About Date A Live
Date A Live is a Japanese light novel series written by Koushi Tachibana and illustrated by Tsunako. Fujimi Shobo published it under its Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint in 22 volumes from March 2011 to March 2020, Yen Press publishes it in English, and by June 2026 the series had sold 9 million copies. The anime has run to five seasons and 58 episodes, broadcast between April 2013 and June 2024, with a different studio for most seasons: AIC Plus+ for the first, Production IMS for the second, J.C.Staff for the third and Geek Toys for the fourth and fifth. Together they adapt volumes 1 to 19. A new anime, Date A Live F Last Date, was announced in April 2026, with Junji Nishimura directing at the studio Fugaku.
Thirty years before the story begins, a disaster called a spacequake devastated the centre of Eurasia, and smaller spacequakes have struck the world ever since. Shido Itsuka, an ordinary second-year at Raizen High School in Tengu City, leaves a shelter during an alarm to look for his younger sister and finds a girl standing in the crater. She is a Spirit, one of the beings whose arrival causes the quakes. His sister Kotori turns out to command the Fraxinus, the airship of a secret organisation called Ratatoskr, and she tells Shido that he has a unique power: he can seal a Spirit's power inside himself, which makes her safe to live in the human world. The catch is that it only works if the Spirit trusts him enough to kiss him.
So Shido goes on dates, with the Fraxinus crew advising him through an earpiece, while two other groups would rather see the Spirits dead or caught: the Anti-Spirit Team (AST), a Self-Defense Force unit that includes his classmate Origami Tobiichi, and DEM Industries, the company led by Sir Isaac Ray Pelham Westcott that wants the Spirits' power for itself. Each arc brings a new Spirit with her own reason for distrusting people, from the shy Yoshino and the time-controlling Kurumi Tokisaki to the idol Miku Izayoi and Mukuro, who has shut herself away in space. Wikipedia files the series as a harem romantic comedy and science fantasy, and the later seasons turn to the question underneath it all: where the Spirits came from, and what Shido's power has to do with it.
Want the archetype rather than the character? The dere type quiz scores you across all eight anime dere types — tsundere, yandere, kuudere, dandere and four more — and explains where each word comes from.
What the Date A Live Quiz Tests
Our Date A Live quiz covers the five seasons of the TV anime, which adapt the first 19 volumes of Koushi Tachibana's light novels. It does not ask about anything the anime has not reached, the film Mayuri Judgement, the OVAs or the Date A Bullet spin-off. Easy levels cover the premise: spacequakes, how Shido seals a Spirit's power, Ratatoskr, the AST and DEM, Tohka's name and her sword, Kotori's ribbons, Yoshinon, Kurumi's clock eye, Tengu City and the people who made the series. The middle levels follow the story in order, from Yoshino's lost puppet and Kurumi's arrival in Shido's class, through Kotori's secret, the class trip to Arubi Island, Shido's disguise as Shiori and Tohka's Inverse form, to Natsumi's guessing game, Origami's trip into the past, Nia the manga artist, Mukuro in space and Kurumi's challenge. The hard levels ask about the details: the Yamai twins' record, Westcott's slip of the tongue, the combat unit Origami steals, the number hidden in Kurumi's name, the length of season 2 and the reveals of seasons 4 and 5.
Key Characters
Shido Itsuka is a kind, stubborn high-school boy who was adopted as a small child and cannot stand to see anyone in despair, which is exactly what makes him suited to his strange job. Tohka Yatogami, the first Spirit he saves, arrives used to being attacked on sight and with no name at all; Shido names her after the day they met, and once she is sealed she becomes his cheerful, food-loving classmate. His adoptive sister Kotori switches between a clingy little sister in white ribbons and a sharp-tongued commander in black ones, and has a Spirit's secret of her own. Origami Tobiichi, the top student in his year, hunts Spirits with the AST because she believes one killed her parents. Yoshino, shy and gentle, speaks through her rabbit puppet Yoshinon and never fights back. Kurumi Tokisaki, the 'Worst Spirit', transfers into Shido's class with a clock for a left eye and her own plans for his power. Later come the Yamai twins, the idol Miku Izayoi, the shape-shifting Natsumi, the manga artist Nia Honjou and the lonely Mukuro Hoshimiya. Against them all stand Isaac Westcott, the head of DEM Industries, and his secretary Ellen Mathers, said to be the strongest Wizard in the world.
Available Quizzes
Date A Live Trivia
50 hand-crafted questions across 5 categories. 10 levels of increasing difficulty.
Which Date A Live Character Are You?
Answer 10 questions to discover whether you are most like Shido or one of the Spirits he meets!
Random Mix
Questions from all 40 anime including Date A Live. The ultimate challenge.
Characters
Shido Itsuka
Tohka Yatogami
Kurumi Tokisaki
Kotori Itsuka
Origami Tobiichi
Date A Live Fun Facts
- Every Spirit's Japanese name hides a number: Tohka has ten (十), Kurumi three (三), Yoshino four (四) and Miku nine (九). Each number points to a sephirah of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and the Spirits' Angels and Astral Dresses are named after the archangel and divine name that go with it, which is why Tohka's Angel is Sandalphon.
- Tohka's name comes from the day Shido met her, 10 April, which is read 'tōka' in Japanese. Shido swapped the character for 'day' (日) for one with the same sound meaning 'fragrance' (香).
- The vocal group sweet ARMS, which sang the opening themes of the first three seasons, is made up of four of the cast: Iori Nomizu (Yoshino), Misuzu Togashi (Origami), Kaori Sadohara (the teacher Tamae Okamine) and Misato (Mana Takamiya).
- Shido's classmates Ai, Mai and Mii are named as a pun on 'I, my, me'. Their voice actresses, Risako Murai, Kayoko Tsumita and Midori Tsukimiya, sang the first episode's ending theme, 'Hatsukoi Winding Road'.
- Kurumi was the first character Tachibana came up with, before the series itself existed. She later got a spin-off, Date A Live Fragment: Date A Bullet, written by Yuichiro Higashide under Tachibana's supervision and adapted by Geek Toys as two films in 2020.
- The anime has changed studio almost every time it returned: AIC Plus+ in 2013, Production IMS in 2014, J.C.Staff in 2019 and Geek Toys in 2022 and 2024. The fourth season was due in October 2021 but was delayed to April 2022 for 'various reasons', and the newly announced Last Date moves to a fifth studio, Fugaku.
Date A Live Quiz — Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes of Date A Live are there?
Fifty-eight TV episodes across five seasons. Season 1 has 12 episodes (April to June 2013), Date A Live II has 10 (April to June 2014), and Date A Live III, IV and V have 12 each, airing from January to March 2019, April to June 2022 and April to June 2024. There are also two OVAs, released in 2013 and 2014, and an original film, Date A Live: Mayuri Judgement (2015), none of which is part of the TV count.
Is Date A Live finished?
The light novels are: the 22nd and final volume was published in March 2020. The anime is not finished yet. Its five seasons adapt volumes 1 to 19, and on 10 April 2026 a new anime, Date A Live F Last Date, was announced, directed by Junji Nishimura at the studio Fugaku. Its official site presents it as the final chapter of Shido and Tohka's story, but no release date had been announced when we checked in October 2026.
What order should I watch Date A Live in?
Season 1, season 2, the film Date A Live: Mayuri Judgement, then seasons 3, 4 and 5. The film is an original story by Tachibana that was announced at the end of season 2 and features the Spirits Shido has sealed by then, so it fits between seasons 2 and 3. The two OVAs are optional side stories. Date A Bullet, the pair of 2020 films about Kurumi in another world, is a separate spin-off that you do not need for the main story.
Where can I watch Date A Live?
In North America the anime is licensed by Crunchyroll; the earlier seasons were released by Funimation and moved to Crunchyroll after Sony acquired Crunchyroll. Madman Entertainment released the first two seasons in Australia, and Muse Communication licensed season 5 in Southeast Asia. Availability differs by country and changes over time, so check your local services.
What is Date A Live about?
It follows Shido Itsuka, a high-school boy who learns that the spacequakes ravaging the world are caused by Spirits, girls from another dimension who are hunted wherever they appear. Recruited by a secret organisation run by his younger sister Kotori, he sets out to save each Spirit by taking her on dates until she trusts him enough to let him seal her power with a kiss. Behind the romantic comedy is a science-fantasy story about a military unit and a ruthless company that want the Spirits dead or captured, and about where the Spirits really come from.
