Spirits. Different life forms that exist in a critical space and cause peculiar disasters.

Strategy 1: Annihilate them by military force.
Strategy 2: Date them and make them fall in love.

Let’s get down to the main review.

Art

The art style continues to be well done in my opinion. One thing I want to call attention to is the shots of Natsumi during the sunset and in general. The glow of the orange on her Astral Dress is really interesting as well as her costume in general. Overall Date A Live has always been a series that plays around with color from each Spirit having their own main color to the environments always been bright as can be.

Story

So now Natsumi’s game begins. I find the fact that Shido is able to make a good judge of Natsumi’s character that she’s not malicious a little strange but expected of him. Shido has never thought bad or assumed evil of anyone even Kurumi and Miku who have done the most harm to him and people around him. He’s always holding out his hand for people to take it whenever they’re ready.

Source

Another thing that I am growing to enjoy about this arc and another arc similar to this one, Itsuka Disaster, is the development. Now I read this arc as a light novel and enjoyed it but I found more depth in it as an anime. I really enjoyed the date with Yuzuru the most for her kind words and the way she spoke of Kaguya. Don’t get me wrong. The dates with Tokha and Yoshino were cute in their own way but they didn’t really push their characters forward. This did for Yuzuru. She reminded the audience of a fundamental part of her and Kaguya’s characters, their bond. She loves her sister yet also loves Shido and she’s willing to sacrifice her own happiness for her sister.

Source

Now for Natsumi, Natsumi did show who she was in this episode. While she looks like she may get riled up easily, she’s actually very clever and deceptive once the ruse of who she is becomes clear. I look forward to the reveal.

Characters
Shido Itsuka

Something that always annoys me about harem protagonists is that they always know the right thing to say because they’re always so nice. It’s something that is even used against the male lead Kodaka in Haganai. Choosing the safe answer or the answer that makes the most people happy isn’t going to turn out good in the end.

That’s shown well through Shido’s talk with Yuzuru during the 4th date of that day. Granted she’s happy that he loves her and Kaguya and can’t choose between them, she outright says that his answer is a cop out. Doesn’t mean that he’s a bad protagonist. Shido definitely ranks pretty high my harem protagonist list for his kindness, his active role in the story, and his willingness to go off the usual ‘harem script’ and follow his gut ways.

So until the next review,
Later Days
You can ask me as many questions as you want on Ask.fm and you can follow me on Twitter to know when my new reviews are coming out. You’ll know when stuff comes out right when it does! 🙂

Also check out my right hand man, SkyCorps on AnimeWithSky where I’m also a writer. We’ve got some good reviews from all the writers, Speculations, Light Novel Reviews, and Manga Chapters Reviews. What are you waiting for? Come and check us out! You won’t regret it!