...is the wrong impression you can get after seeing only one episode.
After seeing two or more, one realises that the show doesn't really take itself seriously at all. Rather, it has a serious plot at times, but at the same time, it isn't making any pretenses as to its ridiculousness. From the silliness of the ''hot spring'' episode to the imouto-crazed second in command and then some, the show is definitely not pretending to be anything more than it is. The girls are all fantastically designed and have great fighting abilities, the action is good, the humor rarely misses its mark, etc. If you're not the type of person who pooh-poohs at anything that isn't some hugely intellectual deconstruction and can actually enjoy anime that is so quintessentially anime to be basically a self-contained definition of the medium, I would not miss Date-a-Live.
I enjoyed it. It was, to me, a strange mixture of ''so bad it's good'' syndrome and moe. The show seemingly takes its outrageous plot too seriously and it's quite hilarious, but at the same time there's a bunch of cute girls and there are a lot of good jokes. There is a serious plot somewhere in there, and I guess its okay, but the overall tone of it was fairly silly. Its an interesting experience, I would say watch at least 2 episodes, cause with the first you won't get the full idea of the show.
