No Game No Life Zero

Released earlier this week, No Game No Life Zero doesn't continue the story line of this very enjoyable anime series, but takes a peak into the past instead.

It tells the story about how the gaming god, Tet, came to reimagine the world of Disboard to the place we learned to know.

Plot

During a game with Isuzu, Tet is telling a 6000 year old myth of the creation of the world of Disboard.  Back then, the old races where at an all out war, resulting in the suffering of the weakest of the races of the world, the humans.
Scattered in resistance groups, a young man called Riku and his friends loot a fallen Dwarven vessel and learn the location of an old elven capital.  On his way there, he meets up with a disconnected Ex-Machina, a young girl he will call Schwi.

He takes her under his wings, as she wants to learn what the human heart consists of, as emotions are illogical to the machine girl.  Together, they stand to form an intense bond, and after another set back Riku decides to reshape the way the humans survive in the world, and plans to end the war of all wars by trying to gain a mythical object that select a new one true god.
When they set about manipulating the factions against each other by the game of chess, Scwi is destroyed in a very tragic sequence by Djibril.  This fires up Riku, who is on his dying legs, to execute the plan and as he succeeds, his imaginary playfriend from his childhood turns out to be real: it was none other then Tet, and he steps in to reshape the world to a better place where war is forbidden.

What I liked about it

* Boy did I cry... seriously.  I lost it to Noshi, who was struggling to keep back her tears herself.  The sequence of the bonding between Riku and Schwi, followed by Schwi making the ultimate sacrifice for her friend...
* The whole animation style.  While the story is far darker then the original series, the artwork and colours are just as intense.

What I didn't like about it

* The fact that this was in all probability the last thing we saw of the series on the screen, relegating us to reading the novels to find out how it continues...

A truly magnificent movie, that steps away from the lighthearted story of the series into a very, very emotional and dark rollercoaster... recommended, but keep those tissues close...