Date A Live V

Over 10 years has Date A Live has survived. It is very difficult for modern viewers to understand how big Date A Live was when it aired. It had the fastest light novel to anime adaptation ever. By volume 3 or so they already decided on the anime. Now it didn't have the insane production values that something like Sword Art Online has had. I want to mention this is not an exhaustive discussion. You can probably write a mini novel as review of this series and still not cover every topic. And this is only a spoiler free review.

I was initially going to delay ... a series overview based on what came after but judging by recent articles on the production committee, I felt it was imperative to write the review now. Since the series is approaching its end. Even tho 10 years feels like a long time, especially since most light novel series try to run on for very long but usually get cut short. But Date A Live aimed to follow the continuous story. By focusing on an overall grand narrative. This allows one season the novels to fluidly connect to each other. I feel around 20 or so is the best length. Anymore is simply too long. And I don't want it devolve into something like the fate series that has way too many spinoffs for its own good

Date A Live is a very difficult series to write a review for. This is because it does so much things right, so much things new, it would be a very very long review. You know a show is simply amazing is when it is difficult to write a review for. Vs when a show has a ton of problems, you can quickly pinpoint what it did wrong, and make a pretty concise review.

In short, you can call it a masterpiece. This is because Date A Live broke so many boundaries of what is genre can achieve. Not only did that, but it that under some of the hardest conditions. You cannot just outlast AOT these days, and still be relevant. People grow older, go to school, get jobs, aren't online. New shows come out as publishers want to create a cycle of pump and dump but never follow through. Publishers usually pick shows based on genres and the anime will scale depending on how big the publisher is. Like a manga publisher will tend to really stretch the show to fill all tv slots. They will adapt it slowly, put a lot of fillerish episodes effectively turning into a cw series. But a light novel publisher would try to keep it somewhat concise, but chooses to aim to promote a ton of light novels over a few. Date A Live But I would like to go in depth of what Date A Live has done.

Date A Live is a jack of all trades but MASTER of all. It has done that by completely subvertly everyone's expectations of when they see the show. You expect a nice relaxing shows with girls and some fighting, but as soon as you get in, you get introduced to a grand narrative with an amazing unique world, mysteries, villians, foreshadowing all of it towards a grand, epic, emotional finale.

Every season we have a new girl. This prevents the show from getting or feeling old. It makes the show refreshing, unique. Also by focusing on a new girl each season, it gives us time for But in addition it is overall adding more and more layers to the overall conflict. Especially season 2 onwards when the major villians appear and get involved. As these two things compound together thereby adding towards the greater conflict and thus a grand finale. But not only that, there is a ton of mysteries across the entire show. Including the origins of the conflict, villains, overall lore.

The overall lore takes a mix of things from mecha, biblical references, as well as just general aspects of life. It eventually feels unique enough where you can immerse yourself. From all the unique and beautiful locations. The soundtrack thus adds to the legendary

But while the cast of Date A Live is big, it still never loses its main focus from Shido, Tohka, Origami and its main villain of Westcott and Ellen. And by focusing on the primary villain as well as it how connects the origin of the conflict and the cast. And thus the narrative is coherrent. This gives Date A Live incredibly rewatchability. This is phenomenally rare for a series of its goofy genre. And this is largely thanks to the overall combination of foreshadowing, humor, action, storytelling, gradual crescendo, and emotional impact.

As you just continue, there is honestly not much you can complain about this show season 4 onwards. Season 3 clearly hampered but poor animation. The general consensus it is a masterpiece, incredible, at worst okay. It is pretty much just doing a lot of things right. If the only criticism of the series is it is a harem, calling the fandom names, saying you didn't watch it, ur series is pretty much doing everything right.

For the character designs, they are almost certainly some of the most beautiful, vivid, unique desisn I have seen. All have elaborate dresses, cute designs that tie into their individual quirks and powers.

As for the production of the anime itself, you can see that they heavily focused on adapting series above else. Goodshow puts its company on the line to finance the show after Kadokawa wanted to drop it in season 3. They weren't one of the companies that chose to Production values shot up. A lot more merchandise. Even tho Date A Live may end, you can never really replace a series that lasted 2013-2024. Since effectively a lot of stuff that aired that time isn't here anymore. The anime bubble completely burst several years earlier in 2008. We were effectively in an almost anime recession. Ultimately Date A Live is a series fans are especially grateful for. One of the few light novel series that nearly managed to nearly completely adapt the entire story. A story that under all odds managed to give a massive satisfying payoff. It will a remain a memento that cannot be replaced of the early 2010s anime. It is a common joke that the community's favorite anime changes every season, and picking their one they value above all else would be like picking their favorite child. Anime industry is ultimately something difficult to keep up with as there is just too much coming and so much you can spend.

But date a live will go down as a classic when all is finished.

Edit: accidentally forgot to add in half of my review

The beginning of the season is excellent, lots of humor, preparation for the final war, but also emotion! Especially from episode 3 onwards. Lots of major events!

- the designs: beautiful and successful, faithful to the original, and the characters are pleasant to look at during close-ups, the details are very good!

-Animation/cgi: BIG IMPROVEMENT compared to the previous season, a huge effort has been made, it's very pleasant to watch, a great achievement on their part given the low budget. The fights are dynamic!

-Story: follows the Light novel very faithfully, great for fans! We're in the Peak! This season is going to be ... the best, if it continues like this, in terms of emotions, tragic moments, despair and so on. So far, so perfect!

Partial conclusion: I highly recommend watching this series just to get the grand finale of this season! As a reader of the novel, I can guarantee you that so far, in the previous seasons, we've only scratched the surface of dal's details. Angels, spirits, inversions, it's all connected! The depth of the story and the underlying moral is incredible.

I now hope that the whole season will follow this faultless course.

Season 5 of Date a Live starts off where Season 4 left off amidst the war between the spirits and DEM.

I'm exited for this season of Date a Live, based off the first 3 episodes it seems the CGI improved (if only a little) i am looking forward to this arc and the final season. Date a Live as a series has always been my favorite show to watch and I'm glad it's most likely getting a full adaptation from the source material, as many shows rarely get a second these days. *cough* No Game No Life.

Story: 9/10 The concept of dating multiple girls (spirits) ... so they don't destroy the world is the type of concept I have never seen before this show was made. I can see why some people may not like this show but if you made it 5 Seasons in you've come to like it, unless your some hate watcher in that case maybe you should go outside and get some fresh air and maybe you'll feel better about your sad life!. *cough* Anyways the story and plot doesn't do anything flashy it's only unique in the sense of spirit girls and going on dates with them in order to save the world, not to mention sealing their powers with a kiss.

Art: 9.5/10 I didn't notice Date a Live had a different studio work on it until somebody pointed it out to me and I liked Season 4's Character designs the most, mostly because it makes the characters seem brighter it felt like an upgrade to me. I know some people liked the old early-mid 2010's character look more but I think the newer design makes the characters shine brighter. But that's just my opinion on it and it can be hit or miss depending on taste.

Sound: 9/10 Date a Live's soundtrack always felt somewhat calm to me especially the ending songs, Season 5's opening had some of the better visuals out of the opening's especially that last scene in the opening is kinda sad if you know the context.

Characters: 9.5/10 The character designs for Date a Live have been the same, the only thing that really changed about them was the studio making the characters. I can see why these complex designs would be hard to animate in the sky fights, hence the CGI but I like every spirit form of the characters. It's cool that the characters have multiple outfits/spirit form.

Enjoyment: 10/10 Im exited for every episode that releases weekly and intrigued to see how the story concludes for Date a Live.

Overall: 10/10 This is everything you want to see if you're a harem fan, full adaptation, fan service, a best girl. What's there not to love about getting more seasons of your favorite show? (unless they ruin it)

Typically, I wait until all the episodes of a season are released before doing a review, but this season is so great that I felt I had to review it now.

First off, if you haven't seen the last four seasons or the side story, make sure to watch those first. This season seems like the conclusion to the series. From what I've heard, they might make a movie because 12 episodes might not be enough to finish the story.

If you kept up with the series so far you're going to love this season. There's a lot of story, and this season is answering many questions ... from that story and previous seasons. There are real character deaths, intense action, and emotional moments you'll feel for significant characters. This is a pretty serious season for this series as a whole. A lot has happened since the story was simply about a man trying to seal spirit powers to protect the world.

This is definitely a step up from season 4, and I didn't anticipate that it would lead to this point. Honestly, when I reviewed season 4, which was before the season ended, I was starting to getting tired of the series because they kept introducing more and more characters who ended up as side characters, only given a line or two now and then. However, seeing this season, the number of spirits and the characters introduced are mostly justified. Everything has built up to this season.

The music is pleasant as always, though you may find the opening and ending spoiling a bit if you remember the story from the previous seasons. So I suggest skipping them until you watch episode 5.

The art style has dramatically changed since the series first aired. Though I love both, I think I like how it is now even more. Animation can sometimes have this weird bit of CGI I believe, or maybe it's them experimenting with the fps maybe? But it doesn't affect the story.

Overall, this is a great season. I'm actually a bit sad that the series is concluding, even though I criticized it at times. I'm going to savor each new episode until the series is over. I'll probably even rewatch the entire series before whatever comes after this season.