No Game No Life Episode 3 Discussion

idungoof said:

You are absolutely getting carried away in your own entertainment to understand what people who are commenting on the reverse of this are really saying. We aren't so stupid as to think that it's a normal game of chess and blah blah blah. That isn't the point. The point is that when he commanded the troops he did it in an absolutely comedic and ridiculous way. I don't think real troops would respond positively to the crap that was spilling out of his mouth, but because that's the reaction that was required from them they ended up reacting positively. When I was watching I EXPECTED him to make a speech. I didn't, however, expect it to be completely and utterly ridiculous and written purely for comedic value. Understand?

gamer5 said:
Sora, to turn the tide of battle in his favor he held a speech - the first sentence after the "Attention all forces!" in which he promises each of his men a woman of their choosing was an attention gatherer and at the same time a throw off - his opponent was surprised. Then he used the real things, the things that actually make people fight - money, promise of never going to war again and an easy life - to make his figures have high morale and willingness to listen to him. Then he used the natural desire to protect weak living things using Shiro, a child, - tell me how much people, excluding pathological cases, will not help a crying child? - with a spice of giving them guilt for making her cry, to mobilize them into an all out assault against his opponent.

idungoof said:

You are absolutely getting carried away in your own entertainment to understand what people who are commenting on the reverse of this are really saying. We aren't so stupid as to think that it's a normal game of chess and blah blah blah. That isn't the point. The point is that when he commanded the troops he did it in an absolutely comedic and ridiculous way. I don't think real troops would respond positively to the crap that was spilling out of his mouth, but because that's the reaction that was required from them they ended up reacting positively. When I was watching I EXPECTED him to make a speech. I didn't, however, expect it to be completely and utterly ridiculous and written purely for comedic value. Understand?

idungoof said:

You are absolutely getting carried away in your own entertainment to understand what people who are commenting on the reverse of this are really saying. We aren't so stupid as to think that it's a normal game of chess and blah blah blah. That isn't the point. The point is that when he commanded the troops he did it in an absolutely comedic and ridiculous way. I don't think real troops would respond positively to the crap that was spilling out of his mouth, but because that's the reaction that was required from them they ended up reacting positively. When I was watching I EXPECTED him to make a speech. I didn't, however, expect it to be completely and utterly ridiculous and written purely for comedic value. Understand?

mdragonminh said:
@idungoof: Also as gamer5 has said, Sora really understand people heart and have a godlike speechcraft. And you said that: "real troops would not respond positively to the crap that was spilling out of his mouth", "it is completely and utterly ridiculous and written purely for comedic value". I don't even understand how you think. Yes he did said somethink SEEM to be stupid like "you can bang any women you like", but THIS IS MEDIAVAL GUYS. It's just a simple tactics to grab soidiers attention. Next he promise about supporting their live, about money and tax and stuff. He rally their morale by remind them of their family, their lover at home which is a CLIMAX in ANY speech before the battle. He said "LOOK AS SHIRO, LOOK AT YOUR LEADER. DONT YOU SEE HOW SHE HAVE CRIED WHEN YOU ABANDON HER? DONT YOU SEE THAT SHE WAS WILLING TO HAVE HER HEART BROKEN TO COMMAND YOU TO SACRIFICE? YOU FIGHT FOR YOUR OWN JUSTICE BUT YOU LET A PITIFUL CHILD CRYING?" If you still think his speech is ridiculous then

DO YOU EVEN CALL URSELF A MAN???

Anon1409 said:
What the fuck where you expecting from an anime tagged comedy?

Takuan_Soho said:


As the show said it wasn't really chess, it was a battle arranged to look like chess.

The fun thing about this episode is that while people talk about the tactics of the Spartans or Alexander, it wasn't their tactics so much that won their battles, it was either their discipline (Sparta/Alexander) or their passion (Rome). So Sora was quite right in understanding that once the enemy Girl gave the pieces "will", he had to inspire them to fight, because all she was doing was using force. And just like what helped Napoleon will many of his battles, the French soldiers were fighting for their home land, the other countries were fighting for pay (this changed after Napoleon dominated their defeated countries and they formed national armies to fight).

Now of course the "cute" angle was overplayed for comedy value (and well played), and Sora's list of reasons to fight weren't exactly what motivates people, again for the modern age and in a Japan that has just seen their consumption tax doubled, it does make a relatively good bit of history and a fun story.

And the queen deploying chivalry to convert the knight was a nice touch.

Other thoughts:
Wonder what their favorite 3 quotes are.
Wonder why the JoJo author is letting them do this, generally they only do this with friends.

SolviteSekai said:


Lol at Roman's winning battles using practice.

They won using the worlds first professional military. They won using Phalanx walls. They won using the worlds most advanced military technology.

They didnt win using fucking passion.

mdragonminh said:
@idungoof: The "cuteness" part has been explained in the novel so i won't talk much about it, but I think the part when Sora jump out to persuade the enemy queen is BETTER in this way. Yep this scene is just pure comedy and you can find it more convincing in the novel version. But this is an anime, you can't ask them to explain every detail. It's suppose to be relaxing, make people feel comfortable and enjoy watch it, which they have success. It don't have any big impact on the storyline so don't think too much, just understand that Sora use his speechcraft to win over the Queen heart and persuade her to join his army.
I don't agree when you say "the comedic route test the viewers willing suspension of disbelief" as I and many of people here enjoy that "route". If you want to find a SERIOUSLY mind game that have NO comedy then sorry, this is not your type.

idungoof said:
Even the bit about cuteness? That moment could have gone 2 ways, he could make an impassioned speech that is still serious but far more meaningful, or he can take the comedic route and test the viewers willing suspension of disbelief. It went the comedic route, that's all I'm saying

idungoof said:

If I cared that it had comedy I wouldn't have reached episode 3. I thought that was fairly obvious. As I explained in my first post this anime gave me the impression that comedic plays wouldn't become an integral part of the outcome of the games themselves. I'm now fully aware that this is not the case and I find that somewhat disappointing as I had some hopes for NGNL. I'll probably watch it through because it's still better than a lot of the other crap that I'm sort of watching but I can't help but feel that a chance to make something great has been missed.

kuuurt said:
AOTS
LOLI OF THE YEAR
AOTY

I'm really liking this series so far.

idungoof said:
Even the bit about cuteness? That moment could have gone 2 ways, he could make an impassioned speech that is still serious but far more meaningful, or he can take the comedic route and test the viewers willing suspension of disbelief. It went the comedic route, that's all I'm saying, and this was against my general expectations for the anime. Cool your jets there, hotshot. Also the part where he jumped onto the board to stop the queen and then patted himself on the back for being better at romance sims was a pretty serious test of my endurance as well.

Hopefully you are aware that comedy exists on a multitude of levels and a comedy tag does not necessarily mean that "we will take a situation where we could have serious outcomes, actions and consequences and instead inject completely blatant and ridiculous humour into these moments at every opportunity for cheap entertainment value". If you are aware of that you should automatically understand how stupid your comment is. If not, then ok, things should only be tagged comedy if they completely ignore any other possibility at every possible turning point and just be blatantly stupid and completely and utterly ridiculous. Because that's what comedy means. Right?

gamer5 said:
Takuan_Soho that goes the same for you - don't think that just because someone didn't like the way that NGNL went at that point is enough to call someone narrowminded. It would be like calling me narrowminded for not wanting to even smell near yaoi.

ichii_1 said:

This is a psychological battle if can't understand it it's your problem.
The pieces had a conscious so they're influenced by everything you say and do, Shiro was heartless so they didn't follow her but Sora was better than Zell in leadership and heart so the other side defected, remember this isn't a chess game.

Takuan_Soho said:


The premise of this show was established the first episode, we are at the third episode. Also, if he had said "I didn't find it funny", that would have been fine, tastes differ.

There is nothing wrong with not liking something. If you don't like Yaoi, then don't watch Yaoi. Nothing wrong or narrow minded about that. Or if the show didn't suggest Yaoi and dropped it in unannounced, then nothing wrong with saying, "this isn't my taste, I'm leaving." That isn't being narrow-minded either.

But this show was listed as a comedy from the beginning, it established the this world is absurd (in a good way) in the first episode, so to still be complaining after 3 episodes that it used comedy instead of "seriousness" does express a certain narrow minded attitude. He is basically demanding that this show be what HE wants and is complaining ad nauseum about it not being what he wanted. That is the quintessential essence of being narrow-minded.

Boombawks said:
It was good, but I found the chess match rather cheesy.. got silly.
And after 3 episodes, I am actually having sort of an sore eye for the colors in this series....Kinda looks like someone threw a colorful panting in water for a wash.

elfos said:
Funny to see the reactions when you say something bad about the show. Let's be clear here:
- if you take the show as a mindgame show, then it's bad
- if you take the show as a comedy, it's extremely cliché and not funny. I haven't seen that many comedy shows, but all of them were way better than this. So it's not use giving the "it's supposed to be a comedy" argument. Even as one, this episode was still terrible.