No Game No Life

Jul 4, 2014

HaXXspetten

Recommended

Preliminary (25/? chp)

Since there is basically nothing on it, I thought I'd make the effort to say a few words about the No Game No Life original light novels for once, as I am sure there are a lot of people out there asking themselves “If I liked the anime, is it worth picking up the LNs as well?”.

This will be a bit of a short special “review”, as for once given the circumstances I'm basically expecting that anyone interested in reading this will already have seen the anime, and in case you haven't and just want to get the basic gist of it, I'd advice you ... to go read literally any review of the anime first and then come back here (although there will still be no spoilers)... or even better just go watch the damn thing.

Anyways I will here mainly talk about some key facts that you might be interested in knowing, and then also what differs between the novels and the anime.

- “How much content is there available past the end of anime?”
The anime covers up to the end of volume 3 of the LNs, and there are currently 6 volumes released in Japan. Every volume is released at roughly 5 month intervals, and at the moment 4 of them are translated, the latest one finished on June 29th 2014. The translation is going pretty fast however and will surely catch up to the Japanese releases before long.

- “Is it worth reading the whole thing from the beginning or just pick it up at volume 4 if I just want to know what happens past the end of the anime?”
I think as a general rule, as long as you have the time and willpower it is always better to read the whole thing from scratch (I did at least). However what the anime covers follows the original first three volumes very closely so you could skip them if you really wanted to. There are some minigames and similar that were skipped in the anime though, so you'd still miss out on some “new” stuff that definitely was worth reading.

- “Will already having seen the anime reduce my enjoyment value for the LNs if I read the whole thing from the start?”
I'd say yes and no. Of course knowing the outcome of all the major plot points up until a certain point as well as having heard most of the jokes before will hamper the experience the “second” time around. On the other hand I think having seen the anime already will make everything a lot easier to picture in your head, as knowing how everything looks and how everyone's voices sound will make everything feel a lot better in your head when reading, and definitely enhance the humorous parts if anything.

- “Does it get better or worse in the volumes taking place after the anime?”
I can't really answer that, there is only one volume translated past the anime's ending as of the time of writing this (which would be roughly 4 episodes with the anime's pacing).

- “What about the differences then? Does the novels have the same theme and atmosphere?”
Mostly yes, but not entirely I have to say. At least in my mind, I found the LNs to be significantly more ecchi a lot of the time, and the parts that were cut out from the first three volumes for the anime mostly consisted of the most perverted scenes of the story. Not that they're any worse in terms of quality, but it's something to take note of at least.

- “Are the games really as good in a text-based format?”
I think normally anyone would reckon that it'd be easier to explain clever and complicated flows of events in large amounts of text compared to what it would be animated, but in this case I'm actually going to say no. I think the more forceful approach and over-the-top animation techniques utilized in the anime were actually easier to understand than the more “normal” (..sort of) feeling the novels have. Mostly as a result I don't think the LNs feel quite as epic in comparison.

- “Overall then, which is better of the novels and the anime?”
Obviously this is not really a fair question as the anime covers only a portion of the story, but just comparing the content it covered from the source material then I would still have to say that the anime is probably better in the end. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy reading this immensely but it doesn't get me quite as excited as I got when watching the anime. Now I'm a huge fan of the franchise and thus even so I'd still give the novels a 10 as well, but if I had to choose one or the other then I'd still go with the anime. The animation, soundtrack and voice acting just enhances the concepts of the series too much to be able to overlook.

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Jan 27, 2016

Professional2341

Recommended

Preliminary (30/? chp)

SPOILER FREE

Most people are looking at the reviews to see if No Game No Life novel is worth picking up, especially after watching the anime. Because of that, I'm going to direct my review towards "I liked the anime, should I read the novel series, or should I hope for a season 2?" instead of something like "Is NGNL light novel good?".

Well to start off, there are currently 8 volumes released, 6 which are translated. The anime only covered the first 3 volumes, so you can assume that you are expecting at least double the content.

- "Should I read from the beginning, or ... should I just start reading volume 4?"
Personally, I don't know. Since I watched the anime, I skipped the first 3 volumes and started reading volume 4. The anime follows the novel very well so I didn't feel like I missed anything.

- "How good is the story after the end of the anime?"
Really good. Sometimes stories tend to start strong, stay long, and then get weaker and weaker throughout; examples would be Bleach, Naruto, SAO, and really many other anime. However, NGNL only gets better as the story unravels. The crew is bigger, more games (sophisticated ones too), more races to interact with, and a lot of insight on the background of this world and the races in general.

- "Light Novel vs. Anime?"
Well there are two aspects in this; Quantity and Quality. I'd say that the quality of the anime was better than the LN, even though I haven't read the first 3 volumes. The reason is because the anime did a very well job in explaining really confusing concepts and sophisticated games, plus it had good art and amazing sountracks. As for Quantity, obviously speaking the LN is better, it has a lot more content that is definitely worth reading if you liked the anime.

- "Quick summary with no spoilers?"
Usually sometimes when I want to read an LN I'm familiar with, I like to see how the LN does and what it covers, so here's a quick, as much spoiler-free as possible, summary:
- Volume 4: Follows the end of the anime, the crew continues to obtain more races to their side, and tries to do exactly that.
- Volume 5: Continues off the "problem/game" in Volume 4 to finish it, but also includes a lot of mini-games and a big insight on Jibril, the Flugels, and a little bit more about what happened during the Great War.
- Volume 6: This whole volume is Tet covering the Great War; how it was from the humans' perspective, how it ended, how Tet became the One true god, and a lot more about its secrets.

- "How much did you enjoy the LN?"
No Game No Life LN was the first light novel I read, combine that with the fact that NGNL has pretty sophisticated and potentially confusing games and you can pretty much guess that I had a little trouble reading some parts, but just reading those small parts again or waiting for a better explanation often helped me a lot. Overall, I did enjoy this LN as it was pretty good and the plot was well-written. I do give this LN about 8.9/10 - A very high 8 or a flat 9.

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May 30, 2014

mlcdl

Recommended

Preliminary (4/? chp)

[This review will tackle the first 3 volume of the LN and the expected adaptation coverage of the anime]

I once saw a review on NGNL anime saying that it is a guilty pleasure. I won’t deny that as someone who tries both anime and LN because that seems true but it doesn’t mean that the content itself is terrible that there is nothing that can be considered “unique” or “refreshing” from it. NGNL is simply a story that hasa unique setting for a commonly abused theme.

Story: 7.5

Normally, when the story deals with people suddenly transferred to another world/dimension, the plot revolves on how they live ...

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Feb 18, 2016

FireEmblemIke24

Recommended

Preliminary (4/? chp)

No Game No Life (review up to volume 4 with later updates to happen)

Yanked into another world by a mysterious phenomenon, we follow the gamer siblings as they attempt to surmount what is deemed to be the BIGGEST game of all time!

What’s this novel about? I’ve always pondered about how one could express the term escapism which is universally different when trying to describe it to various people. This series is essentially that wish being fulfilled as our protagonists get teleported to another world called Disboard (clever name) due to the actions of an almighty loser.

We follow the exploits of the NEETS Sora and Shiro ... who are known together as blank as they are presented with what seems like the most challenging thing they’ve encountered in their lifetime. A simple chess game goes wrong, which is ultimately the trigger pulled by the God of that world, Tet, who on paper just looks like an immature child.

The whole premise is set up so that our protagonists must conquer all the races that exist within that world called the Exceed which are totalling 16 in number before being able to challenge the ruler Tet. However, our unfortunate gamers are classed with the pitiful humans they are, that are ranked dead bottom called Imanity. Using them as their base for their grand operation we follow the trials and tribulations that our gamers are presented with, and as their motto says “(___) never loses” which means running away is not an option as they are always confident in their winning chances.

The games themselves are quite extraordinary as there is always great variation between them; from word connectors that can literally makes things appear and disappear with a click of a finger, all the way to the standard dating simulation game that may seem mundane at first but as it progresses, will only pose more difficulties for the players as they attempt to overcome those obstacles.

The way in which the games are narrated is probably the series strongest point if you don’t mind the overpowered characters that we have in the NEETS. The series is suited to those who want to see how the game turns out which includes all the individual processes that take place before we get the grand conclusion that is WHO WINS? So if you dislike the fact they win all time, then this may not be for you as it’s really all fun and games as they say.

The characters also add another dimension to my overall enjoyment as there are multiple personalities residing within the cast who are all of different background, from the cynical Wearbeasts that manipulate others to the knowledgeable Heavenly Winged that seem to possess an array of weapons and other magical abilities.

The cast however is mostly female and so this is essentially a harem as each female introduced seems to have some sort of affection for our sole male hikikimori Sora, much to the dismay of his step-sister Shiro who is assumed to have extremely poor communication skills on the outside but can be riled up when it comes to these sort of things.

The outside and inside are two totally different things and when it comes to gaming can be like oil and water, they don’t mix well which is seen in different online personas that contradict their real selves. Heck I’m beginning to doubt if the prologue for volume 1 was legitimate or not, as it’s been hinted several times they have experienced heaps of IRL problems. A lot can be expanded upon but then again it’s not the main point so there is not much that is required to clear my doubts.

Going back to the characters, you are bound to find many enjoyable which is the case for me as I particularly liked Steph (our deuteragonist maybe?) to an extent, who is our unfortunate dim-witted former princess that just gets manipulated many times by our sadistic main Sora who gets his enjoyment out of that. Well if that doesn’t crack you up, then I don’t know what does. Steph herself at times can be shown to reliable on certain occasion and is usually the trump card to settle things which is ironic as that’s not how she’s set up to be most of the time.

The series does have a lot of fanservice but it’s more just sexual teasing most of the time and doesn’t really hinder me as the reader except the repetitive bath scenes. We get the joke!

The harem is a very good harem which can be a recipe for disaster in other series but with NGNL they are following their character archetypes to the maximum and leaves nothing else to be desired personally. The characters are plentiful which for me is a necessary thing as it hits the sweet spot because too little can bore a reader whereas too many can confuse the reader unless it’s intentional which I have no problems with.

The last part is just me putting my final thoughts together and I wouldn’t say this a masterpiece or anything but it really uses its basic concept well. I’d highly recommend the novel for a fan of the anime but in my opinion is not that much better than the anime which is solid from what I remember. If you want to see some clever games being played that involve a battle of wits being applied, then look no further and this will entertain you surely.

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