We finally saw Natsumi’s true feelings in episode 2 of Date a Live IV! Nia Honjo is being a handful for Shido and the other spirits. Making her fall for Shido is almost impossible because she can only love 2D characters. Other people may think that it is because she is a mangaka, but based on her reactions, it seems that it has something to do with the past. That said, she still becomes vulnerable whenever she sees one of her favorite 2D characters in real life, especially if the one she sees is perfectly imitating the personality of that certain character.
In Shido’s case, he was able to cosplay and imitate the personality of one of Nia’s favorites – Tokiya, Shido manages to completely change his personality to appease Nia and it was hard to believe that it was Shido until he tried to kiss Nia. The kiss went wrong because Nia sees his attempt as disrespectful to her favorite character. Unfortunately, the real Tokiya would never kiss a woman because he is not into that kind of stuff. LOL.
At Nia’s home, she suddenly received a mysterious demo copy of a certain otome game, and the male lead looks just like Shido. As she plays the game she falls for the main lead, until she realizes that the game actually came from Ratatoskr and Shido is who she was talking to while playing the game. Of course, this further angers Nia and the situation becomes more complicated.
The spirits decide to make Shido a real 2D character because of the situation. I’m sure that Date a Live fans know that Natsumi’s magic can easily turn Shido into a walking manga page. Though, courtesy of Origami, they decided to make a manga where Shido is the protagonist. This part was really fun because we saw each spirit’s artistic side, and their designs reflect their own personalities. In Natsumi’s case, she was a former student, and she was able to imitate a manga artist in the past so she drew Shido perfectly, and she became their lead artist.
Natsumi showed her growth in the episode by working super hard on the manga, and doing her role as part of Ratatoskr and Shido’s gang. She mentioned how happy she was when she was saved by the spirits and how she is using this opportunity to do the same to other spirit. This is quite surprising coming from Natsumi, because she doesn’t talk much in general. It was quite nice seeing her get more comfortable and share joyful moments with the others, even falling asleep in Shido’s arms.
Based on the designs of the manga they are working on, it looks like the story will be about how Shido saved the different spirits he encountered in the past. Though as you can see, this is not enough to make Nia fall in love with Shido because there’s no guarantee that Nia will read the manga.
Luckily, an event where you can sell manga is approaching, so they made a deal with Nia that if their sales are higher than hers, then she should read the manga they made, and Nia accepted the challenge. If you are curious about the deal’s outcome, episode 3 will air on April 22, 2022, and you can watch it on Crunchyroll. Lastly, if you were touched by Natsumi’s dedication, and were happy seeing Shido’s three different 2D forms in episode 2 of Date a Live IV, you can vote for the anime on our weekly poll.
Screenshots via Crunchyroll
© 2021 Koshi Tachibana, Tsunako/KADOKAWA/”Date A Live IV” Production Committee
