Review of No Game, No Life: Zero

You know I've not really had a good track record with anime movies. Granted, I've only seen like... 2, but both of them have been so bad that I couldn't help but be ashamed that my investment in the attached franchise had ended up in such a callous waste of my time. As you can imagine, I tread very carefully when making my way into this movie, especially considering this was a long-awaited extension to a franchise I, like many others, so direly wanted more of... and... while it may not be a direct follow up from that cruel cliffhanger they left us with 4years ago, It'll do.

As I wrote that I really didn't consider the power that the words "It'll do" possess (but it'll help me segway into my next point so I'm keeping it). "It'll do" implies satisfaction despite mediocrity, but to insist that I considered this movie mediocre in any way would be a terrible lie. It is true, that from the beginning I was prepared for a rushed and botched story and it is also true that I thought the high rating given by this website came from the slew of diehard fans who were simply content with having something over nothing. However, to my surprise, neither of my assumptions were true. It was, in-fact, a good movie.

Soooo what was so good about it? I could go on forever if I were to nitpick over every little thing about this movie but I'll keep it to the things that stood out to me:

Number 1; the story was well paced, dramatic and only just got away with tapping into the original story enough to satisfy all of the rabid fans. While we have a new cast, we don't. Same voices, same poses, same faces, just a different story from a different era which, despite the heavy emphasis on war and violence, did enough to separate itself from a mindless battle anime that it so easily could have bunched itself in with. Was it ridiculous at some points? yes. Was it creepy at some points? yes. Is it any more ridiculous than the main series? No, but it doesn't really relate to the main series in style or direction... so that's no surprise.

Which brings me on to number 2, It rode -with- the original 2014 series, not against it and, most importantly, not on the back of it either. There is nothing worse than a movie/episode that does nothing but reminds you of how much fun you COULD be having if you were watching the thing it's referencing instead of the garbage going into your eyeballs right now. You know what I'm on about. Call back movies, clip shows, sh*t like that which just doesn't fly in anything except mainstream Japanese media and 1990's Simpsons episodes. To clarify, this movie does not do this, in fact, it doesn't even resonate on the same frequency as the series, despite being just as vibrant and nice to look at, it's so much darker and so much more... well... adult than what you'd expect. I think the main thing highlighted in this movie that isn't even touched on in the original series is 'responsibility', which seems to be the background moral at play throughout the whole thing (and it works like a charm)

Now, we've got a short negative here, but it doesn't really impede on the overall outcome of the film. The music was a bit choppy and was in NO WAY up to the badass standard of the series. Granted, it wasn't really the time or the place for the classic "badass on the rise" tune that we all know and love, but at the same time, there could have been at least one moment where the music comes on to pump up the audience. Don't get me wrong though, it wasn't bad music (apart from this one piece that sounded like it was composed by a dog).

So that's about all I'm gonna give you for why I like this film. It could have easily been a 10 but I didn't want to give it to a movie that essentially had a copy-paste main cast. Don't get me wrong, I had no problem with it, even though there's very little explanation as to why the Riku and Shuvi were identical to Sora and Shiro in appearance and behaviour. Oh well, hey, maybe it'll be explained at some point, hey, maybe it won't, hey, even if there is a reason, it wouldn't have hurt to inject some new faces and names into the mix, but, hey, I can also understand if you were just looking to keep it closely tied to the main story,

Hey, thats just me though. For what its worth, this is probably one of the more enjoyable features I've had to sit through, and I'm very glad they did a good job of it. Now... if we could just... get... a second... season...