“No Game No Life volume 9 in five words or less, go!”
For those who read it, this should be an easy — and universal — answer: “idol concert and sex robots.”
…And with that, I can hear both sighs and cheers coming from you readers.
Yes, Sora and Shiro decide that Holou is destined to be an idol, much to the Old Deus’ (and Steph’s) confusion. Holou is especially frustrated since while she is singing and dancing, they give her vague instructions about why her performance isn’t good enough. (It’s because she’s not putting her heart into it, which she doesn’t understand.) The king and queen proclaim that this makes Holou the uniting figurehead of Elkia, but everyone knows they also just want a break from their usual days as the slacker rulers.
But their break from the usual goes straight past “unusual” into “shouldn’t happen” territory when Sora’s phone rings. Because first, they don’t have any friends, and second, they shouldn’t get service in another world! Turns out that the robotic Ex Machina, the rumored godslayers, want to see Sora.
And when I say “see”, I really mean “sleep with”. Turns out that they’re on the brink of extinction, and the 13 Ex Machina — who can operate individually and as one — think Sora is their beloved Spieler they’ve been waiting thousands of years for in order to continue their race. One in particular is ready to do the deed. Unfortunately for Sora, Einzig is a male robot. But don’t worry, there are other options, like Emir-Eins. The Ex Machina keep following Sora around, trying to get closer to his ideal. Sora is completely freaked out, but can these supercomputers who have brought down a god be stopped?
The opening states that the unbelievable is going to happen: ” ” (Blank) is going to lose. Of course, once Ex Machina shows up, that becomes easy to believe. So although Sora and Shiro are trying to raise Holou into the ultimate idol, they (well, Sora) has to try to figure out a way out of the Ex Machina chasing them everywhere.
At its core, volume 9 includes much of the best and worst of No Game No Life. Considering the opening reveal, I expected the ending to be slightly different than when they faced off against other agent plenipotentiaries. It is to some extent, but not as much as I thought. But the bulk is the No Game No Life that you either love or hate: near nonsensical challenges, lots of ecchi, magic, references to Sora’s romantic inexperience, real-world references, etc.
Fortunately, I think it leans more to the good than the bad. One thing is that it’s fairly light paced and moves at a fast pace. It’s not one big game for 200+ pages. It also ties even deeper to the world of Disboard, and why they think Sora is the Spieler (and who is the Spieler) is likely going to be revisited. Plus, picturing Holou doing a solo concert is pretty fun. Emir-Eins’ ultimate attack is also something no one — even the great ” ” — could have expected.
Still, cringy moments are still a-plenty, like one of the included images being Ex Machina in schoolgirl form trying to pass off their loli selves as girls 18+. Sora’s horror at the male robot Einzig’s flirtations is mostly comedic instead of homophobic because he’s not thrilled at the female maids attacking him either. The volume is also centered around Sora and the Ex Machina, and while this gives the new characters time to shine, fans of the other characters (particularly Shiro) may be disappointed at their relatively unimportant roles this time around.
So while volume 9 stars an idol and robots who want to have kids, No Game No Life is better than its five word description. It may not endear anyone who isn’t already on board, but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Perhaps the expert gamers Sora and Shiro should lose more often…?