No Game No Life

Description

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Meet Sora and Shiro, a brother and sister who are loser shut-ins by normal standards. But these siblings don’t play by the rules of the “crappy game” that is average society. In the world of gaming, this genius pair reigns supreme, their invincible avatar so famous that it’s the stuff of urban legend. So when a young boy calling himself God summons the siblings to a fantastic alternate world where war is forbidden and all conflicts–even those involving national borders–are decided by the outcome of games, Sora and Shiro have pretty much hit the jackpot. But they soon learn that in this world, humanity, cornered and outnumbered by other species, survives within the confines of one city. Will Sora and Shiro, two failures at life, turn out to be the saviors of mankind? Let the games begin…

Associated Names
One entry per line
NGNL
NO GAME NO LIFE 遊戲人生
ノーゲーム・ノーライフ
游戏人生(小说)
Related Series
No Game No Life: Practical War Game (Side Story)
Recommendations
Did You Think Another World Would Motivate A NEET? (2)
Overlord (LN) (1)
Nejimaki Seirei Senki – Tenkyou no Alderamin (1)
Genius Prince’s National Revitalization from State Deficit ~ Right, Let Us Sell the Country (1)
Mushoku Tensei (WN) (1)
Liar, Liar (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. japan
  2. ALLJP+
  3. Isekai Fantasy | #1
  4. Jnovels
  5. Good stuff

Latest Release

Date Group Release
05/21/22 Tsukimi Translations short story artwork
05/21/22 Tsukimi Translations short story
12/22/21 Tsukimi Translations v11 prologue
11/15/21 Tsukimi Translations v11 illustrations
03/30/20 hikarinokaze v10c1 part2
01/03/20 hikarinokaze v10c1 part1
01/03/20 hikarinokaze v10 prologue part2
12/04/19 hikarinokaze v10 prologue part1
12/04/19 hikarinokaze v9c2-4 + epilogue
03/29/19 hikarinokaze v9c2 part1
03/17/19 hikarinokaze v9c1 part3
03/01/19 hikarinokaze v9c1 part2
02/28/19 hikarinokaze v9c1 part1
02/28/19 hikarinokaze v9 prologue
02/01/19 hikarinokaze v8 epilogue
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Review
14 Reviews


VanAlex
VanAlex
Jul 25, 2016
Status: v6
NO GAME NO LIFE, a series filled with many quirks and antics, and even momentarily parodies, made by Kamiya Yuu which gave an impression of being a Lolicon with his fantastic drugged art...

I've watched the anime first, but I decided to read this from Vol.1-Vol.6 since there was an announcement about Vol.6 being adapted into Movie, so since I like No Game no Life for its unique theme 'Game' then I decided to read it just to know what is the Vol.6 or the Prologue of the Whole series which... more>> depicts the 'Great War'

The anime was entertaining, even Kamiya admitted that the director has surpassed what he thinks, amazingly the anime which is the first 3 Vol. was adapted very close to the original material, but there are some minor details and events which was removed, although it doesn't affect the whole plot... Overall I can say that the Anime did a good job, so basically there's no need to read the whole series, not that I regret it but I think it would be better to watch the anime then proceed to Vol.4

But that's not the case, I will try to differentiate Vol.1-5 vs. Vol.6

The World Building was magnificent, the antics and the comedic element was good, but there's too much slice of life elements which drags the 'game scenes' and these 'game scenes' are quite boring in a sense that they are so predictable back-up with many unpredictable revelations.... The author have relied too much on 'Mary Sue' elements and created some 'Deus Ex' Explanation, not that it's bad but it's filling the plot holes of the story, and there's too much glorification in the first 5 books. But the Author is aware of its flaws, not that he minds it, but he Intended to write it like that, and the 'Evidence' that he can make NGNL a masterpiece was the Vol.6.... so does NGNL first 5 vol. sucks?? In my standards it is, but in another perspective, it was purposely made, though I don't know the reason why it was made like that, but at least Yuu Kamiya, the author knows the flaws of the novel and he's aware of it, and he used it as his plot device which sucks.

But the Vol.6 the Masterpiece of No Game No Life, the Reason why I'm writing this review in the first place, the reason why I scored it 5/5 or in my strict standard 7.5/10
The Vol.6 started with Tet and Izuna, more likely it started where Tet told the legendary story to Izuna, while playing games...

The Prologue of the story, the world building and the setting was quite dark, but realistic, so far it has started with a group of people and showing their survival tactics, there was a lethal miasma that can cause poison and the races were at war. The humans have lived in a place called 'colony', in order to survive, the humans needs to venture out in order to investigate its surroundings, and going outside means going with death, it's like Attack on Titan or something, but the survival rate is higher than AoT, since the enemies are the 'Races' the ones who are waging war on themselves.... So far the World Building of the past was really harsh, but amazingly the Humans have survived by any means necessary.

As much as I want to spoil, the novel is 500+ pages and I think it would better if you read it yourself, but what I've loved which made me hard to recover was the Ending.

~STORY~
Vol.1-5 → 5.5/10

The story was good, but it's too flawed, most of the arcs takes up to 2 vol. each, with exemption of Vol.1 and Vol.6, for Vol.2 and 4, half of their contents were slice of life, more likely light hearted moments which does not affect the whole story, and most of the '2nd half' of each volumes focuses on games and revelation, which makes the plot more serious. So sometimes NGNL drags its plot but most of them makes sense while it gives an underwhelming impression, and some of the plot devices are repetitive.

The Ten Pledges makes the series unique, and sometimes there are some loopholes which can be taken for granted, the elements were good, there's also the usage of Virtual Reality in the Fantasy World, even Dream World exist. The setting was unique overall.

Vol.6→8/10
This is the best Vol. so far, the world was chaotic, there are no rules and there's no beauty on it. The story was kinda dark from the start, it has so many elements which does not exist in the first 5 vol. But on the later part, it has become light hearted on the '2nd Quarter', but the '2nd Half' was a Masterpiece. Despite of Having a predictable Outcome in the end, since it was mentioned in the 5th Vol. the Execution was superb which made the Story Memorable. Overall Vol.6 Is an Example of a Masterpiece which can be compared to many Novels and other Series, and I'm glad that it will be adapted to an Animated Movie.

[I'll continue this review later since I'm having a headache while writing this, it may due to reading the 6th. Vol. Straight hours hahaha] <<less
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Zackarotto
Zackarotto
May 28, 2019
Status: v1
I only read one volume, but in spite of its popularity in Japan, it's a mess. In the world of No Game No Life, nobody is capable of inflicting bodily injury upon each other, nobody is capable of theft, and all conflicts must be settled by playing games. Now, I like a radical premise. I also get bored of battle novels. But despite that opening pitch, this world is that of common fantasy tripe, self-described as "looking like Skyrim", with kingdoms and social relations of the middle-ages. In other words,... more>> it radically reenvisions the most fundamental forces that have shaped society, without imagining how such changes would impact that society at all. This falls apart under any scrutiny.

It also has some seriously tr*shy content, with the protagonist's actions of mind-control and s*xual assault -- normally some pretty dark ideas (such as seen from the victim's perspective in Sword Art Online) -- dressed up as nothing more than harmless ecchi comedy. As much as I like reading vulgar tr*sh, this is too uncritical. The author has designed a terrifying world where such things are at the power of anyone's fingertips with simple word games and differences of opinion... and doesn't even seem to realize it.

Our protagonist is Sora, who uses cleverness to prevail in this world. That's the elevator pitch, but he doesn't actually depend on intelligence. He depends on plot armor. What else can you call it when he challenges other people at their own rigged specialties and wins anyway, without even bothering to have the rules clarified before accepting a match? Putting aside him repeatedly putting his little sister up as collateral like a f*cking a**hole, what part of that is supposed to be optimal play?

The author has no understanding of game design, or even more generally, of rules -- whether they're game rules, laws, or inviolable commandments -- and how these rules influence and incentivize the behaviors of people. (He has no understanding of Chess, either, but I'll let that go.) You see this, for example, in the contest to determine the next king or queen, where it's a last-man-standing contest which begins informally but has a deadline to register. All the participants enter well before the deadline and defeat themselves to the last person, so Sora just walks in right at the tail end of it and has to face only one person instead of, who knows, maybe a thousand, all back-to-back. Why would anyone at all opt in early? And what would have happened if any contestants deadlocked over who was challenging whom? Instead of worrying about any of these obvious considerations, it all just sort of gets quietly settled to the hero's convenience.

Let's put that aside and look at how this society is actually structured. You have a bunch of territories divided up by various intelligent fantasy races, such as the elves and elementals. As things stand, the human kings have continually lost territory to the other races, shrinking back to one city-state. This raises so many questions, all of them glossed over. What authority does the king have to gamble away entire cities, and the properties of the people living there? How are there "property rights" at all, without someone first monopolizing the use of force? Our world's whole notion of a ruling class is contingent on violence. Kings are just men whose ancestors forced everyone to obey them under threat of death. In this world, one person would literally have to win a game against every other person in order to hold actual power over them, and even then I don't know how ones' descendants would be expected to play along. Even if your king gambles away your territory, what's to keep you from staying exactly where you are, doing subsistence farming, and refusing all challenges from the elves or whomever it is that shows up later? Their ten commandments talk about establishing an "agent plenipotentiary" to manage conflicts with the other races, but their internal authority isn't explained in concrete terms.

Frankly, all the rules need clarification. If person A can be made to fall in love with person B through the results of a contest, what are the limits here? Can person C then defeat person A while imposing the condition that they won't love person B anymore? If person B forces person A to "do whatever I say", could person A plug their ears and run off and find a friend, and deliberately lose to them under the condition that "you will no longer do whatever person B says"?

But to criticize this from the other side, let's say that people actually do still have to fear physical force. After all, even though we see no evidence of this beyond impotent "bandits" who can't actually steal anything without winning a game of their victim's choice, couldn't a group of people just use the police tactic of "kettling", where they gather up riot shields and take shifts forming a tight enclosure around somebody without ever inflicting "bodily injury", while the trapped person shits themselves and starves until they give in, and agrees to wager their mind, body, and soul in a game that they can't win? The larger force doesn't even have to propose the challenge. And even if they did, it's obvious that the challenging side has a chance to back out after a game is proposed. After all, the games clearly don't have to be fair. Anybody being challenged could just say "Let's play the knife game. You stab yourself until you die, and then I stab myself until I die, and the loser is the first person who dies."

In fact, it takes about five seconds of game theory to realize that nobody would ever agree to any game in this world unless forced. Even s*upid people would have this drilled into them, as common sense. Even ignoring the power differential, how can two people ever fairly resolve conflict if each is far better at something than the other, and the challenged party selects the game? Doesn't the entire premise boil down to who can provoke the other into challenging them first, with everyone just doing super passive-aggressive sh*t to their neighbors at all times? Libeling each other? No conflict would ever be solved and everyone would just hate each other. And to the limited extent that people would agree to compete, this would become a society of lawyers, who would spend days locking down the specific terms of each wager in rigid contracts, investigating the history of the challenger to make sure they're not hustling, and so on. Especially someone of as high status as a princess, who immediately loses everything to Sora, due to some childishly simple wordplay!

How s*upid could the non-magical, easily-duped humans have been to accept matches with other races in the first place? In fact, wouldn't humans only want to live in a racially segregated "human kingdom" because they know it's against their interests to compete with the other races? And how do they enforce their borders, not even from armies, but individual migrants? There's no commandment that says a human can't live in elven country. How are readers supposed to swallow that this state of affairs came about? This whole premise only works on the assumption that everyone, throughout history, has been a massive idiot, and not one of them has ever taken full advantage of the rules for their own benefit.

... Of course, I'd be shocked if later volumes didn't at least try to reconcile some of these obvious flaws. But if the story is this sloppy already, I would much rather move on to another novel. <<less
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Absolute Zero
Absolute Zer
Dec 14, 2019
Status: v10
The amount of Isekai series out there is equivalent to the vastness of the sea. With that being said however, No Game No Life is a cut above most and is probably the most recognizable series when talking about the genre itself. The reason being, it’s just that good. When it comes to originality, characters, world building, and story/plot, it’s definitely a 10/10 on all those aspects in my book. If you’ve already seen the anime adaptation + movie adaptation and liked them, then you’ll enjoy it’s book form just... more>> as much. One thing to note, this series is pretty heavy on the Ecchi aspects and can become very fan-servicey at times. Because of this, the minority of people that actually hate this series, hate it because of that aspect (which makes you a snowflake in my opinion). Anyways, even if you’re not a big fan of fan-service I still highly recommend reading this series. The pros that the series has to offer vastly over-shadows the cons.

One last thing:

Ignore the one star reviews from the clowns below. Although I heavily praised the series, in no way is it perfect (which can also be said for every fictional story that ever existed). With that being said, the ones giving out one star ratings are just being nonsensical... Those “reviewers” are either:

A) Nitpicking the tiniest flaws and making a big deal over it

B) Weren’t reading properly/between the lines and ended up confused, thus blaming it on ‘shitty writing’

C) Just hating on it just to hate (which isn’t uncommon seeing how popular series will always get unnecessary hate no matter how good it is)

I recommend just ignoring what they have to say and try the series out for yourself with an unbiased mindset. <<less
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cleesus
cleesus
Dec 08, 2018
Status: v6
I do not get the praise for this series, it might be one of the most poorly written light novels I have ever read, let alone a book. I dropped this at the end of vol 3, maybe ill come back one day

Once again we have know it all characters who are always 10 steps ahead of every single being in existence. They try to explain this as them being Neets who are couped up in the house playing video games for years - ok that doesn't actually explain... more>> how they manage to constantly pull off acts of God. The writer tries to explain some of their feats in a seemingly scientific way while absolutely sounding like and being bullshit. The fight vs the werewolves is the only example out of many I need to point to. The main characters themselves are one dimensional and tr*sh, no other way to explain how they treat the other characters in this series and its all supposed to be for comedic effect but none of it is funny. Everything done by them especially the comedy is done better pretty much everywhere else. They take one character and try to make her seem like an idiot and pretty much all the comedy in this story relies on this and yet its done so poorly it's just sad. I feel like this story would be hilarious if you were 13 and could directly relate to the characters' mindstate. I suppose this is supposed to be an ecchi comedy with all the lazy attempts at making all the females love the MC and getting them naked, I'm all for it if done right but lord this series is tr*sh. The author/illustrate has been caught plagiarizing others' art to make his for this series too, nothing redeemable about this. <<less
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Lachiel
Lachiel
Oct 26, 2015
Status: --
This novel. 10/10 idea 10/10 execution. The only problem in this whole novel is the amount of bro-con and sis-con. But I'm sure everyone will be okay with that considering both of them are amazing MC's. It's like one MC for the price of one. All the characters feel alive and feel apart of the world. The world building the author has done is hand's down one of the best I've read in a while. The execution is not really flawless but it still deserves a perfect rating considering... more>> he's made a action novel without any violence or killing which is just amazing.

I recommend this to anyone who's looking for something to read. Also watch the anime.. Thats great too :D <<less
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EvilGenesis666
EvilGenesis6
Mar 24, 2018
Status: v8
First of all, let me say that this was one of the best, if not THE BEST novels I have read. The only (slightly) bad thing was the insufficient world development, but it was relatively unnecessary since the story didn't depend on it too much anyway.

First of all, the characters - they are all unique and each one has their own thought process that doesn't depend on the MC and all of the side characters have some sort of role they play in the big picture along with them each... more>> having their own dreams, ambitions and aspirations. The MCs are pretty good, with them having some of human traits powered to the max (intellect, memory and personality reading) but they also have very obvious and crucial weakness (can't living without each other, being hikikomoris and NEETs...) so if they fell OP at some point, that feeling quickly goes away after they are their weaknesses are revealed.

As for the side characters, I was very surprised by how much personality and screen time author put to develop them. All of them have some sort of a role in every arc and battle and don't just serve to be there and waste words. Reading about them isn't boring as you see them struggling to make do with their problems and how their thought process works.

As for the plot, it's one of the strongest sides of the novel. It's very good, as everything is foreshadowed and planned out before it happens (sometimes, the planning and foreshadowing spans across volumes so it says how much author thinks ahead). I'm always excited when I see MCs having their plan prevail after the (seemingly) hopeless situation and what's more surprising is that even the side characters know about the plan and they contribute as much as they can (be it behind the scenes or not) , which makes it even more interesting after the enemy is beaten and everyone knew what was going on instead of them being all surprised and amazed by the MCs.

World building isn't bad, but it's not that important anyway since novel focuses much more on mentality of the characters and them outsmarting each other, rather than who has the stronger fist (treasure / weapon / technique...)

Romance was ~meh, but it's not rage inducing since the (male) MC doesn't have very good (if any) understanding of love, which is one of his weaknesses that he is trying to overcome trough the novel. Tho, I can't say anything about ecchi since it was thrown here and there trough the novel, but nothing over the top (+18).

Overall, recommend this great story to anyone that likes to read novels that have good character personalization and development, tons of thought-provoking arcs, plot with tons of foreshadowing and planning and some relaxing ecchi here and there.

Also recommend you watch anime and the movie. It doesn't deviate (too much) from the novel and it has great animation. <<less
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cmurat
cmurat
Jul 29, 2020
Status: v6
I have some unpopular opinions about this novel as can be seen from the rating. The only reason why it is not a one star review is that this is a shounen title.

TL;DR Watch the anime, don't read the novel.

WARNING: This review is long and very negative. Don't read it if you can't take it.

I first watched the anime and I really liked the characters and the world. I still think the world is one of the most unique among the light novels I have read and characters are... well,... more>> they are there. Also, the prose is horrible. It is repetitive, amateur, and not enjoyable at all, which is actually true about most light novels.

Let's start with the main characters: Sora and Shiro, the genius gamer siblings. Both of them are extremely capable or rather superhuman when it comes to any kind of game. Every other sentence in the novel is about how they are unbelievably OP. Now, have you ever heard of "Show, don't tell" principle? The author of this series certainly hasn't. We are told over and over and over again how unbelievably smart these siblings are. The repetition is unbelievable. I mean it. Granted on occasion, they show average intellect.

Shiro has some supernatural ability when it comes to numbers. She can calculate every possible move in chess, something that no contemporary computer can do and something that certainly no human can do. Sora on the other hand has more believable abilities, but they are still over the top. Although we technically have two MCs, the real MC is Sora. People either praise Sora alone or the praise the siblings together. The only person who praises Shiro is Sora and no one else.

Let's talk about the personalities of these two MCs. First Shiro: What personality? She is extremely shallow. I realise that she is an 11 year old kid. That is not an excuse to have a boring character whose only redeeming quality is her inhuman brain. Now, Sora has the slightest bit more personality. We know he is 18 and a virg*n. The author makes sure we know that he is a virg*n. In case you forget he is a virg*n worry not, you will be reminded of it on the next page. And the one after that. The whole jokes are about either about his v**ginity or about Steph (we will come to her in a moment). Sora has a pretty rotten personality. He decides to doom a whole species because they do some R-rated stuff to survive. He prefers to sit and watch a race go extinct, rather than to help them. Is it funny? No, of course not. And the worst part? These two siblings emotionally and physically torture Steph and sexually abuse her. They would be in prison serving no less than 10 years for doing what they did to Steph. It is pretty disgusting.

Let's get back to the topic of how smart these siblings are. Everyone around them is in awe of their intellect, especially Sora's. Statesmen of other countries are constantly SHOCKED by every little thing Sora does. Really? How can you be a prominent figure without being able to think or know these tactics? Even a highschooler would be able to think of these things and you, with years of experience in politics, can't? How did you even run the country before now? We are being told that Sora and Shiro are awesome every other sentence (not an exaggeration) but mostly their "stratagems" are subpar. This makes all the other people in the world outright idiots for thinking these strategies are something godly.

I have one positive thing to say about the novel, there were times I felt pumped up. Not a lot, but some. I pushed myself through 6 volumes because the anime was good and I thought maybe the novels will also be good or get better. They never did.

All in all, a subpar shounen title. <<less
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Pixeldrum
Pixeldrum
Feb 02, 2021
Status: v4
I'm here, trying to enjoy some semblance of psychological battles with some decent characters interactions and dialogue in the downtime. What I get is a LOT of fluff that doesn't really end up mattering all that much, and the times that there ARE games are just sort of attributed to the brother sister duo's genius.

Do you like harem, ecchi, and sis-con content? Because that's essentially what the novel boils down to. Some games here and there, but you can tell that the author puts a lot more emphasis on the... more>> harem that Sora builds along with his sister rather than any progressive plot. For a novel with a silly idea, I mean I get it. But, somehow, somewhere I was hoping for there to be more stakes involved in games, like gambling. You know, since it's basically the same thing. Everything in NGNL is a gamble when you stake something, yet there's this lack of suspense. It's pretty clear that this author wants to be more involved with slice of life interactions more than anything else. Everything's a game and a gamble, but to me, it's more of a gimmick that is attached to the story in order for it to move it forward. There's not much being done with it.

I think the anime did a much better job in terms of pacing. At least I didn't need to endure pages and pages of cringe worthy dialogue and inner thoughts of steph and the other girls that are somehow in love with Sora. At least I didn't need to read how they're drooling or thinking about him in some way shape or form. In the anime, it's a few seconds of fanservice and cringe dialogue, and the time passes more quickly because of that. I can ignore those bits a lot more easily. The anime clearly includes the ecchi fanservice, but has more of a focus on the games. They leave a lot of the ecchi content out, which was why I was able to sit through the anime despite having some misgivings about the entire ordeal. <<less
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sdarkpaladin
sdarkpaladin
Jan 25, 2016
Status: --
Nice story. Licensed. Waiting 5 years just for Yen press to catch up so that I can buy all of the books in bulk. Would strongly recommend to people who wants to read about wacky MCs and great story.
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BQDJ
BQDJ
Oct 27, 2015
Status: --
Argh... I wish someone could translate it again. I read until volume 6 but it was bad MTL, not that bad but still, not enjoyable to the fullest.

The concept seems classic, about the transported people in another world but it is entirely different. The 2 protagonists are there to play very diverse games to win over God. The OPness is great in a way that the 2 heroes that consist of a brother who has a great reaction speed and strategic-based type of gaming with his sister which is... more>> a super genius that can predict the outcome of almost all possible scenarios. The games are like investigations in detective mangas, the solutions are very clever and you're always amazed by their tricks, they don't kill or injure anybody. It seems like a really gummy bear story said like that but it's not that childish.

The relations between the characters are diverse, the harem building is set up as all the girls give off a unique feeling and different motivations, so these side characters make you laugh. They're all awesome. HIghly recommended novel, if Baka-Tsuki could pick it up again very fast, I would be the happiest.
HIghly recommend it <<less
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ceireavne
ceireavne
Aug 30, 2019
Status: v6c1
No Game No Life is a story about eighteen-year-old Sora and his eleven-year-old sister, shut-in gamers who are transported to a world where everything is determined by playing games instead of fighting wars. They set out to unite the continent and bring Immanity (humans) back from the brink of extinction and eventually take on Tet, the true god who set the ten covenants that bind everyone and prevent war.

Sora in the first one or two volumes is pretty decent. He's cunning and presents himself to be a scumbag, but is... more>> ultimately a rather normal (and even half-decent at heart) 18-year-old guy. Taking just the first two volumes into consideration, he's pretty alright, honestly. The ways he and Shiro beat games is usually fairly clever, too.

The biggest weakness of these first two volumes is his step-sister, Shiro. I'll be generous and say that she has five whole aspects to her personality. First, she is obsessed with her brother. Second, she is spiteful and jealous towards the girls in the harem growing around Sora. Three, she is an alleged genius. Four, she is a selfish brat. Honestly, though, she's written by and large as a moe blob. This means that the last and most damning trait about her character is that she barely has any personality at all.

It seems as though the author grew wise to the fact that Shiro was a shitty character, because they noticeably double down starting in volume three. Instead of Shiro's obsession being one-sided, Sora is retconned to be as emotionally dependent on his sister as she is on him. It borders on some gross form of codependency, which is in no way flattering to see unfold. It's also not cute, not in the slightest.

I liked Steph way more than I remember liking her in the anime. In fact, since she's the underdog and Shiro is always spitefully cutting Steph's legs out from beneath her, I kind of wanted to see her end up with Sora. By the end of volume five, I really don't care. Sora's reciprocated obsession with his eleven-year-old sister brings him down instead of making his sister better. In short, you could say Sora doesn't deserve Steph.

All the epiphanies (or almost-epiphanies, since he's rather dense) Sora has about his sister are gross and feel like they were shoehorned into the narrative. There is a moment where he thinks, "Wow, she's not just cute, she's beautiful." Is this when she's dressed up for a ball or something? No. It's when she's dressed in a swimsuit. I think I mentioned this, but she's eleven years old. In volume 5, Sora keeps asking other characters what love is, and finally resolves to have Plum cast a love spell on him to see what he would feel at his sister. The end result (as you may have seen from a mile away), is of course that there's no difference. We're to believe that he had romantic feelings for his eleven-year-old step-sister even before this story began.

The puzzle-solving starts out clever, but as the volumes continue it's less about being clever and more about using the power of sibling love and other bullshittery to defeat anything that comes their way. They also win at physical games despite the fact that physical games =/= video games. Yeah, right.

Well, at least NGNL's art is good, and the characters who aren't Sora and Shiro are pretty alright. Really, it's not entirely garbage, but all things told, this is a pretty skippable light novel. You probably shouldn't bother reading past the second volume unless you're very attached to the story and characters. <<less
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momonga143
momonga143
Sep 15, 2021
Status: --
Wow so far all hse 1-2 star reviews are just poeple who is new to this type of settings.

For example they all berate how its ubelievable how inhumane the little sister is or how genius the siblings are without any backstpry? If you read properly the little sister is someone who has high I. Q. Even as a 3year old kid. While sora the big brother has high E. Q. Abit of high I. Q. Even though that kind of thing is almost impossible but its not 0. And this... more>> story is just a stpry where the authors creativity is shown. Its just that ypu guys cant comprehend the authors brilliant mind thats why you guys crap on it like idiots do. Every game is interesting, smart, logical somewhat. Other stories out there? They cant even hold 1 chapter before they change their information on it. Drop at vol 1 or 3? Lol go ahead. It just shows your that shallow. Ive read lots of japanese novels, manga's then I switched to Chinese novels then to korean novels then back to chinese. Due to the concept of them having shorter chapters that is easy to manage unlike japanese where its so long that its hard to manage time, and would sometimes make me drowsy. But if animated right would be awsome. Anyway this story is just about 2 siblings who cant fit in in the world due to their uniqueness. Which prompt a god from another world to invitw them to his world to play. Having to use their wits, knowledge and wisdom to outplay cheaters, magic users and enhanced physical abilities. Cause humans weapon in the world is their wisdom. Then we have these 1-2 star raters hating on that very fact lol. You read cause your interested on that story but hated on it cause its that story lol. You dont know why the hype on this long ago? Cause this is one of the rare mind bogling stories at that time. Which became a standard of todays time due to people cashing on this hype, which in turn made new readers think that its just another stereotype lol. You cant rate old stories as stereotype as they are the ones who made the story popular. Anyway this story is great new readers may not appreciate it enough due to being exposed by other stories being pumped out, but this is still better than others. Also most reason people hating on this is because its not realistic enough lol. You do know this is made up fantasy right? The MC knowledge is gonna be based on authors studies, and how well its gonna be written. Its not how long the MC live and how much information they have gotten. Do you think detective conan is that good due to how brilliant the MC is? Lol no. Conan doesnt even have that high i. Q. Only above average but due to how the author meticously planned how to story is gonna be layed out that made the MC super brilliant. Thats just how this story is being played out. So you 1-2 stars who ranted just based on that should go f*cking kill yourselves for being so petty about it. You dont know shit. <<less
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Edelsnow
Edelsnow
Apr 04, 2021
Status: v9
Various characters, interactions (lots of bluffs, betrayals, and Steph bullying), and developments are funny and interesting, but every game is won because Blank makes sure the general gist of the games, and in conclusion, the "outcomes", go always according to keikaku, but Kamiya makes sure some unexpected obstacles still pop up to not make our hikkikomoris' "foresight" too OP.

... more>>
Spoiler

[Volume 8] Blank had their first loss which is against Jibril through timeout to invalidate her Task (Great War RTS. On a side note, he made a unit NTR another unit's wife. In Steph's words, he's scum.) inside another game against Old Deus Holou (Sugoroku). [Volume 9] The few existing Ex Machina units appear when Sora and Shiro wasn't expecting any race to make a move against them.

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Also, Sora is a semi-typical DT: not embarrassed showing he's a pe*vert and even proudly announces his virg*n status, but doesn't really go through with actual le*d advances towards him but his rejections and reasonings are purportedly justified by the encompassing moral stories of the respective LN Volumes.

Spoiler

Sora overall rejected the 12 robo maids because they actually love Riku, not him. Even their "love" is really just borrowed from Shuvi's heart.

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The writing is, for me, a convoluted mess where the ending just magically reveals the answers to the vague mysteries presented. The conclusion gives the illusion that "Ah, everything makes sense" but no, it doesn't make the repeated confusing phrases much clearer. Basically many parts in the novel are just a chore to read.

Nonetheless, this novel is a personal favorite, and I'd recommend it to readers who turn their brains off and like OP MCs doing OP (the novel says Blank does a great move but shies away from specifics on why it is so). <<less
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Uzi30
Uzi30
Aug 09, 2020
Status: v10
This is one of the first LN that I have read. I liked the anime so I began reading the series from vol 1 see if I missed anything. Overall, the LN doesn't feel consistent. Some volumes I love and others I hated. If I were to graph my enjoyment of the series, it would mostly positive flat line the first couple volumes, a spike up at volume 6, then from here it would be a zig zag mess alternating between mostly neutral-negative and a few occasional spikes, and vol... more>> 10 getting a bit better.

Sometimes the plot doesn't seems to be fleshed out, while other times the author is butchering the characters or doing both. It's Interesting to see how sora and shiro both work to gain their win condition even if it doesn't seem to be in their favor. However, it is really anticlimactic and dull when the author decides that some volumes will just have the blank (what both MC's call themselves) work the entire plan behind the scenes.

From the LN I have read, this would pretty low on my recommendation list, though not entirely off from it. If you decide to read this, keep in mind that sora and shiro are another set of op characters in an Isekai novel that revolves around games rather than brute strength. If you dislike op characters in a LN, then this may not be for you.

[spoiler. This is from vol 9 I believe, spoiler for rest of paragraph. Author really butchered the ex machina. I loved vol 6 and how they were introduced. I also loved their concept as they are a literal deis ex machina, a god made machine. But vol 10 didn't do them justice for a race that believed to be extinct. Great concept, badly executed. They were simply made as a bad harem joke for an entire volume. ][/Spoiler] <<less
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