First Impressions – Date A Live

Sisters and badass chicks in armor!

 Time for some new spring anime with Date A Live! After seeing all the trailers for this series I was prepared for something awesome! That said the quality of the first episode was poor so I waited for the higher quality raw files for my screenshots, but anyway this will be my next video series on Metanorn so I hope you enjoy the post.

Fun with fanservice

Date a LIVE MAIN (1)

Try to not get lost in the hardcore backstory of Date A Live

Date a LIVE MAIN (3)

I love the suit designs!

Date a LIVE MAIN (4)

We have a new contender for Vividred Operation ass shots…

Date a LIVE MAIN (5)

The girls of Date A Live are so cute it hurts my heart!

Preview

Date a LIVE MAIN (6)

Kotori-“Ku ku ku this is going to be a great episode.”

Harem time and more battles!

About

Is huge anime fan from Florida! who loves to watch anime and also enjoys drawing and collecting pictures, my favorite genre of anime has to be Mecha, there is just something awesome about giant robots beating the crap out of each other! Other than that type of show, I love a good comedy or action series :D
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45 Responses to “First Impressions – Date A Live”

  1. JPNIgor says:

    I dunno… I could say I was even annoyed with the excess of clichés. Well, if there are awesome characters and lots of funny and nonsense moments, I could give it a chance… Who knows it can be a competitor against Nyaruko? (nah, Nyaruko is #1).

    • Muir says:

      One of it’s genres are Romantic Comedy, and it’s funny, but only to a normal amount. It’s not even a competition against a full-on Comedy series like Nyaruko if it’s in terms of funniness. Though I enjoyed reading the series still~

    • Foshizzel says:

      True this is the same old setup we have seen for just about every other harem series, but I say give it a test run? In terms of comedy only yes Nyaruko wins; however Date A Live fills more action with a bit of comedic elements added in~

      • Muir says:

        In terms of plot, I’d say Date A Live is better as well. Nyaruko is like Gintama. Basically no plot XD just trolling each episode. Well, I mean Nyaruko has some stuff, but the there’s nothing really dangerous, like they just want Mahiro to act in some drama series or something haha

        • Foshizzel says:

          This is 100000% on the money! Nyaruko is more Gintama like in a lot of ways because of the use of parody and straight up laughs! While Date A Live has a “plot” even though in the end we will deal with harem mode and dating these special girls xD

          Yeah the drama at the end of Nyaruko wasn’t for me…

  2. Muir says:

    Pretty well done in my opinion, but fast paced. They snipped out some stuff, which is to be expected in any adaption, and they stayed quite canon to the original work. I thought the art style would kinda bug me, but I got used to it, and it seems to work fine. Voice acting is stellar =w= I’m especially liking who they casted for Shidou and Reine. Reine’s seiyuu just makes her even more epic haha

    • Foshizzel says:

      Aye! Well done for a first episode and yeah sadly when adapting from a manga or novel series they can’t fit EVERYTHING inside the first 20 minutes, but from your reaction I guess it is going along nicely? As for the artstyle it works for me~

      Yeah great voice cast I am surprised and I can’t wait to hear Iori Nomizu again <3

  3. Muir says:

    Origami’s last name is Tobiichi (Tobi-i-chi) You say the “i” twice :>

    • Foshizzel says:

      Oooooh! Thanks for the heads up I will try to say her name clearly next time, but I will probably fail ahahah

    • BlackBriar says:

      Hmm… that’s just like how you’d have to pronounce the name of the male lead in Tasogare Otome x Amnesia. His name is Teiichi Niiya.

      • Muir says:

        lol he has double accented “i”‘s in both parts of his name XD that’s a pain for English speakers =w= I used to call Sanae from Touhou as “Sa-Nay” and then I realized they were all one syllable for “Sa-na-eh” ._.

      • Foshizzel says:

        @BB: Ahhh gotcha! Yeah I will have to give these characters nicknames xD

        @Muir: Some of these names are tough~

  4. skylion says:

    What is up with Second In Command guy?

    • Highway says:

      M for Kotori.

      That pretty much covers it.

      • skylion says:

        Well, yes, if you must put such a fine point on it, good sir. LOL

      • Foshizzel says:

        hahaha yes seriously M! Did you laugh when that blonde dude slowly crawled back up the steps to Kotori after she hit him? I couldn’t stop laughing xD

        • skylion says:

          I was shouting “CRAWL, CRAWL YOU DIRTY WORM” and laughing repeatedly. I love how they blocked that shot, and the following moment of abuse when he went rigid and fell out of frame.

          Kotori as my early favorite? No, there is an usagiLOLi in the works…..

          • Muir says:

            huehue Date A Live has Kotori, Yoshino, and Mana for lolis hehe. Mana and Kotori are imoutos as well, imoutos…imouto. Everyone’s favorite incest anime is back ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) who’s seen Oreimo S2 ep 1?

      • akagami says:

        ^ This. Nicely summarized~

    • Muir says:

      Second in Command literally does nothing. Absolutely nothing except getting harassed by Commander Mode Kotori Also, yes he is totally M haha

  5. Highway says:

    This was pretty much a kitchen sink kind of show. Throw everything in, mix it up, see what happens. They did blaze through the exposition to such a degree that you’d normally be left wondering what the hell is going on, but thankfully the show is so simple that it’s still not that hard to understand.

    I thought it was plenty watchable. Sure it’s full of cliches and tropes, but I didn’t find it insulting or insipid. The explanation of the ‘spacequakes’ was adequate, although I’d like to find out what causes these Spirit girls to show up in a place they’re incompatible with.

    All in all, not a bad show. I’ll keep watching it.

    • Foshizzel says:

      Yep! Throw every popular genre into a giant blender and wait to see the results! I am curious to see how the other special girls work in the story~

      Awesome! I think this will be a fun little series to follow <3

      • Muir says:

        My friend described DAL as “Strike Witches versus the Goddesses from KamiNomi” hahaha, that actually isn’t too far off for the action part. AST is basically Strike Witches, and the Spirits are based on the Kabbalah or something like that, Hebrew Angels and stuff.

  6. Muir says:

    I’m not sure if Spammy ate my comment or what not, but I’m pretty sure I commented something. Well I’ll say it again XD Reine tricked you Fosh! The protagonist’s name isn’t Shin! It’s Itsuka Shidou! Reine’s just a troller so she calls him Shin XD

  7. BlackBriar says:

    There’s so much going on that it’s mixed together and difficult to seperate the parts. The opening was good giving a post apocalyptic feel like in Shin Sekai Yori or Muv-Luv Alternative which both started off with a flashback sequence and introcing a concept like spacequakes is original. However, the scene with Kotori and Shidou felt like I was the first episode of Mayo Chiki! Not to mention the beating he got with kick to the stomach. Ouch and so early in the morning, I call that a rude awakening.

    I’m drooling over Oragami in her battle suit. Mecha suits always manage to make girls sexier than they already are just like in Muv-Luv. It’s baffling. As for the Spirit girl responsible for the spacequake, based on her outfit, it’s possible she could be some knight or noble.

    Major trolling from Kotori. I was going in with this thinking she’d be just another cute face, a moeblob but, boy, was I wrong and it looks like she has a masochistic pet for a vice commander. Serious curiousity is starting to surround her because if she can hide something like that from her brother, what else is she hiding? And because I can’t help being a comparison maniac (honestly, it’s like a disease), the “training” she has in mind is similar to Momo’s Harem Plan from To Love-Ru. I hope she takes it easy with that superiority complex she seems to have because I’m already feeling a very bitchy personality from her and that’s going to ruin the mood.

    Overall, it’s a good start so I’ll add it to my watch list with Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge and Devil Survivor 2 which started well in my opinion.

    • Muir says:

      If you think Origami’s is cool, wait for Mana’s battle suit =w= badass. Or I might have seen an alternate version from Volume 5, which they won’t be going up to. Anywho though, Mana’s suit is fabulous, it’s similar to Infinite Stratos mechas

      Commander-mode Kotori when she changes her hair-ties! XD She has more secrets to reveal….but I won’t spoil that huhu

      I thought Dansai’s first episode was similar to Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun’s, it felt like the series could have ended right there XD except for that last bit. Devil Survivor 2 yes definitely. Lovely P4 vibes~ which is to be expected ^v^

  8. skylion says:

    The PV’s gave me high expectations for this show; the first episode doesn’t live up too that, but it does show great promise as pretty much everything was laid out.

    We get the basics of the relationships (M for Kotori!) and some of the secrets as well. Good action scenes and some subversive comedy.

    Yeah, I think we are going to have some fun with this show…

    • Foshizzel says:

      Yep! The story will be to follow <3

      Kotori is great and I need more of her M side, but the moe sister side was also great~

      Goooooood!

  9. akagami says:

    Really enjoyed this show, lots of fun. The second climbing the stairs made me lol ^^

    Don’t really see the comparisons with Haiyore! Nyaruko-san though, I wouldn’t really say they’re similar. Personally didn’t like the latter because the main character was dull and Nyaruko’s character really got on my nerves. That and I have no interest in Lovecraft or any of his works.

    I don’t watch PVs and only read similar bios before deciding to pick up a series, so I thought I was walking into a normal high-school harem anime. I like the added twists, I’m on board!

    • akagami says:

      And the ED was amusing. A little off-topic, wonder how the Star Wars movies Disney is working on will turn out. Disney has a pretty good track record, and episodes I-III set the bar so low anything will be better.

      • skylion says:

        As you state, Star Wars I-III set a low bar. But Disney is the height of mediocre, sanitized, rehashed fairy tales. I think the result with be as interesting as an average bowl of tapioca pudding….

        • akagami says:

          I thought the Marvel movies recently were pretty good. John Carter was a flop however. I haven’t watched many Disney movies, off the top of my head Pirate of the Caribbeans and Prince of Persia, which I found both to be entertaining.

          The last animated movie? I think it was the Incredibles, which was great.

          • skylion says:

            Disney cannot claim much for the Marvel films thus far, as they’ve only handled distribution to an extent on the Avenger. I found the Pirates movies to be…bloated as they went on and on, PoP was just nothing but insane troll logic from start to finish. And I have a prejudice for John Carter, so my opinion that it was a great film cannot be trusted.

            …and if anime fans can levee the charge of moeblob against certain anime, I will levee pixarblob to many Disney/Pixar films.

            • akagami says:

              I didn’t watch John Carter, but I heard the overall opinion was low… I do know they took a large write-off for the movie.

            • skylion says:

              John Carter was made for folk that have read all of the works of Burroghs in that storyline; I love it because it was unapologetic n that approach. It was made as a culty geeky movie, and Disney just didn’t understand the director in terms of that.

            • skylion says:

              I didn’t mean to oddly sell that film. Watch if for the popcorn munching joy that it is….

            • akagami says:

              Ahhh. I never read the novels so I’m at a disadvantage there.

              Speaking of cult literature, been meaning to read Conan the Barbarian (the original works by Robert E. Howard) but I can’t seem to find the unadulterated version anywhere.

            • skylion says:

              I cannot recall the publisher that made it. Keep reminding me here, and I will get the info for you. Howard was an inspired writer. And I recommend the Barnes and Nobles collection for the John Carter works.

        • akagami says:

          Oh, forgot about Up. That surprised me, I wasn’t expecting much going in.

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