I'm pretty sure Date A Live saw these options: A) Give me harem and cute girls, B) Some cool sci-fi concepts please, and C) Dating sims would be nice, but decided to scratch choosing just one of those and instead incorporated them all into one weirdly entertaining piece. Everything is so silly, so dysfunctional, and so absurd, that I can't help but to humor myself in this show.

Seriously though. When you have a premise that basically takes dating—uh-huh, dating—as a way to save the world from mysteriously strong entities called Sprits, and they look like attractive girls I might add, things can spiral out of control very quickly. This show actually looks as if it embraces ridiculousness more than logic. It took common sense out of the game with the clichéd developments, theatrical dialogues, and generic character tropes like it's the most normal thing you can do. At one point, we see these Spirits demolishing buildings but the next thing, they swiftly fall in love with our protagonist, Shidou, after he spews out some good-sounding yet bland lines. Then there's also that episode about a weird food battle between militarized girls that takes form in fetishized ways. If the story sounds ridiculous, it definitely is. But somehow, it manages to turn an unwanted feature into a fun comedy-drama of farce nature.

Narratively speaking, I guess Date A Live can pride itself the most in two things: the dates and the girls. Even though Shidou is a surface-level protagonist in the more serious moments, he's quite a hilarious guy if we're talking about the slice-of-life scenes, a.k.a. the dates. His awkwardness when it comes to love comes out strongly when he's interacting with the Spirits, which brings us to our next topic about the girls. Forgetting the fact that they're not that fleshed out and embody known character tropes, their double personality of being cute and strong is definitely a charming quality. Every girl is given traits with enough distinctiveness from one another that they become enjoyable to watch in both the fighting and adorable aspects. And sexy aspects too, because their attractive looks will come to waste if we didn't get any fan services right?

Regarding the sci-fi elements here, most of them are seen in the military groups that fight against the Spirits. Not much explanations are given to how their technologies or operations exactly work, so don't expect much other than them existing for the sake of the dating sim premise and some display of cool-looking futurism.

When it comes to the aesthetics, this is where the girls are able to truly shine further with what you can say is the quickest way to a person's heart. The visual boasts a vibrant color palette which—when combined together with the great character designs for all the girls—is pretty darn appealing to look at. Its animation might not be the most immaculate out there, but the consistency helps to provide linear enjoyment. Even for the dating scenes, the quality hardly dips down and did really well to express the differences in tone when you compare the cuter liveliness from the explosive action scenes.

One other thing this show has strong rein over is the adaptable set of soundtracks. Variety comes in with galore as scenes are backed up by music that specializes in different moods, whether those are the cheerful colors of dating or the orchestral tension in powerful battles. The seiyuus did a solid job in personalizing their respective characters with fitting temperaments, especially when you consider the regular switches between the fun and the serious sides. Something else worth pointing out is the amazing deep vocal sang by secret ARMS for the opening song. I personally find it to be one of the better elements you can get here.

So, what can I say about Date A Live? It's definitely not a tidy show by any means. The story has this peculiarity to it that frequently gets to ridiculous levels, to the point where it doesn't follow the correct laws of rationality. But! If you can somehow find leisure in all that ridiculousness, it'll become somewhat of an amusing aspect. And if you're just here for all the strongly adorable girls, then I suppose you've come to the right place.

Be prepared. It's a date-eat-date world out there.