Rakuro has cleared the oversized "Faeria Chronicle Online" trash game and is suffering a sort of burnout syndrome.

The author Katarina [ja] read The Irregular at Magic High School on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website while living overseas.

[18] For the series' title, Katarina stated that he decided to include the word "frontier", which evokes the pioneers, but hesitated about the rest.

To decide, Katarina looked up their respective origins on Wikipedia, where he learned that "Shangri-La" was taken from a novel by James Hilton, and referred to a lamasery—a Buddhist monastery where all the world's wisdom was concentrated.

He stated that in the world of his series, there once existed a glorious scientific civilization, and players can rediscover its wisdom in this vast universe, and that is why he chose "Shangri-La" for the title.

[20] He stated that he does not always remember the details regarding storytelling, characters, and events, so he commented that when he has memory lapses, he consults a Wikipedia-like website created by fans dedicated to the series.

[21] Katarina also stated that the series is inspired by video games such as Final Fantasy XI, Monster Hunter, Dark Souls, and Xenoblade Chronicles.

[22] Katarina commented that the interactions between Sunraku, Arthur, and Oikatzo were inspired by Hollywood movies and the banter from the characters, explaining that, instead of saying hello to each other, they would say something like "What's wrong with your face?

", noting, however, that this is based on friendship, and that the characters know each other's boundaries and know how to hit the other back, either with their words or their fists physically, expressing that this is the kind of relationship he wanted the three of them to have.

[18] For the world design in the manga adaptation, Fuji commented that, due to the detailed nature of the novel, he makes drafts based on what Katarina originally wrote, Fuji then sends them to him, and Katarina gives feedback and supervises things from there—including storyboards, character designs, and the look of the overall setting.

[1] For the action scenes in the manga, Fuji commented that he tries to make his drawings easy to understand, using techniques like inserting a view from afar to help the reader understand the action, mentioning that he was inspired by Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, which features a similar technique to make battle scenes easier to read.

[21] Fuji also stated that the video game Horizon Zero Dawn influenced the series' creatures and world designs.

Katarina noted that, in the original novel, Sunraku wears sandals, but given that the manga is much more visual, they decided to make him barefoot.

[22] Fuji commented that he had fun making Sunraku's character design, and the wide range of expressions he was able to give him despite having a bird head.

[20] Fuji noted that, at the beginning of the story, Sunraku is alone and talks to himself, which resulted in too much text in the original novel, so he had to adjust this aspect in the manga.

Later on, Sunraku makes friends, which leads to real conversations; Fuji considered that through these, as the story goes into more detail about the specifics of the game, the manga was easier to convey.

[25] A promotional video that combines animated footage and panels from the manga, narrated by Azumi Waki and featuring Yuma Uchida as Sunraku, was posted on July 7, 2021, to commemorate the first anniversary of the manga's announcement;[26] Uchida would later voice Sunraku in the anime television series adaptation.

[3] The series is directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka, with Hiroki Ikeshita serving as assistant director, Kazuyuki Fudeyasu supervising and writing the series' scripts, Ayumi Kurashima designing the characters, and Monaca composers Ryūichi Takada, Kuniyuki Takahashi, and Keiichi Hirokawa composing the music.

[3][36] The first 25-episode season aired from October 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024,[7][37] on the Nichi-5 [ja] programming block on all JNN affiliates, including MBS and TBS.