Project #229: No Game No Life

Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well guys today I’m finally doing it. Today, I’m finally going to review an anime I’ve been wanting to review since it aired all the way back in 2014 and one that a lot of people have been asking to review. The anime I am talking about is No Game No Life. Based off a light novel written by Yu Kamiya, No Game No Life was hands down one of the best animes of 2014 and having the anime produced by the anime giant Madhouse (Devil May Cry and Death Parade) it was obvious that this series was going to be big. I’ve been wanting to review this anime for years but every time I found a time to review something always kept coming up and the review kept getting push back. Well not anymore. My schedule is free and the movie is set to come out soon, the time right. Let’s get started. This is No Game No Life.

We start the anime with our two main characters Sora voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Kirito from SAO) and his little loli sister Shiro voiced by Ai Kayano (Madoka from Infinite Stratos) who I have to admit is probably the best loli character I’ve ever seen. These two make up the team known as Blank a group known across the web as a team that can’t be beaten by anyone, are both geniuses and live the sad and rich life of NEETs (our heroes everybody). They receive an email from an unknown sender who challenges the two to a game of chess where the two win after so much struggling and hours of playing. The unknown sender than sends the two an email asking them what they think of the world to which they response the world is a crappy game (way to steal a line from Keima from TWGOK. Though they are correct the world is a crappy game filled with bugs and glitches. It’s as if the world was created by EA). The unknown sender than ask them if there was a world where the goal was clear what would they do and they respond by saying that that’s the world they should have been born in (same here). Hearing their answer the unknown sender pops out of their computer screen and brings them to the world of Dishboard (get it?). The person who pulled them to this world reveals himself to be Tet the god of Dishboard voiced by Rie Kugimiya (Iori from The Idolm@ster). In this world everything is decided by games including political issues such as land and border disputes (I love this place already) and everyone must obey the 10 oaths of this world:

  1. All bloodshed, war, and pillaging is forbidden.
  2. All conflicts will be resolved through games.
  3. In games, each party will bet something that both sides agree is of equal value.
  4. As long as it doesn’t go against the 3rd Oath, the things that are wagered and the rules of the game will not be questioned.
  5. The challenged party has the right to decide the rules of the game.
  6. Any bets made in accordance with the Oaths must be upheld.
  7. Conflicts between groups will be conducted by designated representatives with absolute authority.
  8. Being caught cheating during a game is grounds for an instant loss.
  9. In the name of God, the previous rules may never be changed.
  10. Let’s get along and play together!

Alright good rules. I like them, straightforward and to the point. After Tet explains the rules Sora and Shiro land on the ground totally fine (pretty impressive considering they fell 10,000 feet from the sky. Apparently this world follows Looney Tunes logic particularly the law of Wile E. Coyote). They then arrive at a city which is holding a poker tournament to decide the next king (oh I should have joined, I love playing poker especially Texas Hold’em). The tournament is down to two players, one being Kurami voiced by Yuka Iguchi (Maho from Ro-Kyu-Bu) and the other being Steph voiced by Yoko Hikasa (Rias from Highschool DxD) the granddaughter of the late king and responsible comic relief character. It’s clear that Steph is going to lose because one, she has a terrible poker face (I can read I can read, yes I can read her poker face~. She’s got nothing in other hand. Poke poke poke, poker face, poke poke poker face na na na na), and two, Kurumi is cheating (hey according to this world it’s only cheating if you get caught). While that’s going on Sora plays a woman in poker to get her money, wins easily and using his negotiation skills manages to figure out the currency of this world and get a room for 4 nights using only one coin (man Sora would make a good salesman).

In episode 2 Steph loses to Kurami and goes to vent out her frustration on Sora (well that’s mean, it’s not his fault you’re a terrible card player). Sora begins to make fun of Steph and the old king which upsets her so she decides to slap him but before she can Sora challenges her to a game of rock-paper-scissors. If Sora wins Steph has to do Sora any favor he asks of her, if Steph wins Sora has to do her a favor, and if they tie Sora will do Steph a favor and Steph has to find a place for Sora and Shiro to stay at. They play the game with Sora winning after playing mind games with her (is that even possible in rock-paper-scissors?) and he gives Steph his orders which are to fall in love with him (scene here: http://youtu.be/DINrDi0-Cw4, virgin boy NEET will finally got his girlfriend). After saying this we see how the oaths come into effect as Steph can’t control her emotions about Sora (scenes here: http://youtu.be/pN_BI_IYWX4 and http://youtu.be/_eh7F5GEoAw) and we finally see the one weakness Sora and Shiro have, they can’t handle be separated from each other (scene here: http://youtu.be/un9XlZ6R6W0, well that was both silly and a little disturbing). After the many scenes of hilarity Steph takes them to the palace where Sora tries to see Steph naked (scene here: http://youtu.be/rjidyu77DK8) and we see that Steph is still at war with herself in her fight against Sora, (man that is some powerful stuff right there. Any chance these oaths can apply in our world?). After that we learn a little more about this world. We find out that there are 16 races in the world with the humans (known as Imanity in this world) being at the bottom because we can’t use magic while the other races can (screw magic, we have technology and money. Well we have technology). We also find out that the Imanity’s kingdom has dwindle quite a lot because the previous king was force to bet the land in games and lost (nothing worse than having a king who’s a bad gambler and a gambling addict). After learning about the world and its history, Sora and Shiro decide to team up with Steph and take down Kurami to regain the thrown and lead Imanity.

Things heat up in episode 3 with Sora crashing the coronation ceremony of Kurami with an obligatory Phoenix Wright reference (scene here: http://youtu.be/NAgfg7bHTOI, gotta love the shout outs to Phoenix Wright in this scene. The music, the obvious catchphrase which should have been said in English, and even the advisor looks like the judge from the game). Sora reveals to everyone that Kurami is working with the Elves to take over Imanity and challenges her to a game of her choice at a later date. Kurami calls for them where she gets the idea that Sora and Shiro are working with another race to take over Imanity just like her (jumping to conclusions real quickly huh Kurami?). She tells them her plan to create a settlement for Imanity where they can bar themselves off from the world and live in peace under the protection of elves. At first it sounds good but of course Sora and Shiro don’t like the idea and reject it (scene here: https://youtu.be/8cwh0mTuFMQ, and now we’re parody Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. I wonder if I should start a parody counter?). She takes them into a building where she shows them that the game they will be playing is chess but not just any chess real chess where the pieces have wills of their own so they’re free to screw the rules and do whatever they want (just the way chess was meant to be played). Shiro starts the game off where we see that even though Kurami’s pieces are ignoring the moves, Shiro is still destroying her (cute little loli dominates chess) but when she tells one of her pawns to move to where a knight is the pawn refuses to move and ignores her order (well obviously. Who would take in order to go off and die? Nobody would do that, watch. Hey Seras, go find The Reaper and challenge him to a fight. (Seras): Hell no! Why the hell would I do that? (Nitsuj): Because I ordered you to. (Seras): Yeah we’ll you ordered me to a take shower with you and that ended with me beating the crap out of you, so are we gonna have a repeat of that event again? (Nitsuj): No ma’am. (Seras): I thought so). Soon pretty much all the other chess pieces begin to ignore Shiro’s orders (you would deny the orders of a precious loli? You have no right to call yourselves men) and Sora takes order asserting his authority as king (I shall follow you to my death King Sora). This speech gets the troops fired up as they all pretty much ignore the rules (and I mean seriously ignore the rules that for a moment I forgot they were playing chess. Why can’t real chess be like this?). Sora manages to push Kurami against the wall but she uses elven magic to brainwash Sora’s chess pieces and bring them to her side (and that is cheating disqualify her. (Mira): No. (Nitsuj): What? Why not, she’s obviously cheating. (Isis): Prove it. (Nitsuj): Chess pieces don’t just defect to the enemy’s side without reason what more proof do you need? (Mira): True. But in case you have forgotten, this isn’t normal chess, the pieces have a will of their own and if they decide to side with the enemy than that is your problem to solve. (Nitsuj): So what does this mean? (Isis): It means you’re screwed). Kurami’s queen approaches Sora’s king prepared to deal the finishing blow but Sora steps in and earns the compassion and admiration of the queen which results in her joining Sora’s team (man they are just screwing the rules of chess literally and figuratively in this episode aren’t they?) and even a few of Kurami’s pieces are hesitant to fight now that the queen has sided with the enemy.

In episode 4 the queen turns on Kurami as do a few of the other soldiers forming their own red rebellion group (viva la revolution). Sora tells Kurami to give up but she refuses (lady just stop, you’re embarrassing yourself) to surrender and orders all her pieces to destroy the traitor queen even if it causes them their life (and so begins the second reign of Hitler). But as history has shown us, those who rule by fear and oppression are doomed to die by assassination and that’s what happens to Kurami. With her king defeated and the other pieces defecting Sora is named the winner (winner. Virgin 18 year old shut-in). Kurami goes to them demanding to know which race is backing them up because she doesn’t believe a human could beat beings with magic (http://youtu.be/fLrpBLDWyCI?t=2s). Sora tells her he has no one backing him up and that he will show her just how powerful humans can be. After the crowning ceremony takes place where Shiro won’t let Sora become king because she doesn’t want him to use his power to create a harem (get over it you brothercon) and thus a game of old maiden ensues to decide who will be the next king. The game goes on for I wanna say hours (if not days) with the two barely alive, Steph going crazy, and the end nowhere in sight until Shiro brings up rule 7 where they find a loophole in that it doesn’t say there has to be one representative (how convenient). With this they both become the king and queen of Elchea and quickly solve the countries food shortage and money problem by introducing crop rotation and treasury bonds for the banks to buy. They even take care of the spy problem by playing a game with all the citizens and telling them to lose so no one can be a spy for another country. Later on, the two are formerly crowned king and queen where they speak to the people of Elchea and give a rather impressive speech on how they’re weak but at the same time the weak will overcome the strong and rip them from the seats of their high thrones (scene here: https://youtu.be/Se0yQDJsvkY). After that speech they receive a chess piece making them the official rulers of Elchea and as they’re relaxing Tet comes to visit them where we find out that the reason he bought them to this world is because he wants a rematch against them. Yeah, there’s no world saving business, no end of the world drama, no evil force bullshit or favoritism of races he’s just bored, there’s nobody strong enough to face him. Imagine being in his shoes for one minute. You’re a god of this world where everything is decided by a game and you’re the best there is out there, nobody comes close to your skills (you are literally the One Piece of this world). Now at first it’s all fun but as time goes on you’re gonna get bored and lonely. But one day you play a game against these people from another world and they beat you. All of a sudden you’re happy because you have finally found someone to give you a challenge and you wanna challenge them again to see who the best is. That’s what Tet feels like right now he has found someone to have fun with and he’s not gonna let anyone get in his way or stop his fun. Sora and Shiro are totally up for a rematch against Tet because they refuse to play second fiddle to anyone but in order to earn the right to face Tet they must gather the 15 remaining chess pieces from the other races in the world (take down the other races, play some games, beat the god of this world and assume his throne. Excuse me for a moment *Makes a call*. (???): Hello, this is Yu Kamiya. (Nitsuj): YOU ARE A GENIUS *hangs up phone*). After their talk Tet takes his leave and they promise to meet again on the chess board.

Not much happens in episode 5. Steph tries to get Shiro and Sora to be decent kings and run the country (you be better off asking for the moon) so she challenges them to a series of games which she believed are based off of chance and nothing else (no such game exist). At the end she keeps losing to them and has to be their dog for a day while walking around the town half-naked with dog ears and a tail. We then see that Sora and Shiro have in fact actually been taking their job as kings seriously, they’ve been trying to research the world hoping to get an idea on what the other races are like so they can develop a strategy to defeat the other races but so far all they’ve found is nothing helpful. Steph tells them that they should check out Imanity’s library to find what they’re looking for but the library is under the control of the Flugel because her grandfather lost it in a bet (he betted humanity’s knowledge? All of it? How dumb can he be? No wonder humanity got screwed in this world! You guys kept betting away everything valuable).

In episode 6 Sora, Shiro, and Steph go to Imanity’s library and meet Jibril the Flugel in charge of it all (and she is hot. Scene here: https://youtu.be/53F6wQRszAc, okay she’s an airhead but I can work with that). We see that the Flugel are in fact people with wings who are said to be god-killing warriors but after Tet took over they retired from their god-killing ways and instead decided to start collecting knowledge valuing that above everything else. Sora tells Jibril he wants the library and that he’ll bet 40,000 books from his world for it. At first Jibril doesn’t believe that Sora and Shiro have come from another world but after touching Sora’s ero spot (oh God we’re entering hentai territory) to which Sora limits to just his chest (oh cockblocked again) she believes them. He returns the favor by playing with her ero spot which happens to be her wings and he makes her orgasm 2 times (wow, a being that was said to be a god-killing warrior is now getting off in the library like a preteen boy who just discovered his first porn site). After examining them she finds that even though Sora has the appearance of an Imanity he’s actually an unknown being in this world. This of course fascinates her and she decides to raise the states by betting everything she has (which means it can’t be much) to match Sora’s 40,000 book bet and make him bet himself. After agreeing to the bet Jibril tells them that they’re going to play shiritori a Japanese word game in which the players are required to say a word every 30 seconds which begins with the final kana of the previous word (it’s kind of like the game word chain in America) but it won’t just be regular shiritori (of course not, regular is stupid and unimaginative) it’ll be materialized shiritori meaning that whatever they say will appear in front of them but if it’s something that’s already in the library it’ll disappear (alright. Gun *gun appears*. Now give me the library). So the game begins and I have to admit it’s a fun game overall as Sora tries to finish her off by killing her but she keeps stopping his attempts. Eventually they start to do more perverted stuff such as Sora making all the girls naked and since they don’t show nipples it’s totally safe and Japanese censorship laws can’t do anybody about it (they found a loophole. Quick, tell the other anime studios they must know about this great find). They continue to name all kinds of crazy things like an alien rip-off from the Alien movies until the game reaches its climax where Sora moves it into outer space and gets rid of the oxygen which makes Jibril unable to speak and since she has to say a word in 30 seconds or she loses she has no choice but to give up. But no, Jibril uses her magic to write out the next word totally catching Sora off guard (http://youtu.be/l8o5fxnDUjs) but Sora turns it around by writing down Columb’s Force (okay this is territory that’s beyond me. Mira, enlighten me and the audience please. (Mira): *Mira appears* Coulomb’s Force, also called electrostatic force or Coulomb interaction. Attraction or repulsion of particles or objects because of their electric charge. Basically, two electric charges both positive or both negative, repel each other along a straight line between their centres. However, two unlike charges, one positive, one negative, attract each other along a straight line joining their centres. (Nitsuj): Okay I get it now. Thanks Mira. (Mira): My pleasure). So with Coulomb’s Force gone all the atoms gather together to create not a supernova but a hypernova which is said can destroy stars dozens of lightyears away (holy shit he is doing things that are just downright insane just to win. I’ve used the phase I will tear the universe apart just to get a PS4 but that was just a figure speech. This guy is trying to win a game even if it means killing himself in the process in a literal sense). So they all die (and everybody died~) but since Jibril died one second before Sora he’s the winner. With this awesome victory Sora wins back the library as well as all of Jibril’s belongings and when she finds out they’re going to take on Tet she offers her undying loyalty to them.

Not a whole lot happens in episode 7. Sora decides he wants to conquer the Eastern Federation which is the animal-people territory (oh yeah! Animal girls here we come) but he can’t find anything because not only are these animal-people mind readers but whenever they play a game and win they make it so that the race they face has their memories erased. Basically, whenever someone challenges them and loses they have their memories of the game erased so the loser can’t come up with a strategy to prepare and beat them in the future (not gonna lie this is a pretty brilliant strategy on their part). Jibril tells them that the only race to challenge the Eastern Federation in the last year was Steph’s grandfather and the guy lost eight times to them losing many parts of the human territory (okay Steph I like you and all but it is getting really hard to defend the actions of your grandfather). Sora begins to call Steph’s grandfather foolish as well as downplay humanity calling them stupid and a worthless bunch (geez when did he go goth on us? He’s not particularly wrong but in our defense not all of us are stupid and worthless just some of us). This of course upsets Steph and she runs away crying leaving Sora and Shiro in the library but Jibril calls her back and she arrives to overhear Sora talk about how even though he thinks humanity is a worthless bunch he still believes in the potential of humanity because of Shiro (if you had a cute sister like Shiro by your side you too would start to believe in the potential of humanity). After doing more research Sora figures out that the animal-people didn’t erase Steph’s grandfather’s memories in their games because they didn’t see him as a threat and wanted to keep playing him to take over his land but he actually tricked them instead. He only betted parts of the land that his people couldn’t use or need and during all those games he was trying to figure out how to beat them (okay maybe he wasn’t a foolish king after all). Steph comes in and gives Sora a key which belonged to her grandfather (it’s the key to his porno stash isn’t it?) and they use the key to find a secret room where the king left his research on how to outwit the animal-people for the next king to find and use (so even though he lost and knew he couldn’t win he wanted to make sure the next king had a much higher chance of victory than him. Okay the guy’s brilliance is starting to shine through).

Episode 8 is just epic build up for what’s to come. Sora, Shiro, and the others go the Eastern Federations embassy where they meet the representative who is a loli catgirl named Izuna (oh no, Shiro’s position in this series is in jeopardy?) and her strict overprotecting grandfather (hey man there’s no killing in this world remember that). Sora reveals to us that the Eastern Federation really can’t read minds (http://youtu.be/r2xDJPc-yaM) it’s just a lie they started to trick the other races. The only thing they can really do is read a person’s heart rate to tell if they’re lying or not. He also reveals that the reason the citizens of the Eastern Federation keep erasing people’s mind is because the Eastern Federation has used their knowledge and technology to create video games which in a world where magic is dominant and technology isn’t has the other races not knowing what the hell to do and because the Eastern Federation keeps erasing the minds of their opponents the other races can’t learn or study this new technology thus giving the Eastern Federation the absolute advantage in a game each time making them unbeatable (brilliant plan. They covered all their bases and have everyone right where they want them. Probably should have thought that of that before THEY LET IMANITY’S KING LEAVE WITH HIS MEMORIES INTACT). After revealing all of this Sora challenges them to a game where the Eastern Federation will bet their territory and Sora will bet Steph’s panties (pervy animals). But Sora decides to raise the stakes and bets the entire race of Imanity meaning if Sora and Shiro lose the whole race of Imanity will lose their rights as a race. They take their leave and give the Eastern Federation time to think about how much shit they’re in and we end bizarrely with a static sound, Sora disappearing, and everyone besides Shiro remembering him (the game has already begun).

Episode 9 is kind of a letdown. We find out that the reason Sora has gone missing is because he went to go play a game of Othello with Kurami because he wants to use her elf friend Fi who helped her win in matches earlier for some reason. In the game the two are betting their own existence and memories and each piece represents a part of their memory or existence. Yeah it’s hard to explain but basically each time a piece gets turned over the people around Sora begin to lose their memories of him entirely. The only reason Shiro still remembers Sora is because Sora added in a stipulation that if either him or Kurami were unable to continue the match (as in their existence gets totally erased) their partners will take over for them in the match. As the match progresses Sora’s existence gets entirely erased and thus Shiro has to continue the game in the throne room without seeing the board or anything (so how is she supposed to play the game if she has no idea what’s going on?). Somehow Shiro figures out how Sora set the board up for her to win and she manages to beat Kurami and get Sora back. With this win Kurami now has the memories of Sora and sees that Sora and Shiro are working with no other races in the world thus earning her trust and alliance. This whole episode just felt overplayed a bit. I assume Sora has a plan and he needs Kurami and Fi’s help to pull it off but having a game where your existence and memory vanish just seems to go over the top for no reason. He could have easily just told her “hey, I’m working with no one this is all me now join my team. Or better yet let’s play a game. If I win you pledge loyalty to my team and if I lose I’ll hand Imanity over to you”. There, that would have been the better alternative than what they did in this episode. I think the show was trying to get that same epic feel they had in episode 6 but you can’t force the show to be epic it has to be epic because the scene is epic and not because you want it to be epic.

Nothing really happens in episode 10. Everyone just spends time getting to know each other. We find out that Kurami is actually Fi’s slave (so bitch basically) and Fi is actually a high ranking elf who is trying to desperately eradicate the slave system in the elf territory but she’s more than happy to just watch the country vanish (scene here: https://youtu.be/NAimCk2FL3Q) okay don’t let her smile fool you folks this girl is evil. (Seras): I like her). The day of the match comes and everyone in Imanity is in the building keeping a close eye on the match. Kurami and Fi are also there to act as lookouts in case the animal people try to cheat. At the end of the episode Sora, Shiro, Steph, Jibril, and Izune are put into these virtual machines where they get transported to a virtual Akihabara where Sora and Shiro fall apart (and they’re fucked).

At the beginning of episode 11 Sora and Shiro find out that they’re not really in Tokyo but instead a virtual reality world that just looks like Tokyo (scene here: https://youtu.be/S_eHWgBUggg, they didn’t realize this why?). With this information Sora and Shiro return to normal (well as normal as the two can get) where we see that the game they’re in is a cross between SIM dating games and Call of Duty/Battlefield games (oh good combining something that’s fun and interesting with something that’s bugging and repetitive. We’re getting the best and worst of both worlds here. In other words, it’s Gal Gun). In the game they’re given guns called the love-love guns (powered by their own love) where they have to shoot the animal girl NPCs that chase them which will increase their love power. The goal of the game is to shoot the opposing team with their love-love guns and get them to fall in love with them (so it’s a 4-on-1 shooting match. Izune might have the advantage). After playing around a bit Sora figures out that you can bounce bullets off the wall, shoot your teammates to replenish their love power and make them fall in love with you to get them back on your side, and you can use your clothes as shields. Shiro goes to face Izune where we find out that Shiro is a wiz when it comes to FPS games like these (okay it’s official. Loli girl of the year right here folks) and she manages to get Izune into a bind but Izune escapes all of their traps because she is cheating. It’s not really explained how she’s cheating they just know she’s cheating to the point that the game is nearly impossible to win (it’s like going to a casino in Vegas. They rig and stack the odds against you but there is a way to win. You just have to cheat more than them and not get caught by them). From what I can gather in the episode, Izune’s grandfather is feeding her information telling her where the others are at and everything. Things get even worse for the team when Shiro gets shot by Izune and becomes her love slave (Yin-Yang: That sounds so dirty and wrong. (Nitsuj): Yes, I know. How do you think I feel?). Sora takes on Shiro while Jibril takes on Izune to buy Sora sometime to come up with a plan. As Sora is running from Shiro she notices that she’s walking instead of running after him as if to say she’s not trying to hit him. When they reach the roof of the building Sora charges at Shiro head-on with all of Shiro’s shots missing and grabs her jumping off a building where Izune comes in to fire at Sora and it gets revealed that Shiro was never under Izune’s control at all, it was all a setup to get her to lower her guard and pull her into a trap (oh, she just got Shirown’d). As the three are freefalling Sora takes a shot but Jibril (under Izune’s control) appears from behind takes a shot as well where Izune dodges Sora’s shot and bounces off of Jibril’s shot to head back towards Izune with no way for her to dodge (it’s over!). Realizing for the first time in her life that she’s enjoying a game, Izune decides to go all out against them to end the episode (scene here: https://youtu.be/t1tzwVREMoc).

In the final episode Izune activates what’s known as Blood Destruction an ability only belonging to the animal people that allows them to surpass their physical limitations and go all out (sounds a little like Naruto territory. Not saying anything put I’m thinking of Rock Lee and Gai right now). With no more limitations on her body Izune is now faster, stronger, and defines physics (ya here that physics we finally beat you). She finally corners the two and manages to shoot both of them and lowers her guard (big mistake) thinking she’s won the game when all of sudden Steph appears on the back of an NPC and shoots Izune thus winning the game for Imanity (wow, the weakest character in the show finally gets her moment). It turns out that Sora and Shiro staged for all of this to happen including them getting shot and stuff (man these two put the guys from the Ocean movies to shame). Izune falls into depression and begins panicking because she thinks the Eastern Federation will now be destroyed because she loss and had fun (scene here: https://youtu.be/N3kD4Sr9A9Y, oh no no no, it’s not your fault. *Whispers* I’m pretending to comfort her) but Sora assures her he won’t let nothing happen to the Eastern Federation. After the game and a quick fanservice bath scene the group receives a call from a golden fox known as the Shrine Priestess leader of the Eastern Federation (and one very foxy lady but she can’t hold a candle to my Yume). She’s mighty pissed that Sora beat them in a game and now fears that her nation will be invaded by the elves and flugals (Yin-Yang: What about the other races? (Nitsuj): What about them?). She wants to challenge Sora to a game where if he wins the Eastern Federation belongs to Imanity but if she wins the animal people get the right to self-rule, along with guaranteed rights and access to the countries resources (yeah, she knows her country is screwed, she’s just preparing to save all the people and evacuate them). The game they choose is a toss of the coin (so the fate of an entire country and its race comes down to a coin toss? Where’s Two-Face when you need him). Sora tosses the coin but the Shrine Priestess activates her Blood Destruction to effect the velocity and flip of the coin to make sure she wins but the coin falls down a crack and the game ends in a draw where both sides wins, the Eastern Federation is now own by Imanity (animal-girl paradise here I come) and the animal people still have their rights, self-rule, and access to the countries resources and as for the Elves invading, well Sora altered the mind of Fi so when she goes to deliver her information to the high elves (man those guys must be flying) and they decide to challenge Imanity to a match those overconfident sons of bitches are gonna be in for a big surprise (checkmate, game set and match, no matter how you say it in the end Sora wins. Now king him). We end the season with Sora and Shiro explaining to everyone that the secret to winning Tet’s game isn’t conquering all the nations but instead uniting them as one which is what Tet has been trying to do from the very beginning (wise god). As the credits roll we end the season on a major cliffhanger with the arrival of the Old Deus who were the original gods of this world and are the strongest beings in the world next to Tet.

Final Thoughts

So that was No Game No Life. Can you see why this series was one of the best in 2014. It had a great story where the god of this world isn’t playing favorites or trying to save the world, he’s just looking for a challenge and trying to get everyone on the same page through playing games which is quite clever. Playing a good game with others is a good way to break the ice between them and that’s what is trying to do here. Our two main characters, Sora and Shiro are funny but at the same time clever, smart, and cool when they need to be. Despite being NEETs who have a pessimistic outlook on humanity they understand that when humans put their minds to something they can do some pretty amazing stuff. I do wish they would have explored their past more as I’m curious as to what happened to them in the past to make them act this way. The side characters were enjoyable as well. I like how Steph’s relationship with Sora and Shiro is similar to that of Holmes and Watson. Steph is the Watson to their Holmes, she’s trying to understand the logic behind Sora and Shiro’s actions and mannerisms and make sense of it but failing each time. She trusts them but wants to know what they’re thinking so she can help them out better. Jibril is basically an airhead who unfortunately doesn’t do much in the anime but she’s fun to have around and I did like the small arc Kurumi went through of not having much faith in humanity which is understandable given what she’s seen and been through all this time.

The games are all fun. The best so far was the game against Jibril which was just epic and probably the lowest one was the Othello game against Kurumi and Fi. It’s not bad but just needlessly complex for no reason and tries to be epic when there’s no need for it to be epic. The animation is nice and colorful although it does look like a filter is over it but it’s not too distracting. The music surprisingly was a little bit of a letdown. I really don’t remember any of the music from this series which is a shame because usually Madhouse has a good soundtrack with their animes so I don’t know what happened here and I wish they would have talked about the other races in the world or at least showed them once for us to get idea of what they look like.

Final Score

The final score for No Game No Life is an 8.5/10 with a must watch stamp of approval. This is a great anime and the upcoming movie has me excited at the possibility of a second season on the horizon. If you haven’t watched it yet definitely check it out as well as the light novel. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.

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