[Guido]

Three months ago I picked-up DATE A LIVE without expecting to which direction the story would head. At that time, I read the synopsis, and I only did know that it featured the quintessential harem guy that eventually gets thrown into unusual situations in order to meet non-human girls and charm them with his naivety and sincerity.
I thought that non-Human, loli girls trying to destroy the planet featured in a harem show like this one were worth the try for me.

Now, at the beginning of this show, I was put off with the incessant references to love and date simulation games, which are very common for otaku in Japan as a matter of fact; the first two episodes simply tasted too boring for me.
However, things suddenly took a 180 degrees turnaround at the third episode when Origami shot Shido accidentally during the crossfire which made Tohka go into Spirit Rampage mode.

The soundtrack and aria themes for this show are to praised, particularly Tohka and Kotori Spirit themes.

From the third episode and onwards the plot got into a good pace and revealing richness between Shido's relationship with Kotori, 'cause I think that was the one relationship which got properly fleshed out during the course of the series.

Yoshino is limited just to be your archetypal, shy loli.

Tohka lost her importance at the spotlight when Mana arrived in the seventh episode, bringing mysteries and questions as to the dilemma of Shido's past with Kotori. Add in Kurumi into the mix and mayhem of her own arc, and Tohka got reduced as a stock character for the second half of the show. That is until she got comissioned again to save the day for Shido during the climax of the last episode, though severely limited with her powers.

Origami, to be honest, had her potential as a character wasted for most of the show. Sure her advances on Shido were quite bold and an eye-opener to me, but she never got to evolve from the lonely, wolf-type consumed by revenge, logical, military girl.

If you ask me the cream of the pie for this anime is Kotori, the quintessential tsundere girl maaking her best to excel in one thing: to reciprocate Shido's feelings more than just being siblings.

The last episode, unfortunately, featured a sort anti-climatic resolution. The season ended much like it was regular episode's transmission, though there are still several loose knots to tie out there:
- Kurumi's still at large.
- The mystery that Mana holds whether can be proved or not that Shido and she are biological siblings, and if yes, then what caused to be separated from one another?
- The mystery as to why and how come Efreet turned Kotori unwillingly into a Spirit, or what she and Shido were able to sucessfully recalled about the fire from five years ago?
- DEM (Deus Ex-Machina Industries). The company that sponsors the AST with Anti-Spirit technology. Do they have some sort of secret agenda?

I can only hope for a second season that would focus on answering all those enigmas listed above, thus bringing the whole story into a proper sense of conclusion.