Normally, I’d give an overly detailed recap of a previous LN volume at the start of these posts. But I goofed this time… I’m really sorry. “Well, just read it agai-” Ain’t nobody got time for that, least of all me! Basically, the important thing is that Holou is the Best Girl.
But I’m sure you’ll remember last volume’s cliffhanger ending. The one where Sora and Shiro get booted off the throne. Well, that wasn’t foreshadowing some ominous endgame arc, but the premise of this volume. A coup det’at occurred, and now they’re on the streets selling weird medicine.
Of course, this doesn’t stop them from happening upon cute girls. Today’s specimen is a female dwarf named Tilvilg. She’s not a particularly interesting character, but she’s cute, has white hair, and is a loli. This immediately sets off Shiro, and these two have one of the best interactions in the series. This volume also gives some backstory for Sora and Shiro, so that’s nice.
Anyways, Tilvilg comes with a message for Sora and Shiro to deliver a butt-ton of his drugs to the Dwarven nation, and they do so. Dwarven cities tend to be just underground factories with engineers, but the author bamboozles us again with No Game No Life‘s worldbuilding. I’m not going to spoil anything, of course, but just expect the usual creativeness of the series.
Spoiler alert, they end up having to play a game with the leader of the Dwarves. This game is, thankfully, a step back from all the multi-dimensional games-within-games and is just a simple robot beat-’em-up. But for some reason, the fight itself still manages to be confusing in it’s own way. For some reason, I just couldn’t get a handle on the sense of 3D space here. Maybe that’s the point? The author’s writing still has plenty of personality, but it seems to be lacking a sense of cohesion? I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.
Verdict: 8.9/10
This volume is No Game No Life as usual. There’s nothing else I can say really. However…
(Potential) Final Thoughts:
Whenever I had a series of LN-related posts, and I got to the final volume of the series, I planned to do a final thoughts section. Well, this volume is the newest volume of the series, period, which came out in Japan in 2018. Meaning, us LN readers who laughed at the anime-only fans for never having a season 2 are now in the same boat. In case NGNL becomes the Hunter X Hunter of light novels, I’ll give my potential final thoughts here.
I first declared that NGNL is my favorite light novel series of all time. I still love it, but these later volumes felt too mind-f***-y, even by the series’ own standards. Maybe the knowledge that the series is constantly on hiatus made me unable to enjoy it the closer I got to the newest release. But yeah, the hype kinda petered out a bit. It’s still a great series, but I’m kind biased towards series that are actually, you know, completed. There’s a chance that my runner-up, Konosuba, could snipe first, or a newer work, such as Otherside Picnic, could come out of left field and take it. Because of the current situation, I can’t recommend NGNL easily. But hey, it’s there if you want it.
(Potential) Final Verdict: 9.95/10
Weeb Revues 