Shidou Itsuka has a problem. The world has been racked by massive quakes of an unknown source for years now, though life goes on. Then one day, Shidou's calm life ends forever when in the middle of a quake in his city, he meets a girl who's apparently a spirit-and the cause of all the destruction! When a team arrives to eliminate the threat, Shidou becomes embroiled in a war to protect these spirits-by making them fall in love with him?!
Date A Live is really one of a kind within the Light Novel media, the premise at first seems simple and predictable. However, it hides one of the greatest stories to be told under the disguise of a Harem comedy. Even since the first volume DAL sets a lot of questions about the world and characters, questions that get answers as you read more about the story. The early stages of the Story can be difficult to read for some people due to the execution of some plot points that take relevance later. However, once explained those points get a lot of important focus in the story.
One of the greatest strengths of Date A Live is the brilliant use of Foreshadowing that the author comes to play with, these subtle hints that at first don't seem any important contain the answers of the biggest mysteries in the series even before they happen. The author has mastered the use of this art to make the Plot-twists and revelations the most jaw-dropping that I have seen in any story.
From the beginning to the end, I think Date A Live is an amazing story that defined the phrase that says "Don't judge a book by its cover" as something to believed before thinking about reading this novel. Furthermore, the characters of this story are incredibly crafted, all their personalities and backstories, their motivations and interactions are incredibly human and they deal with struggles and overcome them in a heartwarming way. This cast is incredibly stacked of amazing characters that only deserve to have a happy ending.
I really appreciate this story and my take is that is definitely worth the read, for whatever reason one could need. It's like a hidden gem in a sea of books.
Date A Live is a light novel series from Japan with a unique premise. Essentially, it borrows heavily from Jewish and other Mesopotamian mythology. Thirty years before the beginning of the first volume, a massive destructive event began to occur, called a space-quake. This occurred in Eurasia (the area of the two continents where they connect via nation-states like Russia and other areas) and killed over 150 million people.
Eventually, after a while, these calmed down, and the world improved their technologies based on discoveries from the phenomena, while waiting with bated breath to see if more destruction would occur. Then, five years before the story begins, the quakes started up once more, this time mostly in Japan. This fact is important later on, from what I have read in spoilers, but that is an issue for later on.
Anyways, the story begins with our main protagonists, a young high-school student named Itsuka Shidou and his kid sister Kotori. After a funny series of events, Shidou meets up with a beautiful girl who the government blames for the space-quakes. They occur whenever she appears, so even though she doesn't want to hurt anyone, everyone is trying to kill her. The girl is in a state of despair as so many are trying to kill her and she doesn't want to hurt anyone, but just be left alone. This is exhibited by the fact that the fights easily show that she could annihlate her opponents and kill them utterly if she wanted to do so. Yet she refuses.
To make matters stranger, Shidou learns that his sister works for the government and that only he can stop the spirits by getting them each to care about him so he can seal their powers, and... what?!
Okay, I admit the premise is kinda ridiculous, but it works. Partly this is because it is a unique take on the mythologies presneted that both fulfills and averts the trope of "anime Catholicism/Christianity". The author takes broad liberties with the mythology of the Sephariroth. This isn't clear early on, and is only what I know from spoilers, but the beginnings of a rather complex dive into mythology can be seen in the narrative so far. At the same time, the author does seem to have researched some aspects to use in his story. It's an interesting effort, to say the least.
The only part I don't like is something I can't really trash the story much for, as it's a cultural thing. The story is kinda sexist in that the hero, Shidou, takes a lot of abuse that he can't ever really dish out. This is because Japanese view men as stronger than women and can "take it". That is sexist, in my opinion, as it assumes women too weak to hurt men, but it's a cultural thing.
Other than that, it's a great story. There are some implausibilities, but those are common for both Japanese media like this, and American media like, say, comic books. I can forgive those, as I'm used to them.
The best part is that Shidou is not some Don Juan who rides off to save a woman ignorantly. Oh, he does ride off to help folks, and wants to save them, but he knows the risks and is cognizant of how insane this notion is. It's a nice subversion of the typical hero riding out to save the damsel. To further the subversion, he rides out to "save" the damsel by winning her love so she doesn't use her power (which dwarfs his and anyone else's on the planet except other supernatural beings) to hurt people by mistake.
All in all, a really interesting (not to mention hilarious in the comedic parts) premise that makes me look forward to the second book.
Date A Live vol. 01 introduces you to a world regularly threatened by destruction from Spirits, all-powerful magical beings that cause mass destruction wherever they go. But there's a catch - you can't kill a spirit, they're basically invincible. So, you have to date them to neutralize them.
In typical light novel fashion, the story is a bit silly, light and humorous. But this is also a pretty a fast-paced, action-packed story. I remained intrigued throughout by this unusual magic concept and it was a quick read.
At times, I disliked the focus on the overly-dramatic dialogues/characters and the attempts at humor didn't always hit the mark. But overall, it's a short, fun book that shouldn't be taken too seriously. Just enjoy the silliness.
I don't remember which was the last book, that intrigued me this much, that I didn't want to stop. I was reading it quite after midnight and since in the morning I had to wake up early I, lamentably, had to put it down. However I woke up half an hour earlier than usual, so I finished the book before breakfast.
In any case, this light-novel series, has an interesting premise. The author said in the afterword something like this: imagine a story that is like a galge in which you are the main character and your decisions are decided by a highly professional group of people. And that's it.
The characters were great as was the writing. Although I didn't like the clichéd little sister character as the loli teacher. But I guess without fanservice maybe it would not sell as much.
An unbelievable story background tangles with a super-powerful being, a meek hero, tons of humor, and more than enough moments of action to drive this one through in a delightful way.
(I always do a run-down of the plot, at this point, but hold on tight because this one is a little out there...) In a world, where powerful spirits can appear and cause earthquakes and blasts, which leave entire cities destroyed...people in Japan (but an alternate reality of one)...are again being faced with the threat of destruction and have been in expectation for five years or so with bated breath. This is where teen Shidou lives, a meeker guy, who totally adores his younger sister. When the new school term begins...and after a few quirky scenes with his sister and other humorous happenings...he comes face to face with a beautiful girl, who happens to be one of these spirits. And she's confused, sad, and just not sure about anything anymore, since she's the cause of some new destruction but really doesn't want to hurt anything. Since Shidou's younger sister (a middle-schooler, btw) happens to secretly work for the government and knows that Shidou actually (unknown to him) holds the power to seal spirits. So, the little sister convinces him that he should try to get together with this spirit on a romantic level and become girlfriend and boyfriend...and that while the world wants to destroy the girl. (As said, it's a lot...and goes more through the series, I guess)
First off, I am super disappointed this wasn't a graphic novel or manga but rather a light novel. There are wonderful illustrations sprinkled in, but this would have been so much better in graphic novel form. I constantly caught myself trying to picture the scenes, while reading, as they would have been in graphic form...which got a little irritating. Some of this was due to my expectations, I think, but the tale is written as if it is the basic story before a graphic novel. For example, the dialogue between two people bounces back and forth with just dialogue (no tags or anything) for over a dozen phrases. Or the descriptions run just deep enough to imagine what the image might look like. This threw me off a little
That said, this is a super fun story. The anime flair is strong and holds amazing moments, tons silly humor, a heroine extreme but lost, a hero who as a guy can withstand everything, and tons of awkward moments along with mega-blasts when the fighting begins. What I think makes this one so fun isn't only the really odd tale (it works, for some reason) but also the hero. He isn't strong or able to rescue the lady in distress...at least, not with his own amazingness. Plus, he's very well aware of ridiculous and insane some of the situations are. This was refreshing.
Wrapped up, this is a fun tale which rolls along quick and with tons of entertainment. It's light...meaning don't expect a lot of depth...and that's good so.
I received an complimentary copy and enjoyed it quite a bit.
I really had no Idea what the Story was about when I started it. I have never watched the Anime, only heard about it.
In a Future Japan, supernatural being arrive from another dimension and bring Death and destruction. A group of Humans including high school students try to destroy them. Another group doesn't want to fight them, they want to make friends with them.
The main character get wrapped up with this, tries to date a member of the first group. While finding out that his sister is on charge of the second group, and he wants to date the being from another dimension.
3/10 Madre mía, porque a alguien le gusta esto... El prota es... Es algo inexistente. No existe una persona así en la realidad, es imposible. La hermana poco más de lo mismo, pero incluso poniéndolo en el punto de que es una novela ligera del tipo anime, es que los personajes son aburridos y estúpidos. La voy a seguir porque si tiene tantos libros, algo tiene que tener. Hay dos personajes que son interesantes, que son Origami y Tohka, y son las que salvan el libro de un 1.
Started reading the novels after finishing the anime. I like how there's little extra details (eg. extra scenes in dating sim segment) included which the anime did not include. Even for someone like me who used to not like reading, this was very enjoyable for me.
Thank you to YenPress and NetGalley for the ARC. Read the full review and more at lucienwelsh.ca
Shindo is a ridiculous protagonist who cares a lot for his younger sister and is absolutely useless with girls. So naturally he is tasked with seducing the Spirits. In the first third of the book, he reminded me a lot of Rentaro from Black Bullet, especially with his relationship with his adorable younger sister (whose appearance even reminds me of Enju from Black Bullet). And then the dating sim (for anyone unfamiliar with the term, it is like a choose-your-own-adventure video game where you date a cast of characters) aspect happened and I wasn’t buying it. At first it came off as very “this is just another gimmick to use towards the harem trope”, but then it continued on to when Shindo meets with the Spirit, Tohka for the first time and it got me intrigued.
I admit I didn’t look inside this book when I bought it so failed to realize this was actually more of a novella than manga but it did have some drawings and some full-color pictures in the front. Nothing wrong with novellas but when you’re expecting manga, it doesn’t hit the same! Still, the anime is comical and so is the book. I’ll continue to read the series now that I know what to expect.
Thirty years before the beginning of the story, a massive destructive event began to occur, called a space-quake. This occurred in Eurasia (the area of the two continents where they connect via nation-states like Russia and other areas) and killed over 150 million people.
Eventually, after a while, these calmed down, and the world improved their technologies based on discoveries from the phenomena, while waiting with bated breath to see if more destruction would occur. Then, five years before the story begins, the quakes started up once more, this time mostly in Japan.
The story begins with our main protagonists, a young high-school student named Itsuka Shidou and his kid sister Kotori. After a funny series of events, Shidou meets up with a beautiful girl who the government blames for the space-quakes. They occur whenever she appears, so even though she doesn't want to hurt anyone, everyone is trying to kill her. The girl is in a state of despair as so many are trying to kill her and she doesn't want to hurt anyone, but just be left alone. This is exhibited by the fact that the fights easily show that she could annihlate her opponents and kill them utterly if she wanted to do so. Yet she refuses.
To make matters stranger, Shidou learns that his sister works for the government and that only he can stop the spirits by getting them each to care about him so he can seal their powers with a kiss.
The blurb of the book gives a pretty good description of what the book is about. It is a somewhat absurd over the top satire on dating sim games and harem rom cons. Lets just say that oddly enough none of the dialog options ever work or are based on weird convoluted thought processes and the protagonist being very aware of this (just as many of the players of those games are).
Most of the book I really enjoyed, funny, absurd and over the top. It is mostly about the situations, less about the characters (yet) or the world and as a satire of the genre it contains many of its tropes. The protagonist is a bit of a push over and there is a sense of emotional overreaction which is common in the genre, but which I personally don't like. It made me struggle through some parts of the book. I am also not entirely sure how original the themes of the story are even though the setting is certainly different and the protagonist oddly grounded for the genre.
Still, overall I enjoyed reading it, certainly as a light hearted break from my regular reads.
I struggled to get into the first third or so of Date A Live Vol. 1. The story and characters just didn't grab me. However, as things progressed I finally began to get a feel for the piece and I enjoyed watching the developing relationship between Shido and the Spirit. There is plenty of humour and action in the tale, even if some of that humour seemed more aimed at guys (with various panty jokes etc.). However, it was still amusing for me too in the way it poked fun at certain manga tropes. This is perhaps not a series I would completely fall in love with, but the end of this volume did leave me wondering what would happen next, so I would be interested in reading on.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Con partes bastante graciosas (como cuando Shido empieza su "entrenamiento", el cual era ponerlo en situaciones incomodas y hacerlo jugar juegos otome) y otras de acción, la historia mantiene un ritmo constante que no decae en ningún momento.
Espero poder leer dentro de poco el volumen dos, porque este me encanto.
I received an eARC courtesy of Yen Press via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
I feel very disconnected from this story. While I do feel curious about where this story is going, I feel like it took too long to pull me into the story. By the end I just still didn't feel terribly invested. That being said, I do think there is quite a bit of appeal in the level of action and humor-this is definitely going to have some fans.
I was expecting manga novel though, but it turned out to be a short novel. But it had some awesome drawings. This book hasn't got any minuses, it's humorous, romantic and the end of the book made me surprised, because I didn't see things turning up the way they did.
Once you get past the paucity of description, the clumsy dialog, and the cringy tropes that seem as bound to the light novel format as illustrated pages, there is an entertaining story. If you can bear the more in-your-face visual fan service elements, I would suggest the anime as an alternative—it, at least, adds some depth to the world.
ARC Copy...Hilarious and action packed as one would expect from a light novel series where its boy (aka goof) meets girl (aka one with the fire power and could destroy the world)...what could possibly go wrong.