DATE A LIVE Episode 1 [First Impression]

Eva’s First Impression:
Ever since I seen the first PV, I was really looking forward to seeing what was going to be in store for us. However after a number of underwhelming or crappy titles coming out, I grew skeptical of what to come.  Fortunately I am quite satisfied with how this turned out.
DATE A LIVE starts off with a Spacequake disaster that killed 150 million people thirty years ago. Of all the places in the world, Japan is the most prone to these events, and over the past twenty-five years they have been gradually increasing. To the public they are known as widespread disturbances of space of unknown. However the truth is that what is causing these ‘Spacequakes’ are the Spirits who come from god knows where, but are confirmed to be not from this world. Whenever these Spirits drop by, they end up (accidentally???) blowing up everything within the area of their landings.
To counter these spirits there are two strategies:
#1) The AST, aka Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force’s Anti-Spirit Team. They are in charge of getting rid of the spirits. Toiichi Origami, Shido’s classmate is the leader of the squad. She is especially devoted to her job since she hates Spirits because they are the ones to blame for her parents’ death five years ago.
#2) Make the spirits fall in love. How is this supposed to help, we don’t know yet- especially since it could seriously backfire if these spirits were to get their heart broken. Yeeeeeeeah… the world wouldn’t be in one piece if that were to happen. Hahaha.
I felt that this episode did give us a justifiable amount of information while keeping the main basis of the plot vague. I am not entirely sure yet whether to take their word of making the spirits fall in love with Shido being the actual plot. I think it will be more of a subplot, and there is going to be something bigger going on- or at least that what I am kind of hoping for. Like I said in the Spring Pre-Impression, I just hope that the plot will be prioritized rather than the fanservice. Either way, as long as the story and characters are good, I should be able to enjoy this show from start to finish- regardless of the fanservice spree (hopefully they won’t overdo it…).
I like Itsuka Shido’s character, he is a laid-back guy, cares for his sister (I don’t know whether their parents are alive or not, but I am going to assume that they are probably dead), and had a relatively good reaction to this crazy turn of events (especially with his sister being a commander). This is also the first time in a while since I have seen an MC as the brother efficiently scare off his sister when she is bothering him in the morning. Of course now that we know that Kotori is the commander of the Fraxinus ship (or Ratatoskr… aren’t they one and the same???), I am fairly certain that she isn’t actually scared of his ‘T-Disease’ strategy and that it’s just all part of her cutesy act. With that said, Kotori’s role as a commander threw me off so I do hope that they will explain at some point how she ended up in that position in the first place.
The spirit we met today (I believe the force identified her as ‘Princess’ so I’ll go with that for now) showed us her vunerable side. She had questioned whether Shido was going to try and kill her too. I wouldn’t assume this for every spirit, but at the very least for Princess seems to be not only confused and scared but perhaps she is lost. …Wow that sounded really cliche. Well we ought to find out why she’s here next week since Shido will be confronting her again.
The animation is great, in fact can we all take a moment to appreciate the fact that the mecha suits the ATS are wearing are NOT in CG!!!! I LOVE the character designs and the vibrant colors. I also love that both Origami and Princess introduced so far have epic battle armors and the they are both so cute! <3 There were no OP/ED, so we’ll be seeing it next week. I did find it quite amusing how they used the game to give Shiro the instructions at the end of the episode.
Overall I would say this is a pretty good start, especially when you compare to the recent titles that have come out so far. I hope this will turn out to be a great show as I am definitely interested in taking part of the coverage.
PS: Reine needs to get some sleep- and fast. Actually, does she get any sleep at all?!
Possibility of Blogging: High
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed!
Stay Tuned for Vantage’s First Impression…