SPOILERS BEWARE Date a Live is a very special anime to me on a personal level since it was only the 3rd anime Ive ever watched but I will get to more reasoning why it holds a special place in my heart later. On the surface this is a mecha romance harem show and has no right to be as enjoyable as it is. DaL has a certain appeal which I cant quite understand but I love this anime to bits. 800https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/954408710816550952/unknown.png Lets start with the characters normally in a harem you have characters which you like more than others but here all the girls are great for the most part which is rare to find in an anime that has such a large female cast. All three/four spirits depending how you look at it that have been introduced so far have their own personalities which grow on you. Tohka was the first spirit to join the harem so shes been there since the beginning its very noticeable how her character has developed throughout the season. She no longer gets upset and mad whenever Shido is found to be with another girl but can still be unstable with her emotions at times. Yoshino is the second spirit to join the harem the trend seems to be that a loli is usually found to be part of most harems but in this case she treats Shido more as a big brother which is for the better. Yoshino is adorable and should be protected. Kotori can be counted as a spirit or not depending on how you look at it. I will treat her as a human with spirit powers because thats what she believes herself to be. She wasnt born a spirit but rather given powers from a mysterious source during the great fire five years ago. She is the tsundere of the bunch so not exactly my favorite kind but has her moments as do all the girls. Tohka seems to have the most screentime of all the girls since shes been there from the beginning however the anime does a great job at giving most of them a fair amount to shine. 800https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/954414316168302662/unknown.png 800https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/954414553628827688/unknown.png 800https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/954414001578733598/unknown.png I am leaving Origami to her own paragraph because this character is sublime. I first watched Date a Live back in early 2018 and now rewatching in 2022 I still feel the same about this incredible kuudere. Back when I was completely new to anime this show offered such a diverse range of great characters with awesome personalities. Origami very easily ranks right at the top when it comes to the female cast of this show since she is so unpredictable you genuinely dont know what to expect. There is an OVA for this season and its basically a 13th episode which shows off Origamis true nature. This episode singlehandedly explains why Origami is an incredible character. Still easily one of my favorite kuuderes around as her love for Shido is unconditional and that will never change. Her dates with Shido in this episode were special to say the least and some of the most original and unique kind of dates Ive ever seen. 800https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/954415335308689428/unknown.png The last of the main characters to introduce would be no other than best girl Kurumi. This yandere is without a doubt the best character of the show. Being a yandy which is a trait I normally dislike or dont care for yet she amuses me so much and seeing her on screen is easily my favorite part of the whole anime. This crazy psycho girl is truly something else as her twisted personality is simply sublime. There is not a single boring moment when Kurumi is on screen. Kurumi is also the main reasoning why DaL is a special show to me in fact its mostly due to Kurumi herself. Let me tell you a bit of backstory about what Kurumi did for me back in 2017. There is a song called Zaphkiel which I will link below which you should listen to anyway as its an absolute banger. Zaphkiel also happens to be the name of Kurumis angel and the song that I linked has her as the thumbnail throughout the video so I wonder if the artist took inspiration from DaL for the name of the song. I thoroughly enjoyed this song back in 2017 and my curiosity slightly piqued at seeing this badass anime girl in the video. Take into consideration this was during a time I wasnt watching anime at all so thats when I decided to do a bit of research to find out who Kurumi was. I found out she comes from the anime Date a Live so I planned to watch that show sometime in the future to see this badass anime girl in action. Then we fast forward to early 2018 when I finally watched DaL for the first time as mentioned above this was only my 3rd anime at the time and I really loved the anime. I really enjoyed this new media called anime that I found back then and that hasnt changed today. I still very much am fond of watching anime daily but Kurumi herself inspired that since I got curious of who she was that day and where she comes from. That little curiosity had opened my way into the anime world which I can only be thankful for. For this reasoning alone Kurumi has cemented herself not only as the best character of DaL but also a permanent favorite of mine on my profile since she essentially introduced me to anime. I did mention this was my 3rd show but this could basically be the 1st major one as the other two I watched before were very short and practically irrelevant nowadays. With that backstory of a monologue behind me lets get back to the actual anime now. 800https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/954417894710706176/unknown.png https://www..com/watch?v=pDeLjEXcUBAabchannel=Kolkian For a harem show this anime certainly has its fair share of wholesome and heartwarming moments that really make me happy. Shido simply stating the fact that he will be there for each of the girls bring a smile to my face as he is essentially saving them and allowing them to live normal lives. He does of course have to make them fall for him in the first place but once we get over that hurdle then she simply joins the only growing harem at this point. DaL has such a unique charm to it that makes me enjoy it so much yet I dont know what it specifically is. I simply enjoy this anime so much for some reason. 800https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/954418745613381642/unknown.png This season gave us very little information to the origin of spirits but we at least now know that there was a mysterious entity that gave Kotori her powers this unfortunate or fortunate incident depending how you look at it that occurred five years ago is a very nice bit of backstory that holds Origamis character values together. All her life since her parents died five years ago shes been training and hunting for Efreet the flame spirit which took her parents lives. It was unfortunate for her but fortunate for Shido as sealing Kotoris powers on this day saved his life as he took her healing ability. Shido gets stuck between a rock and a hard place here as on one side he has his adorable little sister which he wants to protect and on another his friend that he doesnt want to see lose herself to despair. 800https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/635602177833959439/954419386100363304/unknown.png Another thing that DaL does exceptionally well is its OST. The OST is huge for this show and so much of it is seriously incredible. I will share some of my favorites but I will link a playlist to most of the OST from this season as well if youre interested. Most notable ones that stand out to me are Mission of AST the piano version of the OP and Rhapsody Rage however a lot of this soundtrack is truly incredible so I do recommend listening to some of it if you are liked the series. https://www..com/watch?v=B6RKc2HGRRolist=LLindex=12abchannel=AloneButNotForgotten https://www..com/watch?v=tUX9zeh1Ge8list=LLindex=8abchannel=AloneButNotForgotten https://www..com/watch?v=lhK9Ej6KHRwlist=LLindex=5abchannel=AloneButNotForgotten OSThttps://www..com/playlist?list=PLoMYIvy6AgyFkuYkh4kufWLe1wX5Skte With that I bring this review to a close as Ive mentioned all that I wanted. DaL as stated many times already has no right to be as enjoyable as it is but it simply works and I adore it. This is now my 3rd rewatch of the series so I decided to write a review for it this time. It will always be an anime series that I cherish and can go back to since Kurumi inspired so much for me here. If there is a harem I recommend then its certainly this one as its got a lot of cute adorable girls with very likeable personalities has tons of great OST and a very simple yet entertaining story to follow. You really cant go wrong with this one. S2 Reviewhttps://anilist.co/review/15781 Movie Reviewhttps://anilist.co/review/16134 S3 Reviewhttps://anilist.co/review/16219 S4 Reviewhttps://anilist.co/review/17309