Sometimes you can get to the world you were meant to be born into.
What They Say:
For years, 18-year-old Sora and his 11-year-old stepsister Shiro have lived as shut-ins, rarely leaving their house, unable to be separated without panic attacks, and playing videogames as an escape from reality.
On the internet, however, they’re known as the legendary videogame tag-team BLANK, where their unrivaled skill inexplicably leads to them finally getting out of the house in the most extreme way possible – pulled over into another world to defend humanity in the most insane and deadly competition ever imagined! But hey, no pressure. If they fail it will only mean death for them, and slavery or destruction for the rest of the human race. Can two misfits who can barely cross the street defeat a horde of otherworldly champions and save our planet?
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release is done with the original Japanese language in stereo as well as the English language dub, both of which are encoded using the lossless DTS-HD MA codec for the TV series. The film gets a 5.1 track and that takes a lot of its cues from the series but ups the right areas that you’d expect theatrically. The series is one that does largely play to dialogue in its design, but it has a lot of creative little areas with incidental sounds and some good action sequences from time to time that let it flex itself a bit. This comes more in the big match towards the end, but there are a few other little encounters along the way. The music is at its strongest with the opening and closing as one would expect, but the incidental music throughout has its moments as well, particularly in the bigger sequences, but some of the quieter pieces are very good as well. The show works with the forward soundstage as a whole with the dialogue so we get good placement throughout and there are some really fun moments of depth with the way the cast grows and as certain characters are abused.
Video:
Originally airing in 2014, the transfer for this TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The twelve episodes are spread across two discs with nine on the first and three on the second, which also has commentary episodes as well. The film is kept to a separate third disc. Animated by Madhouse, this is one absolutely beautiful show in its design. It’s the show where you realize the color designer really deserves several raises because it’s just so striking and sets the tone so well that you still notice it constantly even as you get to the end of the season rather than being numb to it. Those colors and the amount of detail throughout the show are beautifully captured in the transfer that has some really great pop of color and vibrancy to it that it stands out in a huge way. This is definitely the kind of show whose quality and budget is all in the presentation and it pays off handsomely, which is made all the clearer with the encoding here. The colors are crisp and solid, the dark areas are well handled and there’s nothing to be seen when it comes to line noise or background problems. Just a gorgeous-looking release through and through.
Packaging:
After a really elaborate premium set several years ago, this combined edition keeps things basic but doesn’t hold back with what works. The standard-sized Blu-ray case has a hinge for the TV discs with the film on the back side. The front cover gives us a gloriously detailed and colored visual of our two leads while framing it with a neat design that brings the colors through, giving it an interesting kind of weight. The back cover sticks to the deep pinks and black to break down the premise and highlight the extras while also making clear it has both the TV series and the film. There’s a good key visual piece of character artwork and some good small shots from the show itself as well. The production information breaks things out well enough while the technical grid lists how both the series and the film are put together. No show-related inserts are included nor is there a reversible cover.
Menu:
The menu design for this release works with a simple approach but it does it in a really good way. Going with static backgrounds, the menu design along the left has the brighter futuristic gamer colors here with the pinks, whites, and blues to tie it all together as we get the episodes listed by number and title. Submenus load quickly and easily for both languages and extras and it has a good feeling overall when you use the pop-up menu during the show as it feels like you’re watching the game more. The first disc uses a beautiful image of the two leads curled up together in their room as the hazy light from the monitors shines on them. The second goes for a more colorful image of them in the world of Disboard that is just full of an insane amount of detail and color.
Extras:
The extras for this release are pretty good overall with some stuff that’s very welcome. The six shorts here were spread across the six Japanese home video releases and they’re basically just under three-minute pieces that are playful with the characters. I’m hesitant to call them animated since it’s mostly stills that are well utilized, but it’s fun to push the characters in weird directions and play more to the fanservice, which is what the buyers want. The release also comes with the Japanese commentaries for a few episodes, which are kept completely separate here, and we get a good round of original promos and commercials alongside the clean opening and closing sequences.
With the film disc, we get a good selection of the original Japanese promos. What surprised me was the inclusion of a nearly twenty-minute behind-the-scenes piece. While it opens to kind of providing some background to the TV series itself, it shifts into showing off pieces from the franchise and talking with the cast and voice actors for it as they talk about engaging with the characters and the connection to the TV series.
Based on the light novel series by Yuu Kamiya, No Game No Life is a twelve-episode animated series from Madhouse. The original work started back in 2012 from MF Bunko J and as of this writing, there are eleven novels produced about this story, and a film that came out in 2017. While I didn’t see it during its original simulcast run in the spring of 2014, I knew a lot of very enthusiastic fans that were all over it in a big way and when I finally got to see it back in 2015 it definitely delivered. The film is a very different experience, however, and we cover that separately below, but the series itself is one that really hit a sweet spot for me. And I do lament that we haven’t gotten more, though with its design and style it doesn’t surprise me too much..
The premise of this series is certainly familiar, but it’s all in the execution and the scale of it. We’re introduced to eighteen-year-old Sora and his eleven-year-old sister Shiro. Both are complete NEETs in a big way and spend their time gaming constantly – to the point where they’re really not taking care of themselves physically. The two have worked through probably countless hours upon hours of gaming and have established a reputation as the group known as Blank. They’re unbeatable and have always won. whether their opponents were highly skilled or cheating. Though we don’t see that skill in the prologue, just what we get from them and their style and some of the noise made about them in the gaming world makes it clear that they’re a force that can’t be dealt with. They’re just that good.
Their talk about not being right for this world, viewing it as a game where there are seven billion players in who have no real intention of playing the game, they’re at a loss and just focus on what they can. But it’s at this point that the opportunity comes up. Through a game of chess offered to them online, they’re able to easily beat their opponent, relatively speaking, but it reveals that the other play is actually Tet, the god of a whole other world that’s all about gaming. Not video games per se, but games and luck and skill in just about every part of life. With a series of ten pledges that governs this world, called Disboard, all conflict must be dealt with in this way as Tet has removed the One True God and taken over. It’s turned the sixteen races of this world into large groups of players in a sense and the whole thing is hugely appealing to the siblings.
For those that have watched series involving people/gamers from the real world going to other worlds like this, where it’s a fantasy-ish kind of place, there are certainly familiarities to be had. Sora and Shiro figure out the basics rules and the tricks to working with them quickly and they run into a lot of encounters that let them basically climb the ladder of civilization in a very fast way. Considering their reputation of never losing, that plays into it here so you kind of have to believe that they will win because that’s part of the draw. The other part is seeing how they do it, which comes from a bit of internal dialogue at times, breaking down the games yourself as they unfold and seeing the ways to win, and sometimes just enjoying the hell out of it waiting to see what they pull out of their hat. With Sora and Shiro essentially taking over the kingdom of Inmanity in the first couple of episodes, you know that they’re going to play at a large scale and for me that’s an immense draw. Rather than focusing on the slow climb, these are the Star Players and they know how to work the system and do so without any guilt or problem.
With a grand scale ahead of it as we see how the pair use their skill and knowledge to understand the various races while pulling in their own sim game knowledge on how to manage it, it’s fun to see the quick rise they take in Imanity while still keeping to some of their NEET ways. The personal interactions with others are a treat as well, such as taking on the former king’s granddaughter, Stephanie, as a kind of guide and useful tool for various plays they make along the way. Stephanie provides the local view of things and guides us through the world, but she also suffers the most from the siblings as they toy with her in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to the perverted side that Sora is honing so well as an eighteen-year-old NEET virgin who has spent his life gaming. The cast expands well as it goes on, with Kurami and her plans to try and take the kingdom, an angel-like person from the Flugel race that craves knowledge (and Sora’s iFruit device with thousands of reference books), and several others along the way. Of course, most of them are women as there’s little need or desire for a show like this with Sora’s point of view to bring in any competition. That’s what drives the big fantasy aspect of it for the character, especially as he denies himself things that are almost freely offered to him.
And this is probably the most problematic relationship that exists in the show. Sora and Shiro certainly play up the bro/sis-con stuff, but there’s a lot of deeper meaning to it that’s brought in as we get some flashback material that shows Shiro at two years old and how isolated she was. It’s difficult to see them at their present ages where they’re unable to be separated as it sends Shiro into a real panic attack, and there’s obviously the potential disturbing ideas of what things happen with the kind of closeness they have. They’re like two halves though when you get down to it, but halves where Sora is a lot more playful and teasing while always drawing the line about actually doing anything – or making you believe he would actually do anything. Though there are uncomfortable moments, the end result is that these two are a really great dynamic to watch play out because even if the idea is familiar it’s executed in such a way that it feels fresh, intense, and highly engaging.
No Game No Life has one other asset that cannot be overlooked in what makes it so much fun. Madhouse simply put everything into it. With the original novels having some utterly gorgeous designs, there’s always the feeling that the anime can’t live up to those illustrations. Here, they make the expected changes in adapting from one to the other, but they don’t skimp on the big things. It’s a high-budget show with lush visuals and a drop-dead gorgeous color design that has me saying it should not be released on DVD because it cannot do it justice. The look of the show is highly important to the tone and atmosphere of it as it’s truly otherworldly while familiar. There are moments when it gets reduced in color and you realize just how important it is. A color design like this can also often end up feeling diminished as it goes on because you get used to it, but it’s used so expertly here and so strongly that it stands out constantly and makes the whole show feel like a far richer experience.
Originally out in 2017, the film isn’t a continuation or side story to the main TV series but rather it adapts from the sixth novel in the series that takes us back to the origins of this world, or at least a key pivotal moment. This is definitely intriguing, even for those that dislike prequels, and it garnered extra attention for the way it had the TV main actors come back and voice the main characters from here, providing a welcome kind of echo that works for me throughout the project.
Told as a story by Tet to Izuna, Tet takes us back some six thousand years ago to the time of the Great War. It’s here that the various races are all in a state of war as part of a grand game that’s being played for control of the world. The one that’s really in a rough spot is humanity as they’re nearly extinct as we learn from Riku, the young leader of the last group that’s still out there. The view of things is one that’s bleak in that they’re basically running from dangerous situation to dangerous situation, trying to last until the end as best as they can. That’s no way to live but it’s all they’ve got at this point and it’s something that they have to do. The weight of it all on Riku’s shoulders is definitely there as a leader and just knowing what’s going on, which is why a little quiet time away for him is good.
This brings him to a hideout that he had found before where there’s an Ex-Machina from the game there that’s disconnected from the main and is trying to understand humanity, or more specifically, love and the human heart. It’s an easy angle to work with and that lets us spend a decent part of the first half or so of the film where the two engage with each other as he teaches her plenty, all while falling in love without realizing it of course, and she fills him in on various things about the nature of this world that helps him to understand what humanity is really facing. While she initially takes on the name of Schwarzer, it becomes Schwi and the two conceal her true nature and introduce her into the group as they continue to do their best to survive. But the more that Riku realizes of the world the more he comes to the conclusion that they need to make a stand with some creativity in place first.
Admittedly, there are plenty of familiar ideas in here and there’s no breaking of new or creative ground in how humanity basically has to run the tables to survive and take over. There are nice nods to the larger game narrative that drives the present-day material for it in the novels and TV series but the main focus is on Riku and Schwi’s growth as beings, with his friend Corounne providing plenty of helpful prodding along the way, and shifting gears to Riku truly leading rather than guiding from hiding spot to hiding spot. There are a lot of little moments that I suspect fans of the books will enjoy and those that are very invested in the series and I totally enjoyed it – but I note that the three-year gap has me wondering if there are elements I’ve missed out on because of it. But this is important as well because the film works very, very, well as a standalone piece that doesn’t require any foreknowledge. Yes, you’ll get more out of it if you do, but if you don’t you’ll still have a great time.
In Summary:
I had no idea what to expect with No Game No Life when I first watched it but I came out of it demanding that there be more Right This Instant. The film didn’t quite give me that, though it was interesting, and revisiting here nearly seven years later just reminds me once again how much I want more. This is that kind of series where you feel the pain of it not having more yet. I tend to not be a fanboy over a lot of shows simply because I see so many and there isn’t a lot that is this kind of exceptional. No Game No Life feels exceptional. It warrants the hype. It demands it. But it also earns it. And that’s one of the reasons that this collector’s edition will go over so well too. It’s hitting the right audience with exactly what they want and it does it in spades. I’m definitely glad that Sentai rolled out a new edition of it with the movie included that makes it affordable and as “complete” as it can be. I can’t recommend this property enough.
Features:
Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Japanese Commentary, No Game No Life Shorts, Clean Opening and Closing, Japanese Promos & Commercials.
Content Grade: A+
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: B+
Released By: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: January 17th, 2023
MSRP: $69.98
Running Time: 405 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
