Shangri-La Frontier
I just got done watching the first 2 series of Shangri-La Frontier!
It's...weird, it's a "the action takes place in a VR game" type anime, but with zero actual stakes, the main cast aren't trapped there or anything, there's no SAO stuff going on, it really is just a game.
Don't get me wrong, the game is made out to be really cool and the most realistic VR game ever made and we get to meet the main dev (a wonderfully scrungly nerd woman who squats in the highest security office in the word occasionally having fights with the executives of the company she founded) and hear about how the main cast are doing unexpectedly well etc, but it's still just a normal game they made and the cast are playing for fun.
Plus the show randomly takes multiple episodes off for the cast to play other games that don't matter other than to maybe introduce new characters who will also come play the cool VR MMO.
Also it sets up interesting things like one guy in the main character's part specifically playing female characters, has people comment on it, they even kinda have it used to explain it to in game NPCs like trans people, literally as "Looks like a woman but has the soul of a man"....but then does nothing with it, it's literally never brought up again.
