"Hot chicks and explosions, everything you could ever want from an anime."
Show-Date A Live
Episode Title-April 10
Air Date-March 31st 2013 (Niconico Streaming Date) and April 6th 2013 (TV Airdate)
Season 1
Episode 1
Hello my name is Evan A.K.A. The Animated Critic. I shouldn't have to tell you this, but anime is completely different from our cartoons here in the west. It's to the point most anime fans don't even want to associate their beloved shows with childish cartoons. And while it may seem weird to lump Fullmetal Alchemist or One Piece in with something like Spongebob or Family Guy it's all one in the same. Animation. It's just both America and Japan have different audiences and histories with the medium. Japan has always taken animation more seriously and as such most anime is more story driven and serious. Here in america cartoons were popularized as things for comedy, and it wasn't until Snow White came along that people actually attempted to use cartoons as a means of telling a serious story with actual characters. We are beginning to take our animation a lot more seriously though. It took almost a century, but now more masses of people have begun to realize what kind of power animation can have. Even the comedy shows are having more serious moments pop up from time to time. Don't get me wrong, I love the funny stuff, but it's nice to have more serious pieces of animation pop up more often. Shows like Steven Universe and Gravity Falls. While still silly and goofy they still have a serious plot. The animation community is evolving at such a rapid rate, it's kind of astonishing. We live in a society where even My Little Pony can amass a serious fan base. There's truly no better time to be a fan of animation, and I think the spread of anime deserves a big thanks for that. A lot of shows airing now were inspired by anime. Anime really began spreading in popularity in the late 90s. It existed in America before that, but this was really when anime got it's first major boost in popularity. Shows like Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion and much more showed a lot of the world that what was just considered an excuse for jokes could be used and brought to whole new levels. I hear a lot of animators saying that anime was a big inspiration for them. So while it may seem weird, in the end anime has helped the animation industry as a whole grow big time. Without it we wouldn't be where we are today. So yes, every now and then I will be discussing an anime. Heck, I even plan to start a series just about anime. I chose Date A Live to be the first show we talk about just because it's been awhile since I've seen it and I always thought it'd make for a fun review. So lets dig into Date A Live Episode 1 and do something a little more fun after the horrendous episode we had to watch last time.
So the episode starts in a field, when all of a sudden some strange vortex comes down from the sky.
We get a shot from above Earth just to see how big it really is, and I have to say it reminds me of Subspace.
You remember Subspace? From Super Smash Bros. Brawl?
The only legit story mode in the Super Smash Games? Anyone? No? It wasn't even that bad. Oh yeah, anime. So this black hole of death is known as a Spatial Quake. The narrator, who will later be seen to be the main character, explains that the cause of these are unknown, but the one we saw in particular killed thousands of people. Enough of that serious stuff though...it's time for panties.
Because anime. So we meet our main character's little sister as she tries to wake him up.
Wait...she's only 14?
AW SHI.....
In all seriousness though I really like the relationship these two siblings have. It's actually really fricking adorable how the two interact and play around with each other. Speaking of which, it's time to meet our main character. Shido.
I love it when anime give us too much information about their characters. Like when am I ever gonna need to know Shido's blood-type. It's been awhile, but I can assure you it won't hold any relevance to the plot. God knows though that if someone where to ask me Shido's blood-type I'd remember the answer to that more than if someone were to ask me what the equation of finding the circumference of a circle is.
Anyway the cuteness continues before tragically being interrupted by the plot. The news reports talk of another Spatial Quake. Apparently a lot more of these have been happening in the last 15 years. Conveniently, most of them have been located around the area of Japan our two heroes happen to be in. So yeah...more death. Such a tragic thing....and we're jumping back into the cuteness. Ok. To be fair, I am slightly exaggerating how off putting the jump from serious stuff to cute stuff is. They actually handle the handling the two relatively well. So Shido starts telling his sister not to eat sweets before breakfast and my God it's soooooo CUTE!
The two talk about where they should go for lunch and decide that they should go to a local diner.
And here comes that cease and desist order from Denny's.
Shido promises to meet Kotori there though, even if there's a Spatial Quake.
We then cut to this group of gossipers.
They only have one joke. The blondie and red head say something about the situation then the blue haired one says "That's so lame."
In this case they talk about how Shido has a sister complex.
We then meet Tonomachi Hiroto.
Apparently the best friend of Shido. The three gossipers begin talking about the rumor that he's bisexual.
Guess what they say.
"That's so lame."
You heard it here first guys, being bi is so lame. It's so last season.
The blonde douchebag notices a mysterious girl watching from behind a pole.
So she tells her friends.
What happens next will shock you.
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
"THAT'S SO LAME!!!!!!"
So we cut to Shido and his friend on the first day of a new school semester. Hiroto tries to hit on him, but Shido ain't having it.
When all of a sudden Hiroto gets a message on his phone from his girlfriend....
......and it's a dating sim.
...........
Sorry, sorry. That joke just a hit a little too close to home and I needed some time to collect myself. Anyway, white hair creeper from earlier appears and reveals that she knows Shido. When Shido asks how, she just replies with "Oh, you forgot."
I, unfortunately, also know that feel.
We find out some info about this girl, Tobiichi Origami.
She's apparently perfect both academically and athletically. She also seems to be pretty popular. Though more in the sense that people know about her. She seems to lack some social skills, as seen by the fact she chose to stalk Shido behind a pole.
Also fun fact: Her and Shido share the same blood-type.
As I said, this is all really useful information, you should be taking notes.
So then the teacher comes in, and she gets a special introduction slide as well, though I don't really remember her actually having a purpose in the plot.
But hey, at least we know she has an O blood-type.
After class we see Hiroto hitting on Shido again, but once more Shido ain't having it.
When all of a sudden the school has to be evacuated due to the potential of a Spatial Quake happening nearby.
We cut to a dark room with some screens.
I'm assuming what they're talking about is important, but all but one of them is speaking Latin so for all I know they could be having a discussion on if water is actually wet or not.
Back to Shido, we see the students are currently in the process of getting into a secured shelter. Shido tries calling Kotori, but she's not answering. He remembers the promise to meet up at the diner even if there is a Spatial Quake and begins to wonder if she's there. He decides she can't be that stupid though, but checks her phones GPS signal anyway.
She's that stupid.
So Shido runs out into the middle of the streets with the Spatial Quake drawing nearer and nearer.
Eventually it does hit, but it seems to just barely miss Shido. Didn't miss the rest of the town though.
He eventually finds a huge crater in the middle of the street. And in the middle of that is a hot chick wearing revealing clothes....because anime.
I'd consider that a score.
The chick notices Shido and threatens to kill him, as she thinks Shido is there to kill her. Of course Shido is baffled by this.
Shido tries to explain he's not there to kill her, but the chick has no time to deal with him right now as an army of hot chicks in robot suits (again...anime) are firing missiles at her.
Being led of course by the white haired creep from earlier, Origami.
Unfortunately for them the mysterious chick has Protect in her move set and deflects all the missiles.
The chick and the robot powered girls get into a fight and Shido realizes just how sad the mysterious chick actually looks.
I'm gonna guess it's because people are trying to kill her.
That's generally a very saddening experience.
Eventually Origami gets out of her robot suit and decides to fight with her own sword-esque weapon.
Ok, in what world is that considered armor? First of all she's got nothing covering her face minus some stupid headband which isn't gonna do anything. Nor does she have anything covering her legs. Also half of her boobs are just out in plain sight, which is probably not something you want when fighting mysterious creatures from God knows where. You could make the argument that the limited armor helps with movement, but I say it doesn't matter how well you can move if you take a hit in one of your many unprotected areas. You gonna die.
So the two get into a hand to hand combat fight. Though the animation does that weird thing action cartoons sometimes do where they replace the hands with lines, and make it look like their fist are moving at a speed that breaks the sound barrier.
I will say though the music during this fight is great. It's called Mission of the AST and it's one of my favorite anime tracks. It's high-octane and intense just like the fight. I must say, overall Date A Live probably has one of my favorite soundtracks in anime history.
Eventually, the fighting gets so intenset that another Spatial Quake happens.
So, the goal of those robot suited people is to stop these things right?
Good job team.
Shido unfortunately gets hit by this one, but instead of dying gets knocked out. In his dreams he sees...
A mouth with limited animation?
God, your dreams are lame!
He wakes up in some sort of hospital room.
Here we meet one of my favorite characters in the entire show.
Reine, with an O blood-type. You all better remember that. This chick just seems so out of it with every line she delivers and her design just enhances that feeling. She speaks with an almost monotone voice. She's a pretty humorous character, and I love her.
Reine says she's probably not fit to explain what's going on so she takes Shido to the main deck where we meet another new character.
We'll get to him later.
But we also meet the leader of this little squadron.
Kotori.
Before we get an explanation though we see that Origami made it out safely and returns to her other hot anime babes tired and worn out.
Ok, now back to Shido.
Kotori isn't the cute little sister we saw from the beginning. In this persona she's a highly acclaimed leader, which is a pretty big accomplishment for a 14 year old. She's still playful and teasing towards her brother, just in a much more stern way. Less cutesy little sister and more military general type deal. (Though don't get me wrong she's still freaking adorable). She even tells Shido he should be kissing her feet to which Kyohei, the blondie, proudly volunteers to do.
Kotori is not having it. It's OK though as he....
gets turned on by it. Ew!
Ok, we need the FBI back in here this instant.
Kotori asks what exactly Shido was doing down there during the Spatial Quake, and he explains the whole situation. Kotori says it makes sense her tracker would say she's at the diner, because technically they're above it.
So this scene ends with Kotori saying she has a mission for Shido, but doesn't yet explain what it is.
We then get a good 10-15 seconds where all that happens is we see this girl lying down.
No real reason, other than the fact the staff realized they were short a few seconds.
So the next day at Shido's school we see Reine has become an assistant teacher.
The class's reaction is priceless, it's even funnier as after she introduces herself she just falls over.
Did I mention how much I love this character?
Reine explains back at HQ that she needed to be the assistant teacher to keep an eye on Shido. Though, as someone who's seen this entire series, I can say they really don't do much with Reine being Shido's assistant teacher. It's kind of superfluous to the plot. At the HQ Kotori finally gives us some answers and tells Shido that the chick he saw is known as a spirit. Due to the fact they really don't belong here their presence causes Spatial Quakes weather they want it to or not. Kotori says there are two ways to deal with a spirit. Though she only explains one. Kill them. Which Shido is not OK with. Kotori explains that's not what they do though as that's the job of the AST, the chicks with the robot suits. She explains they do it a different way. She doesn't explain how they do it, but all we know is that Shido has to train for it. As for the training?
It's a dating sim.
So dating sims make you an expert at dating. That must mean Cooking Mama makes me a top chef, Pokémon makes me an expert at animal fighting, and playing Call of Duty makes me a killer.
But no one actually believes that right? Pfft.
Well.....I'm disappointed, but I'd be lying if I said I was surprised.
So we get to see Shido play the dating Sim.
Not going to lie, this scene goes on wayyyy too long. Again, it feels like they were really just stretching to reach that 24 minute mark.
Also, for some reason Kotori put a look a like of her in this game made for her brother. I mean yeah, it has lighter hair, but....that's Kotori. She put herself in the dating sim made for her brother. God dang it. *Sigh* Here comes the FBI again.
After that scene though we get to the ending of the episode. Origami tells Shido to just forget everything he saw that day.
Shido wants to know why Origami wants to kill the spirits, and she replies with the most intense eye shot ever put to animation.
Her family was completely burnt to a crisp by a spirit. Since then she vowed to kill them all, but especially the one that killed her parents.
Man, that got serious though.
So now lets follow that ending with the one of the most upbeat and joyous ending themes of all time.
Speaking of which, this ending is pretty lame. It's just two still images of the mysterious chick with the credits in between. Boring.
Oh wait, we got a shot of the girl turning around.
AND THEY FLIPPED THE IMAGES! OH MY GOD, NEVER MIND THIS IS THE GREATEST ENDING OF ALL TIME!!!
In all seriousness though this was a really good episode. I honestly don't remember the series being this good, but this was great fun. It has some minor issues, but those are easily overlooked because of how fun the episode is. The characters, especially those of Kotori and Reine, are overall great. The only ones I really disliked were the gossip girls that appeared in one scene, and Blondie McPedo. Who, again, only appeared in one scene. The main character is kinda weak, but I do love the relationship he has with Kotori.
The music is also great, as well as the action and animation.
As a first episode it works well in the fact that it sets up the plot enough to get you invested, but doesn't give you all the info just yet. You have to keep watching for that.
And if you are curious about what happens, then you can watch the anime yourself. It's a blast.
Or you can wait until I review episode 2.
Overall, this was one fun episode, and I'm excited to re-watch the rest of the show, and see if it surprises me anymore.
Like I said, Date A Live will have it's day back on the show. Until then we'll be getting back to shows from our side of the world. Next up, Family Guy.
See you then. Peace.
Coming Up:
Next Animated Critic-Family Gay (Family Guy)
Next Anime Experience-Sweetness and Lightning
Next Evan Vs. Disney-Pinocchio
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