While not as bombastic as ep1, the ep2 did a good job of being the "mechanic explanatory" episode. Showcasing some of the underlying mechanics and pointing us at few more things to look forward too. All in all a decent episode.

As for deeper dive? Well, we start off with the classic, that is high level gear attracting all the newbies around and making them all too timid to even try approaching you lol. Honestly, a scene as old as MMO's themselves.

Funnily enough this scene also works great to showcase the massive difference that attention to background characters can make. Episode 1 of S2 of goblin slayer wanted to make me puke looking at it's background characters, but here? It's all quality stuff. The scene also works as funny way of recreating the whole "they missed each other" trope from romance genre, making it double funny.

Sorry lass, your boy have no time to waste around low level towns. He's on the grind, babe.

Then the next scene is a small boss fight, which while not as hype as the previous fights, does wonders for explaining not only our hero's playstyle but also showcasing just how amazing the game systems are in Shangri-la Frontier. Gone are the days of SAO where you scream a skill name and it's all done. Here instead you actually have to think a little bit and try to work out your opponents skillset. Making it pretty obvious that it's more Souls inspired rather than just typical MMO affair that people could expect from it. And with it also comes some much needed boss humbling which leads us to another scene.

This time playing with the trope of introducing your girlfriend to the game you love, and being that big bro who knows everything about the game.

A perfect scene to use our hero to ruin the day of this random player. After all it just begs for it! Imagine a screaming and wildly running in your direction half naked man with bird mask. The whole scene just begged for sunraku to casually ruin it. Instead what we got was some wholesome newbie and oldtimer interaction that always make me smile when I see it happen in games. Not to mention, allowing the big bro to score some brownie points with his soon to be GF. Or let us hope so lol.
Anyway, with it we also got introduced to the PK concept which will most likely play a role in the upcoming episodes.

Also, did they mix in some electro swing into the OST. Cuz the bed dive scene sure sounded like it had OST inspired with some electroswing.

And obviously more game like SFX:

Damn I can't remember now from what game it is, but I'm sure I heard it in some game before when reaching checkpoints or something lol.

Then we are off to the city. And what better way to learn about societal customs than being outright called a meme.

And honestly, this is where one should start paying some attention.

It might seem like nothing, offering only bog standard equipment in shop unless you made a custom made order, but it points us in certain direction of how this whole "game" is setup. In the meanwhile we also get another classic, killing random critters cuz you are annoyed, bored or just power tripping on random critters lol. Ngl, I'm guilty of doing this myself lol.

And while I said that the boss encounter might have lacked the previous ep's impact the night encounter surely didn't lack it. And it seems like sunraku thinks the same. After all there's nothing better than a good challenging encounter to push your gaming skills to the max.

Though it seems like the real deal couldn't wait before the fight with chaff is over.

I guess the real story start's here. And believe me, it only get's better.

Next episode: Sunraku becomes a souls bro.

Also, people responsible for anime spent way too much time on internet: