3ET: No Game No Life

Here we see the shut-in gamer siblings in their natural habitat. Notice how while
they are not a mating pair, they are situated that way to maximize pandering.

Studio: Madhouse

Director: Ishizuka Atsuko (Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo)

Writer: Hanada Jukki (Rozen Maiden, Steins;Gate)

Main Cast:

Matusuoka Yoshitsugu as Sora

Kayano Ai as Shiro

Character Design: Oodate Kouji

Music: Sasao Ayako and Hosoe Shinji

It would be easy to dismiss No Game No Life as yet another show about gamers transported to a different world (either a game or fantasy world) and have to play some sort of game to survive. However, that would not be entirely accurate. In this case, the gamers are the sibling pair of Sora and Shiro. They are highly codependent and thankfully not incestuous, a fact Sora goes out of his way to point out. This codependence manifests itself in the second episode when Sora gets kicked through a door for perving on a girl that they meet, separating himself from Shiro. The two go into a simultaneous full mental breakdown at being apart, an are only brought back to normal when they can make visual contact again. It's quite effective and a bit unsettling. Sora and Shiro's need to decouple from each other and become their own person is something upon which to build a character arc, and that's a good start.

Unfortunately, that is the only real exploration of Sora and Shiro's characters that happen in the first three episodes. For the rest of the time, the siblings are portrayed as having a god-like skill in games. It doesn't matter if it is video games, chess, poker, or even rock-paper-scissors; they will win and no one can beat them. And in a world where everything is based on games, that makes them feel inhuman and not relatable. Also, there is nothing aside from the aforementioned episode to distinguish their characters from the stock archetypes of the brash, perverted, virgin teenage boy in Sora or the quiet, cute, genius girl in Shiro aside from their references to some other anime. That isn't enough to make me care about them going around winning games, and the overarching storyline doesn't do much better.

Oh look, Sora and Shiro just beat some girl at cards. How shocking.

It seems that I harp on exposition a lot in my criticism, but that's because it is done so badly, so often. And it happens again in No Game No Life. Time is wasted on showing off how awesome Sora and Shiro are at an online game. They're so good, the two of them can control four players! As for explaining the rules of the world, they are literally read off to them while they are falling by a god who shows up to rattle off these rules before disappearing. And the narration of the history of the game world itself adds absolutely nothing to the show. I don't nee to know why the world revolves around games, just that it does revolve around games. Also, there is a major problem with the tone of the show. One minute, Sora is making boob jokes about the new girl he just beat in a game. The next, there is an explanation of the super-serious plight humanity finds itself as the only non-magical race in the world. After that, a scene of characters being self-destructive in a slapstick way. I don't know what this show is trying to do, but whatever it is, it's not being done well.

So, it's another fail with No Game No Life. Like many shows this season, I could see how the basic plotline could work, but the execution falls short. Sora and Shiro needed more flaws in order to make them into rootable protagonists. As they are, nothing in the world is a threat to them. And their personalities are not charming enough to support being that over-powered. I get that they are shut-ins, so their personalities are stunted, but some difficulties with social interactions would have made them better characters. At least it would be something they would fail at. This lack of humanity and the standard anime jokes about boobs and whatnot make me satisfied that I'm not missing much by dropping this show.