I especially love the musical accompaniment. It is absolutely genius! Like in episode 3 when Sora has to stop a coronation ceremony... and what does he do? He stops it by busting in the throne room and starts a CHALLENGE by playing electronic MORTAL KOMBAT music on his phone. Lol. Appropriateness = Godlike right there, as any gamer will testify.
Its not just comic timing either, the soundtrack is genuinely very good. There's alot of nice funky tunes in there. Its upbeat, modern, and of course sometimes a lil sad or mysterious when the scene warrants it. Its so good I even want to buy it on a CD and listen to it separately. I also spotted alot of tracks that seems to have influences from old school Final Fantasy background music. A fitting tribute for an anime about games hehe.
Loved all the characters in this anime. There's no crazy evil villains out to commit unspeakable evils here (even bandits in this world are nice since they can't commit violence), just a whole lot of cute girls tryin to beat each other in games. Speaking of girls, this anime has probably the smartest way of handling censorship I've ever seen! I mean they have girls going totally naked, and boobs bouncing up and down.... The whole works! But its ok. Through their cleverness, the producers somehow made everything PG-13 family safe. Chk it out yourself to see how they did it. XD
Also extra points to protagonist Sora, who doesn't mess around and knows what to do right from the start (not a weak and useless crybaby). He's a manly man who knows how to get things done, with the appropriate appreciation for womenz, and none of that fake shyness or over-humbleness that permeates many-a-Japanese protags. Sora also happens to have a very good relationship with his sister Shiro. Now this is how good siblings should be. They back each other up, respect each other's boundaries, joke and have fun play around, and when the going gets tough, they're willing to put their lives on the line for each other. In animes recently, there seems to be a trend in brother/sister relationships where the sister yells abuse at the brother all the time, calls him a pervert and uses violence to smack him down. (Eg Oreimo). The story always implies this kind of abusive behavior as funny or acceptable. Other times they'll be straight up boning each other (Eg KissxSis), which is not good either to say the least... So major kudos to NGNL for showing a healthy and loving brother-sister relationship where they don't commit incest or encourage domestic violence.
Good music, smart writing, funny jokes and out of nowhere popular references (ARROW TO THE KNEE!) makes this one of the most entertaining anime I've seen this year. I eagerly await the next installment!
