This review won’t contain spoilers.
No game No Life talks about two brothers that don’t go to school and don’t have any kind of social life, they simply spend all their time playing computer games. So much that you even ask yourself how they can be still alive. After winning a chess-game against Tet, a God, they are brought in a world where every conflict is decided by playing games. Their aim is to become gods of this world by defeating the final boss: Tet himself.
Everything revolves on the sympathy between those two incredibly genious characters and the watcher, that wants to be a super sharp mind like those two unrealistic characters. This is the only reason that I can think about for its success. Wait I forgot breasts, it’s full of stupid scenes where characters just randomly lose pieces of their clothes. And yes, this is a concern even in an ecchi anime, because it only adds stupidity to the whole show. And loli, there is so much loli that I don’t even want to talk about that.
The fantasy world they are in seems somewhat challenging, full of obstacles and threats. This could have been interesting if the two brothers, Sora and Shiro, didn’t win everything so easily. Since they have to be a “model to follow” by the watcher, they seem to be expert in litterally everything, from math to literature, without even going to school. They are so strong that they win every single game; even before a challenge starts, you know that they can’t lose. They can’t lose because everytime they bet everything, even their own life at some points, and the plot couldn’t continue otherwise.
Another aspect that is paricularly annoying is that instead of trying to win the games, everyone tries to find the best cheat to win. Infact the rules of this world say that you can cheat as long as you are not detected. So the characters are all focused on deceiving their opponent and there are really just a few games where they played following the rules.
But how do they win? Their intelligence is so high that in ten minutes they could read and understand Einstein’s general relativity paper, during the games they take advantage of things that they couldn’t possibly know if they spend the whole day in front of videogames. The anime tries to put up the logical chain of thoughts that gave to our little Einsteins the victory, but everything seems only based on luck. Let me explain: there are so many things that could go wrong, so many things that they couldn’t have planned in any possible way, that you can only ask yourself “Why the hell don’t they play in a Casino and win millions to live the rest of their life in a royal palace?” They could litterally conquer the whole Earth without any difficulty. Every little detail, even if they seem in trouble, is revealed to be a part of their plan. Someone trips? It was a part of their plan! Someone sneezes? It was a part of their plan! Someone farts? It was a part of their evil plan! They are too smart.
Outrageous luck like a river in this anime flows.
The art is really good, drawings are well made and neon/pink colors, even if many criticize them, are perfect for the anime. Sound is nice too, there are some good OST that match the theme of the anime: videogames. Art is what raised my overall score from 4 to 5, well done Madhouse.
As I’ve already said the two main characters are just unbelievably cunning and smart, but except for that, they are simply flat and without a real purpose in their life except than playing games and prove that Blank, the name that they gave to their team, is better than everyone else and can’t lose. I find this a really weak aim for the life of two teenagers, but ok. They are also completely incosistent and meaningless, for example they spent their whole life in their room and they say that they suffer of agoraphobia, but in two minutes they just change completely, and Sora becomes a formidable orator. This hurts, a lot.
There aren’t other interesting characters. Stephanie is here only for the sake of ecchi, she litterally doesn’t do anything to advance the plot and is completely useless and stupid. She seems like a bonus to use when the anime has been serious for too long and the watcher needs some fanservice. Jybril is the same thing, but with a pair of wings.
Another big question mark is: but Sora and Shiro never asked themself what and where this world is? Why does this world exists? Where are their parents? Why they never talk about them or don’t miss them at least? What the hell is wrong with those guys? No Game No Life doesn’t give you any answer, the watcher just have to accept the fact that they have to become Gods. Ok.
At this point you are probably wondering why I gave to this anime a 5 instead of something much lower. Well, all in all it’s entertaining, some parts are funny and some games are interesting. Strange that I didn’t choose to drop it, maybe I just wanted to see what the producers were trying to put up next. But there are way too many plot holes and inexplicable facts, and what I felt while watching No Game No Life was the disperate attempt to create a intelligent and badass character, that should be Sora, and creating an harem around him, because badass guys attract girls...
Should you watch it? If you have some free time and you don’t have anything better to do. There are so many good anime around that it’s a pity to waste time on this one, but if you are just searching an anime with a cool main character, then No Game No Life is probably for you.
You hate me because No Game No Life is the best anime ever? It was all my plan since the beginning!
