©2023 橘公司・つなこ／KADOKAWA／「デート・ア・ライブⅤ」製作委員会

After 11 years, the Date A Live anime has finally reached it’s conclusion. When finishing the last episode, I honestly couldn’t really organize my thoughts.

It is true that the animation from GeekToys had it’s highs and lows, but they truly did go all out for the adaptation of the finale here.

While I think it would’ve been nice to have the final three volumes adapted as well, personally I think this is a good stopping point. Unfortunately some plot points are now left to be unresolved, I am grateful that seasons three, four and five happened at all, since the original plan was to stop after the movie.

I urge everyone who has not done it to give Date A Live a try. I know a lot of people are put off by the outside appearance of a simple ecchi-harem-comedy, but the story is truly incredible and you will not regret sticking with it until the end.

And if you have seen Date A Live, but haven’t read the Light Novel, give that a try as well. There are many details and entire story elements, the anime has omitted. For example, one of my favorite volumes (Volume 12 “Itsuka Disaster”) had it’s story entirely removed in the anime. This volume served as an important point of setting up the eventual appearance of The Spirit of Origin and was a truly enjoyable story. There are many other examples like it.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed anything to making this anime a reality. It has been a rocky 11 years, but thanks to you it is a reality. And because of you, this is truly my favorite anime of all time.