Reviews

Nov 20, 2013
Preliminary (10/12 eps)
[This is a spoiler free review in case anyone is wondering.]

It appears as if Date a Live seems to have been an anime I was recommended to by so many friends, yet when I looked at reviews, many of them were... negative. If figured I should go watch the anime myself and see how I feel. So without further wait, let's go.

Story: (6/10)

Admittedly, the story is where Date a Live fails the most at. It's not really anything original (then again it IS a parody anime) It takes on the life of this protagonist who has to date a bunch of magical girls known as "Spirits" and make them fall in love with him in order to prevent them from getting killed by another organisation. Perhaps the only thing interesting about this plot is that the main character uses visual novels to train for this and during his dates he is faced with many options he can choose(again a reference to visual novels).
With this you can see that it has its fair share of harem and of course, fan service. Now, I'm generally not a big fan of harems (as I personally prefer the main character to focus on one person and I hate cheating *cough*School Days *cough*), but they can be quite good when they are done correctly or if they're not taken seriously. Sadly, DaL doesn't do that. It tackles the harem genre, yet attempts to keep a flow of seriousness between the relationships going which kinda ruins everything. For a bunch of episodes, you've got the main character developing his relationship with the current girl, only for her to be thrown aside as a side character, replaced by a new girl. That seriousness isn't only in the romance however. No. For most part of the show, it keeps a light hearted mood and that's what it's good had. Keeping it cool and funny. But then you have moments were the show tries to be serious and you just want it to be over cause it's bad.

Another major down point in the story is that events seem to happen just for the hell of it. Things just happen and characters do things without really having any reason behind it. Characters often don't have a proper backstory and if they do, the characters themselves don't remember it so you're left with nobody really knowing anything and just doing stuff solely to get the story moving. Of course some stuff does get explained at the very end, but I personally thought it took too long to explain them and still didn't block a lot of the plot holes you'll find by the end of the story. Ah well. Season 2 is coming up so we'll see.

Art: (9/10)

The Art of DaL is actually pretty good. Animation is smooth for most parts and the opening is a joy to watch. But perhaps what I really like about the art is the character designs. Each character (especially the girls in their spirit clothing) look stunning and original. They are filled with detail and fit their personalities so darn well. Very colourful. Then again the guy who designed them WAS apparently the same guy who designed the girls in Hyperdimension Neptunia and those girls looked beautiful too. Main character DOES look a bit plain but apart from that, everything looks nice.
Fan Service is alright. I somewhat enjoy good delivered fan service so it was quite ok at some points.

Sound: (7/10):

Sound is alright I suppose. Though quite frankly, the only song that stood out and was a pleasure to hear was the Opening song which made me listen to it every time I watched an episode. Apart from that, nothing really stands out so if you want an anime with a lot of fitting tunes and perfectly orchestrated music, go watch Attack on Titan.

Characters: (8/10)

I kinda have mixed feelings for the characters. Almost all of them have their own unique personality that makes watching them interact with each other a hilarious experience, though again, that's when they're NOT trying to be serious. Of course some might argue that the main character is a bit too plain, which I wouldn't disagree with. Along with his dull look, he will come off as very normal and generic to some people. Personally, I found him alright.

So yeah, when it comes to personality and design, characters look great. But oh boy, again, with their backstory. Like I said, half of them don't remember anything about their past, and those who do, won't say anything till the end. Some of them don't even bring up the topic of their past as if it doesn't even matter.

Enjoyment: (9/10)

Now here's where my personal opinion comes in. Despite the show's horrendous story flaws and other problems, I actually really enjoyed this show. This is mainly because it was just so funny and hilarious watching it. Like I said, when the story isn't taking itself seriously, it's so hilarious watching the main guy try to interact and deal with all the different girls, including your regular tsundere, emotionless but intelligent girl and loli.

I wanted something funny and that's what I got... well for the most part anyway...

Overall: ( 8/10)

To make this short, Date a Live isn't the type of anyway you should watch if you're expecting something serious with deep plot elements cause it disappoints in that area. However, it's the type of show you can sit back to and laugh along with. It does a great job when trying to be funny and makes interactions a joy to watch.
Think of DaL as a half-arsed knitted scarf your grandmother made for you. It's a bit uncomfortable but once you get used to it, it's actually pretty good. It's also silky smooth but don't look at it too closely cause you'll start seeing the holes. Peace out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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