ThatAnimeSnob

You thought The World God Only Knows was ridiculous? You saw nothing yet!

In a nutshell, this show is basically a parody of date sims and various other otaku culture trademarks. The very setting can best be described as a date sim version of Neon Genesis. You have the world being invaded by alien beings with angelic-themed names, a slutty imouto in the role of Gendo Ikari and the Magi computer being a galge. There are supposed to be tremendous explosions occurring all over the world, that kill millions but that is presented as dramatic as boogies hanging from your earlobe. We never see anyone getting killed or even giving a damn about their houses being demolished in every single episode. Yet this is literally the objective of the story; the protagonist must prevent the genocide and the mass destruction by dating the aliens. Yeah, he is dating aliens so people who don’t give a damn about all that won’t die; stop trying to reason it. But see it this way; at least the show is honest in telling you right away what a silly fan catering joke it is instead of pretending to be a serious action / survival of the likes of Sword Art Online.

As you probably have guessed, these aliens all have the forms of hot girls with sexy outfits and an IQ of around 50. The hero is almost actively aware that he is inside a date sim and needs to win their affection in order to protect the world. Man, what a tragic mission his slutty sister forced him to take part in. IT'S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO HAVE HOT GFs IN ORDER TO SAVE THE WORLD!!! So the way he is managing to make them friendly enough is by using cheesy pick up lines that never work in real life but are fine in date sims. And you even have the secret organization giving him possible replies to further make the whole thing feel like a game. Do these lines work? OF COURSE THEY DO; THIS IS A VIDEOGAME WORLD!

And yeah, exactly as it happens in all harems he needs to constantly seduce more girls and have them living with him, constantly going through all those overused jokes where he enters a room when they are naked or having to explain why he can’t just pick one of them and have some sex for Pete’s sake. And they typically get so jealous at the drop of a hat and fight each other for whom gets to spend an evening talking to a guy with the personality of a goldfish. Don’t ever mind how he is in reality just forced to pretend that he cares about them or the city squares they obliterate each time someone goes tsun over bubble gums. It’s like anyone gives a damn anyway. And no, there is no real danger of some jealous girl going School Days on the boring dude, since every time he gets killed, he just gets a CONTINUE, revives, and keeps seducing girls like the bland harem lead he is. Nothing of importance was lost champ; you just got killed for a few seconds before loading your last saved state. It’s not like the show ever tries to be interesting or something trivial like that.

Just like all parodies it is good only when you get the jokes and only if you can shut off your brain for long enough to actually find this entertaining. I personally couldn’t since parodies can’t stand on their own two feet and rely solely on earlier shows to work instead of being stand alone productions. Also, not many can find pleasure in a show that trashes their favourite titles like that. Even Gintama does it better since it acts like a two-timer. It mocks the stereotypes on one occasion while embracing them on another. Date A Live is a lot more basic in its approach as it is purely about breaking the fourth wall and directly telling you this is all a farce to the point the immersion breaks immediately and you are just looking at a vulgar anecdote that trashes stereotypes. It doesn’t feel funny for more than 10 minutes and the mediocre production values make it even more passable than it already is. It would at least be interesting if this was an orgy hentai but no, the creators were dead set on making a show nobody will like or care for.

Bottom line: No real plot, no real characters, mediocre production values, retarded from the get-go. One of the worst shows in recent memory.