No Game No Life opens with a brother and sister duo composed of an eleven year old named Shiro and eighteen year old Sora (they go by the team name Blank). These two are the greatest gamers in the history of forever, defeating even players who cheat. When they get a mysterious email asking if they feel that they are not in the right world, they respond yes and after a game of chess, are transported to another world, a world where everything is decided by games. It’s not long before Shiro and Sora are playing games to take over countries, with the eventual hope of defeating God.
It’s a pretty cool plot that, sadly, is underused past the halfway mark. The series opens with a lot of fast paced games, each episode moving along at a good pace. But about halfway through it gets into a bit of a slump before the really grand finale. That slump doesn’t detract much from the series as it allows the comedy and characters to shine through, but I’m not a big fan of slowing down after blasting off so fast from the starting line.
The games themselves are usually games we have in our world, but with an occasional twist. On top of these games are the bets made between each player, which can alter a person’s state of mind or make them completely disappear. That makes for some exciting and intense games…you’d think. The problem comes from the fact our main characters, from the outset, have Kirito Syndrome. They are overpowered and can’t lose. They’re the best gamers anywhere and they refuse to lose. Each game they play ends with some sort of tactical advantage or are even won before they begin due to quick thinking on our hero’s parts. That certainly leads to some impressive solutions to problems but also can make any sort of drama to be had during the games null and void. When character’s don’t screw up or don’t show fear of losing, you become less emotionally invested in what is happening and it’s just a flat story being played out on your screen. And sadly, that’s what the drama boils down to.
And it’s not that Shiro and Sora are bad characters or anything, because they’re actually fun company. A duo of NEETS who can’t deal with life away from each other, can’t deal with crowds, and Sora in particular is a giant pervert. The series doesn’t do the drama well but, with the help of other characters, Sora and Shiro bring the humor that makes this series stand out to me. It’s very fast humor, tons of references and character quirks that make for fun watching. I think I stuck around the series just for the characters and their silly interactions rather than for the games.
If anything, the secondary characters are more memorable than the main characters (who are pretty memorable in their own right). Stephanie Dola is the granddaughter of the last king and a persistent, silly girl. I liked her at first but she quickly became the “sex-her-up” character. And some of those scenes were funny, but she didn’t seem to be there as much to help progress the plot or build character as to be sexually abused constantly for humor’s sake. Jibril was another character I really liked. She’s got no emotions and has these weird, sexual flashbacks to murdering people during a war. She was another silly character but damn was she entertaining. None of the other characters are really worth mentioning as they were all pretty flat. They provided some good humor throughout, but weren’t worth remembering.
So what is this series? Another genre question that pops up in my mind. It feels a lot like Sword Art Online to me as far as crossing genres goes. It’s a shonen, it’s a comedy, and it’s also (kind of subtly but not really) a harem anime. It’s got all your favorite character tropes too! “Sister whose not really my sister so fucking her’s okay”, “Big boobs whose easy to abuse”, “Subservient girl”, “Tsundere who totally doesn’t like you baka”, and “Loli animal ear girl”.
Aside from all that, I enjoyed the plot and characters. I enjoyed the comedy and the games. What I didn’t enjoy was the animation. The animation for this series gets a lot of praise for some reason, but I’m not on that wagon. I can appreciate the sheer number of colors being used but the soft focus combined with the over-saturation of colors is enough to give a person a headache. It’s a unique but, for me, less appealing style.
Offsetting that is the glorious music, which I enjoyed thoroughly.
Listen, No Game No Life‘s good. It’s entertaining as hell and that’s about all you can ask for. But it’s another case of the hype making my expectations really high. And that’s not detracting from the score I give it because I feel what I’m giving it is very fair. But I am a little disappointed. After hearing so many good things about this show I was expecting it to blow me away. It didn’t, but it did keep me engaged and wanting more, which is more than I can say for about eighty-five percent of recent anime. So I can see where the high scores come from. But for me, it’s still tarnished by the lack of drama, the genericism of certain characters, and the animation. Is it the best anime I’ve ever seen? Hell no. Is it the best anime of the last few years? No. Is it the best anime of this year? It’s the best I’ve seen so far that’s been completed (but will most likely get knocked down a few pegs by year’s end). Is it a good anime? Yes.
I’d definitely suggest it. But be prepared to wait patiently for the inevitable second season.
