Story 10
The story starts of pretty goofy, the MC Itsuka Shidou meets spirits and seals their powers so they can live in society by making them fall in love with him then kissing them. The story blends in some nice foreshadowing which contributes to the story from volume 10 onwards which was a nice surprise from something I didn't expect. The story is probably at the best from volume 16 onwards not to say that there aren't some great books before 16 for example 10 was really good. Volume 13 was probably the weakest feeling like a filler book until the end.
Art 10
Just like most light novels the art is phenomenal, it also progressively gets better as well, at least the non-colored ones while the colored ones always looked top tier. Character design is some of the best there is, every female character looks interesting or appealing although the male designs are on the plain side (although it does make sense).
Characters 9
This is one of the better harem cast out there, you like sister but not really sister Date a Live has it or maybe Kuudere Date a Live also has that. It pretty much has all the stereotypical waifus. Why is this not a 10? simple, some of the cast aren't memorable and developed until the very last 2 volumes, which there is nothing wrong with that but the weaker characters needed to be developed a lot quicker to make me care for them throughout the big moments when there is suppose to be tension. The main villains where pretty good with the Spirit of Origin being amazing and Westcott being a pretty decent villain sadly he is pretty generic. The main character is fine until he gets a lot of development in the latter books which made him also a pretty good MC much better than half of the MCs you see in LNs now. Best character is Kurumi, no surprise she is interesting from the get go constantly appearing as a double edge sword which I really enjoyed.
Enjoyment 10
Although the second half was a lot more dark and serious then the first half, I loved them both halves equally as much. The fun dates that the spirits and Shidou would go one where always something I look forward to. In the second half I always was interested to see how the arc would end and what characters would survive or die. The waifus also had a factor in my 10/10 score.
Overall 10
Date a Live was a roller coaster of emotions from fun jokes to the tear jerking moments in the second half. Date a Live is worth the read if you can get into it, don't let the plot make you think this is some generic harem story.
