Assault Lily: Bouquet

Assault Lily Bouquet is an enjoyable story, but its enjoyment could run hollow.

The story follows Riri Hitotsuyanagi, a new "Lily" student that joined the school to follow the person that saved her, Yuyu Shirai. However, the story is more complicated than that; we need to understand the concept of Lily, Charm, Huge, Garden, Rare Skill, Legions, Schutzangel, and that part is where the plot becomes messy.

One of the most significant flaws in the series is the amount of information handled during the plot. These defects not only creates chaos, but they also affect the story with unnecessary threads. We can appreciate these defects with the characters. They keep introducing characters every time without a proper background or need. I have been trying to find a good explanation, and my conclusion is Assault Lily Bouquet is just a prelude that introduces the setting of the incoming game that will be launch in January 2021. That reason explains the need to add condensed information in only twelve episodes. Despite these problems, the series can be enjoyable if you spend some time understanding the plot.

On the other hand, the best, most exciting, and most poetic part of Assault Lily Bouquet the one section where Yuyu's feelings and her craziness side collides, leading to a fight toward artistry instead of just settling for commerce. The rest of this messy "prelude" is almost all commerce (fan service, unconcluded plot, etc) focused on the future game. As a positive part, how Yuyu's controlled her madness, the mystery surrounding her, and her relation with Riri kept me watching the story. The darkness developed in this part of the story is acceptable and at least worth the time. Meanwhile, additional information is misplaced. For example, Yuri's introduction could have been handled better, and there are several enigmas around her.

Still, Assault Lily Bouquet does a moderately good job building an intriguing plot and an acceptable mystery. Some of the visuals are quite lovely: The characters' design, some charms ideas, the backgrounds were the plot reaches the climax. Also, the sound is acceptable, has a score that does the job, and I cannot forget about the OP, Sacred World, which is excellent with good composition and rhythm.

Finally, we like to compare this series with Granblem, Madoka, etc., and it could be a mistake. We should try to understand the plot elements and enjoy the relationship between Yuyu and Riri and how they work their problems to enjoy the story and avoid comparing with different franchises that will always lead to differences and discrepancy. Overall, Yuyu's main plot is good and will be worth your time, and why not? It will help you to decide if the future game is worth your time.

Facts:
Is this series popular? To date, the series is 18 on the Japanese TV ranking, and that isn't an awful position for a series that several viewers are considering a piece of garbage. On the other hand, Tonikaku Kawaii ended in place 24. (These aren't the final season position yet, but I made my point)

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Assault Lilly was a great ride from beginning to end, and was in my opinion, one of the sleeper hits of the season.

Based on the dolls of the same name, Assault Lilly brought to characters from the toy line in the setting of a magical girls school to train girls to fight monsters. Basic premise, but really fun execution in my opinion. As a fan of Mahou Shoujo and general CGDCT, I thought Assault Lilly was another good addition to the genre. While the plot is not outstanding, it was well written enough for me to grow to love the girls, empathise with them when they went through adversity and care about their development.

I’m a simple man to please, so cute girls/waifus plus action, drama and yuri undertones are more than enough to satisfy me. If you’re looking for a really fleshed out story and world, you won’t find that in Assault Lilly. It’s very obvious that it was made to promote the toy line. That’s ok in my opinion, not everything has to be Homer or Socrates to be enjoyable. For what it is, Assault Lilly is great.

My only real gripe about the series is the CGI. SHAFT do their usual job with the art, direction and everything else, but CGI was pretty subpar in this show in my opinion. I don’t think it’s a distraction, but it was definitely really noticeable in action sequences. Other than that, SHAFT did a great job as usual.

With enjoyable characters, cute moments, action and enough thighs to satisfy the horniest of us, Assault Lilly was a thoroughly memorable experience and I will certainly miss it. Assault Lilly gets 10 thighs out of 10.

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I'd be honest, I didn't have any expectations when I started watching this. For me it was another side series done by Shaft. The show delivered what it promised from the first few episodes (i.e. thighs). The story isn't anything mind blowing, but I didn't expect it to have it in the first place. But the way it's presented will sure make you curious, and raise some questions, and make you think. If you don't want to think much, you'll still find it enjoyable. The art and animation is great, and Shaft has made a good use of 3DCG. I love the opening song, the characters are funny and you'll remember their personalities and faces, not necessarily their names.
There are so many characters and you'll see people complain about it, but you don't have to focus on them. They are not the main focus of the story but still if you're interested about them, you'll find something about them on the internet and the upcoming game. The show has its fun movement, sad moments and you'll see the main characters developed a lot by the end of the first season.
The show is Yuri, Action, Thighs, Bath Scenes. No nudity or anything inappropriate though. There's handholding if you consider that lewd. Those are the selling points of the show. If you hate such type of material, honestly you're not going to like it. But still if you watch it and then complain about a not so original and average story, it's your fault. Watch it for great visuals, Shaft, and everything else I mentioned above. The show is nowhere near the other great works by Shaft, but the world it’s set in has potential. If I have to compare it with something, I’ll compare it Symphogear series. So if you like that, you’ll probably like this more.

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“In the midst of death, life persists.
In the midst of untruth, truth persists.
In the midst of darkness, light persists.” - Mahatma Gandhi

(At a pre-production introduction meeting in Shaft's HQ)
Bushiroad: Greetings, we're here to promote our newest toy line of figurines made by Azone International, it's called: Assault Lily and Custom Lily. Combine girlish youthful heroes termed "Lilies", with their powers of "Rare Skill: Magie" charging anti-weapons called "CHARM (Counter Huge ARMs)" and fighting against monstrous monsters called "Huge". In addition, we also have a mobile game coming up soon and really stretched of resources, is there any way that you can help us make this advertisement grow?

Series Director Shouji Saeki: We can help think and pen down a fictional story based on your synopsis alone. Oh, and by the way, you have come to the correct studio to discuss this project! WHY? We embrace our signature "magical girls gone heavily dark" scenario (popularized by Madoka Magica), the ever-so-popular THICC thigh angle shots (for some sweet-ass thirsty fanservice) and strong Yuri/death-bait undertones. And while at it, let's create a "sanctuary" for them (Yurigaoka "Garden" Academy training school) to enjoy some CGDCT elements of fun and protect one another, because it's the power of lesbian love! ALL HAIL YURI (self-insert for jokes xD)

With that, Assault Lily: Bouquet is established, and that's all you're required to know watching this show. exact to the T. Just great, and who cares about the off-throwing terms of Schutzengel, Schild, Charismas and Rare Skills anyways...

“Though lovers be lost, love shall not.” - Dylan Thomas

If the story plot doesn't hook you, then the characters will, starting from the first-year MCs of a new-gen Lilies Legion:
- Riri Hitotsuyanagi, the energetic and motivational pink-haired protagonist leader, and writhe with a "saviour complex" after being saved by another girl:
- Yuyu Shirai, the dark-haired idolized sophomore of the Academy, and simultaneously a broken-hearted wreck of a lone wolf deuteragonist (due to her past). Easy complications molded her to take up the tutelage of Riri, establishing a contract between both of them in the form of Schutzengel and Schild (think of it like a parent-child relationship).
- Kaede J. (Johan) Nouvel, a French girl whose family is the forefront manufacturer of the CHARM weapons. She's always envious of all the developing Yuri relationships and attempts to be the butt of all jokes. Of all the girls in the team, I genuinely love her "intimidating" character personality a lot, no joke about that!
- Fumi Futagawa, the obsessed otaku of the Academy, if you have a question about Lilies, she's the go-to girl to watch out for.
- Tazusa Andou, the alienating character when it comes to trust conflicts and the experimentation of her abilities as a "Boosted Lily", creating the harsh and taxing people-growth.
- Mai Thi Yoshimura, a Vietnamese easy-going girl with a vibrant personality. Just don't troll her with tenacious trainings.
- Kuo Shenlin, a Taiwanese girl who is kind to others and looks out for people, mainly her friend:
- Wang Yujia, a Chinese girl whom is an introvert and needs reliance on people on the emotional front.
- Miriam Hildegard von Gropius (just call her Gropi), a German girl whose genius status is unrivalled, but the same can be said for her extreme game addiction, much less a troublemaker.
- Finally, the temporary member Yuri (I won't reveal how her name came about), made from a mix of both human and Huge DNA, though showing exemplary abilities of an Artificial Lily (while she lasted).

Overall, not to worry if you forget who they are, because their names pop up ALL THE TIME to get you "invested" into their generic quirky character dynamics that make up the Hitotsuyanagi Team. Plus the other characters (of which I'll not mention because of the sheer number of them all), it paints both a fun and grim dramatic picture of relations that both explains and answers the only question: "Who and what are you fighting for?" It isn't a clear-cut case of just fighting against monsters, that's the very obvious-but-cliché part, and you can fill in the blanks of close speculation to accurate depiction of how all of this'll unfold.

“The bitterest tears shed over graves, are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” - Harriet Beecher Stowe

And since it's Shaft, in the 10 years (from the time of this review) ever since Madoka Magica came out, it has been the only studio to start the "magical girls gone heavily dark" craze structure right, and then seemingly just gave up its strong foothold altogether with the spin-off Magia Record. Since then and in-between, many others have tried to replicate the structure (see Yuuki Yuuna, Mahou Shoujo Raising Project, Granbelm among few others) to differentiating results of success. Assault Lily: Bouquet is no different, and the visual (both art and animation) style is almost symmetrical of the dark fantasy genre on both its setting and character designs, yet asymmetrical when it comes to everything else. This makes me wonder if the director's future work (of Luminous Witches) will have a direct copy-and-paste feature.

“Analysis of death is not for the sake of becoming fearful, but to appreciate this precious lifetime.” - Dalai Lama

The sound design and music though is really good, and sadly the only area where I can praise in a sea of "obligatory" originality. I already know that RAISE A SUILEN has a monstrous fanbase in Japan (because of their BanG Dream!! foundations), and barring the Cardfight!! Vanguard theme songs, this is the all-female group's 1st ever theme song to hit mainstream anime, and NGL, it's a banger song to start the show alright. The Hitotsuyanagi Legion team of VAs coming back for the ED and it's a visual showcase of death flags here and there (along with some sweet Yuri, DUH).

“In life, we weep at the thought of death. In death, perhaps we weep at the thought of life.” - Marilyn Monroe

As a whole, Assault Lily: Bouquet does only one thing right: add a number onto the onslaught of dark magical fantasy genre-based shows. Even if coupled with some decent action, this is still pretty tame by Madoka Magica standards, and the willingness of Shouji Saeki to even try is an admiration in itself, but I wouldn't push past against it. A mediocre-to-fine show if I can call it best, in an otherwise great effort of advertisement to potential fans that'll fap at anything Yuri-related.

Ending this review on a positive note:
“I joyfully await the exit – and I hope never to return.” - Frida Kahlo

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