Making it through a gang of lethal player-killers, Sunraku prepares for a ten-battle gauntlet as part of the "Invitation from Lagonia" unique quest. Meanwhile, his friend (and fellow fan of awful games) Pencilgon approaches him with an offer: Help her defeat one of the Seven Colossi, a feat never achieved by anyone else in Shangri-La Frontier's thirty-million-strong player base! Now this band on the far outskirts of gaming fandom is about to carve their name into legend in the greatest RPG ever made!
As he tackles the "god-tier" game Shangri-La Frontier, Sunraku is thoroughly trashed by the powerful boss Lycaon. Even worse, now he's cursed and can't equip anything on his body or legs—but with Ellym, the vorpal bunny he recruited as part of a rare side quest, he's now storming his way through the game! He's doing so well, in fact, that his exploits are attracting the attention of certain very powerful players...but with the help of some old friends, Sunraku may just manage to live another day!
As Sunraku and Cazzo grind levels like crazy to prepare for taking on in-game "Colossus" Wezaemon the Tombguard, Pencilgon introduces them to Setsuna. She tells them about her and Wezaemon's regrets, and the vestiges of the game's age of Divinity...and after promising to help her, the party sets off to take down the boss! Can they be the first to defeat one of the Seven Colossi and achieve a feat nobody in Shangri-La Online's accomplished before?!
In 2001 the Chinese government announced that the precise location of Shangrila�a place that previously had existed only in fiction�had been identified in Zhongdian County, Yunnan. Since then, Sino-Tibetan borderlands in Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, and the Tibet Autonomous Region have been the sites of numerous state projects of tourism development and nature conservation, which have in turn attracted throngs of backpackers, environmentalists, and entrepreneurs who seek to experience, protect, and profit from the region�s landscapes. Mapping Shangrila advances a view of landscapes as media of governance, representation, and resistance, examining how they are reshaping cultural economies, political ecologies of resource use, subjectivities, and interethnic relations. Chapters illuminate topics such as the role of Han and Tibetan literary representations of border landscapes in the formation of ethnic identities; the remaking of Chinese national geographic imaginaries through tourism in the Yading Nature Reserve; the role of The Nature Conservancy and other transnational environmental organizations in struggles over culture and environmental governance; the way in which matsutake mushroom and caterpillar fungus commodity chains are reshaping montane landscapes; and contestations over the changing roles of mountain deities and their mediums as both interact with increasingly intensive nature conservation and state-sponsored capitalism.
The battle against Wezaemon the Tombguard reaches its climax! As Sunraku taps all his equipment and breaks out everything he can, Wezaemon enters his third form, one that breaks him down even as it unleashes all of his powers as a Colossus! "As long as you cannot surpass my ultimate form, this body shall never perish..." The undefeated hero is about to give this party of explorers their toughest trial yet, as the myth ends and the legend begins!
Almost all of the Himalayas had been mapped by the time the Great Game - in which the British and Russian empires fought for control of Central and Southern Asia - reached its zenith in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Only Tibet remained unknown and unexplored, zealously guarded and closed off to everyone. Britain sent a number of spies into this forbidden land, disguised as pilgrims and wanderers, outfitted with secret survey equipment and tasked with collecting topographical knowledge, and information about the culture and customs of Tibet. Among them was Kinthup, a tailor who went as a monk's companion to confirm that the Tsangpo and the Brahmaputra were the same river. Sarat Chandra Das, a schoolmaster, was also sent on a clandestine mission, and came back with extensive data and a trove of ancient manuscripts and documents. Bells of Shangri-La brings to vivid life the journeys and adventures of Kinthup, Sarat Chandra Das and others, including Eric Bailey, an officer who was part of the British invasion of Tibet in 1903. Weaving biography with history, and the memories of his own treks through the region, Parimal Bhattacharya writes in the great tradition of Peter Hopkirk and Peter Matthiessen to create a sparkling, unprecedented work of non-fiction.
'" Onodera Mamoru is just your average, video-game-loving high school kid...that is, until he''s suddenly transported into a parallel dimension filled with magic and adventure, where monster girls and mayhem await! "'
Rakuro (aka Sunraku) and his gang are ready to tackle the Global Game Convention! They're striving to beat America's best esports team as they challenge them in a hot new fighting game-but they also need to stall for as much time as possible on the way! Megumi Natsume is going first in this team-based match, followed by Towa Amane (aka Pencilgon), a girl with a knack for dominating the games she joins. And as both teams shortly find out, giving her any sort of freedom in a game world is a very bad idea indeed…
Lupin III: Greatest Heists is a collection of twelve classic stories from throughout Lupin’s history. Taken from Monkey Punch’s Lupin III and New Lupin III, these stories have been fully retranslated and are collected in one volume for the first time. Monkey Punch’s immortal creations are among the most beloved characters of all time, from master thief Lupin III to his trusted sidekicks and tenacious rivals. Lupin III is also an icon of animation, starring in the stunning 2019 CG animated film Lupin III: The First, and Hayao Miyazaki’s feature film directorial debut, The Castle of Cagliostro. This special collection of Monkey Punch’s classic manga stories was originally published in Japan as a tribute to his passing in 2019.
