Anime/No Game No Life

That was fun! I'm not completely sold yet, but definitely one of the stronger starts this season

This could be really fun. I also like that the relationship between the both sibilings is played completly platonic (yet).

Didn't we already have this exact premise last year? Not that originality of premise is the only thing that matters.

I thought the first episode was pretty good, other than the weird and narcissistic idea that people who actually grew up in such a world wouldn't be pretty damned good at games themselves due to necessity. I mean, I can believe that they're more talented than most, but it's a bit silly that they stomp all over people who've presumably been playing games like their lives depended on it. Unless the new god took over like last year or something?

In this case I think it's more a matter of innate talent, since the imouto has apparently beaten twenty or so different computer programs designed to take on chess grandmasters. I'm pretty sure these two fall squarely under Brilliant, but Lazy/Idiot Savant. Well, it could be that, or it could be that a lot of people in this world resort to cheating, which so far seems more common than those with true talent for the game.

Well, then you'd expect them to be damned good at cheating too. Maybe I'm just too naive and believe that experience matters more than talent. Yeah, these kids have spent their lives mastering games, but so should have every single person that world. It should logically be a somewhat even playing field, with their talent pushing them over the edge. Not a power-fantasy godstomp over the poor innocent otherworlders who don't know how their own universe works.

Well, it remains to be seen what future episodes will bring.

I consider it likely there's still a mean distribution of skills. Like how legal wrangling and politics are big in out world, but you can't expect everyone to be good at them. You should be able to be an ordinary person who simply works for a living too. The robbers notwithstanding - they would have had to live off their skills.

As soon as I heard the rule about cheating I was like "Yep, there's a hole a good lawyer could drive a tank through. No prosecution after the fact." And then it turned out to be exactly how you were supposed to read it.

There's some good showing not telling of the skill of the main characters too, from which we can even infer their complementary skill sets.

And I love the parts about poker face. First an example of poker face in poker. Then an example of using the lack of poker face in the real world, which also goes towards showing the main character's skill at bargaining and playing games.

This is more than your average silly fantasy writing. Unlike Mondaji so far it's made a good effort to be about actual skill level, not abstract power levels. I may be being under-cautious but I really like it.

Maybe I'm just overestimating what "everything is a game" means. Ultimately it's just replacing war and robbery, right? Honestly I guess it's not that important. The most powerful skill would therefore be taunting people, because there's really not much motivation to play.

edited 9th Apr '14 5:15:02 PM by Clarste

That is one loophole I thought of.

"There's no murder here, right?"

"Yep. God forbid people resort to solving their problems with violence. Literally!"

"I see... alright then, how about a game, friend?"

"Sure. What's the game?"

"It's called 'Rock Fighting'. The rules are simple. I pick up a rock, and you pick up a rock, and then we take turns hitting each other with them until one of us stops moving!"

"But... isn't that murder?"

"Nope! It's a game! A game called 'Rock Fighting'!"

"..."

The "no attacking" rule comes first. I would assume it takes precedence. The rules are certainly ambiguous though.

The impression I got from the skydive is that people just can't be hurt

That's the impression I got too (these aren't merely human laws after all, but rather absolute rules of the universe), but if they could be overwritten by the rules of the game it might be possible to create a situation where people can be harmed. As I said though, I think the priority of the rules is probably important. If they contradict, it's only reasonable to assume the earlier ones take precedence. Albeit ambiguous. I'd be surprised if this doesn't get addressed in the plot.

Also I noticed that the challenged party has the right to create the rules of the game. While that's great for creating tension in a story, it also means that there is no motivation to challenge anyone ever because they will always 100% of the time create unfair rules that favor themselves. Unless they're complete idiots like everyone we met in the first episode.

edited 9th Apr '14 5:38:10 PM by Clarste

That being said, your opponent won't agree to your ridiculous rules unless you pony up something big, so it kinda balances out. And remember, they have to challenge people. Both commerce and war are facilitated through games in this universe, as well as politics. You can't avoid it unless you live like a hermit out in the boonies, subsisting off the land. And given what we know about the land, I wouldn't trust that assumption.

edited 9th Apr '14 5:41:44 PM by KSPAM

No one said commerce. The rules only address violence and robbery. As you yourself reminded me, trade should happen normally. There's also no reason for politics to change significantly. Democracy itself is a "game" with clear rules and winning conditions. That wouldn't change at all. Even without games though people could arbitrarily declare loyalty to whatever faction they choose. If you don't like your poker playing Queen then just ignore her. What's she gonna do? She has no coercive power through military force. She can't take your land or your property. No need to pay taxes, no need to pay respect, unless you agree to these things ahead of time.

Do you need to play a game to make friends? To grow food? To share a meal? Games control nothing. Throw out the games, and we have a world without violence and... that's it. Why would you ever play a game? Why would you ever risk anything? What is there to possibly gain in a world without power as we understand it?

edited 9th Apr '14 5:51:32 PM by Clarste

Well, some people are just greedy.

And this has GOT to be the crappiest world to be a bandit in.

The "life is a shitty game" line, including the whole "game for masochists" part, reminded me of Kaminomi/TWGOK. That scene was totally hilarious though, and the dude's face cracked me up.

edited 9th Apr '14 6:30:00 PM by HanabiraKage

Well, we see a bit of that greed in the first episode by one particular idiot. The thought of having a pair of skinny useless slaves was apparently too much to resist? Unfortunately she didn't bother manipulating the rules in her favor. That's why I said earlier that the most important skill is to taunt people. No rational person would ever accept a game not skewed in their favor, and no rational person would challenge anyone knowing that it will be skewed against them. Therefore, provocation is the only way to make this system meaningful.

edited 9th Apr '14 6:34:10 PM by Clarste

Interesting. Interesting. As others said, it's hard not to see the Outbreak Company/Mondaitachi/TWGOK parallels, but it has its own (kind of dark) mood. I'm not a fan of filtering absolutely every scene with blurred rainbow light, but it's not a big deal. The bro and sis are fine, but I hope we get a more diverse cast.

I am waiting to see how the whole game challenges are handled, definitely.

Although I said games aren't everything they probably account for a lot. Have a problem? Solve it with games! Don't want to work for a living? Play games.

I definitely wouldn't say commerce exists independently. It's like the laws of gambling are built into the world.

There's a lot of things I don't think we can say for certain until we've seen more.

I've got no idea if I'll follow this series. The premise and characters doesn't seem very interesting, and the first half of the episode was a complete bore, but I'll see come the next episode.

The reason why they need to engage in games is the same reason people have declared war in the past, for land(and therefore additional resources) since as far as we know the countries aren't interested in helping each other out because politics and racism and whatever reasons. Every other instance of games being played is likely for high risk, large gain situations, like when you want a good amount of money that just isn't going to come fast without playing them.

As for a reason to not use games that are as unfair as possible, culture, pride, and fear of ostracism come to mind, but that's a total guess.

I would assume you have the option of walking away if somebody tries to hit you with really unfair rules.

Actually, checking the Ten Oaths again, I guess the tenth oath can cover being too unfair about things. (Doesn't stop cheating though.)

Got some Problem Children vibes, except this time, the protags are your normal brother and sister duo who just happen to be expert gamers.

A crappy game called life, huh? They have the same mindset as Keima. Except they will never play that crappy game ever again. Ha.

Now show me more of your mettle, White Sky!

Blanksis apparently solved chess, though I may be misinterpreting that scene. Assuming Blankbro is at her level when it comes to manipulating people, the average citizen isn't going to stand a fireball's chance in Hel.

Clearly she didn't solve chess, because she almost lost from the opponent's feints, which should have been a trivial problem. The impression I got is that she knew how to exploit the logic-patterns programmed into chess playing machines. That's why they needed to work together to beat a human opponent.

Also, "pretty damned good" doesn't mean the siblings can never win, just that there should be more challenge and less Mary Suing. Talent can tip the scales, but experience is always the foundation. So far it seems like everyone on the other world was given an Idiot Ball just to make the protagonist seem impressive.

edited 10th Apr '14 7:29:53 AM by Clarste