The No Game No Life Season 2 release date can’t come any sooner, especially after that cliffhanger ending from Madhouse left characters Shiro and Sora staring down a god in episode 12 of the first season. The good news is that the No Game No Life: Zero movie will draw from the main story of the manga and light novels instead of being original content like Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry . The bad news is that NGNL Season 2 has yet to be confirmed and some anxious fans have generated vicious rumors suggesting the anime series could be canceled.
Meanwhile, fans of the light novels are eagerly awaiting No Game No Life Volume 10 from NGNL author Yuu Kamiya. The writer has been quite busy since he’s also co-writing Clockwork Planet . If you go back in history, NGNL Volume 8 was released in December of 2015 and NGNL Volume 9 came out in August of 2016, so it’s possible NGNL Volume 10 will be released in the fall of 2017. No Game No Life’s English-only fans will have a ways to wait, though, since Amazon lists No Game No Life Volume 6’s release date as July 25, 2017.
No Game No Life: Zero Movie Continues The NGNL Light Novel Story
It is perhaps no coincidence that the No Game No Life: Zero release date is set for July 15, 2017, mere days before NGNL Volume 6 comes out in English. The reason for the timing is because this light novel’s story is the same as the movie, although the film will be focused on events which took place many years before the main story.
The sixth novel has the god Tet recounting to Izuna the Warbeast the story of the Great War, which divided the heavens 6,000 years ago. Yes, the film’s cast does include the step-siblings Sora and Shiro, but the main characters will be Riku and Shuvi, a young leader of a human enclave and a mechanical girl called an Ex-Machina who follows him.
During the Great War, the Ex-Machina were created by an Old Deus to kill the other gods. Likewise, Flugel like Jibril (the angelic creature which lost her library to the siblings) were created by an old god named Artosh, the God of War, to fight against the other gods. It’s against this backdrop that Shuvi was excommunicated from the Ex-Machina hive mind and found herself hiding while disguised as a young Imanity survivor near Riku’s human colony.
Shuvi may be an artificial intelligence, but she desires to understand the human heart, a goal not considered to be logical by the rest of the Ex-Machina. After meeting Riku during an expedition, she’s brought to the human colony and begins mimicking expressions and feelings. Their relationship is the core of the story, which plays out like a forbidden love story that has a tragic ending.
The relationship and appearances of Riku and Shuvi clearly parallel Sora and Shiro, causing some fans to speculate that the Blank siblings are a reincarnation of the earlier pair in an alternative reality, but in the novel Tet admits he tweaked his retelling of the story for the sake of the audience. The names of the characters also contain a contrast since the names of the male characters translate to earth and sky while the females’ names mean black and white.
The knowledge-hungry Jibril will also play a critical role in the movie’s story. Without giving away part of the ending, she will take an action that will have many anime fans viewing her very differently once NGNL Season 2 starts airing. However, it’s hard to not empathize with the Flugel since they were created for war only to lack a meaning or a desire for their continued existence after the Great War ends.
The overall plot of the No Game No Life movie has Riku seeking an end to the Great War by bringing peace to Disboard. There are legends of a Star Grail, an ancient relic sought by the Old Deus because it has the ability to give absolute power as the One True God. The Old Deus created their armies in their quest to seek the Star Grail and Riku hopes to manipulate all the other races into revealing this ancient device. The story will follow Riku and Shuvi as they fight to create the world that’s inherited by Tet, Shiro and Sora.
No Game No Life Canceled Over Plagiarism Allegations That Author Yuu Kamiya Was Tracing Art?
There’s an unfounded rumor still being spread around anime forums and communities that legal troubles will force Madhouse to have No Game No Life Season 2 canceled due to allegations surrounding the author . The short version is that people on social media accused Yuu Kamiya of plagiarism since he allegedly copied the popular character poses of other artwork.
Kamiya did not use the characters directly, but the poses and details were so similar that some assumed the manga artist traced the other artwork as inspiration for his own No Game No Life art. Some fans were outraged while others defended the NGNL creator, saying it was common in animation to rely on templates. Regardless, according to Anime Amino “Kamiya has apologized to the artists, both publicly on the artist’s website and monetary wise by giving these artists money.”
The plagiarism allegations first started in 2014, which is when the anime also first aired, so some fans on Reddit and other sites assumed NGNL Season could be canceled or at least delayed. This rumor was never substantiated and, obviously, the allegations had little effect since the author is still releasing light novels, never mind the NGNL movie.
No Game No Life Season 2 Release Date
As of this publishing, anime production company Madhouse has not announced anything official about the No Game No Life Season 2 release date, although this article will be updated as soon as the anime sequel is confirmed. However, there can be reasonable speculation about when the NGNL Season 2 air date may occur.
There is this idea within the anime community that Madhouse rarely does a second season for any series they produce, which leaves many fans hanging after only 12 episodes. The announcement of Overlord Season 2 provided evidence to the contrary, never mind how the No Game No Life light novels were among the top 10 in sales in Japan, selling over 1.1 million copies by 2014. According to Anime News Network , the DVD and Blu-Ray sales for NGNL also ranked in the top 20, giving a definite financial incentive to continue the series.
At this time, the chances of a second season happening seem to be good, but it’s safe to assume any official announcement will not take place until after the No Game No Life: Zero release date in July of 2017. Madhouse has plenty of projects on its schedule for 2017, so it seems unlikely the anime will continue this year, so let’s hope for 2018 at the earliest.
No Game No Life Season 2 Spoilers
The first season ended with the formation of the Elkia Federation after the “world’s most brutal coin toss” resulted in the Warbeasts joining Shiro and Sora’s side. The next stated game goal was to take on higher races like the Elven Garde head on, with the ultimate end game being a match with the god Tet while using the chess-shaped race pieces.
Anime audiences were left hanging when the foxy shrine priestess Miko suddenly summoned an Old Deus, the first-ranked of the old gods called the Exceed, who lost their status after The Great War in which Tet became the One True God. The Old Deus now resides within the priestess for reasons unknown, but all anime audiences know is that raw power is raining down from on high.
While the scene was definitely a cliffhanger, the problem is that Miko never summoned the Old Deus at this point in the light novels. This creates quite the story continuation problem so it’s likely Episode 1 of No Game No Life Season 2 may act as if never happened. Instead, Sora and Shiro ended up staying the night at Izuna’s house and they also make plans for a beach vacation in the Eastern Union (yes, you knew the inevitable beach episode was coming, right?).
The story should pick up again with the events from No Game No Life Volume 4 since the first three light novels covered the first season’s story. Audiences will be introduced to the Exceed race called Dhampir, a quasi-succubi which lives by extracting soul essence from bodily fluids, including sweat, blood, and… other sources. The odd part is that the Dhampir are also like vampires in that they are weak against sunlight. The Dhampir need to consume blood via bite in order mature to adulthood, which means in practice they could be stuck as an eternal loli.
The biggest problem the Dhampir face as a race is the limitations of the Ten Pledges, which requires the victims of the Dhampir to agree to give their soul essence and blood willingly as the prize for a game. This means the Dhampir females have difficulty reaching physical maturity so they can reproduce. The Dhampir also made an deal with the Seirens, or mermaids, who give blood in exchange for the Seiren Empress reproducing with Dhampir males. Unfortunately, the male Dhampirs are dying in the process because the Seirens are “such a Steph” and they’ve broken the original, mutually beneficial agreement because of their uncontrolled desires.
The story arc focuses on the plight of Plum, the last living male Dhampir on Disboard. The boy has disguised himself in gothic girls clothing in order to hide his gender and the usually keen team Blank don’t catch on at first. Sora and Shiro save Plum from starvation by allowing him to lick the sweat from Shiro’s foot. Plum will aid the Blank siblings in their journey from then on by using shape shifting, love potions, and other skills, including using deception magic in a game against the Flugel.
After being saved, the meek Plum begs the siblings to help save the Dhampir race from extinction. While the ultimate gamers often brag they can win in any game, Plum proposes the Seirens’ Romance Game which exposes a weakness in the siblings: they must compete in a dating sim in real life. As you can guess, this segment of the story is fairly light-hearted, although it’s certainly interesting how Sora and Shiro manage to get out of this “hairy” situation.
Volumes 4 and 5 of No Game No Life cover the dating game story and, as previously noted, Volume 6 is the events contained within the movie. Volumes 7 through 9 cover two different story arcs and it’s probably here that Madhouse will choose to find a stopping point.
The ending of the first anime season is actually a reference to this story arc. The events of Volume 7 and 8 find Blank challenging an Old Deus named Horou who is essentially living within Miko. The priestess uses her life as a bargaining chip to get Horou to engage in a game with Blank in which the old god will fulfill all the wishes of the winner.
The game is like a combination of the Amazing Race and Monopoly since Blank have to use dice to complete tasks while on a month-long journey that spans thousands of kilometers. Before beginning the participants lose 24 hours of their memories, but they’re told there’s a traitor among the group who has their full memory. Sora, Shiro and Steph travel as a team together but the rest of the participants, including Jibril, Plum, Izuna, and others, will go up ahead for their tasks.
Along the way, audiences will learn about reincarnation within Disboard and there will be questions related to Tet’s existence and the Star Grail. Jibril will lose her memory at one point and challenges Blank to a game where the loser is forced to commit suicide. Other characters are also forced into situations where the only way to win is to kill a friend. Blank has no intention of giving up anyone’s life to win but Horou is testing everyone for reasons she won’t immediately reveal.
The cliffhanger at the end of the Volume 8 will probably be the setup for No Game No Life Season 3. Without spoiling too much, anime fans will learn the agenda of the Old Deus Horou and a new race will be introduced. Anime watchers will also be entertained by a new game that’s a wild mix of chess, psychological manipulation, Dance Dance Revolution, and a live concert that awards players if the audience loves the performance. Needless to say, anime fans should find No Game No Life Season 2 to be quite entertaining, but in the meantime let’s enjoy the movie!
[Featured Image by Madhouse/ No Game No Life: Zero ]