No Game No Life episode 9

For those who know of the anime "No Game No Life", you would probably have enjoyed the comedy, twists and turns, as Sora & Shiro outwit their opponents, breaking through impossible odds, taking advantage of all the loopholes, winning their games in outrageous ways. I certainly enjoy this series very much, and look forward to the latest episode every week.

However, the most recent episode was horrible, in my opinion.

SPOILER ALERT
Sora plays a game of Othello with another human, Kurami. In this game, he bets his existence, on each seed that is placed. I.e. for every seed he loses, he loses some part of his memory, or disappears from others' memories. The idea is an interesting one, and I would concede that it is hard to pull off such a plot, without letting out the strategy prematurely. BUT. if that's the case, why not just use a different strategy?

Episode 9 starts off with Shiro, having a nightmare, recounting her first meeting with her brother, and for the next 10 + minutes, frantically searching for her brother, trying to figure out what could have happened to him, while everyone else can't seem to remember his existence at all. The first time I watched it, I thought that maybe the episode was not uploaded properly, and went back to the start, and even re-watch the ending of the previous episode. They didn't even play the opening song! What a way to kill viewer interest, by going on a monotonous and confusing flashback.

After realising what it was supposed to achieve -- I guess they were too successful, cos it left me utterly confused -- I watched the rest of the episode, waiting to see how the game would be resolved.

Well... I never found out. What I did learn, was (And I quote) that "nobody else could figure this out".

Players of Othello would know that othello, like most board games, is a turn taking game. Meaning, under no circumstances does one player get to play 3 moves consecutively. THAT is exactly what Shiro did, after realising "how to win the game".

While the games in the No Game No Life universe do not always follow common sense, and normal rules, whatever rules they have still apply. In the first major game they played, Chess, it was clear that the standard rules didn't apply. It was not simply moving pieces, but moving men. In the second major game, Shiratori, all rules of Physics and common sense are broken, as Sora WRONGLY names concepts such as "Lithosphere", "Coulomb's force". When the air (except oxygen) in the space was removed, the sudden decrease in pressure would already cause them to explode, and not simply result in difficulties breathing. 

However, in all those games, standard turn taking, and whatever rules were created were agreed to, and adhered to by both players. In other words, this game is bullshit.

That's not all. Did anyone ever realise that the show never did show us the final arrangement of the board? Nor did they show us the process leading to the final 3 seeds that Shiro put down? Nope! All they did was "Wow brother you're amazing, nobody would have figured that out", BAM BAM BAM and suddenly they win.

This is the last glimpse we have of the board, as Shiro sets down the last piece. Any one familiar with the rules of othello would recognise that white has not yet achieve a majority of seeds. There was no way for white to win.

What they basically did was very subtly hide how they could not think of a way to create such a scenario, and simply named it as... and you got it, something only Blank can do. We did not see the process, nor did we see the final product. Really, all they showed us was the mind games being

Afterword
My sincere apologies to those who think I hate this show... I just find it insulting when the anime doesn't make sense in itself. I'm very accepting of anime bending the laws of physics or whatever, but if they break the rules they set themselves, that is total bullcrap.

And just so you know, I really enjoy this series very much.