Admittedly, I am a slave to psychological games and long, complex strategies that have to be explained in full detail to people like me who suck at planning in detail. You know, when I first discovered Liar Game I thought I'd reached the pinnacle of my entire life - so I guess it's not too far-fetched to say that watching Sora and Shiro kicking everybody's ass with their superior game knowledge was pretty satisfying. My favourite episode had to be the one where they played Materializaion Shiritori; besides being intense and a cool spin on the game, I could actually follow along with what was happening, whereas chess and card games are completely lost upon me. The plot itself was stagnant and, to put it bluntly, really predictable - rather, it was the actual games that kept me watching. The finale was horribly disappointing and anticlimactic, and I really just have to say the Shrine Priestess is so absolutely extra because randomly making her pop in through the last two episodes really ticked me off...
The art and sound were both good. NGNL's pretty eye-catching and flashy. The visual appeal of NGNL is undeniable - everything's bright and colourful and magical, I guess, as befits a fantasy world. I was a little bit disappointed but not unsurprised to see that the Exceed were all your standard fantasy races - I was expecting a little more originality in that department. How come, out of all 16 different races that inhabit the world, we only get to see 4 of the most generic ones? The soundtrack was energetic and upbeat, which I appreciated, and both the opening and ending songs were nice and catchy. I really liked the opening in particular.
I really enjoyed Sora and Shiro together - I mean, who doesn't love genius sibling duos? As the main characters, I suppose it makes sense for the two of them to be the most likeable. I thought Sora's protective-older-brother moments with Shiro were pretty cute, to be honest. In comparison, Shiro plays the part of the adorable younger sister. Their abilities and strengths compliment each other and they basically work as a pair to cover all possible weaknesses - together, they form a supposedly unbeatable team called "Blank". These two are by far my favourite characters in NGNL. Everybody else lacked depth and were literally walking, talking tv tropes. Steph pissed me off in particular - sure, she's air-headed and cute and all, but her constant indecision and the fact that she changed opinions about Sora every three seconds was extremely annoying. I was curious to learn more about Ino and Izuna (I mean, what does a Warbeast Embassy even do?), but unfortunately not much was explained about their specific backstories so I guess that was a little disappointing too.
I don't regret watching NGNL. I personally think that it's worth mentioning that I really liked watching it even though more than half of its characters pissed me off royally. Leave the personality and plot deconstruction for later. NGNL is, at its simplest, something that is meant to be fun, so before you write it off as a mere compilation of cliches, give yourself a chance to enjoy its comedy, flashiness and blatant fanservice first.
