No Game No Life was a fun anime which I enjoyed. Even though the core premise is seen way to often in the anime community, it had a fun twist on the isekai cliché, filled with endearing characters who had both personality and intellect. Heck even Sora made for a great protagonist as he is a blunt, psychotic, genius, lolicon as opposed to male protagonist no. 1068 who embodies the ideals of horny pubescent teenage boys. When I heard that Madhouse was planning to release a movie based on the prequel novel to the series, I was extremely surprised by how brilliant the movie turned out to be!
Story – 8/10
NGNL Zero embodies what a prequel should do for me. A prequel should be filled with exposition explaining the current structure of the world and how the events portrayed in the prequel have an effect on the world of the sequel, while also telling us a unique story. NGNL Zero tells the story of the rebels and the fight against the empire or in this case the weakest race trying to survive during the ongoing war amongst the gods and their respective creations. The story follow’s the adorable Schwi and the intelligent Riku as they bend the superior races to do their bidding. It makes for a truly engaging watch as we want the weak Imanity to survive this war which is way out of there league. Watching Riku plot every aspect of his plan to the finest detail, makes for some Light Yagami level intellect and it was pretty cool to see a mainstream isekai where the protagonist most powerful weapon isn’t his bullshit main character powers or plot armor, but pure uncensored intellect. Also the relationship between Riku and Schwi is really sweet and feels natural, which is something you don’t see too often in light novel adaptations.
Art – 9/10
It’s a Madhouse produced movie. What more can I say? Madhouse is known for their fantastic production values, regardless of the anime being a movie or a TV series. NGNL Zero is no exception to the fact as the amount of detail put into every single frame is mind-boggling. The movie manages to take the fantastic art style from the light novel and reproduce it without any degeneration of the overall quality. Beautiful, bleak, war torn set-pieces are found throughout the length of the movie and create a fantastic atmosphere when accompanied by the fantastic soundtrack. All the character in the movie appears to be the ancestors of the main cast of NGNL, but none the less they are all well designed.
Sound – 9/10
With Jin Aketagawa as the sound director for the movie, there was hardly any chance that the soundtrack would be bad. Every single track is beautifully done and manages to work fantastically with the atmosphere of the movie. The tracks themselves feel like something out of the Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings as they give you the sense that an epic is about to unfold before your very eyes. Voice acting was another strongpoint for the movie as I happen to really enjoy the voice acting. I felt that the voice actors managed to nail their respective characters personalities greatly and I especially found the voice of Schwi as soothing as the soundtrack of Non Non Biyori.
Character – 8/10
If you haven’t noticed already, I really enjoyed this movie. One of the best parts of the movie was the character Riku and Schwi and eventually the relationship between the two of them. Schwi is equally parts adorable and terrifying as she is a member of one of the most powerful races in the world of Disboard. I found it heart-warming to see this mechanical being evolve into a person who could feel, relate and love. Her joining the ranks of Imanity was simple proof that she had evolved beyond what her race divined as normal. Riku is intelligent and caring, as seen when he mourns the deaths of his comrades and it was nice seeing a leader who could act both with his heart and mind. What makes these characters so endearing is the relationship between them, one which should make a lick of sense, but still manages to do so. Seeing two characters fawn and care for each other made their relationship a great addition to the plot of the story and eventually lead to me crying like a little bitch when the inevitable happened.
Enjoyment – 10/10
NGNL Zero manages to be both fun and serious. The interactions between the characters and gorgeous visuals / soundtrack being equally parts fun and serious and the story allowing to build the background for the world as we know it, while being generally entertaining to watch. The brilliant combination of story, characters and astonishingly high production values makes NGNL Zero my personal favourite movie of 2017.
Overall – 9/10
The main reason I found this movie as spectacular as it was, is the fact that it completely shattered my expectations. I was expecting weak writing and bland characters, but it turned out that the only bullshit thing about NGNL Zero, were in fact my poor expectations for the movie. Whether you are a NGNL fan or a cancerous elitist, NGNL Zero is a movie which defines the peak of the isekai genre.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review!
