No Game, No Life Ep. 4: Playing Civ

Ruling a kingdom is totally a walk in the park, guys! I’ve got this!

Episode Summary
The siblings defeat Kurumi and thus become rulers of Imanity. Sora easily solves many of Imanity’s domestic affairs because he has played Civ, guys. Then in an inspiring speech, he declares war on the fifteen other races, which freaks Stephanie out, but hey, he’s got this! Afterwards, a conversation with Tet steels Sora’s resolve even more: he’ll one day become the god of Disboard by defeating Tet. He’ll just have to defeat the other fifteen races first.

Notes
• In a flashback, a younger Stephanie listens as her grandfather talks about how Imanity’s wisdom is what will set it apart from the other races. I don’t really see why the other races can’t be wise too, though. It seems like a silly thing to bank on, especially when we’re dealing with Elves, Gods, and shit.

• Again, Stephanie’s the designated idiot. Her mood swings wildly from elation to devastation depending on the scene. She’s like the laugh track in a sitcom; she reminds the audience what emotion to feel in case the show’s dramatic twists aren’t enough by themselves to keep us hanging from the edge of our seats. No one with half a brain really thinks the siblings are going to lose though, which, again, explains Stephanie’s behavior. It’s really quite annoying though. How anyone can withstand her character is beyond me.

• Sora’s plan is to get Kurumi’s own troops to turn against her. The girl plays right into her opponent’s hands when she demands that her troops fight against their former queen at all costs. Yeah, sure, sometimes a dictator’s troops will turn against him or her. But sometimes, they won’t. Some totalitarian regimes are still going strong these days. But of course, for this show’s purposes, we’ll just take the convenient reductive approach to the issue. That’s the disappointing thing about these games; they’re just not all that clever or thoughtful. You could say, “Just turn off your brain and enjoy it,” but that seems especially counterproductive when we’re talking about a show that revolves entirely around mental games. You can’t have it both ways.

• Oh hey, Stephanie’s back to staring at Sora in awe. What a dork.

• Kurumi then starts to cry because she had gone to oh-so-much trouble to get help from the Elves. Sora is thus dismayed to find out he had made a girl cry. Meh, not funny.

• Some old man goes, “Now, this man, Sora, has won all his games in the tournament.” Games? You mean one? I don’t think the game of Rock-Paper-Scissors was really an official game of the tournament. After all, he could’ve just skipped right to challenging Kurumi without bothering to defeat Stephanie.

• Sora wants to split up the kingdom between himself and Shiro, but Shiro initially objects: “If you become king, you can make a harem. You won’t need me anymore.” Ah, what would I do without all the creepy ass shit between the siblings?

• But Sora won’t give in easily. As a result, the siblings spend the next three days competing for the throne. Y’know, in a jokey way. Except, again, it’s not funny. But then again, I’m not a Youtube commentator, so what do I know!

• In the end, the siblings both become kings anyway. Meanwhile, Stephanie is forced to humiliate herself by wearing skimpy clothing and no underwear. Why then did Sora bother to return Stephanie’s dress to her shortly after he defeated Kurumi? Let’s not forget Sora basically tricked the girl into being his girlfriend in the second episode.

• Crop-rotation-based agriculture! Treasury bonds! Simply telling the kingdom what to do is enough to get the job done! Stephanie continues to stare at Sora in amazement because she doesn’t have a single clue how to run the kingdom. In response to her bewilderment, Sora goes, “Yeah I’m the type who does all the domestic stuff at once when I play Civ.” He must not be referring to any of the Civs that I play, because I’ve never heard of a Civ game with crop-rotation-based agriculture and treasury bonds.

• The hikikomori thing really seems silly now that it turns out Sora can give inspiring speeches every other episode.

• Ah okay, according to Sora, the other races have imitated Imanity’s wisdom, and this explains why Imanity has fallen all the way to last place in Disboard. Having said that, Imanity need not fret! Why? Because the other races will never master wisdom. Again, why not? According to the guy, it’s because they lack Imanity’s humiliating cowardice, and, uh, this makes you wiser than you can ever imagine…? Right…

• Ooh, another mood swing from Stephanie when Sora declares war on all the other races. Cool. At this point, however, she should already know that the siblings are always right!

• Stephanie: “Maybe those two really can…” Christ, make up your mind.

• Tet shows up to pay the siblings a visit. Sora realizes that even the title of God can be won by playing games in this world.

So I guess that’s where we’re ultimately headed: our siblings will literally become gods.