Date A Bullet: Dead or Bullet

Are you, like me, a fan of Kurumi, but not a fan of Date a live ?
Well then, here are some good news.

Only fighting, no harem trash, no annoying characters, no ecchi, just Kurumi ! 100% Kurumi.

Unfortunately, the movie is only 24 minutes long, so the story is incomplete.
It focuses mainly on the characters introduction, and explains the plot, or the reason for the battle, with some briefs flashbacks on Kurumi's past.

But apparently, there is a second part, I hope it will be as good.

Because what's better than a movie for Kurumi ? Well, two movies of Kurumi of course.

I am not a big fan of Date a Live to begin with but I was excited when a movie featuring Kurumi Tokisaki was announced. Her character is without a doubt the best thing from Date a Live. Her abilities, design, and character in general are very interesting so my disappointment with this movie was even greater.

Sadly this "movie" is 24 minutes long and is just introducing new characters. Thats it. Thats the whole "movie". It is just an introduction for the next movie.

I really hope that the next movie will be worth the wait. But this was an absolute letdown.

Date a live is back and it's great to see our beloved Kurumi again especially in her own story.

Okay, I first thought that it was supposed to be a movie that is an hour-long but I watched the first episode and it was 24 minutes, standard time for animes. It was great how the premise of the story is shown in the middle part and didn't narrate it in the first part. If you really love date a live, even if you don't know anything about this, you will just keep watching it, idk for Kurumi? lol. Also, the subtlety was shown, not revealing ... who was really the Kurumi that died. The art is so cute for the other characters but also for Kurumi but I kinda miss the old art. I think it would be more good if the director at least clipped a flashback about Shido to hype up the fans watching this.

Sooo, a light novel reader here which means that i am up to date with date a bullet and i gotta say that i had to reread the first volume. You might be asking "Why?" or "Whats your point?".

Well, I had to reread it because i was not sure if i read the same thing. Cause the plot of the anime really differs from what i read and it was a huge disappointment to me. I wanted more emotions, more action, more character development and MORE SENSE!!!! Is it only me that thinks a bunch of stuff doesnt add up?! OKay, the main character IS ... Kurumi, but doesnt make the WHOLE anime a great one.

The setting is great but it is ruined. The original story was full of emotions, drama, yet this... is just a battle royale hosted for..? Who knows? Thats how the studio wanted to happen so here you go? Not a big plothole here! Nope!

Anyway, I am not saying its horrible, but I gotta admit... even if the studio doesnt want to follow the LN, they should be able to make something... interesting and something that makes sense.

First review yaayy.

It is basically an introduction to the next movie.

A confusing start, but you start to understand during the episode, which greatly improves the experience watching.
I liked how Kurumi's skills were presented, for example "aleph", which in the anime implied it was a teleportation, but in reality it is a speed increase, the movie made a connection with the OVA of Date a Live II, which was very interesting .
The animation was interesting, nothing to bother me, the characters are cool and a little striking, especially the White Queen, that ending made me very excited for the next movie, I hope they keep the ... quality or even improve it.

Let me start off by saying I am both a huge fan of Kurumi Tokisaki as well as the entire DAL series. I was extremely excited when they announced an adaptation was coming for Date A Bullet in the form of a movie. Heres where that goes wrong. It's far too short. With the first "movie" part being a limited 25 minutes, it is difficult to introduce the plot, the characters, and show any real progression in such a short amount of time. However, I am genuinely impressed by how well it was handled. Though brief, we were able to grasp what had happened to ... Kurumi, where she had ended up, and what her objective was. We were introduced to all the characters as well. It wasn't perfect by a long shot, but I was genuinely impressed for what it was, although I admit my bias towards this series.
As for the anime, the sound was great, the art was beautiful, the animation was fair for a relatively new studio, being so short the characters could have definitely benefited from an actual length movie, but it is what it is.
Overall, if this simply had a longer runtime to expand on the world, the characters, and the story, I would have rated this a 10/10, however I will have to end this with a 9/10. It was still an exciting watch, any fan of DAL or Kurumi in general will appreciate watching this!

You better read the LNs of Date a Bullet, because this movie has nothing to do with the books much. Yeah you got your animated Kurumi fanservice and some cool soundtrack. But the plot.... even the oroginal Date a Live series are rushed. This one is on steroids and hardly makes any sense compared to the books' setting. It somewhat does the job as a story linker about Kurimi's past... but there are so many essential events that just got cutted out. I can't really recommend as a stand alone animated spinoff as well... For me it was a huge dissapointment. And the ... animations were also too sketchy... A crappy cash grab pruduct to feed the Kurumi thisrty fandom, with the aim for the people who would not dwell into the LNs... please do... you will see how much different it is.

This is one of the best and most elaborate adverts I have ever seen. Especially for a mobile game, at that. This is an episode-long movie that I would have loved to watch as a full hour and a half one. It was enjoyable from start to finish and is, quite frankly, actually more enjoyable than a lot of the main series.


As this came out in 2020, I was expecting an improvement. I was met with standards that went higher than my expectations. The art style is significantly improved, cleaner and even the minor character details seem to be kept in account throughout.


The music was ... good, it fit well with the one-time opening sequence that was with it. The voice acting was also very crisp and smooth, all of the cast fit their characters very well.


Hibiki Higoromo - A Quasi-Spirit who who bumps into Kurumi whilst running away from Doll Master, begging for Kurumi to save her.

Kurumi Tokisaki (Empty, Nightmare) - A clone of the original Kurumi Tokisaki that ended up in the Neighbouring World after she had met her untimely demise. She is referred to as Empty.

Date A Bullet: Dead or Bullet (2020)

Regardless of the fact, Kurumi is my best girl in all of anime for that I love her look, personality and her Japanese voice actress has such an amazing voice for her, I shall, however, endeavour to not be bias in this.

The story is somewhat battle royale with Kurumi Tokisaki at the heart of the storyline. You do not get a huge amount of information but enough to know what is happening. It has very much the feel of the start of something.

The art used is superb in all aspects and comes with a great backdrop. Characters are ... drawn to a very high standard also to the point of the clock in Kurumi's eye is superb quality.

The sound firstly as said Kurumi's voice is awesome. The OP and ED are both great too. Generally, you get some real nice SFX with just about enough depth.

Character development is not particularly important at this stage since it was so much of an introduction. If you are at this point and you don't know Kurumi then you should not be watching this yet and thus cannot complain.

I would say it is pure enjoyment, you get some cuteness, violence and a great pattern of the arc in the story. I look forward to this continuing very much. I think Date a live could have done very well with Kurumi as the main protagonist.

10/10.

Objectively speaking, DAB is a mediocre anime that was made for fans of Kurumi Tokisaki. That being said, I slightly increased the rating to 7/10. I can't imagine people outside of the target audience being awayed away with it.

As for me I was never enthusiastic about DAB and expected it to be a disaster but it was quite pleasant to watch. I like that Kurumi's personality is very much like in the original, as I find it to be not only hers but also the movie's biggest charms(it's refreshing to have an anti-heroine for protagonist).

That being said I'll list the things that, in my opinion ... make the movie worse or don't make it good.

-Art&Animation
DAL always had stiff animation and although I appreciate that's not the case here I don't like how Kurumi changed. Her face changed quite drastically and she lost a lot of resemblance, her hair turned from black to dark brown. Kurumi in the DAL animes, VN and games looks pretty much the same. Here I sometimes had to remind myself that it's Kurumi.

-Plot&Logic
Very simple. DAB is a hybrid of Isekai and Murder Game like Danganronpa or Mirai Nikki. As for the logic... this Kurumi is a clone and yet she can summon Zaphkiel for no other reason than plot convienience. Her bullets now stop in mid air only to go back and hit her or her opponent which was never how they worked and it makes no sense.

-Characters
Don't expect them to be interesting, they're slightly more important than trees.

Story 5/10
Art 7/10
Sound 7/10
Character 6/10
Enjoyment 7/10
Overall 7/10

Watch the other OVA for context. You don't need to, but it certainly helps. Anyone can jump into this and enjoy it as a random battle royale short.

If you're already a fan of Date-A-Live, then your enjoyment will vary. I love Kurumi and DAL is great when it comes to grandiose epic fights, but I couldn't tell you what happened. There's a blonde girl who also has clock eyes. She might be the boss of the stage.

It's good as a commercial for the light novels and it got me hyped and hoping for a season 4. If that isn't enough to get you ... watching, then go read other reviews or decide for yourself.

Kurumi is a character I do not understand. I don't just mean that her character arc is confusing, or her motivations unclear. Those things are also true, but what I'm talking about is I don't understand why on Earth she's apparently so damn popular. My speculation is that it's purely on an aesthetic level. People like her design, or they like cosplaying as her or whatever, I don't think it has anything to do with her role in the show or her personality or anything like that. For some reason that irritates me on a fundamental level, and makes me want to not like her.

This ... spin-off exists solely on the marketability of Kurumi merch. It's like the Fate franchise, alternate timelines that exist for the sole purpose of selling you on a character so you'll be more likely to spend more money on the gacha game trying to get it. They're barely even trying to disguise how blatant an advertisement this is. The story is a half-baked death game we've seen done a million times, with characters who matter so little I feel like they didn't even get names. Maybe they did, but does anybody remember or care about them?

Where this sits in the timeline of the main series is confusing, as Kurumi's character in general is something something time-travel clock girl and my eyes glaze over with boredom thinking about it. Really skippable unless for some reason you're one of the weirdos that likes the character, in which case, seek help. 6/10

Date a Bullet: Dead or Bullet
RAPID FIRE REVIEW [ A great promise, but that`s about it.]

(This review will be relatively short and to the point. It won`t go into much detail and there will be some spoilers.)

INTRODUCTION:
Date a Bullet: Dead or Bullet is short 23-minutes anime film set in the world of the main anime date a live. It is set, presumably, after the end of the OVA, KURUMI`S ONCORE. It follows Kurumi`s clone that we saw in the OVA, as she finds herself in a different world, and in the middle of a battle royal.

CONTEXT:
Alright, let’s get the elephant in the room out ... of the way. I`m not a big fan of the date a live anime. I watched all 3 seasons, and I felt them really boring and repetitive, with an extremely out of focus, over-blown and predictable plot-hole story, which isn`t paced well, accompanied by plot points that are absurd in concept and in execution. This led to a slow burning, boredom inducing experience, which nearly killed me and took me years to recover from. But the only good thing that I can remember were the spirts, their abilities and backstory. And I really wished we can see more of their story. So, I was really interested to see this film and hope to GOD it didn`t suck.

Thankfully it didn`t. I really like and adore this film, and think that it’s a great introductory point for something larger. But so far, this film is little more than that, a start and promise for something big. While there are fight scenes, dialogue, character deaths and all other such things you would expect. All of them serve a purpose of introduction and none feel wholesome.
This was a point which I wanted to clear out at the start, because I think this film still has a lot of heart and does a fine work in executing all of its ideas, in a meaningful and enjoyable way.

STORY AND CHARACTERS:
First things first, the story and how good it is and was told. Both of them were handled well with exceptional skills. I won`t talk spoilers, but I will say that the story is pretty simple and direct. The plot is not complex and there are really no twist or epic moments that film builds up to. But that doesn`t mean the story is boring or uninteresting. The overall narrative and its different points are engaging. The main premise and other plot points like the queen and wish are interesting. And many different scenarios and fight scenes will surely keep the story entertaining, even if they are shorty and not many. And all of them are well directed and animated, paced and introduced correctly. There is no time travel, dating, concert contests, or another bullshit that was is in the main anime.

All of the plot points that are present here are good and well executed. And are accompanied by good characters. All of them are spirts, each with their own sets of abilities, as you would expect. They each wield different weapons and abilities, and have their own, little bit of personality and motives. But just like the story, their names, design, and abilities are pretty simple and basic (apart from the Queen`s). And they are never as complex and engaging as the ones in the main anime. But also like the story, they are used, introduced and handled well. The short but well directed and focused fight scenes and character dialogues before, during, and after the fight scenes, add more depth to them and the story. Chances are high that you will at the very least like and enjoy the story, if not love and adore it, especially when you see it unfold on the screen.
But there are two things which are absent from the story. There is no part that introduces you to the different main story points (the spirits, and their origin), and Kurumi`s character. And because you don`t know about her past and relationship to Shido, or Shido in general (I know I forgot about him), you will not understand her motives and desires in the film. Let alone care for her. There is also no plot point or character conflict that gets resolved, or any long plot focused fight sequence.

ANIMATION AND MUSIC:
The animation and music, you will also find very serviceable here. It is simple and noting extraordinary. But it blends well with the film`s tone and there is now shortage of good pieces and a very appropriate ending song. The character and the overall settings are also well designed and beautifully animated. All of this combines to give you a worthwhile and entertaining experience. Two word I thought I would never use for something associated with date a live.

CONCLUSION:
I really like what this film has to offer. But I think there is a lot of missed opportunity. The absence of an introductory sequence and a much larger complex narrative, and the general feeling of confusion and incompleteness, might not lend well to many. And many who don`t know this anime`s world, will surely be among them.
Thanks for reading. I hope you like the review. And if you like the film, do watch the next one. It will not disappoint.

I gonna be honest here. I just watch this mini(?) movie to kill time and also to feel like I use my Free Premium Access in the most efficient way.

So basically a battle royale featuring the Best Girl from a very popular LN series taking down every girl she meets at that isolated school setup? Yeah, the premise doesn't intrigue me, not even once. Also heard that this first part derived away greatly from the spin-off LN material and I can see why.

The animation fight scenes neither great nor bad. Just average though the protagonist's abilities' designs and transformation (?) sequence are made beyond expectations.

Nevertheless, ... not even the protagonist's Best Girl status can save this first part from being a dull & uninteresting to watch on your free time. The exposition dumps, especially when the new characters are being introduced through that, are also part of the reasons why this spinoff feels monotonous.

I'm about to watch Second Part so to sum up, I suggest you only watch this spinoff series if you're a dedicated fan of the protagonist whose role in the main series has somewhat make her earn "Best Scene Stealer" title.