Ecchi is righ…….wait what was I talking about again? Oh, about this show….This show…..uhm…
Hey, I’ve got an plan! Let’s teleport two sibling NEETs to a parallel world where everything is decided through games. There are no wars and no one gets sick (I’m kidding of course). This is the setting of No Game No Life, pretty straight forward isn’t it? When the the story is about people getting transported into a ‘game’ world, it’s in direct competitions with some fierce names. So, how does it stack up?
There are sixteen races that live in the world, called the Exceed and yes you’ve guessed it, they play games to decide who gets what. Both sides have to place bets and the loser has to uphold his part of the bargain. And yes you’ve guessed it right again, the two MCs, Sora and Shiro help imanity (copyright?) beat the other races and make Amer….imanity great again.
Get ready for some ridiculous LOL moments. This anime is packed with some mind blowing and totally unpredictable ideas. The best parts are always when Sora and Shiro kick some ass. The soundtrack is good and it keeps you focused on the action, other than that, there’s not much to say. These two really pull some crazy stunts. I didn’t even need to put effort fixating myself to the screen, the action going on just pulls me in.
Sora and Shiro are the stars of the show. The jokes gags and comedy always involve these two. In fact, I don’t remember the rest of the characters saying anything remotely funny at all. Sora is cheesy, hilarious and can think out of the box while Shiro can calculate and crunch the math. The two complement each others weaknesses perfectly. Together, these two siblings will trump anyone in their own game. They might seem over-powered but it really isn’t like that, everything is well thought out and there’s more than meets the eye. They use the know-how of today’s world and their gaming experience to beat their opponents. The siblings are always two steps ahead of the competition.
Aside from them, the supporting characters are not worth much. It all comes down to what you would define as ‘character development’ in a fantasy world setting like this. The show does a poor job of explaining everything that comes up. To be honest, if I’m completely lost as to what they’re talking about, I just assume it’s right cause I’m too lazy to check. You’ll just have to watch without asking any obvious questions. Don’t ask me whether or not I think people with such awesome intellects could exist! If you’re in the right mind set, you won’t notice it. It’s not an immersion breaker by a mile and it certainly won’t affect you enjoyment of the show (unless you want to be a smarty pants).
It’s time I acknowledged the elephant in the room, Stephanie Dola. If I’d have to pick the most underdeveloped and abused character, it would be her. She gets played for jokes a lot, being a natural airhead and all. Most of you who have watched it undoubtedly agree with me on this problem. She’s initially a good addition to the show but as the plot goes on she’s portrayed more as a fanservice character than an actively contributing member of the team. She does get some time in the lime light when she learns more about what happened to her father. But she’s considered unimportant and blatantly ignored later on in the show as Sora and Shiro win more challenging games. She’s certainly one of the better airheads in my books and her voice acting fits her role neatly.
There’s a fair amount of fanservice loaded here (it is an Ecchi after all). Some parts, mostly in-between the games, are pure fanservice. You shouldn’t be surprised by the boob physics, grouping and Sora’s delusional fantasies. The service is there mostly for comedic purposes but man it does turn into some truly sassy situations.
Even if there’s no big games coming up, No Game No Life has plenty of tricks up its sleeves, Ill call them mini-games for lack of a better word. The mini-games are short, fun and easily solved, they’re simply there to when the show doesn’t have anything better to do in an episode.
Of course, this review won’t be complete without my thoughts on the art. ‘Colorful’ doesn’t even begin to describe this neon-like glow on the characters and almost everything else.
It’s a good choice for the fantasy theme and adds a charm for those who crave anime with bright colors. Sadly I’m not much of a fan of these vibrant colors. Individual colors should still be distinguishable from the others. No Game No Life essentially mushes these colors together in weird combinations. It’s not a total mess, the colors seem to leak out too much sometimes, that’s all. They’ll look out of place only if you’re extremely sensitive to these kind of things.
The Conclusion
If you’re looking for a funny, exciting and thrilling watch that will wow! you then No Game No Life is a perfect match. The two main characters get most of the character development while others are left hanging when their parts in the story are over. I can’t begin to describe how hyper the games are, it just gets you blood pumping and you head scratching. It sticks like glue. You’re gonna have to turn a blind eye about the questions that you might have about the characters and No Game No Life’s universe. There is some light fanservice but it’s mostly for the comedy and won’t feel too forced. Considering all these facts, you should give this anime a spin and see if you like it, maybe you’ll love it.
-KKSparrow
If you’ve watched No Game No Life, you can write your opinion on the show in the comments below. I’ll be sure to look at them. See you later then!
KKSparrow 
I really enjoyed this anime. You’re right about Stephanie though. Definitely my least favourite character and it isn’t even her fault she just get’s nothing good written for her to do after the first few episodes.
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What makes it worse is that the other characters don’t actually talk to her later on and you could see that Sora and Shiro are too focused on Tet to give a damn. Anyways, I’m charged up for the newly announced movie.
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This quickly became one of favorite shows of all time. I started to read the books and they are great as well!
Some comments if I may, not really criticisms in any way:
I actually don’t think Sora and Shiro are overpowered since they are playing against people who literally have magic and superhuman powers. They more or less even the playing fields with other races…. if that makes sense.
Stephanie…. really doesn’t need to be there. In the books, it is mentioned that she is actually politically skilled and is in charge of actually running the country while Sora and Shiro go on conquering. As far as the show goes, she is there just for fanservice. I thought Jibril was much more interesting side character as she is weird as hell and is important to the story and characters.
Lastly, the book puts a little more importance on the Rules of the world. You know how it is said there are no wars, no stealing and so on? These are only applied to the exceeds, ones protected by God Teto. So wild animals and such are not protected. So when Race Piece was offered as prize for winning, and say humans lost. That means humans would be massacred, enslaved, and eaten. I felt that emphasize on the rules was a bt more evident and made Sora look more like a mad man! I like it!
Great review!
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This is the third positive review I’ve read about this anime. Compared to the zero negative review I’ve read, maybe I should give this a go.
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You should give it a go. It does have some unpatched holes. It was so much fun to watch if anything.
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