Date A Live Season Three: Continued Dating Action

The animation isn’t as good as it used to be, and that sticks out. It’s not as bad as I feared, but it’s not as good as it has been. There I’ve addressed it. Ok? Ok.

Watching this series I can’t help but feel my thoughts echoing those I had about the fourth season of High School DxD, which is a good thing, but surprised me nonetheless. Still, it’s a minor miracle that we even got this third season due to the original animation company going bankrupt, so we have to take what we get. After the cut are my thoughts on the third season of Date A Live

Still can’t believe they spoiled half the season with the poster.

I wasn’t making that comparison to the fourth season of High School DxD lightly. While both shows are radically different, both of these seasons have quite a few things in common.

1. They both waste no time getting right back into the story with no recap at all.
2. The first story arc that composes half the season is good at best, and mediocre at worst
3. The second half of the story is a long-awaited arc that fans have been excited for
4. They both have a new animation style with a divisive response

Aside from that, Date A Live III brings nothing amazingly new to the table. This has always been a series that has excelled at many things and stumbled with everything else. Everything that makes it great is still there, the ironclad premise, the great opening themes, the interesting girls, the great female lead in Tohka, and the interesting powers and world. The introduction of Natsumi to the core cast is quite done well, and she feels original enough to not feel like a superfluous character, which is something almost all harem shows suffer from. The story arc with Origami, a long-awaited fan favorite, was done quite well and helps fill in the blanks for what is probably the second most important female character after Tohka.

Natsumi feels like an actual effort was put into her character, and she has some great moments.

Yet it also still has everything that makes it that “B tier” harem series: the too large cast, the lack of any real fanservice, and sparse development for any character not in their introduction arc. While this third season does address that last part a bit, Date A Live doesn’t change anything enough to warrant a second look from someone who has already decided that the series isn’t for them. There is no great moment of genuine greatness that High School DXD had this last year, and even at it’s best, Date A Live still never is able to scrape the ceiling of “B Tier Harem” it finds itself in.

And that’s honestly all I can say. I loved watching Date A Live III, because it continued doing everything I loved about the series, while not being overly annoying with its shortcomings. Everything that makes it great is still there, as is everything that holds it back from being a series on the level of some of the best. I’m really glad I got to step back into this world, and the future of it is very much up in the air. If this is all we get, then I am more than satisfied, because even if it is a B-tier series, there is nothing wrong with that.

Still thought it was strange they tried to adapt an entire volume for the last episode though.

And hey, there is plenty of Kurumi in the back half, always welcome.