Date A Live

Boobs, explosions and cute girls are a time-tested formula. Apparently.

If there is one that has remained true about the anime industry, it is that cheap entertainment and low-risk adaptations prevail. AIC's "Date A Live" is yet another addition to this tired trend- doing nothing interesting or even particularly well. It expects the audience to willfully ignore its poor writing, because hey-- there are cute girls to gawk at!

Drawing inspiration from the 2008 manga "Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai", Date A Live presents itself as a pseudo-parody of otaku culture. After our protagonist Shidou conveniently encounters two busty ladies fighting one another, he finds ... himself waking in the headquarters of an anti-Spirit organization, which (surprise!) is led by his bipolar younger sister. Kirino-- sorry, Kotori, proposes her master plan to Shidou: prevent the Spirits' destruction by making them fall in love with him. How is he meant to achieve this? By studying dating sims, of course.

Funnily enough, this ridiculous premise is actually one of Date A Live's few redeeming points. It is self-aware and (usually) does not attempt to be anything more than silly fun. Some of the best moments are when Shidou attempts to swoon the girls with cliched eroge lines, only to be met by awkward silence and/or violent threats. It is a show that prides itself in absurdity. Mostly. At other times it is just woefully stupid.

And that is the problem. Date A Live, in all of its wisdom, also tries to push a semi-serious 'plot' amidst its comedy. A plot so riddled with lazy writing and insufferable cliches that the anime becomes the very thing that is parodying. Transfer students, toast-in-mouth, and the beloved walk-in-on-clearly-occupied-bathroom cliche? Check. Girls falling in love with Shidou for no conceivable reason except to increase the size of his harem? You bet. Deus ex machina? The third episode contains two within minutes of each other. There is even a scene in the anime where the Anti-Spirit Team-- which for some inexplicable reason is comprised entirely of busty, half-naked high school girls-- gets tentacle raped by ramen. Yes, ramen. Full stop. I will leave that to your consideration.

Shidou himself does not do the writing any favors. If there is a problem, he will preach it away- almost always with a few jejune words about self-sacrifice or how his victim simply isn't happy enough. If he is hurt, he will be magically healed through some convenient plot device. He doesn't need to fight or do anything remotely intelligent, because why the hell would he? He has plot armor to save the day. Date A Live is not concerned about petty notions such as 'sense'.

Writing aside, you will indubitably gain some enjoyment from the 'cute girls' appeal. And cute they are. Tsunako's character designs (most easily recognized through her work on the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise) adds a level of appeal uncommon to most harem anime. Kurumi's design, for example, is one of the most attractive in anime or manga- no hyperbole intended. Their personalities are also equally adorable (though often limited to archetypes) with characters like Tohka frequently finding ways to get your heart racing. If Date A Live were to be judged solely by the cuteness of its female cast, it would be a work of art. But it is not.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise given the designs, but Date A Live's artwork is for the most part high-quality. Characters are rendered in a consistent manner and the colorful art design tends to make up for any imperfections that the animation occasionally has. It is certainly a step down from the original light novel illustrations, though.

The sound also does not disappoint. It's almost a little saddening, even, knowing that such quality was expended on a show of this caliber. The background tracks are excellent, as is the cast of seiyuu (who do a skillful job of delivering personality to each girl) while even the catchy opening and ending sequences manage to stand out. It should be noted though that the ending sequences are supremely lazy from an animation standpoint, usually containing a single image that is panned over continuously until the song ends. Surely more effort could have been put there.

All in all, Date A Live is an absolute mess of a story-- but a disturbingly entertaining one. It is something to be watched-- maybe enjoyed-- and then immediately forgotten (assuming the writing does not give you an aneurysm). It represents precisely why an anime cannot survive on cuteness alone. Tohka does come close to saving the show, though. Almost.

If you are the kind of viewer that cares not for critical quality, then perhaps the girls will be enough to keep you entertained. For everybody else, and especially those already revolted by the harem genre, make sure to keep a few bandages handy. You might need them after hitting your head against the wall.

Life isn't always fun.

It's especially bothering when you have a little imouto who drives you nuts everyday when you wake up. But more so, sometimes people wish they get more enjoyment out of their lives. But that might just be a bit too much for a sudden young boy by the name of Shido Itsuka. He gets more than what he ever hoped because on a faithful day, he meets a strange girl who completely turns his life into one hell of a ride.

Yup, the ride begins here and Date a Live takes the concept of 'dating' to a strange level. It's no ... surprise though as the anime industry seems to be often seeking new ways to present the harem/romantic comedy genre. Date a Live is a Japanese light novel series written by Tachibana Koushi with illustrations by Tsunako. There's also a manga version of the series but let's cut to the chase of the anime adaptation rather, shall we?

Date a Live is a series and some may imply is about 'dating'. That part of the concept is correct because it's up to the main male protagonist of the series, Shido Itsuka, to save the world by making certain characters fall in love with him! The series literally takes the concept of a dating sim and transforms it (at it least tries to) into an animated medium. That's a lot easier said than done though to be honest especially since the majority of the characters in the series are not so normal. Take for example, Tohka Yatogami (code name: Princess) who came to Earth unexpectedly. She tries to follow the way of the world but lacks common sense. Even with her huge appetite and elite fighting skills, she often behaves like a child and acts immaturely during many situations. However, Tohka does have a cute and adorable side to her and wishes to protect what she treasures. These include the feelings of others as well as the people she has met.

Among other characters, the series clearly follows the path of a bit of harem theme. This is shown in the form of another girl (Origami Tobiichi) that Shido attends high school with. To make things more bizarre is that she also seems to have not only have a secret but literally stalks Shido at every corner. For unknown reasons, she seems to have a connection with Shido and declares him as her “lover”. At the same time, her actions often speaks louder than words as she is very direct with her affections which often puts Tohka at frustration when it comes to Shido. In general, Origami is a girl of peculiarity and mystery that surrounds her character throughout each episode.

Speaking of mysteries, there's definitely some in this series here and there. For one thing, Shido has a mysterious power and that itself is a mystery. Furthermore, the method to seal the deal with the spirits throughout the series is through a contact with the lips. However, at the same time, there's questions regarding how this is power is manifested.

As mentioned before, the series is titled “Date a Live”. The 'date' is the keyword here because to seal a spirit, one must make them fall in love with the protagonist. The dating sim part comes into play here as Shido is “trained” by his superiors in order to achieve their goals. The organization known as Ratatoskr practices dating simulations and gives advise to Shido in order to make the spirits fall in love with him. These often ends up with mixed results.

It also seems that at many instances, Shido doesn't want to get involved with the whole dating process and is forced directly into it by his superiors. In fact, there's no true evidence showing Shido showing any real romantic affections towards any of the spirits he has encountered. Needless to say, he is in a world where he just wants to get the job done and move on with his once peaceful life.

The series itself is consisted of only 12 episodes. Going by the phase of the light novel, that leaves only about 3 episodes per 'arc' for each Spirit. This can spell out a pacing problem with the usual 'things that should have been there but are not'. However, the series makes some big mistakes in this case as there are instances of fillers as well as cases where an episode has almost absolutely no value to progressing the main storyline. To make things as typical as they seem to be from this romantic comedy/harem, the common usage of fan service is employed in the form of bare skin and gratuitous outfits. These outfits are reflected in the battle gear that the military uses to combat the spirits throughout the series.

The fan service doesn't seem to stop there though. Even from the first few minutes of the anime, the series takes off with the panty shots and an annoying voice coming from a certain 'little sister'. Then, there's the characters' designs. Tohka's school uniform is generic but Origami's military battle suits takes it to another level with its designs showing the suggestive parts. The other spirits are also dressed strangely although it does bring out a colorful background to their characters. Still, it is generic with their different colored hair. Despite them all being spirits, I can hardly take the series serious sometimes with the whole dating concept. The development between Shido and most of the spirits are also cliched and hardly any meaningful if at all. I don't sense a real sense of connection or build up but rather as a dating sim game. The dating concept itself is also weak with the lame pickup lines that lakes any flavor. It's hardly any humorous at times and often misused according to the whole concept itself.

Luckily, there's still the action presented by the members of the military. The gadgets they use are as deadly as it looks and packs some devastating firepower. It shows that the military are serious about their tasks of dealing with the Spirits. It is because they hope to contain them should Shido fail in his quest. The spirits themselves are also damn powerful. Some of them proves to be more than a match and it seems that Shido is the only backbone to save humanity. It's the whole 'save the world' concept again but with the twist of dating.

Oh and speaking of dating, there's definitely some of that where it comes from. It's quite awkward though because by the way of things, Shido doesn't seem to have an ounce of dating experience prior to meeting the spirits. He often takes actions from “advise” from the military and Kotori, Shido's superior. These create awkward situations. Along with the misunderstandings, Date a Live continuously falls under the common cliched anime of the romantic harem genre. It's complete with the transfer student, the cute little sister, the nice guy, and of course dating.

In terms of soundtrack, I have to admit that Date a Live did pull off a magic out of its hat. "Date A Live “ by sweet ARMS has an electronic rhythm and gets the point across quickly. One can even see some action in the scenes along with the spirits who are soon to debut. It's colorful in the sense that the OST also depicts comedy, drama, romance, action, and emotional moments. Furthermore, there are many different ED songs to the series giving the viewers a variety to enjoy.

The artwork of the series is mediocre though. The outfits that the characters dress whether in combat or at school is generic and suggestive. It doesn't help by the fact that some of those outfits are little more than a reflection of the characters. Although colorful and distinguishing, it still remains barely tolerable with the way spirits should be. It's almost difficult to take it serious at times especially when there are 'gory' scenes out in the open but the artwork makes it seem like romantic comedy.

In general, Date a Live is just another series that takes the theme of science fiction and then mixes it it with some new twists like the dating sim concept. It's a fun theme to embrace but can hardly to be taken serious to heart at all. The whole concept itself is weak with the development and rushed sequences. Having read the LN, the pace of the series also seems to fall apart. The catch here is more than just a simple kiss. Rather, Date a Live just tries too hard and make it almost too unbelievable for its presentation. In the end, there are several choices that viewers can choose if they decide to watch this:

1) For fun and pass time
2) The concept/premise
3) Storyline
4) None of the above but rather just go with the flow

If option #4 was your choice, then just do what it says. Go with the flow and turn your brains off while hoping to enjoy the series.

Quality entertainment is one thing in any anime show that has ever existed, whether it’s supposed to be the intention or if it was unintentional. With that in mind, many people conclude that shows like Date A Live are why anime has gone downhill in recent years because it has officially run out of ideas on what to do with any story. It doesn’t matter how well they tell it, just how it entertains the masses. I find this thinking overly cynical and silly because this isn’t exactly a new way of thinking. For years, anime studios have put filler shows in season slots since ... the beginning of anime; whether they were all bad or good is debatable by today’s standards. Nowadays, these harem shows are the best way to churn out these kinds of filler slots to appeal to the casual fan base who like to watch girls flaunt over one guy in comedic ways.

The premise of Date a Live is a common trope of parody anime like The World God Only Knows, where one male character is sent on a mission to capture the hearts of girls around him. The only problem is that Date a Live doesn’t rely on parody or satire. It’s a straight-up action show with romance thrown in for good measure. I can describe this show by taking The World God Only Knows and ripping out most of the charm and wit that show had, and then you have Date a Live. It may seem unfair to say that these two shows are similar when they follow different genres. Still, they are identical in one particular area, which makes them indistinguishable from what I described earlier.

With that said, is the show entertaining to watch regardless of this? Yes, it is. The one thing that I will commend Date a Live is the production value, and the artwork is gorgeous to see. It makes you marvel at the talent the animators have in giving us excellent eye candy even outside of action sequences. Even at a draw distance, the characters still look magnificent even by today’s standards.

With the special praise gone out of the way, how does this show fair with its characters? The characters from their archetypes and personalities are mixed with elaborating this further. On the one hand, you have someone like Tohka, who is an absolute joy to watch because of her very energetic personality. On the other, Origami is very nicely detailed from her battle armor and humorous deadpan emotions. Many characters don’t give anything on the plate of depth or entertainment. You could call them cliches, but sometimes you can develop imaginative ways of providing cliched characters with good depth to them. Still, you hardly get any of that with Yoshino, Kurumi, or Kotori. They're in the show just because they’re there to get the plot going and nothing else. It doesn’t help the fact to make the story going when you put too many filler arcs that aren’t very entertaining in the first place.

While I’m discussing the characters in Date A Live, Shido himself is a weak protagonist in the sense that there's absolutely nothing about him that makes him a well-rounded individual. He is nothing more than your average teenage boy who is friendly but doesn’t have the guts to ask any girl of the girls anything with a straight face. Yes, I know some real-life guys are like him. But in no single second did they give any strong trait that makes him indistinguishable from other protagonists in most harem shows. I know it’s not often you get protagonists such as Yokodera in Hentai Ouji or Tomoki from Sora no Otoshimono who are very strong in expressing their feelings, but is that asking too much?

One major problem that needs to be said is the show's overall pacing, not only with the plot but also with the character progression. It seemed as though the writers wanted to rush out the essential steps that made great characters and didn’t bother to slow things down. These steps would make the girls understand Shido more instead of him just kissing the girls to make them head over heels for him. It is not uncommon to see anime adaptations of manga or Light Novels skip many things that the source material initially laid out. Still, it’s essential to realize that the best way is to cut the unimportant arcs in the original Light Novel. From what I can tell, being a person who never read the novel, they seemed to have rushed some plot arcs that seemed crucial in the Light Novel. Then there’s the ending that looked like a cop-out telling us, “Hey, there’s going to be a sequel! So you’re just going to have to deal with it!” At least that’s what I wished they should have said. At best, that could have been a little more amusing.

In the sound department, the voice actors do an excellent job with their material. Marina Inoue as Tohka is a definite highlight out of everyone from the cast. From the sound of her voice, you can tell right away that she was having tons of fun voicing herself.

In the current Spring season of 2013, I would say this is not a terrible show to sit through. I did have some decent fun with the great action scenes and charming comedy, for what little material they could come up with. With the 2nd season announced, I wouldn’t mind sitting through another season of this. Let us hope that they will learn from their mistakes and make it better than the first one.

Grade: C+

This story really seems to be absurd and I have to admit, that it actually really is. That was the point, where it got a lot of attention for. Deserved?

Story: The Anime is adapted from a Light Novel of the same name: "Date A Live". It's takes place in a quite near future (at least it seemed to be future), where events called Spacequakes happen, because of which many people die. To prevent this from happening, everyone gets evacuated whenever they happen. The Anime now revolves around Itsuka Shidou, a normal highschool boy that one day wittnesses a space quake and finds a girl in ... an armor standing in the middle of it. She immediatly attacks since she thinks he wants to kil her. Fortunately Shidou is safed after explaining to the girl that he was just searching for his little hyperactive sister. He finds himself in a big space ship, where he finds out that the sister he had been searching for, is the tsundere leader , of an organization that needs him to seal the powers of the girl from the Spacequake called "Spirit".
Date A Live definitely gets a bit of credit for the originality of the whole concept (I mean saving the world by dating hot girls...I guess it's the dream of every teenage boy). The execution though is only mediocre. The show is set up as a romantic comedy, with your typical fanservice (4 pantyshots in first minutes) and the typical humor (which I myself don't like but that depends on the person). Later on though, where the big twist starts to happen the series suddenly gets darker, seemingly pulling of a Madoka Magika and just fooling around a few episodes and then turn everything into epic darkness. But it doesn't follow that path and doesn't decide where to go, so they just put in a dark scene and a bit fanservice right after, which doesn't fit at all.
6/10

Characters: The characters are in total quite ok. At first seem to be quite generic, but as you dive a bit deeper, you can see some developement and some attachment to the characters presented.
Itsuka Shidou is the typical main protagonist, that wants to help everyone and doesn't have ANY further motive. He reminded me a bit of Emiya Shirou from the Fate/Stay Night Series, but a little better executed.
Yatogami Tohka, is the spirit from the spacequake Shidou witnesses. She doesn't believe in Shidou at first, but as it goes on she realizes he was serious about the saving the spirit thing.
Itsuka Kotori starts off as the cure little sister character that only seems to be there for the fanservice, but it's not that late until we see her Tsundere side as the leader of a group which wants to save the sprit.
7/10

Art: Date a Live has been animated by AIC Plus, which never had any major work before, the only thing that might be notable being "Asobi ni Iku yo". The Animation is nothing spectacular. The fighting scenes are quite well done, but all the other scenes were rather mediocre. The character design looks quite good and whoever is supposed to look cute looks cute as well.
5/10

Sound: The sound was at some points really good. The Opening was one of the best of the whole season in my opinion and it actually got used in an instrumental way several times within scenes later on. The voiceacting was quite ok but not incredibly good.

Personal enjoyment: To be honest...I got bored quite often! While the first half of the series only focused on humor I didn't like (I just have a weird taste I guess), it really wasn't good for me and I would've given it a 4/10 then. When the show reaches a certain episode though, it kind of gets really interestiing and I found myself even looking forward to next week. If it would have kept this up, it might have scored a lot better!
5/10

In total Date a Live is an anime with an original concept, that was not really well executed. When it just got interesting it went down to being a fanservice Anime again, and that was what annoyed me!
in total: 6/10

Now, in MAL, there seems to be a disparity of ratings. The ratings really don't reflect on the quality of the anime because it is purely subjective. Being subjective is like talking to guys who like Hyundai because of its "fluidic sculpture" and immediately concluded that Hyundai is awesome; and if you're like me who's looks at what's under the bonnet on car displays and motor shows, you'll end up asking yourself if those guys have never seen a Ford or Toyota before. It's exactly the same in anime: you find out that a harem-anime has almost the same score as Ano Natsu de Matteiru, ... you wonder yourself for a moment, then you realized that if we're on the same wavelength as I talked further, then you've quite been able to understand me for being calm as I review one of the many harem anime that reached a 7/10 rating here in MAL.

There's another harem anime that has a score of 7, Inifinite Stratos at 7.26. Then there's a romantic anime worth the watch and just scored a little higher of 7.78: Isshukan (One Week) Friends. And then there's Fast and Furious 7 shown at the theaters right now, and you'd rather watch that because you can't anymore comprehend how come a harem anime got in the same flooring as a romantic one.

But that's how anime is. In the words of a fellow-MAL-member, Veronin, "If there is one that has remained true about the anime industry, it is that cheap entertainment and low-risk adaptations prevail", then he/she quoted some more: "It expects the audience to willfully ignore its poor writing, because hey-- there are cute girls to gawk at!"

Really, I couldn't agree more.

Harem anime is, for better comparison on cars, we're not using Hyundai. They're like BMW. If you ever wind yourself on BMW showrooms, you'll be offered the 3-series, 4-series, 5-series, and 6-series. Then, you'll be offered with the M3, M4, M5, and M6. The 3-series and the M3 are pretty much the same, just like the 4-series and M4, the 5-series and the M5, and 6-series and M6.
BMW will say the M-series has better engine, better suspension, better seats, entirely better than the number-series, but honestly they're practically the same car in a perspective that there's no way you'd drive these cars at max horsepower and drift them to be totaled by an incoming Hyundai on the other lane. That's how harem anime work: you watch Infinite Stratos, To Love Ru, Kore wa Walking Dead desu Ka, Ore no Nounaiwerawerwrljkjkjkkjkwsheeshteiru, Strike the Harem, the list goes on, and with a sound mind, you concluded that they're the same in every sense. Different characters, same structure of story, the ending could spell the same.


STORY: 6
There are conditions why I dared to review a harem anime. One, because Marina Inuoe is in it; two, because I'm currently listening/reviewing UVERworld songs the same way I was listening/reviewing Nightwish's new 2015 album the other day; and three, because this is the only harem anime really worth reviewing.

Let me tell you how to review some other harem anime. For example in Infinite Stratos, there's Marina Inuoe on it, as much as Yoko Hikasa on it, there's even Kana Hanazawa on it! Yet, reviewing IS (and the rest of the harem anime) isn't near reviewing a BMW, but is more like reviewing a Hyundai instead: it runs if you press the accelerator pedal, it brakes if you press the brake pedal, it has wipers, a stereo, seats for five people, and an aircon.

Date A Live presented its story about the fiction world where global threat is caused by "spirits", and a male MC, he is an average highschooler, yes, who is needed to save the world from being blown for no real reason. It's like watching Ultraman actually, just that it's all about pretty shoujos with bouncing boobs for delectable eye candy and borderling the ecchi genre, not a stuntman with a grey mask on a red diver suit with props.
Then if you've watched TWGOK (or Gaworare--both are not the stereotyped harem anime), it also has the same formula of trying to subdue girls by love and kisses, sealing their destructive powers, thinking that at the end of the day, they'd be moe enough to be presented on the next episode filled with fanservice.
As much, no matter how the Date-A Live story was written, it has the same backbone or base all throughout. There was really nothing new to it as its other harem cousins.

CHARACTER: 7
It may be harem, but the shoujo (female) characters may have just enough spark on them. The defining character element is because they have the ability to decide.
And yes, for a harem anime, THAT'S HUGE!
They are not the usual submissive, pathetic personification of anti-feminism, they can actually think and helped put the development of the plot from point-A to point J, K, and L.
Tohka vows to protect the world after seeing the beauty of it (and for Shido ofc), there's Yoshino who only uses her powers under duress and was not intending to harm anyone, then there's Reina who's reliable enough to help with the shoujo characters' emotions. As much, the character profile is not perfect: there's Kotori who's real charm was that she was voiced by Azunyan, Origami who must have originated from the Infinite Stratos world and brought back the harem-essence because she is just being a stalker, and there's the astonishing-beauty Kurumi who is actually wicked and a better poised antagonist, just that she went all the trouble because she's crushing the MC who said her beauty is astonishing, all made more of failing to break free from the harem-essence.
Then let's not forget the main character Shido: the personification of what guys/shounen surrounded in harem usually acts as reluctant and being the center of rabu-rabu doki-doki for no apparent reason; yet he, too, can decide on his own. Thus, he's not any of those flimsy MC's on other harem anime who waits for the author to get over his/her harem fantasies and wrote how the story progresses based on his/her subjective terms.
In the end, this is how I put it: despite it's harem, the character development was able to take matters into its own hands.


ART: 10
it may be shoujos with boobs and fanservices, and that's what is mercilessly pointed out by hundreds of fans because that's what this is primarily all about, but they forgot the other artwork that made the rating to 10: the presentation/artwork of power and destruction, the buildings and geometry, action-scenes, all the secondary artworks that has nothing to do with the superficial (but primary) reason of shoujos and their boobs, and the fact that "ART" is a different criteria and nothing to do with the development of plot and characters, are the reasons why I rated this as 10.


SOUND: 8
The opening/ending themes sound just as right. It's a bit aggressive as a pop-rock kind of songs if you will, but fits to the "world destruction" theme that Date-A Live presented.
Seiyuu-wise: there's Marina Inuoe (who uses her exact wavelength voice she used on Kana Minami of Minami Ke), Ayana Taketatsu (Azunyan), Nomizu Iori (Blood Lad's Fuyumi), and Sanada Asami (Sawa-chan sensei), they put a good deal of effort and helped seal the sound criteria to be as fitting to the character voices.


ENJOYMENT: 7
Surprising, I rated this as 7 as what I could rate 5 (or 4, or even 3) to the rest of the harem anime. Like I said, aside that it has Marina Inuoe on it, Date A Live has the potential being an anime that could break the standards of harem genre. It's like if we're going back to the BMW analogy, you just found the BMW M7 at back of the showroom. The M7 does not exist YET in the line of BMW cars, which then will lead you to conclude that what you've seen is the 7-series with nice touches on it.


OVERALL: 6
Like I said on the enjoyment part of this review, you found the BMW 7-series.
What I mean is, Date A Live could have held the potential, but maybe the author still lacks the conviction to break the standards, or perhaps the publisher of the Date-A Live manga were too standardized and firm that harem anime must include the usual, stigmatized harem elements. There could be other reasons (theories) as well, but somehow, Date A Live is perhaps the only harem anime you need to watch, give and take, the rest of the harem anime are something that Date A Live already encompasses.

Verdict: If Date A Live is a BMW, then it's the 7-series: it encompasses what the 3-, the 4-, the 5-, and the 6-series have in their boot, bonnet and portfolio.

Damn, I'm going to admit that I honestly thought this anime was great... then the damn ending reared it's ugly head and ruined EVERYTHING that makes this anime enjoyable.

STORY 3/10 (8 -5)

The story had promise. sure, it was never unique to begin with. (think of it as Kaminomi's capture plot IN THE FUTURE but with Seirei's instead of demons) but had the anime had better direction. then it wouldn't be as bad.


Firstly, it relies HEAVILY in Chandler's law ("When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.") In other words, a new character appears out of nowhere whenever ... the plot comes to a halt or goes on for too long

And just as quickly, they are FORGOTTEN and never mentioned again (or mentioned but never important despite how obvious that they still could be used to fuel the plot). Yes, it's all simply bad writing and to think I had to ignore this before because the plot was pretty interesting.


Secondly, just as it introduces and removes characters out of the blue. It also does this to CONFLICT. remember the spacequakes? It stops being a threat pretty early in the story. The anime has trouble making up it's mind regarding which conflict should remain central to the "date" plot. Why bother using two conflicts when you can't even handle it properly? pretty damn stupid move, I gotta say.


Thirdly, It tries to juggle between multiple subplot CLUMSILY. since there is too many subplots going on (each heroines have them, there are SIX of them) they get pushed up and down in priority frequently and some even get IGNORED just so the current subplot can be expanded upon. what the flying f*ck? don't juggle arcs when you can't even do it properly! there's a reason most dating sims use heroine based routes.



ART 7/10 (10 -3)

The art is great. The characters have good designs, the environment is detailed, the fight scenes were cool..... for the first few episodes. it get's plagued with off-model stuff in the last few episodes.

it's like the animation crew just threw their hands up in the air and said "screw this, let's just wing this damn thing and get over it! we'll still get paid with the same thing no matter how bad this turns out anyway!". A waste of perfectly good art.




Sound 6/10 (10 -4)

OP is great, Save the World(ED) is great, Save my Heart(the other ED), not so much. Strawberry Rain was nice but forgettable, EP1's ED was what sold me to this anime.

so why 10 -3? it's because they're pretty standard and don't really come out as unique.



Character 4/10 (10 -6)

You've seen EVERY SINGLE ONE of them before. The Generic Harem Protagonist, his Best Friend,those Extras That Comment On The Plot, and some more Plot Device type of characters.

on the heroines: there's The Tsundere, the Protagonist's Imouto, his Long Lost Family Member, The Moeblob, the Crazy-Ass Yandere, the Rei Ayanami clone. There's NOTHING unique about them save for their cool character designs (except for Shido who reminds me of Persona 3's protagonist).

They all could have been expanded upon and given unique traits, but no~ they're plain cookie-cutter cutouts people with pretty basic traits. THIS is where the anime fails badly. their character development was too straightforward with no curved-balls.



ENJOYMENT 6/10 (10 -4)

Have I not seen it's pathetic excuse for an ending I could have given this anime a 9-- hell no, a 10(My ratings are based on enjoyment, save for 10 which is based on quality). But with it's bad writing, HUGE Potential getting unused, and Generic characters. it all becomes a stupid mess of what could have been a perfectly good take on a harem anime.



Is this worth watching? hell no. unless you want to waste your time watching crap instead of doing something productive like polishing your dating skills with quality dating sims.

Everybody knows that great record with great ideas that the record label choked with cliches. [b]Date A Live[/b] is that record. It takes influence from [b]Evangelion[/b] both in terms of style and purpose. It wants to be a fun, humorous story while also have engaging characters and challenge its format a little. Whenever it does that, it succeeds. Whenever it dabbles in Harem cliches, you reach for some funeral music.

The premise is nonsense, but not without hope. The why’s are unimportant. The premise forces a non-violent solution to defeat an enemy, and one that relies on character interaction. This forces the creators to make the ... Spirits into actual characters instead of an ‘unknown enemy’. It also means they have to write actual character interactions, instead of just making a light show of explosions.

It does work, for the most part. The Spirits are all vastly different, and quirky in their own ways. Some of them may seem cliche on the surface, like Yoshinon’s shy girl antics. They do make them weird and silly enough to make them memorable. There are plenty of fun fish-out-of-water moments with Tohka. There’s also Tokisaki, who’s a great antagonist with a weird modus operandi and an atmosphere of real danger. The show also has some moments which satirize dating sims, and they’re brilliant whenever they appear.

[b]Date A Live[/b] also has a unique relationship to violence. There are some explosions for the hungry, but its view of violence is very different. In most action films, we’re encouraged to cheer for violence and to enjoy seeing people get hurt. It’s not that we’re told to enjoy the suffering of others. We’re told to ignore it, so we could enjoy a beautiful, violent dance.

[b]Date A Live[/b] acknowledges that violence is pretty awful. It’s not just in Origami’s dull, “My parents were killed so know I’m an avenger”. Characters are afraid of killing others. Characters can’t remain indifferent to violence. [b]Evangelion[/b] created alien enemies which looked nothing like us. It was easy to look at their deaths. [b]Date A Live[/b] admits that enemies are humans and asks if there’s a better. It’s a pretty uncommon response to the aestheticization of violence in media. It’s even less common in shows like this.

That’s pretty heavy. Don’t mistake [b]Date A Live[/b] for more than a light-hearted romp. Nevertheless, this attitude towards violence sure helps raise the series a little, and makes it more fun.

Just as its willing to turn that format upside down, it’s also neck deep in Harem cliches.

Why do series’s like this create a fun, quirky cast of female characters only to have the male lead dull? Shido’s given a little more to do. It feels like he can be a good character. Yet, has no personality to speak of. He does what is right just because it’s convenient to the plot, but that’s it.

There were so many things you could do with him. He could have been a megalomaniac who enjoys the attention. He could be a neurotic, like [b]Evangelion[/b]’s Shinji. He could be a White Knight who’s overdoing it. All of which would have added plenty of more comedic moments. Yet, he’s just a convenient tool to move the plot with less depth than an FPS character. This is one series that deserved so much.

Since the male lead has no personality, the romance is also not that exciting. Seeing a man having to juggle three girls could be fun. It’d work here because the series gives them a little more to do, but Shido is nothing. The girls fall for him mostly because it’s convenient. If love was so convenient, it wouldn’t be a staple in the arts. There was also no reason for Origami to be a part of the harem. It added nothing.

[b]Date A Live[/b] falls too much into cliches to be great. When it’s good, though, it’s better than another anime where the only effort is in the character design. It’s a lot bolder than it looks, and turns the nonsencial premise to more than a punchline. If you can stomach the occasional cliche harem, there’s good entertainment to be found here.

3 dates out of 5

Date a live is an Anime that tries to do many, MANY things at once. It wants to bring us hot girls, a large ammount of explosions and action in general and some romantic drama.

Date a live is setup in a Japan where beautiful female creatures, whose are identical to humans, are capable to create huge black hole-like explosions (or should I say implosions). And thus, every now and then, a whole ton of people is threatened to die, along with many other life forms in its way. Enter Shido Itsuka, a typical main character. Long story short, he's the chosen one to stop these ... catastrophes.

Here's the deal; I have no problem with the story trying to accomplish these many things at once. My problem with this is the execution they chose for the story to progress. Whenever you are watching you just cannot help but saying to yourself "I have seen this, and that, and that too..." And you just go on. Don't get me wrong, it's fairly entertaining, I laughed a lot and I liked the girls and stuff, but the harem concept and its execution is a fairly overused one.

Moving on from the harem stuff, there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered, like why is Shido the chosen one, and a lot more (I will not ask them here, since they would be considered spoilers) that you cannot help but asking yourself, since this anime takes its plot pretty seriously.

I must admit, that some revelations were actually well done, even if the plot twists were certainly predictable, the exact moments where these twists are revealed adds some shock value (if you could say it that way), not to mention these are the elements that peek your curiosity and make you wonder how these will turn out. However, the lack of direction of this anime didn't really let me realize what was happening or what exactly it wanted to achieve. And this is noticed right in the first arc, when Shido is told that he's the chosen one (Minor spoilers ahead): When he goes to stop the girl from being a massive destruction weapon, the anime changes its identity and suddenly it wants to become a romantic-comedy one. Next episode we have a fan service oriented focus, and we could go on forever. And this is the big problem with Date a Live. With a well articulated story telling, this could have been THE anime to watch, but certainly they chose to aim for a different appeal.

The art is kind of the strongest point of this anime, and I would say it is what it keeps you watching for the most part. The characters are simply beautiful. I'm personally not "attreacted" to anime girls, but I have to say that there were a few girls in this anime that kept my mouth open. Guilty pleasure confirmed! The backgrounds are also full of life and colors, and the animation is really well done when it comes to the battle scenes as well. It was a really good job.

When it comes to the sound, once again, I have to say that I usually skip openings and endings, but I turned out to listen to it accidentaly, and I really liked it. I also liked the way they present "the story thus far" thing, right when the opening song is starting, and being such a well crafted orchestral begginning, it gives a dramatic and epic feel. It really gets you hyped, no matter how simple the story has been until that point.
However, as a sound engineer/musical producer, I have to say that the recording could have been better. Specially on the drums. They literally have no impact at all. Could have been better, but it's fairly good and achieves the impact.

It's really sad that most of the background music is simply forgettable and dull. Does not complement the visual atmospheres at all.

Other aspects like sound design and voice acting were really well done, specially the voice acting. Nothing much to say, tho.

This anime was really entertaining, and it kept me going until the end, almost hiding the fact that pretty much everything was executed in a cliché way.

Although this anime has a really good technique quality and is really entertaining as well (art-sound), it does not redeem that the plot is mediocre. I will give this an overall 5.

Let me know what you think about this review :) Any feedback and constructive criticism is always well received.

This is my first review, so I'll try my best to not mess it up.

Date A Live could best be described as cheap enjoyment for people that don't want any substance in it. Now, is that a bad thing? Well, for people that want an anime that makes them think, or at the very least anime with innovation, then yes, it is. However, not everyone on the planet is like that.

The story is basic, predictable, and fairly poor. There's not really an overarching plot from all 12 episodes, but rather a couple of small stories contained into one series with some filler too, well, ... fill 12 episodes. Nothing worth noting.

The protagonist is the same copy and paste hero from every harem you've ever seen. However, he doesn't matter. What matters is the girls! You got Kotori Itsuka which is your typical tsudere imouto that everyone either loves or hates (I'm on the hate side). Tooka Yatogami is the main girl, and she's pretty forgettable to be honest. Origami Tobiichi is much of the same, constantly fighting with Tooka to see who Shido will love more or something like that. Yoshino is a shy loli, and that's about it. Then, there's Kurumi, who is probably the most interesting character out of the bunch.

These characters, aside from two of them, don't change from episode 1 to episode 2, except for the fact that they love Shido. The side characters are so forgettable that I don't even remember their names. I think there was a teacher that looked younger than the girls did. Maybe that was a joke. Or maybe all of these characters are jokes.

Art and sound are good. A lot of these harem shows seem to have a good visual and audio aesthetic because pretty things + boobs = money. The designs on some of the girls where quite nice too. They didn't look like generic harem girls, even though that's basically what they are.

Despite all of that, I found myself spending the whole night watching this show. It was surprisingly funny at times and the interaction between a couple of the characters was interesting. I was rooting for Shido, aka bland protagonist boy, to save the more interesting characters. It was like watching a stupid summer blockbuster. Of course it's bad, of course it's cheesy, that's the point. It's dumb, mindless enjoyment, and I'm honestly okay with that. It's not horrible by any means, but it's definitely not great either.

Overall, it was a fun and terrible experience that I would definitely not want to go back to.

Nonsensical at first glance anime. A lot of fanservice. MC is somewhat normal which helps a little to ease into the story. Everyone else looks like a psycho when you compare them to the protagonist. Took me at least three tries to watch it to get past second episode. From the beginning It looks like there is no plot. Just battles, "cool" stuff and boobs. It looks like mish-mash from bunch of genres, jarring for my taste. Too much seemingly unmotivated actions without any explanation.

Story does kinda make sense the more you watch it but the core concept is not that good (harem builder) and ... you need to wait too much to get to the point when author starts giving hints at what exactly you are observing and the idea behind all of this.

And while it is kinda fun to gradually piece together what the hell is happening on the screen, by the time we arrive at the last episode we are given the most cliche final battle there is. At least boobs and other stuff makes this all bearable.

Story
Date A Live opens with Japan’s favorite fetish: mass destruction. It then follows that with Japan’s second favorite fetish: little sister love. The anime’s opening episode introduces us to the idea of spirits and spacequakes. Spirits are…some sort of creatures that have super powers and aren’t actually explained all that well. Their appearance causes spacequakes. To combat spirits and the subsequent quakes, Japan has a ground defense force that employs young girls who wear battle gear that look more like Hyperdimension Neptunia armor designs than actual military armor.

Our main character, Shido, goes out during a spacequake to save his sister, only to magically survive the ... devastating encounter and meet a young spirit; a girl who doesn’t feel that she belongs. This first episode gives you the impression the anime has potential, but the second episode decides to throw that potential out the window and engage in typical harem antics with a splash of nonsensical and a few shakes of stupid.

It turns out Shido’s sister is really the commander of a space ship and the goal of the crew is to make the spirits fall in love with Shido so that he holds their powers in check and they become real girls. So Shido goes out on dates with cute girls while his sister tells him what to say through an earpiece.

Decisions on what he says are made through a dating game style choice system and from there I’m going to quit explaining and start complaining.

The series doesn’t have an exceptional plot. It borrows heavily from other, more entertaining series to create a watchable, but wholly unimpressive piece. There are some somewhat funny moments and some decent drama, but the problem is the series doesn’t understand what it wants to be. In a typical harem/ecchi you either choose to be funny or choose to focus on story or balance both. Date A Live does none of the above and teeters to both sides in an awkward and sometimes annoying way. It also doesn’t help that the anime doesn’t excel in either field whatsoever. The comedy isn’t that funny and the story is very predictable.

As far as story goes, Date A Live neglects substance in the hope you can look past that and just worry about the cute girls.

Animation
Yes, the girls are goddam adorable. The character design is good for some characters, boring for others. There are some very unique looking characters, especially Kurumi. The world itself is well animated and the fight scenes are very fluid and look good.

Sound
The opening song is actually pretty good, though the ending fails to impress. Music during the show is typical of the genre. Voice acting is good. There’s nothing impressive to be found here.

Characters
Date A Live doesn’t have bad characters, it just has generic characters. None of them particularly stand out except, once again, Kurumi. She’s an interesting character to have in a harem anime like this because of how batshit insane she is. Her power is also cool, as well as her eyes. But that’s not what the point is.

The point is that Tohka is the hungry, ditzy, doesn’t know much of anything character. Yoshino is the scaredy-cat loli. Kotori is the tsundere. Kurumi is the yandere.

And rounding it all out is Shido, a character who can do no wrong, protects a girl who violently murders people in front of him, and doesn’t have any problem with kissing his sister. He’s the same goddam character you can change out with half the harem titles on the market.

I’m sick of being sick of these characters because I’ve spent about one hundred percent of my reviews complaining about them. Aren’t there other tropes? Isn’t there something new, or at least a typical character that is developed to such depth that they become memorable?

Overall
I don’t hate Date A Live, in fact I wanted to like it. The plot could have been a lot better if it neglected the comedy and focused on the proper story. The story wouldn’t have benefitted much, but it would have made a much better product.

The thing about this series is that I can’t hate it. It’s not so reprehensible as to be unwatchable, it’s just another average series floating around the stagnant pool of harem comedies. There are much better examples of the genre, but there are, of course, much worse. Fans of the harem/ecchi genre will probably appreciate the series while everyone else will want to stand back and watch something with a little more depth. I enjoyed enough of it to warrant the rating I’m giving it, though you may find it a tad more underwhelming, or you may be pulled in by cute girls (if that’s your thing) and won’t be able to wait for the second season.

For me, it blew some time, and it kept me moderately engaged for four hours. It’s not a classic, but it’s decent enough.

It seems that no matter how destructive or chaotic a world is set up as, writers will always find a way to try to include cute girls.

Story - During the first few episodes, Date a Live introduces us to a world in which beings known as “Spirits” cause what seems to be natural disasters on Earth, killing countless people in the process. Humanity has tried several ways of combating these Spirits until they finally set up on just using violence. A new method, however, was recently proposed, one without violence. And that method is kissing the Spirits to seal their destructive powers. Also, did I ... say all the spirits happen to be girls?

Date A Live uses its premise that would usually be shamed as just another excuse for a harem set-up in a very comedic way. And, it works, Date A Live manages to be genuinely funny and entertaining with its tongue in cheek execution. Date A Live manages to poke fun at waifuism, the harem genre, fan service scenes, and most importantly, the visual novel medium. There is one major problem though. During the middle, Date A Live realizes it’s time to stop joking around and time to form a serious plot. This is a big problem, because during the rest of the duration of the series, Date A Live is actually trying to be serious, and it does NOT work. An antagonist with no real depth is shoehorned in, just because there needs to be one. Drama commonly occurs, with no development or progression gained from it, it’s just there for there to be drama. Characters previously pushed aside become relevant only when the plot needs them to. Date A Live’s previously enjoyable comedic tones are ruined just because the writers felt there was a necessity for an actual plot to take place. 5/10

Characters- Date A Live is a harem anime at its core, so it’s characters aren’t anything special in terms of depth, but that isn’t always necessarily bad. Our main character, Shido Itsuka, is a white knight who plays the role of making the Spirits fall in love with him in order to seal their powers. With visual novel tropes, he succeeds in the comedic process of it. There’s a problem in this though, during each conquest of a Spirit, Date a Live seems to develop and characterize each Spirit through and through. During the end of it, however, Date A Live pushes off whatever development each Spirit got and just makes them a side joke for Shido’s harem, which wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for the aforementioned serious plot that Date a Live tries to play later on. So basically, Date A Live isn’t winning anything in the character department.
Rambling aside, Date A Live’s grills do have a charismatic charm to them that makes them good picks for waifus. My particular favorites include Tohka and Kotori, so if you’re into those types of things, Date A Live does carry it around marvelously. 5/10


Art/Animation- Date A Live looks beautiful. It is consistent in quality, barley ever showing any off model scenes. The animation is pretty good, albeit nothing outstanding, but it doesn’t really need any fancy animation for the type of show it is. The most redeeming point of Date a Live, however, are the character designs for the grills. Examples being Kurumi and Yoshino, the former having a very appealing design that is obvious waifu bait, and the latter having a unique one that doesn’t seem to have been done before. Date A Live’s art does a good job distracting the viewer from its narrative flaws by having them focus on the grills. 8/10

Sound- For me particularly, not much of the soundtrack from Date A Live stood out. This isn’t to say that it’s bad. Date A Live’s soundtrack does a very good job at what it’s supposed to do, create a mood. The soundtrack accompanies whatever situation is going on onscreen in a synergetic manner, having no particular scene stand out because of it’s lack of music or inappropriate use of music. The voice actors do a good job making the characters, particularly the grills, stand out. As, as for the OP and ED, they’re nothing special. The OP gets you pumped for the episodes like it’s supposed to, and the ED is your average romance song sang from a female character’s point of view, of course, this is all subjective to one’s musical taste. 7/10

Enjoyment- Despite what may seem like me ranting on the show, Date A Live is a very enjoyable piece of media, shockingly enough. Maybe it’s the grills, maybe it’s the hope for it getting better, maybe it’s the fact that even though it tries to pull off a serious plot it still keeps some of its comedic tone, I don’t know, but Date A Live was a blast to watch. If you want to turn off your mind, but still want to watch something enjoyable, Date A Live is a good anime to watch if you don’t mind it’s narrative flaws. 8/10

Overall - Date A Live’s narrative does not work taken seriously, it has many flaws that don’t allow it to strive in a medium where originality is highly praised. If you’re looking for a story with depth, developed characters, a strong story, or if you’re bothered by every minor flaw of something, look away, Date A Live is not for you. If you’re a fan of the harem genre, looking for some good waifus, or if you just want to relax to a senseless anime, then Date A Live is a good recommendation. 6/10

this review is to give a concise, yet detailed overview on Date A Live, and i will refrain from using too much opinions and make it as subjective as possible, as well as avoid using strict numbers.

Story:Fair (about a 6)
the story, once you break down all the "fluff" is rather cliche. Its a harem romcom, which has been done a lot of times. The only thing different is that he is not completely useless and can actually do something, here and there, without having to solely rely on hiss army of girls to fight every battle for him. However the concept, though not completely original ... is appealing. The thought of "capturing" girls (almost like pokemon, in a way...bad joke) with a kiss is not something i have seen before and i have found it rather amusing. Also, how its done in a date sim, kind of way, makes this show very funny and adds that comical aspect to the story. though the story can get serious at times, here and there, though honestly, it kinda fails at doing...as it is forced.

Art: Very Good (about an 8)
i am actually rather impressed with the animation quality, more so than the art. the art style is kind of typical for a romcom anime, but it is still very appealing, as the costume designs for the girls are adorable or just dazzling. that probably its strong point in art design, the female characters. the male characters are rather bland, especially the main character, but oh well. The animation is very good though. its fluid when it needs to be and adds impact to the action scenes. this is clearly done when the characters are fighting in the air, as you can see the "jet streams" and "shaking of the camera" when they fly/crash down. and most other key scenes are down well, not destroying the impact felt or meant to be portrayed. Also you dont see many "moving mouth only" scenes...which is nice. you can tell the animators took their time when doing this anime, and that is evident everywhere.

Sound:Good (about an 7)
likewise with the art, i was impressed with the sound quality and the voice acting. the seiyuu are great. Practically an all-star cast and they fit the personality and image of each character very well. And plus, there were not so many annoying supporting character voices....which is nice. The OP and ED and pretty good. the ending theme is kinda weird at first, but it grows onto you and you might find yourself singing lines here and there. The OST is pretty decent, it adds impact to the scenes, but nothing extremely too memorable.

Characters: Fair (about a 6)
the characters, overall, are cliche. you have your hyperactive,ditzy girl (Tohka, she even likes to eat a lot, adding to that cliche); you have your cute loli goth ( Yoshinon, and of course she is shy; you have your tsundere (Kotori), which also is the little sister character as well; you have the seductive, yandere or "enchantress" (Kurumi)....and it goes on. Its not that these are necessarily a bad thing. Its just the same kinds of characters, done over and over, with a different character design and name. They lack any real substance to them. The same applies to Shidou. Honestly, there isnt much to talk about the characters because they are so flat and cliche.

Enjoyment:Good (about a 7)
this is actually, a rather enjoyable series to watch, but you really dont watch it for the story (since there is not much of one), but mainly because it is funny to watch and the female characters are cute, holding your appeal to the show. This show is for people who either really like furufuru and comical anime, or for people who want to "take a break" from intense or story anime.

Overall: Fair (about a 6)
this wasnt a bad series, but not a completely successful one either. the reason this series held up is because of its animation quality and sound quality. Other than that there is not much too it. the concept is not original, series like TWGOK has already did the date sim kind of thing and series like Haiyore Nyaruko-san. The difference between these two is that Nyaruko-san is a parody and meant to be like that where this is allegedly not a parody. However, it was fun to watch, gave me some laughs, and the characters still hold their appeal making it watchable so i will still recommend you watching it in your free time. Its just not a very memorable series.

Okay, let me get down into this by stating the pros and cons of this show.

PROS:
+ Great animation (combination of mecha with computers and sci-fi)
+ Great action scenes
+ Opening and ending are good
+ Voice actors did a good job (although I am not a fan of voice acting)
+ Kurumi & Tohka

CONS:
... - Not much depth into characters, just girls liking one guy
- Not unique story
- Useless protagonist, who gets all the girls
- Cheesy dialouge, not-so-funny comedy
- Annoying Kotori & Shido

As long as the fanservice is not in the way of the actual story then that's good. Kurumi's character resembles a lot like Celes from Danganronpa in her calm and manipulative speech. Tohka's character resembles a lot like Yozora from Haganai. As long as the girls like one guy with a reason then that's good. I also really wanted to see more depth in the characters than just plain and simple.

Tohka & Kurumi are my favorite characters in this anime. Kotori is quite annoying.

I have seen some harem anime that has great character depth and lesson to be learnt eg. Haganai & Oregairu. Haganai is my best anime.

The protagonist I'm refering to is Shido, he gets all the girls and is useless. Shido reminds me a lot like Yukiteru Amano from Mirai Nikki. Never mind most harems are like that so I won't get mad about it. But the conversation is really not so engaing.

I actually give credit for the animation and graphics especially for the action scenes.

So I will say that there is nothing special about this anime. Just all right 6/10.

I actually have already watched this show 8 years ago when it first came out, Thought it was trash, Then dropped it. 8 Years after, today, with much more watchtime on various anime and experience from playing dating sims and visual novels now rewatching it made me change my mind about this show.

I do tell you right of the bat that this show is no near masterpiece. It still has a lot of mishaps though I do think it's a pretty decent one now with experience.

The show has pretty much lots of elements in a dating sim, heck it is pretty obvious that referencing ... a dating simulator was taken into account when making the storyline.

It does well in presenting a Dating Sim environment. Guy who has tasked to basically make girls fall in love with them, to basically save humankind. While a small group of people helps him by using a 3 choice system similar to decision making in dating sims. Plus hitting the worst decision may lead to cringeworthy moments leading to dropping a girl's affinity is well presented in this show.

Although one episode hit me hard and was episode 8 in particular where MC is dating multiple girls at once which is an essence of playing a dating sim "efficiently". This is well done in particular since it also sparks realism seeing how the MC is pretty tired after all that happenings.

This does not mean the show is all good though as there are many mistakes the show makes but this one in particular is worth to mention. It is highly fast paced. I don't actually have problems with the pacing of the introduction of characters but I have a problem with how they affect the story. Since almost all the characters pretty much majorly affect the main story unlike some other great shows where they just do this on another season. It feels like it does this just to make the show feel and look awesome in paper, it accomplishes that yes but only on paper. It also weakens the surprise factor more as there are just so much happening you're not gonna even get surprised anymore. Although this does accomplish a no-filler approach though so it still kind of does that well in that regard. Heck I tell you, even the swimsuit episode isn't a filler.

Other things I'll talk about are the characters. The characters have drastically unique personalities, There's not much cliché aura to them. It's also a part of a dating sim to have characters that have drastically different personalities to have a different approach on the other characters. The Opening sequence is nostalgic, making me feel when it was 8 years ago talking about why the show just doesn't make sense.

So should I recommend you watch the show?

If you like dating sims then do so, oh wait. Check out Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai first since that show has a much more delicate approach on the topic. The two are also similar in a sense making me think that did date a live actually referenced kami nomi zo shiru sekai?

If you don't have a lot of experience or just not like the genre in general then don't.

6/10

***This is a spoiler free review***

Continuing on from the recent trend of turning great light novels into subpar anime, Date A Live proves to be a mediocre romantic comedy that fails to bring anything worthwhile to the genre.



Story: 4.5/10

I’ll admit that the first episodes did draw me in as the idea of someone “wooing” mythical creatures in order to keep them from destroying the world seemed like a fresh idea. The main plot boils down to our main male lead Shido having to “tame” these magical spirits in order to keep their magical outbursts in check. So yeah it turns into a harem since ... by the end of the season he will have four or so girls wanting his D. This however is not the downfall of the series; I tend to like harems IF they are done well enough. This anime falls very short in my opinion because the cast just doesn’t flow very well with each other. The main female lead Tohka is just a whiny and needy girl that gets mad at Shido for literally everything. It also doesn’t help that the show is extremely predictable and drags towards the final episodes. Overall if you are looking for a thought provoking show this is one you need to steer clear of.

*Something I forgot to add; there is a pretty large amount of fanservice in this anime but I never found it too distracting.*

Animation: 6.7/10

Something the show does seem to pull of reasonably well is the visual presentation. Both the fight and more tame dialogue scenes have good quality which seems to hold throughout the entire season without degrading in quality. Character models in my opinion could have been better but they were “good enough”. Have to admit though that the eyes in this anime were really well done (don’t know why I love eyes so much but yeah it’s the only decent thing Tohka had).

Sound: 5/10

There really isn’t a lot to comment on for the sound of this anime. The soundtrack is generic at best and the voice actors did an “ok” job. Sound is an important thing to try to capitalize on since it is so pivotal to the overall experience of video media. This anime fell short in my opinion but by no means completely failed on the audio presentation.

Characters: 4.5/10

Harems are only successful if you have the characters to back up the ridiculous notion of calling a man (or women) liking multiple partners a sane thing. In Date A Live, Shido is kind of just thrown in to these turn of events and really doesn’t have a saying in his own actions so he gets a pass. The characters he is tasked with “taming” however just make the show boring to watch. As I mentioned earlier, Tohka is an annoying crying female that overreacts to everything. Kotori (Shido’s sister) is your typical generic tsundere who has a small twist to her character towards the end of the series but I didn’t care for her so whatever. The other two spirits in the show Yoshino and Kurumi were also pretty generic and uninteresting. The only thing they brought to the table was that Yoshino was super ultra cute which can only go so far. So what the show boils down to is its wild card character, Origami. Presented as an emotionless tomboy, she provided many unique and funny scenes with Shido. She developed feelings for Shido fairly early on which provided some interesting moments between her and the other spirits. She is the sole character that I ended up liking in this show.

Overall: 5.2/10

It really is a shame what is occurring in the anime industry at the moment. I have now seen three really good light novels (Sword Art Online, Oniichan Dakedo Ai sae Areba Kankeinai, and now Date A Live) become these really average anime when they could have been so much more. Actually in general I have noticed that animation studios are playing it safe with these high school romantic comedies and not taking risks on more farfetched plots. The last really good show that was nothing like anything else I had seen was Fate/Zero back in 2011. While this season of anime has brought a couple good shows (thank god for Chihayafuru 2), we are getting too many of these romcons at once. I hope that the next anime season brings some more daring shows.

Enjoyment: 4.6/10

Thanks for reading my review! If you liked my writing style, would like to see some other reviews, or just want to talk, please stop by my page!

Sincerely,
Awesome Drummer

What score would I give this? I would say a 6. Like, its ok. Pretty much a slice of life anime with comedy, and hentai which is basically it. Oh theres more, it even has a form that can be activated by kissing a guy. Weird flex but ok. Nothing much to say, I really think this is a fine anime to watch. I would probably give this a similar score to the second season hell even a third season if I have the time for myself to experience those.

Its based on personal opinions not yours, so pls don’t get offended and skip what I ... said.

This is my first review: Alright, here's what I have to say. I'm not exactly a master of Anime and I don't know what should've or shouldn't have been on this anime. Here's my personal opinion though:

I won't say I liked it, but I didn't NOT like it. The action was alright for me, not too much unnecessary talking between the fighters that takes up half the episode. It flowed well and there were some pretty unexpected moments. (no spoilers)

Story (3)- Story was the biggest problem for me. I appreciate the fact that right from the start, they tell us that there is no ... explanation for the existence of spirits. (this isn't a spoiler right? lol sorry I'm kind of insecure about whether I'm telling a spoiler or not) I'm guessing they used the cute girls as a cover-up for the lack of plot, but it didn't really work for me. I just hope the story will be more clear after I watch the next season.
Art (7) - I am honestly clueless when it comes to the art styles. So I just rated it based on what I thought. No hate plz.
Sound (6) - If the music counts as sound, it was great. The opening music is honestly really nice, but I'm not a fan of the credits music. The sound design is fine, sounds like any other sound design when there's action in an anime, loud cracking and the ground being blown to bits.
Character (5) - I'm not spoiling, I'm saying this in case you don't want to watch something like this. The characters come on strong on first appearances and show good relationships, but afterwards they kind of die down. I guess that's what happens in Harem anime's, the balancing gets difficult? idk.
Enjoyment (7) - The comedy was light, but it was fun. It got a few laughs out of me, and I don't laugh at those "walk in at the wrong time" moments, I usually facepalm, but this anime had a bit more variety, which I can appreciate.
Overall (6) - Overall, I thought that the anime had potential. It seems to other people that it's a 'hate it or love it' type of anime, but I thought it was okay. If there was more story in this, the overall could've probably went to a 7, maybe even an 8, but, not much we can do about yeah? Honestly, I'm willing to give it another chance and watch the 2nd season, I'll be watching it right now, thanks for reading :)

Date A Live is an otaku-centric franchise―you have the twin-tailed imouto, another twin-tailed bishoujo (who is a yangire gothic lolita), the girl-from-another-world-who-is-detrementally-naïve-about-everyday-Earthian-life (very similar to Lum from Urusei Yatsura and Lala Satalin Deviluke from To Love Ru; same trope), the list goes on. This series has a lot of character designs with twin-tails or ponytails, because, like the great Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya once said, “Ponytails turn me on.”

• Similar to The World God Only Knows, another series that’s mainly in circulation because of otakus wanting more of their fetishes pandered to, the main character is able to choose visual novel screen options ... when talking to the female protagonists, and―unlike the other show’s lack of purpose with the conceptーthe protagonist in Date A Live, is acting as the central arbiter to all of the girls’ arcs; he practically goes on dates with these extremely powerful, deity-like women to quell their powers and keep them from bringing calamity onto the planet, or whichever dimension that he exists in!

• With the exception of a couple of character arcs, most of the girls are likable and have eidetic designs. I usually don’t care for harem storylines, but unlike the usual “girls fighting each other for the protagonist’s attention” stereotype, this series is a little more sophisticated than typical cat-fight drama and, instead, focuses more on linear routes, like what you would see in an actual visual novel.

• In my opinion, I liked Season 2 of Date A Live more than Season 1 because of the addition of Miku AND shit gets real with Tohka’s character arc! Tohka, Kotori, and Kurumi all had very good world lines in Season 1, but I liked that season less because of the focus on Yoshino and Origami, who I found to be the most annoying characters in the franchise!

• Yoshino was an adorable loli that I wanted to like for her design, but I couldn’t get over the fact that her creepy rabbit puppet talks in her place and has an older male voice. I think she would be a gazillion times cuter without the weird, uncanny valley (ventriloquism) sub-plot! As for Origami, she’s just a perverted, manly, solider woman―who’s entire purpose is to get the protagonist to have freaky sex with her… this gets annoying in the middle of a serious plot; that being said, I do admit that her OVA is ridiculously funny and will be appealing to anyone who can enjoy absurdist sexual humor!

• I agree with the majority of Date A Live fans, when they say that Kurumi didn’t get enough of an appearance in Season 2 (her role is more like a cameo, rather than that of a character that’s written to be important)―despite being the character with the most fascinating abilities and crux; despite that, her OVA more than made up for her lack of presence during that chronicle in the series! It’s short, sweet, romantic, and tragic; it perfectly incapsulates Kurumi’s unstable disposition and leaves room for questions and intrigue―as far as what her role in the story will be!

• The Date A Live: Mayuri Judgement movie isn’t worth mentioning, it seems estranged from the franchise with its uninteresting plotline and blasé leitmotif; I see this film as Studio IMS standing on its last leg! And boy, did it show! The movie’s quality looked like a Korean, bootleg imitation of Date A Live, rather than something associated with TV series and OVAs. The only purpose in watching the movie is seeing (the new girl) Mayuri’s character design; it basically suffers from all of the issues that I had with Nanoha: Resurrection.

• Overall, Date A Live is probably my favorite harem series in anime; Monogatari has a couple of good arcs, but Date A Live is more tasteful and isn’t as pretentious. It’s charming, cute, not too raunchy, amazing character designs, an interesting plot and female cast―to top it off! I rate the first season a 6/10, the second season a 7/10, the Origami OVA a 6/10, Date A Live: Mayuri Judgement a 3/10, and the Kurumi OVA a 7/10.

• SN: The studio that produced season two, the Date A Live movie, and the Kurumi OVA, Studio IMS, went out of business. Fingers crossed that season three will still be good! ☆

It's basically a guy playing a dating sim in real life. What's not to get?

To be fair though, There were some aspects that made it stand out, which I understood was the basis of ecchi/harem structure used today. While I admit that it had similar elements as your typical E/H series, it did give way to all the characters having screen time. Most series would've placed them in the background, but this series kept the characters "alive".

If there's one thing I liked, it's the BGM. It truly resembled the theme of a dating sim (cute and bubbly) while not forgetting the serious themes embedded in ... the series.

Overall, it was okay. After all, you don't always get to see a guy date a live spirit!