Lycoris Recoil

Lycoris Recoil is and anime that is prioritizing action and characters over a story and while there is nothing wrong with this approach, it still requires at least a bearable story which won't distract us with its flaws. Let's start with what this series does best which is characters, main cast is good. Colourful personalities and good interactions are the biggest strength of this anime. Antagonists while having flaws which I will discuss later, are made to challenge the ideas and motivations of our protagonist. We also see some growth in the side characters which was satisfying. High quality of production makes this show even nicerto watch. Animation is pretty soundtrack was ok and scenes of action had good choreography. Unfortunately while speaking about action it is important to bring up plot armour, which is big in this anime. As we are dealing with shootouts the aim in them depends on what story is demanding. If someone has to escape or live then its a series of misses, even if skilled shooters are involved. We need to get rid of cannon fodder? Then every shot lands. This is a big problem for me. Not only it is obvious what the authors are doing, pulling me out of the fight, but it also sucks all of the stakes out of the fight. Now to the main complaint, the story. Whole plot is depending on antagonists with stupid/generic motivations and on the most brain dead mob in the history of anime. The things that happen in the last episodes made me suffer a headache. We also need to deal with a hole lot of plot convenience in this show. At one point protagonists literally forgot about the main antagonist. Even worse Lycoris Recoil has an accidental strong pro censorship message. With how stupid the masses are and how quickly they descend into chaos in face of truth you start to think that it's better to keep those sheep in the dark. The fact that show presents undercover secret organization so simplistically is hurtful. To sum it up Lycoris Recoil presents you with great characters and nice, mindless action. Whether you will enjoy it or not depends greatly on how much weak plot can bother you. If like me you get bothered by those types of stories, don't watch it. Otherwise feel free to try it out, characters might make it worth it.

Sigh, tricked by the score. Here I thought it was something special because of how much attention it has clearly been getting. It was a bit painful to watch this trainwreck right from episode 1. Don't get me wrong, the animation quality, sound, VA wasn't bad at all. It was great. The problem is the story, seemingly a lot of people think that cute girls and action can justify such horrible writing. This anime is a mish-mash of clichés, cute girls doing cute things, stupidly illogical gunfights and one of the worst secretive organizations I've ever had the displeasure to be exposed to. It's idiotic on somany levels. We have the secretive organization that trains orphaned kids so that we can have high school/middle school girls(for some reason pretty much exclusively cute girls) running around with guns while using school uniforms and skirts while fighting crimes to pretend to be a part of the public. Oh, and of course they all use the same uniform all the time outside, as if to scream at enemies to attack them, so much for secrecy. These girls actively kill terrorists everywhere and "make japan safe and peaceful". I guess guys just aren't cut out for this(though the male version does show up in a minor version in an antagonistic fashion, they're still just kids though, stupid that there's an all female and an all male faction). Also, I guess immature kids in the midst of their teens(or preteens) are so damn well suited to special ops, they're not even well disciplined. Also, I guess adults just aren't fit for this either, gotta have cute, below 18 females, can't have any guys that aren't old and not a possible target for romance. This secretive organization is also so high-profile that there's no way it'd be a secret, it's run as if the leaders have shit for brains. There's clearly no proper structure. Then, of course, the super hacker, the best in the world, is a cute little loli that appears 10-12. I was of the impression from the dialogue that this person was present since long ago but I guess not, her reputation is insane, maybe she started using her laptop to hack stuff while in her mother's womb. Overall, she just acts like a typical cliché loli, except she's "sooo smart and collected". As usual the "hacking" is her playing it like it's a game, literally, even including game graphics and mechanics. photo analystics are 1 button auto, she can get everything she wants easily. Not a smidgen of realism. The other girls also act like typical high school girls in anime. Honestly, I can't stand the two main character girls. The black haired one show barely any emotions and is so stuck in her ways and inflexible it just makes her boring. The other platinum/blonde haired girl is the COMPLETE opposite. She's so high paced, hyper and my paced that she makes someone with actual ADHD look very normal and calm. I really dislike her moronic outbursts, extremely exaggerated expressions and gestures and I also hate that she refuses to kill people despite the kind of organization she is in and how dangerous the situations are, nothing more moronic than using non-lethal means that doesn't even knockout people properly, she's basically she's bringing a banana to a knifefight. Another thing about her, I just don't buy her ability to 100% avoid any and all bullets. Even rapid fire is avoided like it's nothing. I can kinda buy avoiding slow handgun fire by predicting the trajectory from the barrel position and hand movement, but what she is doing is a pure supernatural ability and that doesn't even explain how she can avoid strafing fire where there's no room to evade... These character templates aren't too bad normally, but the issue is that they're trying to bring seriousness into what is clearly a cute girls doing cute things anime. They fit more into a school setting. I've rarely seen animes that are so bad that I just feel the desire to drop them all the time. Anime that suck from the first few minutes all the all the way to the end. I fail to see what the hype was about. This is just plain bad, the 3/10 rating is just for the good animation/VA/Sound. I regret watching this.

TL;DR first for those who don't want to read the whole rant (I understand, I wouldn't either): The show's production quality is top-notch. Top-tier animation, top tier action scenes, top-tier designs, STELLAR voice acting. HOWEVER, beneath that and except a few neat details, it's full of obnoxious characters, bullshit situations and plot holes. But apparently it seems like I'm more or less the only one bothered by that so you can give it a try I guess, at least it looks great. Onto the rant. (I'll give a warning for spoilers) You know, a wise vtuber said someday that recommending anime is hard, because every anime hassome amount of anime bullshit and it's hard to know what someone's threshold for specific types of anime bullshit is unless you know them extremely well. And, well, I feel like LycoReco is the embodiment of that. On the surface it's a great looking and sounding show, but... little girls with guns? Seriously? AGAIN? When did it become a normal trope exactly? Ok, to be honest this is the least of my problems, even though I still find this out of place in the scenario of a show that takes itself relatively seriously. But it is an example of what LycoReco is riddled with: a lot of dumb stuff, some being in the category of anime bullshit that make me sigh but am somewhat used to, some that are a testament to bad writing and some that just plot holes, plain and simple (I listed examples of what I'm talking about in the end to prove I'm not talking out of my ass, but spoiler warning of course). Some people (most, it would seem) would be of the opinion that I am nitpicking. I like to think of myself as a fairly open person though, without to much issue with suspension of disbelief, but this show is asking too much of me. Because I on the other hand, fail to understand how it is so unconditionally loved, and why people defend it so vehemently. And it is a shame, really, because it has been crafted with genuine love, care and passion, treats progressive subjects with refreshing subtlety and god do I love Chisato's VA soooo much, but behind this is a barely believable story pushed by poorly written characters. I did still finish it, 'cause it's visually beautiful and it wouldn't feel right writing a review without knowing completely what I'm talking about. I wrote this on ep 12, and then ep 13 came and just confirmed all of my feelings and then some, leading me to downgrade my score from 6 to 5 SPOILERS AHEAD for examples of stuff that violently rustle my jimmies about this show: For anime bullshit, I'm talking about how the Japanese government had no issue in creating an anti-terrorist division exclusively comprised of schoolgirls (WITH A DISTINCTIVE UNIFORM), how the best hacker in the world is a loli or how boyish underwear triggers a diplomatic incident. For bad writing I'm thinking about how utterly incompetent the Lycoris organisation leader Kusunoki is, several times, without a single time doing anything to learn from her mistakes, how Robota is a painfully obnoxious ass every time he's on screen or how Yoshimatsu Shinji that huge bag of ass just decided out of nowhere that Chisato's talent is about killing, when it's merely about fucking dodging bullets and NOBODY HAD ANYTHING TO SAY TO HIM. And finally for plot holes I cannot help but wonder how Chisato shoots bullets that go through car doors like butter but are somehow non-lethal at point blank, how she dodges shots while hanging by one arm perfectly still, how a medical institution for a secret organisation just lets new hires examine agents on their first week without supervision. And I am not exhaustive, but I'll stop here.

Mother's Basement: "John Wick, But Make it Anime", where Geoff Thew embraces the "stupid awesome" John Wick-like vitality of the anime. The Canipa Effect: "Lycoris Recoil is an Ideal Original Anime", where Callum May highlights the production team behind Lycoris Recoil to see what makes an ideal original anime. Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear: "I stumbled upon Lycoris Recoil by accident, AND I LOVED IT." The show's title being accidentally discovered, that's reminiscent of the critically acclaimed 2021 film "Licorice Pizza" (“Licorice” and “Lycoris” are spelled identically in Japanese: リコリス in Katakana) while actually searching on Amazon Prime for the multiple Academy Award-winning film CODA. Toonly then read the synopsis about a girl working in a cafe with a license to kill, and thinking to himself if this is typical of Japanese anime standards, by which at that time, he already surpassed the 3-episode rule and was catching onto Episode 4 (where it was the now-iconic episode with the pair of boxers and the aquarium "date" with Takina's fish-posing "Sakana"), and made him remember when was the last time he went to an aquarium. In the end to finally close out, saying that he's definitely watching the rest of the show going forward. He's even now endorsing the anime's LN spin-off Lycoris Recoil: Ordinary Days (which has just recently released in Japan), commenting that: “I’ll Recoil my Lyco-like genes!“ These are just some YouTube videos and a Twitter tweet that have been making the scenes since Lycoris Recoil came out, and it's safe to say that in a sequel-heavy season that's full of long-awaited classics returning years after their original seasons first came out (only two are better but the rest are duds), this has been the anime, and I mean THE anime that has consistently charted as a top show of the season. Yes, that sequel gold medal belongs to the 2nd season of Made in Abyss: Retsujitsu no Ougonkyou a.k.a The Golden City of the Scorching Sun, but I'd argue to say that LycoReco (the show's title shortened for speakeasy) makes it on par being the show that's a no-brainer competition for Summer 2022's AOTS (and objectively AOTY masterpiece material). The 1st secret to LycoReco's wild, immense popularity and success is a great story and premise. And to put it simply, there is just no equal against LycoReco's setting, thanks in part to Asaura, the mangaka of Ben-To, and to date, his only reputation work that got a decent anime adaptation courtesy of David Production more than a decade ago. And as one such reviewer put it: "Ben-To is philosophy. Ben-To is art. Ben-To is everything, but bad for your health." Ben-To (that's a moniker for the iconic Japanese Bento food box) features an all-out action about a male MC and girls fighting to do whatever it takes to buy unsold bento boxes at discounted prices, and friend or foe, this battle fighting for honor, pride and dinner, there's only winners and losers in this frantic battle and the learning point of what it truly means to fight for food. Now take a look at LycoReco, and it's just about the same, or dare I say it's even better featuring Hideo Kojima's reminiscent Metal Gear trademarks of stealth and anti-terrorism themes about a secret organization/agency ("DA", Direct Attack) that keeps its setting of Japan crime-free that's doing a better job than the typical municipal police corporation, with their agents being girls that are orphaned and trained to their standards, giving them the "Lycoris" badge trademark that certifies them, that like a fire that should be put out immediately, to carry out assassinations with none the wiser. All of this is naturally made like cover-ups so as to not spread fear to the public and keep Japan safe and sound, but it also begets those in full rebellion over this top-secret "spy" agency to by hook or by crook, expose DA for their "nonchalant" claims about a "safe" Japan that isn't much discussed about until being made publicly with their terrorism acts. It's definitely a neck-and-neck experience of asking yourself: "Which side should I side on: the people working behind the scenes that I do not see even if they are perfectly camouflaged within the everyday groups of civilians, or the people inflicting and causing damages just so they could give a spotlight to those that have been working for their own purposes?" And regardless of what you think about both sides, they are both legitimate to exercise their own duty to preserve both peace and conflict respectively, no matter what it takes to brandish a whole new Japan according to their rules. And this honestly, just throws Ben-To's source material out of the wall, and Asaura may have found his one and only prized possession instead, 11 years after Ben-To came out for everyone to spike LycoReco with over-the-top (and moon), notched-up greatness. The 2nd secret to LycoReco's wild, immense popularity and success is endearing and beloved characters, with the designs provided by Imigimuru, the mangaka of one of my all-time favorite manga: Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru! (KonoBi) a.k.a This Art Club Has a Problem! At the start of the show, we are presented with Takina Inoue: an accomplished DA agent, whom amidst her serious and confident spirit, only demands perfection with her immense skills, and will constantly step in to finish the missions as a lonewolf. But when something like an extermination of enemies that's all in a state to save her teammate goes awry, she indiscriminately put everyone's lives on stake, that ultimately resulted in her immediate dismissal for neglect of duty. Down but not out, DA's Commander Kusunoki sentenced her to work at LycoReco, which looking from the outside, does look like a typical-looking cafe. But inside it, is another working branch of DA that houses the following: the Afro-American manager Mika, the typical worker Mizuki Nakahara, the skilled hacker Kurumi (also known by her codename "Walnut") and the lovable GOAT that is Chisato Nishikigi. LycoReco's manager Mika is a former DA instructor who left the agency for his own reasons, and this is in effect thanks to the other entity that would come to be known as the Alan Institute, an institution that conducts experiments to eke out only the best and greatest people that are worthy of its name. So, think of this as something very similar to You-Zitsu a.k.a Classroom of the Elite's "White Room" of sorts. Together with the cafe's regular customer that is Shinji Yoshimatsu, both men and Chisato share a bond that would help the latter to grow into the fine assassin that she is now, though their initial promise is to make Chisato as a mass weapon of destruction that Mika backed out of due to his change of heart. The cafe's worker Mizuki, she's just your typical lazy bum, but it's not like she's the average character, NOPE. Not at all. Instead, Mizuki is a fun addition to LycoReco's crew being all that "extravagant" of wanting to live the life of a married woman and not a spinster, even going as far as to get a job at DA in the hopes of getting married. But in all honesty, Mizuki's unmarried gag punchline is just as wholesome as it is hilarious to watch being everyone's joker that at times, excel at what she does and helps with the crew as much as possible. Kurumi or "Walnut" on the other hand, she is a reliable lonewolf hacker whom was once responsible for hacking on DA's AI system Radiata (which is known as Lycoris radiata a.k.a (Red) Spider Lily, which its name is credited as the anime's original work), but due to competition, risks her life to request asylum to be transferred to LycoReco at the cusp of her killing, initiated by yet another rival hacker, the Alan Institute's robot-shaped headgear worn Robota. Both her and Robota are great hackers in their own right, but they operate on both extreme ends in the typical fight against good and evil. That brings us all to the GGOAT/GWOAT (that stands for Greatest Girl/Woman of All Time) that is Chisato Nishikigi. Chisato is in all essence, why LycoReco works as a show; as a concept; as one that has consistently wowed us and putting a showstopper for all the world to see; and definitely one that has earned its immense praises globally. Starting off with her origins in DA, Chisato is known as the agency's most prized possession, the greatest agent in its history to date. Due to her upbringing thanks to both Mika and Yoshimatsu in the Alan Institute, Chisato is to the point of being a "superhuman", where her point-blank range bullet dodging is her most signature trademark, and instead of real firearms, she uses rubber bullets so as not to carelessly take a life and call it a day. There are more mysteries to Chisato, but one that must be spoken is her familiarity with LycoReco's antagonist character: Majima. Unlike Chisato siding on the terms of the good, Majima is just straight-out a villain that's akin to MHA's Tomura Shigaraki, one that's hell-bent on exposing DA to the ends of the earth, no matter the terrorist stunts, and certainly no matter the cartilage and damages done just to get his point across to seek for a "balance" in an otherwise artificial-looking peacekeeping world. And like "Walnut" Kurumi working for LycoReco, his backup helper is Robota, so both sides are equally matched when it comes to technical prowess. But most importantly (and THIS is the CRUX of the show), you can't have LycoReco with Chisato alone being the front girl always at their service. That is where Takina comes in after Commander Kusunoki's dismissal command, and at first glance, the disparity between the playful and the serious creates an inner conflict that the former cannot get rid of due to her stubbornness and unwillingness to compromise. Overtime, Takina slowly grows used to LycoReco's business as both the alternate DA branch's forward and as a cafe itself, selling both Western and Japanese sweets to the unassuming public. This fresh take for Takina also provides immense character development to Chisato, that instead of being an ill-bred infectious rodent thanks to her teammates Fuki Harukawa and Sakura Otome (former team leader and replacement respectively), she subsequently gave in to Chisato's whims, and slowly and surely, Takina has become the "Yuri-like" character that's a perfect complement to Chisato, going from being hated to being just as lovable as the former. Honestly, say what you will about the Yuri-ness of Chisato and Takina's relationship, but they're like a dream team that was born out of a necessity. It's just a case of a flawless execution. The 3rd secret to LycoReco's wild, immense popularity and success is the amazing production that's featured in the show thanks to A-1 Pictures, really giving it their A-1 grade trademark. And this is a bit of a wild story, as when Asaura's former editor-in-charge had a meeting about SaeKano with Shinichiro Kashiwada (studio producer, that we would come to know of as the other A-1 Pictures original anime "Engage Kiss" also airing on Saturday), he talked about Asaura's works, "This guy is yabai (crazy)." He (former editor-in-charge) then introduced Asaura to Kashiwada, which the former later received an invitation of a new anime project, being that the latter had read his 2013 LN Death Need Round (the 2nd most popular after Ben-To) which is a "girls with guns" work. Asaura therefore decided to include guns in the new story, created the main characters and the world view, with some deliverables including the synopsis and a few short novels. But this is not all, for the replication to real-world scenes is also what makes LycoReco interesting, such as the case of some scenes taking place in Sumida, Tokyo and featuring Kinshicho Park, Sumida Aquarium, the water bus on Sumida River, aerial view of Ryōgoku, etc. It's this attention to detail that also makes the show stand out. But in the midst of crunch time, it's the staff team that could only make all of this possible, and this is wired down from the hands of one Shingo Adachi, who is making his directional debut after working as both character designer and chief animation director of the Working!! series and his most recent work of SAO: Alicization and Ordinal Scale. And truthfully, Shingo Adachi got all the bang for his buck, and definitely even more for the outta-the-wazoo ridiculousness that is LycoReco, yet is also much subtle and provides the kick and depth of flavour that you can only wish to see in high-quality anime production. And beneath him, you also cannot discount the efforts from chief ADs Yukari Takeuchi, Go Suzuki and regular AD Tetsuya Takeuchi. It's just that amazing to finally watch an anime that feels like not a minute, or rather a single second that's bound to be wasted because of filler padding. Everything works for its purpose, and Shingo Adachi's production team really knocked it out of the park to the point of a Home Run. The 4th and final secret to LycoReco's wild, immense popularity and success is the music, and I shouldn't really miss this out, the VA performance as well. Chika Anzaias Chisato (Hibike! Euphonium's Reina Kousaka or even Grand Blue's Best Girl Chisa Kotegawa) and Shion Wakayama as Takina (Takt Op. Destiny's Destiny), you couldn't have asked for a phenomenal job for these VAs' dedication to their craft. And this is especially for the latter: Shion Wakayama, despite being a rookie VA for 3 years at this point, other than her voice that sounds a lot like Ayana Taketatsu or even Ayane Sakura a.k.a AyaNeru, she gave it her all, and that reward is trickled down towards the audience for her spectacular vocals that both drives Takina's cutesy and overwhelmingly stern traits that are perfect contrasts to her double-sided character (the now-iconic Episode 4's "Sakanaaa" is one of them). While this is only the 2nd work for music composer Shuhei Mutsuki, it's sound director Kohei Yoshida (also on his 2nd work, the 1st of which did one of the modern anime greats that is my 2022 AOTY Odd Taxi) that does all the directing to sound like as Geoff Thew puts it: "John Wick, But Make it Anime". Also, it's finally great to have ClariS and Sayuri come back for the OST, especially ClariS because much of their work has only been Hataraku Saibou! and the Madoka Magica spin-off that is Magia Record for the past 4 years. Together with Shadows House Season 2's ED, I'd think that their OP "Alive" is a great return to form as one of the great Anisong artists, and one of (if not) the best OP of the season, hands down. Same with Sayuri's ED, this is what I was expecting of this now famous Anisong artist. Also, if you haven't caught on yet, the cute kicking scene between Chisato and Takina in the OP is actually a reference to Rob Reiner's 1986 film Stand By Me, which is the adaptation of Stephen King's 1982 book novel The Body and Ben E. King's 1961 song of the same name. It's certainly NO coincidence as both the film and song are timeless classics, and one would assume that Asaura and the folks at A-1 Pictures were looking for 80's and 90's action movies to get ideas from, and probably have watched this classic to make this reference. Nevertheless, it's a small detail, but one that has come to be endeared (including myself) by the hearts of the many as being one of the many icons of LycoReco. All of these that I've mentioned sounds like an endless exposition of Lycoris Recoil. But, you can't take away that absurd feeling knowing that newbies like Shingo Adachi (directorial debut), Imigimuru (character designer debut), Shion Wakayama (3 years of VA-ing), Shuhei Mitsuki and Kohei Yoshida (music composer/director), and everybody that deserves to be mentioned are now paving the way for new innovative and creative originals for all of the world to take note of and watch, because this is absolutely bonkers that such a team that's going out of their comfort zone to concoct such a work is just mind-baffling. And especially for originals where there 99% of the time is a one-and-done story with no sequel to boot, it's a huge risk. But Shingo Adachi had one thing going for him: trust. A trust that his team is able to pull off whatever the show has its semblances in from the all-out action to its symbolism of the Spider Lily. And it did deliver to the highest and rock-solid pedigree that is on par with Made in Abyss's 2nd season as its equal sequel counterpart. Seriously, we all thank you: Asaura, Imigimuru, Shingo Adachi, and all the others for creating this great show. To reinistate the whole point again: Lycoris Recoil is like what Geoff Thew calls it "John Wick-like stupid awesome"; Callum May praises it for being "an Ideal Original Anime"; and Hideo Kojima burning his money for something that he would not have picked up if it was just a mere coincidence, to being an immense, hardcore fan that's sharing all the love to other fans that's all the rage now in Japan. And to me? This is THE Odd Taxi of 2022 (despite having some problems with it that keep it being being a masterpiece). Sure, you have Chainsaw Man coming next season, but right now, it's undoubtedly THE Anime of the Season and Year to beat. And originals going forward can't get much better than this (or is it?). This (like Odd Taxi) are definitely the Holy Grails of original anime, one that's creative enough to leave a mark, and we all now bear that Lycoris badge to signify our earnest loyalty to LycoReco. Lycoris Recoil is what we aspire to see of original anime, it's a passion project that has effort put in that feels like it delivered, and then some. Really wonderful and beautiful, one hell of a job well done.