No Game No Life is a rather curious specimen of its kind.
The intriguing thing about it is that it focuses on traditional games - board games, card games, even Rock Paper Scissors. The fantastical world it takes place in isn't even a video game. This world, called Disboard, runs on a system where everything - from minor disagreements to international conflict - is resolved via games, where each participant wager for a prize and penalty for the winners and losers. Sounds neat, right? Not when the human race are majorly disadvantaged compared to the other 15 races. So our heroes of the story - the super-talented stepsiblings Sora and Shiro - help humanity to show the other races how powerful it really is.
That, right there, is an incredibly interesting premise... right? But there is one thing that utterly ruins it.
Note that I described these siblings as "super-talented". By that, I mean "they have never lost a single game and they never will".
That... is actually a major problem, at least with the way this is handled. I mean, in shonen anime we always get super-strong and super-talented heroes, but more often than not they start out unremarkable but grow stronger with each passing episode. Because of that, they undergo a lot of challenges and perhaps even lose a few battles. But Sora and Shiro are already the most powerful characters from the get-go, and the series makes no attempts to hide it. The first warning sign is in the first episode, where they defeat the God of Disboard - who, mind you, is supposed to be the best gamer of all - in a game of chess. And even though they play games against weaker characters throughout the series in order to fulfill their goals, these games only get more ridiculous from there. They do not run on logic, they do not make the viewers sit on the edge of their seats in anticipation. They are merely there to advance the plot and to showcase how intelligent the siblings are.
Oh and by the way, this heavy focus on the siblings only makes the other characters look stupid in comparison. The fact that they act stupid as well, particularly after they each lose their respective games with the siblings, only makes matters worse. The worst offender here is Stephanie Dola, the granddaughter of the previous King of humanity, although I can't really blame her. On top of never actually doing anything badass on her own - with one exception, but even then it was part of the siblings' plan - she only exists to be objectified and humilliated by the siblings in almost every second of her screentime. In most of the time she spends on-screen, she is barely wearing anything, and she's not even very happy about it at all. I see this as a major sign of sexism in anime, and seeing it in No Game No Life hugely disappoints me.
Speaking of fanservice, oh, there's tons of it here. Pretty much every female character will be naked save for cloud censors around her at some point in the show - yes, even the eleven-year-old Shiro. I'd just brush that off as the Japanese invoking a sense of innocence on her, but since there are MULTIPLE INSTANCES of nudity and panty shots from her, I doubt it. Lots of fanservice is one thing, and if the female characters are interesting enough I wouldn't mind it. Lots of fanservice applied to some of the most unlikable female characters I have ever met, including a loli, is a whole 'nother story.
All in all, don't be fooled by the tempting premise and beautiful art. By watching No Game No Life, all you'll be getting out of it is stupidity, fanservice and boring action scenes.
