Summary
Even by harem anime standards,Date A Livehas a pretty wild premise. The series follows Shido Itsuka, a seemingly normal high school boy who is tasked with saving the world by kissing cute girls. It sounds like every high school boy’s worst nightmare.
On the last day of his spring break, Shido’s town is wrecked by something called a spacequake. At the same time, a strange girl wearing armor appears in front of him. He soon learns that she is a “Special Disasterous Designation Creature: Spirit,” or just plain old Spirit for short, and the source of the spacequake. Apparently, more are coming, and they’re too powerful to fight. The only way to calm these female Spirits down is for poor Shido to kiss them and absorb their extraordinary powers. Combining comedy, action, and romance,Date A Liveis widely considered to be one ofthe best harem anime of all time.
Intelligence: 70
Total: 453
Compared to some, Itsuka Shido’s haremisn’t the biggest,but it is one of the most entertaining. When it comes to pure stats,Miku Izyoiis the weakest spirit in his harem, and it’s not even close. Miku Izyoi was the sixth Spirit to appear in the anime. Before becoming a Spirit, Miku was an idol whose career collapsed after she refused to sleep with a sleezy TV producer. The resulting trauma left her with a hatred of all men and caused the loss of her voice.
Then Phantom showed up, and offered to make her a Spirit. Miku regained her voice and quickly found enormous fame. As a Spirit, she has the ability to mind-control those who hear her music, and was able to control an entire city by broadcasting her concert. Even with her ability to turn others into her minions, the fact remains that Miku is easily the weakest of all the Spirits.
Intelligence: 245
Total: 570
Despite being the second Spirit to appear on Earth,Niadidn’t feature in the anime until Season 4’s premiere, having been captured at some point by the DEM and put in a coma. Nia is more of a support Spirit, whose gift lies in storing and gathering information. At full strength, her Angel has near-omniscience and can manipulate reality and change the future. This means Nia’s powers should be godlike.
Unfortunately, while in captivity, most of Nia’s Qlipha Crystal was extracted, meaning she lost much of her power - including the ability to control the future. She has few combat abilities, and is a pacifist by nature, meaning she’s not much use in battle. Overall, Nia is one of the anime’s most likable, but weakest, Spirits.
Intelligence: 174
Total: 580
Natsumi Kyounowas the seventh Spirit to appear to Itsuka, debuting in Episode One of the anime’s third season. Natsumi wields a broom as her weapon of choice, and in her astral dress she takes the form of a witch, making her look like something out ofa magical girl anime. Natsumi is the Spirit of Transformation, and in her Spirit form, her powers are said to be limited only by her imagination.
She used these powers to transform herself into her “perfect form” in an attempt to get over her own self-consciousness. In battle, she can transform her enemy’s weapons into harmless and comical objects and can even heal her allies. Limited by her stats, however, there are some things Natsumi can’t do. Her healing abilities are just a quick fix, and she can’t fix blood loss or heal serious internal injuries. Likewise, her ability to copy other Spirit’s Angels sounds impressive, but she can only create inferior copies.
Intelligence: 152
Total: 740
Yoshinowas the second Spirit saved by Shido and first appeared way back in Episode 3 of the anime in a cameo. Her Spirit form is all about controlling the three states of water, and before her powers were sealed with a kiss, it tended to rain heavily each time she appeared.
For the most part, Yoshino prefers controlling ice, using it mainly for defensive purposes. Shy and kind, Yoshino doesn’t like to battle or hurt others, and uses her high agility to run around the battlefield, hiding whenever possible. However, when she has to, Yoshino can give as good as she gets. Her stats may be average, but she won the Spirit Battle Royale by defeating four other Spirits (although arguably they were already weakened from other battles). She’s a real scene-stealer, and some of her best moments contribute toDate A Livebeing one ofthe most hilarious harem anime around.
Intelligence: 178
Total: 773
It’s an unfortunate trend that some male anime characters havean awkward sister complex, and this is true for Shido and his foster sister,Kotori. While Kotori gained her Spirit abilities five years before the events of the show, she’s considered the fourth Spirit to debut, since she hid her powers from Shido for quite a while. Kotori can produce flames from her body and then manipulate them for use in close and ranged combat.
She sometimes struggles to control her ability, twice leading to widespread damage when she’s lost control. This has often led to Kotori avoiding the use of her flame abilities in battle for fear of losing control. Because of this self-imposed handicap, her strongest power is arguably her ability to regenerate. As long as she’s near flames, Kotori can heal from pretty much any damage received, even if near death. One of her most impressive feats is regenerating after taking a point-blank headshot from Zafkiel.
Total: 1192
The Yamai Sistersare a little complicated. Before the events of the anime, they were originally a human, Yamai Kazamachi, who split into two different Spirits after being turned. The resulting Spirits, Kaguya and Yuzuru, both share a mastery of the wind, and are the fastest of all the Spirits.
During the anime, they fused, and Yamai was reborn, but as a fusion of the two sisters, not her original self. It’s all a bit confusing. Still, when working together, the sisters are plenty powerful, and able to create a typhoon easily capable of blowing away a small island. They can only stay fused for a short time, but when they are, they’re easily one of the most powerful Spirits - capable of even overpowering Beast. They have the highest stats of any Spirit in the anime, but they’re split nature leaves them rarely capable of fully utilizing all that power.
Intelligence: 201
Total: 713
Kurumiwas the third Spirit to appear inDate A Live,and the first to act as an antagonist. Often referred to as the Worst Spirit, she’s killed over 10,000 people, something that should make her one ofthe most powerful anime villains of all time.
It’s this ruthlessness, rather than her stats, that makes Kurumi such a powerful Spirit. She’s a brutal fighter, and her ability to produce large numbers of copies of herself means she can simply overwhelm most opponents with sheer numbers. She’s also unique in that she’s taken in two Sephira Crystals, meaning she can access two Angels. On top of this, her flintlock pistol and musket can both use special bullets that can cause a whole range of status effects.
Intelligence: 32
Total: 731
Tohkawas the first Spirit to be rescued by Shido, and she’s an absolute powerhouse. Unlike other Spirits, Tohka doesn’t bend elements or warp reality, preferring to wield pure energy as her weapon. Tohka tends to be a rapid close-range fighter, producing energy blasts and shockwaves with ease in her Spirit form.
For defense, she can summon energy shields, and her strength and durability are among the highest of all the Spirits. The writers also seem to have taken a page out ofDragon Ball’stransformation bookwith Tohka, giving her several powerful, distinct forms. Her only weaknesses are her reliance on close-range attacks and low intelligence, which means wiser enemies can easily outsmart her (if given the chance).
Intelligence: 243
Total: 908
Origamihas been around since Episode One of the anime, and her time throughout has been a rollercoaster. Originally just Shido’s top-of-the-class-in-everything classmate, Origami became a Wizard of the AST after the death of her parents. Initially determined to kill as many Spirits as possible, she later emerges as the eighth Spirit.
It’s not just Origami’s high stats that make her a force to be reckoned with. She’s able to combine her Spirit powers with her Wizard skills to create something truly special. This impressive setup is then improved even further by her super-powerful Angel, Metatron. Straight after becoming a Spirit, Origami was able to go one-on-one with Tohka and impress the other Spirits with her aptitude. She has few weaknesses, and her lowest stat, Agility, is compensated for by her ability to transform into light and teleport away from attacks.
Mukorowas the tenth Spirit to appear inDate A Liveand is usually regarded as the most powerful of her kind. She wields Michael as her Angel, also arguably the most powerful of its kind, and capable of causing planetary levels of death and destruction.
She’s particularly dangerous because she can seal certain functions of her targets and other Angels - making them almost powerless against her. She can also summon meteorites, redirect attacks, and even open up wormholes in space and travel through them. The energy beam attack produced by Michael can cut through almost anything. Summed up, there’s not much Mukoro can’t do, and few who can stand up to her when she’s at full power.
