Shangri-La Frontier Season 3 has picked the first fighters for its big tournament arc. The official anime site and X account revealed a new exhibition match visual earlier this week (October 15th) for the opening bout of Galaxia Heroes: Chaos, the virtual reality fighting game at the center of the new season. The first match puts Nu2meg, the gamer tag of Japanese pro Megumi Natsume, up against Lucas Garcia of the American team Star Rain. Season 3 premieres in January (January 10th).
The visual is designed to look like a fighting game screen right before a round begins. Lucas is on the left as Dr. Sandalphone, a grinning hero in a lab coat and a Hawaiian shirt who holds up a flip phone, while Nu2meg is on the right as Yggdraia, a wild plant-themed character covered in vines and leaves. A character select grid sits between them, with the banner reading Nitro Squad vs Star Rain. Check it out below:
A Pre-Match Interview Sets The Stage
The staff also released a short in-universe pre-match interview video that plays like a real esports broadcast. Nu2meg and Lucas each sit down in front of a concrete wall and answer the same three questions about how they are feeling, what they think of their opponent, and how they expect the match to play out. Here is the full interview:
Lucas is voiced by Daiki Hamano. The official character profile describes him as a cerebral player who gets stronger by studying his opponents, and as someone Pencilgon calls a womanizer because of how quickly he picks up girls wherever he goes. Hamano shared a comment along with the reveal. "Lucas is a flirty, good-looking young American. There were a lot of comedic scenes that made him really fun to play, and I was careful not to make him too serious," he said. He added that Lucas shows a different side once he becomes Dr. Sandalphone, and that he tried to make the hero cool, someone who "corners the villain with dandy style while throwing in witty quips."
Natsume is voiced by Yumi Uchiyama. She is a top-ranked Japanese fighting game pro on Nitro Squad, the same team as Kei Uomi, who players know as OiKatzo. She was skeptical of the outsiders Kei brought onto the team at first, but she came around after facing them herself, and she has feelings for Kei.
Sunraku Takes A Break From Shangri-La Frontier
Season 3 moves the story out of the game Shangri-La Frontier for a while. After teaming up with fellow crap game hunters Arthur Pencilgon and OiKatzo to take down Wethermon the Tombguard, one of the Seven Colossi, Sunraku has become known to both players and the staff at Utopia, the company behind the game. Now Kei is pulling him into the Global Game Competition as a ringer. Sunraku and Pencilgon will fight alongside Nitro Squad in Galaxia Heroes: Chaos, a new VR fighting game built on the Shangri-La Frontier engine, against Star Rain, the strongest pro team in the United States.
Star Rain also has Sylvia Goldberg, played by Minami Takahashi. She is the best player in America, and Kei has lost every match he has ever played against her except for a single draw.
Staff And Broadcast Details
C2C is animating Season 3 once again. Toshiyuki Kubooka, who directed the first two seasons, is now chief director, with Hiro Oki taking over as director. Kazuyuki Fudeyasu returns for series composition and scripts, and Ayumi Kurashima is back on character design and chief animation direction. The music comes from Ryuichi Takada, Keiichi Hirokawa, and Kuniyuki Takahashi of MONACA, the studio known for the NieR soundtracks. Yuma Uchida leads the cast as Sunraku, with Azumi Waki as Psyger-0, Yoko Hikasa as Pencilgon, and Makoto Koichi as OiKatzo.
The new season airs on MBS and TBS across 28 stations in Japan in the Sunday 5 p.m. "Nichi-5" slot, and it will run for two consecutive cours. The Season 3 key visual came out last month (September 16th) with the tagline "Chaos explodes." Crunchyroll, which streams the first two seasons, will also stream Season 3.
From Web Novel To Anime And Games
Shangri-La Frontier started as a web novel by Katarina on Shosetsuka ni Naro before Ryosuke Fuji began drawing the manga adaptation in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine in 2020. The first season of the anime premiered in October 2023, and the second followed in October 2024, both in the same Sunday evening slot.
The series is also getting its first video game. Netmarble is developing Shangri-La Frontier ~Nanatsu no Saikyoshu~, a free-to-play switch battle RPG for iOS, Android, and PC that is built around taking on the Seven Colossi. It is set to release this year, and fans got to play it for the first time at Tokyo Game Show 2026 last month.
Are you more excited to see Sunraku cut loose in Galaxia Heroes: Chaos, or would you rather Season 3 had stayed inside Shangri-La Frontier?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.