Shidou is the lucky male character who gets all of the girls to fall for him in this series. He is specially gifted to help the girls in the series, most of which are spirits, powerful beings which have wrecked havoc and destruction throughout the land. But as the lead is sees them as nice girls who just want to live normal lives.
The girls themselves tend to be rather extreme versions of the stereotypes they represent. For instance, Tohka is extremely simple minded and lacks any type of common sense. Any character development is rather superficial as a lot of it is done within the handful of episodes each one gets for their arch. However, each of them is undoubtedly entertaining.
You might be wondering if there is like a main enemy they have to band together to fight. Well, yes and no. One of the girls, Origami, is a member of a group tasked to destroy spirits, but she is often conflicted because of her love for Shidou. She seems to monopolize a lot of the best lines, which is kind of unfortunate since she's probably the least likable of the characters. But, the true enemy is not really revealed until the very end, in a season 2 preview...
The action sequences in the show are very impressive as is the art for the show along with the humor is really the main draw. There is really not any character development and the plot is typically bland for a harem.
If you watch this show you're not doing it for the story, character development, or any of that. You probably just want to watch a mindless show to have a good time. Well, that is essentially what you're getting. Not spectacular, but not bad. If you want to compare this series to something else it's like a cross between The World God Only Knows (with less engaging archs) and Heaven's Lost Property (with somewhat less fleshed out characters), but Date A Live has more entertainment value and ultimately better humor.
In the end Date A Live is rather shallow with some uneven episodes in the middle, but likeable characters and some very appealing action sequences. It's a show where you can forget about a lot of it's flaws, which says a lot.
