Shidou himself does not do the writing any favors. 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. Deus ex machina? The third episode contains two within minutes of each other. Girls falling in love with Shidou for no conceivable reason except to increase the size of his harem? You bet. Transfer students, toast-in-mouth, and the beloved walk-in-on-clearly-occupied-bathroom cliche? Check. A plot so riddled with lazy writing and insufferable cliches that the anime becomes the very thing that is parodying.

Date A Live, in all of its wisdom, also tries to push a semi-serious 'plot' amidst its comedy. At other times it is just woefully stupid.Īnd that is the problem. It is a show that prides itself in absurdity. 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 self-aware and (usually) does not attempt to be anything more than silly fun. How is he meant to achieve this? By studying dating sims, of course.įunnily enough, this ridiculous premise is actually one of Date A Live's few redeeming points. Kirino- sorry, Kotori, proposes her master plan to Shidou: prevent the Spirits' destruction by making them fall in love with him. himself waking in the headquarters of an anti-Spirit organization, which (surprise!) is led by his bipolar younger sister. After our protagonist Shidou conveniently encounters two busty ladies fighting one another, he finds It expects the audience to willfully ignore its poor writing, because hey- there are cute girls to gawk at!ĭrawing inspiration from the 2008 manga 'Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai', Date A Live presents itself as a pseudo-parody of otaku culture. AIC's 'Date A Live' is yet another addition to this tired trend- doing nothing interesting or even particularly well. If there is one that has remained true about the anime industry, it is that cheap entertainment and low-risk adaptations prevail. Now, the fate of the world rests on his dating prowess, as he seeks out Spirits in order to charm them.īoobs, explosions and cute girls are a time-tested formula. 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. 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. He discovers a mysterious girl at its source, who is revealed to be a 'Spirit,' an otherworldly entity whose appearance triggers a spatial quake. When an imminent spatial quake threatens the safety of Tengu City, he rushes to save her, only to be caught in the resulting eruption. Shidou Itsuka is a seemingly average high school student who lives with his younger sister, Kotori. Since then, these quakes have been plaguing the world intermittently, albeit on a lighter scale. 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.

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