You kinda knew that there would be a sequel to this show, as much was left undone, so the parent company gave us “Date A Live 2”, which is both a continuation of what went down the first season with newer complications, one of which is a shorter season.

For those playing catch-up (and those who haven’t read the review of Season 1), the world has been bedeviled by these spacequakes, which are discovered to be caused by these space maidens (called “spirits”) entering our dimension. They cause untold damage and people are killed (think of an earthquake, but far more devastating). It was determined that if these ladies could have their powers sealed, this would cut down on problems. To this end, the standard anime male schlub of Shido Itsuka is used to get these ladies to fall in love with him, so he could kiss them and seal the powers.

Second Season has more ladies showing up, especially the Troublesome Twins of Kaguya and Yusuru (those bodacious gingers at the far right). You see, it’s kind of like spinning plates on small sticks. We add more and more plates, but you still have to tend to the plates you already have spinning. Now, this may come as a bit of a surprise to many of you, but girls tend to get jealous when you say you love them, but are seen by them in the company of another girl or girls. Since Shido has 10 plates spinning, I mean, trying to deal with 10 girls at once, who get jealous that he is spending time with other ladies, he has his hands more than full and things get out of hand.

Now, if this wasn’t bad enough, the actions of JDF pilot Origami Tobiichi adds to the situation, and not in a positive way. More or less, if you leave these space maidens alone and let Shido do his job, you reduce both collateral damage and making a bad situation worse. Nope. If I have the technology and the time, I’m going after these Space Succubi! There seems to be a critical missing memo that it would be best if Origami and her ilk do nothing and let Shido work his magic.

For me, near the middle of the run, it became a muddle of a run and I was having a hard time following the plot and trying to understand its split purposes. If you want Shido to take care of these ladies, who will ‘agree’ to the set-up, why jinx it by sending in the Space Marines? Doesn’t that imply that he is more of bait (like a carrot under a crate) to lure these ladies in to their destruction? Then we have a Dragon Ball Z- like conclusion, where we just have a massive space fight to close out the show.

But we don’t close it out. At 10 episodes, it falls way short of where it needs to be and I also wonder if the inclusion of a Spirit who doesn’t like men was done as more of a plot device than anything to help the story. How can Shido win over a ‘woman in comfortable shoes’? Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. There is an OVA coming out, but that’s at the end of the year. Merry Christmas.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork 7 (More of the fashion choices than character design)
Plot 5 (It just got in the way)
Pacing 5 (Lack of direction slow it all down)
Effectiveness 5 (We don’t know where this is getting to)
Conclusion 2 (It reaches a ‘coupler point’, but hasn’t ended)
Fan Service 5 (A similar show would be “Maburaho”)

Overall 6 (Fell apart at the middle)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. Take Option B.