Post by Masked on Dec 30, 2015 6:59:26 GMT -9
I'll be re-reviewing No Game No Life once more since I actually JUST finished it, and my thoughts on it have changed somewhat. It's basically a fantasy. ecchi-ish comedy with sprinkles of romance here and there.
STORY: A basic overview I can give of the show without spoiling anything is basically just "two NEET siblings have no life and then they get teleported to a magical land". I can obviously do better than that. The show starts off with two NEET siblings that have no life and are complete losers that don't go outside ever, but a strange game request is sent to them in the form of chess. Being the nerds they are, Sora (the brother) and Shiro (the loli/sister) are teleported by who's basically the God of another world, Tet. He goes on to explain how the world of Disboard works which has 10 pledges that I don't feel like writing in. The gist of it is that there 16 races in this new world and wars are prohibited; the only kind of conflict races/nations can have is a game match. Ergo, all problems are solved with games in Disboard. Tet himself says that in the near future, the two siblings could possibly face off against him in a game of who-knows-what. Sora and Shiro then go off to meet all of the races along with gaining newer motives; the plot develops too much for me to explain without spoiling, but I'll say they make a bunch of friends along the way or something all anime-like. Honestly, this is a really good setup for a long anime, and the execution's done well enough. My only issue is that the show tries "overshooting" (making itself to be bigger or more intellectual than what it really is) itself in more logic-y bits like when Sora is having a match with someone and goes all "this is all or nothing!!!!" way too much. Rating: 9.5/10
CHARACTERS: I'll just start this one off by saying it'll probably be the lowest rated part of my review. The two NEET-y main characters have well written parts, don't get me wrong. It's just the fact that they're a complete Gary Stu and Mary Sue duo due to not losing. Like, ever. Sora explains that Shiro can "run all sorts of calculations in her head" and also "dominate FPS games by calc-". You get the gist of it. Some could say that there's balancing in terms of Shiro's overreliance on Sora, but it's still complete bullshit how an ELEVEN year old can do that. I mean, sure, it's sort of implied that she was born this way because a writer somewhere out there is too lazy to make a realistic character. Sora himself is alright in terms of being possible since he isn't a robot/synth/alien like his sister, but the relationship between him and his sister kind of creeped me out. Example one is when Sora is paying attention to (insert anime girl here) which makes Shiro jealous for no particular reason. Rest of my examples are all the incestuous references which I never really saw as necessary, even for an anime. Shiro herself is used as lolicon bait which can be easily found out because the camera decides to pan down to her undergarments as she plays a game. For some "straaaange" reason the camera likes to focus on her a lot more when there's a bath scene (as is traditional in all anime) even though she's 11. It's one thing to do this to a loli that's actually older than what she appears to be, but it's also a bad thing to feature a character that is actually, I dunno, underaged. Rating: 6.5/10
VISUALS: It's in typical anime style with oversaturation and such. I really like it since that way it looks more orange-y and red-ish. No instances of "QUALITY" were seen by me. The coloring may be a bit harsh on the eyes for some, though. Rating: 9/10
FANDOM?: This show isn't all that huge, but it's decently big. You can probably find followings of it on art sites, Tumblr, YouTube, etc. with relative ease. From what I have seen, the fans aren't annoying with it. Rating: 10/10
FINAL VERDICT: No Game No Life has its flaws, but it also kiiind of fixes them up be it intentionally or unintentionally. It's short and sweet with only 12 episodes, so I would definitely recommend this if you're looking for something to watch!
FINAL RATING: With fandom - 8.8 out of 10!
Without fandom- 8.3 out of 10!