No Game, No Life Movie – ZERO: After Thoughts

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I had never been a fan of No Game, No Life.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the series. I even liked it. I’m just not a fan of it. Still, I watched its prequel sequel movie. To be honest, I was abit hesitant with this, cuz I barely remember anything from the NGNL series. But I trust my brain and watched it. Heh.

(Author’s note: SPOILERS AHEAD…so please…if you haven’t seen the movie, uuhhhh,,,don’t read…but if you still wanna read…feel free to do so)

Here’s my thoughts:

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It’s actually really good.

No Game, No life Zero movie is a prequel sequel to the No Game, No life anime series. We get to see what really happen to the world before God of Games took over. It might be really good, but its not perfect.

The story was great. It was intriguing and interesting. I was in awe by everything that was happening. The only problem was, everything felt rushed. I especially felt this around the middle to the end of the story. Not much games were shown. Not even introduction to all of the races was done, we just got introduced to the humans (of course), the ex-machinas, the dwarves, the elves, and the flugels. They only skimmed through everything and pretty much lost almost all of what made NGNL amazing. They focused more on the grandiose explosions and fight scenes of the war. It was a waste.

Now for the characters.

Riku, a survivor of the war, witnessed alot of his comrades die cuz of the war and because of his commands. It’s like, sacrifice one for everyone, utilitarianism. Even though his commands and decisions are not wrong, it still left him in despair. And bruh, it was hard to watch him crumble, be vulnerable. At the same time, this events made him strong, cold, and angry. I can’t blame him, he’s only human after all. And this traits of him attracted the ex-machina, Shwi (which Riku named, btw).

Shwi is an ex-machina who got separated by her pact just to research about the human heart. She felt that the existence of humans in the current state of war is an anomaly and she wants to understand it. Hence, her meeting with Riku.

They are uuuhhhh… an unlikely pair, but at the same time, they compliment with each other. Their relationship at first was abit rough, it was clear that both don’t trust each other that much, but they sure develop those feelings fast.
Now, I’ll be ranting for a bit.

You see, when I watch NGNL, I pretty much understood the niche and the fetishes involve in the series. Shiro looks too young, and Sora looks…uuuhhhh…totally not my type. But yeah, incest is wincest. Though, at least those two didn’t cross the line. However, here in the movie, the leads did. You might be thinkin’…’they are not siblings’… yeah I know. But bruh, Shwi is freakin’ a robot and Riku is…duhhh. I was clearly taken aback by the proposal. Hence, me ranting now. It was too sudden. Maybe, just maybe, I would let it slide if I had actually seen development on their relationship. Tsk tsk tsk.

Don’t get me wrong, I do understand why they got together. It’s actually reasonable…for the plot. It is kinda needed to make the story more heart-wrenching and the movie to have enough power in the climax. Yep, it was all a plot device. Still, it was done well. I did feel something and was moved in the climax part.

Now, for the visuals.

Hands down.

A. MA. ZING.

Damn. I thought the NGNL series was already a spectacle, the movie was a quarter mile better. Again, DAMN.
For the character design, its Sora & Shiro in a different color palette. They pretty much switched hair colors and bwalah, it’s Riku & Shwi. Lel. When I first saw Couronne, I definitely saw Steph. I really thought they recycle designs, but at the end of the movie, Steph did explain that the former was her ancestor. Ah! No wonder.

I really really like the OST. I think one of the reasons that made me got invested in the 2nd half of the movie was because of the intense BGM. Especially during the climax part, damn, I was literally blown away by the visuals but the thing that made me wanna cry was because of the music. It was really really good. Definitely gonna get a copy of it.

Ah! Before I forget, I do wanna point out something.

After hearing the ‘myth’ from Tet, Izuna was quite emotional. I feel her. Around the time when the cast of the series surrounded her, she saw Jibril and she exclaimed her frustrations. That moment was really funny cause I, too, felt those frustrations. LOL.

Because of her, everyone. It’s because of Jibril. Tsk, Tsk, Tsk.

Overall, this movie was really good. In some ways, it made me want to watch NGNL series again.

If you are a fan of NGNL, then this movie is a freakin’ must watch. And if you’re not, well, still watch it. Like I said, its really good so I still encourage you guys to watch.

Anyway, that is all for now.

Thanks for reading!!

PS: I tried to minimize the spoilers as much as possible so…