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no game no life

No Game No Life

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Plot:

Siblings Sora and Shiro do everything together. They are hikkikomori NEETs who spend all their time indoors on games. It doesn’t matter what the game is, new or old, digital or physical, their combination of gut instinct and book smarts carries them through any game to victory. They leave their usernames empty, and it earns them the name of ‘Blank.’

Their victories attract the attention of the god of an alternate world in which everything is governed by commandments surrounding games. Politics, wars, futures, successes and failures. They quickly take over the kingdom and learn that the entire world is one large game of conquest between races. The victor earns the right to challenge – and even become – god himself.

Director: Atsuko Ishizuka

She was a story-arc director for Aoi Bungaku. She has directed Tsuki no Waltz, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, and Hanayamata. Otherwise her most high-profile shows were only smaller roles such as episode directors or storyboards.

Source:

Light novel by Yu Kamiya that started in 2012 and is still ongoing. It currently has 6 volumes.

A manga was started in January of 2013, also published through Media Factory, and has only one volume.

Studio/Animation:

The anime is produced by studio Madhouse. As a result its production values are fairly high for the majority of the show. It has decent movement and fairly elaborate fantasy-esque fantasy designs.

The anime has a strange, glow-like, wash to it all, as though it’s almost blurring neon. This could be something that could easily be a turn-off or turn-on for many people. However, it is a fairly creative approach.

Music:

The in-show music has its high and low points. It mostly equals out to just above average, I would say. However, the opening and closing are fairly catchy.

Review:

This anime bears all its cards right off the bat. Within the first episode we learn the dynamic of the brother and sister and their affinity for games. And, when I say ‘dynamic’ I meant that awkward ‘No of course they don’t want to bang they’re brother and sister… but really, they want to bang.” And, when I say ‘affinity’ I mean, ‘They win by impossible chance, small margins, and things even a supercomputer couldn’t figure out – but we want you to believe the girl is a supercomputer anyways.’

As of episode 4 they’ve entered into the world, become king and queen, and are now trying to take over the world of games. This is an anime that revels in the ridiculous and celebrates the stupid. Each of the characters are over the top and have their own archtype.

We learn how the boy really wants to get laid, despite wanting to bang his sister, and ends up enslaving a girl to him – because that’s a super cool thing to do. We learn how the sister can learn a language in an hour, I wish. And we have a girl who can’t stop walking into things, or being dumb every second. We have cat girls, wing girls, name it, this anime likely has it.

Oh, what more can I say? The games are won on backwards and barely strung together logic until it stops making sense at all. We spend as much time in the bath as playing games half the time. Oh and we can create a world where people  conveniently don’t have nipples or genitalia so we can show them naked.

The show has pacing problem that you begin to pick up right around episode 5. That’s when you learn that if you take over all the race pieces of the world you can challenge god himself. Cool right? I think so. But, then they just don’t have the time to finish that goal before the series is over. Don’t worry, there is time to fit in a love-shooting catgirl dating sim though.

The best I can say for this show is it has benefits if you revel in the ridiculous it’ll supply that. There are mildly amusing moments and there is a small excitement of ‘how will they do it’ to the game. But don’t look for anything substantial or serious.  This anime was not even trying to it from the start.

[starrater]

noragami

Noragami

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Noragami is supernatural, action, comedy anime, based on a manga, written by Adachitoka.  It has been serialized in Monthly Shonan Magazine since late 2010.   It’s director, Kotaro Tamura, is a relatively new director, as Noragami is his first professional directing job.  This animation production studio is a little more well known.  Studio BONES is a studio that at it’s best is hard to top in terms of the quality of animation.  Some of BONES’s most well known works include Eureka Seven and Fullmetal Alchemist.

 

Norgami is a heavily character driven series.  The show spends a large part of the first 6 episodes introducing the audience to the main characters Yato, Hiyori and Yukine.  Yato is a “Yato-God” and a god of calamity.  His dark past is hinted at during the course of the anime’s run and his history eventually comes into play as the anime reaches it’s end.  However, for the majority of the anime, Yato is a goofy, relatively unknown god in the world whose dream is to someday own his own shine.  He is the source of much of the comedy in the series.  Yukine a spirit of the dead who eventually becomes Yato’s “Regalia”, a tool to be used in combat.  Yato finds Yukine, alone and scared, and after naming Yukine, Yato takes the boy under his wing and gives his “afterlife” a purpose.  Hiyori, the female spice of the anime, get’s involved with Yato when she one day attempts to rescue him from being hit by a bus.  The result is that Hiyori is separated from her mortal body.  Her spirit form appears to be a duplicate of her mortal form, except for a long pink tail.  Hiyori and Yato become fast friends and she asks Yato to help her find a way to restore herself to normal.

 

As this series progressed, I found myself wondering whether or not we were ever going to be introduced to a plot based conflict, or villain.  The series seemingly was satisfied offering the audience endless “odd jobs” for Yato to perform and comedy that is hit or miss.  Whether or not there would be conflict, I eventually got my answer.  The central conflict is resolved around episode nine.  Spoilers aside, this anime’s conflicts lie internally within it’s characters.  Each character in this series has some problem that eventually get addressed one way or  another.  The primary conflict lies within Yato and Yukine.  After being skeptical about this anime’s eventual conclusion, the resolution to their conflict was worth the wait.  I found it to be one of the most compelling single episodes of the Winter 2014 anime season.

 

Following the story climax, is three more episodes that also center around Yato and an acquaintance from his past.  While this portion of the anime certainly sports what is probably the most compelling animation and action in the series, it felt like an afterthought after the intense and gripping scenes of the prior arc’s conclusion.  It didn’t necessarily take anything away from the anime but it felt a little underwhelming.  Also, without spoiling anything, the anime clearly has been left wide open to have a sequel.  Considering that this anime is based on a relatively long running manga, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a sequel in the coming seasons.

 

As far as the animation and action goes, they are both above average.  Studio BONES again did a great job making sure that the animation was consistent through the series’s run and that the quality was quite high.  Those who like samurai style sword fighting will find themselves especially engrossed by this series’s approach to combat.  The majority of which is done through Yato, who uses his “regalia”, Yukine, whom he can transform at will into as sword named, “Sekki.”

 

All in all, Noragami was a very good show that is recommended to people who like action with a bit of comedy.  There is enough of to keep fans of both genre interested.  Keep in mind however that this show is a supernatural series, so those not a fan of spirits, gods, and phantoms, might not appreciate that aspect of the show.  I thought Noragami was one of the best shows of the Winter 2014 season.  A real treat to watch.

 [starrater]

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