Date A Live is back! And what better way to start off the show than adding a little mystery?
Some background about me and this show, it came out right as I started watching anime seasonally. Pre-DAL was whatever I watched as a kid and whatever I could scrap together from Netflix. Think Rosario + A Vampire type shows. Like a lot of shows you watch when you’re younger, it feels really strange to see it now, since (hopefully) you’ve grown up a bit in body and mind. Will I still like it? and similar thoughts rush to my head and I’m left reminiscing on the times spent watching the previous seasons. I’m not even entirely sure why this was brought back but, then again, I’m also not really complaining.
Having done no prior rewatch/rereads of the content, it did take me a few minutes to come back up to speed. Spatial Quakes. ‘Oh, right, right.’ Sees invisible ship controlled by loli commander. ‘Yeah, I guess that was a thing too wasn’t it?’
Now that I’m back up to speed and settled in, let’s get to my first impression.
Nice.
Oookay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s really get into it. It looks like the whole plot is laid out in episode one. Amidst harem related shenanigans, there is going to be a mystery as Shidou is tasked with finding Natsumi among the 12 potential fakers. Luckily Touka and Origami were there to sniff him out from the beginning, but now the real challenge is afoot. I doubt Origami remembers the center of gravity concerning everyone who isn’t Shidou.
First thing I noticed. Wow, I missed this cast. Especially Touka and Origami. I’m not sure how commendable it is that Origami could point out the real one by the length of his blink, but I still love her all the same. I don’t know if it’s only because she was first, but I’ve always considered Touka leagues above most of the other girls. She doesn’t have the aggressiveness of Origami, but when she tells him to just give her a heads up before he fondles her next time, I mean… come on. She’s great and a go-getter. The twins are always great and Yoshino and Yoshinon are adorable. Kotori still is prime imouto material and that knee drop into Shidou’s stomach is a perfect example. I’ll be real with you, I mostly forgot about the idol… Despite her being the most recent, I honestly took until writing this to really remember her.
Now we’re just missing Kurumi. And when I say ‘missing’, I seriously mean it. I don’t know if or how she’ll work her way into this season, but I wouldn’t mind some Tokisaki action right about now. Other than that, this episode really was nothing special. I don’t mean that in a bad way by any means. It’s essentially exactly what you’d expect from the series, which is actually kind of impressive after such a long break.
Natsumi looks to be the newest victim for Shidou. The fact that it went so smoothly when they first met was a bad sign of things to come. It’s never that easy. Regardless, I think she will fill a nice gap in the harem. The onee-san type is highly sought after in this day and age. The, uh, tight bodysuit and star patterns didn’t hurt too much either. I don’t fully grasp what her power is, but for now it seems like I could compare it to that of a corny, but effective, magician. Of course, there’s also the fact that she is embarrassed about her true form. We didn’t get the chance to see it, but the fact that it immediately set her off and go out of her way to ruin Shidou’s life is probably a fair indicator that she’s not too excited about it.
While it seems like this is going to end up just being Shidou accepting the ‘true form’ of Natsumi at the end, whatever that may look like, I’m into this for the journey, not the destination. Judging by the first episode I think I’ll be able to slide right back into it and have some fun along the way. I remember this being able to balance comedy, action, and poignancy pretty well so I’ll also be looking forward to some nice fights and maybe, juuust maybe, some tears. That opening scene where Origami shot by shot got closer to the house made me laugh quite a bit and is another testament to why I love her as a character.
One thing to note was that I briefly looked online and saw a few complaints of bad animation from the original airing, they did a live stream or something??, but it looks like that is pretty much moot now because this episode looked fine. I had also forgotten about the ‘that’s so lame’ girl but as soon as soon as I saw her I instantly was like, ‘I REMEMBER YOU’.
Possibility of Blogging: High. In the likely event I blog this show, I look forward to some nice, civil discussions about why Kurumi is the best girl in the show.