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This show has a similar set up to the typical light novel in that there's a gary stu main character transported to another world, gathering a harem of girls and showing off his OP skills to solve the problems going on in this world. Although, it sets apart from other series of this kind when regarding what that OP skill is and that's apparently that this gary stu, Sora, is supposedly a genius gamer in a world where games decide everything.

No Game No Life really tries to be smart and flaunt it in the many games the show features and I admit, it's at least ... fairly creative, no where near the most creative I've seen but still creative nonetheless. However, the creative ideas it has are not well put together to make satisfying mind games as the majority of the tactics the main character uses relies on his opponents being absurdly stupid in the most convenient way for him to win. Then there are the few games that don't fall under this problem, which are either really simple joke games or vague skimmed over games they never explore.

You can really feel the author's obnoxious arrogance oozing from the show. It's like if someone loads up a fighting game like Street Fighter on VS mode and plays against an empty second controller, beating the playerless opponent, record it and brag about how they won. It's really obnoxious and that's reflected in the characters of the show as well such as the arrogant gary stu MC and the cast of weak stupid girls who he picks on. The author only cares about showing off the most over the top tricks of the MC and nothing on how the rest of the game fits or even the opponent's perspective of what a rational person would do in their position.

It also makes it hilarious when you consider how the author got caught tracing as if he thought he could get away with cheating just like his gary stu MC. No, you're not Sora, who can magically make the rest of the world stupid just so he can look smart. It's actually pretty ironic how residents of a world where everything revolves around games can be so bad at games. But the author probably didn't consider that as neither did Sora he was never shown to research on their skills, he just plays and was conveniently better than them all.

Although a merit I can give is that at least it's not always Sora hogging the spotlight. He also has a cute sister who sometimes gets her shot at being the one to come up with the genius plan. Although her coolness is partly negated when she also failed so Sora could take over and be the one to show off again. The other characters are just the other aforementioned stupid girls who Sora beats and collects a harem like Pokemon. There's not much depth other than Sora complaining about how stupid people are.

I heard the series gets praise for the pretty colors although I think the red outlines just look messy. When it comes to the character designs, they're charming as usual for the anime aesthetic but still nothing special. There are a few good songs though and the show occasionally has funny references to other anime.

I know I mostly complained on this show until now but still, I at least appreciate that this show "tries" which sets it above the standard light novel that just copy and paste the same story with hardly anything else that's special. It's true there are many ideas poorly put together, but it's better than no ideas and it's true the main character has an obnoxious arrogant personality but that's at least better than no personality. There are of course much better light novels out there that not only try to have creative ideas but also use them well along with having interesting characters and drama.

No Game No Life overall is a dumb entertaining mess. It's not very good but at least it's better than boring even if just the bare minumum.