Date A Live IV

4 years, 4 seasons, 4 studios, 1 spin-off series, 1 honorable decade's anniversary to live by, and hundred and thousands of people's lives changed. It's pretty much said that out of all the series that has managed to survive the endless years of growing popularity and reputation despite the good and the bad, it's gotta be novelist Koushi Tachibana with his acclaimed LN series Date A Live that has now in this year (2022), reached its 10th Anniversary milestone. That, which is already a damn remarkable achievement in and of itself with the LN having spanned from 2011 to 2020, a full 9 years of whatwas at the time, a ground-breaking rom-com harem series that's disguised with the sci-fi elements and the cast of Spirit girls which have now become an instant classic amongst fans of both the LN and the anime. Sure, what DAL has to offer in Seasons 1 and 2, truly showed off the best portions of the franchise with the classic mid-2010s production (that wasn't pretty) with great pacing that still held its value, then the horrible Season 3 which began the "source material rushing" game with the worst abominable animation to date. And with the 3+ years gap from Winter 2019 to this season, the newest season of Date A Live has finally come out, but I need you to acknowledge that everything is the same same, but different this time. Season 4 continues in the rushed pacing edge of Season 3 that's now become the norm, covering Volumes 13 to 17 of the LN that features the new Spirits Nia, Mukuro and refocusing on the dangerous but best girl Kurumi (she's literally the poster girl for DAL since the series started). It should not be a surprise to see Shido Itsuka and the saved Spirit girls face off against the wishes of D.E.M. with Isaac Westcott and his nefarious plan to exploit the Spirits powers for his own agenda, but even more so, is more of the repetitiveness of saving more Spirits, getting them to acknowledge their own difficulties being damsels in distress, and the final outcome of Shido sealing their powers with a kiss to eventually become allies in his mission together with his sister Kotori and Ratatoskr to free Spirits being threats to mankind. This is a staple of the series that to question Koushi Tachibana of how he managed to think of an intricate plot that has many loopholes that all come together to reach one conclusive answer, either he's a wanker, a genius or a madlad. But to find out how all of that wraps up in its final touches, we would need to watch the remainder season (or 2) to find out if the ending sticks its landing. Until then, this is only up until the most recent adapted volume. For Shido to save the new Spirits plus a familiar face this time, he has grown immensely but still needs help from Kotori's now experienced Ratatoskr team and the Spirit girls that he has saved thus far from the previous 3 seasons. The playful manga illustator-cum-hardcore Otaku Nia Honjo with her Angel Ratziel taking the shape of a tome/bible that can read people's histories; the emotionless Mukuro Hoshimiya who's confined in space and sealing her own heart away from all the hurt gathered in her growing up years, with her Angel Michael taking the shape of a large key that can either lock or unlock abilities; and last but not least, the ever-so-lovable dangerous-cum-seducting girl Kurumi Tokisaki with her Angel Zaphkiel that for the first time since her introduction all the way back in Season 1, finally showcases her reasons of how she was affected by the main poltergeist that turned her into who she is today. It's not a problem following how the source material has been rushed to oblivion, given that Season 3 was where the issue that started which culminated in a drastic change, and Season 4 here just follows the groundwork that the previous season has laid thus far, and ultimately, whether you like it or not, this is the new standard of DAL, no reasons required. And ultimately, at the behest of the general audience whom still has a hope for DAL to be properly paced, there is no more turning back from what the staff team has decided to do and go forth with the decisions made. Speaking of the staff team, you might've realized that the team hails from the Date A Live Judgment: Date A Bullet spin-off anime, and for good reason: when Season 3 was announced on Twitter by Koushi Tachibana himself, and thus when it aired and finished its run, I'd presume that the author didn't really liked what became of that season with the horrendous pacing and palpitable J.C. Staff production values that didn't quite measure up to AIC Plus+ and Production IMS's levels, and this is with a 5 year time-gap to button things up that could've been so much better. I know I lamented back when Season 3 finished its run, saying that it is the black sheep of the adaptation to date back in 2019. Within the same year, when the Date A Bullet spin-off 2-part anime film was announced with an entirely new staff team and produced by Geek Toys (which at the time, made high-profile mediocre anime such as RErideD), I was genuinely worried that they would not deliver, and to my surprise, they did. And while it was certainly jarring that the inclusion of 3DCG harms the experience of watching the series in wholly 2D, the overall production was certainly the best out of the 3 seasons out at the time. And although this season was set back from a delay from its original release season of last Fall (when COVID struck like mad), the same staff team are back to helm Season 4 with the help of famed series composer-cum-scriptwriter Fumihiko Shimo, and even with a limited budget to boot, Geek Toys's production values are a step up in the right direction, and just like the Date A Bullet spin-off, certainly is a substantial improvement, the best that I have seen DAL to date. It wouldn't be a surprise if the same staff team reprised their roles for the remainder season or 2 going forward along with Geek Toys, but it'd be a hilarious joke if it was the case to switch to other studios just to keep the tradition alive. DAL's music has always been very memorable, and IMO this is a hallmark to tell if you're a DAL fanatic who's been keeping up with the anime adaptation for years till today. But for some reason, I felt that out of all the OSTs in the 4 seasons thus released, this season is easily the worst of the bunch. Don't get me wrong, Miyu Tomita's OP is decent (that in all honesty, sounds average at best), but whose mad idea was it to break the decade-long tradition to replace the legendary girl group sweet ARMS whom has been pumping out classic and memorable DAL OPs? As a result, their ED song just sounds weird and not in a good way either, easily the worst song out of the entire franchise. Why, WHY??? Can someone tell me WHY this has to happen? If sweet ARMS isn't reinstated for the OP for the remainder season(s) going forward, I'm sorry to say that "old is gold, new is loads of BS". Overall, Geek Toys under newbie director Jun Nakagawa has solely kept the DAL tradition of a decent part-and-parcel of the series alive, though keeping confined to the standards of Season 3's pacing, it felt like he has no choice but to continue the mess that the previous director Keitaro Monotonaga has already established behind due to his lack of experience. But you can't also fault him for having to know and work with what is best since he is just a replacement for the ousted director which shat the franchise in the most horrendous of ways, leading to the overhaul effect of the staff team. But still, I can be confident to finally say that DAL is back to its recognizable form of years past (not counting Season 3), and that's all I am asking for is more greatness. Just one or two more seasons to go for adapting the remainder of DAL's content, and we can finally wrap up a remarkable and great LN series to put it to rest. When will they come, I'm praying that it will be soon enough.

The anime is constantly evolving. I had already mentioned my surprise when I discovered the previous season (Date A Live III), as the third season had revealed an aspect of the anime that I hadn't suspected in the first 2 seasons. This work has real depth, a touching and well-crafted story to tell, and it's not just a typical harem romantic comedy. This fourth season wonderfully continues this evolution. It seems that Date A Live has finally found an animation studio worthy of its license for this season 4. We had already seen this evolution in animation and pacing in "Date A Bullet," the spin-offfeaturing Tokisaki Kurumi, and it has been wonderfully applied to this season 4. The fourth season starts with the introduction of two new characters. Objectively, their introduction is quite good. In the first two seasons, the introduction felt rushed and didn't give us time to form real connections with the characters. The change in the studio likely had an impact in this regard. The pacing is much better, allowing us to establish connections with these characters and accept them into the adventure. But it's after the introduction of these characters that the story takes a completely different turn. By the middle of the season, I was worried that the story might lose its momentum and fall into somewhat random episodes, as we had in the earlier seasons. However, I was pleasantly surprised once again to see the depth behind this work. The last 6 episodes of this fourth season are incredible, filled with twists, incredible revelations. I was moved when I truly realized how deep Date A Live actually is! Studio GEEKTOYS has provided the adaptation that this anime deserved. It's a shame that this significant improvement in quality only happened in season 4, as I believe many people abandoned the series due to the lack of quality in the earlier seasons. As a result, many people will remain unaware of what Date A Live has to offer, holding onto negative memories of the beginning without discovering the depth and beauty of this story. I'm looking forward to discovering season 5, which promises to be exciting. Thank you, GEEKTOYS, for your work on this series!

Date A Live IV, as you may have guessed, is the fourth season of Date A Live, and as always with every new season of this show it also means a new studio. Date A Live has been going for almost a decade now and it’s still one of the most popular harem novels, so how does it fare now with this new installment? The story is similar as in other seasons: they find a new Spirit and Shidou has to go on a date with her until she falls in love with him to seal her. This season is divided in 3 arcs that adapted4 volumes of the light novel. We are still on the point of adding more girls into the series, which many can think is getting stale, although finding all of them has pretty been the whole point of the series since the beginning, at least this is the last time it will happen as the Spirit cast is complete from now on. The best part about the dates is pretty much the funny ways to see Shidou getting the girl’s heart from saying dumb lines, cosplaying, caressing cats and him getting caressed too, etc, so at least the fun aspect of Date A Live is still there and still going strong. Not much to say about the older characters, which is a problem if you ask me, they feel even more in the background than in previous seasons, at least Kotori stands a little by helping Shidou in the dates as always, the only old character that gets a lot more to talk about is Kurumi, but we’ll get to her later. The new Spirits this season are Nia and Mukuro. Nia is a mangaka and an otaku who is only interested in 2D people, that’s why we were told that she was very difficult to conquer, while I don’t think that last part was completely true at least we got some fun moments with her quirky personality and Shidou doing cosplay and participating as a dating sim. Mukuro is pretty different, she is a lonely girl found in space, but when her personality was opened again she got a 180 twist and almost became a yandere to have Shidou for herself, and even erased the memories from the other girls and the world about Shidou, with Moegami and Inverse Tohka also appearing again during her arc. Sadly, the thing I said above of the girls being in the background applies to the new ones too once their arcs are done, I cannot remember a scene where Nia was relevant after her arc except for when she was in a babydoll with Miku and Origami, and Mukuro is really just there after her arc. And at last we get Kurumi’s arc, we finally get more of her character and her past. Finally Shidou gets in his try to seal Kurumi’s powers, but if he is the one falling for Kurumi then she would be the one taking his powers instead. You can pretty much see that they went their hardest with Kurumi, obviously because she is the most popular girl, this arc finally deepens on her character and her intentions and shows how she turned into a Spirit. This last part definitely starts to lay the groundwork for the stuff that will come later relating to the Spirit of Origin. As in every season of DAL, the fourth season is made by a different animation studio than last time. This season’s animation is definitely better than the previous one, the art style also looks nice, however the problem would be the animation during battles, despite this being an action series, the battles this season felt less impactful. I don’t mind much the CGI, although it is pretty notorious when it is being used and sometimes the battles feel as if they were taken out of a videogame; look at the opening for example, if you compare the Origami vs Inverse Tohka battle there, it is much better than the one in the series. Now, I know that an opening is easier than a full fledged episode, however, even the choreography looks better done, it was so difficult to reuse the animation from the opening in the series? Multiple anime do it without problems, and it would have probably been a very noticeable the change of quality. Sadly, this doesn’t apply to only that battle and also goes to the others, at least the animation during other slice-of-life scenes looks more consistent than changing between CGI and regular animation. The opening is very good, despite not being made by Sweet Arms this time, I have to say that DAL openings never disappoint, and as said above it also looks very good. The ending is a calmer song, while definitely not the best Sweet Arms song, it is still useful for a closure. In terms of adaptation from episodes 1 to 8 it is a little rushed, if you read the novels it is noticeable that some stuff was cut, at the very least most of it isn’t actually important to the plot. However, the arc they gave their best was Kurumi’s, it is noticeable that they did a bet on Kurumi’s popularity, which is a good idea, and it went well. Overall, this season has some good points and some bad points that can definitely be corrected for the fifth season, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, despite still not returning to the quality of the first season, Date A Live is heading in a good direction after the messy last season. Thank you for reading.

A run of the mill Harem anime w/ Great art direction and character design, average story ( nothing Groundbreaking) and the same cringe dating extremely powerful women to "seal their power". This is one of those anime that I see as one of my guilty pleasures, as I watch it I know how absurd it can actually be but generally I just kind of embrace it and enjoy the show regardless. This is a male power fantasy, Our main character is perfect in almost everyway, the girls tits will always be almost out at all times and there will be panty shots. ************************************************************************************************************ STORY [4/10] Thereis nothing special or innovative about this story. The story can be boiled down to, see sexy girl, date sexy girl, seal sexy girls extreme powers with a kiss and then make her a part of your Waifu harem. Some people will love it and some people will hate it but this definitely isn't some fantastic story , It is a lot of tropes put together with some good points that kept me watching it. ART[7/10] The animation and CGI is much improved this season. There are some really well done and beautiful scenes and that cannot be denied. The female characters are very well drawn and animated and are all a pleasure to look at throughout the show. What I noticed is that it seams season 4 received a bit more money and that definitely seemed to go into the animation, CGI and art style. SOUND [6/10] A well done soundtrack that does its intended job. No soundtracks feel out of place and I enjoyed the openings and closings and listened to them on most episodes. My fiancé also really enjoyed them as I could always catch her bobbing her head and dancing a little to them. There are some song choices that I believe could have been better but overall its not a bad attempt. CHARACTER [5/10] For me the characters in season 4 of date a live can be boiled down to two words; likeable and shallow. The Main character is your average harem/Ecchi MC, hes altruistic to his detriment and never would even consider not throwing his life away for any of his Waifus. In truth that is really most of his character. To move on to the girls, they are beautiful to look at but really only exist as a plot device to push the main character along the story and assist him when needed. There isnt a whole lot of character building and there are a lot of new female characters added quickly but that is really what I see this show as, Waifu Collector 2.0. Saying all that I still liked the characters enough regardless of their shortcomings ENJOYMENT [7/10] As I said this is one of my guilty pleasure shows and I really enjoyed the season, that I cannot lie about. I also cannot say that the story is AMAZING or that the character development is a masterpiece. The truth is if you are watching this show you should know what it is. It is a male power fantasy / Waifu collector sim, there is nothing wrong with enjoying shows like that but it is important to understand It for what it is. That being said.... I still love this show but I also understand it is nowhere near a masterpiece. OVERALL [5/10] For me most everything in this anime is just passable, Its not gonna bring fans from any other Genres as the fan service and Male power fantasy is strong. all in all for me this is your average Ecchi/Harem w/ fanservice. It doesn't innovate or really do anything that interesting other than maybe the dating premise but That is really it. Know what your getting into when you watch this and just enjoy it for what it is.

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