Kodansha Presents Shangri-La Frontier Creators at Anime NYC

At Anime NYC 2024, Kodansha hosted a Q&A panel with Shangri-La Frontier‘s author, Katarina, and manga artist, Ryousuke Fuji. Even though it was Sunday morning and the last day of the convention, anime and manga fans filled the room, eager to ask their burning questions about the series.

Katarina-sensei charmed fans by coming on stage wearing a plush blue bird head, modeled off of the main character, Sunraku. After a few minutes, he removed it to a surprise applause from the audience, saying with a wry smile that it was too hot to wear it any longer.

Fuji-sensei immediately began live drawing after taking his seat on stage, and easily completed the art work in under 15 minutes. His pen never stopped moving once, even while answering questions from the host.

After the live drawing was finished, both creators signed the shikishi board (pictured above), and the host announced that it would be the prize of an exclusive giveaway.

Read on to learn a few interesting tidbits about Shangri-La Frontier, how the story came to be, and of course, how to enter the giveaway!

Panel Q&A

Katarina-sensei, how did you first come up with the story of Shangri-La Frontier and its trash game setting?

Katarina: I’ve said this many times, but I began developing Shangri-La Frontier as a high fantasy story. While creating the setting, I started watching VR database stories, and I realized that if you die in a fantasy world, then you die: that’s the end of the story. But if you die in a game setting, then you can regenerate or respawn, and you can do that many times. So I decided to incorporate the setting of a VR game in the vision of the story.

As for why it’s a trash game, there are a lot of gamers in Japan who enjoy playing low rating games like that. You see them streaming it on places like YouTube, and you’re just watching them play, but it’s kind of fun. So I thought that a trash game would be a great setting for the main character.

What went into developing the main character, Sunraku?

Katarina: There are two things I focused on when developing Sunraku’s character. Since Shangri-La Frontier has a VR setting, I wanted to have a challenger, just like a character in Dark Soul or Elden Ring. You die many times, but you try it again and again. That’s one aspect I wanted to have in his character.

Like Kratos from God of War or Master Chief from Halo, I also thought that the main character should be able to use any sort of weapon. Sunraku’s main weapon is his twin blades, but he can use basically anything, so I thought that would be a good asset for his character.

What was your first impression when you first met Fuji-sensei?

Katarina: I only met him for the first time after the serialization started. When I first met him, I was thinking, “Oh, these are the hands that are drawing those beautiful pictures.”

Fuji-sensei, were there any artists or particular works that inspired you to choose manga as a career?

Fuji: I would have to say Akira Toriyama and Dragon Ball. When I am drawing action scenes, his work is always at the back of my hand. Since he’s just too amazing, I can’t repeat what he’s done, but that’s my inspiration.

What were your favorite battles scenes to draw?

Fuji: The battle with Wethermon and Pencilgon. Up until then, it was more of Sunraku fighting solo, so drawing Sunraku and Pencilgon working together was fun.

What inspiration did you draw on to create Sunraku’s visual character design? And, I think we all want to know, what’s up with the bird head?

Fuji: The bird head, well, that’s what Katarina-sensei ordered. A character with a bird head. (everyone laughs)

But designing it was really hard. And as a shounen manga, the design needed a little bit of cuteness, you need to like him, so I thought about chocobo from Final Fantasy.

What’s interesting is that Sunraku is the only one who has a bird head in Shangri-La Frontier, so I can kind of distort or change the proportions a little bit, and you will still recognize it as Sunraku because he’s the only bird-headed character.

Katarina: The imagery of Sunraku having only the bird head, while the rest of his design is pretty naked, comes from the idea that when I play Monster Hunter series or Dark Souls series, the good players will only wear the headgear, without any other defense, and then they fight the boss. Only the good players can do that. So my imagery of Sunraku having just headgear and no other defense is my image of a good player.

As for why a bird, my option was either a horse or a bird. And if you think about it, a horse head is a little creepy and scary… so that’s why. (everyone laughs, applauds)

Katarina-sensei, what inspired you to show more video game worlds, like Nephilim Hollow, rather than just staying in the Shangri-La Frontier world for the entire story?

Katarina: If you’re a gamer, you can probably understand that you’re not just playing one game at a time. So if you’re playing Dark Souls and you get bored, you might step away and play another game, and then come back. Just like that, in Shangri-La Frontier, since Sunraku is a trash game lover, he might look forward to a new trash game, or revisit an old trash game that he enjoyed before.

When you’re not working on your manga or your novels, do both of you play any video games and is there one that you currently like?

Katarina: As I mentioned, Dark Souls and Elden Ring. In general, I like action games or what you call “hack and slash,” so those are the types of games I play.

Fuji: Since I became a mangaka, I don’t have a lot of time to play games, unfortunately. So I like games that are really quick to play, that you don’t have to play too long, like Vampire Survivors.

#Kodansha_ShangriLaFrontier Contest

Kodansha USA is holding a giveaway! Share your love for Shangri-La Frontier on social media for your chance to win the original artwork that was drawn during the “Kodansha Presents Shangri-La Frontier Creators” panel.

How to enter: Please follow the instructions given on this entry form.

Deadline: September 8, 2024 11:59 PM PT

For full details, please refer to Kodansha USA’s page: http://kodansha.us/anyc24

Note: This information is provided here for your convenience only. MyAnimeList is not involved in the giveaway in any capacity.

Free Shangri-La Frontier Digital Wallpapers

Grab yours at http://kodansha.us/anyc24

Panel Q&A was conducted in English and Japanese through an interpreter, and the responses have been edited for clarity.