Date A Live

There are a lot of SPOILER. You have to read Date a Live before reading it.
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Date a live was something I did not even think about reading in the past. I watched the first 2 seasons of the anime and then dropped it, found it boring and generic. And recently I began reading light novels, so i thought why not give a second try to Date a live and see if the anime messed up or if even the original thing is the same and some people convince me too. I’m so happy to have given it a chance, I began reading on 07/13 and finished all the sides and spin off on 08/20. I started reading with no expectation, and it was the most surprising thing I have read, blowing away all the thought I got on it and it became one of my favorites.
At first, I was shocked by the fact that there are no “bad” volumes. All the volumes had their own qualities and introduced new spirits in different ways, with the dates, with wholesomes moments and when it got serious, the reading was fluid and I was really involved in it. I began to really enjoy my reading on volume 4, with the recontextualisation of Kotori's past, and the history of her ribbon. Yoshino's volume was really wholesome, with her freezing loneliness and her gentleness. I appreciated the volume even more with her conclusion, with Yoshinon history and her mother. It made me emotional and it recontextualized all the dialogue she had with Yoshinon. It's just an example but all the volumes got their own settings, and some insane foreshadowing, with little details that built for the last stretch.
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I want to talk about the characters, the strongest point of the series. There is not a Spirit that is left out or forgotten. They all participated and got their moments, emotional settings and conclusion. They are not the same in all ways, each got their own feature. Natsumi, with her self-deprecation, but as she is surrounded by Shido and Yoshino and everyone she tries to change, theme of self-acceptance. It hits more when you know why she acts like this and the last volume, heartbreaking moment for me, recontextualizes so much like Yoshino. Yoshino too, trying to socialize, trying to go to school and help Natsumi for it. Emotional moment when she gets rid of Yoshinon, and declares herself to Shido in front of everyone and in Encore she even goes to school without Yoshinon.
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Miku and Nia. Honestly I hated Miku so much at first, but I began to like her throughout the series and Encore just upgraded it even in Bullet to. The way she rejected humans and friendship but she changes thanks to Shido when she sees his dedication toward Tohka and how he loves her.
Nia, I want to call her the comic of the group. She is like a big sister who jokes around, to bring the good mood when they are in a great crisis. Her suffering when she was captivated in DEM. The way she can’t open her heart to humans is really touching too but again thanks to Shido who releases her with the spirits she began to change. In Miku and Nia the human relationship and friendship is really present, especially in Miku's part. Maria and Nia's relationship is hilarious too, even Maria participated actively in the cast.
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The Yamai sister, too, has some unique features. They are different in practically all things except their faces, way of speaking, hobbies and more. For me it show that even if they are twins from the same person, they are still humans and individual existence, one who cannot live without the other and their introduction show perfectly this because even if they like to compete each other and their self-sacrifice, in reality they wanted each other to live, and again thanks to Shido they were able to do it.

Kotori is really special. She is really young but still, has to act like a commandant and an adult. The story behind the ribbon is unique too, it’s like a bond between her brother and her uniquely. The things that from the beginning of the story she knows she can’t have Shido's heart because of the sister things hurt because she still loves him not as a sister but as a lover too. Yeah, Kotori really is something because even when she gets betrayed by her best friend, she still acts like a commander, because if not, everyone will go down with her. And as the story progressed she began to let Shido act on his own and create a stronger bond with him.

Mukuro. Oh man, make me cry a little, no joke. Tragic story, tragic love and childhood. As a lonely child who grows up with no parents, she gets adopted by a family, thinking that family is something special and that It can be considered normal. One day, during a trip with her sister (the one in the family that adopted her), she brings friends. Mukuro thinks that her sister will stop loving her, or love her friends more because her sister even agrees when her friends say that Mukuro has to cut her hair. An act that she did not understand because her sister alway says that her hair is beautiful and she doesn't have to cut it. The family that represents warmth, the memories with her sister watching stars and all the bliss crumbled. Like it’s understandable, a lonely child, who grows up alone, discovers love for a family, didn’t know was it, and suddenly a “stranger” gets in and wants to get rid of your family. During this period Phantom appears and she is the beginning of all. Mukuro gets rejected by the only family she had loved, and lives in space, utterly alone, locking her heart, feeling, without even knowing what loneliness is. She is with the stars that she once loved watching, but she doesn't even bother thinking about it while she can reach them : alone in the dark just like the space, really like this contrast with her. But after thanks to Shido and the group, he unlocked her heart, an explosion of emotions happened, she regained her personality and they fell together on the earth. There is more to say, but Mukuro really is one of the tragic characters in the series and I like her.

Kurumi. Everytime she is here, you know it’s going to be a blast and insane moments. She is here practically in all central points, and key points of the series. She is the beginning of some tragedies too, along with the start point of the final stretch. Her introduction was one of the best, maybe the best. Representation of kill, gore, blood, all what a Spirit should do because they’re called catastrophic existence. She got betrayed, killed her own friends, and decided to take the role of the “bad guy” for her unique purpose and desire. She is a twisted character, with some unique patterns and manner of speech that make her charming. And the fact that she is here, practically every time something messed up is insane and shows how great she is. The way she saved Shido 200+ times, left me speechless, showing how she is capable of doing everything for only the purpose of her dream, and she too loves Shido, because she decided to let her dream in Shido's hand. He ended up not respecting his promise because he was not able to reboot the world and kill the original spirit, but still, he saved everyone. The way her power is used is so well done. Control time, in general I don’t like things like restarting or going back in time, or even playing with the law of the times, but here it is so well crafted and not confusing at all. The utilisation of her spirit's power brings so much in the series and plays an important role too.

Next is Tohka and Origami. Origami, funniest but weirdest character of the series or not even I have even seen. I will not elaborate because yeah I think it’s understandable why. But I really like her character, at first it’s like your generic revenge character, with the rivalry with Tohka. But when the story progresses, and you get more of her background you begin to sympathize with. The person she wanted to kill is in reality herself because she is one who killed her parents. This plot twist, I was not expecting it and even less the fact that Kurumi is in the center of this. Later, when Origami gets saved by Shido, she begins to live with the spirits and changes her mind of thought toward them and gets rid of her trauma. And then there is “normal Origami” and the “weird” one but they are still the same even though the weird one is practically here every time. Tohka is one of my favorite characters. I will try not to be too long. She is like a newborn, a baby. She doesn’t know anything in the world even how to wear clothes. Even her existence is because of a whim, Mio decided not to kill her when she created her because it’s her own child, so she thought that she would let her live and embrace her. At first Tohka was Tenka, an ego with her own will, but throughout the times another existence appear, created space quacks in in the same being as Tenka, it was Tohka and Tenka begin to observe her as she was saved by Shido, go on a date, discover happiness and all different emotion of being happy. Tenka is like a big sister, she appears whenever Tohka feels despair or strong negative emotion and takes control to protect her. She even creates a world where everyone is happy without a single problem just for the sake of Tohka. Tohka smile is something I can’t stand, every time she smiles I feel happy and sad at the same time especially in Encore. Every slice of life moments with Tohka makes me emotional. She is so precious and her theme of freedom is so well done. She depends on Mio to live, because she is not a human being, she depends on the whim of the earth to live, to gather enough magic to make her reappear. I can tell more but she is so precious, and just her smile is enough to make me feel something.
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Now to finish Mio. Favorite character. But before I want to talk about Westcott a little. He is a really good antagonist. Pure evil and malefic in total opposition to Shido. He is the one that created Mio, so the one start all the tragedies and history by creating Mio and killing Shin. He seems complex but yet has a simple mind. He just wanted a reason to kill, to make bads act, and the destruction of her village was that reason. The magicien is a bit related to Fate magic too and the fact that they’re not in a big community make the magicians feel superior, just like Westcott. Not too much to say about him but Mio, I have many things to say but I will try to make it not long. I will say it clearly, she is not a god at all. Her powers are god-like and even if her character design is like a god or omnipotent things but she does not act like this. She is selfish, she deceives, she kills, creates tragedies and disasters, does not bring happiness, ultimately yes because all the spirits gather together with Shido and all but this was not her purpose. Even Shido was created for her own purpose, to bring back Shinji. She trampled on life, people because of her selfishness but one of the things that make her character so tragic is this : “ I had only Shin. If I lost Shin, there was no meaning to living”. “ I’m not as weak as a human, even if I wanted to die I could not die.” Shin was her purpose to live when she lost that purpose, she doesn’t know what to do. She is way stronger than a human but because of that she can’t even die. Because of that faint hope and selfishness, she creates tragedies, creates Shido to kill her in the future, an existence similar to her, to bring an end to her endless suffering. She sympathizes with the spirits that she created, but there was no other way, to create spirit, essence for Shido to kill her in the future but it’s a contradiction to the fact that she wants to meet to Shin through Shido, and resurrect him. “Itsuka Shidou was a provisional personality that would one day become Takamiya Shinji” and her peak despair and tragidie of Mio is shown by why Shido was created. “Mio, in order to create an existence that could kill yourself, you gave birth to me.” . It brings us to Reine. One of the biggest plot twists I have seen left me speechless. The amount of foreshadowed we have we have with her even in the beginning on the volume 1 :
“It’s been a while.
A familiar voice echoed in his mind.
We finally, finally get to meet, XXX.
It was yearning, affectionate.
I’m so happy. But please wait just a tiny bit longer.
Who was it? There was no answer to this question.
I’ll never let you go again. I’ll never make that mistake again”. And he woke up in front of Reine. Reina, as a part of Mio, participates in the wish of Mio and deceives more people (Kotori specially). “Murasame Reine was a temporary disguise for Takamiya Mio.” She was tired of living. 30 years without sleep, everytime she closed her eyes the death of Shin came back to her. She only slept a few precious minutes on Shido's shoulder. She is the absolute catastrophe of the world, the bear she has all these years is proof that she can’t let go of Shin and the past and Reine represents this too, the symbol to never lose sight of what she really wants. I will finish with this. Tohka is a contrast to Mio : both pure spirits but one could not live, Mio loses Shinji, while the other lived and was able to love Shido without «obstacle». Thanks to the Beast volume it gives the perspective of what will happen if Tohka loses Shido. Ultimately, she accepts the loss of Shido and redeems herself : the world may have been destroyed but humanity can recover. In contrast Mio is irredeemable, she cannot take back what she had done, which is why she is fated to die. The point culminant of Mio is when after her miserable life of regret, agony, despair she is able to meet Shin, somewhat redeem herself and put an end to Westcott. One of the most emotional characters I witnessed despite her appearing in such a short period of time.

I want to end this with Shido. He has a great opposition with Westcott, they are legit opposite to each other. Shido growth is admirable. He gets involved in the events without understanding anything at first, his existence was created for the purpose to kill her own creator, but yet he finds another way to live. He helps all the spirits without any distinction, do all sorts of absurd things to open their hearts to him. It’s just joyful. He is powerless without the spirits and can’t do anything alone, but progresses throughout the series to even beat Westcott and he shows that communication is an important process to make friends, family and more. A peak protagonist that was able to make emotion and feel chills in certain moments. His relationship with the spirits is so precious too and he has a different effect on them. Don’t know how to explain my things to him but I really like him, he breaks my expectations.

To finish, I can say Date a live is comfortably one of my favorite things, a comedic, joyful story at first but yet, tragic, trauma, drama and story of love and loss. Trying to find peace but yet not being able to do it. When I look back there is not a character I hate. Westcott groups, I was not able to talk about them but they are the foundation of all too. The Fraximus group, oh men, missed the moments when they were making choices for the date, such an archetype and special group. The teacher with her inability to find someone but in Encore she marries Kanazuki. This make me laugh, he saw a 14 years old girl so he think it’s okay, such a dumb guy but still got his own funny moments. Mana, she has been here since the beginning too, with the group, Itsuka parent too. The power system with Realizer is well done, the different organizations created and their roles. Thanks to Tachibana for creating such insane stories and a loveable cast and thanks to Tsunako for the beautiful illustrations.
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Date a live touch my heart and thanks for existing.

Thanks for reading.