This week in Japan, the first character promo for the upcoming anime Date A Live began airing. The promotional video features Tohka Yatogami, a prominent character in the series. Rather than jabber on and on about that, I’ll go ahead and post the video so you can see for yourself.
So that’s just a short teaser about Date A Live and Tohka Yatogami. But I’m sure that’s not enough. That can’t be enough. So here, have the promo from a while back:
Assuming you’ve taken a look at both of those videos, I’m gonna give you a brief synopsis of Date A Live. The show follows Shidou Itsuka, a male high school student and the protagonist of the story. On the final day of spring holiday, an explosion destroys the entire town, and an armored girl appears in front of him. Shidou’s sister-in-law Kotori explains that this girl is a spirit and the cause of the explosion, or “spacequake.” Kotori reveals that she’s the commander of an anti-spirit organization named Ratatosk, then orders Shidou to go on a date with the spirit, saying something along the lines of “I’m not asking you to beat her. Just let her fall in love with you and save the world.”
The premise of Date A Live is pretty similar to The World God Only Knows. Both feature protagonists who have to make girls fall in love with them in order to advance the story. So what sets Date A Live apart? Mecha. Or, rather, girls who are mecha. Whatever the case, it’s important enough that the show has a dedicated mecha designer: Mika Akitaka, a man who has designed mecha for a number of other shows, including Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ and Sky Girls.
We’ve also got some nice voice actors to look forward to in Date A Live. Kotori Itsuka is played by Ayana Taketatsu, the same voice actor behind Azusa in K-On!. Tohka Yatogami, the girl in the first video, is played by Marina Inoue, the same voice actor behind Yoko Littner in Gurren Lagann.
It looks like the animation budget on this show is pretty high, so fans of high-quality animation might want to keep it on their radars. Date A Live is scheduled to air in Japan March 16th, 2013, so mark your calendars.
