There have been some crazy harem anime over the years, but one of the most inventive recent series' is Date A Live. Combining harem with science fiction, Date A Live tells a story where the power of love stops global catastrophes... literally. Starting out as a light novel, both the original version of the series and its anime adaptation have been incredibly long-lived.
For as ubiquitous and trite as harem has become, Date A Live offers something new to the genre, if a bit ridiculous. This is likely the reason why the series has been so successful in a sea of similar shows, and its anime will soon have a new season. Here's what harem addicts should know about the franchise before it returns later this year.
The Plot of Date A Live
Date A Live is hilariously creative, even as far as harem goes. The story of the series begins with a series of "spatial quakes" that decimate the populations of Europe and Asia. These continue for three decades until protagonist Shido finds a girl near one of the quakes. It's discovered that she's from another dimension and that the presence of spirit beings like her is causing the quakes.
Soon, Shido is tasked by his adoptive sister to use his newfound ability to seal these spirits, thus stopping their threat to Earth via spatial quakes. The only problem is that doing this involves making the spirits fall in love with and kiss him, which becomes increasingly harder as the number of spirits increases. Uniting with a special ops group designed to stop the quakes, Shido has to somehow save the world while dealing with the many jealous women that threaten it.
Where to Read the Date A Live Light Novels
Date A Live got its start in 2011 as a light novel series by Koshi Tachibana and Tsunako. Licensed in the West by Yen Press, the original series ran for exactly nine years, beginning on March 19th, 2011 before concluding on the same date in 2020. This amounted to 20 volumes, which were joined by 10 volumes of the Date A Live Encore short story collections.
The first four volumes of the original Date A Live light novel series have been released in the West, and they can be found through Amazon, Comixology, Walmart, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million. Sadly, Encore has yet to have any of its volumes released outside of Japan, although this will likely change as the rest of the main series is released overseas. There have been numerous Date A Live manga adaptations, although none of these have lasted very long or been officially brought to countries outside of Japan.
Where to Watch the Date A Live Anime
The anime adaptation of Date A Live is produced by AIC Plus+, who has worked on numerous shows in the Tenchi Muyo! franchise as well as Ah! My Goddess, the mecha anime series Viper's Creed and the anime version of Persona 4. The series began in 2013 and has been running ever since, having amassed 34 episodes as well as two different OVAs. The show's fourth season, now produced by a company called Geek Toys, was announced in 2020 and intended to release in 2021. Delayed until 2022, it will now premiere this April, nearly nine years exactly after the show debuted.
The show can be streamed through numerous sources, many of which are entirely free. Outside of buying individual episodes through YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play or Amazon Prime Video, the series in its entirety (so far) can be streamed through services like Hulu, Funimation and the even more affordable platform Tubi TV. The DVD collections of the series so far are also on Amazon and in physical retailers such as Best Buy, although these of course cost more than simply streaming the Date A Live anime series.
