English Dub Review: Date A Live IV: “Locked Memories”

Overview: Shido (Josh Grelle) goes out on a date with Mukuro (Kristen McGuire) and he soon finds that she is all that he has left. 

Our Take: Shido and Mukuro’s date is underwhelming with the rough treatment it is given in lack of onscreen conversing and getting to know one another. The bulk of their dating is nothing more than a brief montage of their activities that does not let us truly enjoy any sort of lighthearted chemistry. At the very least, it is neat to understand how the multiple choice dating advice is generated by Fraxinus.  

Small tidbits about Mukuro in her wholesome relationship with her older step sister, gazing and learning about constellations, are intriguing in how she went from that to something very different. Mukuro wanting Shido to abandon all the other spirits and making everyone forget him with Michael, including his classmates, to have him all to herself is a dark and twisted development in how possessive she is. Mukuro’s meddling in the spirits memories eventually awakens 

Inverse Tohka and a different version of Origami as they remember Shido being different from their counterparts. They are the opposite of their personalities, subverting how we view them in a fun way with Origami being passive and sweet and Tohka being harsh like when she first met Shido.  

With the two of them rendezvousing with Shido and Mukuro, Tohka and Mukuro have their end goals for Shido. One wants to capture his heart and the other wants to humiliate him until near death and you can probably guess which one at that. Of course, the only way to decide that in a civil way is a date, as proposed by Origami, for both ladies to go out on simultaneous dates. Tohka is just a dark pit of brutality that I love, one who is almost certainly into S&M while Mukuro is just a smothering sweetheart. Together they make a volatile concussion that is bubbling up to be a hot mess that you can not help but want to watch with them at their wits end with each other, as it leads into the next episode.