Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. In the years that I’ve been reviewing anime the one that always keeps popping on my list to review is Date A Live. It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since I reviewed the first season and yet this anime is still ongoing and keeps changing studios each season. This time the anime was produced by Geek Toys (Hensuki) in 2022. With the fifth season set to come out soon now seemed like the right time to look back at the fourth season and get caught up. The harem continues to grow. This is Date A Live S4.
Opening and Ending Theme
Our opening is “OveR” by Miyu Tomita. Man was this an opening I overlooked in 2022. This opening is amazing. The instrumental is powerful and Miyu’s voice is amazing.
The ending is “S.O.S” by sweet ARMS. It’s funny. This group sang my favorite opening and now they sang my favorite ending from this series. The slow beat is mesmerizing and captivating. The whole just feels like all these girls asking for help and getting saved in the best way possible.
Episodes 1-4
The season starts off on an interesting note with Kurumi attacking this government facility that’s holding the second known spirit codenamed: Sister. We then cut to Shido who just got done getting a checkup from last season (again, should have been two or three episodes for the finale) where he’s fine. After that, we get to see Mana again who is being forced to get a checkup by Kotori to make sure her body is fine after all the enhancements DEM did to her. As Shido heads home he comes across a collapsed woman on the streets who we find out is Souji aka Nia voiced by Hitomi Nabatame and she happens to be the author/artist of Shido’s favorite manga, Silver Bullet. The series was forced to stop due to Nia’s health 10 years ago but now she’s starting the series back up (always good to see an author return and finish their series). Shido sticks around to cook her a meal and help with her deadline where I do have to admit I like her personality (she’s a manga artist, they always have weird yet interesting personalities). Despite having little sex appeal she flirts with Shido, is carefree, and has a laidback personality (she’s like an eccentric big sister. You don’t know what she’s going to do next but you know it’ll be entertaining and you can tell she’s someone who enjoys life). At the end of the day Nia reveals that she’s a spirit, the same spirit that Kurumi freed at the start of the episode (Baron: So that’s Sister? Oh, I’d like to go in the confession box with her. You think it’s a sin to- (Nitsuj): Yes. Whatever dirty talk you’re about to say, yes). It turns out that she’s been on the loose for one month and knows all about Shido dating spirits and making them fall for him (oh good, we can skip the foreplay and just go right into the kissing). Her power is she has a book called Raziel which tells her anything she wants to know about the world which includes people (by God it’s Google, Facebook, and Twitter all rolled into one). She can also write stuff into the book to make sure they happen (and now it’s a Death Note. We should probably burn that book. Scene here: https://youtu.be/OQr-lMlolg4?si=8EK_IYRRy30pO5HO). After teasing him for a bit she challenges him to a duel. Make her fall for him on their date next Saturday. Saturday rolls around where the two go to Akihabara for their date and buy manga. The date runs as smoothly as you would hope and just when Shido is about to make a move Nia drops a bomb on the operation, she’s only interested in 2D boys (don’t tell her, she might crack).
In episode 2 now that they know what Nia’s fetish is (this counts as a fetish right? (Baron): If it turns you on, it’s a fetish. Pervert law! (Nitsuj and Corbin): Pervert law) they decide to use this to their advantage with some pretty clever plans. They have Shido cosplay as one of her favorite characters which actually works but when he breaks character he pisses her off (https://youtu.be/ADj3ZmaLqbY?si=w26B8oA8ZkuUjZhC, you’ve got to respect her dedication to the source material). They try again later by giving her a dating sim game with Shido as the love interest, but she figures out what’s going on and gets even madder (scene here: https://youtu.be/LaN5ghdaYqA?si=agIBo3K3hr8cryqE). Shido holds a council of the spirits to come up with a strategy to with over Nia. Origami suggests that they make a manga starring Shido and their exploits (this episode is getting way too meta). Everyone likes the idea, but Nia used Raziel to see what they were planning and she says she won’t read it as she’s mad at them and she’s too busy with this dimension’s version of comicon, comico (that’s so lazy it’s almost funny). Kotori challenges her to see who can sell the most doujins and if they sell more than her she has to read it (and then cosplay as one of the characters). Nia accepts and she receives a visit from everyone’s favorite character Kurumi (yay~). She wants to use Raziel to find the Spirit of Origin, the very first spirit to appear and kill it. However, according to Raziel even if Kurumi were to confront the spirit with all of her power, she wouldn’t stand a chance and die. Back with Shido and the others, they get to work on their manga where they have two days to complete it (impossible). We get to see everyone’s drawings and vote on Natsumi being the main artist with Shido, Origami, Yuzuru and Kaguya working under her. They managed to complete their 60-page manga in two days (bullshit) and meet a former friend of Nia who got pushed away by her for some odd reason.
We close the Nia arc in episode 3 as we go to comico where Shido and the others pull out all the stops to win. We even see Nia’s old friend come out to support her where Shido finally figures out Nia. She distanced herself from her friend not because she used Raziel to peek into her friend’s dark side but because she was afraid of the temptation to look (when you have a book that tells you everything you want to know it’s both a blessing and a curse. It tells you the things you want to know as well as the things you don’t want to know. Everyone has a dark side to them, the trick is to have your good side outweigh your dark side and acknowledge it). Nia of course denies this but Shido keeps pushing the issue and tells her to stop being afraid saying that she could peek on his private life as much as she wants (have you seen the man’s life he doesn’t have an ounce of privacy. Not to mention the government already does what you’re doing. The only difference is you’re cuter and use magic). In the end, Nia and Shido sell out at the same time meaning it’s a draw, but she gives them the win and reads their manga (where her thoughts are what everyone else says about the series: better than you thought it would be, but packs too much in and doesn’t focus enough on the main character. The series is self-aware). Once she uses Raziel to see that this was all a true story it brings her to tears and she agrees to go on another date with Shido. However, she starts to invert thanks to Issac who planted a chip into her brain that repressed the five years of torture she endured, but once she opened her heart to Shido all of her memories kept flooding back just like he planned (that bastard). Shido tries to get through to Nia but he gets interrupted by a new character named Artemisia who was working for Isaac. She stabs Nia through the chest and pulls out this dark crystal from her which we find is an inverted crystal which contains the power of a spirit. Isaac absorbs the crystal thus gaining Nia’s inverted powers just like Shido when he seals the powers of a spirit. Isaac and his group retreat where he vows to absorb the crystals of everyone else and the group checks in on Nia where she’s barely alive. Shido kisses her, seals her power, and saves her life. After the credits we find out that Nia no longer has Raziel and when she finds out that half the group are pure spirits she says that’s impossible because all spirits were humans in the beginning.
Episode 4 starts with Shido returning to school for the third term where sensei is going through a mid-life crisis about marriage (Shido, date your teacher) and then an asteroid lands at the school (scene here: https://youtu.be/C7Nr0if3LR4?si=MUCURdV0T-UO2kdI). The asteroid was caused by a spirit in space named Mukuro who has a keyblade (well I see the author was a fan of Kingdom Hearts) that allows her to seal the powers of other objects as well as create warp gates (scene here: https://youtu.be/G9wEmSLSQic?si=hGnhVMqo8rIQI-hU). Using a hologram, Shido goes to space to speak with her. Their first meeting is quite violent as Mukuro voiced by Akari Kageyama (Aine from Hybrid × Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia) attacks Shido five times trying to kill him (thank God for holograms). We find out that Mukuro has closed off her heart to the world. She feels nothing and wants to be left alone or she’ll stop the Earth’s rotation (the year that shall not be named beat you to the punch). She shuts down the hologram, so they decide to go with a more direct approach by going to space. We get to see their new ship which has an AI named MARIA (scene here: https://youtu.be/RzqqoN9DN-U?si=VLXchbjPG7QTKB3Z) as well as meet the chairman of Ratatoskr, Elliot, who was also a founder of DEM. Nia reveals that in the past DEM manifested spirits in order to harness their powers (no doubt for world domination). However, Elliot changed sides after coming face to face with the Spirit of Origins and fell in love with her (he’s an older Shido). Their talk gets interrupted by Isaac who with the power of Raziel now being called Beelezbub managed to find them. The group tries to get away but Isaac captures them and goes to deal with Elliot.
Episodes 5-8
So episode 5 opens up on a confusing note with Shido waking up in a straw house and in a pig costume (I do believe we missed an episode. That or the animators had too much cactus juice). Shido gets attacked by the big bad wolf and then runs away to another house where he runs into Yoshino who is dressed like Red Riding Hood. The wolf attacks them again where they get saved by Tohka dressed up as Momotaro (glad to see she’s a lot more subtle than the previous Momotaro I reviewed) and Nia dressed as a character from her manga (scene here: https://youtu.be/rp1SO2vUT34?si=9C5qZpfdgx3XZgjO). Nia explains that the group was swallowed up by Beelzebub and trapped them in a space where the only way they can return is to find someone strong enough to burst them out of this world. We see Kotori as the Little Match Girl, Yuzuru and Kaguya as Hansel and Gretel (https://youtu.be/TVYT2OJyhBw?t=2), Natsumi is Cinderella, Miku The Little Mermaid (the Disney version), and Origami as the emperor from The Emperor’s New Clothes (a perfect match for her). Once they all meet back up at the ball they get attacked by antagonists from fairy tales and saved by the Shido from their manga who is cool and strong. He creates for them a way out and even gives some encouraging words to Shido who was conflicted about helping Mukuro. Once they return to their world, they board the ship and fly off.
In episode 6 the group goes to space to face Mukuro where they get attacked by DEM being led by Ellen and Artemisia. Kotori along with Miku, Kaguya, Yuzuru and Yoshino take on Ellen while Origami takes on Artemisia and Shido focuses on Mukuro with some help from Tohka. Shido uses Natsumi’s copying ability to create Mukuro’s key so that he can unlock her heart. In terms of fighting it’s nothing we haven’t seen in other animes, but our heroes do get a well-deserved victory over Ellen and even Issac takes an L from Elliot who managed to beat him off screen (well Elliot just became one of my favorite characters. My only regret is that we weren’t there to see it). Getting back to Shido, he manages to unlock Mukuro’s heart and then they both get blasted by Artemisia but saved by the others. While Shido is unconscious he does see a little bit of Mukuro’s past where it seems like she was adopted by a loving family but something tragic happened. Once Shido wakes back up in the infirmary, Mukuro surprises everyone with a visit and clings to Shido lovingly (talk about a 180 shift in personality. I mean the first time we met this girl she tried to kill him 5 times over and now she can’t keep her hands off him). She wants to go on a date but since Shido is still recovering she decides to hold off until tomorrow. When tomorrow comes, Shido gets taken by Mukuro and the two go on a date in the city.
Episode 7 starts with Shido and Mukuro’s date. After tying up her hair and giving her some new clothes they go on a date around the city and have a good time. Mukuro does say she likes Shido (scene here: https://youtu.be/U1r4pkjWVws?si=tyNdgVD56AIIY-bw), but she wants him all to herself which Shido says is impossible (yeah, he’s on the harem route and there’s no stopping it). Mukuro fixes this by sealing up everyone’s memories of Shido so that they don’t remember him and she can have him all to herself (scene here: https://youtu.be/epEQVGEwIDk?si=9ZXReyo_sU4rixQY. Wow, yanderes wish they had her powers. This is scary). Luckily, someone does remember Shido, the other Origami (or rather the original Origami of this new timeline). All this time she’s been inside and letting the old Origami take the wheels. Thankfully, her memories weren’t sealed up when Mukuro attacked everyone. However, there is some bad news to this situation and that is Inverted Tohka. Yep, she’s back and she’s on the hunt for Shido. She’s mad about the kiss from a few seasons back and wants revenge (oh please we all know you enjoyed it). Mukuro prepares to fight, but Origami calms them down and tells them to settle this in a peaceful manner. The girls will go on a date with Shido and the one who captures his lips is the winner (either way Shido is walking away with a W).
The duel between Mukuro and Inverted Tohka continues in episode 8. After getting kicked out of a restaurant for let’s just say inappropriate behavior (which is pretty vast in this anime. Let’s be honest. Scene here: https://youtu.be/tctswfPgEGo?si=INtezI94z-6m26Qx), the group goes to an observation tower where Mukuro and Inverted Tohka have a fight after Inverted Tohka tried to forcefully steal a kiss and cut a strand of Mukuro’s hair (which is a like death sentence right there). As the two spirits fight Origami and Shido step in. Shido takes on Mukuro while Origami keeps Inverted Tohka busy (an old rivalry renewed). Shido tries to calm down Mukuro but she’s not listening and won’t let anyone take Shido away from her. She plans to use her powers on the planet to stop it from spinning and we finally get her full backstory where we find out she was adopted into a family. At first, things were great. She got along with everyone, had a big sister, but was always afraid that they would abandon her. Once she received the power of the spirits she made everyone forget about her family in the hopes that they would be with her forever (hard to believe someone so cute has this much issue with loneliness). The family soon turned on her (how they figured out it was her is beyond me) and she sealed up her emotions shortly after that so she would never feel pain again. Returning back to the present, Shido hugs Mukuro saying that she’s just like him. He was adopted too and feared that he would be abandoned as well, but he learned that no matter what happens he’s connected to his friends and family. He tells Mukuro that they’re family (scene here: https://youtu.be/nxmiYRk89X8?si=OqMooSKERKepCi0d, the sexual tension of this family is on the level of a hentai) and kisses her to seal away her powers. Inverted Tohka loses interest, kisses Shido and tells him not to make Tohka cry before disappearing and reverting back to Tohka. Everyone regains their memories and we can put a bow on this arc. After the credits, Shido goes to school where Kurumi has returned (all right, the best girl is back).
Episodes 9-12
So Kurumi has returned in episode 9 where she says she’s not here to cause trouble. Instead, she’s here to challenge Shido to a duel to see who can make the other fall for them. If Shido can make Kurumi fall for him she’ll willingly allow Shido to seal her powers. But if Kurumi makes Shido fall for her he has to give all the spirit powers he’s sealed so far to her and the only way to get those powers is by killing him. Shido accepts and the duel is on (may the best flirt win). While this is going on Issac has recovered and plans to take down Shido to invert all the other spirits. He’s also learned a new trick with his powers, creating spirits that he has named Nibelcole. He sends Ellen out to attack Shido, but she gets stopped by Mana who received a tip from Kurumi about the attack and forces Ellen to retreat for the time being. That night, Nia tells the group about Kurumi wanting to destroy the First Spirit which appeared 30 years ago. The group theorizes that Kurumi has a limit on how far she can travel back in time and believe she wants to use the spirit powers that Shido has accumulated to go back 30 years and defeat the First Spirit. The next morning, Kurumi catches Shido off guard by arriving at his house and walking to school with him (excellent first strike), but Shido counters by taking her to pet some cats (scene here: https://youtu.be/bi1emt2kg0U?si=6MP2SXMJBVCRPixX, good counter, sir).
The battle between Shido and Kurumi wages on in episode 10. It starts off hot with them tasting each other’s lunches (scene here: https://youtu.be/5M94fBmyiEk?si=5Ies-Ll7FxbxdftK). They both like each other’s lunches and decide to call it a draw but Kurumi has already decided on a day when she’ll bring Shido down, Valentine’s Day (the fiend). In the meantime, the other girls also prepare for Valentine’s Day by making chocolate for Shido as well with Kurumi joining them. We also learn a little bit about Reine such as how she once had someone special in the past but not anymore (must have been one hell of a guy to make Reine fall for you). Shido also receives a visit from Nibelcole (I think. It’s hinted to be a dream).
In episode 11 the fated day of battle comes. After receiving chocolate from his harem (and receiving hatred from the boys in a rather funny scene that reminds me of the FFF from Baka to Test. I miss that anime. Scene here: https://youtu.be/wJ6nBbvHSIs?si=eG_n7Y7VzDxEm7Xp) he focuses his attention on Kurumi and goes on a date with her after school. It’s a date similar to their first date (minus the killing and cat abuse) and Shido asks the question that’s been on everyone’s mind, why does she want to kill the Spirit of Origin? After knocking out the surveillance cameras and taking Shido to one of her bases, Kurumi shows Shido the past when she was just a regular girl. Back then she was always helping out others and had a friend named Sawa. One day, she was attacked by an ice spirit and saved by the Spirit of Origin, Mio. Mio recruited Kurumi to help fight against rogue spirits and she accepted becoming her hired gun (literally). Everything was going well until Kurumi found Mio standing over the body of Sawa who was killed by Kurumi earlier. Mio goes on to explain that the spirits Kurumi has been fighting were humans who were consumed by the spirit energy Mio gave them in secret. This is all part of the process of refining them so that they’ll be compatible with humans down the line and if it’s not compatible the human will lose control of that power, turn into a monster, and have to be put down in order to retrieve the spirit crystal and find the perfect host. Now that Kurumi knows the truth, Mio erases her memories but thanks to Kurumi’s powers she was able to recover them and vowed to find Mio to avenge Sawa.
In the final episode, we start with Kurumi begging Shido to give his powers to her so that she can go back in time, kill Mio and bring everything back to zero (this is all assuming you have the power necessary to win). She even offers her body as compensation to him (Corbin: And we all know that girl has one banging body). The two get interrupted by Nibelcole, but Kurumi easily defeats them and passes out from exhaustion. A clone of Kurumi appears to tell Shido all this time Kurumi’s clones have been protecting them because he was supposed to die days ago (thank God for time traveling powers). With Shido’s death everyone went inverse and started going on a rampage throughout the city and Kurumi recovered her sixth bullet, Vev. In the past this power was sealed away by Shido as she fell for him a little, but now that he’s dead that power has been recovered. Vev allowed Kurumi’s mind to return to the past and with knowledge of what’s to come she used her clones to protect Shido and thwart any assassination attempts using her endless supply of clones. They literally attacked Shido over 200 times and each time he died Kurumi used Vev to travel back in time and protect him (man, she used her powers better than Subaru from Re:Zero). So why go through the trouble of protecting him and not devouring him when she had the chance (aside from not turning this into a vore fetish), it’s because she’s in love with Shido, he had their bet won from the start. The real Kurumi wakes up and scolds her clone for divulging her secrets and she takes her leave denying her feelings for Shido (who knew she had a little tsundere in her). Once alone with herself, Kurumi comes face to face with the Phantom spirit who we find out is Reine (https://youtu.be/P5SM5rPTdfk). Kurumi captures her and disappears (scene here: https://youtu.be/HApMMD9fun0?si=zKamsH3JDTMAbRL5). Meanwhile, Shido reunites with everyone where we see Reine back on the ship and he gets ready to talk with everyone about what he’s discovered and how he’s going to save Kurumi.
Final Thoughts
So that was the fourth season of Date A Live. Lots of big reveals near the end of the season, but how does the rest of the season hold up? Well the first arc with Nia was good. I love her energy and the various tactics they used to win her over. I also like how her powers were a curse to her as she was afraid to get close to people and often cut herself off from others to avoid getting hurt. I also like how this is the first time we’ve seen Shido fail in a way as Nia’s powers got stolen. It is interesting to see said powers be used in a dark and evil way. The second arc with Mukuro was definitely the weak point of the season. While she has a sad backstory, her character gets overshadowed by the inverted Tohka who just randomly appears again for no reason. She really does steal the show here and honestly makes me wish the arc was about her instead of Mukuro. The final arc with Kurumi manages to turn everything around and ends the season on a good cliffhanger. The reveal that all this time Kurumi has been protecting Shido’s life was great and makes some of the scenes we saw earlier make a lot more sense. Like I said the major reveals at the end about Mio and Reine was quite surprising and has me looking forward to what happens. The new characters they introduce are kind of a hit and miss. Nibelcole is good. I like her twisted personality with child-like innocence. Artemisia seems like a rather pointless character. We don’t get to dive into her backstory on why she’s helping Issac and she does nothing to stand out so why should I care about her? We finally got to meet Elliot where they built a good mystery around him as he was able to defeat Isaac offscreen but then disappeared on us. I was hoping he’d stick around. Also, the other spirits kind of take a backseat this season. There’s barely any focus on them which I kind of understand why, but still let’s just toss them to the side.
The new animation style is nice. It took me a minute to get used to it but I did like it more than the previous style. The characters are more expressive and their designs (especially the hair) look great. The music is still the same as in the previous seasons so not much change there. The same can be said for the action. Nothing really mind-blowing or great. The action has unfortunately been underwhelming after the first season which is a shame as I feel there’s a lot of potential here with all these powers.
Final Score
Date A Live S4 earns a 6.5/10. Slightly lower than the last season but still a very good season that leaves you wanting more. It’s already been announced that a fifth season is coming this spring and after the way this season ended I can’t wait to see what happens next. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.