Some of you will know of the name, and some of you won't. No Game No Life was a series on Japanese TV, an Anime that i personally found very interesting. No Game No Life Zero is a Movie Prequel to that very same Anime.
Some people may see this film as a story of How the God of Games became to be, but i personally choose to see it as a story of how Heart can beat even Gods at their own game.
Be warned, there are spoilers ahead.
The movie starts out with our protagonist "Riku" playing a game of chess with an invisible opponent, someone who he seems to never be able to win against. However this is short lived as a battle up above turns Awry and ends up destroying the town in which Riku lived.
Fast forward 15 years (a guess on my part) and you get to an older Riku who is the leader of Village and responsible for keeping them all alive. They are forced to scavenge in the ruins of other races in order to gain knowledge and survive in a world that has become almost impossible to live in.
During one of these Scavenges Riku comes across an "ex-Machina" who is trying to learn what The Heart is, and what follows is a tale of action, adventure, risk, heart ache, and yet by the end of the story you can't help but feel proud that you've been witnessed to such a story. This is a story about how even in the most hopeless situations, "Immanity" is more than a match for gods. How we are able to overcome even the most impossible obstacles to become something much more than ourselves.
I choose to believe that the whole No Game No Life series, is about how if we come together and work as a single "Race" that we are able to accomplish tremendous, impossible things. Having just literally finished watching No Game No Life Zero i can't help but be uplifted, and smile yet smile with sadness. The story draws you in and the characters make sure that you fall in love no matter who you are.
You want to be a part of Immanity and know what it is like to have really lived and accomplished something. The animation style is something that i really love about this film, it's the type that tries to be realistic, but makes fun of itself all at the same time. The story has been incredibly thought out, compelling and emotional.
This is definitely a film that i would recommend, even if you haven't watched the original series, it works as a stand alone film, but a great gateway into getting into the series if you haven't seen it before. I am going to give this film a 9.5/10 purely because i don't like the ending, and i think they could have made it so much more interesting if "Riku" was "the God of Games" but alas it was not meant to be.
No Game No Life was released on 25th October 2017 in Japanese Cinemas and is surely to come to DVD soon for all those in the western hemisphere. Or for those of you who know where to find it, online in any country of the world.
