Anime: No Game No Life by Yu Kamiya

No Game No Life is just as good as I remember it being when it released in 2014! I am still wishing on a second season but they've at least made a film since the end of the season, so hopefully that will fulfill my needs for the moment.

This was my first isekai anime I had ever watched and I can say that, hands down, that I absolutely love it! No Game No Life by Kamiya Yu is about a pair of siblings, Shiro, 11 and Sora, 18, who are NEETs. NEETs meaning they are not in education, employment, or training, meaning military. They stay home all day and play video games. They have insanely high intelligence and never lose any game they play. Their usernames on their accounts are left blank so they are called [ ], Kuhaku or "Blank" in English.

They are taken to a new world after beating Tet, the god of play, at an online game of chess. Prior to the game, Tet sends them an anonymous email asking these questions relating to whether or not they were happy in their world. Bottom line, no they were not happy, so after the game Tet took them to his world where absolutely everything is decided with a game. And he explains to them the ten pledges the world of Disboard runs by. Thus, they were reborn to their ideal world.


(SPOILER WARNING! START)

The first episode starts off with them beating Tet at chess and Tet taking them to his world. When they are taken, they experience a ten thousand meter drop from the sky. As they are falling, that's when Tet explains the ten pledges.

It turns out that Tet drops them near Elkia, the only city that Imanity has left. There are sixteen different races on Disboard and Imanity is one of them, Imanity being humans. Sora and Shiro get the history of Disboard from some bandits they beat in a game. They leave the bandits and head to Elkia, where they head to an inn and a tournament game to become the next king is taking place. Sora plays a game with a random woman to win her pouch of gold from her and he wins. At this point you learn that there is a  special word you must speak while raising your hand, this is the pledge.

When Sora haggles for the room, Shiro is taking pictures of the game that's happening inside and she finds out one of the girls is cheating. Sora kind of takes pity on Stephanie Dola, the random woman from before had explained to them that she was the late king's granddaughter and couldn't inherit the throne because his last wish was for the next king to be a great gambler. Stephanie was struggling while the girl she was playing against was cheating, Sora tells her that the other is cheating but doesn't tell her how. They head to their room where they check all of their stuff that came with them, a bunch of technology, like gaming systems and the like.

Hours later, Stephanie Dola comes to their room and they have a game where she loses, and Sora makes the winning condition for her to love him and then comedic actions ensue. This part also starts the running gag of going to the edge of rated-R without actually reaching it. 

They gain Stephanie as an ally, defeat Kurami Zell, the girl who was conspiring with an elf to win the competition, and win the title of king for themselves! Shiro and Sora fix all of the domestic disputes and problems fairly quickly and learn the language of Imanity as well, using up all their time to read all the books they can get ahold of the learn more about the world. Now, Steph is kind of not all that bright and she sees them not doing the royal duties and just playing games and reading all the time as them just goofing off. 

She's surprised to learn that they weren't just goofing off and were actually learning about the world to try and do something. So, Kuhaku runs out of books in the castle and try to look for some in the town and come to find out that the library was lost to a flugel during a game. They go the library, play against the flugel, and win the library back along with getting the flugel, Jibril. 

As the series continues, they set their sights on the Eastern Federation, solely due to the fact that they have animal-earred girls and Sora is a major pervert, Shiro kind of is as well. They set their sights on beating them and getting all the land back that was lost to them when the last king played against them. Due to various clues and the king's old journal, they found it in a secret room, they were able to determine that the Werebeasts, the race of the Eastern Federation, game they use are videogames. Something unheard of in this world and the fact that the Werebeasts make it a condition for you to lose all your memories of the game, should you lose, did not make it any easier to figure out why they did such a thing. 

They acquired Kurami Zell as an ally prior to their game with the Werebeasts, due to the fact that they needed her elf, Fiel, for their plan. Anyways, they win against the Werebeasts, gaining back all the land they lost. Shiro and Sora end up playing another game right after with the miko herself, she is the ruler of the Eastern Federation, they end in a tie and as the conditions go, they got merged into one, becoming the Elkian Federation. Both sodes get to use resources from each other and the Werebeasts have the right to rule over themselves while being under the umbrella of Elkia. Kuhaku ended up being one step closer to world domination and one step closer to challenging Tet to another game. 

(SPOILER WARNING! END)

This review ended up being a lot longer than the ones in the past couple of weeks, so sorry about that I think... unless you guys like the longer reviews, please let me know below! Moving on, the first time I watched this, I did finish, but my memory cut off at episode 11, so when I thought back to it, I thought the anime ended in a cliff hanger. Which it did regardless, but I just always thought it was strange, not having any recollection of the last episode. 

I love this isekai! I really did wish there were more to the anime but alas, there is not. I need to be able to get my hands on the light novels and the manga to continue the story. Unfortunately, the manga stops at volume two and I don't know if it's going to continue. If you want more of the story, the best bet is to read the light novel. The anime covers the first three volumes and since there are around ten volumes out right now, you'll have a lot of material to read!

No Game No Life is an absolute wonder! It's not heavy with the harem side of things and the ecchi scenes are toned down, making them really mild in comparison to others, looking at you Negima?! and Girls Bravo. And I'm going to throw Steel Angel Kurumi in there too. It didn't heavily rely on the ecchi and harem aspects to carry the story, which is great! Hell, Negi sneezes Azuna's clothes off in the very first chapter, if I'm remembering correctly. This anime doesn't have ecchi things happen until at least episode two! I'm not gonna gripe at Negima?! anymore, love the manga and anime, but the story doesn't really develop until later on.

Shiro and Sora are very clever, but they aren't OP in this at all, they carry each other. What one of them doesn't have, the other makes up for it. They are a team with absolute trust in each other and it's amazing to see that, not just two kids with amazing brain power, but the bond between them and them being aware that they need each other. That the other has qualities and knowledge that they don't. I highly recommend this anime, especially if you like isekais. I might be getting into more isekais in the coming weeks to see what is the latest! 

Hope you guys enjoyed this week's review! Please comment down below your thoughts on the anime! Have you seen it? Are you considering watching it? What are some of your isekai recommendations for me? I will always reply to comments and I hope to see you all next week!

I hope everyone is still happy and healthy! COVID-19 is still kicking ass and taking names, but there are a couple of cures out there that are in the works right now as it is still April. You might see that I write a lot and that a lot of these posts are from April, but the quarantine is still in effect and I have just been watching a lot of anime. I have also been doing my schoolwork, not neglecting that this close to the end of the semester. So, I've been trying to keep myself busy. This is my little COVID-19 update, hope you guys are all okay!