No Game No Life

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/19815/No_Game_No_Life

Name: No Game No Life ノーゲーム・ノーライフ

Status: Completed

Episode: 12

Release Date (for eng subs): Every Thursday

Summary:

The story of No Game, No Life centers around Sora and Shiro, a brother and sister whose reputations as brilliant NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) hikikomori (shut-in) gamers have spawned urban legends all over the Internet. These two gamers even consider the real world as just another "crappy game." One day, they are summoned by a boy named "God" to an alternate world. There, God has prohibited war and declared this to be a world where "everything is decided by games"—even national borders. Humanity has been driven back into one remaining city by the other races. Will Sora and Shiro, the good-for-nothing brother and sister, become the "Saviors of Humanity" on this alternate world? "Well, let's start playing."

Summary Source: ANN

Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/19815/No_Game_No_Life

Personal Ratings: 4

This anime is a mixture of logic, seriousness, and laughter. Probably good for people who are actually into mystery, since it uses a lot thinking in games itself. 

Idea: 4 / 5

I don't think I've actually seen an anime about games (not counting D-Frag! Because they don't really focus on the games itself), so I do think that the main idea for this anime is really unique, but the idea about the main characters traveling to another world and trying to conquer that world, is not a very unique idea, and have been seen many times.

As for the characters, having different types of species (elfs, wolfs, etc) is not a very unique idea, and has been seen in many of the adventure and action type anime, but using these species in other things other than fighting, is unique. 

Execution:

Development: 4 / 5

The idea of shifting into another world was really well used. Shifting into another world and giving the main characters a disadvantage since every other species have one ability, and also using it to widen the scale of the games.
The plot is really developed, although not completed yet. The main motive of this anime is to beat the 'god' of that world, after conquering and winning against every other race in the world. You can tell that they don't really waste time in developing this plot, other than some fan service scenes. The plot expands greatly when the main characters unfold the true meaning behind that world.

Emotion: 2 / 5

There isn't really any emotional scenes in this anime, because it focuses more on the game itself, so there isn't really anything much to comment about. Though, there were a few scenes which can be quite emotional. 

In the game were Sora was playing a game of reverse, which was linked to the players, and Sora has disappeared from everyone's memory except for Shiro, the time where Shiro was trying to find Sora, even though everyone doesn't remembers him kind of touched me. You can really feel her anxiety, because she was confused, she doesn't know if her memories about Sora was fake or not.

Another scene would be the game with Izuna. They changed Izuna's heart and her view towards games.

Planning: 5 / 5
Planning for this anime was really good. You can see that they planned not only for the main plot itself, but for each and every game.
For the main plot, they don't beat counties based on the order of ranking of the races, but more on what they needed to be stronger.

Like the fight with Jibril. Her race was ranked 6th. However, Sora and Shiro went to beat her first, because they needed for information about the world.

Character Development: 4 / 5
The characters of this anime are all so cute and adorable. Especially love the combination of cute Shiro and her seiyuu. Perfect match to create the perfect Loli. But for this anime, Shiro and Sora's personality are pretty strong, so it's all laid out since the beginning, so there isn't really much for development. The thing about their past was also slowly developed. But after this, I don't think there is much for development anymore, so I'll give it a 4 instead of a 5.

The thing about Sora's and Shiro's past and about them meeting each other was kind of like what everyone would probably be curious about, especially when they mention that they are not true siblings. Of course they slowly told us about their personalities throughout the anime, like how Sora is very talkative and how Shiro is very smart. But they didn't just tell it to us, they actually told us about it later, and showed us this aspect of them in games.
Their past, which is closely linked to their personalities was also fully shown and told to us in one of the episode, during one of the games. I actually really liked how they made use of the nature of the game to actually tell us about the relationship between the two of them.

Side Characters: 4 / 5
The side characters was developed during the course of their first interaction with the main characters. They don't push aside species which were defeated, but made use of them to actually plan out ways to defeat the other races. They also do develop the relationship between two side characters, when they find that it's necessary.

The relationship between Zell and Feel was thoroughly developed during their game of reverse. I honestly thought that they would be 'disposed' off after Sora n Shiro defeated them during their game of chess.

Seiyuu: 4 / 4
I really love their choice of seiyuu, there wasn't any character I thought should have another seiyuu, they all sounded very natural.
Honestly I was quite shocked that Miyuki voice acted Izuna. I couldn't tell at all.

Others:

I just thought that some explanations are too fast to understand fully, so I had to re watch certain scenes to fully understand everything.

Can't wait for 2nd season!!!

Art Ratings: 3

I like the drawing, but I don't really like the colours. It just makes everything so bright and weird. I really wished the colours were a little more normal. 

Similar Anime:
The most similar anime that comes to my mind would be Kami no Puzzle. But their quite different, in the sense that Kami no Puzzle is more about puzzles than games, and the two of them can be quite different. Kami no Puzzle also doesn't have that aspect of having different species other than humans, or going to another world.

Another similar anime would be Log Horizon, giving the fact that they both have different species of living creature, and also the intellectual side of it. Log Horizon the anime itself is set in a different world (game) so there is those similarities. But Log Horizon focus more on strategic war knowledge as compared to knowledge when it comes to calculation of games and understanding and making full use of the rules of a game. Log Horizon also lacks that flashy side that No Game No Life has.

Recommended for:

Gender: Both

Age: 16 and above

My Ratings: PG-13