The weakest link in my Spring Season comes to a close
Compared to Oregairu’s interesting male lead, Hataraku Maou Sama’s comedy, and Shingeki no Kyojin’s actions, Date A Live is comparably the weaker series. The premise sounds something similar to Sekire mixed with TWGOK. You have your multi-dating sprees with a considerably less impressive protagonist with some massive accomplishments ending each conquest with a kiss. You might remember me saying that I only watched it because of Tsunako’s artwork in the Light novels, and that’s pretty much why I kept with it. Actually no wait, one more reason: They never fully translated Volume 4 (where we ended) so I’m at least content with that.
Since I was horribly lazy, there’s gifs instead of pictures.
The last episode was nothing short of predictable. The fight itself was half decent. Kotori’s spirit form is probably my favorite design now because Tohka will never return to her original armor. The fight anyway was one-sided as usual as Origami’s mech wasn’t even enough to lay a dent in Kotori’s “armor”. Of course, invoking what happened in the past causes Kotori to lose her will fighting and its up to Shidou to try and calm the entire situation. Tohka and Yoshino show up to fight but that only serves as a background to the real purpose of this date: Romancing your own sister. Confession, Kiss, Done.
Shidou’s character was the most simplistic of harem leads ever. He’s the type who wants to “save everyone” and would protect a murderer if she was a girl, oh wait a minute, he did. There’s honestly not much to talk about Shidou’s character, he’s simple, overly nice, and apparently needs serious help dating woman. He’s somewhat immortal too, ain’t that just nice.
Tohka being the first spirit certainly felt the most enigmatic with her hostile nature and sorrow. That mysterious air around her completely dispersed when she got moved onto the sidelines when Yoshino, Kurumi, and Kotori got the spotlight. The light novel definitely did a better job at making her a bit more appealing. That goes for when she becomes nicer too, the more detailed content in the light novels generally made…well everything better. Tohka just seemed too childish and simple…I guess I was just initially tranced at her charm in the light novel to be more tolerant (if that makes any sense at all). Origami, the human, ironically turned out to be the more mysterious than any spirit. Since he’s basically the antagonist for most of the time, she was….decentish but I didn’t like her too much.
Yoshino is sadly the least focused on character. Tohka and Origami were focused on in the background, Kotori took the finale, and Kurumi took what little time the series had left. I guess it was the short-time she was present gave her my favorite character status, well at least near it. Yoshino is just too adorable to hate, and the fact she rarely speaks makes her even cuter.
Kotori and Kurumi were, in my opinions, had some thing going on with them. Both belong in a special category as one happens to be a “human given spirit powers” and the other being a depraved murderer. Kotori shares (bitch) Kirino’s VA but I liked Kotori’s dual persona. Shame that they didn’t show more of the white ribbon. Kurumi was just tossed aside in the end, but I did like her for the time she was on screen. I don’t even remember her being focused on again in the LN due to other girls needing attention.
Other than characters though, there isn’t too much to say. When the premise of the show requires continuous supply of girls to be romanced and then instantly thrown away in priority over a new target, it’s tough keeping everyone in line. The girls are cute and the “dating” aspect of the series is taken very literally but the anime, like many series, is rushed.
Tohka’s arc was missing a few lines I really liked from the light novel and Yoshino’s arc was like…2 episodes? Origami hasn’t been spotlight in my recent memory and Kurumi’s arc was actually pretty spot on. Other than a few nitpicks, that arc was interesting and then it got canned to spotlight Kotori. That was personally good for me because I didn’t get that far in the LN due to problems.
In short, I consider Date A Live like any other harem series that shows up every season. It gets special favor from me because I fairly enjoyed the light novels while I absolutely ADORE the artwork for the series. If you enjoyed the anime, than I highly recommend the light novels for a more descriptive experience compared to the anime. Adding to that you can go right into volume 5 with twin spirit action.
Of course, obligatory fanservice picture
Lair of the Idle 