Date A Live V
a review by Zeichen
a review by Zeichen
Paradox - Miyu Tomita (DAL V OP)DISCLAIMER: REVIEW (ALWAYS) CONTAINS SPOILERSDate A Live, or much more known as DAL, is a series that always forever brings us to a certain specific question: Is harem genre really meritorious enough to watch? Such a question always drowns the audience into the pitfall, and this has been what makes Date A Live is a heartwarming series: The unique storytelling combined with the entertainment aspect for the plot that unexpectedly has quite some of well-written scenes, world-building, and characters. And the idea of which show that is being applied happens to be the prototype for all other harem series who strive to reach its success. Nevertheless, it also has its flaws overall, meaning that there needs to be a lot of things to address for this much beloved show that has captivated its audience with a lot of 'options' to choose, not just characters-wise, but also genres to pick. Therefore, without any further ado, let's begin with unveiling the conclusive end to this series, Date A Live V.
First of all, let's begin with the characters first despite I'm not even sure where to begin with this if I were to be honest. In spite of that, we shall talk about our ~~best waifu Shiori~~ harem protagonist Shidou Itsuka, or much known as Shinji Takamiya according to his past. I honestly was rather fond of his previous character growth and development, but this time it's a little too serious for him. However, it's okay. Regardless what path he took to change himself, he remains to be the most ~~tedious~~ memorable protagonist you would ever see that despite having the characteristic of a shounen protagonist, he also has a playful side that may make everyone blushes, including Kurumi without any exception. His cheerful, playful, an empathetic side is what grows out of the blue more than any others, as despite often falling into the hollow of sadness, he was able to sustain the feelings of blue, thus later overcome such obstacles all by himself. Yes, all by himself despite he was mostly helped by arguably the ~~single-carry waifu~~ best heroine spirit Kurumi Tokisaki. Now, let's talk about the relation between both - it's evident that they need each other, especially as it was explained during the previous seasons. Kurumi needs his power to change the world and kill the Spirit of Origin while he needs her power to objectively save every single of his beloved harem, regardless what it takes. In other words, both are selfish on their own. This means these characters have great arcs development on their own, whereas they will do anything to reach the objectives they made. Such a relationship is what makes it conclusive, as they finally encountered the Spirit of Origin, they would realize how powerless they would have been against her, Mio Takamiya:
Date A Live V, summarized To be fair, other than him and Kurumi, Reine and Mio definitely have stolen the spotlight by becoming the ~~MILFs we always root for~~ new heroines that livened up the show as soon as they appeared, with Touka still brings a crucial development along with Mana and Kotori, whereas these other characters end up being endless banters, (Origami, Nia, Mukuru, and Miku) with the rest of them becoming those walking NPCs (the rest of them except a few). Or else, they will get a little portion of development but that alone is not enough to cover their NPC-ness against the others (Yuzuru, Kaguya, and Natsumi) which cannot cover the entirety of LN, but we aren't going to talk about that original material. Another thing to talk about the overall plot and scenes: At best, it's mid or average. At worst, it has some unnecessary scenes apart from the great fans service given. And yes, I enjoyed every bit of those.
Meanwhile, the villains suck. Isaac Westcott's motivation of "being villain for the sake of villain" is the most scum-worthy development background I have ever seen, including the "I just enjoyed to make them cry" sadistic character was enough to wish him getting rotten into hell for many times. While Nibelcole, despite doing its job as a materialized-paper spirit ~~and the most legal waifu ever~~ that is hand-made, they still fall into the trope of being a goofy villain, it's exactly like seeing Meowth trying to sound villainous while end up being goofy because his master can't even do shit. However, apart from those, Artemisia Ashcroft actually has something to explore, along with Ellen, whose relationship with Woodman and Karen as the wizards were revealed to have an in-depth background, ~~unlike Isaaco Raye Peyramu Wescotto~~ considering their dreadened past as wizards. However, what turns out to be a shamble is that there were no definite explanations regarding the ranking system for wizards - I believe this was explained in the LN, so you might as well read it.
Enough with the entire shithouse that is called as characters, let's do the other aspects next, which are audio and visual. Speaking of the audio, it genuinely has its potentials, if only they never decided to muffle those on the background with unfruitful dialogues among these characters... but well, what-ifs are useless. The fact is that the audio/sound aspect is quite mid, apart from Kurumi theme which seems to be well-fitting for her, or else the part where Mio and Reine appear also has a glance of spectacle to it. Meanwhile, for the OP, it's possibly the best you could get out of this, so well done for Miyu Tomita to actually pull yet another banger after Date A Live IV with yet another captivating and emotional Opening with a lot of undecipherable meanings when you only listen to it once. However, as for visual, it was ugh, I'm not sure how to tell this but I have been never quite fond of Geek Toys studio, including their drastic approach to get rid of any LN artstyle for the sake of making their own, not to mention that this vivid approach of coloring doesn't really get me - are we watching a shoujo romance anime or what? It looks like Houseki No Kuni being adapted to a show. Otherwise, it never makes any sense, to me IMS always holds dearly along with S2 animation, while JC being mid as always and thus AIS hardly delivers that much, but GeekToys... it's just awful at best, not to mention the CG... you can tell it is one by just looking at the design, it honestly feels like watching Saint Seiya The Movie that relies on 3D and again, this makes the battle looks horrid, which is a downgrade compared to its predecessors to say the least. But still, thanks to the voice actors/actresses, this show survives to be at least not the worst ever. Kurumi has the greatest dub, as always along with Shidou, Mio, and Reine etc. which objectively bring out the amusement when it comes to the sound aspect once more.
Alright, that's all. Now, let's go back to the question: Is harem genre really meritorious to watch? The answer is yes, if you want to fulfill your entire dream by self-inserting yourself to a character that probably has never existed, or it does but it's rare along with notable fans service of harem that are ready to submit with the protagonist's desire no matter how carnal. Or no, if you don't prefer any of these but a much more serious despite trashy and half-baked isekai that doesn't even belong to the list of greats due to its perplexed direction and butchered character. Or else, you may prefer the balance of both, so might as well watch isekai harem if that's the case. Well, no matter your choice in the end, it's up to you to decide - all yours, that's it.
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