I will be frank here. Every time I rate an anime well (7+), I'm extremely critical. And every time I rate an anime badly (6-), I emphasize why I chose the score so any viewer who happens to have different tastes and would take those points as a good thing instead of something that hinders the show will have fair insight as to watch it or not.
For this show, I will start with the good points and then switch over to the things that bothered me.
I will say this: No Game No Life is clever. Forget the plot. Forget the personalities of the characters. By now, assuming you've read the description of the anime, you know that the show is about games — but really, specifically, it's about solving puzzles. The main characters are constantly faced with deception and manage to overcome it in the most bizarre ways. I'm guessing that's why people found it so intriguing and why, despite being constantly irritated by a few aspects, I somehow can't stop watching it. No matter how pissed you are at this anime — and I was totally pissed — the one thing it does not lack is something interesting.
Ok. There you go. I've done my good deed for the day. On to the bad part.
Deep breath.
Characters:
There are two main characters, and a few side ones. But the two main ones are Sora, a sly and arrogant guy whose quirky and fun side does not quite make up for his OP-ness and confidence; and his sister, Shiro, who I will get to later...because I've got a lot I want to say about her.
Why does Sora piss me off? I'll split it into 3 reasons, which I will describe my best, so if you aren't as pissed, you won't miss this otherwise pretty good anime.
1) Sora is too OP
No, as of right now I have not finished this anime. But as of right now, I'm far enough (10/12 episodes) into the show that I can say there is just no character development. Sora is completely flat throughout the entire show. The writers or whoever made up this character decided that as long as he wasn't a complete douche, as long as there was some ecchi to make up for it, they could cover it up. Normally, I wouldn't mind a shallow MC, as long as they had a painful past that could be expanded a bit or they lost once or twice to their opponent; but Sora never does that. Not once does he lose his cool and not once does he stop being arrogant enough for me to want to punch him.
At first I found this attitude likable. I mean, he represented humanity and went against the other races to climb to the top. But then he never changed and his personality went from confident to arrogant to cruel.
2) Ecchi
I'll be blunt: I hate ecchi and harems. So if you don't mind or you like it, just don't bother reading this.
I usually go out of my way to watch shoujos, not because I particularly liked the genre, but because harem squads are almost never present in female-targeted audiences. I made an exception because this anime happened to be in the 101st spot in the Top Anime list and it didn't have explicit violence or nudity scenes, which I was tired of. By that point, I was desperate, so I eagerly picked it up. That being said, while the ecchi is light and comedic to give some leeway to people like me, I still don't like it. It's forced, it's dirty, and it's disgusting. The MC abuses females despite this being PG-13 and while the interesting plot tries to make up for it...it just doesn't make up for it. The women shove themselves on top of him like dogs (with one of them even being portrayed as a dog in one episode), and I just about reached my limit when I decided to let off steam on this review.
3) Shiro
And here it comes: The ultimate finish.
Shiro.
Shiro is one of those quiet, kind-of-tsundere-but-not-really girls who somehow wiggle their way through every problem. Talk about a flat character. The writers or directors or whoever tried to make her better by giving her an episode to prove herself but she's just...too bland. She offers a few remarks here and there, shows off her awesomely clever brain once in a while, and that's about it.
And that's it for the review. There's nothing more to say. You might wonder, then why did I rate it so high? Because I can see why people are attracted to this one. I can really see why. But, despite my addiction, it's just not enough.
