Literature / Date A Live

Clockwise from top-left: Reine, Kotori, Shido, Mana, Origami, Yoshino and Yoshinon, Tohka, Kurumi.

"Now, let our date (battle) begin!"

Date A Live is a Japanese Light Novel series written by Koushi Tachibana, with illustrations by Tsunako and published by Fujimi Shobo under their Fujimi Fantasia Bunko label. The series was published in Dragon Magazine from 2011 to 2020, with a total of 22 volumes.

The story is set in an alternate Earth where phenomena known by the generic term "Spacequakes" occur. The first of these spacequakes devastated thirty years before the time the story takes place, claiming 150 million lives. The protagonist, an Ordinary High-School Student by the name of Shido Itsuka, lives in a world where these disasters are common place. Schools regularly have drills in case of a spacequake, evacuations are done swiftly, and a group known as the JSDF disaster response team rebuilds the destroyed areas impossibly quickly. However things have gotten strange lately for Shido, the spacequakes that slowed down to a halt have suddenly appeared once again with terrifying frequency; and they all seem to be centered around where Shido lived...

After a confusing series of events, Shido soon learns that all is not what it appears in the world. He discovers that the spacequakes aren't natural disasters, they are caused by beings known as "Spirits" being forcibly sucked into this world from their own; and it also turns out that they happen to be top class Bishojo as well. He also finds out his little sister, Kotori, is a sadistic commander of a Spirit Response force, Ratatoskr, whose goal is to capture the Spirits without harming them. Unfortunately there is another group called the AST (Anti-Spirit Team) who feel that simply killing them is the best solution. Shido, being the kindhearted hero he is, decides to use any alternative to save the Spirits since killing them seemed wrong (despite the fact they seem to cause mass destruction wherever they go). And it turns out that there is a way to save the Spirits without hurting them, the Spirits are able to lose their powers and live amongst normal people if Shido manages to... make them fall in love with him? As his sister Kotori bluntly lays it out for him, "Since it's like this, just go date her, and make the spirit fall for you!"

And so yet another hero is created, off to save the world through the power of harems. But he better be careful, because the nefarious Isaac Wescott, Director of Deus.Ex.Machina Industries, seeks the power of the Spirits for himself so he can make a new world.

Three manga adaptations were published: Date A Live (which follows the original novels, and got Cut Short), Date AST Like (a Yuri spinoff involving Origami, with a girl from the AST called Mikie as the main character), and Date A Origami (a 4-koma which focuses on the romantic comedy aspect of the series). An anime adaptation produced by AIC Plus+ was announced for April 2013. At the end of the last episode, a second season was announced, this time being produced by Production IMS. At the end of the Second Season, a film adaptation was announced, which was also produced by Production IMS. A third season premiered in January 2019, this time being produced by J.C. Staff. A fourth season was announced to be in production on March 16 2020 and initially scheduled to premiere in October 2021, but was later delayed to Spring 2022, now produced by Geek Toys. A fifth season was announced in June 2022 via a teaser at the end of the 12th episode of the fourth season and will start airing in April 2024.

A Spiritual Successor to this series (also created by the same duo) called Kings Proposal is currently on serialization and already got a PV [1].

Not to be confused with Live A Live.

Now has a character page.

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Provides examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Applied to large airships like the Fraxinus, as well as DEM's Bandersnatch. Strangely, the fourth season occasionally used it on people as well.
• Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Volume 8 has Shido trying to guess who amongst the 10 people he knows is a fake. If he cannot guess who the fake is, one of them disappears entirely.
• Accidental Kiss: Yoshino has one with Shido in episode 4 of season 1 after she falls off a platform inside a mall. Unfortunately Tohka sees it and isn't too happy with it. Yoshino's taunting doesn't help any either.
• Action Girl: All the Spirits, as well as all the girls in the AST and the DEM.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Kaguya Yamai's colorful language is literally what would happen if Rikka Takanashi took further lessons from the Dark Flame Master.
  • Ayana Taketatsu voices yet another annoying younger sister who is far more than she appears and basically plays a real-life galge. Kirino, is that you?
  • Iori Nomizu voices a character based around rabbits. She doesn't randomly use 'Yes' this time around though.
  • This isn't the first time Ryōtarō Okiayu played a white haired man who owns a company.
• Adaptation Distillation: For the third season finale, Volume 12 was distilled into a single episode. The anime as a whole leaves out several hints about Reine's identity.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Shido tends to do these to the various spirits a lot, especially the more childlike ones. Kurumi offers Shido this choice in volume 7.
  Kurumi: If you don't want me to cry, you can either give me one of Shidou-san's eyeballs, or let me suck your blood, or pet my head.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In Volume 10 Westcott has Goetia invade the Fraxinus, which served as a base for the Ratatoskr organization, with absolutely no regard as to the damage it would cause to the city below. He is still trying to do it in Volume 15, in outer space this time.
• All Your Powers Combined: Volume 7 reveals that Shido can use some of the powers from the Spirits he kisses. While Volume 4 implied it and Volume 5 confirmed it, Volume 7 outright shows him using multiple Angels at the same time, for the first time. Volume 12 takes this one step further by giving him complete control over all of the sealed Spirits' powers.
• Alternate Universe: The setting is basically Earth, with a history of a spacequake killing 150 million people 30 years before the start of the series. Depending on when said spacequake was, it may count as Alternate History as well, with the only clue being the April 10th that Shido met Tohka on being a Monday.
• Amusing Injuries: In episode 3 of season 1, when Tohka and Shido are waiting at a table in a high class restaurant, Kotori shows up as their waitress. Shocked at seeing her there, and before he can say much that could ruin the date, Kotori smacks his face pretty hard with a pan, causing an indentation of his face on it.
• Angry Cheek Puff: In "Despair Comes Crashing Down", Miku gets so mad when she thinks Kotori is insulting Natsumi that she puffs up both her cheeks, accompanied by a Blush Sticker and Blank White Eyes.
• Animation Bump: The second season of the anime has a noticeable increase in animation fluidity, especially during aerial battles like the Fraxinus's ship-to-ship combat versus the Arbatel, and Origami's standoff against Bailey and her DEM team (Bandersnatchs included).
• Another Dimension: Spirits apparently live there in their Superpowered Evil Side form, but they cannot remember anything that happens there.
• Anti-Interference Lock Up: After joining DEM, Origami leaves Shido tied to a chair in an isolated room to keep him out of the way while she pursues Revenge Before Reason against the already sealed Spirits.
• Arc Number: The number thirty appears quite a bit in this series.
  • The first spacequake occurred thirty years prior to the story's setting, along with the First Spirit's appearance.
  • Reine claims she hasn't slept in thirty years, though she herself looks no older than her late twenties.
  • Westcott is said to have had a fallout with Woodman thirty years ago. Just like Reine, his age is not disclosed, despite his Bishōnen looks.
• Aside Glance: The anime's opening has Reine, Tamae, Hiroto, Ai, Mai and Mii all look at the camera when they appear.
• Asshole Victim: Given the atrocities he committed in the name of a "perfect wizarding world" and his bad reputation in DEM, no one, including his "directors", mourned Isaac Westcott's death. The only ones who did were his childhood friends.
• Bag of Kidnapping: Possibly to keep her from trying to claw anyone else's eyes out, Shido used one on Natsumi to get her to her day of beauty, despite her being safely contained her the special housing unit for spirits at the time. Needless to say, she's not amused.
• Balanced Harem: Each girl has her own side stories with Shido. He hasn't favored any one of them either, in the 21st and 22nd novel, when Tohka disappears, others even stated they will wait for her to return so everyone can be together.
• Battle Harem: While the Spirits Shido "captures" are technically de-powered, they can use small bits of their power every now and then; this is usually to combat future Harem members.
• Battle of the Bands: Miku challenges "Shiori" to this, promising to let the latter seal her powers if she loses, but demands servitude from him and the Spirits he's sealed so far if he loses. Miku wins the music competition, but Shido's group got enough points from other categories to win the overall competition.
• Beach Episode:
  • The episode takes place in a water park instead of a beach, but the girls are wearing swimsuits in Volume 4/Episode 11. Shido even helps Tohka, Origami, and Yoshino pick out swimsuits prior to the water park.
  • An actual trip to the beach is included in Volume 5 of the light novel, and episodes 2-4 in season 2.
• Because I Said So: Half the justification Kotori gives a resistant Mana for why she needs a checkup, in the first episode of season 4. The other half being that they need to figure out how DEM has modified Mana's body.
• Best Her to Bed Her:
  • Miku offers to let Shido (well, Shiori) seal her powers if he beats her in the Tenou Festival school competition, with one of the contests focusing on singing. Miku wins the singing contest, but Shido's school wins overall. Miku doesn't take this well.
  • The Spirits decide to create a manga about their encounters with Shido to appeal to Nia, who says that she can only love 2D (fictional) characters. However, Nia refuses to read it unless they can prove its value by beating her in a sales competition. They tie, but Nia does them a service and reads it anyway, falling for him once she confirms that it's all true with Rasiel.
• Between My Legs:
  • Kotori in episode 1 while she's standing on Shido's bed.
  • Kurumi in episode 8 when she tries on lingerie during her date with Shido.
  • Origami in episode 9 when she confronts Kurumi.
• BFG: The CR-Units tend to have rather... large firearms at their disposal. Kotori's angel can also take the form of a giant cannon for her Finishing Move.
• BFS: Quite a few, but Tohka's weaponry seems to take the cake. During her Roaring Rampage of Revenge it gets boosted to 10 meters long^note About 3 stories.
• Big Bad: Sir Isaac Ray Peram Wescott, managing director of Deus Ex Machina Industries, and creator of the Spirits who caused the war between them and mankind. He plans to use their power to become a god and create a new world in his image, purely For the Evulz. While he was relatively out of the picture for the first four volumes or so (the entirety of the anime's first season minus his involvement with Mana and Origami's new weapons), once he makes his appearance, it's made clear that he harbours ill intent towards the Spirits, and slowly overrides the story's initial Excuse Plot.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Tohka, Origami, and Mana do this for Shido from time to time, such as when Mana arrives before Kurumi can do anything malicious to him in episode 8.
  • Efreet!Kotori saving Shido, Tohka, Origami, Mana, and a big chunk of the city from Kurumi at the end of Volume 3/episode 9. And easily defeating her, no less.
  • Tohka and Yoshino do this again in Volume 4/episode 12, distracting Origami long enough for Shido to seal Kotori's Spirit powers.
  • In Volume 7, we have Miku coming to Shido's rescue when he's trapped by some Wizards while trying to rescue Tohka. And later on, when Tohka loses control of herself and attacks them, Yoshino and the Yamai twins come to help.
• Big "NO!": Shido lets one out when he's forced to cross-dress as a girl and Origami takes a lot of pictures of him as a result in episode 5 of season 2.
• Bland-Name Product: The astronaut girl in the Dating Sim Shido plays at the beginning of Episode 2 of the anime is wearing a NUSA suit.
• Blank White Eyes: Several characters will show these throughout the anime adaptation, be it for embarrassment or shock. Miku combines this with Color Failure upon discovering "Shiori"'s true gender.
• Bowdlerise: The anime tends to tone down the more gruesome moments from the light novels. For example, Kurumi loses her left arm in the process of being on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle courtesy of Kotori. In the anime, she's completely unscathed.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In Episode 2, when the then-unnamed Tohka asks Shido to give her a name, Ratatoskr ends up suggesting "Tome". Tohka responds by firing at him and muttering that she gets the impression that she's being mocked. Shido mentally apologizes to all the Tomes in the world as he notes that the name is outdated, while scrolling text at the top of the screen insists that Shido's opinion on the name does not represent that of the anime staff.
• Breather Episode:
  • Volume 5 is a Lighter and Softer arc than those on either side of it.
  • Episode 6 is original to the anime adaptation and far sillier than the rest of the series. Doubles as a Hot Springs Episode. Except they only get to the hot springs a a few minutes before the end of the episode.
• Break the Cutie: Happens to Tohka and Origami when they think Shido has been killed by the latter.
  • Yoshino also. She created the Yoshinon personality to limit her own power so she wouldn't hurt anyone. And yet the AST still indiscriminately attack her. In fact Yoshino would easily have ended up like Kurumi if not for Yoshinon.
  • Poor Miku. After she refused to sleep with a TV producer, false scandals about her popped up and ruined her Idol Singer career, and her fans (over 90% of them are males) turned against her. And on top of that, she lost her voice due to all the stress and pulled a Face–Heel Turn. For someone whose only talent was singing, it was as if she lost everything. No wonder she hates men so much.
• Brought Down to Normal: The premise of the series. If Shido has a good relationship with the main Spirit that is introduced, then he can seal her powers via kissing her. Why he can do this is unknown at this time.
• Bullying a Dragon: Basically, the AST's mission. The Non-Lethal Warfare helps them get away with it, but aside from the very strongest Wizards, they're in trouble if a Spirit decides to get serious. And the more realistic ones know it.
  • Even the Wizards handpicked by DEM wasn't immune to this either, as Ellen would attest in Volume 9.
• Call-Back: The short story "Origami Impossible" (adapted into the 1st OVA) has Shido trying to make Origami break up with him by acting like a dick with Fraxinus' guidance, including deriding her outfit and telling her to wear dog ears and a school swimsuit... only for Origami to stun them all by actually wearing what he asked for. When the Origami in the new timeline goes on a date with Shido, he offers to buy her clothes if she picks out something that he likes. Origami finds herself subconsciously picking out dog ears and a school swimsuit.
• Calling Your Attacks: The Spirits have a tendency to shout out the names of their finishing moves before they use them. As if shouting out the names of their Angels every time they summon them wasn't enough already...
• Card-Carrying Villain: Sir Isaac Ray Peram Westcott knows he's a warmonger and he wants to cause as much death and destruction as possible and makes no secret of it.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: A variation as the communicators aren't fighting. During Shido's first encounter with Tohka, they do small talk with one another as they sit in place...all while the AST are shooting at them, unable to hit thanks to a force field from Tohka.
• Cerebus Retcon: Reine Murasame, a Ratatoskr worker who assists Shido in his dates, carries a small teddy bear on her person. At first, the series just treated as a funny quirk of hers, but in volume 17, Reine is revealed to be Mio Takamiya, the First Spirit, who met Shido before the events of the story and fell in love with him. That teddy bear was a souvenir Shido won for her and she has kept it with her since.
• Cerebus Syndrome: While the series itself mostly focused on romantic comedy, as the story progresses, the series become much more serious, ever since Westcott and DEM starts meddling with protagonists.
• Chick Magnet: It's Shido's job description. Ironically, he's fairly bad at it. Kotori says this when Tohka appears asks Shido to take her on the date he asked for and Kotori and Reine happen to see them together in a restaurant.
  Kotori: If that was the case, then onii-chan would be going out with a normal girl. If you ask me whether that or a Spirit silently^note It's implied that it was thought to be impossible for Spirits to appear without a spacequake appearing is more likely... then by a narrow margin it would be the latter.
  • Then again, considering how quickly he got Tohka to warm up to him, and what he did for Miku in Volume 7, considering that she gave him much more help than he gave her, he may actually be much more competent in this department than Kotori claims he is.
• Child Soldiers: A lot of the AST members, since the AST usually takes in those whose parents are dead. Usually killed by the Spirits.
• Circling Birdies: Happens to Tohka in episode 2 of second season, after she got hit by trash can thrice. Only the star or birds replaced with Yoshinons.
• Cliffhanger: One occurs in episode 6 of season 2, when Origami gets hit by a barrage of missiles fired from Bailey's DEM team, starts bleeding, and several bandersnatch androids show up behind her as reinforcements for Bailey.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • Both Tohka and Origami towards Shido. Later on, the Yamai twin Spirits join in.
  • Kotori gets into this mode in case. With Mana, Shido's biological little sister.
  • Subverted with Miku; while she's far clingier than the rest of the girls, she's far from being jealous. Ever. In fact, she doesn't even mind Shido having a harem. Though when she calls Shido "darling", Tohka, Yoshino, and the Yamai twins get a little jealous about it, and attempt to have him explain that definition. Kotori pokes fun at him meanwhile.
• Close-Call Haircut: Shido gets two from Tohka in their second meeting at Raizen high when she was less than satisfied with some of his answers. The walls and buildings behind him don't fare as well.
• Code Name: The AST, DEM, and sometimes Ratatoskr assign these towards the Spirits. "Princess" for Tohka, "Hermit" for Yoshino, "Nightmare" for Kurumi, "Efreet" for Kotori, "Berserk" for the Yamai twins, "Diva" for Miku, "Witch" for Natsumi, "Angel" for Origami (or "Devil" when Inversed), "Sister" for Nia, "Zodiac" for Mukuro. "Phantom" is given to the enigmatic being that appears infrequently in the story. The Spirit of Origin is "Deus".
  • Shido whites out in episode 13 after Origami does exactly what he asks her to do: stand on all four like a dog and act like one, even taking Shido's belt off to use it as a collar.
  • Miku is subjected to this in episode 7 of second season, after poking Shido's crotch and learned that he's crossdressing to get her attention after all.
• Compressed Adaptation: Most of the anime seasons have only 12 episodes, except for the second one which has only 10. It does about 3 episodes per light novel. While fairly faithful to the novels, some details are omitted, probably for time reasons. Examples being the Realizer which powers the AST and Ratatoskr's tech the Fraxinus' Transporter, and even Kotori's Volume 1 reveal of Shido and her being Not Blood Siblings. Omission of the second can feel like a Plot Hole at times.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: The few bandersnatch that attack Tohka and Shido in episode 4 of season 2 give them some trouble. Later, when several dozens of them are released, the Yamai twins destroy them fairly quickly.
• Cool Airship: Ratatoskr owns several airships, with the main one being the Fraxinus.
• Cosplay Café: During Tennou Festival, the Raizen High female students cosplay as maids in order to run their "Maid Café (☆) Raizen".
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Reine admits herself that if she had told Shido that Kotori's affection towards him had been at the max all along, most of Volume 4's schtick wouldn't have happened.
• Crash-Into Hello: Yoshino does this on Ai, Mai, and Mii in episode 8 of season 1 to prevent them from finding Shido while he's rotating on a three-way date with Origami, Kurumi, and Tohka. She purposely runs into them and knocks them down. When she apologizes for it, the three girls are immediately struck by Cuteness Proximity and get successfully distracted.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Origami, in particular, her house. As in sentry guns are there to keep intruders out.
  • Ratatoskr itself is this. They had plans ready in case the Spirit Tohka snuck past them to date Shido... which they didn't even think was possible.
  • Murdoch out-crazy prepares them by having three satellites that he uses to Colony Drop one city just to take out Westcott. Though his plans failed, fans praise him for being that Crazy-Prepared for the situation.
• Creature-Hunter Organization: Played With, The Amazon Brigade Anti-Spirit Team is tasked of fighting the Spirits, Person of Mass Destruction that has been causing phenomena called Spacequakes— which are "earth" quakes IN SPACE^note actually just quakes not occuring on the ground but on the atmosphere.. The thing is, they are horribly ineffective at fighting the spirits (except for the two elites among them, who are One Women Armies) since the spirits have powerful Deflector Shields. This trope is subverted in two ways:
  • One, the spirits are sentient and can be reasoned with. They can also have their powers sealed, reducing them to normal humans. So there really isn't much reason fighting them (unless they're psychos).
  • Two, the AST has their rival organization: Ratatorsk, who decided to have someone date these spirits to submission, since they conveniently all happen to be girls. This is because their leader is also sort of one, and had her powers sealed as well.
• Credits Running Sequence: Tohka runs toward the left in a plain white background in one of the endings. She also doesn't trip at all or change her pace.
• Crystal-Ball Scheduling: In episode 1 of season 2, Tohka and Yoshino are watching a soap opera while Shido says he's going out to shop for lunch ingredients. In the tv show the girls are watching, a man is seen packing a suitcase and telling his wife he's leaving her because he's tired of her. Tohka then goes to Shido's room with the intention of cleaning it, only to accidentally bump a suitcase, and sees it packed full of clothing. She then immediately recalls the soap opera from earlier, and fears he's secretly doing the same thing, and starts becoming incredibly unhappy. Later Tohka watches more of the soap opera, and the man is seen with another woman, who says his wife doesn't suspect a thing, and later leaves his wife at the train station with the other woman. Tohka once again thinks he's cheating on her, particularly as he took the suitcase with him this time, and once again is meeting up with Origami, by a train station no less.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Spirits versus, well anything that's not a Spirit really. Unless it's a very powerful Wizard from the DEM who can fight as well as them, if not better. Like Ellen.
  • Kotori delivers one to Kurumi in episode 10. She also likely would have killed her had Shido not stopped her at the last second.
  • In episode 4 of season 2, Kyouhei is so cunning during the fight with the DEM ship that the latter is unable to land any direct hits on them after their first sneak attack. He also utilizes his abilities to damage their ship and force them to retreat.
    • Tohka suffers one as well against Ellen, who easily defeats her and was about to kidnap her right in front of Shido. Until he has a Traumatic Superpower Awakening and summons Sandalphon, Tohka's sword.
  • Bailey suffers one from Mana in episode 7 of season 2. The latter uses the Fraxinus's Wave-Motion Gun to destroy the former's bandersnatch androids, and then defeats Bailey in about five seconds. After Mana knocks her out, she tosses her back to Bailey's underlings, who then flee the scene.
• Cursed with Awesome: The Spirits. They are incredibly powerful and borderline indestructible but lost their memories (except humans that are given power by the Phantom spirit), are hunted just for existing and have no friends, human contact or chance at a normal life. Ratatoskr and Shido try to change this.
• Curtains Match the Window: About half of the cast have their unusual hair colors match their eye colors.
• Cut Short: The manga adaptation, although it's because of the health of the artist, rather than the usual reasons.
• Cycle of Revenge: Spirit shows up on Earth, a huge calamity happens in a particular area. The survivor of said calamity then wants revenge to the Spirit who killed that person's parents or loved ones. Spirit (may or may not have to be the same Spirit) then gets dragged on by the revenge of said person and tries to defend herself from attacks. In case you haven't noticed, this is how Origami deals with Spirits with Tohka and Yoshino just trying to defend themselves. Shido's journey in Volumes 11 is all about breaking it.
• Darkest Hour:
  • Episode 7 of season 2/Chapter 5 of Volume 7. Tohka has been kidnapped by Ellen, and several of the other spirits that Shido sealed, as well as Kotori's crew have been brainwashed by Miku. Shido is at a complete loss as to how to solve this issue, until Kurumi shows up and offers him her help.
  • Volume 18 has The First Spirit Mio hunting down and murdering all the Spirits with frightening ease to retrieve their Sephira Crystals, ultimately intending to cause a Death of Personality to Shido so she can have Shinji back. Tohka manages to revive herself stronger than ever and actually put up a fight until Mio uses her third angel Ain to just erase Tohka completely. Just when all hope seems lost, a clone of Kurumi sent into the future arrives to remind Shido that he still has her Sixth Bullet Vav sealed, giving him an opportunity to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
• Dark Horse Victory: In Volume 4/Episode 11, as part of Shido's Training from Hell, Tohka, Origami and Yoshino are to excite Shido as much possible while they select swimsuits; the one who makes his heart beat the fastest wins a date with him. Both Tohka and Origami spend much of the time trying to outdo each other, only for Yoshino (who was stuck in the changing room all this while) to win in the end.
• Date Peepers: Origami follows Shido and Tohka around on their date in Volume 1/Episode 3.
• Dating Sim: How the crew aboard the Fraxinus deals with the process of decision making for Shido to date the Spirits. This is even how Shido is trained by Ratatoskr to prepare himself mentally to go on dates with the Spirits.
• Death from Above:
  • Kotori, while brainwashed by Miku, was nearly ready to fire her ship's Wave-Motion Gun on the building below where Shido was at (along with hundreds of Miku's fans, but apparently they didn't matter). However, she's stopped with a quick knockout by Mana, who was sleeping at the time when the Fraxinus bridge crew heard Miku's Hypno Ray music, and wasn't under Miku's influence as a result.
  • Origami remembers that her parents were killed by a mysterious energy beam that came from the sky. She later discovers, to her own horror, that she was the one who killed them in an attempt to prevent it from happening. She doesn't take it too well.
• Declaration of Protection: Shido essentially does this for every spirit he meets and is able to seal. Miku is skeptical of this initially however.
• Despair Event Horizon: In Volume 10, Origami realizes that she's responsible for her own parents' deaths, causing her to undergo a complete mental breakdown that sends her into an uncontrollable rampage. Shido and Kurumi have to change the past to save Origami from her despair.
• Did I Say That Out Loud: While Shido is showing Kurumi around school, three options for him pop up on the screen on the Fraxinus, one of which is asking what panties she's wearing today. Kyouhei immediately suggests that line, and then when he gives his perverted reason, Kotori has him dragged out of there, and then says that very line. Shido immediately starts to ask Kurumi that (before he realized what he just asked her), and Kotori also realizes she was broadcasting to him.
• Didn't Think This Through: Shido finds himself getting tricked by Kotori into several Accidental Pervert moments with Tohka after she starts living with them, though one could have been avoided: while taking a bath, he realizes that Tohka's just outside getting ready to jump in as well. Instead of warning her before she enters the room, he decides to just dive down as long as he can, having to resurface right in front of Tohka, who freaks out and nearly drowns him.
• Dies Wide Open: Shido at the end of his first date with Tohka after Taking the Bullet from Origami. Tohka closes his eyes and covers him with her jacket before flying into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Turns out that he wasn't actually dead. Later on, Mio bursts out of Kurumi's chest and takes the time to close her eyes after she dies in agony.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • The punishments Shido has to endure whenever he screws up in the training Ratatoskr gives him certainly qualify.
  • When Kurumi sees four random guys shooting at a helpless kitten with airsoft guns, she decides to join in on the fun, but modifies the rules slightly. When Shido finds her later, it turns out her modified rules was to shoot the men with her magical gun.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune:
  • The anime adaptation has the honour of having its opening and ending songs performed by members of the band "sweet ARMS", who are Origami, Mana, Yoshino and Tamae in the series, respectively.
  • Similarly, during the sixth episode of season 2, Miku shows off her Idol Singer skills, and Tohka improvises after "Shiori" is unable to sing.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male:
  • Shido gets put through hell by Tohka at the beginning of Volume 2/Episode 4 of season 1, thanks to Kotori tricking him into several Accidental Pervert moments. The novels state that Shido came to school the next day as a Bandage Mummy.
  • In Episode 7 of season 1, Mana introduces herself as Shido's younger sister. As she goes to hug him, Kotori roundhouse kicks him out of jealousy. Lampshaded by Shido:
  Shido: Why did you kick me?!
  • At the end of Volume 4/episode 12, Kotori asks if what Shido said to her was true earlier. He reaffirms that he loves her...as a sister, promptly her to deliver a flying kick to him in response. Earlier in the episode it also happens in some ImagineSpots Kyouhei has, where he imagines the scenarios Shido is in with Kotori where she beats him up for various things.
  • Episode 3 of Season 2 starts with the Yamai sisters getting way too close for comfort with Shido in bed as part of their competition to seduce him. It reaches the point where they’re stripping him down and brushing off his frightened, tearful protests as whining.
• Downer Beginning: The first episode opens with the original Spacequake 30 years ago that occurred off the frontier between China and Mongolia, killing over 150 million people.
• Drool Deluge: Tohka unleashes a waterfall of drool when Shido introduces her to her soon-to-be Trademark Favorite Food soy flour bread in Season 1 Episode 3. She does it again in Episode 8 when Shido explains that an aquarium is full of fish, which she immediately associated with seafood.
• Elemental Powers: With the exception of Natsumi and Nia, most of the Spirits' powers are elemental-based.
  • Yoshino: Water and Ice.
  • Kurumi: Darkness and Time.
  • Kotori: Fire.
  • Yamai Twins: Wind.
  • Miku: Sound (and by extension, Music).
  • Origami: Light.
  • Mukuro: Space.
  • Tohka is a subversion. While she mostly controls just Mana itself, which is Non-Elemental by nature, she does summon Sandalphon's throne from the ground, and when her power begins to come back to her it usually results in earthquake like damage, so she may possibly have some Earth element powers through seismic waves.
• Erotic Eating: After Origami forces Shido to take her back to her hospital room in episode 10 of season 1, she asks him to peel an apple for her. She then asks him to feed her, and states she'll get mad if he doesn't. So he forcefully jams a piece down her mouth, only for her to then start licking his fingers sensually. Shido is conflicted with feeling turned on and grossed out at the same time as a result.
• Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Due to the spatial quakes associated with Spirits, humanity often rightfully fears the presence of one, and tries to kill them any time one shows up via the AST and later DEM. Fortunately Shido gives them an alternative option by sealing their powers to allow them to live and enjoy life without the spatial quake aspect.
• Excuse Plot: The plot is basically: To save the world, date girls.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Anyone with Spirit powers has whitened pupils. This of course includes Spirits themselves. Kurumi seems to be an exception at first, but when she uses Spirit powers it sometimes shows (albeit not in her left clock eye). The original Kurumi also has the white pupil all the time.
• Eye Scream: Mana does this to Kurumi in the beginning of episode 9 of the anime, as evidenced by the reflection in her eye before getting stabbed.
• Fairy Tale Episode: "Fairy Tale" (episode 5 of season 4) has Shido and all of the sealed Spirits become fairy tale characters trapped in Beelzebub. They are as follows:
  • Shido, for some reason, becomes one of The Three Little Pigs. The other two are conspicuously absent but the wolf is definitely present.
  • The shy, sweet Yoshino becomes Little Red Riding Hood, again with the wolf present.
  • Nia, being a manga artist, becomes the protagonist of her own manga series, Silver Bullet.
  • The food obsessed Tohka becomes Momotarō, complete with kibi-dango, which she uses to calm the wolf.
  • Kaguya and Yuzuru, being twins, become Hansel and Gretel, respectively.
  • Fire spirit Kotori becomes The Little Match Girl, with some extra powers over perception.
  • Natsumi, who could use her Angel to change the appearance of anyone and anything but those illusions can have break under certain circumstances, becomes Cinderella, and transforms back from her beautiful form to a dirt-covered version of her normal form when the clock strikes twelve.
  • Miku, who had the power of her voice and is just happy with people hearing her sing, becomes The Little Mermaid, though does not become human because she refuses to give up her voice.
  • Finally, Origami (who is shameless around Shido) becomes the emperor without clothes, with only her royal ermine cape protecting her dignity. She has to have it pointed out to her that she's stark naked under the cape.
• Fanservice:
  • The illustrations in each volume of the light novels include one depicting the Spirit(s) on the volume cover with their Astral Dresses taken off, leaving them only with underwear (if any).
  • The 5th novel stands out to the point that you think someone got told to ramp it up a bit. It takes place on a school trip to the beach and features the Stripperiffic Yamai twins trying to seduce Shido, so there is far more of this than the other volumes.
• First-Episode Twist: In the first chapter/episode, Shido's seemingly innocent younger sister Kotori is revealed to be the commander of the Fraxinus, much to the surprise of her brother.
• First Kiss: At the end of the first volume, Shido and Tohka share their first kiss together. Though it was true only for Tohka and not Shido, who had sealed Kotori's powers via the same way five years prior.
• First-Name Basis: Origami confronts Shido about this in episode 5 of season 1, while sitting on top of him after he falls backwards from whatever drink she served him. She says she'll only get off him if he agrees to call her by her first name.
• Flawed Prototype: Originally, the Sephira Crystals, the artifacts that empower the Spirits, were so unstable they killed their hosts. As seen from Kotori's example, Sephira Crystals can be toxic to the host's body, and can even induce madness. As a result, Mio Takamiya stated that they need to be further refined by killing the initial host and then transplanting the gem into another host. Doing so, would ensure that the Sephira Crystals will come closer to completion and resolve the negative drawbacks. For example, Camael, Kotori's Angel, originally belonged to Sawa Yamada, Kurumi's friend.
• Food as Bribe: When Reine tells Shido in episode 12 that Kotori's feelings for him were already at max level, Kotori claims it must have been a fluke. When Reine tries to clarify that it isn't, Kotori then points at her and mentions a dessert. Reine immediately claims the numbers must have been an error.
• Formula with a Twist: The story creates a world in which the mechanics of a Dating Sim are real, and justified because kissing the Spirits which menace the world is the only way to seal their powers without killing them. Thus, going on dates with various (and sometimes simultaneous) girls is required to save the world.
• Freak Out: Shido has one when he comes across the remains of some men Kurumi shot up, establishing the latter as an Ax-Crazy Knight of Cerebus.
• Friendly Tickle Torture:
  • When Kotori (wearing white ribbons) violently wakes up Shido, he says that if he doesn't get another ten minutes of sleep, he'll be infected by a virus which will cause him to tickle her uncontrollably (also known as the T-Virus). He then puts on a scary face, causing her to run out of the room.
  • After punching Shido for agreeing to a Duel of Seduction with Kurumi where the winner gains the loser’s spirit powers (which for Kurumi means “eating” Shido), she offers him a chance to retaliate, believing that she’s partly to blame for losing contact with him at the time. Shido decides to “retaliate” in this manner.
• Godzilla Threshold: The appearance of a spirit warrants this, though the different human organizations have different ways of handling said spirits:
  • The AST/DEM Wizards attempt to kill the Spirits, usually by shooting them. For the most part though, it doesn't seem very effective, at least when shown on screen.
  • The Ratatoskr organization, on the other hand, utilizes a more unconventional method; have Shido talk to the Spirits, take them out on dates, and seal their powers with a kiss. As evidenced by Tohka, Yoshino, and Kotori, this seems to have a better success rate, though it's not always easy for them either, particularly because the AST gets involved regardless.
• Good Versus Good: Spirits occasionally come to Earth, and create spacequakes that destroy everything at the point of arrival. The Ratatoskr organization aims to stop this by sealing their powers, allowing them to live normal lives. The AST organization aims to simply kill them, and they feel justified because Spirits have killed many people with their spacequakes.
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • Used a fair bit in the anime, which seems to target a younger demographic than the light novels. While not a particularly violent series, basically nothing is shown. Blood splatters are basically it. The blood is red at least.
  • Shido getting shot is basically a Freeze-Frame Bonus to even see his body falling, and he appears unhurt on the ground (after getting shot with the equivalent of an anti-tank round). Similarly, Shido appears unharmed after passing through Yoshino's "buckshot barrage" barrier; in the novel, he was unrecognizable until the Healing Factor kicked in.
  • Kurumi gets led into an alleyway by three thugs (more like she led them in, though) and... we see a truck run over a can of tomato juice. Similarly, when Mana kills Kurumi, the entire scene is covered in heavy shadows (and she wears red and black) so nothing is really visible before the camera cuts to a reaction shot of Shido watching.
• Go Through Me: Shido does this in Volume 4/Episode 10 in an attempt to stop Kotori from blasting Kurumi into oblivion. She regains her sanity at the last second and just barely adjusts her aim to avoid hitting him.
  • He does it again in Episode 12, this time to prevent Origami from shooting Kotori.
• Growling Gut: While searching for Yoshinon in episode 4 of season 1, Yoshino's stomach starts to growl. Shido asks if she's hungry, and she tries to deny it, but her stomach continues to grumble.
• Hard Light: The Spirits’ Astral Dresses have glowing portions (such as the dress under Tohka’s armor) which are described as appearing to be made of light.
• Harem-Powered: Shido can absorb the powers of any Spirits he romances with a kiss so they can have normal lives. Over time, he gains a measure of control over his powers and can develop rudimentary versions of the Spirits' magical weapons for his personal use. This is because the First Spirit resurrected Shido as a Half-Human Hybrid when he died before the events of the story. The collective powers of the Spirits were always meant to be Shido's and the First Spirit merely turned regular humans into Spirits as a way to perfect and refine those powers until Shido eventually obtained them.
• Harem Seeker: Shido is an unwilling one, since Ratatoskr pretty much forced the job on him. Naturally, the harem he gets as a result is just as unwanted. It's made worse as Shido originally thought Tohka was the only Spirit, and even then he wasn't too big on the idea of having to date her.
• Healing Factor: As put by Kotori, Shido is starting a New Game Plus thanks to his healing factor. This is because he kissed Kotori back when they were kids and her powers are currently sealed within Shido.
• Hero Insurance: Shido seems to have full coverage courtesy of the Ratatoskr, who shows up to fix just about any damage caused by the spirits. For example, during the OVA, Tohka destroys several arcade machines. Each time she does, some men show up and replace said destroyed machines with brand new ones.
• High-Pressure Emotion: Tohka's face goes red in episode 8 of season 1 when Shido compliments her clothing during their date.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Shido tries to make Origami hate him in the OVA by attempting to make her do humiliating things such as changing into a school swimsuit with some dog ears and tail, then get on all fours. She promptly does that, stating there was a shop nearby and even uses his belt as a leash. He also tries to say he's a pervert, but she doesn't seem to lose interest despite all that, and unfortunately nothing seems to faze her. Kotori suggests he break up with her, only to accidentally say it to Tohka who was calling him at that exact moment. Tohka's mood drastically shifts, forcing him to focus attention on her, and when he says he doesn't hate her, he forgot he was also calling Origami at the same time, who also heard everything he told Tohka. In the end, his plan only ends up making Origami like him even more.
• Hope Spot: Subverted at the end of the first arc. Tohka decides to try to stay in this world and live with Shido at her side... and then Shido gets shot by Origami. She thinks "the world had chosen to reject her in the cruelest way possible" and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Thankfully, Shido turns out to still be alive and seals Tohka's powers with a kiss before she destroys everything around her.
• Hot Springs Episode:
  • In Volume 5. However, the twist is that Origami tries peeking at the boys' side while the rest of the boys (Shido's at the girls side, long story) try peeking at the girls side.
  • Episode 6 of the anime, though the bulk of it consists of the trip to the hot springs rather than the hot springs itself.
• I Am Your Opponent: Tohka declares to Origami that she'll keep her busy while Shido attempts to reach out to Yoshino.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Shido does this to Dark Tohka in episode 10 of season 2 in an attempt to bring her back to her senses.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Shido suffers this in episode 9 of season 2 by Ellen. Issac then orders her to kill Shido in order to see what kind of reaction Tohka would have.
• Inconsistent Spelling: The manga (both the main and the spinoffs) like to spell Origami's family name as Tobiiti instead of Tobiichi.
• In Medias Res: Each volume arc's prologue chapter tends to start with a latter scene which will inevitably make the reader confused. For example, Volume 5's prologue consists of the Yamai twins making advances at Shido despite not being formally introduced yet. The anime averts this and opts for a straightforward chronology.
• In Spite of a Nail: During Volume 11 (season 3 in the anime), Shido successfully saves Origami's parents from their predicted deaths, creating a new timeline in the process. However, said parents still die a year later in an unrelated traffic accident, though this carries no ill change to Origami. While she still holds some hatred towards spirits, and joins the AST like her original counterpart, she fights not as an avenger, but as a protector, following the example of someone she believed to be Shido's older brother (in actuality, it was Shido himself) Taking the Bullet for her parents. Essentially, nothing of significance changes except Origami is not into Shido and hasn't met him before, and everything past her Face–Heel Turn doesn't happen..
• Insane Troll Logic: Kotori's reason for asking Shido to date the Spirits.
  Kotori: If we want a solution to the spacequakes without using force, then we have to persuade the Spirit right?
  Shido: That seems right.
  Kotori: For that, wouldn't it be quickest to make the Spirit come to like this world? Oh, this world is so wonderful~, if they become like that, then even a Spirit wouldn't randomly go on a rampage.
  Shido: I see.
  Kotori: Thus, well, isn't it often said? That if you fall in love then the entire world seems beautiful. —And so, date her, and make the Spirit fall for you!
  Shido: No, there's something wrong with that logic.
  • The Dating Sims that Kotori makes Shido play are also full of this. This is one of the reasons why it counts as Training from Hell for him (the other being the punishments for failing).
• Instant Armor: Extremely powerful Wizards like Ellen are able to conjure their Combat Realizer outfits in an instant, unlike the regular AST members. Origami displays the same ability upon engaging the sealed Spirits in Volume 10, as part of the new equipment she got from allying herself with Westcott.
• Intimacy Via Horror: Kotori is quite weak to the horror genre, even in her black ribbon mode. Her crew exploited this in her birthday side story giving her a zombie film as a present, then causing a blackout to get her closer to Shido.
• Intimate Healing: While exploring Miku's mansion for clues in episode 7 of season 2, Kurumi teases Shido about wearing a rather large bra she finds in the room. As she slowly advances and teases him with the notion of having him wear it, she trips and falls on top of him. He has a slight scrape on his face, which he says a little spit would be fine on it. Kurumi then proceeds to start licking his cheek.
• Intimate Lotion Application: In Volume 5, Reine convinces the Yamai sisters to have Shido rub sun lotion on them. Kaguya immediately throws herself on top of Yuzuru so Shido can only reach her back, but her arousal from the rubbing gives Yuzuru the opportunity to get on top and go through the same experience. They later split up so Shido can rub them simultaneously, and wind up panting and splashed with lotion in a very suggestive scene.
• Is It Something You Eat?:
  • In Episode 7 of Season 1 of the anime, Mana and Kotori are having an argument about Shido. They mention various things, which confuses Tohka and Yoshino. They think the two girls are talking about rice, and Yoshinon then mentions something about mixing the two together in a bowl to eat, and Tohka innocently asks Shido to put Kotori and Mana together. He immediately asks if she's trying to make him into a criminal.
  • Tohka in general will be prone to asking this, mainly because she's a Fish out of Water. Also overlaps with Big Eater and Extreme Omnivore.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Endemic to the setting, with Shido and Kotori having significant holes in their past memories. Notably, the entity that gave Kotori her Efreet powers, Phantom, then proceeded to strip Shido and Kotori of their memories. While Kotori forgot only about the existence of said entity; Shido forgot a lot more. Most of the Spirits have no memories that they were once human and seem to have lost variable amounts of basic knowledge. Tohka seems to be the one that was hit the hardest by this, as she even doesn't have a name, creating a lot of Fish out of Water situations (she didn't know what a (animal) fish was either, or that they swim, for that matter. She thought they were only food and an aquarium was a restaurant). It's because Tohka is a pure Spirit and therefore had zero interaction with human world or even a name to begin with.
• Lingerie Scene: In episode 8 of season 1, Shido and Kurumi go to a lingerie store together and Kurumi puts on a black lingerie set. Later on in episode 11 of season 4, they return to that same store and Kurumi puts on a white set this time.
• Long-Lost Relative: Thanks to a memory wipe, Shido and Mana are long-lost siblings, though Mana only remembers calling Shido "nii-sama".
• Lotus-Eater Machine: In Volume 14, Westcott, using the power of Beelzebub, traps Shido and the spirits in their own separate machines based on various fairy tales.
• Love Triangle: Initially, the main competitors for Shido's affections were Tohka and Origami, despite the presence of an Unwanted Harem. As the harem becomes larger and more developed, the love triangle slowly gets phased out.
• Lover Tug of War: At the end of Volume 5, Tohka, Origami and the Yamais each grab one of Shido's limbs and refuse to let go. All for a window seat with him.
• Magical Girlfriends: Well, Shido is dating Spirits... Oddly enough, the point is to remove the magic part (which isn't a permanent removal, so it still counts).
• Magic from Technology: The "territory" the Realizers can create, where "the impossible can happen", gives this effect.
• The Magic Goes Away: In Volume 20, Inverse Tohka (now named Tenka) reveals that she took Mio's Sephira Crystal at the end of the previous volume and created a parallel world with decelerated time because when the Crystal disappears, the other crystals Mio created will disappear as well. This means the Spirits will return to their previous state, which is ordinary humans for most of them, but for a Pure Magic Being like Tohka, nothing.
• Mana: Other than being the name of one character, Spirits rely on Reiryoku (Spirit Power) while Wizards rely on Maryoku (Magic Power). There seems to be no shortage of it, either. The power source for the rare pure mages is actually called Mana.
• Marshmallow Hell: In the first volume, Kotori shoves Shido's face into Reine's chest to test his vulnerability to women. Reine later does this intentionally to Shido in Volume 4/episode 10 to calm him down when he starts freaking out and asking a lot of questions about what happened in the last day or so.
• The Masquerade: The existence of Spirits is kept a secret to the general public, though there are some cracks as a result of the Yamai twins, who prior to meeting Shido, had large and public battles.
• MegaCorp:
  • Deus Ex Machina (DEM) Industries, a corporation based in England, and the company that makes the Realizers. In Volume 5, DEM's managing director (Westcott) gets Origami's punishment for borrowing a prototype without permission changed from "dishonorable discharge" to "2 months house arrest", which means she is basically taken off from active duty and given a vacation. They also get the school's field trip changed to a small, isolated island as part of their plan to kidnap Tohka.
  • Asgard Electronics, the company backing Ratatoskr, may also fit here. It's implied that they were able to come up with fairly strong backgrounds for the sealed Spirits.
• Meido:
  • Origami dresses as one when Shido goes to her house because she overheard him saying that maid costumes are better than nurse costumes.
  • Also, we see quite a lot of them in Volume 6-7 as Tengu's theme for the school festival, which Shido had to wear as well. Including a maid café.
  • Nia wears a revealing maid outfit in Volume 13 to reward Shido for helping her manga work.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Most of the Spirits are unaware of the devastation their arrivals on Earth cause. When Tohka is told about the spacequakes, she is shocked and remorseful.
• Mildly Military: The AST seem to function like this. They seem to be able to have a normal life outside of their military duties, and always seem to act independently from other military forces.
• Mind-Control Music: Miku uses this on the audience in episode 7 of season 2 after losing to Shido in the contest they bet on. Unfortunately her hypno music also turns Yoshino, the Yamai girls, and even Kotori and much of her crew against him as well. Only Tohka seems unaffected, though it's because her ears were plugged up with the ear pieces they were using to help them during the concert, so she couldn't hear the music Miku used on them. Reine, at least one other member of Ratatoskr, and Mana are also unaffected due to not being around the bridge when the music affected the other crewmembers. Meanwhile Kyouhei doesn't seem to be affected by it either, but for obvious reasons he doesn't stop Kotori from attempting to fire on the stage below while under Miku's influence.
• Mission Control: Kotori and Reine communicate with Shido through an ear-transmitter, reminiscent of a blue-tooth headset.
• Moment Killer: Tohka does this at the end of episode 10 in season 2 when she comes to Miku's changing room to get her for an encore. Only to then find a naked Miku holding onto Shido, and calling him darling.
• Mood Whiplash: The series as whole seems to use this a lot.
  • The anime opens with a space quake devastating central Asia, killing 150 million people. Then it cuts to the Panty Shot-lined wakeup call that Shido has to endure when Kotori has a hyper morning.
  • Shido's highly silly first date with Tohka ends with her deciding to stay in this world followed by him getting shot. In Volume 3, the very silly triple date sequence is interrupted by Kurumi shooting some people in an alley and then getting brutally murdered by Mana. Of course, Death Is Cheap for Kurumi, but...
  • Episode 8 begins as a light-hearted high school romantic comedy as Shido is forced to go on a simultaneous date with Tohka, Origami, and Kurumi at nearly the same time. Once Kurumi spots some thugs picking on a helpless kitten however, the gore and drama literally come shooting back at you after Shido discovers the remains of the thugs, and witnessing the fourth one getting shot up by her.
  • The first half of episode 10 is a brutal fight between Efreet and Kurumi, followed by some exposition for Kotori. Then the last third or so of the episode is filled with Origami attempting to seduce Shido at the hospital, followed shortly by her revelation that her parents died in a fire which she blames on Efreet, who Shido just learned is Kotori.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: Characters range from idealistic heroes (Shido and his allies), cynical but well-intentioned (Origami and the AST),Anti-Villains (Kurumi) and the supremely evil (Westcott).
• Mundane Made Awesome: Ai loans her trusty tambourine to Tohka, which played like her loaning something like Excalibur.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Origami has this look on her face in episode 3 of season 1, after her sniper fire hits Shido instead of Tohka. She falls into a Heroic BSoD and doesn't even try to defend herself from the latter's Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Fortunately for both of them, he gets better.
  • She has a bigger one when she travels to the past in season 3 and discovers she was the one who killed her parents in the first place, not Efreet or Phantom, as she previously believed. This causes her to go to her Inverse Form in the present.
• Nerf: After Shido seals the Spirits' powers, they seem to have a partially powered state where they are weaker and get a sort of partial Astral Dress. The difference being that their powers will flow back to Shido when they calm down, while if they take back all their power Shido has to kiss them again. We've only seen it with Tohka, who gets the skirt of her Astral Dress combined with her school uniform. However, Tohka duels Origami's AST squad without a problem in the low power state. Later, she gets owned by Ellen in the same mode however.
• Never Given a Name: Tohka Yatogami started the series with no name and no memories other than constantly fighting for survival. Her first friend and love interest Shido Itsuka named her.
• New Transfer Student: Tohka at the end of Volume 1, and Kurumi at the beginning of Volume 3. Then there are the twin Spirits, Yuzuru and Kaguya Yamai, who join the class in Volume 5. Right in the middle of a field trip.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • In episode 6 of the first season, while traveling to the hot springs, Tohka gets upset that Shido is too far away to pet her head like he's doing for Yoshino. He says it's her fault for wanting to sit up front while he's stuck in the back. She then pouts some more and stomps her feet so hard she breaks the floor of the van and damages the bridge they were driving on as well. This also inadvertently stops the train the AST team was using to get to the hot springs, and forces everyone to go the rest of the way on foot.
  • In episode 1 of season 2, Shido attempts to buy some kinako bread for Tohka to make her happy again after she suspected him of cheating on her with Origami. Unfortunately they can't find any, causing Kotori to wonder why they just happened to be all out of that particular bread in every bakery. Kyouhei then walks into the bridge with a large bag of kinako bread, stating he bought all of it to ensure they have enough to give to Tohka, but inadvertently caused the problem because of it.
• Nipple and Dimed: The closest the show gets is one of the director's cut scenes from Season 1, when Shido helps Tohka start wearing bras after seeing her Gainaxing and her nipples protruding from her shirt.
• No Romantic Resolution: Neither the finale nor the post-finale short stories indicate a proper "winner" in Shido's harem, even after Origami's focus chapter suggested that Shido could pick one girl.
• Non-Lethal Warfare:
  • AST vs Spirits. Justified in that the Spirits are Nigh-Invulnerable, so they don't feel all that threatened and so don't fight back seriously either. Medical Realizers heal most injuries that happen fairly quickly (Origami mentions getting a broken arm healed overnight) This removes most of the consequences of the Child Soldiers. The AST members seem to be generally sane and well adjusted, or at least, their issues don't come from fighting.
  • Taken up to eleven in episode 6. Again, justified since Ratatoskr's intention was only to stall the AST, not kill them.
• Not Blood Siblings: Shido and Kotori are siblings by adoption, so them having to go on a date and kiss to seal her Spirit powers isn't as problematic as it would be for actual blood related siblings. Kotori even calls it a "super galge-like setting".
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • Tohka and Shido's suitcase in episode 1 of season 2, when due to watching a soap opera, thinks he's secretly getting tired of her and is leaving her for Origami. The latter playing up that part doesn't help matters either, and Shido has to reassure her the suitcase was for their field trip next week and the lock was broken on it, and that he was taking it to get it fixed. And that he is definitely not leaving or getting tired of her.
  • In episode 4 of season 2, after he inadvertently seals Yuzuru and Kaguya (due to them kissing him at the same time with his eyes closed), both girls lose their spirit outfits, go completely naked, and then make it sound like he was a pervert to Tohka. The latter doesn't take it too well.
• The Nudifier: Spirits' clothing (Astral Dress) are part of their powers. So if those powers are sealed..... This may be one of the few cases where this is Played for Drama rather than comedy or Fanservice, at least for some cases.
• Oh, Crap!: Many characters display this look when they find out things aren't going their way, especially during a fight.
• Older Than They Look:
  • Reine looks really young for someone who's more than 30 years old. Then again, her most noticeable features would be her baggy and sleepy eyes. Her true identity, Takamiya Mio, looks even younger, since she is the First Spirit and was effectively The Ageless.
  • Tamae as well, leading her students to call her Tama-chan despite being a 29-year old teacher.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: Used to good effect in the anime. Often associated with Tohka's Spirit powers. And Kotori's.
• Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Ratatoskr organization has one though we don't get to see their faces because Kotori set it up that way, listening via audio feed.
• One Cast Member per Cover: Almost all volumes have a Spirit girl on the cover, except for Volume 12 (featuring Shido). Tohka gets a total of five covers to herself, but most girls only get one cover or in a few cases, two at most.
• One-Gender School: Miku attends the Rindouji Girls Academy.
• Opening Narration: A different one for each episode. Voice provided by Kotono Mitsuishi.
• Opening Scroll: Used in the anime for the beginning of the in-universe Dating Sim Shido is made to play as part of his training.
• Orchestral Bombing: Used in episode 6 of season 2, when Origami is fighting Bailey while Shido's band is playing a concert below them.
• Our Angels Are Different: Not actual beings, but weapons. With actual angel names to boot.
• Our Spirits Are Different: "Spirits" here are cute girls with awesome powers originally living in another dimension.
• Outfit-Rip Sex Check: In Episode 7 of Season 2, Miku realizes there's something between "Shiori's" legs when she pokes at her crotch and orders some of her mind-controlled minions to remove "Shiori's" underwear, exposing Shido's disguise.
• Parental Abandonment: Origami's parents were killed in a fire caused by a Spirit and Shido's mother (and by extension, Mana's) abandoned him for unknown reasons. He's currently adopted by the Itsuka's, in which both parents are currently abroad.
• Pose of Supplication: Tohka does this is Season 2 Episode 6 upon learning that the "whacking things" (drums) are taken for the Battle of the Bands against Miku.
• Powered Armor: The wiring suits the AST wear are effectively this, although the protective value comes from the Realizer fields rather than physical armor. Which makes sense in that spirit attacks that bounce off their fields will still cause massive scenery damage, so physcial armor would be bulkier and harder to move while providing little additional protection. This actually becomes a plot point with Yoshino's blizzard dome which freezes the AST's defensive fields if they are on and pummels them with ice if they turn them off. Origami destroyed part of a building such that it would topple onto the dome to weaken it.
• Power Gives You Wings: The Yamai twins get one wing each when they manifest their Angels.
• Power Parasite: Shido seals the Spirits' powers within himself when he kisses them. He latter learns how to access the powers himself.
• Private Military Contractors: Unlike AST Wizards, the Wizards from DEM more or less operated like this. As revealed in "Mana Mission" short story, anyone who able to defeat a Spirit will earn additional salary.
  Ellen: If you could defeat a spirit, I will give you special bonus 5 million pound each.
• Psycho For Hires: Most, if not all of DEM Wizards are trained to become Wescott's loyal fanatics who voluntarily obey what he says, while money may or may not be a secondary need. Best examples are Jessica and Ellen.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming:
  • The Spirits are based on the Sefirot; the divine name and archangel for each Sephira becomes the corresponding Spirit's Astral Dress and Angel, respectively.
  • Ratatoskr's terminology is entirely from Norse Mythology (Ratatoskr itself is a squirrel that climbs the World Tree).
  • Deus Ex Machina Industries mostly references Arthurian Legend, with occasional grimoire terminology here and there.
• Rent-a-Zilla: Yoshino's Angel (Zadkiel) got a Kaiju upgrade in its second appearance in the anime, complete with Dutch Angle as it lifts it's head above the surrounding buildings.
• Rescue Arc: Volume 7 has Shido trying to save Tohka from the clutches of the DEM.
• Reset Button Ending: How Volume 18 ends. In order to avert the deaths of all of the spirits at the hands of Mio, Shido uses the Vav bullet to time travel to the previous day, which turns everything back to the middle of the previous Volume.
• The Reveal:
  • At the end of Volume 3/episode 9, where Kotori shows up as a Spirit, and canceled out a spacequake Kurumi attempted to cause.
  • At the end of episode 11, Origami sees Kotori as Efreet in some video footage shot during the battle with Kurumi.
  • Reine Murasame is actually Mio Takamiya, the First Spirit. She has been turning regular humans into Spirits for ultimate goal of getting Shido to absorb all their powers and become her eternal lover.
• Right Behind Me: In episode 8 of the anime, after Shido asks Kurumi out on a date, he has a Flash Back of being told by Kotori to ask her out. So he promises to make Kurumi fall in love with him, only for Origami to show up behind him and ask what he's talking about. The light novel has the same scene without the flashback.
• Running Gag: The Ai, Mai, and Mii trio. The first would always bring up a subject during a certain situation (usually geared towards Shido and his actions) with the second supporting the first's statement with her own opinion. The latter then concludes the entire subject with her signature catchphrase "Gross!". Later changed to "That's so lame!" in the second season of the anime as well as the English dub for the first season.
• Schmuck Bait: Shido sometimes feels that the responses he's given by Kotori and the others are meant to make him look foolish. As an example, in volume 1, when he first runs into Tohka at school, she asks who he is. One of the answers is simply him giving his name, but they choose to make him pick the third choice, which was to tell her she should give her name before asking for his. He's reluctant to, but Kotori forces him to say it. And when he does, Tohka responds by shooting some magic at him. Before he's tossed away he tells Kotori she sucks. He later just gives natural responses to her questions, which works better.
• School Festival: Volume 6-7 occur during the Tennou Festival, a joint festivity between all ten schools in the city, with one student from each school chosen to be the organizer for their school's respective events.
• Sealed with a Kiss: At the end of almost every story arc, the arc's Spirit kisses Shido, which seals her powers and leaves her naked.
• Selective Obliviousness: Shido claims he passed out shortly after Origami did in episode 10 while visiting her at the hospital. She then tells him that her parents died in a fire five years earlier caused by one of the spirits, which was also why she's a member of the AST and so intent on killing spirits. He just found out moments earlier that Kotori was a fire-based spirit, but chose not to say anything about it, particularly after her reveal.
• Self-Made Orphan: Origami, sent back 5 years by Kurumi, turns out to have been the very Spirit who she swore revenge against for the deaths of her parents.
• Sequel Hook:
  • At the end of Episode 12 of Season 1, Tohka asks Shido for a kiss. Although they're being spied on by the Ratatoskr, he follows through with it...only to end up kissing Yoshinon instead, who then, along with Yoshino, says "to be continued...sometime." Right after that, Season 2 was announced.
  • Episode 10 of Season 2 takes a different approach; after the climax is over, we are treated to Kurumi musing that her target isn't present, before fading away into the shadows. The last portion is dedicated to the resolution of Miku's case, but then a movie adaptation of Date A Live was announced.
• Serious Business:
  • Ratatoskr takes Shido's dates with girls very seriously. Since it's to save the world...
  • In episode 6 of season 1, while Kotori is out, the Fraxinus crew vote to put all sorts of things in the way of the AST in order to prevent them from seeing Shido and the girls, even though neither group was aware of the other. They end up doing a lot of things to hinder the AST's progress, such as destroying a bridge, passing cows in front to block a road, and putting up a wall. Ryouko eventually gets sick of all this and starts blasting all of the traps put in their way, though it doesn't help them much.
• Sex for Services:
  • Miku's Freudian Excuse involved a TV producer offering her a show if he "got to know her", then producing a ton of slander when he was turned down.
  • In Volume 16, after privately sharing her own Freudian Excuse with Shido, Kurumi all but outright offers to have sex with him in exchange for his Reiryoku, stripping down to her lingerie while they're both on her bed. Since she'd need to "eat" him to obtain his Reiryoku, it crosses into Out with a Bang, though Shido did actually seem to be succumbing to his desires before the Nibelcole showed up.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Kotori tries to wake Shido up, he tries to get her to go away by saying that unless she lets him sleep for another ten minutes, he's going to give her the tickle hell virus. Otherwise known as the T-Virus.
  • In the anime, the first spacequake alarm has small buildings, trains and the like retracting into the ground for the obvious Neon Genesis Evangelion reference.
  • The spacequakes themselves in the anime, when observed very closely, bear a striking resemblance to a Subspace Bomb going off.
  • The poses Shido and Tohka make during their first encounter seem familiar.
  • The original Mobile Suit Gundam is referenced several times, with Shido noting that red makes you three times faster and Kotori quoting Char's "Because he was a kid" line while wearing his sunglasses and drinking whiskey.
  • Miku in general is one big shout out to one of Japan's most popular idol icons; Miku Hatsune.
  • When Tohka goes to the arcade to relieve her stress at one point, take note of the first game she plays, straight down to the arrangements of the HUD elements, the Bushwacker cockpit and her imagination putting Origami in an Owens. Heck, the game pod she was in is similar to the ones that Kidō Senshi Gundam: Senjō no Kizuna uses.
  • In episode 2 of season 4, one of the magazines on Nia's floor has the poster for Revue Starlight The Movie on it.
  • The fictional version of Shido says "He's just a passing-through high school student."
• Signature Headgear: A number of them (Kotori, Tohka, Origami, Kurumi, Miku), but special mention goes to Kotori, whose personality depends on the colour of her ribbons.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Tohka and Origami fight like cats and dogs, partly because the latter hates Spirits but mostly competition over Shido. Simmers down to Vitriolic Best Buds in the new timeline.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Idealistic. The Power of Love and Heroic Resolve save the day. Even the darkest moments in the series end with a glimmer of hope.
• Sliding Scale of Plot Versus Characters: Very character-driven and increasingly so as the series goes on. Shido's relationships with the girls are always front and center in every story. Plots involving the world at large do exist, but it's the characters' emotions and development that move the series forward.
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Fantastic, what with the Magical Girl Warriors, Powered Armors, Cool Airships and even Time Travel going around.
• Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue: A sweet spot between the two. The series is very dialogue heavy, but there's also a lot of strong visual storytelling going on at the same time.
• Spit Take: Both Kotori and Reine when they spotted Shido and Tohka on a date when the both of them didn't even know about it. In Reine's case, it was a delayed Spit Take (she had to take a drink first).
  • Shido does it in episode 8 of the anime when he sees Tohka running outside looking for him while he's on a date with Origami. (And Tohka. And Kurumi.)
• Split Personality: Kotori has one although it's more of her switching personalities more than anything else really. The best way to figure it out would be that she would be the nice little sister with her white ribbons, while she would be the sadistic commander if she's wearing her black ribbons.She has a third one when her 'Efreet' Spirit powers return. Yoshino has one as well (her puppet Yoshinon is the outspoken fellow while Yoshino herself is a shy girl).
• Spoiler Opening:
  • The anime's first season opening shows the first 3 Spirits, and there are also previews for each main girl. They all spoil Kurumi's left eye, which is a big hint as to what her powers are.
    • The three girl silhouettes are also spoilers in themselves - Touka doesn't know very well what to do. Kotori is distant. Origami is lamenting. That's exactly how their personalities are.
  • Similarly, the second season's opening doesn't shy away from revealing Kotori's Spirit form from the get-go (doubles as Late-Arrival Spoiler), although the Yamai sisters and Miku's faces are not clearly shown. The same opening features the appearance of Isaac Westcott and Ellen Mira Mathers, the emerging villains of later volumes. Finally, the ending gives us a full shot of Tohka's Inverse Form, who only makes her formal introduction in the final episode.
• Spoiler Title: Volumes 4, 10 and 11 are titled "Sister Itsuka", "Angel Tobiichi" and "Devil Tobiichi", respectively. All volumes treat about the Spirit in the title, with Kotori being revealed to be a human-turned-Spirit, and Origami getting transformed into one in Volume 10.
• Springtime for Hitler: Shido spends the first half of Episode 13 attempting to make Origami reject her love for him in the worst ways possible (public humiliation, admitting he's a lolicon/siscon, etc.). Which fails spectacularly since Origami... is being Origami.
• Stable Time Loop: Two intersecting stable time loops that involve everything about Origami's backstory of losing her parents.
  • After becoming a Spirit, Origami asks Kurumi send her back in time in an attempt to thwart the being she believes responsible for killing her parents - Phantom, who she perceived as an "angel" against which she swore vengence - from killing her parents. In the process of fighting Phantom, she releases an energy blast that results in her parents dying in exactly the way she remembers. She killed her own parents and swore vengence against herself.
  • As a result of the previous events, her powers inverse and, upon the natural end of Kurumi's time travel, she returns to the present and starts rampaging. Kurumi then sends Shidou back in time on a fact-finding mission to determine what happened. Shidou is unable to stop Origami from killing her own parents but still tries to save the former's younger self from despair. In interacting with her younger self, he ends up creating the friendship with her that he didn't know he had at the start of the series; however, this action turned Origami into the stoic person that she is in the present and just contributes to the choice that lead her to gaining the powers of a Spirit and going back in time. Nothing is changed.
• Stab the Picture: During the "Search Natsumi" arc, Origami stabs the photographs Natsumi sent to Shido on the chance that she could be hiding in one of them. While she isn't, this does help Shido figure out who Natsumi replaced.
• The Stinger:
  • At the end of the first episode in season 2, Kurumi shows up again after having disappeared during the last few episodes of season 1, and says she needs to bide her time a little in order to save up power to use her last ability.
  • Kotori is seen talking to her superior at the end of episode 4 in season 2, regarding Shido's recent actions. She says if she has to, she would personally kill him.
• Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: A variation of this occurs when Shido threatens to kill himself by jumping off the roof of the school if Kurumi doesn't back down. She calls his bluff (he wasn't), and he drops. Only for her to save him, and try to invoke a What the Hell, Hero? moment on him.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Played straight but it's Shido who invokes this towards Origami. He then tells her that since she thinks it's Efreet who killed her parents, and that Shido currently has Efreet's powers thanks to him sealing Kotori, he goads her into killing him if that's what it takes to satisfy Origami's revenge. Origami doesn't go through with it.
• Stripperiffic:
  • The Yamai twins' Astral Dresses barely leave anything to the imagination.
  • The AST's CR-Units are generally these. And in the second trailer, Ellen's suit also is this.
• Superpowered Evil Side:
  • In Volume 7, Tohka, after crossing the Despair Event Horizon, transforms into a darker version of herself, called Inverse Form; Westcott speculates that this the Spirits' natural form in the bordering dimension. It takes a kiss from Shido to bring her back.
  • Even, earlier, Kotori almost succumbed to this, as her Efreet personality is rather bloodthirsty, and she would have totally control had Shido's pleas not snapped her out of it.
  • In Volume 10, Origami, after being transformed into a Spirit by Phantom and going back in time to fight it, learns the truth about her parents' deaths. She does not take it well, and pulls a Despair Event Horizon similar to Tohka, darkening her Astral Dress and becoming a threat to everyone.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • In episode 6 of the first season, while enroute to the hot springs, Ryouko states that they're simply using the AST's special train on a routine maintenance mission to make sure that nothing is wrong with the rail or the car, while wearing civilian clothing and carrying gear for a hot springs visit. Origami also says that they have to be ready for anything, and is seen carrying around camera gear and other stuff not exactly suited for a military drill much like Ryouko.
    • A short while later, they're stopped by a wall that the Fraxinus crew put up. Ryouko places some C4 on it, and orders her girls to turn around while she blows it up. She then claims that the wall simply collapsed on its own, with Origami agreeing.
  • In episode 5 of season 2, Shido has to cross-dress as a girl to approach Miku, who Does Not Like Men. While he fools the trio of girls Ai, Mai, and Mii, Tohka asks him what he's doing. When he tells her he has a reason for this and asks her to play along, she agrees, and says how nice it is to meet this woman who is totally not Shido. Origami isn't fooled either, but takes lots of pictures.
• Take a Third Option:
  • Shido is coerced into doing this when he learns that its the only option the humans have against Spirits, aside from shooting them or letting them kill more people by accident. In Volume 5, this is also what he does to the Yamai twins by letting them both live on, instead of just one of them.
  • When he first tries talking to Tohka at school in episode 2, many of the suggestions Kotori gives him don't seem to work very well. So Shido ends up just asking her questions and answering Tohka's questions, which seems to work a lot better overall. He does manage to convince her to go on a date and show her that not every human is out to get her.
  • Also what Origami tried against the blizzard dome Yoshino set up. It would have worked if not for Tohka's intervention.
  • During his date with Kotori in episode 11, all of the options he's given seems to go bad, and Kotori doesn't seem like she's having too much fun. So he then decides to throw away the earpiece used to communicate with the Ratatoskr, and instead just takes her out to an amusement park, which seems to work a lot better.
• Taking the Bullet:
  • Shido for Tohka when Origami fires at Tohka, which sparks Tohka's Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Good thing for the Healing Factor.
  • Shido tries this for Kurumi also, but Kotori shifted her aim in time. It was both to prevent Kotori from killing and giving into her powers as well as to save Kurumi.
• Talk to the Fist: In Volume 7, one of the Wizards (full name Andrew Casey Dunstan Francis Barbirolli) tries to introduce himself to Shido and Miku, and promptly receives this treatment from them by means of a Combination Attack... before the duo resume their bickering.
  Shido/Miku: Shut up!
• Talking Is a Free Action: During the Dating Sim choices Kotori gives her crew just 5 seconds to make their decisions, but after that the time taken for the crew to explain their choices and for Kotori to relay to Shido which option to choose both count.
• Tastes Better Than It Looks: "The Seventh Spirit", the first episode of season 3, starts with all the girls of Shido's harem making a stew consisting of all of their favorite foods, such as fried chicken, an ice cream cone, and a lollipop. The result is a grotesque, bubbling blob radiating a sickeningly purple color. To almost everyone's surprise, though, when Shido tastes it... it's actually pretty good. Disbelievingly, some of the girls try it and find that the taste is surprisingly pleasant.
• Team Mercy vs. Team Murder: The Anti-Spirit Team (AST) is tasked with killing Spirits when they cause spacequakes by arriving on Earth. The crew of the Ratatoskr recruit the commander's brother to date them so they can seal their powers and live normal lives. The real villainous faction is DEM Industries, led by Sir Isaac Westcott, who intends to summon and harvest Spirits for world domination.
• Tempting Fate: In episode 1 of season 2, Shido takes Tohka out shopping after she accuses him of cheating on her with Origami. He takes her shopping with him, and promises to buy her as much kinako bread as she wants. However the first bakery is sold out, and Shido tries to reassure her that there are plenty of other bakeries, and they couldn't all possibly be sold out, only to find out they are all sold out. Kotori wonders why they just all happened to be sold out that day, with Reine suggesting maybe they had a sale. Kyouhei then immediately enters the bridge, commenting that he bought up all the kinako bread so that Tohka wouldn't go crazy, and inadvertently causing the problem.
• That Came Out Wrong: In the OVA, Tohka tells her classmates about the wonderful date Shido took her out on. At first they think it's sweet, until she mentions things such as hitting and being in ecstasy, making it sound like they had sex. The naked picture she took and gave him that he accidentally loses in the class only reinforces their suspicions. He tries to tell them they were only at an arcade, but they won't let him explain, forcing him to run out of the classroom.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Shido reluctantly says "bitch" twice during his date with Origami in the dubbed OVA.
  Shido: Uh... For a bitch like you to walk on the same level as a human is so presumptuous. Err- get on your hands and knees- I said on your knees, bitch!
  Origami: [Goes on all fours]
  Shido: Arrrgh?!?
  Kotori: What?!? No way!
• Timey-Wimey Ball: After the events of the Stable Time Loop are fulfilled, Kurumi (in the present) and Shidou (in the past) seem at a loss for what they can do. Then, a Shidou from eleven minutes into Shidou's future appears to Kurumi and gives her an idea that she relays to Shidou in the past. Shidou finds past Kurumi and gets sent back in time again. Despite his efforts during this second chance, he runs out of options and decides the only course of action is to shove Origami's parents out of the way of the energy blast that would kill them. He succeeds in doing that but is hit by it instead. At this point, he's stepping on his own timeline - once, by saving Origami's parents in a way that interferes with him saving a younger Origami from a collapsing building in a few seconds; and, twice, by never being the Shidou who returns to the present Kurumi to inspire her about going back in time a second time (for reasons of it not being necessary anymore and for reasons of being dead). There's also the issues with explaining to past Kurumi about her sending Origami back into the past short-circuiting nothing about the situation. Despite all this paradox, upon saving Origami's parents, a new timeline "starts" a day after Origami's non-existent rampage where the only major difference was her situation, e.g., not knowing who Shidou was, not going to his school, and having a much more level personality. Shidou and Kurumi are the only people who remember anything about the original timeline. Origami, however, retains her inverse Spirit as a split personality that also remembers the original timeline and goes on laser-guided rampages whenever it sees other Spirits. This also proves interesting in that the events in which the spirits are captured in the new timeline seems to mostly follow the old timeline even without Origami's presence in the events in the new timeline, even though in the old timeline she proves pivotial in multiple situations like attacking Kotori during the water park date or delaying AST and DEM attacks during the school festival that would eventually leading to Tohka being captured and inversing, thus you would have thought that things would have changed considerably there.
• Toast of Tardiness: Created by a Ratatoskr staffer as part of Shido's training. Complete with toast, Crash-Into Hello and Panty Shot.
• Too Much Information: Mana asks Origami about Shido in Volume 3. After the usual name and age:
  Origami: His family consists of his father, mother and sister. Currently his parents have left the country for overseas work. He is adept at household chores.
  Mana: Umu......
  Origami: Blood type is AO RH+. Height is 170.0cm. Weight is 58.5 kilos. Seated height is 90.2 cm, upper arm 30.2 cm, forearm 30.2 cm. Bust 82.2 cm, waist 70.3 cm, hip 87.6cm.
  Mana: ......Okay?
  Origami: Eyesight for the right eye is 0.6, left eye 0.8, grip strength for right hand 43.5 kilo, left hand 41.2 kilo. Blood pressure 128/75. Blood sugar level 88mg/dl. Urea level 4.2mg/dl.
  Mana: S, stop stop! I don't want to know those things.
  • And they were all correct measurements to boot.
• Torso with a View:
  • In Episode 3 of the anime, when Shido takes the bullet, we briefly see Tohka's face through the big hole that opens up in him as he collapses.
  • Happens to a random guy who was torturing a small kitten. Kurumi sees four men shooting at the kitten with airsoft guns, and she repays the favor to them by blasting them with a real gun. Shown more clearly in the anime, where the camera pans behind the unfortunate victim as she blasts holes in him.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • Several volume covers blatantly spoil some big revelations that are included in the story. Volume 4's cover depicts Kotori in her Spirit form; Volume 7 has Tohka in her Inverse Form; Volume 9 has Natsumi's true form; Volume 10 has Origami in her newly-acquired Spirit form, and Volume 11 displays her Inverse Form.
  • The preview at the end of the anime's first season gives away some key characters for Volumes 5 through 7, namely the Yamai sisters, Miku Izayoi, Westcott and his subordinate Ellen, and Tohka's Superpowered Evil Side.
  • Subverted with the preview for the anime's third season, which only shows parts from the first episode that viewers should know in advance, like Natsumi's introduction.
• Training from Hell: An unusual variation but still played straight in that Shido gets subjected to this by the Ratatoskr crew. If he makes a wrong choice whenever he goes to a date with a Spirit, well, see Butt-Monkey up above.
• Transformation Sequence: Tohka switches from her usual battle dress into a high school girl's uniform near the end of episode 2 in season 1 after Shido suggests she wear something a little less flashy for their date.
• Twisted Christmas: On Christmas 30 years before the start of the story, the first Spacequake destroyed a large portion of the Eurasian continent (including portions of the Soviet Union, China, and Mongolia) and took 150 million lives in the process. This also happens to be the day the first Spirit was born.
• Two-Timer Date: Thanks to Shido being unable to say "no" to Tohka and Origami, he's going to have to date them plus Kurumi in Volume 3.
• Underdogs Never Lose: In Miku's arc during season 2, she makes a bet with Shido. If his school wins the festival event, he could seal her powers. But if her school wins, he becomes her slave and gives the power of the spirits he's sealed so far to her. When episode 7 begins, Miku's school wins the concert portion. She then begins to taunt Shido. stating the reason he lost was because he relied too much on his friends. Then it turns out Shido's school was voted the most popular due to their maid cafe. Miku understandably doesn't take this well.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Shido to Miku in the last chapter of Volume 6/episode 7 of the anime. She. Does. Not. Take. It. Well.
• Unusual Euphemism: In the OVA, one of Shido's attempts to make himself look unpleasant enough for Origami to dump him is claiming to be a lolicon, telling her that his "Sandalphon" goes out of control as he ogles elementary school girls.
• Unwanted Harem: Played With. Shido has to build a Spirit harem to seal their powers, but their shenanigans usually cause more trouble than he's comfortable with.
• Unwinnable Training Simulation: During Shidou's date training, he's given a time limit to make his galge choice, but is stuck making poor ones because of the nature of the options, and he gets punished for making them. When he wants Kotori show him better, she waits out the time limit, citing all the options as bad. "Waiting out the timer" never works in his real dates and his backup insists he follows through with their poorly-worded options despite his complaints.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: This is a series especially for comedy, but the real villains really jump about this.....
• Villainous Rescue:
  • Kurumi saves Shido multiple times during the Miku arc. Due to being out of options with his allies either brainwashed by Miku, or incapacitated, he's also forced to work with her in order to first get Miku out of his way, and later rescue Tohka.
  • Miku intervenes when Shido gets bogged down while attempting to locate Tohka in episode 9 of season 2. With her help, he's able to locate Tohka much faster, though Miku claims she's just helping him because she wants Tohka's spirit powers as well.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Tohka and Origami would be this, but they'd both disagree about the other being one.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Shido wears an earpiece during his dates so Fraxinus' crew (mostly Kotori) can give him advice.
• Weaksauce Weakness: The AST's CR-Unit is unsuitable for indoor combat. The Nibelcole created from Westcott's Beelzebub can be defeated just by having Shido kiss them (even a blown kiss will do).
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The AST. Kurumi also; the reason she killed over 10000 people was to accumulate enough power so that she could go back 30 years in time to kill the first Spirit that caused the spacequake 30 years ago.
• Wham Episode:
  • Volume 1. When Origami takes a shot at Tohka, but Shido pushes her out of the way, just in time to get shot instead. What was supposed to be a light-hearted episode suddenly does a Mood Whiplash at that moment. Actually subverted because he gets better due to his Healing Factor.
  • Volume 3's Kurumi arc plays this straight since she's the first Spirit whose powers Shido fails to seal.
  • Volume 7, which was the second half of Miku's arc, was this due to the introduction of Inverse Form.
  • Volumes 10 and 11 was a major hit considering that it finally got around to the Origami arc that's been hinted at since the first Volume. To start, Origami was forced into becoming one of the Spirits that she has always hated. She then teams up with Kurumi to go back in time in order to kill the Spirit that murdered her parents...only to realize that the Spirit attack that killed her parents had actually come from Origami herself during a skirmish with Phantom. Of course, the revelation that Origami had killed her own parents instantly causes her to go Inverse once she returned to the current day. The subsequent destructive rampage that her Inverse form went on was so great that it forced Shido and Kurumi to team up in order to prevent this from happening in the first place. However, Shido's first attempt reveals that his actions not only led to the events that would cause Origami to time travel in the first place, and then inverse afterwards, it made him realize that he had just perpetuated a Stable Time Loop. It took a second attempt, in which Shido was able to save Origami's parents from being hit at the last second, to break this time loop, which ended up creating a new timeline.
  • Volume 13 was another major one as it resulted in the loss of a Spirit crystal to the enemy. During Shido's attempt to seal Nia, DEM interrupts at the last second, and forces her to go Inverse Form by jogging her memory of the endless torture DEM had performed on her. Amidst the confusion, Artemisia ends up removing her Inversed Qlipha Crystal, and gives said crystal to Isaac, who absorbs it. As a result, not only does Isaac now have Spiritual Power, him, Ellen, and Artemisia now have knowledge of the previous timeline. The volume also ends with Nia's positing the theory that all the Spirits, including those that were believed to be pure, were human at some point, something that is proven right in Volume 15 by Inverse Tohka, though in a bit of pure irony, Volume 18 reveals that Tohka herself is a actually a pure Spirit, much like the extracanonical spirits (Rinne, Rio, Maria, Marina, and Mayuri), and the First Spirit herself.
  • As the title of Volume 18 will tell you, the whole volume is this. Mio have finally revealed herself and her intention to restore Shinji Takamiya as her eternal lover by killing Kurumi first and foremost, then proceeds to tear apart virtually all opposition, including Shido's entire harem, and ended up killing all of them with incredible ease. It was barely averted by Shido using Zafkiel to rewind time to the day before.
  • As if Volume 18 wasn't WHAM enough, Volume 19 top that as Mio blows herself in a Heroic Sacrifice to put an end to Westcott. Tohka then takes possession Mio's Sephira Crystal.
• Wham Line: At the end of Volume 5/episode 4 of season 2:
  Kotori: No, there is no choice……....from now on, if the worst case happened, I will kill Shido.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Shido hates it when other humans try to subdue or kill a Spirit and instead wants to save them whatever means necessary. Fortunately, Ratatoskr is there to help out.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: In this case, the old hammer got exchanged for another one. Dates are literally used by Ratatoskr to solve almost all Spirit-related problems, since the brute force approach of "immediately attack Spirits on sight" has been shown to be ineffective at stopping the destruction.
• Word Salad Title: Well, dating is involved at least. However, the series' title isn't very informative overall.
• You Killed My Father: Origami speaks puts the blame for her parent's death on Kotori while the latter is in her spirit form Efreeth in episode 12. Which turns out to be The Reveal as well, since it causes Kotori to back off long enough for Origami to take flight again and activate her weapons again. Only, Kotori was not the Spirit that killed Origami's parents...
  • And then it turns out Origami herself killed her parents after thinking that Phantom was the one who did the deed. To say she went ballistic is an understatement.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Mana only has 10 years left to live after undergoing a procedure to strengthen her body enough to fight on par with Spirits. She's also not the only one to have undergone the procedure.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: It's revealed at the end of Volume 7 that she was trying to find the Second Spirit, who was supposedly imprisoned by the DEM, and was the only one who knew where the First Spirit (her actual target) was. She offered help to Shido in the hopes of finding the Second Spirit in the place where Tohka was imprisoned, but the Second Spirit was actually imprisoned elsewhere. At least she got a pat on the head from Shido.

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