TV-Series
Description
Rakurō Hizutome, known in-game as Sunraku, is the main protagonist and player character of Shangri-La Frontier. In real life he is a physically fit teenager with average social skills, but among gaming circles he has built a reputation under the nickname Trash Game Hunter for his habit of seeking out, playing, and fully mastering badly made games that most players would abandon. His long history with these glitchy, unfairly balanced titles has given him unusual patience, sharp instincts, and a talent for turning broken mechanics into advantages.
His background as a trash game hunter shapes his entry into Shangri-La Frontier. After clearing the notoriously massive and poorly designed game Faeria Chronicle Online, he falls into a kind of burnout, having conquered the ultimate challenge his specialty had to offer. At the suggestion of the owner of his regular game shop, RockRoll, he decides to change pace and buy Shangri-La Frontier, a polished and massively popular VR game. He enters as Sunraku, an avatar marked by a shoebill-shaped bird mask and minimal clothing. His experience with punishing games lets him ignore tutorials and dive straight into dangerous content that normal players avoid, and he quickly makes an impression through reckless feats and clever play.
Personality-wise, Sunraku is enthusiastic, bold, sharp-tongued, and friendly. He is playful and blunt in conversation, and he carries a strong personal code of fair play, preferring to beat challenges through effort and understanding rather than shortcuts or cruelty. He finds genuine joy in difficulty for its own sake and treats even a high-quality game with the caution and creativity of someone who expects the rules to be unfair. He is also persistent to a reckless degree, willing to throw himself into deadly situations as long as he still has any chance of succeeding. He is not especially interested in fashion, status items, or expensive gear, and he is largely oblivious to the romantic interest a close player has in him.
His motivations are centered on the thrill of the challenge and the love of uncovering hidden content. He is drawn to Shangri-La Frontier not by fame or reward but by the promise of unexplored mysteries, secret storylines, and opponents who push him to his limits. When a unique scenario opens up, he pursues it with single-minded curiosity. Recognition and a growing legend around his name are byproducts of his playstyle rather than the goal itself.
In the story, Sunraku acts as the central driving force. Early on, he earns the attention of Lycagon the Nightslayer, one of the game's seven most powerful monsters, and receives a curse known as Lycagon's Mark, which prevents him from equipping armor on his torso and legs. This forces his signature half-naked look and pushes him into an evasion-focused combat style built around dodging, parrying, and striking weak points. He becomes the first player to trigger the invitation to the hidden rabbit nation of Rabituza, gaining the companion rabbit Emul and access to a major secret questline. Alongside two other top players, he participates in the defeat of the unique monster Wethermon the Tombguard, an achievement that gives them exclusive rewards including an Inventoria, a pocket dimension holding futuristic weapons from the game's lost Age of Divinity. His actions repeatedly shake up the game's community and its progression, making him one of the most famous and talked-about players on the server.
His key relationships reflect his growth from a solo player into a cooperative one. Arthur Pencilgon, the scheming and ruthless clan leader of the group known as Wolfgang, is one of his earliest partners; their dynamic is full of teasing and mutual understanding despite her brutal methods. Oikatzo, a professional fighting game player, is another close friend and co-founder of their clan, and the two bond over their shared love of gaming. Emul, a talking Vorpal Bunny NPC, becomes his loyal in-game companion and guide to Rabituza. The player Psyger-0, a highly skilled swordswoman from a rival clan, respects his abilities deeply and has feelings for him in real life, though he does not notice. He also builds important connections with NPCs such as the craftsman Vysache and his daughter Bilac, and he holds rivalries and friendships with other top players, including the robot game specialist Rust and the pro fighting game champion Sylvia Goldberg, the latter of whom he faced while using the alias No Face.
Over the course of the story, Sunraku develops considerably. What begins as a burnout case seeking a fresh thrill becomes a dedicated explorer who learns to trust and rely on others while keeping his independent streak. His fighting identity also evolves. The forced reliance on dodging after his curse makes him a high-mobility fighter who treats every hit as potentially fatal, and he builds his character around agility, luck, and critical strikes. Later, after major battles including a rebuild of his avatar during a Behemoth raid, he shifts from a purely physical attacker into a more versatile skill-based combatant, and he becomes highly skilled at weaving curses, glitched items, and self-damaging equipment into effective strategies.
His notable abilities reflect his trash game background. He is a master of dual-wielding weapons and can handle an unusually wide range of weapon types, using no-look inputs and instinctive blind control that other players describe as superhuman. His playstyle is centered on evasion, parrying, and punishing enemy openings, with speed as his greatest asset; he holds the Maximum Speed title and can reach initial speeds around 150 kilometers per hour with his movement skills. He makes regular use of high-risk equipment such as the Levin Trigger, which massively boosts his speed while draining his health, and the Lapistella Star Cloak, which lets him reuse consumable scrolls as repeatable spells. His tactical dolls and other niche tools allow him to manipulate enemy behavior and trigger hidden mechanics. The Inventoria gives him access to a private dimensional space and advanced Age of Divinity weaponry, and he even uses an in-game transformation from the holy grail item to take on a female form when he needs a disguise or access to female-only equipment. Through all of this, his greatest strength is not raw power but his ability to understand, exploit, and adapt to whatever broken system he is dealing with.
His background as a trash game hunter shapes his entry into Shangri-La Frontier. After clearing the notoriously massive and poorly designed game Faeria Chronicle Online, he falls into a kind of burnout, having conquered the ultimate challenge his specialty had to offer. At the suggestion of the owner of his regular game shop, RockRoll, he decides to change pace and buy Shangri-La Frontier, a polished and massively popular VR game. He enters as Sunraku, an avatar marked by a shoebill-shaped bird mask and minimal clothing. His experience with punishing games lets him ignore tutorials and dive straight into dangerous content that normal players avoid, and he quickly makes an impression through reckless feats and clever play.
Personality-wise, Sunraku is enthusiastic, bold, sharp-tongued, and friendly. He is playful and blunt in conversation, and he carries a strong personal code of fair play, preferring to beat challenges through effort and understanding rather than shortcuts or cruelty. He finds genuine joy in difficulty for its own sake and treats even a high-quality game with the caution and creativity of someone who expects the rules to be unfair. He is also persistent to a reckless degree, willing to throw himself into deadly situations as long as he still has any chance of succeeding. He is not especially interested in fashion, status items, or expensive gear, and he is largely oblivious to the romantic interest a close player has in him.
His motivations are centered on the thrill of the challenge and the love of uncovering hidden content. He is drawn to Shangri-La Frontier not by fame or reward but by the promise of unexplored mysteries, secret storylines, and opponents who push him to his limits. When a unique scenario opens up, he pursues it with single-minded curiosity. Recognition and a growing legend around his name are byproducts of his playstyle rather than the goal itself.
In the story, Sunraku acts as the central driving force. Early on, he earns the attention of Lycagon the Nightslayer, one of the game's seven most powerful monsters, and receives a curse known as Lycagon's Mark, which prevents him from equipping armor on his torso and legs. This forces his signature half-naked look and pushes him into an evasion-focused combat style built around dodging, parrying, and striking weak points. He becomes the first player to trigger the invitation to the hidden rabbit nation of Rabituza, gaining the companion rabbit Emul and access to a major secret questline. Alongside two other top players, he participates in the defeat of the unique monster Wethermon the Tombguard, an achievement that gives them exclusive rewards including an Inventoria, a pocket dimension holding futuristic weapons from the game's lost Age of Divinity. His actions repeatedly shake up the game's community and its progression, making him one of the most famous and talked-about players on the server.
His key relationships reflect his growth from a solo player into a cooperative one. Arthur Pencilgon, the scheming and ruthless clan leader of the group known as Wolfgang, is one of his earliest partners; their dynamic is full of teasing and mutual understanding despite her brutal methods. Oikatzo, a professional fighting game player, is another close friend and co-founder of their clan, and the two bond over their shared love of gaming. Emul, a talking Vorpal Bunny NPC, becomes his loyal in-game companion and guide to Rabituza. The player Psyger-0, a highly skilled swordswoman from a rival clan, respects his abilities deeply and has feelings for him in real life, though he does not notice. He also builds important connections with NPCs such as the craftsman Vysache and his daughter Bilac, and he holds rivalries and friendships with other top players, including the robot game specialist Rust and the pro fighting game champion Sylvia Goldberg, the latter of whom he faced while using the alias No Face.
Over the course of the story, Sunraku develops considerably. What begins as a burnout case seeking a fresh thrill becomes a dedicated explorer who learns to trust and rely on others while keeping his independent streak. His fighting identity also evolves. The forced reliance on dodging after his curse makes him a high-mobility fighter who treats every hit as potentially fatal, and he builds his character around agility, luck, and critical strikes. Later, after major battles including a rebuild of his avatar during a Behemoth raid, he shifts from a purely physical attacker into a more versatile skill-based combatant, and he becomes highly skilled at weaving curses, glitched items, and self-damaging equipment into effective strategies.
His notable abilities reflect his trash game background. He is a master of dual-wielding weapons and can handle an unusually wide range of weapon types, using no-look inputs and instinctive blind control that other players describe as superhuman. His playstyle is centered on evasion, parrying, and punishing enemy openings, with speed as his greatest asset; he holds the Maximum Speed title and can reach initial speeds around 150 kilometers per hour with his movement skills. He makes regular use of high-risk equipment such as the Levin Trigger, which massively boosts his speed while draining his health, and the Lapistella Star Cloak, which lets him reuse consumable scrolls as repeatable spells. His tactical dolls and other niche tools allow him to manipulate enemy behavior and trigger hidden mechanics. The Inventoria gives him access to a private dimensional space and advanced Age of Divinity weaponry, and he even uses an in-game transformation from the holy grail item to take on a female form when he needs a disguise or access to female-only equipment. Through all of this, his greatest strength is not raw power but his ability to understand, exploit, and adapt to whatever broken system he is dealing with.