Guilty Pleasures

So we all know that there are some great anime and some not so great anime. Most of the times people will determine their favorite anime by critical acclaim which is perfectly fine because highly rated anime are definitely good. For example, Cowboy Bebop is universally rated as a great anime, a masterpiece according to some, while everyone will circlejerk hate on something like Infinite Stratos. Now, I'm not saying that I like Infinite Stratos, I personally don't like it that much, BUT there are people who do. I label these kinds of anime as guilty pleasures because there are obvious flaws with them but even so, you like them. I'm sure everyone has at least one guilty pleasure. I for one, have quite a few guilty pleasures, but today I'll just talk about one:

Date a Live

Season 1 characters sans the pink haired girl

Date a Live was originally a light novel series written by Koushi Tachibana and art by Tsunako (artist of Hyperdimension Neptunia) which has since been adapted into 2 seasons of anime, 2 games, a manga, and soon a movie. I initially got into the anime because I won a figure of the main heroine, Yatogami Tohka, at a crane game and got curious about the anime. The character design was pretty solid and it seemed like it could be a fun, relaxing watch so I gave it a chance and I ended up becoming a pretty big fan.


For those who do not know, Date a Live is basically a Galge where the main character, Itsuka Shidou, must raise the affection levels of Spirits who randomly appear in order to seal their powers and prevent them from being hunted down by the Anti Spirit Team (AST). The concept is really no different than the other generic harem show out there but the reason I like it is because of the characters. The characters work well together making for very entertaining situations. I will admit that the series screams generic and is really no different from the other generic harem anime I dismiss and critically, I have given both seasons of Date a Live a 6/10 because it has a lot of flaws. What I want to emphasize is that, regardless of its flaws, Date a Live is still something that I like, not because I think it's a good anime, but because it's entertaining and fun.

Season 2 characters

Quick, fun fact about me, I really like good art and because of that I tend to like bad anime. For example, if anyone remembers Omamori Himari, the manga, I was a big fan of that because of its art. A lot of detail went into the clothes that characters would wear, something that many authors completely neglect, and the manga overall felt very lively. Date a Live has a very clean and fitting art style thanks to Tsunako. I hate saying that the characters are "cute" because it sounds like a very superficial reason for liking art or characters but the characters are "cute" and that's a good thing for this kind of series. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I always get the feeling that the character design is different than most of the generic harem anime out there. Perhaps, I'm just completely biased by now so that's why, but I feel like Date a Live does character design and art better than most. So, if you like good art, then you are probably already a fan of Tsunako and maybe of Date a Live.

Don't be afraid to have a guilty pleasure or two, just be able to recognize what is actually good and what is not. There's no problem with liking something just because you like it but be able to recognize that other people might not like it as much as you do.