Date A Live vol. 01 introduces you to a world regularly threatened by destruction from Spirits, all-powerful magical beings that cause mass destruction wherever they go. But there's a catch - you can't kill a spirit, they're basically invincible. So, you have to date them to neutralize them.

In typical light novel fashion, the story is a bit silly, light and humorous. But this is also a pretty a fast-paced, action-packed story. I remained intrigued throughout by this unusual magic concept and it was a quick read.

At times, I disliked the focus on the overly-dramatic dialogues/characters and the attempts at humor didn't always hit the mark. But overall, it's a short, fun book that shouldn't be taken too seriously. Just enjoy the silliness.

The Art of Love and War – Date A Live Vol. 1 [Light Novel Review]

“A Dating Sim on a Silver Platter.”


Mangaka: Tachibana, Koushi (Story) and Tsunako (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Genre: Mecha, Romance, School, Sci-Fi, Harem
Published: March 2021 - Ongoing


On the first day of school, Shido Itsuka is living in a world where a natural disaster such as a spacequake exists. His life later turns upside down as he encounters the source of such occurrence-a girl his age labelled as a Spirit. There are two ways to resolve this issue, kill her and let the world meets its demise, or take her out on a date and make her fall in love with him.

--- Spoilers Ahead ---

Discussion Time

Have you ever thought of what it feels like to be assigned to a task to save the world by making beautiful girls fall in love with you? Well, that is what this series is about. As you have to shoulder this responsibility, you have to learn the basics of interacting with Spirits with the help of your cute little sister, who looks down on you most of the time, and a crew she had prepared. We forgot to mention that a slight mistake in this mission will cost your life, so choose wisely.
Why You Should Read Date A Live

1. Dating Sim

This is one of the few series that implements Dating Sim as the central theme. Shido has never once been into a romantic relationship. With the help of his sister’s crew, he had to play and learn choices and consequences from dating simulation as if his life depends on it due to the nature of the job. The knowledge he acquired from this training helped him somehow, but he learned that there are situations where he has to adapt and make morally correct choices. That aspect carries heavy character and relationship development within himself and Tohka, who is the leading Spirit for this volume.

2. Mutual

The beautiful element when it comes to romance is a mutual feeling. You may think Shido is just an average schoolboy, but that is just on the surface. He has been through a situation that left a scar on himself during his childhood, and that experience led him to understand and connect with Tohka. Tohka was seen as a tool of destruction and an enemy destroyed by humanity, putting her in a situation where she is not welcomed in their world. Still, Shido doesn’t see that and wishes to save humanity, including her as well.

3. Multiple Angles

The story isn’t focused on Shido’s perspective. We get to have a chance to read and learn the thought process of other characters that makes the events and development more sensible. The number of contents is relatively decent and concise.

4. Characters

When we see the harem genre, get ready for a lot of unique characters. The character designs have a mix of seriousness and casualness at the same time. Their personalities made the story exciting, and their interactions felt so real. They may be goofy at some times, but they add a lot of flavour to character development.
Why You Should Skip Date A Live

1. Anime

The main difference between the anime and the light novel version is the thought process and contents. The anime did cover most of the source material, but a little thought process can piece everything together at ease and feel right. But you can choose to buy the light novel version to support Koushi Tachibana and Yen Press.

Final Thoughts

Date A Live isn’t your typical dating sim story. The story puts Shido in a high-stress situation as if he is dating a ticking time bomb, and every move he makes has to be correct to avoid getting killed. Simultaneously, it can serve as a lesson to every reader on how to be a decent lover, minus the harem. Just go for one lover, or else you trigger the harem war flag. Have you not seen School Days? Other than that, let us enjoy a nice wholesome date between Shido and Tohka. With Tohka’s innocence and Shido’s self-consciousness, what could go wrong? Let the date begins.

By. Nobodies17

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection and will recommend it to students.

This was kind of 50/50 for me as there were moments I really liked however it did take me a while to get fully immersed into the story. if you're willing to commit to a read you may not feel attached too at the beginning then I say go for it!! I can see this one having a lot of fans

I’m a huge fan of the Date a Live anime, so I had be massively excited to read this. I’ve waited a long time for this to be translated into English. Unfortunately, it wasn’t written all that well and it left me feeling disappointed by the writing style. It’s possible it’s just the way it was translated, but it felt like it was written like bad fanfiction

That being said, I’ve always loved this story. Since I have seen the show, I was able to picture it in my head, so that did help a great deal.

But if I had to give a suggestion as to whether to watch the anime or read the book, I’d say watch the anime without skipping a beat.

I feel very disconnected from this story. While I do feel curious about where this story is going, I feel like it took too long to pull me into the story. By the end I just still didn't feel terribly invested. That being said, I do think there is quite a bit of appeal in the level of action and humor-this is definitely going to have some fans.

An unbelievable story background tangles with a super-powerful being, a meek hero, tons of humor, and more than enough moments of action to drive this one through in a delightful way.

(I always do a run-down of the plot, at this point, but hold on tight because this one is a little out there...)
In a world, where powerful spirits can appear and cause earthquakes and blasts, which leave entire cities destroyed...people in Japan (but an alternate reality of one)...are again being faced with the threat of destruction and have been in expectation for five years or so with bated breath. This is where teen Shidou lives, a meeker guy, who totally adores his younger sister. When the new school term begins...and after a few quirky scenes with his sister and other humorous happenings...he comes face to face with a beautiful girl, who happens to be one of these spirits. And she's confused, sad, and just not sure about anything anymore, since she's the cause of some new destruction but really doesn't want to hurt anything. Since Shidou's younger sister (a middle-schooler, btw) happens to secretly work for the government and knows that Shidou actually (unknown to him) holds the power to seal spirits. So, the little sister convinces him that he should try to get together with this spirit on a romantic level and become girlfriend and boyfriend...and that while the world wants to destroy the girl. (As said, it's a lot...and goes more through the series, I guess)

First off, I am super disappointed this wasn't a graphic novel or manga but rather a light novel. There are wonderful illustrations sprinkled in, but this would have been so much better in graphic novel form. I constantly caught myself trying to picture the scenes, while reading, as they would have been in graphic form...which got a little irritating. Some of this was due to my expectations, I think, but the tale is written as if it is the basic story before a graphic novel. For example, the dialogue between two people bounces back and forth with just dialogue (no tags or anything) for over a dozen phrases. Or the descriptions run just deep enough to imagine what the image might look like. This threw me off a little

That said, this is a super fun story. The anime flair is strong and holds amazing moments, tons silly humor, a heroine extreme but lost, a hero who as a guy can withstand everything, and tons of awkward moments along with mega-blasts when the fighting begins. What I think makes this one so fun isn't only the really odd tale (it works, for some reason) but also the hero. He isn't strong or able to rescue the lady in distress...at least, not with his own amazingness. Plus, he's very well aware of ridiculous and insane some of the situations are. This was refreshing.

Wrapped up, this is a fun tale which rolls along quick and with tons of entertainment. It's light...meaning don't expect a lot of depth...and that's good so.

I received an complimentary copy and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Despite this series being around for several years now, the first I heard about it was when Sword Art Online author, Kawahara Reiki, was tweeting about the mobile game in Japan. Knowing he enjoyed it, I requested to review this light novel that’s being translated into English at long last.

Going in completely blind like I did, I can’t exactly say that it wasn’t what I was expecting, but… Date-a-Live was definitely not what I expected.

The series – as described by the author, Tachibana Koushi – is a big “what if a dating sim was the key to saving the world from an unearthly power?” In the future, there are tears in reality that cause mass destruction and chaos and death. These tears, known as “spacequakes” are caused by Spirits, beautiful girls with massive amounts of power, and an elite team of warriors are equipped with special gear to try and take them down. However, these warriors aren’t making much progress and a special team has decided to take matters into their own hands and having a high school-aged civilian seduce the Spirits into peace.

Shindo is a ridiculous protagonist who cares a lot for his younger sister and is absolutely useless with girls. So naturally he is tasked with seducing the Spirits. In the first third of the book, he reminded me a lot of Rentaro from Black Bullet, especially with his relationship with his adorable younger sister (whose appearance even reminds me of Enju from Black Bullet). And then the dating sim (for anyone unfamiliar with the term, it is like a choose-your-own-adventure video game where you date a cast of characters) aspect happened and I wasn’t buying it. At first it came off as very “this is just another gimmick to use towards the harem trope”, but then it continued on to when Shindo meets with the Spirit, Tohka for the first time and it got me intrigued.

It’s my own fault for expecting an all-out action story, but the comedy aspect of the novel was an unexpected bit of fun. I’m iffy on where the story is going since I’m not the biggest fan of the harem trope, but I think this is definitely a series worth giving a chance to. It’s goofy, the art for the illustrations is cute, and it’s a finished series over in Japan.

I struggled to get into the first third or so of Date A Live Vol. 1. The story and characters just didn't grab me. However, as things progressed I finally began to get a feel for the piece and I enjoyed watching the developing relationship between Shido and the Spirit. There is plenty of humour and action in the tale, even if some of that humour seemed more aimed at guys (with various panty jokes etc.). However, it was still amusing for me too in the way it poked fun at certain manga tropes. This is perhaps not a series I would completely fall in love with, but the end of this volume did leave me wondering what would happen next, so I would be interested in reading on.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Such a fun read!

I was expecting manga novel though, but it turned out to be a short novel. But it had some awesome drawings.
This book hasn't got any minuses, it's humorous, romantic and the end of the book made me surprised, because I didn't see things turning up the way they did.

I can't wait for VOL.2....

Thank you #Netgalley for an ARC.

ARC Copy...Hilarious and action packed as one would expect from a light novel series where its boy (aka goof) meets girl (aka one with the fire power and could destroy the world)...what could possibly go wrong.