The anime tells a story of the two genius gamers, who are also siblings, Sora and Shiro. They also refer to themselves as the undefeatable blank. (They never put down their nicknames, thus the blank). Sora and Shiro are both good at specific game genres, for example Shiro is good at table and shooting games, when her brother is good at strategy games and dating sims. One day, a young boy named Teto appears before them, claiming to be the “God” of another dimension, where Sora and Shiro are summoned to. In the world both siblings are summoned to, violence is not allowed and forbiddenby the God. Whenever a dispute may appear: be it a small one, or a business of an entire country, it is to be solved by a game. In this world, Shiro and Sora are crowned and become the rulers of the weakest nation called Imanity. Not only are they the weakest nation, but also they lost most of their territories to other nations. Will Shiro and Sora restore the previous glory of the humanity, or, perhaps, make the humanity even greater nation than before, or lose everything?
While the story-line might sound generic and boring, one might appreciate the fact that NGNL, as a fantasy-based anime, offers a pretty interesting world to the viewer never seen before: being nearly destroyed, the world of NGNL is reforged in a new version. Though, it might still seem peaceful, it still is a cruel world, where everything is decided by games: including one’s freedom, or the future of the entire nation. Also, for those claiming that the world of NGNL looks too peaceful, make sure to watch the prequel, No Game No Life: Zero, as it will show you the difference in the world of NGNL after and before Teto. But enough with that introduction. All in all, even with some clichés the story-line has, it still has many things to offer never seen before.
Animation wise, characters do look like somewhat okeyish, even good, but when it comes to the background, this anime, just like any fantasy focused anime should be, is absolutely gorgeous. The amount of colors, the way they change-- this is something you should see with your very eyes. And do not get me wrong, character designs still look awesome, there are so many races, the way they look, their unique features. Long story short, as a fantasy anime, NGNL has some awesome animation.
No Game No Life focuses on 3 protagonists: the siblings, Sora and Shiro and Dola Stephanie. From the very first second, you get the idea of who Sora and Shiro are. The two are both geniuses in their specific spheres. Shiro is a genius in logic: she can solve any puzzle in a matter of seconds. Her brother, however, is a more a psychologist type of people, helping his little sis read people’s intensions-- they together are the blank, a duo of genius gamers able to beat every game. They, however, also have negative sides of their characters’: they hate crowds, they are not that good at making public speeches, and so on. Stephanie Dola is the granddaughter of the former king of the humanity. While she is not as ingenious as the duo, she still is a pretty smart lassie. She is there to show the viewer the gap between a genius and a normal person that is good at everything, but never perfect in anything. It does get annoying sometimes that she is only used for a comic relief, you will get used to it. Alas, only a small number of other nations is shown and for many characters the series should have shown and explained many more details, but it cannot be helped, since it has a few episodes; might be covered in a new TV season one day. With that being said, the cast of the series is not as brand new as the story-line, but it still is enjoyable.
Enjoyments wise, as mentioned before, you need to see both the movie, which serves as the prequel to the TV show, and the TV series to get a full understanding of what NGNL is about. It is not only about some comedy, with JoJo references and things, do see how this world looked before in the movie!
All in all, while not many things were new, the series still manages to deliver enjoyment by showing quite an interesting way to stop wars in its story-line, amazing animation, as well as the OST and voice-acting, but the main problem to be touched upon here is that the world of NGNL is too big to cover in only 1 TV season and a movie, thus many things should still be explained and shown. Nevertheless, it still is a great fantasy that is worth your while.
9/10.