NO GAME NO LIFE Game Life ZERO is a theatrical anime adapted from the light novel NO GAME NO LIFE Game Life, produced by MADHOUSE, and announced the production decision at the MF Bunko J Natsuno Gakuen Festival on July 17, 2016. The plot is adapted from the sixth volume of the original novel, telling an unknown story more than 6,000 years ago.
The male protagonist, Rick, was originally a game maniac and believed that he would never lose in the game. But as he grew, until he became the head of a settlement of the human race, his psychological burden grew, as he carried the lives of 48 comrades who had died in the fight. Feelings of guilt and powerlessness tormented him and brought him to the brink of collapse until he met Hubby, a young girl. Hubby, an analytical thinker who is good at rational thinking and inclined to read intelligence holistically, accidentally glances at the ruined human settlements and confuses her thoughts. Neither could they use magic, nor did they have excellent five senses and physical abilities, and even the black ash of the high-level wreckage could cause them great damage.
How such a human being can survive on the battlefield of the Sixteen Races to this day, Hubby can not understand, can only speculate that the answer lies in what humans have, but they do not have, the heart, this kind of thing beyond her cognition makes her system into chaos, so it is cut off by the connecting body, she tries to find the secret of the heart from Rick's body, back to the connecting body. She deliberately created an encounter, with the game and Rick formed a bond, her simplicity and truth to remove the weight of Rick's heart, Rick restored the nature of youth, and tried to rely on the key conditions for victory in war as Hubby said, change passive avoidance into active participation, using diplomacy, intelligence exchange, psychological warfare and other means to launch ghost action, hoping to achieve a fate-changing draw in the life of repeated defeats.
These settings and the background of the story 6,000 years ago seem to have little connection with the TV version of the anime, but they are actually an important addition to the worldview. It's easy for a caring audience to see the character of Rick and Hubby, that is, the blank brothers and sisters have changed their outfits and hair colors. Two people have developed love in a chaotic world, for the first time in a pathless world to forge an alliance between two races, and for the first time to understand the world with a game mentality. Rick and Hubie's unique belief in the game directly gave birth to "the weakest god born only because of the will of two people"—The God of Games, Tetu, who mastered the Cup of Stars, made a covenant of ten articles, and turned the war-torn otherworld into a "world where simple games determine everything, and the purpose and rules are clear on the board".
This provides a reasonable explanation for the TV version of the blank brothers and sisters who were selected to enter the other world, because they are too similar to the husband and wife who gave birth to Tetu, and the game is even better - Rick and Huby can only force Tetu in chess, the blank brothers and sisters defeat him, Tetu can't help but issue an invitation, and the first country they visit is the Alcia established by Coronez Dora in the theatrical version. Coronie Dora is a character similar to Rick's sister and gives him the surname Rick and Hubby, and the bondage of past lives and the coincidences of future generations are intertwined, creating a wonderful atmosphere.
At the beginning of the film, the god of games Tetu and the orc girl Hatsuse Izumi play chess and tell the plot of the whole story, which is a bit confusing for non-original fans, but it does not affect the viewing experience. This plot is from the sixth volume of the original novel, where Izumi sees Tetu, who is transformed into a human race and is about to starve to death on the side of the road, and gives him his favorite fish to eat, in return, Tetu accompanies her to play games, and tells the story of Rick and Hubby. The addition of this story extends the overall worldview structure and reasonably fills in the missing piece of the puzzle.
The "zero" in the title is also very interesting, it symbolizes the beginning of the story, the success rate of Rick's ghost plan is infinitely close to zero, The victory rate of Hubby against the Celestial Wing Species is zero, the ubiquitous zero-sum game in the plot, and the probability of reborn someone with "exactly the same soul" is infinitely close to zero... In short, the complete independent story in the sixth volume was brought out to produce the theatrical version, the title, the style of the TV version that uses pictures rather than language to narrate, reduce the difficulty of acceptance of non-original fans, focus more on the emotional line, and make the viewing experience of female audiences more friendly, etc., all of which reflect the excellent design of MAD HOUSE (マッドハウス) excellent design.
But the content of the film is somewhat weak. The emotional line between Rick and Hubie lacks enough preparation, and only two scenes are enough to be brilliant, that is, Rick points a knife at Hubby, and Hubby, who has no idea what death is, rationally believes that in order to understand Rick's heart, it should follow Rick's wishes. This made Rick unable to do it, and it also made him realize for the first time that the human race was not the only victim of war. But other than that, apart from playing chess, there was no cushion for the relationship between the two people, and then Rick proposed.
In the critical moments of the later stages, Hubby begs for forgiveness from the Celestial Wing species with a zero victory rate, and her fear of death echoes the above scene, not only because of her love for Rick, but also for the unconditional trust in Rick's ghost plan and the sense of mission that must complete the task, which is very similar to the feelings between the blank brothers and sisters. And for this feeling, she would rather share her most precious thing with the connecter, and bet on a deep confession within 251 seconds of uploading consciousness, which is also touching enough. But the whole emotional line is very good at the beginning and end, and the middle is unknown.
Ghost projects are also scrawled. Rick's change in attitude to life itself lacks the necessary foreshadowing, and after he made up his mind, he recruited some helpers and established several rules of action, but the execution of the plan, only saw Rick and Hubby in action, neither those helpers nor the specific function of these rules - probably purely for Tetu to inherit. The three major races have each sacrificed weapons of mass destruction and are eager to die together, which inevitably makes people feel that the theory of nuclear deterrence may be nonsense, and major issues in international relations have been cracked.
Because it happened in the pre-game world, there is no requirement for wisdom, but the ghost plan such a big adventure to the death, itself does not have the unique game design in the TV version, nor does it have any reversal, if it is not Hughby's bad luck, it may be successful, as the highlight of the main plot, it is inevitably too bland. Goblins have information about other races - the crowd found a detailed new version of the goblin map in the dungeon, with clear plot hints, but how the goblin intelligence of other races reached the hands of the human race is not explicit in the plot, and it is somewhat difficult to feel that the narrative is not careful enough.
I want to say so much, and finally recommend all people who have the conditions to go to the cinema must go to see it, although there is no Easter egg in the end, but at the beginning of the movie code when there is a big Easter egg Oh, but after all, there is a sense of design outstanding, well-made, take care of female audiences, relatively friendly to non-original fans and other advantages, or worth recommending.