Unsure how I came accross No Game No Life but I’m glad I did, as this truly feels like an anime from a different time. Featuring a favorite trope of travelling to a game world, where the perfect gamer siblings Sora and Shiro have their adventures. It was adapted in a short 12 episode series and then a prequel movie. The anime ends on a cliffhanger that despite its popualrity has not had other light novels adapted.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the anime is extremely horny, you’ll see all the tropes from anime of yore, the anime is not ashamed at all to go to pervy town and despite that it’s never actually explicit about anything, so a rather tame anime at that. I do think the sexyness could be better used being a bit more fan service while not being as in your face about it. The character designs are not my favorite but they work well. I do love the neon an aesthetics the whole show has and it really sets it apart.
I wouldn’t say it’s the best written show, it can’t quite match the level of precision that you’d see L make on death note while they’r eplaying games here, but I do like some of their ideas. I do think that in general the ideas that it has could be executed so much better.. There are many things that are just not handled well in general, where we coudl’ve had more and less of specific situations. In general the world is just too white, I thinkt it could use other. The dub didn’t seem great, but it is refreshing to see a more modern anime that can still feel from a different era and look good.
The show tries to pretend that it is smarter than it really is, the ending is not the best but shows the potential fo the world. I do love the idea of going into this Disboard world and the way it operates with the ten pledges. It is a fresh take on the isekai digital world trope. Hopefully one day we get more of this world.
No Game No Life: Zero, is a movie that adapts one of the later volumes which in turn is a prequel to the series you watched. It can work standalone since the characters are all new but it does help if you already know how this world works. Some similar themes fromt he anime but in general it shows you how the world was formed and gives you different vibes. Deus Ex Robot girls and Robot wars, it gets odd quickly shows a differnt more post apocalyptic world rather than the go lucky world you were used to. But it is after all an origin.
With the Visual Novels still on going and a popularity for the series, I think we can see this anime coming back one day. It currently adapts Volumes 1,2 and 3. With the cliffhanger and movie adapting Vol. 6. So they have plenty to adapt with 4,5 and 7-13 at the moment. Let’s hope it happens.