Title: No Game No Life
Aired: Apr 9, 2014 to Jun 25, 2014
(Fun Fact: The day when NGNL ended
was the 61st anniversary of the Korean War)
Content Advisory: R. “Censored” nudity.
Episodes: 12
Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Game,
Supernatural
Producers: Madhouse, Media Factory, Sentai Filmworks
(licensing company)
From the RThor
When I first
heard of No Game No Life and how
popular it is, the first thing that came to mind is “Sword Art Online Rip-off.” The title implies that the anime is
going to be about games and its popularity just makes it resemble SAO. But when I started watching this
anime, I realized that No Game No Life is nothing like Sword Art Online (ok, that’s a stretch).
Plot
We have two hikkikomori siblings, the older
brother Sora and the younger sister Shiro. Both of them are extremely talented
online gamers that are known as “[ ]”
(Blank). Their everyday lives include not many activities besides binge gaming
and minimal glucose consumption. However, Sora and Shiro’s lives change after
defeating a god named Teto in a game of chess. The siblings are warped into
Teto’s world, Disboard (nice pun for This Board). Teto informs Blank the seven
rules of Disboard.
1.
All murder, war, and robbery is forbidden in
this world
2.
All conflict in this world will be resolved
through games
3.
In games, each player will bet something that
they agree is of equal value
4.
As long as it doesn’t violate pledge three,
anything may be bet, and any game may be played
5.
The challenged party has the right to decide the
rules of the game
6.
Any bets made in accordance with the pledges
must be upheld
7.
Conflicts between groups will be conducted by
designated representatives with absolute authority
With that said Sora and Shiro plan to take advantage of the
rules of Disboard and conquer the new world.
 |
| Shiro (left), Sora (right) |
 |
| Teto |
Story
This anime is
about games, but that does not mean the anime is revolving around computer
games. The games our main characters play range from simple rock, paper, scissors
to complex virtual games.
I have
mentioned Sword Art Online and how No Game No Life isn’t like SAO. Unlike SAO, where the game players are trapped inside a digital world, and
struggle to escape, No Game No Life’s
main characters actually like living in their new home. So the story isn’t
about Sora and Shiro trying to get the hell out of Disboard, they are trying to
conquer the new world.
As mention
before, Disboard is a world where games play an essential role in pretty much
everything. Rule number 2, “All conflict in this world will be resolved through
games”, means that if you have a bone to pick with somebody, beat him/her in a
game. If you want to rule the world, defeat the world, in a game. That is what
Sora and Shiro are trying to do.
Unlike game
based anime like Yu-gi-oh!, the game
aspect of No Game No Life is fast
paced. You won’t have to deal game arcs that last multiple full length episodes
long. But that doesn’t mean the game parts of the show are shallow. In fact, No Game No Life has very, very, very
clever game scenes. You get to see probability, rhetoric, physics, chemistry,
psychology, statistics, strategy, and other various topics being integrated
into games. With those substances added into the crucible of games, you get a
result called, mind blown.
Although, I must say that there
are some inaccuracies within No Game No
Life, such as using incorrect science within the game (see my “The Science
of No Game No Life Explained” post
for more information). Speaking of inaccuracies, there are also inconsistencies
within the anime. To avoid spoilers, I won’t give details, but No Game No Life actually dropped a
couple of (minor) plot devices.
But don’t get
turned off by the inaccuracies and inconsistencies within No Game No Life,
because the inaccuracies are actually hard to notice and the inconsistencies
are most likely to be forgotten because they’re quite trivial. The cons will be
overshadowed by the outstanding witty game play you will see.
Characters
I can
describe the entire cast of No Game No Game in one phrase, “they are meant to
make Sora look good.” That’s it, really.
Let’s start
with Sora. Sora is an OP character or a Gary-Sue. He may be a NEET, but he
happens to be really smart and is the dominant player of Blank. Yes, Shiro is
actually a genius and plays a significant role within the duo, but Sora is the
one that makes most of the strategies and final decisions. Not to mention that
most of the spotlight goes to Sora and he does the most monologue.
 |
| You can see his "OPness" in his eyes |
Shiro is
indeed a genius. She can beat a supercomputer at a game of chess, use physic
equations in practice (like calculating the movement of bullets), and pretty
much anything that a human can’t do. So wouldn’t that make Shiro the real OP
character or a Mary-Sue? Yes…sort of… Despite Shiro being a real b@d@$$, she
gets reduced down to nothing more than support for Sora. For example, Shiro
couldn’t defeat a god at chess by herself, because she lacked insight.
No Game No Life portrays Shiro’s intelligence as a tool for Sora. An analogy
would be a hero and a sword. Sora is the hero and Shiro is the sword. Yes, the
two need each other, but the hero gets all of the glory, NOT the sword. You
hear “all hail King Arthur!” NOT “all hail the Excalibur!”
 |
| Awwww.... |
Now, we have
Steph, the most “abused” character in this anime. When I mean “abused”, it is
not like Steph was beaten up by her father or anything like that. Steph is the
comic relief, the main source of fan service, the character device, and so on.
To explain why Steph is “abused”, Steph is depicted as an idiot. She loses
pretty much every single game she plays. As a result of losing, she ends up
pleasing the audience with fan service (like losing articles of clothing after
losing a game). Steph’s misfortunes can be both viewed as humorous and
outrageous. But it also does so much more than give a few laughs or roars. The
author of No Game No Life uses
Steph’s stupidity for the audience to understand what is going on. Sora is very
smart and very cocky. He always pulls off a mind-blowing feat, but leaves the
audience oblivious of the mechanics of his performance, because we, the
audience don’t receive any explanation of what really happened. That is where
our lovely red head Steph comes in. Since Steph is an “idiot”, she doesn’t
understand the miracle Sora has done. So she says “Sora that was awesome! But
how did you do that? I don’t understand anything because I have an IQ of a potato.”
Then Sora sighs and pities Steph of her “idiocy” and he explains his stunt in a
“user friendly” fashion. To be honest, this gives me the impression that the
author is making fun of the audience.
 |
| Shiro treating Steph like a dog |
There are
more characters, but I will omit them from this review because I would prefer
those who haven’t watched No Game No Life
to encounter the wonderful peoples/elves/angels/animal eared people/etc that No Game No Life has to offer. Although all
of those characters serve to glorify the “greatness” of Sora, which means that
they are pretty much tools, you can still love them for many reasons: looks,
figure, personality, behavior, insight, development, and so on. But I have to
stress this key point…EVERYBODY and EVERYTHING in No Game No Life serves a common purpose, embellish the ”epicness”
of Sora, because he is the OP main character.
P.S. Most of the characters are hot girls/hot women. Yeah,
you get what I am trying to say.
Artwork
The artwork
of No Game No Life is very…unique… Everything
is very bright unlike the darker color tone of most anime we are familiar with.
This is optimal for the overall atmosphere of the anime (both literally and
figuratively). No Game No Life may
have a few tense moments (if any), but it’s overall light hearted and radiates fun. Don’t forget that Disboard is a
“fantasy” world we romanticize about, so the bright colors of the anime
complements its setting.
 |
| Disboard |
Final Verdict
Now, this is
something I have to say. I think that the author of No Game No Life made Sora an OP/Gary-Sue character surrounded by
hot girls of various archetypes, to please his desire to be a badass that he
can never be in real life. Well, everybody has a fantasy, so I am not judging. But
I just wanted to bring that up, because this anime is pretty much Sora-centric.
Of course I still love this anime. Oh yeah, props to the author for thinking of
brilliant ideas for the games.
Pros
|
- Mind
blowing game plays that integrate many topics and mediums
- Unique
bright and colorful artwork that complements setting
- A
large crew of attractive female characters
- “Complicated
concepts” are explained to viewer when needed
|
Cons
|
- OP/Gary-Sue
protagonist that often emits arrogance
- Inaccuracies
and inconsistences present (but are not very noticeable)
- Viewer
may feel stupid after seeing how “smart” Sora is and needs an
explanation to understand Sora.
|
Overall Score- 9/10
Recommendations –
Outbreak Company: Both
take place in a fantasy world where the protagonist is surrounded by attractive
females of various archetypes. Outbreak
Company has a protagonist who uses his knowledge in the Otaku culture to
influence the new world and No Game No
Life has a main character that endeavors to conquer his new world.
Sword Art Online:
Both have an OP/Gary-Sue protagonist who is surrounded by loads of hot girls. The
two anime are opposite in terms of plot. SAO
is about escaping a world and NGNL is
about conquering a world with no intentions of leaving.
No comments:
Post a Comment