No Game No Life

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: NGNL

Japanese: ノーゲーム・ノーライフ

More titles

Information

Type: Light Novel

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: Unknown

Status: Publishing

Published: Apr 25, 2012 to ?

Genres: Comedy, Fantasy, Ecchi

Themes: Isekai, Strategy Game

Serialization: None

Authors: Kamiya, Yuu (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.49¹ (scored by 13,930 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #128²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #231

Members: 54,416

Favorites: 2,279

External Links

Wikipedia

8.49

Ranked #128Popularity #231Members 54,416

Light NovelKamiya, Yuu (Story & Art)

Add to List

Volumes: /?

Chapters: /?

* Your list is public by default.

Available on Manga Store
No Game No Life (light novel)
Volume 1
$7.99

Edit
Synopsis

The internet is home to countless urban legends, but the most prominent is the mysterious gamer known only as "Blank." Behind breaking records in hundreds of games, Blank is just two shut-in NEET siblings: the manipulative 18-year-old Sora and the 11-year-old detached genius, Shiro. Together, they are an unbeatable duo with zero losses to their name.

One day, the siblings receive an anonymous email challenging them to a chess game. Upon securing a flawless win, they are immediately summoned into a colorful alternate world. A playful boy named Tet, who introduces himself as the "One True God," tells them that the world of Disboard has a unique system for resolving disputes—any and all disagreements are resolved through simple games. Furthermore, of the 16 races inhabiting the realm, humanity is ranked the lowest and least powerful, barely scraping by with a kingdom consisting of a single city.

In a world that has yet to see war or bloodshed in centuries, Sora and Shiro quickly make a name for themselves as they set their eyes on an ambitious goal: to defeat Tet with their gaming wits and conquer this new world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit
Background

No Game No Life has been published in English by Yen Press under the Yen On imprint since April 21, 2015, in Brazilian Portuguese by New Pop since January 2015, in Polish by Waneko since July 25, 2016, and in Russian as Без игры жизни нет by XL Media since 2017.

Edit
Related Manga

Alternative version:	No Game No Life
Spin-off:	No Game No Life, desu!
Side story:	No Game No Life: Practical War Game
Adaptation:	No Game No Life: Zero, No Game No Life

More characters
Characters

Sora

Main

Shiro

Main

Dola, Stephanie

Main

Jibril

Supporting

Dola, Schwi

Supporting

Dola, Riku

Supporting

Tet

Supporting

Hatsuse, Izuna

Supporting

Miko

Supporting

Nirvalen, Fiel

Supporting

More reviewsReviews

Jul 4, 2014

25 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

HaXXspetten (All reviews)

336 people found this review helpful

Since there is basically nothing on it, I thought I'd make the effort to say a few words about the No Game No Life original light novels for once, as I am sure there are a lot of people out there asking themselves “If I liked the anime, is it worth picking up the LNs as well?”.

This will be a bit of a short special “review”, as for once given the circumstances I'm basically expecting that anyone interested in reading this will already have seen the anime, and in case you haven't and just want to get the basic gist of it, I'd advice you to go read literally any review of the anime first and then come back here (although there will still be no spoilers)... or even better just go watch the damn thing.

Anyways I will here mainly talk about some key facts that you might be interested in knowing, and then also what differs between the novels and the anime.

- “How much content is there available past the end of anime?”
The anime covers up to the end of volume 3 of the LNs, and there are currently 6 volumes released in Japan. Every volume is released at roughly 5 month intervals, and at the moment 4 of them are translated, the latest one finished on June 29th 2014. The translation is going pretty fast however and will surely catch up to the Japanese releases before long.

- “Is it worth reading the whole thing from the beginning or just pick it up at volume 4 if I just want to know what happens past the end of the anime?”
I think as a general rule, as long as you have the time and willpower it is always better to read the whole thing from scratch (I did at least). However what the anime covers follows the original first three volumes very closely so you could skip them if you really wanted to. There are some minigames and similar that were skipped in the anime though, so you'd still miss out on some “new” stuff that definitely was worth reading.

- “Will already having seen the anime reduce my enjoyment value for the LNs if I read the whole thing from the start?”
I'd say yes and no. Of course knowing the outcome of all the major plot points up until a certain point as well as having heard most of the jokes before will hamper the experience the “second” time around. On the other hand I think having seen the anime already will make everything a lot easier to picture in your head, as knowing how everything looks and how everyone's voices sound will make everything feel a lot better in your head when reading, and definitely enhance the humorous parts if anything.

- “Does it get better or worse in the volumes taking place after the anime?”
I can't really answer that, there is only one volume translated past the anime's ending as of the time of writing this (which would be roughly 4 episodes with the anime's pacing).

- “What about the differences then? Does the novels have the same theme and atmosphere?”
Mostly yes, but not entirely I have to say. At least in my mind, I found the LNs to be significantly more ecchi a lot of the time, and the parts that were cut out from the first three volumes for the anime mostly consisted of the most perverted scenes of the story. Not that they're any worse in terms of quality, but it's something to take note of at least.

- “Are the games really as good in a text-based format?”
I think normally anyone would reckon that it'd be easier to explain clever and complicated flows of events in large amounts of text compared to what it would be animated, but in this case I'm actually going to say no. I think the more forceful approach and over-the-top animation techniques utilized in the anime were actually easier to understand than the more “normal” (..sort of) feeling the novels have. Mostly as a result I don't think the LNs feel quite as epic in comparison.

- “Overall then, which is better of the novels and the anime?”
Obviously this is not really a fair question as the anime covers only a portion of the story, but just comparing the content it covered from the source material then I would still have to say that the anime is probably better in the end. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy reading this immensely but it doesn't get me quite as excited as I got when watching the anime. Now I'm a huge fan of the franchise and thus even so I'd still give the novels a 10 as well, but if I had to choose one or the other then I'd still go with the anime. The animation, soundtrack and voice acting just enhances the concepts of the series too much to be able to overlook.

Helpful

permalink | report

Jan 27, 2016

30 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

Professional2341 (All reviews)

79 people found this review helpful

SPOILER FREE

Most people are looking at the reviews to see if No Game No Life novel is worth picking up, especially after watching the anime. Because of that, I'm going to direct my review towards "I liked the anime, should I read the novel series, or should I hope for a season 2?" instead of something like "Is NGNL light novel good?".

Well to start off, there are currently 8 volumes released, 6 which are translated. The anime only covered the first 3 volumes, so you can assume that you are expecting at least double the content.

- "Should I read from the beginning, or should I just start reading volume 4?"
Personally, I don't know. Since I watched the anime, I skipped the first 3 volumes and started reading volume 4. The anime follows the novel very well so I didn't feel like I missed anything.

- "How good is the story after the end of the anime?"
Really good. Sometimes stories tend to start strong, stay long, and then get weaker and weaker throughout; examples would be Bleach, Naruto, SAO, and really many other anime. However, NGNL only gets better as the story unravels. The crew is bigger, more games (sophisticated ones too), more races to interact with, and a lot of insight on the background of this world and the races in general.

- "Light Novel vs. Anime?"
Well there are two aspects in this; Quantity and Quality. I'd say that the quality of the anime was better than the LN, even though I haven't read the first 3 volumes. The reason is because the anime did a very well job in explaining really confusing concepts and sophisticated games, plus it had good art and amazing sountracks. As for Quantity, obviously speaking the LN is better, it has a lot more content that is definitely worth reading if you liked the anime.

- "Quick summary with no spoilers?"
Usually sometimes when I want to read an LN I'm familiar with, I like to see how the LN does and what it covers, so here's a quick, as much spoiler-free as possible, summary:
- Volume 4: Follows the end of the anime, the crew continues to obtain more races to their side, and tries to do exactly that.
- Volume 5: Continues off the "problem/game" in Volume 4 to finish it, but also includes a lot of mini-games and a big insight on Jibril, the Flugels, and a little bit more about what happened during the Great War.
- Volume 6: This whole volume is Tet covering the Great War; how it was from the humans' perspective, how it ended, how Tet became the One true god, and a lot more about its secrets.

- "How much did you enjoy the LN?"
No Game No Life LN was the first light novel I read, combine that with the fact that NGNL has pretty sophisticated and potentially confusing games and you can pretty much guess that I had a little trouble reading some parts, but just reading those small parts again or waiting for a better explanation often helped me a lot. Overall, I did enjoy this LN as it was pretty good and the plot was well-written. I do give this LN about 8.9/10 - A very high 8 or a flat 9.

Helpful

permalink | report

May 30, 2014

4 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 8

mlcdl (All reviews)

25 people found this review helpful

[This review will tackle the first 3 volume of the LN and the expected adaptation coverage of the anime]

I once saw a review on NGNL anime saying that it is a guilty pleasure. I won’t deny that as someone who tries both anime and LN because that seems true but it doesn’t mean that the content itself is terrible that there is nothing that can be considered “unique” or “refreshing” from it. NGNL is simply a story that hasa unique setting for a commonly abused theme.

Story: 7.5

Normally, when the story deals with people suddenly transferred to another world/dimension, the plot revolves on how they live read more

permalink | report

Nov 11, 2021

1 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

Susanimekinda9 (All reviews)

7 people found this review helpful

HOLY SH*T This light novel is beyond perfect. (I know that no one will read this but its purely for me.)

BRO! Better than mushoku Tesnei and Tensuras light novel it is the one and only ngnl.

Perfect! I'm reading Yam's translation which is regarded as the better one.

The wording is top notch, the sequence of events is top notch, the new characters are top notch,

PRAISE NGNL. I was gonna wait until ngnl season 2 whenever its gonna release but after the light novel like 11 got released I started reading it.

My first light novel book!

PERFECT!

All 10's for me! Actually, get this read more

permalink | report

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

North American Anime & Manga Releases for February

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for February Week 1: February 4 - 10 Anime Releases A.D. Police (TV) Complete Collection Blu-ray Bai She: Yuan...read more

Feb 3, 2020 1:24 PM by Sakana-san | Discuss (2 comments)

'Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!' 2020 Rankings Revealed

The "Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!" (This Light Novel is Amazing!) guidebook has revealed its annual light novel rankings for 2020. The list includes the most...read more

Nov 24, 2019 9:44 AM by Sakana-san | Discuss (55 comments)

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

	No Game No Life Volume 11 Discussion Satan1234 - Apr 7	1 replies	by vp787 »» May 17, 10:46 PM
	Vol 11 release Nov 25th OPBHA - Oct 1, 2021	3 replies	by Simar »» Dec 27, 2021 6:32 AM

No Game No Life
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

External Links

Edit
Synopsis

Edit
Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Edit
Related Manga

More characters
Characters

More reviewsReviews

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

More featured articles
Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

No Game No Life Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsType

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

External Links

EditSynopsis

EditBackground

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

EditRelated Manga

More charactersCharacters

More reviewsReviews

More recommendations Recommendations

More newsRecent News

More discussionsRecent Forum Discussion

More featured articlesRecent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

No Game No Life
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Edit
Synopsis

Edit
Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Edit
Related Manga

More characters
Characters

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

More featured articles
Recent Featured Articles