Date A Live III

Why is it so damn hard to make a proper harem sequel these days? Date a Live needs no introduction as the franchise had established its principle cast from the previous seasons. All we need really is some well-crafted storytelling with clever humor and this could have been a redemption of the catastrophe known as Date a Live season 2. I’ll be a straightforward here. I only advise watching Date a Live Season III if you are absolutely curious about the continuation of this franchise. Regardless if you’ve read the light novel or an anime only viewer, this show requires knowledge from the previous season for a watchable experience. With that being said, there’s little to really praise about the show together when you see what they’ve set on the table. Even before this aired, some red flags are raised regarding the technical elements of the show. The production quality from the previews seems to have taken a nose dive to hell. While the first episode made improvements compared to the online pre-air, the visual quality overall is at best be described as subpar. At worst, the third season would be a fine example of a plastic broken art piece. However, I am willing to look over this since Date a Live has never been known for its art style. It’s the standard generic harem with a cast of characters who all fall for the main protagonist eventually. The catch is that the show’s premise adheres to such genre with its dating elements. Date a Live III returns with the familiar formula of main protagonist Shido Itsuka as he helps to seal Spirits into his body with a kiss. The new season introduces Natsumi, the seventh spirit who actually has two forms – a child and young adult. The first few episodes has her play mind games against Shido and his friends. Similar to previous seasons, she puts Shido’s life on a rollercoaster of drama. However, I felt like the first arc became more and more idiotic with each passing episode. Let’s start with Natsumi herself. She is an attention seeker and seems to throw fits like a child would when things don’t go her way. In her adult form, she’s prone to jealousy with pride and a bit of ego. To put it simply, she’s an irritating character to deal with. It doesn’t take long for Shido to realize this either with the childish games she puts them through. By the time this arc ended, I felt nothing for Natsumi and she became yet another harem member in Shido’s collection. Except in her case, she's an annoying little bitch. Then, the second half of the show aired. Unlike Natsumi’s arc, the second arc adapts a more serious and emotional tone. The show takes a dive into Origami’s past while also reintroducing a popular character from the previous seasons. Oh yes, remember Origami? She’s the girl that has been trying to seduce Shido at every chance she gets. However, we see a side of Origami that people may not be used to. From this season, she shows a corrupted side of her character. She forsakes her friends while even attacking Shido as an enemy. There’s actually a more complex reason why she wants to change her past but the execution fails to live up to my expectations. Sure, there’s emotional content but the show never managed to convince me to like Origami as a character. Regardless what timeline she is in, Origami exposes the weakness of the main cast as a character who relies on others too much. In particular, Shido is someone she confides her emotions in although I never felt the two had a strong connection. Even compared to relationships with others like Tohka, she always felt like a background character. That being said, I don’t really want to devalue all the characters. The main cast returns with their mainstream personalities. While there’s not much character development, it’s still fun to watch their goofy interactions with Shido. It’s a harem after all and every girl wants their chance to be with him. The amount of witty dialogues and humor remains in the show that occasionally can draw out a few laughs. But be aware, you may quickly find most of it to be a snoozefest. If the third season really wanted to redeem itself, it could have taken risks to try something different. Instead, it still relied on its usual gimmicks while focusing on a character that I never put faith into. Here’s a season that I can’t recommend and it’s a real shame. Because really, I wanted Date a Live to be something more special. Instead, it came out as a garbage harem that can be best described as atrocious.

YES, finally after 5 years, we're seeing the light of Date A Live once again...thank you Tachibana-sensei (the author of the series)! NO, to production woes, the J.C.Staff that could do no wrong, proceeded to trash this series! Where are you ENGI??? I'll admit, being a long-time DAL fan ever since its inception in 2013 has its benefits and drawbacks. For one, we get a fairly generic harem story and action that was somewhat interesting and intriguing for its time, its lineup of character Spirits and the MC harem "Master" that is Shido Itsuki, that left us wanting for more of them ever since Season 2's end in 2014. But finally, and with a very long wait, the original LN writer Koushi Tachibana has green-lit Season 3 for long-time fans like us to once again, MILK on the success that is the past 2 seasons. AND...you all saw how that fared out in 3 months. And that's a massive disappointment. *Spoilers be warned* Let's start with the story, which continues the events from past DAL series into Volumes 8 to 12 of the Light Novel: The 7th and 8th Spirits Natsumi and the resurrected Tobiichi Origami in her Spirit form, along with the (rushed and story-squished) Itsuka Disaster arc. For the majority of the series, we go through the life and happenings of the transformation queen that is Natsumi, being able to shapeshift into people with almost perfect results. And this time, Shido is left with a very daunting task of finding out Natsumi's real intentions while covering her true chibi-kid form (which makes her embarrassed and is a real pain-in-the-butt), at the expense of using Tohka and Co. and exterminating them should Shido fail to solve her puzzle. Everything totally felt like how the main series was intended to be, and that's always very welcome. Next, new revelations about the friend-cum-enemy Tobiichi Origami, whom for the longest time that we've been searching her long-awaited answers since the start of Season 1: The reasoning behind her hatred for Spirits. And this arc being animated is a true taste of the "how many questions" we all have at the end of both seasons, finally giving us the action-solutions and resolution to Origami's antagonistic purposes, with her history being rewritten at long last, for the better. Last but not least, the Itsuka Disaster arc, where in true DAL fashion, Shido does not become the initiator, but becomes the instigated for the girls to date him! Of course, trouble ensues but as always the girls will do anything to save his life *kisses*. Once again, open hearts, open minds: The story is a love/hate relationship with those of us who grew up with this series, so whether you love or hate it, I respect all opinions. The characters, or should I mention, the NEW ones brought forth to this season: Natsumi, Origami's new Spirit form and of course the mysterious Spirit that is Phantom. Natsumi, aside from her Halloween costume, she is a force to be reckoned with, with her shapeshifting disguises into people similar being the standout that really causes a whole lot of issues. Once she is brought down to her tsundere loli form, she is pretty much like Yoshino in terms of care and sensitivity. With Origami's position this time, she is finally vindicated of her past that has her holding back for very long, siding with DEM Industries all the while until this issue is resolved. Good for you Origami! And Phantom's presence which we didn't see a lot of, that is sadly left for another time to pursue more information about her (in the future...?). Of course, Tohka and Co. still acts like their usual selves. The elephant in the room, you've guessed it, is the art and animation, which by all accounts, factoring in both Season 1 and 2, is the worst looking of them all. With the relevant production studio changes (AIC Plus+ for Season 1, the recently-bankrupt Production IMS for Season 2), it's no surprise that this is an (industry-wide) issue, but honestly I didn't find the average art-animation combi to be off-putting, at least not by a mile. With J.C.Staff however, even before the anime aired, the PV and posters were the red flags that long-time fans were trashing it, saying: "This isn't the DAL that I remember!" And...it doesn;t get any better than this. Character models have that superifical J.C.Staff generic model, instead of the ever-so-memorable DAL aesthetics. Art and animation is decent, but action scenes were rife with mediocrity all around, with many people were complaining that this series took a turn for the worse with overall animation, and my opinions are no different. Sure, ENGI came back to help out with the production woes that J.C.Staff faced (that's evident on the episodes he worked on if you checked the ED credits), but overall, it definitely left a very sour taste in my mouth. Music-wise, I'm very glad and happy that the all-female group "sweet ARMS" is back once again to deliver another stellar song, titled "I Swear" (by the moon and the stars and the sky...oops sorry, wrong song!). Probably out of the 3 OP songs in the series, this may just be my favourite "sweet ARMS" song yet, with Season 1's "Date A Live" in 2nd place. Such a heartwarming and cute, small action-pumping song. New and upcoming female artist Eri Yamazaki shows her new song for the ED, and it's also quite good (as expected from Shichisei no Subaru's ED song). OST wise, it's largely the same assortment of tracks from previous series to stoke nostalgia, and it works for the better. Production woes aside, as predictable and obvious as much as past seasons are, this is still a somewhat worthy (but worse) sequel entry to the series, with the story still holding up just as decent with many hiccups in the storytelling. But, apologies to long-time DAL fans both old and new, this isn't recommended unless it's for the story alone. Pass this up. Now if only there was ever a chance of a Season 4 (which is highly unlikely), we the audience highly implore the future production staff: "Please get the series QC-checked first before showing it to us!"

It's Origami's time to shine! Date A Live III was unexpected for LA let alone it now being taken over by JC Staff for animation, but aside from that, this season looks at Natsumi and Origami's arc and boy are they good, especially Origami's. LA will note before going on that besides Kurumi being the best character in the entire show bar none, LA actually liked Origami VERY early on for being such an interesting character, of being the deadpan stoic character yet not a shy one but a trickster one and she just runs with that personality that not only slips up Shidou but nearly the entire cast due to how strange her behavior is and for the better and now due to this third season, we finally get her proper backstory and her reasoning of her hatred of Sprits and it's not pretty. So Natsumi's arc isn't that bad as if anything it's gives us the entire cast in some crazy situations made from Natsumi and Shidou trying to seal her, of course since this is her arc we get her base personality and her powers and by the end of it, she just becomes like Yoshino but a tsundere instead once she's sealed. Nonetheless the situations Natsumi gets Shidou in was....comedically funny to say the least, from the arc with a "spot who the imposter is" that gets lethal to uhhh....half the cast turning into loli's (no seriously). Natsumi later on gets some more screentime during Origami's arc but nonetheless LA does see that she had some merit and her character wasn't wasted either...unlike Yoshino for LA. Origami's arc was the climax of the entire anime and really we finally see after 2 seasons why she has beef with Spirits in the first place and after knowing all this LA can sympathize with her of course but it's her actions that causes the majority of the predicaments in her own arc and it's up to Shidou and weirdly enough Kurumi to stop Origami spiraling out of control. Like Natsumi's arc, Origami gives us an interesting perspective on the cast as yeah..since Kurumi is involved...time travel of course comes into a factor and LA will say the time travel is dealt with rather well. But seeing Origami actually be a complex character deep down her deadpan stoicism was great for a fan of Origami and bonus for Kurumi being in on the action as well at that. Westcott from the second season is also brought up much more prominently now in this season and he had a hand in both of Natsumi and Origami's arc and his forces are in action to his enacted plans for a new world order. he like his company name is a Deux Ex Machina in the worst of times just to make it even harder for Shidou and co. The animation done by aforementioned JC Staff was done "ok" in all respects, from the character designs, fights and background work, yes the animation does tend to dip at times and struggles in some fight scenes but nonetheless, LA can forgive it for the plot. Spotty but not horrible is all LA will say about the animation. Voice acting, well we have all the returning voice actors again. The only thing LA will talk about is the MVP's and that easily goes to Misuzu Togashi as Origami and Asami Sanada as Kurumi. If there were any flaws towards this season, then it'll squarely go to Shidou as she's pretty much static, sure he gets upgrades from bonding with the newer Spirits and he's the textbook definition of a white knight trying to protect everyone at the cost of himself and he's much more reactionary in this season than any other, this might be due to this season dedicating itself to Natsumi and Origami but LA can give Shidou some leeway as both their arcs kinda gets intense so Shidou as a character is pushed aside because of it. Date A Live III for LA is a great step in the right direction, from the near aimless second season and in line with the original first season. Sure the change in animation studio is a detriment, but if it's for the plot and all the tense stuff and backstories from character that NEEDED it then Date A Live III is great in this regards.

I hope that by the time we get to volume...20 or so in the adaptation, we don't end up just going through every conceivable animation studio to make this thing.   Story: Find the spirit, date the girl, make her fall in love, seal the deal with a kiss.  Like its predecessors, Date A Live III continues the story of Itsuka Shido and the crew of the Ratatoskr as this strange boy capable of sealing the mysterious spirits finds and helps the girls, both old and new, while starting to uncover the mystery of the spirits and their origin. Covering roughly volumes 8-12 of the light novel, DAL III arrives at roughly the point where I regard the story as expanding on the narrative and the mystery of the series by tying up a few loose ends and introducing a few new ones to further fill in the blanks.  It's by far the most interesting (and convoluted) part of the series thus far and deserves praise for just throwing itself out there despite its copy/pasted plot, which to the show's credit is a lot less 'Date A Live' than normal given there are a lot less dates, Shido's typical 'harem protagonist' reactions are well warranted given the absurdity of particular situations that occur around him, it's not ALL about the girls falling in love with him since their stories take more precedence, and the plot is (usually) more serious overall, especially in the latter half. Of course inherent flaws with the series are still existent: Shido despite being more of an active protagonist doesn't feel all that important in the long run, the series is still about the girls so the one in the spotlight takes the forefront of everything despite anything else that happens, and tonal/pacing breaks are still jarring at times with instances of the series feeling rushed or too slow depending on what's going on due to how much material is being condensed in a small timeframe.  It's the last point that particularly irks me because not enough of the plot seems to sink in enough for the audience to process what's going on before we're thrown into a dramatic fight scene without properly understanding who or what is participating at any given time.   Another troublesome point is the last episode.  I don't know why they decided to squeeze the entire plot of volume 12 into episode 12.  It takes at least 2-3 episodes to get through one volume, and all of this season's issues become crystal clear here where nothing feels coherent because missing context, details, and reasons to give a damn are all but non-existent. Overall, DAL III is a decent narrative improvement over what we were presented in previous seasons due to the length and severity of arcs given more time than usual, Shido seems to continue having agency over his actions now we're post-Miku, and the overall narrative of the series is more explored with a decent enough time dedicated to expanding on the mystery of the spirits that's yet to really be revealed.  However because of inherent series problems as well as production and time issues on J.C.'s side with pacing issues rushing on parts so much of the series that really needed time to sink in, a lot of what could've been good just isn't. Characters: Shido this time seems to stay on-character with his growth and determination to save the various spirit girls that come into his life, fervently trying his best to convince the girls at hand that he will take on their burden as cliched as that sounds.  But a lot of it feels really hollow in comparison to what we ended up with in Season 2.  Most of the time this season it feels like he's just screaming out the words without any merit behind them.  I partly blame this on the adaptation's pacing because it feels like we're skipping over A LOT of important scenes to merit Shido giving the spiel to the girls that they don't have to continue being a terror on society, which really is a shame considering one of the girls this time is someone who's been around since the BEGINNING and to have that feel less impactful makes me feel a little cheated. Since the series this time primarily covers the material from Natsumi Search to Tobiichi Devil, the featured girls this time is the 7th spirit, Natsumi, and Origami, which thanks to poster arts and several promotional material, arrives (finally) as the 8th spirit. Nicknamed 'Witch', Natsumi continues the chain of 'unconventional' captures where her story and involvement of the series mixes up the formula due to her aloof qualities and conflicting nature, sporting a confident facade that masks how little she thinks of herself, which really shows how this series can portray these personal issues of the girls and put them in a good limelight.  If they get the time that is.  Because pacing is such a major issue this season, Natsumi's issues don't feel as fleshed out over the course of the time she's given and ultimately feels contrived in the end because her arc ended up being a lot shorter than I expected, especially with the whole climax of it seemingly coming out of fucking nowhere since not enough time was devoted to really showing off what's happening in the background. Instead, most of the season's runtime is devoted to Origami, who has quite possibly the most expansive and interesting arc the series has had thus far.  Becoming the things she hates, learning the truth of the death of her parents, Shido's resolve to save his stalker, all culminating in a final scene where everyone bands together to cull the sadness and loneliness from this girl's life?  Origami honestly just feels like she's going through the motions of her story without BEING her story.  It's the disconnect of character vs. plot that makes what's happening to her feel a lot less genuine than I expected.  Now that's not to say it's all bad, as the latter half of her arc definitely lived up to some of my expectations, but the way it started felt so rocky and half baked that I actually wondered if I was even watching the same series because it just didn't click in the way I wanted it to. The rest of the cast from all of the other girls to all of the side characters more or less fall to the wayside as the structure of DAL is NOT kind to anyone that isn't Shido or the 10 or so girls he's got attached to his hip.  A shame too considering this is supposed to really be the point where antagonistic motivation starts arising from the depths, and we don't really get enough of that beyond one or two instances that happens in the middle of the series.  I was honestly expecting it to happen a few more times, but...I guess that's happening in DAL IV.  If that's even happening. Aesthetics: Going from AIC+ to Production IMS, DAL now finds its new home in J.C. Staff (since everyone else basically crashed and burned) which compared to the other two looks the worst out of the three!  While the series still has the feel of Tsunako's original artstyle, the colors this time are a LOT more dull and don't have enough of light in any aspect of the color scheme to compare to what was achieved from the other two seasons.  This issue also extends to the way the characters are drawn as model irregularities are semi-common and there's apparent stiffness with the characters as they literally stand in place with a few mouth flaps to ensure the characters are talking rather than anything natural to make them seem more in tune with the environment, which is made even more apparent with models of the cast in distance shots appearing a lot worse than previous seasons. In addition to that, the overall quality of the animation feels like it suffered a lot due to how little movement or any kind of dynamic fighting that occurs this season, much less enough particle effects to make the series really stand out since there aren't as many 'spirit' effects, flashy sword slashes, or what have you to fill in the action requirement of the show. Thankfully though, there is one consistent factor that stays with DAL, hopefully till the day the adaptation dies because th…

Yeah definitely the worst season. Pretty much the only good thing here is Origami's arc and the opening which I regard as the best in the whole series. The art was a huge downgrade, the animation is meh, the soundtrack pretty much the same but with some that are bad. And the adaptation is where it's worst. Natsumi arc is ok overall but one of the things made it better is how Natsumi thinks. This season doesn't show that. And then we have the final episode which crammed the whole Volume 12. It's so bad that even Season 4 even have to adjust things and is still damaged because of this ep. The mysteries, the developments, gone into the fanservice of an episode. Just bad. 4/10

We had all been waiting eagerly for this. It was roughly half a year late, they swtiched out people working on the project yet they still did manage to pull off a quiet impressive work that I can say that I really enjoyed watching and I would no even like to see more of this. The amount of work and the level of quality that has been put into this is qiuet impressive, they even made separate animations for different intros to not spoil anything as you continued to watch. The music is intruiging and the buildup is always really epic and just wants you to keep going, which really is what this series has mostly going for it, besides the interesting plot and good character design. The animation quailty does have a little bit of room for improvement though. More shaders and lighting could have made the animation quality a bit better as well as more detailed explosions and effects, but already the way that it is, it certainly is not bad and is actually on the side of the better pieces of animation works that I have seen Overall I give this a 9/10. Defenetly a recommendation for people who liked the previous seasons or similar animes

Actually the best season this show has to offer yet. It catched my heart in the first 5 episodes and got me into an unexpected feeling of excitement. The third season features a lot of intense thrilling happenings. Now it doesn't rely much on the talk-no-jutsu of the show but it actually takes actions and strats now. In the first few episodes, we are featured with something that has an entirely unique approach of the show. The bunch now has a intense, thrilling challenges, and complicated trials have fallen unto the MCs responsibilities. This gives the show its need for entertainment since there was not much to offer last season. But During the last parts is where the excitement starts to come forth. The later episodes hit me hard because there is a concept that many dating sims feature which are save files. These files are very useful since you can just load one if you need to; change a decision that may affect the story entirely, to see past dialogue you've missed, and just to see different scenes you've gone past to. The show corporates this in a way that the story actually now progresses and makes sense though I won't talk about much here. Nonetheless it is very well done. Though the only downfall of this season is the sudden drift of animation. Bruh it downgraded hard man. Somehow the past seasons have better animation then 4 years later you give us this? Man it's just so bad. Not saying that the studio didn't put effort in this one but they could've done better. I'm surprisingly liking the show as it is right now and please, don't disappoint me season 4.

It's been a while. Five years. It sure baffles me that there are people who wanted more of Date A Live. After the disaster that was the 2nd season, I thought that people would reject it similarly to Infinite Stratos' 2nd season that turned out so bad they only released two OVAs and nothing else afterward. Now we get the 3rd installment from none other than J.C. Staff. After I finished watching this, it was evident that they weren't precisely giving this season to their A-team, if you get my drift. Date A Live was the first anime I reviewed that was currently airing at the time. Looking back on it, as much as I did like certain aspects of the show, I could not remember a thing about what the plot was or who the characters were outside of their beautiful designs. Tsunako's awesome character designs can save a character's worth even with the generic development that goes with them. Granted, there were genuinely funny moments sprinkled here and there that I look fondly back. But other than that, Date A Live Season 1 was mostly too generic for me to give it any more cred. Once Season 2 came along, I was so flabbergasted by how the quality dropped significantly on almost every aspect that I didn't care enough to review it. That's how bad it was. Now, does Season 3 elevate the quality just a little? The answer is: Yes, but very very minimally by a decimal point. The animation is still not as flashy or colorful as Season 1's, which I still consider being that season's most definite highlight. It is a step above 2's because the colors aren't as muted on the character designs. But I noticed a lot of character movements that feel stiff, many instances of using still images, and action scenes not being that interesting to look at. I mentioned before how J.C. Staff weren't giving this to their A-team, and it is clear that they were not showing off their animation prowess compared to their other more significant projects. It's sad because I am a fan of Tsunako's artwork, and to see her creation not being given a big enough budget to see her art in motion is saddening. There are two main story plot points in the 1st and 2nd half of the season; three if you count the 12th episode, but we'll get to that later. One involves a "witch" named Natsumi that Shido has to smitten for her not to turn evil. The main problem with this story is the character of Natsumi herself. She is not particularly likable, and we are supposed to feel some empathy towards her torment because of how she sees herself in her true form. This true form of hers does not make her sympathetic for all the evil deeds she's done and comes off utterly selfish to the point where I could not care enough for whatever would happen to her. The episode that involved the other girls turning into little children's version of themselves was entertaining in its own dumb, superficial way. But as a whole, it was not the best way to start the season with. In the plot involving the quiet, stoic, white-haired angel Origami, this one was at least better than the previous story. However, I was mostly bored and uninterested in how they made Origami grow as a character instead of being annoyed. My problem with the cast in Date A Live has been: I like their archetypes but not their characters. What I mean is, I love their personalities and how they clash with one another in hilarious circumstances but not necessarily their character arcs that get involved in the main story because the story itself is so drab and barebones. With Origami's plot, it was interesting to see her with long hair and a more expressive personality later on in the season. Nevertheless, nothing about her is interesting due to the nature of the generic writing prevalent throughout the season. Now we have got to talk about the dreaded 12th episode. To sum it up briefly, they wrote an entire episode to adapt the volume as a whole. The result is a hilarious, rushed episode of anything I have ever seen. It was like 1/3rd of the episode was adapting a few chapters of the volume and then quickly switching to a completely different story in the next 1/3rd of the episode. It almost felt like an OVA episode that they didn't even bother to put out separately. They just put it as the last episode to fill in that 12-episode gap in broadcasting to milk in more TV viewers because they had no faith that this would sell as an OVA. This is the worst season, but it's a toss-up between this and the 2nd season for me. In plot, it is worse in how it is structured, but from a technical perspective, it wasn't a complete disaster like the 2nd season was in some aspects. It is such a shame because I genuinely wanted Date A Live to at least be a solid harem anime that I would enjoy. However, it suffers from the same problems many ecchi/harem anime go through. They try to put a serious story to it: they do not put enough effort into making a cohesive story that engages to experience and instead focus on flashy action and ecchi fanservice. Which, again, I'm not against whatsoever. However, if you can't do both right, make an anime that does one thing great rather than one thing decent and another terribly. Grade: D+

The third season of Date A Live is a massive letdown. The show reuses the same formula as its predecessors; Shido (you should know him by now) encounters a Spirit, conflict arises - usually by ludicrous means - and another gal gets included into his harem. However, almost half of the anime is focused on one girl, and the other half is focused on the development of another. The dialogue is laughable, basic lines including Shido screaming, “Why are you doing this!?”, or “I know you’re not evil!”. His harem is no different, offering one-dimensional mumbo-jumbo about their harem daddy. Funnily enough, it is only until some action ensues that they’re able to form some kind of intellect. As for the new girl, Natsumi, her reasoning for torturing the guy is just absolutely petty, if not just plain stupid. Let’s look at how it all started. Natsumi acts like a sexy oneesan (ara ara) towards Shido *Enemy troops attack* *Natsumi’s true form is briefly shown* Natsumi: “You saw, right?” “Don’t play dumb!” “You saw my…” “Unforgivable.” *Points index finger towards Shido* “Your life… it’s about to be over for good!” If I was in Shido’s place, I would have slapped her back to where she came from, even if she was one dangerous oneesan (she ends up being a loli, how disappointing). Is this really how you treat your fans after four years? After her arc is dealt with, we never get to see her backstory, and it is only ever implied. At least in Tohka and Yoshino’s case, they have somewhat reasonable character development in their respective arcs, but Natsumi on the other hand looks and feels like a copy-paste Tsundere loli, and she acts the part as well. You can say she barely had any screen time compared to the aforementioned two, but the rest of the characters in Shido’s harem are just the same. They sprinkle tons of generic flirting and teasing, add in some basic lines about how they love their “darling”, and then finally act as filler for mundane exposition dumps. They are subject to poor writing, and they never do stand out. This is a harem so there is no real reason why I should be expecting anything grandiose, but I do not want the same obnoxious scenes reiterated to me again and again. The latter half of DAL’s duration is a slight improvement, though the way it is introduced is incredibly sudden. Origami runs into one of the antagonists, and after a brief discussion she joins them; this all happens in the span of a few minutes. The events that occur later on retain some of my attention since we finally get some character development after almost half a season being spent on that pointless Natsumi arc. The date with Origami is also pretty cute and funny, so there is that as well. With that said, Origami’s arc has got to be the best in the series as of yet, though that is really not saying much when looking back on it now. Ironically enough, I could not take the show seriously because of its drastic tonal shifts. Five minutes of serious melodies, and then five minutes later, it transitions into goofy musical cues. The comedy, or comedic relief for that matter, is not that funny. The feeble attempts at melodrama are cringe-inducing, especially when Shido is at the forefront of it all, blasting out his usual quotes left and right. Speaking of Shido, he is back with his stubborn, whiny attitude. Honestly, it makes me want to tear my skin out whenever he screams into my ears. It literally takes up half of his dialogue. If he actually thought rationally, this whole season would have been over in five episodes. He jumps headfirst into the middle of a warzone and attempts to persuade the spirits to stop fighting. Aside from being utterly banal, he is one of the stupidest harem protagonists I have ever seen, yet because of plot convenience, things always work out in his favor. The sound is lackluster and bland, even recycling some of the music from the previous seasons. The opening and ending tracks are painfully forgettable. The animation hits its lowest point in the series. It is baffling how it could manage to stay so average, even as the franchise switches between three different studios. J.C. Staff should have stepped up, but they unfortunately have not. Frequent low points are scattered throughout this season, where it nosedives in dull action and constantly still frames. It is a shame, really, since the character designs for each girl are unique and pretty to look at, but because of lazy animation, it was never able to fully shine. Compared to, say, Quintessential Quintuplets (another show this season), Date A Live looks painfully bland in comparison. The third season of Date A Live is empty, devoid of any significant standing and personality. This addition tries to incorporate a story and attempts to take itself seriously, however this proves fruitless as it manages to be riddled with lazy writing, rapid pacing, dull characters, and lukewarm animation. Even for long-time fans - as a harem and for whatever its so-called “plot” is worth - this is average at best. I am disappointed.

Alright, I'll be honest here. Most of you are saying that season 3 was absolute garbage and you know what? I agree, why? Because the light novel is very different from the anime! From where season 2 left off, s3 start with miku coming into the spirit mansion when in the light novel, Miku, kotori and shido were discussing about phantom and how Miku got the power. And the latest episode, don't even consider it canon, it was suppose to be the start of season 4 and episode 12 of season 3 should've been that shido side story. And you would think, about how the plot of the season 3 flow, it doesn't make senes, of course it doesn't. Motonaga Keitoro has been leaving out important scenes! Which is why it's getting so many hates. So my conclusion is that rather than going for the anime, I suggest that you go for the light novel. It's much bette.

DAL has 350k followers on MAL DAL II has 200k DAL II has 50k There's a reason for that trend. Ever since the middle of DAL the quality of the storytelling has been going down hill. Now even the art is going down hill. They aren't even bothering to do half hearted attempts at doing the details. The music while manipulative which had been holding up well with some real nice orchestral pieces that were well selected to go with particular scenes have been replaced with more generic pieces. Voice acting which had been a real high point is now suffering not so much with the main characters. But the secondary characters and different versions of the main characters are just jarringly badly done. If an actor can't do a childish voice, don't use them to play a child. The dissonance is like chalk on a blackboard. The writing has gotten even lazier. There's now seven potential deus ex machina in Shidou's harem. It's a situation that can be hard to handle for any writer and it isn't handled well here. In the last season you had their powers pretty much available or unavailable at whim, whatever the author thinks makes the poignant scene all without consideration of anything that's been established. Good example, when the series was in comedy parody mode in the first season, we get the gag of 14 year old Kotori being the commander of the forces dealing with the spirits. Next season she is vowing "That she will kill her beloved big brother if needed over his ability to summon an angel", this is ignoring the fact that she is capable of manifesting an angel and does so. Tanya the evil pulls this off, when DAL stopped going for comedy, their ability to sustain this stopped as well. The lazyness extends to the characters. They are just as smart or stupid as they need to be at any given moment with no regard to what they may or not have done in the past 5 minutes. The suddenly remember they have abilities, they fail to notice things that are both blindingly obvious and in positions impossible to ignore. There is one example that is so blindingly stupid it will have you asking "WHY IN THE HELL HASN"T HE DONE THIS ALL THE WHILE UP TO NOW ??" and then you may want to punch your TV In short. If you liked the first season of DAL, everything you liked in it is gone. The clever comedy The exploding of tropes. The fun characters. With the exception of Kurumi who may well be best girl now They have all become annoying and boring.

Ok this review will go into spoiler territory but I have to write after looking at other reviews. Date Alive is a harem romcom with elements that you would automatically expect from a harem. Not to mention this is the third season of a beloved series that started back in 2013. After watching the first two seasons you start to grow more attached to every character which is exactly how I felt coming back to this show after 2015 from the movie adaptation. Now here are some things that other reviews are saying but missing the point. Story: Yes, I won't lie things are rushed and squished to try and adapt on screen while other plot points are given much development, other points aren't so adapted. Origami and Natsumi got the special treatment this time around but Shido got the short stick as well as Kurumi but the way I see it as being an anime only fan that just gives more fuel to want another season to develop those characters even more. However, looking at other stories from other harem anime it's not hard to tell the similarities ,but Date Alive continues to try and do new things that are either too old or overused and build upon that. While continuing to expand the story of a boy going on dates with spirits that are girls and tries to win them over. Simple yet ridiculous plot. And I love it for that reason. Art: I've seen shows like Violet Evergarden that take animation to the next level and then there are "shows" that look like they were made in 1980 which is fine but considering it's 2019 then it's a bit disheartening. The comparison between this and old seasons is staggering but not disheartening and while I agree it could have been better do try to look past that and just have an enjoyable time with the story and characters we all love. Overall, I may just be rambling about parts other reviewers are criticizing but I'm just grateful that another season of my favorite anime has been animated. Now comes the difficult part of waiting to see how sales and numbers will do to continue this series. Hopefully there is some news about whether or not there will be another season and when it will begin to be talked about. I just hope that it is possible within the next 2-3 years since Season 2 was in 2014 and the movie in 2015.

[This review assumes you've watched all previous Date A Live seasons as well as Mayuri's Judgment and are familiar with the characters and concepts] Date A Live was the anime that made me interested in watching anime. For some reason it had this weird appeal that made me curious to explore the medium. Much like many people's first anime it has stuck with me and I still enjoy it today despite how my views on anime have changed overtime. So, when I heard that Date A Live was finally getting a 3rd season, I was naturally excited. However, knowing how flawed the series was already I wasn't expecting much from Date A Live 3 and frankly I got about what I expected. The story of this season follows the same pattern as previous seasons, with the only real difference being the characters that each arc focuses on. The first arc focuses on the new spirit Natsumi. Her arc feels extremely weak, and that's mostly because of her character. Natsumi serves as the main antagonist of her own arc, similar to Miku. However, unlike Miku, Natsumi is never given a compelling reason to act as an antagonist. Her backstory is never really explored nor is she given a compelling motivation to act the way she does. It doesn't help that she's mostly absent for a good portion of her arc. For the most part, she watches Shido and makes very brief appearances from time to time. Very little meaningful time is actually spent with her and even when she does get some screen time, it doesn't delve too deep into her character. As a result, her personality and motives are very vague for the entire arc. Unlike the other spirits, Natsumi was uncompelling, unlikable, and had no other redeeming qualities that made me care about her. Another problem with Natsumi's arc is how it tries to blend in a subplot involving another villain, Issac. The only real purpose of this was to set up for something that might occur later in the story, but for this season it was mostly useless. This time setting up Issac's plan really should have been used for something better, like developing Natsumi's character. This arc suffers a lot from its pacing, making it a lot more shallow than it should be. The next arc is a a bit better, but still has its own share of flaws. The second arc of this season focuses on Origami and her past. This arc mostly serves as way to fill in some of the gaps involving Origami's characters and to further explain the reasoning behind her hatred for spirits. It was nice to see some meaningful development from Origami who always felt kinda shallow, especially when it came for her love for Shido. For the most part Date A Live 3 does an adequate job of exploring Origami and reveals a lot of the mysteries behind her character. Though it was nice to finally explore Origami, this arc was extremely confusing and added so many more plot holes. I won't spoil to much but this arc involves using Kurumi's time powers in order to travel back 5 years ago, before Origami's parents were killed. While time travel can be an interesting plot device to use in a story, it requires great care in order to be done properly. Date A Live, however, doesn't properly explain the rules of how its time travel works, and as a result many seemingly inexplicable things occur. I could always make sense of the Date A Live universe(despite how nonsensical and stupid it is), but this time travel arc had so many inconsistencies that I just gave up trying to make sense of all it. This added level of confusion plus poor pacing made this arc almost unfollowable. Despite this Origami's arc still kept my interest and for the most part I wasn't actually bothered by many of the inconsistencies of the plot. The other spirits of Date A Live are still present and they are the same likable characters from the previous seasons. At this point of the story there are 9 main spirits and it was definitely going to be challenge to juggle so many characters at once. Despite this, I think Date A Live 3 does an adequate job at making them all feel relevant. Each character contributes at least a little to the plot and they still feel like a part of the story. The comedy also maintains the same charm of the other seasons. While the antics that Shido's harem get into are par for the course of any harem anime, I still enjoyed the comedy because the characters added an extra bit of charm to it. Some of them even get a little more character development, which helped flesh them out a bit more. As someone who really likes the characters of Date A Live, I appreciated how it handled the non essential characters. Unfortunately, this season's animation was frankly one of the worst I've seen in awhile. Most of the characters look really ugly and were often disproportional. A lot of the simple animation looked really terrible and awkward. Even the fight animation looked terrible and lacks any impact. To be fair previous seasons didn't exactly have great animation either, but Date A Live 3 makes them look like masterpieces. I honestly think this show looks worse than most of the terribly animated shows that were released about a decade ago, and there is no excuse for it. Thankfully Date A Live maintains its fantastic soundtrack and the OP and ED are as great as ever. For all of Date A Live 3's glaring problem, like its story and animation, I still managed to enjoy it. Date A Live 3 provided that Date A Live sequel I've been waiting for and that was enough for me to still enjoy it. While I might like it Date A Live 3 is undeniable a real mess of an anime and I can only really recommend it if you unconditionally love the franchise like me. Thanks For Reading! My Ratings Story 4/10 Character 6/10 Art 2/10 Sound 9/10 Personal Enjoyment 6/10 Overall 5/10

Date A Live Season 3 make it even more better than two previously season of course first of all I like the fact that they focused of Origami and she was became part of spirit and she almost tries to kill whole spirit but she didn't all thank for kurumi who she tries to manipulated her until Origami turned evil attacked through city until shido stop her after then kurumi meet shido and he got shot and sent to past and saved origami and probably saved her family as well and she completely changed when Shido was went so confused about her even she turned evil and i like when they battle in sunset it was amazing as well and it so cool. after finishing season 3 this make me want to be harem protagonist with North oxfordshire academy student i was just kidding my overall thought on Date A Live season 3 it was masterpiece because of how origami get more development revealed as new spirit but until Anime better than Bollywood.

Hi, I'm a professional 2D animator myself writing my first review here. There will be no spoilers in this review, feel free to read my frustrations as someone who genuinely loves this anime, and is an expert in production. I am rating this season harshly because I know how the industry works, and that this gem did not get the justice it deserved. As someone who doesn't usually watch Harem animes, Date A Live season lll couldn't have been more pathetic and done wrong by J.C. Staff. Especially as an artist. I was very excited by the story and art direction of the first 2 seasons done by other studios only to be frustrated and deeply saddened by the half-hearted efforts for this potentially amazing season. But of course, due to the nature of the industry, the producers and management will always take the cheapest studio they can get for mass-production. Showing no love towards the viewers and treating fans with very little respect for rare hidden gems like Date A Live in such an already crappy anime market. Story (6/10): It goes without saying, that the story is automatically amazing. But that's the author, not the studio. The story alone can't carry J.C. Staff's half-assed efforts. And especially when you turn what is an amazing storywriting arc into a single half-assed final episode, you butcher what could have made the viewers cry with excitement. Instead we got some cringe ass anime main character with the typical cringe red eye, black face crap. Not to mention, it's evident from the first episode immediately how butchered the drama aspect is. They half-heartedly attempt to create "fear" or "intense" atmosphere that it comes off as cringe or a typical anime crap. When it's predecessor seasons really nail emotions and getting the audience to feel for the characters and feel anxiety/excitement. Art (1/10): This was just disastrous, while sure I can admit certain important scenes they actually tried. The majority of the anime's art direction pales in comparison to their previous seasons. A lot of frames you can tell were done within a minute, no details. No perspective. The cranium in a lot of their heads were even missing. The opening itself, was entirely just stillframes with flowing hair. They clearly showed no love to the fanbase and expected them to just be ignorant and love it anyway. But no, not to real anime lovers. But again, I understand big studios and shit pay in Japan leads to mass production and little care for the anime. Sound (5/10): It's a given that the voice actors from the original seasons would already be great and carrying the series along w/ the amazing storywriters. But they can't carry J.C. Staff entirely alone with that. Character (5/10): As you've noticed, I'm going to again, say it's a given the characters and their development are automatically going to be great due to the amazing writer. HOWEVER, animation-wise, if you've watched the other seasons, you can tell that the characters this season are animated completely out of character with their established archetypes because J.C. Staff failed to pay attention to leading their animators for correct acting choices. It's obvious they only took on the project because it was famous and for profit. The characters this season came off more as basic stereotypes, or say emotionless characters like Origami were too active w/ their movements or their posing was way too out of character because of the lack of attention to detail from the animation team and director. Enjoyment (3/10): While some moments were enjoyable, due to the nature of how the adaptation made plot twists so darn obvious, I couldn't help but sit there going like well we obviously know what's coming up, but they would attempt to make the main character stupid and not foresee the obvious to take place in 10 minutes. They treated the viewers as if we were children and spoonfed too much information ruining many buildup and dramatic moments. The camera angles being mild as well during important scenes just straight up kills the excitement or buildup. The worst part is they straight up gave us a slideshow many times on dramatic scenes, and you can't hope but wonder if as a fan, you were just blue-balled and taken for granted. Personally, I feel they treated this amazing show as just another trash income source, which is unfortunately displeasing, but another factor of the industry. Overall (4.5/10): Obviously I could have rated this higher, but I'm rating this based on how the studio handled the adaptation with very poor effort to please the loyalty of the fanbase. The story and voice acting being great is a given, and therefore can't offput the poor excuse of a show this season was. You also can't balance out one good scene with an entire season of trash effort expecting the fanbase to be pleased. ----------------------------------------------------- That concludes my review, thank you if you've given a quick read or if you relate with my frustrations. Feel free to hit me up if our interests align. I personally love anime with real plot and effort, and wish to make my own eventually. Nowadays it's hard to find any of that due to the mass-production of trash and hiring random artists to animate, the industry is failing miserably and not doing themselves a favour in how the world views anime due to this and many factors.

Date A Live season 3 is the third season of the hit romcom, mecha, scifi, harem anime based on the lightnovel by Kōshi Tachibana, its follows up immediately after season 2, Itsuka Shido is once again back saving new spirits, fighting DEM, and providing some much needed help to Origami, while also dealing with some inner turmoil within himself. Let me start by saying that season 3 felt more like another establishing point for the anime than a continuation, it felt more like season 1 than season 3 actually, I expected more gore, more epic fight scenes and an actual continuation to the story which season 2 all possesed. What I got was another character that I despise more than the Yamai Twins [ they actually feel much better than fucking Natsumi], Natsumi is a loli spirit that transforms herself into an older version of herself due to insecurities regarding her physical apperance, she legitimately feels like she is ugly, and that no one will talk, associate, or protect her due to her psychical appearance, which is complete bs, you're not that bad looking , and you're a loli anime fans love lolis pretty sure you were made for that specific troupe to begin with, also you're personality is ass, you have people trying to help and befriend you, and you play tricks and mindfuck them instead of allowing them to help you break out of your shell. At first I was like meh but sure Imma give her a chance, then the execution of her arc and characterization, not to mention the way she acts just made it unbearable for me to watch her, for some ungodly reason I managed to endure her screentime, I wish I didn't have that ability, like jeez she is too fucking annoying for me. Moving on to the Origami arc which I actually didn't expect, it was pretty good, she is one of the characters that I wanted more screentime and development for afterall. In season 2 she and Kurumi got sidelined, now in season 3 she gets a arc and Kurumi becomes a supporting character, real quick as you guys know from my previous reviews I'm not the biggest Kurumi fan out there, I think she's aight at best, but boy does it suck to not see enough screentime for her, since she is a very interesting character, oh well I'm sure we're going to get a arc for her in the next season or something, wait Date A Bullet is coming out, I might watch it to get some more info on her, my perception of her might change but for right now she is aight thats it. The Origami arc was pretty decent, it provided some much needed backstory to one of my favorite Date A Live characters, after seeing how much pain and suffering she went through, I like her even more as a character. The final episode was honestly just weird, it was unnecessary as well, like it would have been better for it to just be 11 episodes, and ending there but I guess they wanted it to be 12 episodes like season 1. Honestly this entire season feels weird to me, its not bad but its far from good, like I said before it feels much more like a establishing point for the anime than a continuation, which holds it back for me substantially much like the Natsumi arc, seriously fuck that character. Pros: -Origami gets more character development and screentime -Is enjoyable despite its flaws -Decent sountrack, artstyle and animation Cons: -Natsumi's arc and her character are horrendous -Final episode was unnecessary -Other characters like Diva, Yoshinon, Kurumi etc are sidelined once again -Felt more like a establishing point than a sequal -Fails to capitalize on season 2's success Overall Date A Live season 3 is definetely not the greatest out of the three, in fact it is the worst one yet imo, it was a close contest between this and season 2, but season 2 had its amazing final arc that just straight up carried it, while season 3 did not have a arc like that, and while Origami's arc was good it wasn't really enough to carry this entire show, along with a lackluster and weird first arc like the second season, but atleast season 2 made up for it with its fantastic second arc, while season 3 continued to fail. Not to mention the unnecessary fanservice final episode that is straight up just filler fanservice, those types of episodes are not meant for season finales writers come on, you guys show have known that, that shit is obvious AF. That final episode also wasn't a good fanservice episode, it was just weird and ankward to watch, not to mention unnecessary and wrongly placed. My ranking of the three are Season 1, Season 2, and finally Season 3, this season was enjoyable but it wasn't good, it was decent at best, I give Date A Live Season 3 a 6/10 for my overall anime score.

The title had me wondering, should it be Date Alive? Here's a tip don't play with the past any change you do will probably steer the future me into hell. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The story seemed less original than the previous seasons. A guy needs to go back to the past to change the future and stuff and shit and more shit then more shit happens -it's predictable and doesn't seem original. I'll give it a 34%. Art is downgrade from the previous seasons, I honestly preferred the previous seasons' animation. The animation sometimes seems off (https://imgur.com/BiHV3To), shadowing needs a little tuning. Well I give it a 48%. For the characters, they're... ... ... harem characters... I guess? Nothing about them is special, they're just the average harem characters. 19% with me being too kind. As for enjoyment, I did seem to enjoy Date A Live... But this season was kinda bad. Especially after episode 7 it just gets worse, less enjoyable. I give it 57%. Overall 40%, a downgrade from the previous seasons. Anyway it's a personal opinion, your opinion may differ, so sure give it a shot if you have that much time lying around. Side note: Shido guy sounds squeaky like a bitch in the dub.

TL;DR: A non-solid adaption on a potential story There are three character arcs in total. Natsumi, Origami and Shido. The good news is there's not much fanservice in major character arc, but sadly the story is not delivered properly. The art and the animation is a joke, we will discuss these one by one. Natsumi arc I’ll cut this straight. The story focus too much on the guessing game, rather than the character itself. I have quite a bit of enjoyment with Natsumi. However, there are not much description on reasons behind this. The introduction is also pretty brief and rushed. It's quite briefly mentioned and requires more effort on it. This arc feel cliche, as it follows the stereotype DAL storytelling (Shido meets the spirit-> spirit refuses and trigger chaos -> Shido tries to rescue her -> The spirit accept and ends). At the end, Natsumi is just another DAL member. I can't really have any feelings on her sadly. Origami arc This is the most important part on DAL S3. It attempts to connect s3 events with previous story. I can feel the struggles and pain that Origami has to suffer and I can also have a better image on the DAL setting. Besides Origami, I can also learn more about the possible future events and the character intentions, such as Kurumi. Most scenes are well adapted and able to cover the main ideas. What it's lacking of is the highlights on emotional events and backstory details, which cause the story not strong enough to trigger audience reactions. I appreciate the efforts on this arc, but sadly there's not much touching moment. Shido arc This is just a fanservice arc to please fans at the last episode. It's like an OVA, showing spirits’ love on Shido, but pretty unnecessary. Overall Story Structure and Character development Weak, rushed and the events are not well explained. The main characters, like Shido, have barely developed in this season, it's just trying to finish arcs in a brief way. There are no transition between arcs, it just pretend to finish events and start new events on the same timeline, so that the story can move quickly. More efforts are needed on character development and decription to convince audience. The character interaction may fun to look at, but may only work occasionally, if it's not cliche. Art, sound and animation Poor frame control and rough animation. Wrecked facial drawings can be observed easily. The colour visuals look dull, plain and boring, make it unattractive to look at. Even in op and ed, the animation and art are as poor as the one in most parts of the show. Occasionally, there are some pretty cute character close-up pics, but not too much can be mentioned. Sound effects and bgm can be noticed, but sometimes pretty unnecessary and not remarkable. Op by Sweet Arms arand ed are good to hear like the previous season. Recommended or not? Perhaps if you treat this as a quick checkup on afterward DAL story events, you will have better enjoyment. Don’t put too much expectations on it, treat this as a brief checkup, it might give you some interest on the series. Story: 5/10 Character: 4/10 Art/ Animation: 3/10 Sound: 7/10 Enjoyment: 6/10 Overall: 6/10 (C)

The third chapter of the Date A Live series lives up to the first two and manages to be a fun, entertaining ride filled with twists and a refreshing level of character development. The story is solid with each episode changing the stakes for the characters. This season manages to cram several full arcs without sacrificing much from any. We are introduced to new friends and enemies while characters from prior seasons continue to develop and grow. Every episode will keep you on the edge of your seat. A fulfilling ride from start to finish. The visuals are crisp with minimal shortcuts taken. The art style is slightly different from the last seasons, to include the character costumes, and that may put off some fans of the series. My main complaint is now that the protagonists harem has grown to its current size, we don't get much personal time with each of the girls. The series tries quite hard to squeeze it in but it just doesn't work and that is why my score is where it is. Overall, I recommend the third season.

I thought the story of this anime was very enjoyable. I liked the plot twists of this season. It does stand out from most anime which was refreshing. The art of this anime is good. I enjoyed the art style for it. The action scenes did have a few noticable quality drops in 1 episode. I like the character design of this anime. The music for this anime was excellent. I especially enjoyed the battle theme for this anime. The opening and ending were also enjoyable. The characters for this anime feature a lot of cliches, but I found them very enjoyable. Despite some typical traits for each character, they do behave differently based on the situation which made some of the characters more dynamic. I really enjoyed my experience with this anime. I really enjoyed the humor from this anime. The action scenes also made this anime interesting. My favorite aspect of the anime was seeing the character interactions and the character development. Date a Live season 3 was a very enjoyable anime in my experience despite following some cliches of its genre. Overall, I would recommended Date a Live season 3 to anyone who liked the previous seasons for this anime, and to those who are interested in anime of its genre.