TL;DR The Date A Live Season 5 release date is in 2024. Anime Geek predicts a Spring 2024 premiere. Read more below for a much deeper dive!
The Date A Live Season 5 release date is officially confirmed to be in 2024.
The exact time of the years still has not been confirmed yet. However, it must be coming up relatively soon since the anime TV series was officially confirmed to be in production in mid-2022.
On October 14, 2023, the release year was announce during a streaming event called Fantasia Bunko Big Thanks Online 2023.
On April 5, 2023, Studio Geek Toys released a Date A Live Season 5 teaser PV trailer and a new visual.
On February 12, 2023, anime news leaker Sugoi LITE claimed that the first information about Date A Live V will be announced in March 2023. The leaker also noted, “Never said anything about Winter 2024.”
The official website released comments from some of the primary Japanese voice actors.
“5th season is in the works! I’m so happy! I’m so happy! Thank you all! Thank you!
Nobunaga Shimazaki, the Japanese voice actor for Shidou Itsuka
IV ended in a great place, but of course, V will be amazing. A parade of furious developments and foreshadowing! We hope you will be able to see it through to the end. Enjoy!”
“Congratulations on the decision to produce the 5th season! To be honest…when the 4th season was announced, I was hoping that they would finish the production…? (laugh). Anyway, I am very happy. With the addition of new characters in the fourth season, we have become a really large group. I am deeply moved to see how much time has passed. I will continue to do my best while staying close to the characters, so please give me your support!”
Marina Inoue, the Japanese voice actress for Tooka Yatogami
“At last, we have come this far…! That’s how I feel. Without your support, Kyozo might have been just a mysterious person (laughs). Thank you! From the last scene of the fourth season, the story is finally getting to the heart of the matter (although it has always felt like a climax). Please enjoy!”
Asami Sanada, the Japanese voice actress for Kurumi Tokisaki
The fifth season will return the focus to the popular Kurumi Tokisaki character as an all-out war erupts between <Ratatoskr> and DEM. But when will Date A Live V come out?
The announcement was actually leaked ahead of time. On June 22, 2022, anime news leaker Sugoi LITE claimed, “Date A Live TV Anime Season 5 in production.”
Sugoi LITE has a solid history of leaking accurate anime news. Sometimes the leaks are mere hours or days before the official announcement is made, so it wasn’t surprising when the actual Date A Live Season 5 announcement took place when the fourth season’s finale was released on June 24, 2022.
The studio and main staffing making the Date A Live Season 5 anime hasn’t been announced yet.
The anime TV series has been produced by a large variety of Japanese animation studios, including AIC PLUS+ (Season 1) and Production IMS (Season 2 and the 2015 Date A Live Movie: Mayuri Judgment). Production IMS eventually declared bankruptcy so once again the anime series was hot potato-tossed to J.C. Staff (Season 3). Thus, it would not be unusual if Date A Live Season 5 has yet another studio change.
The same main staff at Studio GEEK TOYS animated both the fourth season and the two-part Date A Bullet movie series, which also featured Kurumi as the main character. Previously, Studio GEEK TOYS had previously worked on the 2020 Plunderer anime, the 2018 RErideD, and the 2019 Hensuki: Are You Willing to Fall in Love With a Pervert, as Long as She’s a Cutie?
For the fourth season, director Jun Nakagawa (Date A Bullet, High School Fleet Movie) helmed the project, replacing director Keitaro Motonaga. Writer Fumihiko Shimo (Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki) handled the series composition, replacing writer Hideki Shirane.
Artist Naoto Nakamura (Date A Bullet, High School Fleet) was the character designer, replacing character designer (formerly key animator) Koji Watanabe. Returning composer Gou Sakabe (Digimon, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man) has created the music for the entire anime series, including the movies.
The Date A Live Season 5 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
The Date a Live Season 4 OP “OveR” was performed by Miyu Tomita, while the ED “S.O.S.” was performed by Sweet ARMS.
The Date A Live anime TV series celebrated its 10th Anniversary on March 19, 2021.
The Date A Live IV anime was originally scheduled for October 2021, the Fall 2021 anime season. Due to unexplained delays, the fourth season was pushed back to April 8, 2022.
But the delays may have been bigger than publicly admitted since anime news leakers once claimed that the fourth season was coming out in Spring 2021. Considering the timing of the delays the most likely culprit is the COVID pandemic, which impacted Japan with multiple waves.
The fourth season’s finale, Date A Live Season 4 Episode 12, was released on June 24, 2022.
This article provides everything that is known about Date A Live Season 5 (Date A Live 5) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Date A Live 5 release date predictions: DAL 5 likely in mid-2024?
As of the last update, Studio GEEK TOYS, Nippon Columbia, publisher Kadokawa, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the exact Date A Live Season 5 release date. However, the production of the Date A Live 5 sequel was officially announced on June 24, 2022. The release year was announced on October 14, 2023.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when the Date A Live 5 release date will occur in the future.
Arguably, the series has come a long way since the battle harem anime began with smaller studios on a smaller budget only to move up in the world as the series grew in popularity. Besides animation quality improvements there have been drastic art style changes as the anime has progressed.
It also helps that the story quality of the source material progressed over time. The fourth season enjoyed a better tale focus on new spirits Nia Honjou and Mukuro Hoshimiya and thus the studio was able to focus on adapting a relatively small number of books.
As such, the Date A Live 4 reviews have significantly better scores than all of the previous seasons. That relative popularity probably translates to a better boost for Blu-Ray/DVD and light novel sales, so that’s why we predicted that it was very likely the anime production committee would have Date A Live Season 5 renewed. The only question is when it’ll be released.
What was the reason for the long five-year wait between Seasons 3 and 4? There’s been no official explanation, although in 2014 the anime had already adapted about two-thirds of the available source material.
Now, the situation is completely different since the Date A Live book series is finished and the anime production committee can plan out the remainder of the anime adaptation at their leisure. The 10th Anniversary projects were not simply toeing the waters to see if the series should be renewed all the way to the ending since the producer apparently already has a multi-year plan.
Since the production was immediately announced in June 2022, and then the release year in October 2023, Anime Geek predicts that the Date A Live V release date will be in Spring 2024 at the earliest.
That’s assuming pre-production began way before the fourth season aired. Otherwise, we might expect to wait until Summer or Fall 2024.
Date A Live Season 5 English dub release date predictions
Crunchyroll’s Date A Live Season 4 English dub release date was on April 22, 2022. The Date A Live dub started streaming several weeks after the initial premiere with Japanese audio and English subtitles.
First and foremost, let us welcome the newest addition to Shido’s harem:
- Nia plays Mallorie Rodak (High Elf Archer in GOBLIN SLAYER).
Then there are the regular favorites:
- Shido is played by Josh Grelle (Armin from Attack on Titan).
- Tohka is played by Michelle Rojas (Roxy in Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation).
- Origami is played by Michelle Lee (Rosemary in SHADOWS HOUSE).
- Kotori is played by Bryn Apprill (Ai from ZOMBIE LAND SAGA).
- Alexis Tipton (Miko in Mieruko-chan) as Kurumi
- Katelyn Barr (Rim in The Dungeon of Black Company) as Natsumi
- Kawagoe is played by Christopher R. Sabat (Despa in Ranking of Kings).
- Mana is played by Felecia Angelle (Kohaku in Dr. STONE).
- Tia Ballard (Mizuho in Sonny Boy) as Yoshino and Yoshinon
- Megan Shipman (Anya in SPY x FAMILY) as Yuzuru
- Brittney Karbowski (Saori in Tribe Nine) as Kaguya
- Ellen J. is played by Trina Nishimura (Mikasa from Attack on Titan),
- Kannazuki is played by Michael Tatum (Iida from My Hero Academia).
- Mikimoto is played by Bradley Campbell (Heinkel from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood).
- Miku is played by Jad Saxton (Shinju in My Dress-Up Darling).
- Minowa is played by Sara Ragsdale (Riko in Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid).
- Nakatsugawa is played by Matt Thurston (Shiryu from One Piece).
- Moore Alex (Mitsuba in Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign) is the Narrator.
Presumably, Crunchyroll’s Date A Live Season 5 English dub release date will be announced in the month of the fifth season’s premiere.
Date A Light light novel series/manga compared to the anime’s fourth season
The story for Date A Live Season 5 will be based on the light novel book series by author Koushi Tachibana and illustrator Tsunako. Celebrating the end of the light novels, the series finished with Volume 22 on March 19, 2020.
Started in 2012, the Date A Live manga adaptation suffered an early death. Manga artist Kakashi Oniyazu only released six chapters before the manga series was canceled due to the mangaka suffering from health problems.
There’s been no sign of another manga artist picking up the story from where it left off. Needless to say, that means the manga adaptation is far behind the main story of the anime since it only covered part of the first date with Tohka. However, there are other manga spin-offs like Date A Origami and Date A Party.
The biggest problem for anime fans wanting to read ahead in the story is that an official English translation of the Date A Live light novel series has never been licensed by any publisher.
English-only readers can’t even turn to any fan-made translation projects since book publisher Kadokawa served them DMCA takedown notices years ago.
The last fan project stopped in 2015 with only part of Volume 13 translated. The download page for the main project is now a dead link, but other sites still host all 13 books. Even Novel Updates doesn’t have any non-dead links.
The first season adapted the first four novels, the second season adapted Volumes 5 through 7, and then J.C. Staff hit the gas by adapting five books (Volumes 8 through 12) with the third season. The reason that’s a problem is due to the third season essentially rushing through Volume 12: Itsuka Disaster.
The first 11 episodes adapted the story arcs for Natsumi and Origami which were two books apiece. But then for Episode 12, J.C. Staff made the baffling decision to summarize the entire “sealed spiritual power within Shido running rampant” disaster story arc in one episode, which made it feel more like an extra OVA episode rather than a proper ending to a full season.
Even characters like Mana Takamiya were struck from the anime’s story entirely even though she appeared in Volumes 8 and 12. More importantly, the introduction of Artemisia Bell Ashcroft was skipped and she appears in Volumes 12 through 17, replacing Mana as DEM’s Adeptus 2 in the new timeline.
Artemisia plays an important role in relation to another major character whose introduction in Volume 12 was skipped by the anime. But that new character was directly relevant to the story of Date A Live Season 4.
Light novel fans are used to anime versions condensing the story, but this was the first time the Date A Live anime reduced an entire book down to one episode. It almost feels as if the third season was arbitrarily forced into ending with a 12-episode format.
Thankfully, Date A Live Season 4 returned the adaptation pacing to a more reasonable level by only adapting four books. That decision meant that Spirits Nia Honjou and Mukuro Hoshimiya were given the attention they needed in order to properly tell these two story arcs before launching into the Kurumi arc.
Date A Live Season 4 Episode 1 even went back to the disaster story arc from Volume 12 by adapting several missing scenes that were skipped by the Season 3 finale.
All in all, it’s predicted that the ending of the fourth season’s finale, Date A Live Season 4 Episode 12, will correspond to light novel Date A Live Volume 16: Kurumi Refrain.
It’s the best stopping point since finishing with Volume 16 means ending with a big cliffhanger that sets up the next anime season. Additionally, Volumes 16 through 19 are interconnected with Mio’s arc and conclude with a huge climax. Then the light novel finale arc consists of three final volumes.
That means Date A Live Season 5 should be adapting three books since it’d be crazy to try and jam the final six books into 12 or 13 episodes.
Does that mean Date A Live Season 6 will adapt the final ending in Volumes 20 through 22? Without getting into spoilers, Volume 20 set up the conditions for ending the entire story. The final three volumes might be best adapted as a final two-part Date A Live movie.
Light novel readers who wish to read ahead of the anime can jump straight to Date A Live Volume 17: Kurumi Ragnarok.
Date A Live V anime TV spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Date A Live Season 5 will launch an all-out war between <Ratatoskr> and DEM. This war begins with the revelation that Shido is fated to die.
The truth is that Kurumi, despite being called the Worst Spirit, had selflessly put herself into a time loop in order to prevent Shido’s death. To prevent this worst future, Kurumi had shouldered the fate of the entire world and now this truth has been revealed by Shido to the other Spirits.
Westcott mobilizes all of DEM’s forces to kill Shido and break Kurumi’s resolve. In response, <Ratatoskr> rallies all of the Spirits to defend Shido at all costs.
Past memories will be unlocked and further truths will be revealed. It’s already known that most of the Spirits have a human origin, but what of the origin of the First Spirit? And will Shido be able to win over Kurumi’s heart and avert disaster by changing the future?
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Date A Live Season 5 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!
- Updated October 30, 2023: Added release year.
- Updated June 24, 2022: Dave A Live V confirmed. Added visual and actor comments.
- Updated June 22, 2022: Added Date A Live Season 5 leak.