No Game, No Life – 05
We take our games seriously…kinda.
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Ahhh Shiro and Sora. They’re doing a good job with Elkia, but I somehow can’t picture them as good leaders in the real world. Somehow. Maybe it’s the fact that they can barely stand going into public or that they dress up Steph in skimpy outfits all the time. |
Sora and Shiro are still planning out their next move, so there’s not much to be done this week. The busybody here is Steph, who still distrusts Sora and Shiro. Not that I blame her. Anyone would be suspicious having a pair of Kings that seemingly loaf around in a basement all day. They don’t give off very reliable vibes most of the time. In fact, they really only appear remotely cool when they’re playing a game or talking about games. Aside from that, they’re pretty darn weird. So Steph naturally wants to get rid of them and find a King that’s less of a slacker. And maybe a King that doesn’t force her into skimpy outfits all the time. That’s probably high on her priorities list, considering what they put her through today. I don’t know if I’d even call that lack of fabric an “outfit.”
Steph tries to beat them by winning in a game of pure luck, since she doesn’t think she can outsmart them. However, Sora and Shiro reveal that there is no such thing as pure luck. It’s a pretty cool perspective on games of chance, saying that we do have control over things that may seem beyond our control. But that being said, Steph is just really bad at picking games based on luck. If she had rolled out a slot machine, I think Sora and Shiro would be hard-pressed to find a way to get an edge over Steph. As cool as their speech was, some things really are pure luck. The less human interaction involved, the more random your chances are at winning.
Ew, I hope Shiro washes her hair after this…
We also learn from this that Sora and Shiro are actually doing a really good job as co-Kings. Steph assumed they were gaming, but they were actually searching for information about the other races to get an advantage. You really don’t want to challenge a Warbeast to a fight if they’re capable of reading your mind. Until you find a way to trump that, it’d better to stay away. The way this series is going, every race is going to have some sort of weakness or blind spot. I don’t know how far we’ll get, but I’m excited to see how the two Kings work around such huge setbacks as having your mind read and elven magic.
I enjoyed most of the shenanigans this week (Steph accidentally saying woof all the time against her will was adorable), but there really wasn’t much new content. Steph already had her “oh, these guys are actually thinking about what they’re doing!” moment before the big chess match. Why does she have to re-affirm this once again when Sora and Shiro have already solved most of the problems their country has faced? Surely they’ve proven themselves as worthy. But nope, we have to go through the whole song and dance over and over as Steph arrogantly confronts them. I don’t like having the same message repeated over and over when they could have used the time to give us something new. An episode just for comedy is great! This is a comedy, after all. But at least give us a new spin on something instead of Steph doubting the NEET Kings again and again and again.
Don’t you dare make that tail wag!
I’m also not too keen on Steph and any screentime she gets. She gets one moment of appearing smart, but then a second later she’s stuck in a short dress with dog ears. She really just can’t catch a break. I wish they treated her more as a character than a walking joke, because it makes her so one-dimensional. Oh well, maybe the new girls they challenge will have more substance? I’m interested to see what the Flugel girl has to offer. Horrible dialect aside, she seems cute and much more competent than Steph. I don’t know if Sora and Shiro are going to end up recruiting more girls to follow them, but it’s likely given the usual light novel formula. But my favourite parts are the games so let’s get to that game with the Flugel!
No one can resist how moe animal ears are
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’m hoping that the more one-dimensional they make Steph, the better her character development will be. She has great teachers, and she has shown she is capable of learning what they are doing. And they are capable of doing the same with her.
I love how they reacted to the fact that she is more than what she seems in the smarts department. In games, she is as useful as a very useless thing in a place that needs a very useful thing (Sometimes I can’t pull a metaphor). But Admin/Human relations? The HR wonk in me loves her for her effort. That is such an alien thing to Blank, who can only think in terms of games. Even challenging a god! Because….game.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I dunno about that. I prefer my characters becoming more interesting and complex, not remaining flat. Even if she does branch out by the end, I think it’ll be too little too late. I have zero hope for Steph at this rate, even with her skills at ruling the land and schoolwork. At least she makes for some good jokes *shrugs*.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Megane steph = teh win! MEGANE FTW!
Also I like their use of convenient censoring. Much better than a lot of pointless shows’ use…
Steph isn’t a Steph?!?!
“Shiro is only 11… Shiro doesn’t understand.” :3
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Creative censoring > steam or censor bars
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
She just wants them to do their jobs and stop hiding in basement storage rooms! To take things seriously! Is that too much to ask?
Steph just doesn’t understand their psychology, and so gets frustrated when they don’t behave in any way that she can make sense of. She’s not an idiot. You can’t hold a kingdom together by yourself the way she has while the siblings were off on their archive binge if you’re an idiot. In any “normal” kingdom in a “normal” world, she would probably be a good ruler.
Please don’t be mean to Steph. Sora and Shiro do that enough already, she deserves better than to get it from us too.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Yes, but she also assumes they’ve been gaming this whole time and are dumping all the work onto her because they’re lazy. She wants rid of them because of a LOT of things because on the surface they seem to be doing just about everything wrong.
Steph’s not an idiot, but I feel that they just throw in small instances of her being smart so the creator doesn’t look TOTALLY like a dick for making her so useless. As if to say “but we made her the top of her class! so it’s ok if we parade her around in a dog outfit because of other dumb decisions!”. Totally not demeaning because she’s secretly smart, right? I really would love for Steph to have been a helpful, female but she just isn’t. She’s just meat. u_u
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
NO STEPH, NO LIFE! ><
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
agreed! Note the mother covering the shota’s eyes in a scene. Poor Dora-chan has been ruined for marriage.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I will give her to you =w= dog ears and all
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
oh yeah, just noted this:
Don’t you worry… Mr. Steam will be making a visit again… :3
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
With a naked Sora, right? ;D
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
..equal opportunity…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I’m not surprised that Steph still finds Sora and Shiro unreliable and doubts them. Heck, I think just about anyone would! And even in a world ruled by games there’s still the mundane aspects of running a kingdom. Of course, Steph should realize that’s where a ruler depends upon a good prime minister (Steph in this case) to oversee a competent bureaucracy for the day-to-day matters. The king (co-kings in this case) set policy and consider how to advance the interests of the kingdom. Which is exactly what Sora and Shiro are doing.
I do hope that by now Steph has come to realize that Sora and Shiro aren’t the total slackers they seem. Otherwise as has been said she’ll just be a one note joke throughout the series and that’d be too bad. She has shown that outside of games she’s actually quite smart and competent. And she cares intensely for Elkia. It’d be a waste of a character with potential for her to be only a joke.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Totally reasonable to doubt Kings who roll around in the basement and bark orders at everyone. Maybe Steph will actually be trusted to help them out (aside from just secretarial errands) one day and take over as King? It’s the one thing she’s been shown to be highly capable in.
Yeah, they better not have her doubt them again after all this. She should have learned her lesson by now. I mourn the loss of a potentially interesting character every time Steph asks dumb questions so the audience can have things explained to them or ends up in a skimpy outfit for fanservice. She could have been so much more…!!!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
But as has been amply shown, Steph would be an atrocious king. Maybe on Earth she’d be a good king, but that’s exactly the rub: it’s not the same world, and governing in ELkia like you’d govern on Earth gets you wiped out. She asks stupid questions because she and her grandfather were running the country into the ground, because neither of them knew better.
I don’t really have too much of a problem with the modified boot camp that they’re going through. Steph *cannot* win, because she doesn’t play the right way. That’s the main point that they’re trying to make. And yet she continues to insist on challenging kuuhaku. Steph ends up in demeaning outfits and saying ridiculous things because she doesn’t stop to ask smarter questions. As much as Sore loves to show how smart he is, he’d probably just tell her if she asked, but she thinks she has to prove herself first, which she can’t bring herself to do.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Agreed that Steph would make a terrible king in her world. But she makes a very good prime minister. Among other things she has to learn is what she’s capable of being and what she’s not.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
LOL. Sora and Shiro may be adept at games but if humanity is to be converted into their image by leadership, it’s better off going into extinction beforehand.
Our virgin king is so missing the point. He’s practically in the middle ages and royals were notorious back then for getting what they want by whatever means necessary, no matter how shameless. If he wants girls, why not use his power and influence? The guy can actually get away with abusing his position there and he’d keep his Blank status along with Shiro. But he sure is a sly fox leading Steph on again. That movie “21” came to mind when he mentioned card counting.
Side note: Pokémon 3rd generation remakes are confirmed: Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire for Nintendo 3DS and 2DS to be released November 2014.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Our virgin king is willing to wait… 7 years. Currently, all he needs are some sidedishes to release his accumulated toxins now and then.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 386 comments
Pokemon will never die, and ash is immortal!
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
True, he could totally call for female servants and just about anything he wanted. Then again, I doubt his sister will let him do that without a fight.
I’m always happy when there’s a new Pokemon game. =w=