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Year: 2014
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Supernatural, Ecchi
Episodes: 12
Rating: 4 out of 5
Have you ever been so good at something that you have become bored with the very world you are in? You are so much head and shoulders above the rest that you are looking for a major challenge in your life. One day when you conquered and defeated all, there is one that challenges you. With that challenge, you are pushed to your very limits and barely win. Would you be satisfied? What is your challenger offers you a chance for an even greater challenge? Would you take it? No Game No Life shows what happens when the best players in the world are transported to a world where games rule.
Overview
Sora and Shiro are step-siblings who never leave their room and have isolated themselves from the outside world. With this isolation, they have become known in the gaming world as Blank, an undefeated group of gamers.
One day after a massive gaming session, they receive an email and are challenged to a chess game. Together they managed to beat the challenger after like 16 hours. They soon learn that they were challenged by the one and only Tet, a god from another reality and known in his world as the God of Games. Tet offers them to live in a world that centers around games. After pondering the offer for two seconds, they accept it and are transferred to a world known as Disboard. In this world, the world is governed by a spell known as the Ten Pledges that prevents the citizens of Disboard from inflicting harm on one another, forcing them to resolve their differences by gambling with games whose rules and rewards are magically enforced. This system works thanks to a fundamental rule wherein each party must wager something they deem to be of equal value to the other party’s wager. Seeing the ultimate game at hand and a way to maybe ruling the world and rechallenge Tet in an game for the ages, the genius gamer duo of Sora and Shiro have finally found a real reason to keep playing games. Let the games begin for this duo.
Review:
I really, really liked this anime series. Yes, I might not be part of the norm, or other people didn’t think too highly of this anime but freak them. This anime right here is excellent. It has funny ass characters, a great plot that is not hard to understand, a very unique animation style and color scheme, and unique situations that the main characters find themselves in.
What is the deal and unique about the plot, you might ask?? Well, Sora and Shiro are two hikikomori, aka gamers who spend every freaking moment playing video games that are withdrawn from the world, and step-siblings known in the online gaming world as Blank, an undefeated group of gamers. The plot gets started when they play a chess game against a god and win after I don’t know how many hours and are transported to live in a world that centers around games. The new world has 10 rules to abide by, and in this world, there are like 16 species that were at war, and each holds a territory. Each piece represents a piece on a chessboard. You have to watch it to understand. The whole thing revolves around Sora and Shiro becoming the king and queen of their respective species and declaring war on the others to challenge the god once again. Yet, the whole season is just the two of them outsmarting people to gain just two pieces.
What I love about this anime is the challenges and how Sora and Shiro climb the ranks. Three game battles are the highlight of this whole anime. The first one is when Sora and Shiro challenge for the right to be king and queen. The whole thing where Sora plays chess and compels his pieces to fight is funny and entertaining. My favorite battle was against Jibril, where words become reality. Just the whole thought process of coming up with words and outdoing each other was entertaining. The final battle with the Warbeast was insane. Homegirl went on a terror, and you didn’t know if the crew was going to make it and win.
The animation is quite unique with this anime. I don’t know how to really describe the colors but let’s go with they were bright and dull at the same time. It was really eye-opening to see how unique this anime was drawn and made. The color contrasts intensely played an aspect of how good this anime is. I can go on with the color scheme because it is honestly one of the major highlights of the anime.
Now for the freakin characters in this anime are the best because they are so wild and funny. First are the main characters, Sora and Shiro. You want to talk about hilarious but also genius-level intellect; these two characters are it. I will say they are probably in the top five of all-time smartest anime characters. Sora is an eighteen-year-old male who excels at strategies and cold readings, while his eleven-year-old stepsister, Shiro, excels at calculations and logic. They both play video games so much that they are an undefeated pair known as Blank due to their trademark of using only spaces as their in-game names. One of the funny things about the two is that they are pretty perverted, especially Sora, but he hasn’t even touched a woman in his life. Since they have zero emotional ties to society, the two are so dependent on each other that they have an extreme nervous breakdown when they are separated from each other. I love how they work as a team and truly support and love each other.
Another funny character is Stephanie Dola. She is a teenage girl and granddaughter to the previous king of Elkia. Stephanie has a lot of explicit knowledge, but homegirl really lacks street smarts to win games. The biggest backstory to Stephanie is that her grandfather developed the reputation for constantly losing games which drives her to restore the honor of her family and people. She is the comic relief of the anime as she seems to always be in a bad situation. Finally, is my girl, Jibril. Jibril is what they call a flügel, a powerful angelic race known for their ruthlessness. Homegirl is over 6000 years old and is considered the youngest and most powerful of her species. Homegirl has a thing for books, and when she plays and loses to Sora in an epic match, she becomes his “servant.” I just love this character.
The worse part of this anime is that it only stopped at season one. This anime should have had more seasons because it is very entertaining. The characters are great, and the plot is very worth watching. I highly recommend this anime for anyone who wants to dip their pinky toe in anime.
