit, they became twin blades that allow him to burn his HP for additional damage with one blade and then heal up for the same with the other. That means as long as he doesn’t favor one more than the other, he can do it until the weapons break so long as he can land the hits, complementing his no-damage playstyle. Shame he doesn’t meet the stat requirements, but he’s got two weeks to get buffed and they’re going level grinding.

Adding to that, Vash also had exclusive information on Wethermon as well. From what he tells us, the boss rabbit had known him back when he was alive. Due to circumstances, his wife got killed, so he ended up becoming an undying warrior unable to rest in peace. Considering the Unique Monster looked so much like a robotic samurai, Pencilgon assumed that he was a Cyborg-Type enemy, which caused her to shift her plans around a bit.

This is the reason people wanted to beat information out of Sunraku. Look at all this: Exclusive Weaponry, Exclusive Merchants, Exclusive Information, and Exclusive NPC Party Members. I’d be out for blood with envy if I were a player in this game.

But other than that, it was a pretty short episode all things considered. We’re basically just gearing up for an epic boss fight.