Ma Curriculum! 1-7
A demon (read: cute girl) comes to the human world for training, which consists of her being a jerk and increasing the negative emotions of those around her. Initially I figured this was going to be primarily comedic, with The Power of Friendship preventing the lead from fulfilling her task, but it's turned out to have a slightly meaner tone than I was expecting. For now, at least. Nothing special, but it's relatively light, has a cast consisting predominantly of cute girls and is easy to follow, so followed.
Misa-chan (one-shot)
Brief one-shot in which a mother is overly attached to her daughter. I'm aware that this is the author's debut work, but you just can't cram a story of this nature into 8 pages and expect it to have anywhere near the intended impact. Still, the grisly subject matter and art style mean that I'll be interested in anything else they produce in the future.
Date A Live vol 5-7 (LN)
I'm convinced that DaL has the finest waifus in all the world. I remember seeing art of the Yamai sisters ages ago and feeling underwhelmed, but having now been properly introduced to them, they're such selfless spirits that I can forgive their wardrobe deficiencies. Their volume was simple but sweet, in contrast to the antagonistic sibling rivalry that I was expecting following their initial exchange. I wouldn't have minded some further information about their history and 'split', but perhaps that's still to come.
The spotlight of this 2nd season belongs to Miku though. I've been wondering for years whether "Lily Miku" meant what I thought it meant, and I was pleased to discover that it did, with her arc containing more "onee-samas" than Marimite. Her desire to amass a gigantic yuri harem was truly an admirable one, and her transition from selfish sociopath to sincere singer made for the most satisfying character development / resolution so far. Add in her design + her flower gardening in the side stories and she's now vying for 2nd best girl status with Origami.
Speaking of best girls, Kurumi made her magnificent return in this arc, and proceeded not only to salvage Shidou from the depths of despair, but also to make her adversaries look utterly incompetent in the process. If I gushed about her as much as I wanted to then this post would turn into a (light) novel, so I'll settle for saying that she further cemented her position as the most intriguing character in the franchise, as well as proving herself to be a surprisingly reliable ally when the chips are down. IIRC she's absent for the next few volumes sadly.
While I've seen people complaining that that anime rushed parts of vols 6-7, the more recently released Director's Cut seems to have remedied this with its additional footage. At the very least, I didn't notice any sizeable discrepancies between it and the LN.
