Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. They say that if you want something bad enough you’ll eventually get it. I think this same logic can apply to anime. Especially today’s anime, Date A Live. This anime really does seem to have as many lives as a cat. Just when you think the anime has run its course and won’t be continued the anime pops back up with the announcement of another season because a studio picked it up. With the fourth season set come out next month it only seems fair to take a look at the third season. The third season was produced by J.C. Staff (Danmachi) and came out in 2019. Five years after the second season. Despite the time gap everyone was still excited to see the anime as it’s one of the few decent harem animes out there. It doesn’t go overboard with the fanservice and actually has a progressing story. Well let’s see what crazy antics Shidou gets into this time. This is Date A Live III.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “I swear” by sweet ARMS. I got to be honest, out of all the openings so far this might just be my favorite. The instrumental is amazing here, it has that big orchestra feel to it and the vocals are fantastic. This song really does sound like it’s being sung from the perspective of the spirits judging by the lyrics and I do like the cinematography used in the opening especially the last part. That was brilliantly done.
The ending is “Last Promise” by Eri Yamazaki. A very sweet and energetic ending. I’m definitely getting some idol vibes from this song and Eri sounds really good here.
Episodes 1-4
The new season starts off with the girls making nabe for Shidou (that was nice of them). The only downside is its blue (that’s not normal). Despite this, it actually does taste good (I can only assume their terrible cooking cancelled each other out). After this, the spacequake alarm goes off signaling the arrival of a new spirit. Shidou goes to meet the spirit where we see it’s a big sis looking spirit this time named Natsumi voiced by Ayumi Mano who is a witch and her powers are like that of a witch. At first, she seems kind and flirtatious (my kind of girl) but once she gets attacked and sneezes her personality takes a 180 and she comes to resent Shidou and wants to ruin his life. The next day at school, Natsumi transforms into Shidou and ruins his reputation by flirting with girls, flipping their skirts, harassing them, and possibly starting a forbidden relationship with his teacher and BL with his friend. When the real Shidou (please stand up. Please stand up. I hate myself for doing this joke) arrives everyone accuses him of these crimes and they chase him around the school until Shidou spots Natsumi disguised as him trying to turn Tohka and Origami against him. Luckily, Origami and Tohka are so obsessed with Shidou that they can spot a fake from a mile away (don’t know if that’s love or just plain stalking). Natsumi leaves but vows to make them pay. A few days go by and Shidou receives a letter filled with pictures of all his friends and harem. Apparently, Natsumi has taken on the form of one of these people and she wants Shidou to figure out who the fake is or risk that person disappearing forever.
In episode 2 Shido begins trying to figure out who Natsumi is disguised as. He goes on a date with Tohka, Yoshino, his friend, and Yuzuru where he can’t find any fault with them and believes they’re the real deal. The next morning, Natsumi makes Yuzuru vanish out of thin air (the search continues).
In episode 3 Shido figures out who Natsumi was disguised as (although everyone besides Kotori and Miku disappeared before he arrived at the answer. Don’t be a detective Shido). Natsumi all this was disguised as Yoshinon (and I have to admit that was a good twist. I never would have suspected the puppet). Once Shido guesses right, everyone returns and we find out that Natsumi all this time is a loli who’s been using her powers to look like an adult (well scratch potential candidate for top 11 hottest girls list). She escapes, but not before turning Tohka and the others into lolis as well (scene here: https://youtu.be/zArew8BTNL0. Well Shido it’s been nice knowing you. I’ll come visit you in jail).
In episode 4 Natsumi continues to cause trouble for Shido. She keeps playing pranks on him such as turning his house into a cat statue and putting the girls in a cage while they’re wearing bunny girl outfits (I really don’t get why she’s upset. So you’re a loli, big deal. If anything your stock value has gone up. You can be a cute loli or a sexy lady. You meet everyone’s fetish to some degree). Eventually, Ellen shows up to kill Natsumi where it looks like she’ll succeed but Shido and the others stop her and save Natsumi while escaping. With Natsumi finally in their hands and turning into her true form, Shido tries to figure why she did all of this (because she’s a spoiled brat. This is kind of what they do). It turns out Natsumi isn’t all that confident in her appearance. In the past, everyone ignored her because of her looks and appearance so she soon gained a complex over it. Shido and the others decide to give her a spa day to make her feel pretty and show her how charming she can really be. While that’s going on, Origami is hunted down by her organization. Ellen contacts her and invites her to work under her but Origami says no. However, once Ellen brings up information that can help her track down the spirit who killed her parents she changes tone and joins Ellen (so she’s just going to forget everything that Shido taught her in the first season?).
Episodes 5-8
The Natsumi arc comes to an end in episode 5. After her spa session Natsumi still doesn’t trust everyone and believes they’re all deceiving her. She decides to transform herself as Kotori to expose everyone for the liars they are, only to discover that everyone truly does like her and defend her. Still not being able to accept this (what more do they need to do? They forgave you for turning them into lolis, saved you from Ellen, gave you a spa day, and even defend you when others talk bad about you. If you can’t see them as friends than you’re hopeless), she runs away and transforms into a lollipop to stay close to Shido. Shido searches the city looking for Natsumi where he returns to his house thinking Natsumi is hiding out there but no, it’s Ellen and she’s come to kill him. Luckily, a satellite is about to strike the city. Apparently, the board of directors at D.E.M hate Issac more than the fans and want him dead. So, they’ve commandeered an old satellite and plan on dropping it on the city just to kill him (that seems a little bit excessive. I mean I hate the guy too but a gun would be just as effective if not better than the satellite). Shido continues to search for Natsumi while Kotori and the others go off to destroy the satellite. Kotori uses her spirit powers to destroy the first one but a second one appears and she’s too weak to destroy it so she begs the others to save her beloved big brother. Tohka and the others enter the scene where the satellite has a magic field around it and will explode when hit with magic so they have to destroy it from far away. Kaguya and Yuzuru use their powers to push the satellite at a safe distance while the others fight off D.E.M robots who try to interfere. When one of them is about to attack Shido, Natsumi comes out of hiding, saves him, and destroys the satellite for them saving the day. She apologizes for all she’s done, wants to be friends, and finally kisses Shidou sealing up her powers (Shido has added a second loli to his harem. Call the cops). After the credits, D.E.M launches a missile on the city (oh God, just use a gun) but it gets destroyed by Origami who reveals that she’s working with Issac now (traitor).
Things take a bad turn for Shido and the others in episode 6. Origami kidnaps Shido and locks him up so he won’t interfere with her battle against Tohka and the others as she’s pulling a Vegeta and going to kill them in order to exact her revenge on all spirits for killing her parents. Origami finds Tohka, Miku, Kaguya and Yuzuru, and begins fighting them while Kotori and her crew get into an air battle with Ellen who seems to have the upper hand with her more advanced airship.
At the start of episode 7, Shido gets rescued by Natsumi and Yoshino (lolis to the rescue). While that’s going on, Tohka reawakens her spirit powers and is able to knock out Origami only for a mysterious voice to call out to her and turn her into a spirit (first Eren becomes a titan, then Kaneki became a ghoul, and now Origami becomes a spirit. What is it with characters becoming the thing they swore to fight against?). With Origami in spirit form she’s able to hold her own against Tohka as they fight on an even-level (also, this is the first time I’ve ever seen Origami so emotional. She went from a kuudere to a full yandere. Never go full yandere). As the two ladies prepare for their final attacks, Shido appears to stop the fighting and Origami retreats for the time being. The girls soon get healed up by Natsumi and Miku except for Tohka who’s still in spirit mode and the only way to bring her back to normal is for Shido to kiss her again. Before he can kiss her, the other girls spoil the moment along with the teacher.
We start episode 8 with the return of everyone’s favorite character (and hands down the best character), Kurumi. She’s talking with Origami who wants Kurumi to send her to the past to stop the death of her parents (no, messing with time is never a good thing). Kurumi does send her to the past and she arrives 5 years in the past to where it all began. Origami fights a spirit named Phantom at the scene where it escapes all of Origami’s attacks and it gets revealed that the one who killed Origami’s parents wasn’t Phantom but rather Origami herself (saw that coming. This is why you don’t mess with time). Origami returns but has become an inverse spirit (that, and she’s dead inside). She begins attacking everyone randomly and with Ellen arriving to interfere the situation has never been so dire for Shido and the others. Hope comes in the form of Kurumi who captures Shido and sends him to the past in order to save Origami and stop this dark future from happening.
Episodes 9-12
Nothing much happens in episode 9 but at the same time it’s a very good episode (honestly, it’s one of the best in the series). Shido is now in the past and tries to stop Origami but she’s too consumed by her vengeance to care about anything else and kills her folks yet again. Shido tracks down the Kurumi from this time period (where even back then she was cute and cautious) where the Kurumi from the future speaks to the Kurumi from the past about what’s going on (we’re about to go Re:Zero up in here). The Kurumi from the past sends Shido back in time and this time he tries to get Phantom to hide in order to prevent Origami from trying to fight her. This plan of course fails as Phantom refuses to hide and apparently knows Shido (ahh~, so Tohka wasn’t the first spirit you captured). Origami fights Phantom once again and Shido does what he should have done in the first place and just prevent Origami’s parents from dying (https://youtu.be/HJnTXsdelS0?t=7). So Shido rescues Origami’s parents and then returns to the present as well as a new timeline.
In episode 10 Shido enters the new timeline where in this timeline Origami doesn’t go to school at all and actually moonlights as a spirit named Devil who hunts other spirits and is still an inverse spirit (dahh~, what the hell happened?). The next day at school Origami transfers to the class where she’s got long hair and is no longer kuudere (not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing) and is actually quite energetic and outgoing. Despite her parents surviving that day, they still died a year later in a car accident and Origami not wanting anyone to suffer what Shido did 5 years ago, joined AST to fight against the spirits (so in the end he didn’t change Origami’s past, he just gave her a different motivation to fight). Shido wants to talk more with Origami and after school he meets up with Kurumi who remembers the other timeline. Their talk gets interrupted by Origami showing up and transforming into Devil to destroy Kurumi (she’ll be back. Infinite timelines, infinite Kurumis). After killing Kurumi, Origami returns to her human form where we see she’s possibly got split-personalities as she doesn’t remember her time as Devil at all.
So in episode 11 Shido tells the others that he comes from a different timeline and they theorize that Origami has two split personalities. The first one is the long-haired emotional Origami who was able to accept her parents’ deaths (and grow up healthy) while the other one is the Origami from Shido’s original timeline who somehow merged with the new Origami (and was not able to accept her parents’ death and wants to go Majin Vegeta on us). Shido invites Origami out on a date which she accepts and he does a few strange things such as go to a love hotel and aphrodisiac shop where she actually tries to buy a few things (she may be a different Origami, but the pervert inside her is still alive). Despite all this craziness, Origami does seem happy and just when Shido is about to close the deal he accidently uses his spirit powers which unleashes Devil. As Shido and the others try to break through Origami’s barrier, we see the two Origami’s meet and share their past with each other (one is full of happiness the other is full of sadness). Shido manages to break through Origami’s barrier where surprisingly he’s able to bring her around very easily and seals her powers. The next day, Origami cuts her hair back to her original style and her original personality returns as well (there’s the kuudere that we all know and love).
The final episode is a bit of a disappointment (what could have easily been 2-3 episodes is all crammed into 1 episode). In the episode Shido’s body has become overheated with everyone’s powers that he collapses. The only way to save him is to have every girl he’s sealed kiss him before midnight. A simple task except Shido’s personality has gone 180 on us. Due to the excessive amount of spirit power in his body, Shido has become a smooth talking-over the top-full of himself-skirt chasing flirt who hits on every girl he meets and uses his spirit powers willingly (I find him more entertaining this way but at the same time I feel compelled to punch him). He also says he won’t kiss the girls unless they make him fall for them the same way he made them fall for him (okay, this is somewhat interesting. All this time we’ve been seeing Shido as the hunter and the girls as the prey but now we finally have a chance to do a good role-reversal. This would have not only been hilarious but also would have worked out better if they didn’t cram everything into one episode). They start off at an indoor waterpark and then move on to a high-class bar where one by one all the girls manage to make Shido fall for them. When it’s time for Tohka’s turn Shido’s powers go on a rampage and he goes into berserk mode where the girls chase him down and kiss him to turn him back to normal.
Final Thoughts
And that was the third reason. Overall it’s a good season that introduces a lot of new questions and mysteries that you want answers to, introduces a new character, and builds on top of a character everyone already likes. I do like how Natsumi is a lot different from Yoshino. Her life is filled with tragedy, she’s a prankster, and tries really hard to be an adult and take the lead. Her antics such as turning everyone into lolis was funny and showed us how deep down she’s still a child longing for attention. The stuff with Origami was the highlight of the season as it was painful to see her side with the enemy in the name of revenge only to find out that she was the one responsible for the death of her parents. I did like how despite changing Origami’s past she’s still a perverted character deep down and Shido was able to pick up on that to gain the advantage and bring the original Origami back. The only real downsides this season is the lack of Kurumi, not much advancement in the relationship between Shido and Tohka, and whatever Issac is up to. Also, the stuff with Shido’s other sister, Mana. She claims to be Shido’s real sister but haven’t really explored that backstory as of yet. That’s really the big fault of this series, they present some good mysteries and questions but don’t really come back to them, so I’m hoping season 4 can finally give us some answers.
The animation is nice. Nothing special but the action does seem to be a little better this time around when compared to the other seasons. Like I said before the final episode was rushed. I wish they would have made that a two-part episode as it would have been hilarious seeing the girls trying to romance Shido as well as see some one-on-one moments with him.
Final Score
The final score for Date A Live III is a 7/10. A good season overall that gets me excited for the next season. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj as we take a look at the best girl.