No Game No Life Zero

It's a bit odd, but I've noticed that when it comes to stories that I think are truly, objectively, among the very best I know, I don't feel as much need to discuss and analyse them as with stories which I love, but know that they're severely flawed, or have otherwise mixed feelings about. Somehow, when it comes to true masterpieces, I feel like it's enough to say that they're "must watch/read". When a story comes so close to perfection that the only things I can think of to gripe about are minor flaws that wouldn't justify even a half star reduction from full 5 stars, I feel like there isn't truly much to discuss, at least until the other party has seen/read the work as well, and we can discuss spoilery stuff.

That said, when I put my mind to it, I can still write a wall of text about any anime I like. Here are some of my thoughts regarding the movie which adapts the 6th volume of the No Game No Life light novels, No Game No Life Zero. It's a prequel story about the last years of the old world, about 6000 years ago, the great war that destroyed the world, and the rebirth of the world as Disboard, the setting of the main story. It's naturally much darker, less comedic, and more epic in nature compared to the main story. The protagonists are the human Riku, and the Ex Machina (android) Schwi, who resemble Sora and Shiro, and are voiced by the same seiyuus. In fact, I suspect that Sora and Shiro are reincarnations of the same souls, though I also suspect that this will never be confirmed one way or another in the story.

Riku is the leader of a small band of humans trying to survive in a world where the gods themselves wage a war of supremacy and extinction. In the main story, we get but a glimpse of the powers of the higher beings in this world, mainly through Jibril - the movie shows us the horrifying reality of those days of unrestrained warfare between hundreds of being as strong or stronger than her. With all that epic destruction, it is a perversely glorious and beautiful scenery: they really cranked the quality of the atmospheric art and animation style from the anime series up to eleven. It is also a very depressing setting, a world where the sun hasn't been seen in generations, all vegetation has been long since destroyed, and it's a miracle that the weak, magicless and godless human race has survived at all.

Then Riku meets the exiled Ex Machina, whom he later names Schwi. She is curious about the "human heart", the thing she suspects to be the reason for the illogical survival of humans. Due to her illogical obsession, she has been disconnected from her "cluster", and she latches onto Riku in hopes that he'll teach her what she desires to know. With her influence and resources, Riku gains hope, and his goal shifts from the survival of his race to an even more impossible task: ending the war.

That's the premise. Now to my thoughts:
This is without doubt the best anime movie I've ever seen, surpassing even the Ghibli movies I've seen. It's a bit confusing towards the end, I couldn't fully grasp the logical causality of everything that happened, but it's not so bad as to significantly reduce my enjoyment. That's the only flaw I could think of worth mentioning after watching the movie. Otherwise, the movie is a shining masterpiece of storytelling and animation. Owing, of course, to the brilliant original light novel. I always thought that the NGNL anime was very well dramatised, but in this prequel movie, a story far more epic and dramatic, the quality dramatisation is finally given a chance to shine in its full glory, reaching its full potential. 

I read the LN afterwards, and as an adaptation, the movie is definitely top tier. It's flawed: in terms of story, the LN has clearer continuity and even more epicness. Something that bothers me a little is that the movie doesn't really convey the passage of time like the novel does: in the original story, the whole sequence of events takes 2 years, while in the movie, you get the feeling like everything happens in just a few months. That's a bit short time for the major changes that the main characters go through. However, the movie makes up for its flaws with its great art and animation, and I can't really say that it leaves out any essential scenes, with one possible exception.

The central element in NGNL, intelligent games, takes a bit of a background role in this story, despite the fact that they're playing a game with far higher stakes than any game in the main story. It's a real life game with no clear rules (even if Riku attempts to impose such rules), it's essentially politics. The majority of the story is focused on developing the main characters, and some beautiful action. It's a bit of a shame, I feel like it could have been an even better story with just 5 minutes of extra content focused on the political game, but honestly, I can't count it as a flaw. Missed potential maybe.

While the prequel isn't as intellectually stimulating as the main story, it's a hell of a lot more epic. I don't just mean the scale of destruction, the epicness of this story comes also from the desperation of the struggle, the sacrifices and accomplishments of the main characters, which seek their equal among all stories of heroism I know. Riku and Schwi live in a world incomparably more brutal than modern Japan, yet they face that reality, they play that absurd game to which Sora and Shiro turned their backs. I never thought I'd see an anime to rival Malazan Book of the Fallen in epicness, but this just might qualify.

I cried through the end credits (and again when I read the novel). It's been quite a while since I last had a proper, cleansing cry. It's something I like to experience once a year or so, but the stories that can give me such an extreme emotional payoff can be counted with my fingers. Aside from this movie/novel, there are three manga, two anime, one visual novel, one live action TV series and one anime movie. That's what I have after twenty years of active consuming of story-focused entertainment.

Most of them are romances, where the emotional payoff comes from a happy ending, after a story that got me attached to the characters, and drama that built up to a satisfyingly climactic conclusion. I've never liked pure tragedy, I take no pleasure in feelings of sadness. However, there is something that combines them both and gives birth to something more than the sum of their parts: bittersweetness. A happy, climactic ending that required sacrifices: that, if executed just right, gives me the ultimate emotional payoff.

I have never before tasted such exquisite bittersweetness as with this story.

5/5 stars without a moment's hesitation. This damn near sets a new standard, making me consider lowering the score of some other anime.