English Dub Review: Date A Live “Transformation”

Transform.

Overview (Spoilers Below!)

The transformed Spirits act like adorable little kids. Reine shows up to help Shido care for them. Isaac and Ellen declare that Natsumi is their target.

Shido goes to school, but the young Spirits follow him. Natsumi uses magic to remove Tohka’s clothes, so Shido rushes the girls home—only to find that his house has turned into a giant waving cat. Meanwhile, the DEM dudes discuss what to do about Isaac.

Shido awakens to find that the girls are now wearing playboy bunny suits, thanks to Natsumi. Shido wears a pimp suit and keeps the children in a cage. I can’t make this stuff up.

Natsumi is being chased by a Spirit she assumes to be one of Shido’s friends—but it’s really Ellen. Ellen’s cohort fires down a rain of missiles, but Natsumi turns each one into a delightful dessert and transforms Ellen into a young child. But when Ellen gets a clean cut on Natsumi’s torso, Natsumi’s power fails, turning Ellen back into a young woman. Just as Ellen is about to deliver a finishing blow, the tiny Tohka appears and protects her. Shido promises to get Natsumi patched up and safe. The young Spirits get the upper hand on Ellen’s crew and escape with Natsumi.

A DEM board member proposes dropping their unused satellites on Tengu City to get revenge on Isaac. Origami receives a phone call about her “punishment;” men in black fill her house, and she runs to safety. Natsumi wakes up in captivity, now young again, as she took too much damage to use her Angel. Natsumi doesn’t understand why Shido saved her. She explains that she’s pissed because he saw her true form, which she sees as pathetic because no one ever pays attention to her when she looks like this.

While Natsumi eats dinner, Shido kidnaps her and brings her to a beauty salon run by Miku. Shido promises to help her transform through beauty products rather than magic. The Spirits give her spa treatments, cut her hair, help her buy new clothes, and do her makeup. Afterward, Natsumi is shocked by her own cuteness.

Ellen wants to work with Origami. At first, Origami refuses, but Ellen promises her information that could allow her to avenge her parents, and she finally gives in.

Our Take

What a weird episode. On the one hand, it attempts a reasonably good message about how you don’t have to change yourself for other people. Natsumi is paralyzed by the fear of looking weak and childish, believing that no one could possibly love the real her, but Shido proves to her that she’s worthy of love just as she is. It’s also an interesting commentary on the expectations we place on young girls to be mature and sexy beyond their years—in a world where women are constantly sexualized, Natsumi believes that she needs a big bust and revealing clothes in order for people to notice her, even though she’s incredibly young. It’s refreshing to be reminded that young girls can just be young girls.

On the other hand, “Transformation” totally undermines this entire message with the makeover scene. You don’t have to use magic to change yourself for others, this episode teaches us. Instead, you should just change your makeup and clothes and hair and go through daily extensive skincare routines and then you’ll be worthy of love. In the end, the episode’s moral comes out muddled and inapplicable to the real world, since last time I checked, no one’s modifying themselves with magic out here.

There’s also the fact that a huge chunk of this episode is hinged on putting children in sexual situations. Natsumi strips Tohka down to her underwear in a public place and decides that it would be just peachy if all the elementary school-age Spirits wore playboy bunny costumes. I still can’t wrap my head around this. How is it possible that this show got greenlit with a scene where a high school boy acts as a pimp to a bunch of elementary school girls in playboy bunny suits, and he keeps them in a literal cage???? The OP marketed this episode as a test of Shido’s fathering skills, but somehow he ended up both as these girls’ father figure and their pimp??? What????

So uh… what can I say after that? The animation in this episode is lovely—the children are all extremely cute, and Isaac’s car is well-rendered. The fight scene is loads of fun, with jaunty classical music accompanying a bunch of tiny girls kicking some adults’ butts. A scene where the girls refer to Shido as “papa”—to the horror of his classmates—is ridiculous and silly but reasonably fully. And I like the totally out-of-nowhere canon fact that Shido is great at doing makeup. What a fun, random piece of character development.

But Shido does drag to prove he’s good at makeup, and Natsumi calls him a “pervert” just for wearing a dress for five minutes. When a show thinks pedophilia is sexy but crossdressing is the epitome of debauchery, I don’t quite feel like I can identify with it. Also, I kind of want to call the police.