No Game No Life and the "Passive" God

"The God in our world tends to be more passive," Sora says in to Tet in No Game No Life.

Tet has summoned Sora and his sister Shiro to Disboard, the world where Tet is the "One True God," to have some fun with some intelligent outsiders. And indeed, Tet is a god who puts himself out there. He is very forward, very direct, and very quick to take what he wants.

Do we, here in the real world, want a God like that? Is the God of the Bible truly passive, as Sora claims He is? Should God float right up to every single one us and tell us why we're in this world? And if things aren't how we want them in this world, is it so wrong of us to prefer another where the rules and requirements are very simply, carefully placed in front of us? A world where everything is just a game, so it's hard to get yourself in trouble? A world where people - and deities - are easy to predict and understand at all times? 

Consciously, the obvious answer is no. God works in whispers, revealing only what He knows we need at any time. God understands us better than we understand ourselves. Any world that we think is better is merely us portraying our own selfish desires. 

So why did Sora's line keep echoing in my head, even after I had stopped watching the series and written it off as good premise, poor execution? Maybe its because all of these answers are easy to give... when its someone else with the problem.

But deep down, I'm often harboring those same complaints towards God. 

I'm in college and haven't declared my major yet, with the deadline to do so looming in less than a year. Not knowing what you want to do with your life is hard for anyone - for me, fully believing that I have a specific role I'm supposed to play out in this world, adds a ton of pressure to an already challenging decision. Again, consciously, I know that God hasn't been more specific with me yet because He's waiting on something. Subconsciously, it eats away at me anyway. I wonder why God doesn't put up a billboard telling me what I'm supposed to do next.

And then I look at my Bible, buried under the clutter of homework, personal projects, and time just plain wasted, it occurs to me that I haven't even attempted to let Him whisper, much less yell. I may not have been swept away to Disboard, but I happily sweep myself away to other fictional worlds to shirk my responsibilities to God in the real one. 

I may not be a perverted NEET who angsts about their lack of a love life in the way Sora does, but both he and I share a much more pressing issue: we ignore the world we're from and then complain about God being passive. In my life, God is no more guilty of being passive than a friend who I never call. Sora, likewise, compares a god he directly challenges to a God he spends all day hiding from in an MMORPG with his sister. 

You reap what you sow in any relationship, including your relationship with the Almighty. If you feel God isn't being active enough towards you, ask yourself how active you've been in following Him. 

"No Game No Life" is 50% Awesome by Volume

Anime Review

No Game No Life

The problem is the other 50%.

Sora and Shiro are sibling NEETS - "No Education, Experience, Training" - huge nerds who spend all day in their house dominating an online MMORPG. One day, they receive a mysterious email and beat the sender in a game of online chess. And suddenly, they're falling out of the sky into a fantastic world where every conflict is solved with games that follow a set of 10 rules. The siblings, loving games and only having each other, quickly abandon all ideas of going back to the real world and strive to make their new home a dream come true by attempting complete world domination.

No Game No Life's most striking feature is its art style. The series' palette is a saturated, multicolored frenzy that manages to look stunning without being overwhelming. It's the prime example anime to show someone photos from when they say "all anime looks the same to me."

Sora is an interesting protagonist, if lacking in flaws. He reminds me of Yami Yugi in the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh! He's smarter than everyone around him and always has a plan. His only weaknesses are the real world and his sister, Shiro, who is his only intellectual equal. Shiro and Sora's bond is the real heart of No Game, No Life, moreso than any romantic plotlines the series constantly teases and then throws away.

In fact, No Game No Life's treatment of its female characters is the 50% I mentioned was the problem before.

The series' pacing is completely marred by fanservice of the highest caliber. The short, 12 episode series manages to squeeze in multiple hot springs scenes, constantly uses master/slave relationship jokes, and strips female characters as much as possible whenever possible, always at the expense of the story that is trying to unfold. Sora is constantly frustrated with being an 18-year old virgin (the horror!) and is willing to be with any girl he can get close to. I don't know why anime is incapable of showing its own most dedicated male fanbase in a complex light. While Sora has his moments of depth - primarily to make female characters fall in love with him, stereotypical perverted NEET and super-smart Xanatos gambit creator are his two main modes.

When you have characters like Sora and Shiro, who are so limited in their flaws, in a world that runs of being as over the top as possible, you expect them to reach their goals. Instead, they get about 1/16th of the way there. Between this and all the buildup, I felt like I was promised something that wasn't delivered. Every time the series started to get real, it was all too quickly resolved and another half episode was spent on girls in the hot spring.

Maybe No Game No Life would have had time to satisfy more of the story it promised and ties more of the loose ends together if it hadn't spent half of its screentime showing girls in their underwear.

Story Rating: B
Content Rating: D
Not Recommended

No Game No Life is available on Crunchyroll.

The Allegory is Strong in "Christmas! With the Aquabats!"

If you're not ready to say Goodbye to Christmas specials for the year yet, The Aquabats official Youtube channel has posted the Christmas episode of The Aquabats! Super Show! with a strong - if imperfect - allegorical message.

The show is a parody of band-based shows and low-budget superhero shows, and its hilarious. The Christmas episode manages to mix its usual hammish roots with a strong message about Christian persecution and God's forgiveness. The allegory takes creative license to better work the story, but there's enough of the original message ingrained that it's easy to tell it was intentional.


While The Aquabats! isn't an explicitly faith-based group, several members have been noted as being LDS.

Incomplete Thoughts: Profanity and Christians in Media

Note: As you follow Jesus Geek, you'll likely notice I tend to avoid saying "YES THIS IS A SIN" or "NO IT ISN'T" unless the Bible is very clear about it. I'm not Biblical studies major, a PK, or anybody with access to more than the variety of opinions on the internet and what I've read in the Bible myself. I'm also a very literally minded person.

As such, a lot of posts where a question is raised about whether Christians should partake in something will be based in my personal opinion and very open to discussion. The goal is never to judge anyone, and feedback is encouraged.

I hope nobody finds this to be a wishy washy response - if you feel I'm missing something obvious, never be afraid to say so. I hope to grow my faith in Christ stronger by writing this blog just as much as I hope reading this blog helps others.

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Today, someone brought to my attention that Kanye West has declared himself a Christian, and has released a song about Jesus... featuring his usual level of profanity.

I'm not a Biblical Studies major. I'm an English major. My response came out much longer than intended and made me realize how many opinions I have on the subject and how personal the subject of profanity in media is in my life. Below is the question and answer, in all its incomplete messiness.

Incomplete Thoughts on Lolita Culture

How loli is too loli? 

Enju - Black Bullet

Recently, I wrote a fairly scathing review of Black Bullet, primarily basing my dislike on the character Enju, a 10-year old who is used suggestively in marketing for the show and goes beyond an innocent childhood crush in her attempts to start a relationship with her young adult partner.

While Enju fairly clearly crosses the line into "not okay" territory from "they just look younger" territory, it brings up the question of just where exactly that line is.

Anime Review: "I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying" Gives a Positive View of Married Life

Anime Review

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying

It's a miracle! A full blown miracle! Marriage being portrayed in a positive light in modern media targeted at young adults! That's not to say, I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying isn't without its problems.

Kaoru is a workaholic with her stay-at-home husband who is a huge nerd for all things anime. He spends most of his free time on blogs making an income from home and makes references to things even I don't recognize. Together, several 3-minute shorts featuring their antics and the story of how they met ensue.

The length of the shorts is perfect; I tend to be turned off of most 4koma based works because 30 minutes of random silliness is a lot to digest. And yet, I also find myself wanting more of I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying. The problem is the show tries to include so much in so few episodes, that it feels like its unsure what its doing. The whole gimmick of the show, a husband who is a massive nerd, gets tossed aside rather quickly in a stampede of side characters we never get to know very well. With only 13 3 minute episodes, the show should have focussed more on its most core elements and let people who enjoyed it find other aspects in the original manga.

There is some perverted humor (albiet almost entirely between married couples, which is refreshing in its own way in a world that acts like sex is boring once you've tied the knot) and one side-character is a yaoi artist who is brought up a few times for comic relief, but overall this series is a fun miniseries that leaves a smile on my face every time a new short is released. There's a genuine love between the main couple that gives the entire series a positive, heartwarming feel even as it stumbles to figure out its identity.  With the entire series clocking in at under an hour, it's good enough and fresh enough to be worth the time each episode asks you to invest. Did I mention how happy I am to see a show with a positive view of married life?

Story Rating: B
Recommended (For Adult Viewers) 

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying is available on Crunchyroll.

Anime Review: Black Bullet

Anime Review

Black Bullet

In the not-so-distant future, a race of giant, zombie-like parasites invades mankind and wipes out most of humanity. Thankfully, the remaining humans find that the parasites dislike a specific metal called Varanium, and use it to both surrounded their town and make weapons... like the Black Bullet.


Black Bullet kind of feels like if Attack on Titan met Alien. Or, it might if it would back off a rather disturbing lolita complex. Rentaro, who suffers through the terrors of the first parasitic attack and becomes part of a resistance movement, fights parasites with his partner Anju. Anju is part of a race of creatures that contain the DNA of the parasites but are somehow immune to turning into giant slimy bug monsters, and suffer from some heavy racism by regular humans.

A few episodes in, it was clear that Anju is the real star of the show. She's got the most backstory and an interesting blend of still being a child and having grown up too quickly. Oh, and she has a crush on her partner, who is either 6 or 13 years older than her depending on what part of the script you ask.

The dynamic between Anju and Rentaro has the chance to be really adorable. Rentaro has a sort of a fatherly complex towards Anju and is frustrated by the hardship the young girl faces. Anju, having presumably never treated nicely by anyone before Rentaro, has a childish crush on him.

Except... it's not so childish. And that's Black Bullet's biggest problem. In the very first episode, Anju makes two attempts to get Rentaro to sleep with her.

Yeaaaah.... that's not creepy at all.

It's rare for me to write off an entire show because of one aspect I dislike, but Black Bullet's treatment of its prepubescent secondary protagonist is too messed up for this critic. This is a shame, because the show has a lot of positive qualities like an interesting world and great pacing. It's one thing to have a character look young. It'd be another thing if Anju's mature behavior was frowned upon and shown as a sad sign of how quickly the cursed children had to grow up. It's another to feature a 10-year old girl in a show's promotional magazine spreads posed suggestively.

Just... ew.

Story Rating: B-
Not Recommended

Black Bullet is available to watch for free on Crunchyroll.