Date A Live Characters

A second-year student at Raizen High School who was adopted into the Itsuka family as a small child. He turns out to have a unique power: if a Spirit trusts him enough to kiss him, he seals her power inside himself, which makes her safe to live in the human world. Kind, patient and stubborn, he takes on the job for Ratatoskr because he cannot bear to leave anyone in despair. He can also draw on the powers he has sealed, from the healing flames of Kotori's Angel to Tohka's sword.

The first Spirit Shido saves. She arrives used to being attacked on sight and with no name at all, so Shido names her Tohka after 10 April, the day they met. Once her power is sealed she joins his class at Raizen, moves in next door and greets everything with huge enthusiasm, especially food; kinako bread is her favourite. When she falls into despair she can turn into a far more hostile Inverse form.

Shido's adoptive younger sister and, secretly, the commander of Ratatoskr's airship Fraxinus. In white ribbons she is a cheerful, clingy little sister; in black ribbons, a present from Shido, she becomes a sharp-tongued commander, nearly always with a Chupa Chups lollipop in her mouth. She is also the fire Spirit Efreet: five years ago the mysterious Phantom gave her a Spirit's power and Shido sealed it, though both of them had forgotten until season 1.

Shido's classmate, the top student in their year in both lessons and sport, and secretly a member of the Anti-Spirit Team. She joined to take revenge on the Spirit she blames for her parents' deaths five years ago, and she is just as single-minded in her devotion to Shido. In season 3 her search for power turns her into a Spirit herself, and a trip into the past changes her history.

A shy, gentle Spirit who looks about thirteen and does most of her talking through Yoshinon, the outspoken rabbit puppet on her hand. Rain falls wherever she appears, and although the AST attack her on sight she never fights back, because she does not want to hurt anyone. Shido finds her lost puppet and becomes the one she trusts; afterwards she slowly learns to speak for herself.

The Spirit codenamed Nightmare, who transfers into Shido's class and calmly announces that she is a Spirit. She has killed many people, and her left eye is a golden clock face showing how much time she has left to live, which she restores by taking time from others. Her real goal is to travel back in time and kill the First Spirit, and for that she wants the power sealed inside Shido. Over the seasons she becomes an uneasy ally, and she also stars in the spin-off Date A Bullet.

Twin Spirits who were once a single Spirit called Yamai and have spent their lives competing to decide which of them is the real one; after 99 contests the score stood at 25 wins each and 49 draws. They meet Shido on his class trip to Arubi Island and make winning him over their 100th contest, but each secretly wants the other to be the one who survives. Shido offers them a third choice and seals their power together. Kaguya is theatrical and fond of grand speeches, while Yuzuru is deadpan and opens her sentences with a single summing-up word.

A famous idol at Rindoji Girls' Academy who distrusts people, men above all, after false rumours once wrecked her career and cost her her voice. Phantom's power gave her voice back, and through her Angel her singing can bend listeners to her will. Shido approaches her disguised as a girl called Shiori, and after he keeps his promise to her she lets him seal her power and starts calling him her 'darling'.

A Spirit whose broomstick Angel, Haniel, can turn anything into anything else. She first appears as a confident young woman, but her true form is a small girl with a very low opinion of herself, and she is convinced Shido has seen it. In revenge she impersonates him at school, then dares him to work out which of twelve people close to him she has replaced. She warms to Shido and the Spirits after they rescue her from DEM, and helps them destroy a satellite that DEM's executives send crashing towards the city.

A Spirit who has lived among humans as a successful manga artist under the pen name Soji Honjo, and the long-sought 'Second Spirit'. Her Angel, a book that can tell her almost anything, has left her unable to trust people, so she says she has only ever fallen for fictional characters. DEM held her captive for years, and Westcott took the power of her Inverse form for himself before Shido sealed what was left.

A Spirit who has been living alone in outer space after using her key-shaped Angel, Michael, to lock away her own emotions. She speaks in an old-fashioned way and calls herself 'Muku'. Once Shido unlocks her feelings she wants him all to herself, and she seals away everyone else's memories of him until he promises to be her family.

Sir Isaac Ray Pelham Westcott, the founder and managing director of DEM Industries and the series' main villain. He wants the Spirits' power for himself and treats other people's suffering, his own staff's included, as an acceptable price: he tries to drive Tohka into despair so that she will invert, and in season 4 he takes the power of Nia's Inverse form. Season 5 shows his childhood in a village of mages alongside Elliot Woodman and the Mathers sisters.