Story:
7/10
No Game No Life has an interesting premise. In the first episode, our main characters, Sora and his little sister Shiro, are transported to a world where everything is decided by games (the world itself basically a huge video game, with different races and locations). Yes, it's nothing /too/ ground-breaking (the keyword here is SAO) but it's intriguing nonetheless, and certainly had me interested within the first few episodes. However, I do feel that one of the weaker points of the story is that it could have had a lot more development. A lot of episodes are injected with scenes entirely dedicated to fanservice, even up to the very last episode, and I feel that a lot of potential was lost where they could have used that time to, say, add in another game (most of which were captivating to watch) or had more stuff actually... happen. The fanservicy element is also why I found the final (big) battle to be slightly anti-climatic. Then again, I'm not the target audience for this kind of fanservice (hetero female), so maybe I should just go rewatch Free! or something. Pacing was fine, and not an issue for this anime - the ending also seemed to hope for a second season, so we may hear something on that soon.
Art:
10/10
I loved the art for this series. It was unique (or at least, in a style I haven't come across before), the colours were vibrant and felt very fantastical - just like a video game. Character design was also a strong point of this anime, I felt, with the god of the game world standing out here - his design was perfect for a character who loved playing around, yet the viewer is still left slightly suspicious of, which creates a great contrast between his design and his personality. The colours of this series were pleasing to the eye, and I enjoyed watching the series a lot partly because of the art.
Sound:
7/10
Pretty good. I do like the opening theme, though it's not outstanding - I would listen to it now and again if I remembered, but it's not something I'd ever really put on repeat. The ending theme was pleasant too, but quite forgettable. Overall, about a day after finishing the anime, I can't remember any of the OST, except for one particular track I quite liked. The music was decent in general, though not spectacular. Character voices were good and fit them well. I particularly liked Sora's voice as one that stood out (talking sub here, haven't seen the dub, nor am I sure one yet exists, though I find it pretty likely this series will get licensed at some point if it hasn't already).
Character:
3/10
Probably one of the series' greatest flaws is its characters. None of the characters really get any great amount of development at all. Our main duo have about a two minute flashback or so of the time they first met, but barely anything else. Their personalities are based on gimmicks ( highly intelligent NEETs with a brother-sister relationship) and don't really have any dept to them at all. I would say some of the side characters (Stephanie and Zell for example) get better development than the main pair, yet even they aren't fleshed out that much. The show was only 12 episodes, but I have seen 12 episode anime do character development a lot better than this show. Again, the issue of fanservice versus using episode time for something that enhances the story springs to mind.
Enjoyment:
7/10
No Game No Life is fun to watch. It's not one of those anime where I've thought to myself in every episode: "has it been twenty minutes yet?". The games, though I feel there could have been more of them, or at least more of the interesting ones, were enjoyable to watch, and although Sora and Shiro's plans were always clever, and it was fun to see how they'd face the problem in front of them, they'd never work in real life. But who cares? Anime doesn't have to make sense. Just the fact that they'd never work makes it that more entertaining.
Summary:
Overall score: 7/10
If this anime hadn't had similar "this was my plan all along" tricks to Code Geass, which I absolutely love in an anime, I probably would have given it a lower score than 7. But I really enjoy this kind of thing, and it really does leave a viewer wanting more. If it had used its time more wisely and really taken an effort to flesh out its characters or add a bit more in to the plot (story-plot, not the other kind), I felt like this could have netted a 10/10 from me. As it is, whilst a very enjoyable anime, I feel like there was a lot of missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential, which was really a shame.
