Date A Live

Thirty years ago, the Eurasian continent was devastated by a supermassive "spatial quake"—a phenomenon involving space vibrations of unknown origin—resulting in the deaths of over 150 million people. Since then, these quakes have been plaguing the world intermittently, albeit on a lighter scale.

Shidou Itsuka is a seemingly average high school student who lives with his younger sister, Kotori. When an imminent spatial quake threatens the safety of Tengu City, he rushes to save her, only to be caught in the resulting eruption. He discovers a mysterious girl at its source, who is revealed to be a "Spirit," an otherworldly entity whose appearance triggers a spatial quake. Soon after, he becomes embroiled in a skirmish between the girl and the Anti-Spirit Team, a ruthless strike force with the goal of annihilating Spirits.

However, there is a third party that believes in saving the spirits: "Ratatoskr," which surprisingly is commanded by Shidou's little sister! Kotori forcibly recruits Shidou after the clash, presenting to him an alternative method of dealing with the danger posed by the Spirits—make them fall in love with him. Now, the fate of the world rests on his dating prowess, as he seeks out Spirits in order to charm them.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yatogami, Tooka Main

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Tobiichi, Origami Main

Togashi, Misuzu Japanese

Itsuka, Kotori Main

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Himekawa, Yoshino Main

Nomizu, Iori Japanese

Itsuka, Shidou Main

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Tokisaki, Kurumi Supporting

Sanada, Asami Japanese

Murasame, Reine Supporting

Endou, Aya Japanese

Takamiya, Mana Supporting

Misato Japanese

Kannazuki, Kyouhei Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Fujibakama, Mii Supporting

Tsukimiya, Midori Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Motonaga, Satoshi Producer

Kurakane, Chiaki Producer

Ougi, Jiyuu Producer

Reviews

Nov 20, 2013

lilseph

Recommended

Note: Everything in this review is my personal opinion. I will try to see both sides of the fence because when i talk to people about Date A Live, they either think the show is a work of art, or they this its a complete mess. I am on the side where I think it's a work of art but I will try to not be bias.

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Date A Live, or DAL for short, is a show about spirits invading our world and creating spacequakes upon entering our world that kills thousands of people. These spirits are dangerous entities and we do not know much about ... them. It's up to our main man Shidou to stop these invasions by dating them. Yes, dating them. Now, when I first learned of what the show is about, I thought it was kind of interesting... and stupid. It's a unique idea for a show, albeit stupid, it is unique.

Story - The story is about our harem lead, Shidou, dating the many spirits that invade the earth. To save the people of the earth, it is up to him to date these spirit girls and get them to fall in love with him. While this is going on, there is an anti-spirit team (all girls, of course) and there job is to search and destroy the spirits. As absurd and unique this show sounds, some might think this is a recipe for a disaster, but it’s actually incredibly entertaining. The whole plot is mainly for the entertaining fight scenes, between the spirits and the anti-spirit team, and the several comedic scenes between Shidou and the several spirits that accompany him. They tried to establish a plot half way through the show but it's almost like the creators of DAL just threw their papers in the air and was like "fuck this shit; we'll leave it for season 2". No, I'm serious... That’s pretty much what they did.
Summary: If you think too hard on the plot aspect of DAL your brain will melt. But, if you are watching it purely for the entertainment factor, you can look past the enormous amounts of plot holes and look at DAL for what it is... and entertaining show.

Art - The art style and animations are beautiful to look at. If there is one thing DAL does great its the animations. There were no derp faces, the fight scenes looked crisp, the backgrounds were well done, everything about was done to a tee. The character designs were also very well done. You could tell the creators of DAL put a lot of effort into the art and they didn’t skip a beat. Hats off to them they made the show LOOK good.

Sound - Soundtrack is another category DAL excels at. The BGM fit almost every scene and really brought the most out of each scene. The OP is one of my favorite songs to date and the ED isn't half bad itself. The voice actors fit each character really well. Especially Kurumi... her voice was great and fit the character perfectly. All in all, the soundtrack as a whole was really well done and does not disappoint.

Characters - You can look at the characters for DAL one of two ways. One way is that pretty much every character has almost no backstory and isn’t well devolved. They aren’t very unique as each of them are either the token Tsundere character, or the crazy girl etc.. Or, you can look at it as they are cute anime girls that are funny and entertaining in their each own way. Each girl is cute in their own way, each girl has a great voice actor that fits the character well, and each girl is different enough so that everyone has a different favorite. They are fun; enjoyable characters and each have a different view point on each situation. Albeit while they might not be very flushed out, they do the job. Last but not least, we have Shidou, the main lead and (really the only male character that matters) the one who has the duty of saving these spirits. All I can say about him is that he’s not shit. That is apparently a lot to ask for in these harem type animes. Thankfully, he’s not as bad as most harem leads and in fact he’s pretty good himself. Shidou was probably the biggest surprise out of every character in the show as he didn’t suck.

Overall - If you critically look at DAL and try to pick it apart asking yourself "well, does this show have a good plot? Were the characters good and have deep, meaningful backstories? Does the show have a great soundtrack? Are the animations up to snuff?” you're in for a bad time. The plot on a whole is a mess, and the characters really aren’t that great if you look at the big picture. But if you are like me and just watch DAL for what it is, a fun and enjoyable anime, then the show is great.
If you are a critic of every anime you watch, DAL might not be the anime for you. But, if you watch an anime for cute girls, cool fights, entertaining comedy, and just plain don't care about plot holes and such, DAL is a must watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 24, 2013

Veronin

Mixed Feelings

Boobs, explosions and cute girls are a time-tested formula. Apparently.

If there is one that has remained true about the anime industry, it is that cheap entertainment and low-risk adaptations prevail. AIC's "Date A Live" is yet another addition to this tired trend- doing nothing interesting or even particularly well. It expects the audience to willfully ignore its poor writing, because hey-- there are cute girls to gawk at!

Drawing inspiration from the 2008 manga "Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai", Date A Live presents itself as a pseudo-parody of otaku culture. After our protagonist Shidou conveniently encounters two busty ladies fighting one another, he finds ... himself waking in the headquarters of an anti-Spirit organization, which (surprise!) is led by his bipolar younger sister. Kirino-- sorry, Kotori, proposes her master plan to Shidou: prevent the Spirits' destruction by making them fall in love with him. How is he meant to achieve this? By studying dating sims, of course.

Funnily enough, this ridiculous premise is actually one of Date A Live's few redeeming points. It is self-aware and (usually) does not attempt to be anything more than silly fun. Some of the best moments are when Shidou attempts to swoon the girls with cliched eroge lines, only to be met by awkward silence and/or violent threats. It is a show that prides itself in absurdity. Mostly. At other times it is just woefully stupid.

And that is the problem. Date A Live, in all of its wisdom, also tries to push a semi-serious 'plot' amidst its comedy. A plot so riddled with lazy writing and insufferable cliches that the anime becomes the very thing that is parodying. Transfer students, toast-in-mouth, and the beloved walk-in-on-clearly-occupied-bathroom cliche? Check. Girls falling in love with Shidou for no conceivable reason except to increase the size of his harem? You bet. Deus ex machina? The third episode contains two within minutes of each other. There is even a scene in the anime where the Anti-Spirit Team-- which for some inexplicable reason is comprised entirely of busty, half-naked high school girls-- gets tentacle raped by ramen. Yes, ramen. Full stop. I will leave that to your consideration.

Shidou himself does not do the writing any favors. If there is a problem, he will preach it away- almost always with a few jejune words about self-sacrifice or how his victim simply isn't happy enough. If he is hurt, he will be magically healed through some convenient plot device. He doesn't need to fight or do anything remotely intelligent, because why the hell would he? He has plot armor to save the day. Date A Live is not concerned about petty notions such as 'sense'.

Writing aside, you will indubitably gain some enjoyment from the 'cute girls' appeal. And cute they are. Tsunako's character designs (most easily recognized through her work on the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise) adds a level of appeal uncommon to most harem anime. Kurumi's design, for example, is one of the most attractive in anime or manga- no hyperbole intended. Their personalities are also equally adorable (though often limited to archetypes) with characters like Tohka frequently finding ways to get your heart racing. If Date A Live were to be judged solely by the cuteness of its female cast, it would be a work of art. But it is not.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise given the designs, but Date A Live's artwork is for the most part high-quality. Characters are rendered in a consistent manner and the colorful art design tends to make up for any imperfections that the animation occasionally has. It is certainly a step down from the original light novel illustrations, though.

The sound also does not disappoint. It's almost a little saddening, even, knowing that such quality was expended on a show of this caliber. The background tracks are excellent, as is the cast of seiyuu (who do a skillful job of delivering personality to each girl) while even the catchy opening and ending sequences manage to stand out. It should be noted though that the ending sequences are supremely lazy from an animation standpoint, usually containing a single image that is panned over continuously until the song ends. Surely more effort could have been put there.

All in all, Date A Live is an absolute mess of a story-- but a disturbingly entertaining one. It is something to be watched-- maybe enjoyed-- and then immediately forgotten (assuming the writing does not give you an aneurysm). It represents precisely why an anime cannot survive on cuteness alone. Tohka does come close to saving the show, though. Almost.

If you are the kind of viewer that cares not for critical quality, then perhaps the girls will be enough to keep you entertained. For everybody else, and especially those already revolted by the harem genre, make sure to keep a few bandages handy. You might need them after hitting your head against the wall.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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May 18, 2013

nishi_san

Not Recommended

- This is a Edited version after the show finished
- This contains a small amount of SPOILERS.

As this is not a very complicate show, I would go straight into business. By no means was this bad show, but this is not something stunning/moving either; despite a rather attractive background and seemingly innovative setting, This is a mediocre show: It is not really that innovative, Not really that corny, not really touching/entertaining and not really humorous, but Instead it stucks right in the middle of everything.

Despite a clear vision as they attempt to innovate by adding Galgame Elements into the plot, adapting some sort ... of “Love-Meter” into the show and makes a parody show about Galgame, It goes nowhere beyond that. The setting was nowhere near complete, for example you never know what the Ratatoskr does besides helping Shido to date and helping him to make his choices, which seems to be everything that this seemingly huge organization does.

Despite a rather innovative approach of adapting Galgame Cultures into anime backgrounds, the core elements (Like the screenwriting) that hide inside the Galgame setting are the wrongdoings. The pick-up lines are incredibility cheesy and old fashioned. Rather than dating, most of the time it almost seems to be some sort of social worker trying to help the wellbeing of the applicant, along with some quite heroic actions that you could certainly live without because you’ve probably seen it too many times – to be exact, four – as every single segment ends with shido trying to man up and save the girl.

And, surprisingly, the best part of the show comes not from the main plot, but from the side elements of the show – which is the jokes and some of the characters. Tohka Yatogami’s four episodes are not very interesting. However, those tiny bits between Tohka and Shido after her episodes were more then enough to show the relationship between Tohka and Shido. Tohka is the only one that had showed growth and had thought for the others at the final episodes. Besides Tohka, the rest only serves as jokes and side dishes that were not very important. Origami took a major role in the show, but whenever she comes up, she would be only doing three things: trying to kill somebody, ask for Shido’s care, or act as some sort of joke. The rest was either not potray entirely and had to wait till second season (like Kurumi), some was just not very interesting and act as a joke/insignificant plot device throughout the whole series, like DEM, AST, Mana, Yoshino and so on.

To conclude my short review, I would say that Date Alive attempts to be joking but act serious (by using a joke to cover up the serious bits), but it becomes the other way round and turned into something that is seriously joking. It might be interesting if they actually manage to pull it off (what they are trying to be), but a show like this is probably just outrageously ridiculous and had turned into some sort of funny show that somehow sounds stupid. I would say that this is an entertaining show, since some of the episodes actually made me laugh hard, but probably that would be my biggest (and my only) compliment for them.

PS: It is said that the second season would be much better. Many of the fans from the original novel series actually recommend me to read the novels. I would consider that as an option as the original series is something quite big. If you manage to find a copy, I would suggest you to do so.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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