No Game No Life Review

Through the Otaku community, a large percentage falls under the “avid gamer” category. Some of these gamers do nothing other than play video games, watch anime, and read manga, and have their lives existing mainly online. This usually leads to series of health, and social problems, as well as in some cases, light sensitivity, mainly caused by the overuse of games in the MMORPG genre. Games in the MMORPG genre today, such as League of Legends, or World of Warcraft, all have some sort of hook, bringing gamers back for more, time and time again to defeat the newest level boss, or to plan several hour long raids for that one power up they have always wanted. If everything in the world was decided by games, the whole way we view the world would be completely different, wouldn’t it? Need a new king for the country? No problem. Just hold a poker tournament, to find the best player in the kingdom. The story of No Game No Life, revolves around this concept of the world being your game board, yours to conquer if you are strategic and cunning.

The story of No Game No Life starts off with our two protagonists, the master gamer sibling duo, Sora and Shiro. The pair has never lost a game, except to each other, and are so skilled, they can control two MMORPG avatars each, simultaneously, and defeat the entire gaming community, and become known as “blank”, due to their usernames being left blank. As the two spend their days doing nothing but playing games, they receive an anonymous email, challenging them to a game of chess. The duo conquer the game, and are sent to the gaming world, known as Disboard, the Boardtop World, by its One True God, Tet. Once there, the duo discover that everything in Disboard is solved by a game, which must abide by the 10 pledges, and they were sent to save the weakest of the 16 races of Disboard known as Imanity. Imanity has no access to magic, unlike the other 15 races, making them powerless without a way to defeat other races through games. Sora and Shiro discover a gaming tournament to decide the next ruler of Imanity, and decide to participate, challenging the one who has beaten all the rest, Kurami Zell, and beat her. Shiro and Sora become the King and Queen of Imanity, with their goal becoming to defeat all 16 races, to challenge the One True God, Tet, so the pair can become the gods of Disboard. Although the series is only 12 episodes long, and only has one story arc, the ending of the series keeps it open for next seasons, which will probably not be produced, due to the series seeming like advertisement for the original material, with a “read the light novel” type ending.

The main two characters in No Game No Life are Sora and Shiro, the sibling gamer pair. As well as being completely obsessed with gaming to a point of doing nothing other than gaming, they often stay up days on end, becoming extremely sleep deprived, eating nothing but the occasional instant ramen, or other convenience store snacks. The pair also are inseparable, not being able to be out of range of sight of one another without falling into an almost catatonic state. Shiro is the younger and smarter of the pair, being extremely quiet and shy. She possesses an almost supernatural intelligence, can speak 18 languages fluently, has beaten a grandmaster chess program twenty times in a row, and claims chess is no different than Tic-Tac-Toe. Shiro learns at an amazing pace, learning Imanity’s language in 15 minutes, accurately, and is incredibly skilled in First Person Shooters, as she is able to predict the trajectory of bullets in the game. Although she is almost superhuman, she is incredibly logical, and scientific, which leads her to have trouble with the human aspects of the game. If her opponent makes an unpredictable move to throw her off, she relies on her brother, Sora, to advise her when their opponent is leading them into a trap. Sora is the older brother, and is extremely outgoing, and confident when playing games, though has a hard time without Shiro in a more logical game, as he relies on instincts and body language analyzation. He is superior with war and romance games, and is not as intelligent as his sister, but is able to compensate for that with his observation abilities. Sora is the negotiator of the two, being cunning and a trickster often, to find the opponent’s weaknesses and to defeat them using them. Through the story, entertaining side characters such as Stephanie Dola, (the king’s granddaughter), Kurami Zell, and Jibril the Flugel. Good character development for the two main characters was provided, yet more character development for the side characters would have been nice.

The soundtrack for No Game No Life was composed by Shinji Hosoe, a video game soundtrack composer, who is known for works such as the Fate/Extra, and Tekken 6 soundtracks. For the theme of the series, the soundtrack works nicely, sticking to the gaming theme. The music is mainly electronic, with vocals here and there, but it worked well, and is great background music when playing any game, or getting hyped for a sports match. As for the dub, there is no English dub at the moment, but the Japanese dub was done well, matching the character’s personalities with the voice actors nicely. The ending, Oracion, was sung by Ai Kayano, the voice actor for Shiro, and worked well. The opening, This Game, by Suzuki Konomi was upbeat and fit the series well.

The animation for the series was done by Madhouse, known for Photo Kano, and Black Lagoon. The series was extremely well animated, with the computer graphics being incorporated nicely into the scenes, not being jarring in the least. The colours chosen for the series were incredibly bright, allowing the series to have a more light and fluffy tone, with fantasy elements through out. The character designs are nothing to complain about, as they were all fun to see, and had interesting colours chosen for each character, sometimes with multi coloured eyes and bright clothing. Games were animated especially well, adding more suspense to the series, as it kept surprising you with better and better animation and effects. The opening and ending were enjoyable to watch, and the animation was on par with the rest of the series.

Overall, No Game No Life is a fun and lighthearted series, being entertaining and comedic through the entire season. Despite the flaws, No Game No Life is sure to channel your inner gamer to the screen and try and play along with the characters at some points. Although the series points viewers towards the source material, it is still enjoyable on its own, and is worth watching. So, considering the categories of sound, animation, story, characters, and my personal enjoyment, No Game No Life receives an overall score of 8.68 out of 10, with a recommendation to stream rather than buy. Yes, the series is enjoyable, and a worthwhile piece of entertainment, but the plot holes can make the series frustrating if you do not have access to the source material.

And that’s a wrap up, thank you for reading. Reviews will be posted daily through the month of November, so stay tuned!

-Takami