The surreal “Sword Art Online meets Candyland” art is fun IMO, it’s just more fun than it would be if it hadn’t been done by the studio that carved out a name for itself with darker, more realistic shows.
I just hope that it gets the MADHOUSE a-team on the animation as ever since they really cheaped out on Princess Resurrection’s fight scenes I’ve been a little concerned about every show they’ve done since.
I wouldn’t worry too much about that.
As far as animation goes, it’s actually pretty good for a Madhouse series.
Episode 4 -
A third force of red characters is introduced to the chess game. This is how Sora intends to win without fighting. Kurami is positive that another race is helping Sora the way the Elves are helping her. Sora demands her surrender, but she refuses, ordering her forces - to slay the enemy king at the cost of their own lives. But that is what Sora wanted. Kurami has been backed into a corner and like all cruel dictators, she is assassinated. Sora has won the game!
Steph’s grandfather has been proven right and Kurami demands to know who helped them win. She’s still surprised that no one helped them. Sora actually commends her alignment with the Elves, but says that he doesn’t like the way she thinks, and points out the faults with her logic. Kurami still thinks they had help in defeating her and Elf magic. Ripping the veil from her face, Sora tells her not to underestimate humans. Kurami just falls to her knees, breaking into tears and complaining of all the trouble that she had to go through just to get the Elves to help her.
With no other challengers, Sora and Shiro as “Blank” are to become kings. However, there can be only one, so this is a huge problem. It must be a game between the two of them, winner take all. Unfortunately, they are too evenly matched. It’s been three days of games and there is still no winner. Shiro brings the seventh pledge to Sora’s attention, and both Sora and Shiro end up becoming king and queen. Now it’s time to get the country in order!
Sora gathers the ministers together and with a game of rock, paper, scissors, he orders them all to lose. And the losers will come to heel. Of course they all lose and now the real work can begin. Once the domestic affairs are handled, a public appearance and speech are necessary to stir up national pride. The speech ends with Sora declaring war on every other country in order to take back their borders. The crowds roar their approval.
But Steph is having a heart attack. Sora has to explain his strategy and that calms her down. If everyone believes that another country aided Sora in his quest for the crown, no other country will attack them until the identity of that country is known. This should keep the other countries busy with finger pointing, so Elkia will be safe enough for now.
As for allies, Sora and Shiro think the Flugel would be perfect. However, Tet shows up to ask how they’re enjoying themselves. Sora has figured out that life here is a game of chess. There are sixteen races and sixteen pieces on a chessboard. Defeating all sixteen races means that Sora can challenge Tet to a game for the title of “One True God”. Of course Sora can’t resist and is ready to give Tet a run for his money. And Blank never loses!
Out of all the shows from this season that I’ve seen, ngnl is the most poorly animated. This has more cutaway shots, designed to save animation bucks, than does an episode of family guy. The only shows that feature poorer animation are JoJo and Dai Shogun but making comparisons to them is hardly fair.
This seriously could outdo princess resurrection for “Madhouse’s shoddiest animation job”.
Madhouse is letting bros down.
If any of our resident artists are interested, Crunchyroll is holding a “No Game No Life” art contest. The details can be found here
Episode 5 –
Steph thought that Sora and Shiro would save Elkia, but all they did was give all the work to Steph and the ministers while they continue to play games. They’ve even moved out of the royal apartments. Steph has had it with them, but Sora tells her that Blank does not work! So, she issues a challenge. Sora will even allow her to choose the game. However, if she wins, she insists that Sora become a “decent” person. That sends Sora over the edge! LOL
Steph chooses the game of Blackjack, and she also intends to cheat. The choice of Blackjack doesn’t thrill Sora or Shiro in the least and they have no enthusiasm for the game. Even with Steph cheating, Sora wins the boring game. He knew Steph was cheating, but he was cheating too. Still, he does her a favor and meets with the nobles. In playing a game with them, Sora gains everything the nobles own, including their titles. But that wasn’t in Steph’s carefully laid plans. Both Sora and Shiro are shocked at her intelligence!
Sora and Shiro go into town, but aren’t very good at being out and seeing people. Sora has also claimed his prize for winning the Blackjack game and Steph is their dog for a day. Shiro even has her on a leash! Sora notes that the people seem fearful of them. Steph enlightens him by telling him it’s because he has her dressed up as a warbeast. Once Sora realizes that the Eastern Federation is full of “hot girls with animal ears”, he means to claim Arcadia as his own!
Sora discovers that Elkia is low on certain goods, like sugar. Steph again issues a challenge, intending to make Sora a “fulfilled” human this time and Shiro accepts the challenge, since her brother is all too ready to lose. But Blank never loses! Of course Shiro wins, and now Steph will have to do the thing that Shiro tells her to. Shiro takes Steph’s panties and puts them on her head. LOL It must have been funny seeing the new queen walking around like that with Steph as her dog, flashing enticing glimpses of her nether regions.
Steph keeps on challenging Blank and she keeps losing more clothes. Shiro just keeps wearing them in weird ways. Steph loses another game and Sora explains that there is no such thing as “chance”. Steph realizes that he’s been working all this time to find out information about the warbeasts. And Sora actually pays Steph a compliment. But he hasn’t claimed his prize yet and Steph doesn’t have much more clothing to lose.
As they talk, it gets dark and begins to snow. Sora and Shiro are shocked to see that “Laputa” really exists. Steph tells them that it’s Avant Heim, one of the Phantasma. **Strange that Sora and Shiro are dressed differently, but Steph is still missing her clothes. In the next scene, Sora and Shiro have their regular clothes again. I’m sure those outfits were from somewhere, but I can’t quite place them. In any case, Sora is now determined to bring the Flugel to their side.
Steph tells them that there is a Flugel nearby. It won the National Elkia Library and all its contents from Steph’s grandfather. Sora can’t believe the idiocy of betting – and losing - all their knowledge! Sora and Shiro go off to challenge the Flugel, and gain the knowledge to conquer the world! Once inside the library, Sora sees that the Flugel is in no way an angel, but is death itself. Wrapped up in a beautiful package of course. The Flugel wants to know why people are in her library.
It seems that the strange outfits are from Castle in the Sky. Nice homage!
No Game, No Life, Ep 2 had an error.
Admin is requesting a replacement file for it.
They have taken down the faulty one and will report back when the new one goes up.
Episode 2 is Live!
Thank you everybody for your patience 
-Mo-
Episode 6 –
The Flugel’s name is Jibril and Sora challenges her for the library. However, Jibril is nothing like that Flugel that Steph described. Is this truly a god killing warrior? Jibril sure doesn’t act like one. However, they discuss the challenge. Books are a Flugel’s life, so Sora bets forty thousand books from another world. But Jibril can’t believe that Sora and Shiro are from another world and would like to check their erogenous zones. And if Jibril can touch his, Sora wants to touch hers! Steph is shocked when Jibril agrees.
Sora feels let down when he only gets to touch Jibril’s wing. LOL Jibril touches Sora’s chest and tells him how sensitive her wings are. The “Master of H games” rubs her wing, and afterwards, she pronounces that they are unknown life forms and not of this world. Jibril accepts his challenge. Although Sora only wants the library, Jibril bets everything she has. They also agree that the winner gets one extra demand. The game will be one of “Materialization Shiritori”. It’s very interesting and very dangerous once it gets started. Poor Steph never wanted to be a part of this, but here she is. LOL
The game seems to go on forever, and Jibril is getting bored, but she’s still having fun. And Sora is beginning to see how Jibril thinks. He has an excellent strategy and of course he and Shiro eventually win. Jibril realizes that Blank actually won after their very first move. The rest of the game was just to keep Jibril distracted. She comes to realize that humans are a truly terrifying race. Jibril also stunned to find out that Blank is going to challenge God and that Tet brought them to this world – and they intend to beat him.
Sora reminds Jibril that everything she has is now his. He will allow her to continuing using the library and she may also have access to all of the books on his tablet. But Jibril has her own ideas. She declares that Sora is her new master and offers him everything she has. Her only pleasure now will be to carry out his will. Blank accepts her offer. And poor abused Steph is still a dog! LOL
Ep. 05
I love it!
Steph is the butt end of some many jokes, it almost makes me feel sorry for her.
The comedy in this show is getting hit and miss, that some parts are legitimately funny while others are just trying too hard. I expect the dub will smooth that over.
BTW, what happened to Steph’s forced obsession with the lead male? It hasn’t reappeared.
It showed up for a moment in the latest episode (7). It might just be that there’s too much other stuff to focus on to show that more often.
Episode 7 -
Well, having Jibril around certainly makes life more interesting! Kurami now knows that the new king has a Flugel working with him, and that Sora is interested in the Eastern Federation. I wonder how she will use that information to her advantage.
Meanwhile, Gendo – I mean Sora - is questioning Jibril about the Eastern Federation, and Jibril gives him a brief history of the Warbeasts. Sora is all the more determined to conquer the animal girls immediately. But Jibril warns him that may not be so easy. She once challenged the Eastern Federation and lost!
Kurami thinks the Warbeasts are attacking Elkia. It turns out that Elven Garde had also lost four challenges against the Eastern Federation too. Kurami is now under the impression that the Warbeasts are the race that is helping Sora.
Sora is trying to figure out how the Warbeasts defeats both Elves and Flugel. Jibril tells him that the condition with Warbeasts winning a game is that the memories of that game are erased from the loser. Sora feels it may be impossible to beat them. There are no records of what games are played and on top of that, Warbeasts can ready minds. So, how do you beat them? Still, Sora thinks they may be hiding something.
Jibril teleports everyone to the Eastern Federation’s Embassy in Elkia. It used to be the palace. Sora is just in despair at this point. He just keeps insulting Steph’s grandfather until she can’t take it anymore. She defends her grandfather as she cries, then runs from the room. Steph later takes a key from her hair ornament. A key her grandfather gave her to a place where something important is kept. He had told Steph that it was a “key of hope”. He had wanted her to someday give it to the person that she could trust with the future. However, Steph is still angry with Sora and won’t even consider giving him the key.
Jibril pops, literally, in to tell Steph to go back to the library. She doesn’t want to, but Steph does return to Sora. She overhears Sora trying to justify her grandfather’s actions to Jibril. As Sora goes over all the available info again, he decides that there must have been a method to the former king’s madness in challenging the Warbeasts eight times. Did he learn something?
Sora ends up saying the right things about humanity and Steph decides that he is worthy of the key. But when she gives it to him, Sora thinks it’s for the old king’s porn stash. And he already knows where the secret room is too. And the key fits! It’s not porn, but research that the group finds. It turns out that as Sora suspected, Imanity, as a lower life form did not lose their memories to the Warbeasts. It was a trap to keep challenging them, but the king knew that and played along. The result is this journal and the chance for Sora to win against the Eastern Federation!
This is also why the old king wanted games to choose the next king. He hoped for someone smart enough to win against the Warbeasts. The man wasn’t such a fool after all. He was actually arranging for Imanity to get a second chance against the other races. Sora ends up telling Steph that her grandfather was a great man and offers her the journal. Steph takes it and sinking to her knees, cries her eyes out. Now it falls to Blank to put this information to good use!
Episode 8 –
Sora takes everyone to the Eastern Federation’s Embassy where they are greeted by the assistant ambassador. He takes them to the ambassador. Sora and Shiro are immediately enchanted by little Izuna. But she has a very strange way of speaking. LOL The assistant ambassador is Izuna’s grandfather and Ino doesn’t like the “hairless monkey” petting his granddaughter. But his threat doesn’t stop Sora and Shiro from petting her again!
Once they get down to business, Sora banters a bit and reveals that the Warbeasts really can’t read minds. Blank challenges the Eastern Federation to a game and they want everything the Eastern Federation own on that continent. If they lose, Ino gets Steph’s panties. Sora also breaks down the mysteries of the Warbeasts one by one. He also determines that the games they play are video games. In addition, Sora backs Ino into a corner. They will have to accept Sora’s challenge now. To make things even more interesting, Sora bets his Imanity Race Piece. And by the way, Blank isn’t going to lose!
Sora gives them time to prepare, but it looks as if the game has already begun. It seems that Sora and Shiro are to be separated, and Sora knew it would happen. The end credits were interesting and afterwards Shiro asks for her brother and Steph isn’t sure who that might be. Shiro panics a bit and asks for Sora. Steph wants to know who that is. The Warbeasts seem to know that Sora and Shiro can’t be separated. I suppose they’ve done their research as well. This is going to be another exciting game!
Oh how wrong you are about why the episode ended the way it did. 
In that case, I can’t wait to find out!