Ya, the calculations are just that intense! In all seriousness, however, there’s not a whole lot to really say about this week’s episode. The objective this week is for the two sides to try and hit each other with the love-love gun. When you are directly hit by a bullet from the love-love gun, you fall in love with your shooter and become their slave, I guess. There is, however, some leeway: you can use your clothing as a shield. The only problem is, the piece of clothing that gets hit will dissipate into thin air. Anyway, it’s pretty much straightforward action. In fact, this week’s twist isn’t even clever. Did anyone actually think Shiro got turned to Izana’s side? It was so obvious she didn’t. After all, she was this can’t-miss marksman just moments ago. Even with Izana’s super fast speed and reflexes, the little girl could only barely avoid Shiro’s shots. Without her grandfather helping her out by cheating like hell, the siblings would’ve won the game a long time ago. All of a sudden, Shiro gets turned and she can’t hit Sora? So yeah, No Game, No Life doesn’t even try all that hard this week to pull the wool over our eyes.
In the show’s previous games, you could reasonably argue that No Game, No Life was — if nothing else — imaginatively over-the-top. After all, it has to be imaginatively over-the-top to compensate for the fact that the siblings can never lose. And because they can never lose, the show lacks any tension you can derive from the possibility of them losing. I mean, unless you’re just an utter fool who honestly thinks otherwise, there’s never any actual suspense in the anime. One of the central premises of the story is that the siblings will always find a way to win. As a result, no one with at least half a brain should ever wonder, “Oh god, can the siblings get out of it this time?” Don’t get me wrong. Even though No Game, No Life‘s lack of tension is certainly a narrative weakness, it’s a self-imposed weakness. I’m not saying that the anime doesn’t know what it’s doing. And because the story is fully aware of its own self-imposed weakness, No Game, No Life tries to make up for it by being as crazy and wild as possible in its various scenarios. If viewers are on a wild ride, they presumably won’t mind the fact that the siblings are infallible.
(What’s with all the infallible protagonists lately, though?)
For instance, we got a game in which chess slowly turned into a real-time strategy game where the morale of both the protagonists’ troops and the enemy troops became an important consideration. In the end, Sora won by a ridiculous emotional appeal to the Kurumi’s army, allowing him to turn them against her. This game set the tone of the story by telling us that No Game, No Life wasn’t going to hold back. Games weren’t going to adhere to what we normally think of them. Against Jibril, the anime stepped it up to another level. The siblings go so far as to delete everything but the Earth’s core in order to defeat the Flugel. So y’know, if I’m going to give the show credit for one thing — and it’s clear that I haven’t liked the show whatsoever — it’s that the previous games had been pretty wild in their execution. This week, however, we just get a slightly perverted FPS. It’s just like… really? That’s it? That’s rather ho-hum for the final game of the season.
It’s about delivering something that hasn’t been realized in the real world. There isn’t an RTS game out there where I can win by making a heartfelt speech to the enemy. If there is, I certainly haven’t heard of it. But continuing on, I definitely can’t play materialization shiritori. We can agree that this is literally impossible. This week’s FPS, however, is pretty ordinary. Sure, you can shoot people’s clothes off, but the anime itself just referenced an actual game in which you pull the clothes off of zombies in order to defeat them. Yeah, yeah, the game isn’t over yet. After all, the episode ends right as Izana is about go all ultra-furry mode on us. But even if the final showdown between the siblings and SSJ Izana is still to come, the fact of the matter is the game itself is lame. It’s just an FPS game with dating sim aspects sewn into it. Meh.
Stray observations:
— So the siblings freak out at the start of the game because the virtual world resembles Tokyo. But then Ino shows up and reminds them that this simulated Tokyo is nothing more than a fictional world somehow “imagined” within the game. As a result, the siblings pull themselves together. That is so stupid.
— I had no clue what Akiba Strip is, so I looked it up. Apparently, it’s a reference to a PS Vita game called Akiba’s Trip. In it, you defeat the undead by stripping them of their clothes in order to expose them to the sunlight. Hm, yes, let’s turn something rapey into a righteous act. In any case, I’m not sure why Persona 4 is being referenced. It’s the only game here that doesn’t take place in Tokyo.
— On a related note, since this episode takes place in a fictional Tokyo, my eyes aren’t being assaulted by No Game, No Life‘s absurd color palette.
— The 3-D thing at the start of the episode reminds me how much I dislike Hatsune Miku and her ilk.
— Stephanie is useless yet again. Even better, she gets to humiliate herself in front of her entire kingdom. Imanity is watching them closely, after all.
— Sora running straight at Shiro to dodge her shots reminds me of people often making the excuse that they only missed because their opponent sucks: “He didn’t even try to dodge!”
Moe Sucks 
No, the episode wasn’t referenced from Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed or Persona 4. It’s actually heavily referenced from a game called Galgun.
I obviously mean the part where they lose their clothing. I never said the episode as a whole was referencing P4 either, so I have no clue what you’re going on about there.
The 3-D thing at the start of the episode reminds me of the writings of HP Lovecraft.
It found the lowest point in the uncanny valley and excavated a nameless dodecahedronal artifact from deep beneath the surface! It was the writhing terror! It was the robot with the human face stitched to its crude facial servos! I haven’t seen CGI that creepy since the early 90’s, and even that wasn’t actively trying to look appealing!
Whether or not it was successful, I’m sure Madhouse was trying to be tongue-in-cheek here.
“So the siblings freak out at the start of the game because the virtual world resembles Tokyo. But thnn Ino shows up and reminds them that this simulated Tokyo is nothing more than a fictional world somehow “imagined” within the game. As a result, the siblings pull themselves together. That is so stupid.”
What part of that is stupid? The ‘virtual world resembles Tokyo’ or ‘the siblings pull themselves together’ if its the latter yeah that’s just humour, but if is the ‘virtual world resembles Tokyo’ don’t you think that’s a little meta in a way?
As far as No Game No Life is concerned, in our world elves, ware beasts & such are “imagined” so is it so weird that a part of our world might turn up as some sort of make-up fictions in their world?
If I’m not wrong Marvel Comics is the one that started using this idea – our reality might be a fiction in another realities due to our reality slowly sip into neighbouring realities.
I’m not talking about the former.
Might be a bold prediction but I think he hinted to a No Game No Life PS Vita game. I mean. Persona 4 Golden, Akiba Strip and Steins Gate were all games released on Vita and no other consoles recently. And the fact that they own “DSPs” makes me wonder.
Dude, it’s not as far fetched as you think. Both SAO and that other magic high school anime that’s obsessed with green are getting Vita releases. SAO is even coming to the West.
I don’t doubt this anime will get a game of it’s own. Seems to be a Japanese trend to push Vita sales by linking it with whatever is popular and currently airing.
light novel adaptation = infallible protagonist…
Starting to think all these light novels are the same with just how many bad tropes they all share
actully i think sora didnt know that shiro was not under the control of izuna becouse he was nervous and was positive it happend and was thinking she would shoot him.also he didnt know how to solve what shiro left for him so he didnt have plan right away.
Well Akiba’s Trip is a mixed bag but goofy enough to enjoy. Good goofy, not the bad goofy like that anime about the guy who got super powers from molesting girls.
If it helps, you karate-style strip all kinds of vampiric people, not just girls.
I’m surprised to see you forgot to mention Kurisu. She’s sandwiched between the maid and Chie, but she’s definitely there. Seeing that makes me want to read the VN again. Damn was that worth it.
Oh, and as hard as it is to stomach, mate:
“It’s just an FPS game with dating sim aspects sewn into it. Meh.”
You just KNOW that this concept would sell.
I didn’t forget to mention her. I just didn’t see a reason to mention her.
Ah Fair enough
But Miku is love and life :(
To be honest, I’m pretty sure you’re not fully grasping the part where they win every game ties into their charisma in this world.
Its a world dictated by winning games, something they’ve sworn to always do, and have yet to fail. In a world you deem fair for everyone OR a world that you deem yourself exceptionally capable in, you’re going to have a lot more charisma than if you simply sat in a world where nothing was fair or you’ve deemed yourself incompetent in. The Tokyo reaction was, in part, to going back to that unfair world, and breaking out of it was largely the fact that it is a game, they were reminded that it’s a game, and it put them back into the mindset that they could handle any challenge within. That’s been an ongoing thing throughout the anime, and I’m honestly not sure how it blew over your head by kilometers.
Sure, charisma totally explains shutting down completely just because they think they’re back in Tokyo. Wait, no, that’s pretty dumb, but fanboys will defend anything.
Anyway, not interested in what is sure to be a jackass response so don’t bother.
I actually find it a little funny how deep some fans of a show will look into something no matter how simple it actually is in reality(it reminds of fanfic writers or the people who’d write an essay long comment about kirito “character development” throughout SAO).
ngnl is a pure otaku pandering anime at it’s finest, I tried my best to turn my brain off and at least enjoy this silly show for what it is but even when I’m more than half asleep I still find myself question all the faults going on.
The thing is, I’d be receptive to their ideas if they weren’t such dicks about it. Sure, I don’t like the show, but it’s not like I wouldn’t consider and debate an opposing viewpoint. But hey, if you’re going to imply that I’m an idiot right from the get-go, then whoops, guess I won’t care after all.
yeah, I used to like debating over the quality of a show but now I just stop because it’s pretty much like yelling at a brick wall. If a fan loved a show then pointing out the faults won’t stop them from liking it.
You can point out the plot holes, bad characters etc but at the end of the day they’ll still love the show(it’s like a debate between atheist and theist). I actually know some people who I thought had good taste say that Guilty crown and SAO were “pretty good”, I couldnt look at them the same after that.
Boy, this is awkward!
So stupid that analytic solution from differential equation is assumed in the 3D action capable FPS game. It is clearly that the solution will be unstable by the butterfly effect of initial conditions uncertainty. They should shown that Sora has run 1000 times of simulation in s brain in order to her get the distribution of the NPCs and enemy possible action, and then convert back into most plausible reaction.