Shido and his band of spirits return for more fan service, fighting and mystery in season 2 of Date A Live. The season started out with an episode that is almost identical to the first episode of season 1. It felt like it was a refresher for fans to remember where we left off. So here is a little refresher for you.
30 years ago, a disaster known as a spacequake obliterated the center of Eurasia without warning, leaving 150 million corpses in its wake. Ever since that day, mankind has lived in constant fear of the spontaneously recurring spacequakes.
One day, an ordinary high school boy named Shido Itsuka discovers a mysterious girl at ground zero of a recent spacequake. Shido learns, through the help of his sister Kotori, that the girl is one of the Spirits: mystical creatures responsible for the genesis of the spacequakes. As captain of the anti-Spirit airship Ratatoskr, Kotori recruits Shido to help “seal” the sprits, thus ending their threat to mankind.
There’s just one catch: the only way to seal a spirit – is to make her fall in love with you.
The first half of the series was very focused on 3 spirits and the localized city he lived and went to school in. Season 2 branched out to new locations and brought us many new spirits. Most of all, we got some plot advancement as the mystery surrounding DEM are peeled back and Shido’s true identity is teased.
The first 4-5 episodes of season 2 are very heavy on the fan service, almost too heavy. I like some fan service as much as the next person but it felt a little forced, even for Date A Live. However, once the plot got moving by episode 4, they never looked back. We got intense battle scenes, powerful spirits and Shido cross-dressing. Okay so the last part was more funny to watch then interesting. The great backstories of all the characters and the constant battles almost had me forgetting the point of this story was for Shido to seal the spirits powers by getting them to fall in love with him.
Sadly this season ends much like season 1 did, with the big battle completed, and the spirits safe with Shido but our mystery character, Mr. Westcott is not explored any deeper. We are left with more questions than answers, but we do learn one thing. Shido’s true name is Takamiya. Based on the point in which the anime stopped, which was light novel volume 7, there is plenty of story material to do another season but nothing has been officially announced yet.
If you love fan service, harem, action packed series that you can both take seriously and laugh at, I recommend giving Date A Live a shot. Pick Up Season 1 and Season 2 over on Amazon.com Or Visit Funimation.com and sign up for a subscription to get access to all the best anime as they drop in Japan.
