No Game No Life - Reviews

I kind of don't remember how I came across this.  I think I've heard many good things about it and was really curious.  I've been thinking about watching this for some time maybe at around when New York Comic Con was happening which was around early October.  It took me until now in late December to finally watch it now with my school semester over as I stopped watching any anime all together.  This is the first serious anime I've watched in a while but I recently watched Plastic Nee-san which was really... something else.

Story

This is a lot, actually.  NEET and Hikikomori siblings Sora and Shiro are masters of a wide array of games ranging from FPS's, MMORPG's, and anything under God's green earth never losing any game together.  One day they were pulled into a world by a boy named Tet, who is the God of the world.  In this world violence isn't allowed and all conflict must be resolved through a game.  Sora and Shina mix in with a girl of royal descent named Stephanie Dola and both become Kings of her race, the Imanity and are tasked with saving them.  There's also another 15 races who are ranked by their magical ability.  The story then develops into Sora and Shina trying to conquer every race in order to defeat God himself.  It's a really new show concept and I really like it (or maybe I have been away from anime for too long).  The dramatic plot really got me going because it got pretty deep but not too complicated.  It's basically warfare through the use of children's games.  There's also the comedy aspect which breaks up the really hard dramatic moments.  I say the split is about 60/40 with more drama.  The comedy is pretty much watch you except from an anime.  It ranges from slapstick to awkward interactions.  It was kinda right up my alley.  Overall the story was gripping and I ust kept wanting to watch more.  It was so compelling I forgot it was only 12 episodes long.

Animation

The first thing I noticed was the color palette.  Wow is it bright.  The one way to describe it is like piling chocolate on top of marshmallow fluff on top of caramel on top of pure sugar.  To put it in another way, it was an all out assault of color.  It kinda hurt my eyes a bit but after I got used to it, it wasn't all that bad.  One of the things I really liked was the scenery.  There were many gorgeus views that were a feast for the eyes.  Action scenes are executed very well with nice fluidity as well

Sound

Great soundtrack.  The music did its job of setting the mood well.  Great dramatic music, action music, and good music for comedy.  Voices are also really good.  I really liked how Sora's voice was really versatile.  He had a wide range of tones from the serious tones to a light-hearted one to match the feel of it.  There's also Shiro's monotonous tone that's really hypnotic to mix with her kawaii-ness.  Also really good sound effects.

Characters

It was a great ensamble of personalities that mix together to form a good cast.  I really like Sora's character.  He's brutally honest, calculating, and arrogant but he's still warm, caring, selfless (but he's also a bit of a .  The way he interacts with the others around him is great.  First off is with his adopted sister, Shira.  Shira was an orphan child genius and clicked with Sora right away.  It's really heart-warming to see how much trust they have in each other.  There's also Stephanie Dola.  At first she really quesioned whether or not she  can trust those two with the fate of the race but the things Sora and Shina have done, no matter how ridiculous, she can't deny they can help.  In short, the interactions they have also really make the show.

Extras

One of my favorite things about the show are some of the references it makes such as:

I'm a huge JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fan and this really awesome and it captured the style really well.  There was also Sora's objection moments that were also awesome.

Overall:

I loved this show.  I couldn't stop watching.  When I finished episode 12 I got so hyped only to find out it was the season finale.  It was so good I'm thinking about getting into the light novel.  No Game No Life is a full on recommendation from me.  

the incest-esq boarderline pedo thing got too weird for me when they kissed lmao, i literally dont understand why people make these but o well. would have been super cool if it wasnt a teenage boy and his 11 year old sister girlfriend whatever, i liked the story line :/

This is just an insult to my eyes and ears. Sexual representation of children. Endless fan service. Braindead humor. Bad dialogues. Boring challenges. And hints of incest (kissing scene lol) Is that what people have been parting about lately? I watched the anime yesterday and created an account for wtf reviews. 8 episodes were my limit, how can you watch more of them? High School DxD is even less daunting

No Game No Life is fun and entertaining, but nothing more. The story isn't great nor are the characters, but the plot is smart enough and well-narrated, with a good-pacing and likeable characters. And there are loads of fan service.

The story is about two NEET siblings (Not in Employment, Education or Training - basically shut-ins) Sora and Shiro, who spend all their time playing games; together they are known as The Blank, a couple of unrivalled gamers. They are challenged to a chess game by an unknown entity and having won, are transported to a different dimension where everything is decided by games. This world is populated by several different races, each with its own characteristics, power and ranking. Shiro and Sora find themselves in Imanity, the race which is ranked the lowest. After taking part in a game to decide the ruler of the country and obviously winning, they become the king and queen of Imanity and start trying to improve its ranking by challenging the other races to games. That's basically the plot. It's amusing to watch because the games are really common ones (Shiritori, Rock paper scissors, etc) but with a twist as the gamers can decide the rules and so they often introduce clever variations to the traditional way the game is played. It's usually Sora who changes the rules of the games in order to carry out some kind of smart plan he had previously thought up and gain a specific advantage.  

Sora and Shiro are likeable characters, there's a very strong bond between the two and their personalities are quite clear from the start: Sora is really clever and calculating, but also a perv, while Shiro is the cute little sister who is also a genius and unconditionally devoted to her brother. It's fun to watch them interact among themselves and with the other characters, but there is no psychological development. 

The sound is ok, good voice-acting, nice OP and ED. As for the visuals, they are lovely but I didn't like them. Everything is surrounded by a kind of soft blurry glow. It's like when you download those amazing wallpapers for your pc monitor, the really beautiful ones with all the wonderful colours and perfect details etc. After a while, they get boring. Same here.

So, in conclusion, I'm giving No Game No Life a lower than average vote because I prefer more thought-provoking anime with a lot more character development and a complicated plot. But that's just me. If you want to watch something fun and entertaining and clever, No Game No Life is undeniably a good watch.

I need to vent some of this frustration so bear with me...

Seeing as how highly rated this was and how it was recommended by some anime YTubers I used to respect opinions of I was looking forward to this show. Watching the first episode was a sharp slap in the face but I thought this can't be it, right? There's no way shit anime like this could garner such praise from everyone and their catgirl, right?

Two more episodes later and several more slaps, I couldn't take anymore. It's probably not as bad as a 0/10 but I feel the need to correct the absurdly high score on this for all the rapidly decreasing good in the world. What the hell was there in this to like? All the characters were disgusting, stinking piles of rotting garbage. The plot could have been interesting but it didn't really matter because the games were some of the most retarded pieces of shit I have ever seen. The main characters were overpowered in the most stupid way possible and completely unrelatable.

Everytime I'm given hope for humanity by watching or experiencing something truly good, shit like this comes around to ruin it and lead me to despair again. I'll never forgive those YTubers for making me experience even a sliver of this utter shite. All that said, judging by the review scores, anime fans will like this (makes me want to vomit) so... enjoy, I guess.