No Game No Life is a 2014 anime series that is based off the light novels of the same name. This 12 episode long season covers the first three volumes of the light novels. It follows Sora and Shiro, together known as "Blank", who are siblings and are the ultimate gamers. They are able to play any game and not lose, even when the other party is cheating. They are your stereotypical portrayals of gamers: people who shut themselves in all day, are anti-social and rarely venture out. However, one day, they accept a challenge request from a god from another world. The god, Tet, brings them over to Disboard.
Disboard is a fantasy world where everything is resolved by playing a game, which seems to be the perfect place for the siblings. Anything is possible in the world but the inhabitants are bound by the ten pledges which are the absoluteness of the world. In this world, Sora and Shiro arrives at the kingdom of Elkia (the population called Imanity) and meets Stephanie Dola, the granddaughter of the late king. However, he has laid down that his successor will be determined by the person who is able to beat all other contenders of the throne through games. Therefore, the king will be determined when no one challenges them anymore.
Naturally, Sora and Shiro are drawn in and they eventually become the kings of Elkia, where they resolve to take over the world in order to challenge the one true god, Tet, the one who had brought them there. In order to do that, they must collect 16 Race Pieces; each piece is held by a country/race. Therefore, they will challenge and take over 15 other countries, the races of which all have advantages over them, ranging from stronger physical strength to magic and other divine powers. The rest of the season proceeds to show Sora and Shiro plotting on how to determine their best approach, gaining allies in the form of a Flugel called Jibrel, and then challenging the race of Warbeasts: people with cat-like ears and fox-like tails.
The first episode will put a lot of people off, thanks to being a bit boring, uninteresting and frankly, quite weird. It doesn't sell you the idea of the plot. However, the second episode is much better, with the story picking up and starting to get you hooked. Yet it is the third episode which will completely and utterly sucker you in. Once it does that, it never relinquishes its grip, with excellent pacing and storytelling for the remainder of the season. Thanks to being such a short season, there is hardly any time where it feels the animators are filling in time for the sake of dragging it out longer.
One of the big focuses of No Game No Life are the games which are played by Sora and Shiro. These games have huge stakes, such as betting their lives, memories, territory and even their subjects. The games played are unorthodox but the anime goes into elaborating the strategy of each which makes it engrossing. Sora and Shiro encounter impossible odds but the draw is on how they win. Sora excels at strategy and cold reading while Shiro excels in calculations and logic. Combined, they are the ultimate gamers who can tackle any game, and win, including ones where they're at a disadvantage. Cheating in games is actually encouraged (as long as you're not caught) although Sora and Shiro doesn't cheat to the same extent as their opponents, which makes their victories all the sweeter.
A strong point is that no two games played by the main characters are ever the same. It makes for a dynamic approach and keeps things interesting every time. Games often contain familiar elements such as chess, blackjack or video games but presents unexpected twists to keep things fresh. This could be an in-depth explanation of the underlying strategy and how to cheat or it could be some sort of slapstick rule, it never fails to impress. No Game No Life contains a truckload of humor and is used to great effect here. It maintains a good balance between serious moments and the nonsensensical moments where all the gags are played.
Sora's dialogue will often cause you to burst out loud laughing while Stephanie Dola works well as comedic relief. A common recurring event is Steph doubting Shiro and Sora and whether she should have entrusted Elkia to them (as if she had a choice in the first place). However, she reverts to being impressed when all goes well in the end. It gets a bit repetitive when that happens. Shiro's speeches are usually moving and can sometimes make a lot of sense even though he says it in such a blunt way. Coupled with the great soundtrack, this can create powerfully moving scenes such as when he boosts up the morale while playing chess in the second/third episode.
There is a heavy dose of fan service and the anime is not shy about it, whether it's speaking about it or even showing you. As the season progresses, more and more fan service shows up, although it never crosses the line of being excessive, even if at times, it can be a bit overbearing and lose focus. It is a combination of the cleverness and the humor that makes No Game No Life so good and so addictive. While the series has a lot of exposition, this is a fantastic anime that simply needs a second season since the ending is so open and this first season is so good.
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