Reservation! This review about Lycoris recoil may contain spoilers. If you haven’t seen the series yet, I recommend you watch it and then come back to read the review.
Lycoris recoil is an original series produced by A1-Pictures and created by Spider Lily and Asaura. It consists of thirteen episodes and is listed under the Action genre. While this can be viewed by its genre as a story focused on constant suspense and action, Lycoris recoil Go beyond that. While not listed as a different genre, this story has its own drama and if you like it comes with good fanservice for shipping too.
Unlike your first impression from your advertising image, Lycoris recoil It’s quite a dynamic story. Because the utopia guarded by schoolgirls in uniform is still an incredible premise. One that does not hesitate to put itself to the test through the different characters that they present to us. There is no doubt that listing this story in its genre as just “action” with everything it has left us falls short.
What is Lycoris Recoil about?
Thanks to the efforts of a syndicate called Direct Attack (DA), the number of terrorist attacks in Japan has never been less. This organization is tasked with raising orphaned girls as assassins to commit murder as part of their “Lycoris” program. Takina Inoue, an extraordinary Lycoris with a strong will and a penchant for perfection, loses her place at the prosecutor’s office when a hostage situation unfortunately tests her patience. In the event of insubordination, she is transferred from the DA. Dissatisfied with the loss of the only place she belonged, she reluctantly arrives at her new base of operations: LycoReco, a café in disguise.
To her surprise, her new partner turns out to be very different from what she imagined. Although Chisato Nishikigi is Lycoris’ famous child prodigy, she seems almost unconcerned about her duties. Under the simple pretext of helping people in need, he drags Takina into all sorts of odd jobs. Takina is further stunned when Chisato hunts down a group of armed assailants without killing any of them. Feeling like a fish out of water, Takina is hellbent on rejoining the DA’s office, but Chisato is determined to show her that there’s more to life than just taking it.
The Good, Build Your World:
Let’s talk about the strengths of Lycoris recoil, of which we must highlight at least three. First, the world in which the story takes place. It may seem nonsense, but it’s a fundamental reason why this story is so good. The narrative sends us into a “normal” world, but fundamentally different from the one we live in, and we find ourselves in a utopian world where evil has almost been eradicated. All this thanks to the efforts of girls in school uniforms, which are strange in themselves and very interesting as a background. The reason for this is simple, plausible or not, it’s visually appealing. Young girls in uniform, with incredible martial arts, of course we want to see more of that. And the point is, the world they’ve created allows for it, and that’s the wonder of their premise.
As the next point we can take the image of their characters. This is a continuation of the above, the appeal of their characters also lies in the construction of the world around them. It’s not uncommon to have attractive girls in anime, but here we needed them to help with the organization. Charisma is a side issue that has its place in the world they have created for them. While Takina is a cool girl who grows humanity alongside her partner, Chisato is a carefree girl with a background that makes us love her smile even more. Finally, the third point should be the shipping, the chemistry and visual appeal of our protagonists is too strong a point for the success of this series. I could include the villain as another strength, but the ending they gave it doesn’t allow me to sell it to them as good as it could be.
The bad, the lack of ambition:
All that glitters is not gold, and while this series has many strengths, it also has weaknesses. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but seriously, Lycoris recoil It lacks ambition from start to finish. His narrative was always on the weak side and his character construction was imperceptible. Let me develop that, starting with the narrative, each chapter was a self-contained story, at least it was until their final episodes that they decided to take what they had “developed” and exploit it. And that’s not a bad thing in and of itself, the terrible thing was how weak the conflict itself was, without the action scenes the stories wouldn’t have sparked much interest.
With the latter, the lack of ambition was obvious, the big final conflict makes no sense. Majima was an excellent villain until they decided he had no real motives for his actions. It wasn’t justice, it wasn’t selfishness, it was just that someone had to do it and he was already there. A better villain might have been Yoshi. Following his selfish ideals, he met his end at the hands of Mika, and that was satisfying. That was a flaw in this anime that made us empathize with Majima as the villain, when the real villain was Yoshi, and not because he made Chisato suffer, but because he had a real motivation for his actions. A selfish villain is always better than an unmotivated villain.
Finally, the saddest thing about all of this is that we have amazing characters in this series, but the only one who had any kind of character development was Takina. And believe me, I get it, there are only a few chapters and the personalities were already marked quite a bit to give each one a variety. But I was hoping there would be more characters, not just Takina. Well, Mika has a point in it because she likes to fill it with secrets until the end.
Final comment
Lycoris recoil It’s an anime with great visuals and an animation quality that allows us to enjoy incredible battles. Although its story is superficial and it loses points in character development, that doesn’t make it a bad anime at all. In his simple approach to his own premise, what sets him apart is how easy it is for him to follow his own rhythm. This isn’t a tangled story with difficult internal conflicts, but it’s not a simple girls’ comedy in a cafe either. The action is its strength, but so is the chemistry between its protagonists. It’s contradictory, but this isn’t a simple story, while it’s not complicated either, it’s excellent for enjoying a good afternoon when you want some action without getting too complicated.
To continue with the custom, and to close with it, all that remains is to give it a mark, well, for me this anime is an 84/100. I really think it’s an excellent anime, but I was a bit annoyed that its story is so empty. Despite what I can’t help but want more from this series, I have faith that there can be greater development of both the plot and the characters if they’re given more screen time.
Anyway, those were my impressions of this anime, now tell me: what do you think of this story? What’s your opinion on the story? Do you think we can wait for a sequel soon? And for those who have not yet seen it, I invite you to try it because without a doubt this is one of the jewels that the 2022 summer season has left us.
