That being said, the show is still incredibly dreadful upon my second viewing.
In terms of the plot, two exceptionally talented siblings who happen to be a loser hikikomori, are pulled into another fantasy world after demonstrating to the God Tet their amazing skills at online chess, with Sora proclaiming that he and his little sister Shirou will take over the world to challenge Tet, which amazingly happens to include the only thing we have seen the duo excel at, GAMES, which they all effortlessly beat over the course of 12 episodes.
While I feel the term "wish fulfillment" and "pandering" are used interchangeably, despite most anime usually being a targeted approach to a certain exploitable market of otakus, and thus qualify as "pandering", I can honestly say that the elements of wish fulfillment are apparent, and drag the anime down.
This isn't the first time most people have seen less than ideal characters as protagonists if but to relate to the audience and to juxtapose their more win-win moments. However, Sora and Shiro, by virtue of being unproductive losers only good at one thing, make it a template with which to base dynamic character growth, but they stay the same throughout the series, with Shiro having little to no character beyond the stoic child trope that has been all the rage (Part of the larger Kuudere character archetype) and Sora is incredibly cocky, but apparently has a heart of gold.
This is peculiar enough as Sora and Shiro are back on Earth, what I consider losers in every sense of the word. My teacher once said "Intelligence is as Intelligence does", meaning that any semblance of thinking is only recognized by its contributions and products, not the mere existence of. That is why many people know who Albert Einstein is, versus that of William Sidis, who was arguably troubled enough to not apply it as Einstein did.
In essence, they are flawed characters who do not grow, but are merely placed in a world that their major flaws simply don't matter. Looking back at my own adolescence, it seems to tie into the mentality many teenagers have of a grander sense of intelligence than which they likely possessed, and the entitlement one demands acknowledging such, and biting the hand of the world that housed you when no one cares enough to pat one on the back. Sora rejects the world that rejects him, but while the world is a cruel and unfair place, this doesn't make him any more logical than the anime portrays him, but far less so. Intelligence isn't a substitute for maturity, and Sora clearly has problems with Earthen society that it would fairly hard to NOT blame it on him in the end. It caters to the angst mentality that one normally associates with the onset of puberty, but instead of making any profound or even sensible insight as to how to cope, this anime only offers succor beyond sympathy and consolation, but by seemingly reaffirming such childish beliefs, which is perhaps the most insidious nature of Stus. It of course, depends on what you define as "perfection".
Sora and Shiro are the most developed of the cast, but I don't find them interesting. Shiro is probably the most disconcerting of the cast to me, as her reticent nature makes her more calculator than person, save for one episode where she went solo. I often read that Sora reads the player, and Shiro does the number crunching, and this is true enough. However, I find most people can't do the emotionless archetype right, and due to the compounding factors revolving around a lack of dynamism, Shiro doesn't feel like a character but more of a plot device. Characters change, have a notable personality, a set of beliefs. Being cute and not talkative hardly qualifies, especially when such a character type is popular enough that Final Fantasy's Lightning makes the top waifu list. (Seriously?)
Shiro is depicted as being somewhat as intelligent as Shiro, albeit with reading people and such. He comes off as bit of an asshole, some entitlement there, some arrogance there. He almost always has a smug expression on his face, which is to be expected, but after 12 episodes of such, I simply got tired of his never letting lack of self doubt. He isn't as villainous as Tatsuya Shiba, or as much of a jerk as Eren Yeager. I found him boring. Having just one expressions isn't any different than having none.
To tie this up, the relationship was oddly a great deal less incestuous than it initially appears, but the lack of any sort of family dynamic is the greatest downfall. We see flashes of their past, but they just served to be more cryptic and doesn't quite explain anything about their current relationship, which is more defined as needing to be within eyesight and within close range before they turn into the hikikomori selves. This sounds interesting, but the weakness is not exploited except for comedy.
Everyone else is conveniently a female, whether they be opposition or allies, save for a few. To be fair, this is expected, and not a death dirge in itself. However, the cast is barely developed beyond an attempt to selling Dakimakuras.
Stephanie "Stephanie" Dola is treated like a dog by the duo, and often exists to make the siblings look smart. Problem is, she is of average to decent intelligence. This isn't a problem when you have characters like Watson summarize Sherlock's action in order to help us understand a genius, but Dola's role comes as demeaning to her as it does for the audience. For example, during the alleyway gambit where Dola tried to win one time by predicting the gender of the person passing through on the main road, Dola got everything wrong while Sora and Shiro got everything right, on the assumption that the percentage of the sex ratio learned more towards the men from previous observations, although not too heavily. Honestly? Dola did not seem to be applying a strategy, but rather evidence that uncertainty means that loss is fairly possible while requiring extraordinary amounts of skill. That being said, the fact is that Dola is correct. She should have been right one or two times, especially if Sora and Shiro took the opposite bet.
Seriously? Dola has no other role than to provide fanservice, some exposition, and well....nothing else, really. One could say she contributed to the last arc, and I think that is a pile of honky, considering everything.
Jibril is someone I find attractive, and is skilled in games herself. I don't have much to say about her, and that is perhaps the most damning of all, besides her role essentially being a more informed exposition machine that makes the world building effortless, and barely does anything for her character. Her role being that she read a great deal of books, this is expected I suppose, but I feel disappointed.
To ramble on about the plot, I feel that some of the criticism of how the games are handled only as a response to the praise of its intelligence, while I took this anime on my second viewing as one treating style over substance.
To answer the question, no, I do not find anything to be intelligent to how these games are resolved, or even if. The gambles the siblings makes are so over the top that they can't possibly lose. The games are poorly defined in the rules and thus, so are the limits of what can be expected in a normal gameplay. Essentially, the show doesn't define what the game is, and attempts to subvert your expectations by an out of left field win that doesn't "break" the rules, but also causes me to be less interested when I know the lack of unspecified or vague limits are what allow this, and only makes it more confusing while watching it, but clear in retrospect. If you don't define the limits, then there is no need to write yourself in a hole. That being said, when you can write just any solution, from the Chess Match to the Game with Jibril, that doesn't require intelligence of either the author or the characters. It is rather dumb if the solution is too out there, or the rules and the gameplay are only revealed at their most important, but I suppose the fun is the aspect that I perceive should be taken from the anime.
How fun is it? Not really. Having seen these tropes a thousand times can do that, and of course, cliches aren't inherently bad. In fact, I am a fan of a few myself. However, with these characters, they run the gamut from irritating comic relief to just boring and underdeveloped. Add on the idea of the extreme wish fulfillment of the show, and the whole work seems annoying.
We got two characters who don't grow, but who are complete failures in our world for seemingly good reason, binge gaming while subsisting on mysteriously procured ramen, where they are recognized for their intelligence by an otherworldly being, and taken to a world where there flaws don't matter or go away, and earning themselves a kingdom to lord over. They are baffling intelligent that they never lose regardless of the stakes. The solutions are not clever, but are made up on the spot, as the rules that "allow" it, sometimes lacking an adequate explanation or not taking advantage of the whole "cheating" angle that was presented for 30 seconds.
Animation Studio Pixar said it best. "You admire a character for trying more than for their successes." Of course, what Sora and Shiro do is beyond most of people's capability, but their effortless winning with a mind and reflexes that cannot be sharpened any further. They are apex in this new society, and don't have to come to terms about why they were not previously successful. This is perhaps the most upsetting part. Intelligence, or being gifted in anyway isn't entitlement to recognition. A king should earn his kingdom, it is not given to him by chance. A man should woo his beloved, not wait for her to fall in his lap. A smart person is recognized for his achievements, not his IQ score.
One might say that NGNL is instead an extreme meritocracy. I can see and agree with it; it seems far better to have intelligent people in office than rampant nepotism we have now, and there seems to be a great deal of viable people in the various governing powers. However, I look at the premise as "How convenient" when Sora and Shiro are whisked to another world that plays to their strengths and nothing against their weaknesses. There is no portal in the real world waiting to teleport one to a fantasy world where they are king and queen, and there is no world where one is completely without weakness. It is a masturbatory practice with faux conflicts and predetermined outcomes that are badly written here, to lessen the burdensome reality of what one may be, essentially using fantastical elements to lessen any conflict one would encounter on Earth. Or rather, regardless of the setting, realistically speaking. That being said, I have to wonder how their flaws don't apply to the world of Disboard in the first place.
If you want to like this anime, I would say go ahead. I am not here to categorize the entire fanbase into one tiny box, if my review did seem that way, but the type of viewer the anime wants to attract and how it goes about it.
Disclaimer out of the way, this anime felt superficial, seemingly more of a corporate product made to sell than an artistic piece. It incorporates hackneyed tropes for its characters and attractive designs to distract from the more vacuous than playful nature of the anime most important aspect, the characters and events. The entire structure of cast and story are contrived in order to appeal to a normal but in the long term senseless view based on the myopic experiences of normal teenagers, but instead of sympathy, it is an indirect justification. In that, yes, they deserve recognition and that the world sucks. It is true the world is unfair, or difficult, but the views presented lack adequate insight on the flaws of such a troubled view, and lacks a viable solution as a result. There are no portals, no otherworldly entities wanting to teleport the worthy, and I doubt that life would be all peachy if there were such a thing.
The opposite of a coming of age story may not be regression, but stagnation. One has to deal with it sooner or later, and given the first episode. Sora and Shiro did not, and did not have to for the remainder of the adpation, which not only made them boring, but also the anime. Style is not viable if the characters are neither charismatic or interesting, and there is nothing of substance about the larger story.
I see nothing, nothing of worth here. It's day in the limelight will be usurped by another of similar quality and similar intentions, and perhaps its forgetful nature speaks volumes about NGNL's transient nature.
