Lycoris Recoil

The number of terrorist acts in Japan has never been lower, thanks to the efforts of a syndicate called Direct Attack (DA). The organization raises orphaned girls as killers to carry out assassinations under their "Lycoris" program. Takina Inoue is an exceptional Lycoris with a strong sense of purpose and a penchant for perfection. Unfortunately, a hostage situation tests her patience, and the resulting act of insubordination leads to her transfer out of DA. Not thrilled about losing the only place she belonged to, she reluctantly arrives at her new base of operations—LycoReco, a cafe in disguise.

Takina's new partner, however, turns out to be quite different from what she imagined. Despite being the famed Lycoris prodigy, Chisato Nishikigi appears almost unconcerned with her duties. She drags Takina along on all kinds of odd jobs under the simple explanation of helping people in need. Takina is even more puzzled when Chisato takes down a group of armed assailants without killing any of them. Feeling like a fish out of water, Takina itches to get reinstated into DA—but Chisato is determined to prove to her that there is more to a life than just taking them.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nishikigi, Chisato Main

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Inoue, Takina Main

Wakayama, Shion Japanese

Kurumi Supporting

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Majima Supporting

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Nakahara, Mizuki Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Mika Supporting

Sakaki, Kousuke Japanese

Harukawa, Fuki Supporting

Kawase, Maki Japanese

Otome, Sakura Supporting

Koichi, Makoto Japanese

Janome, Erika Supporting

Yagami, Yuka Japanese

Himegama Supporting

Ootani, Satomi Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Jinguuji, Manabu Producer

Yoshida, Yoshihiro Producer

Masaki, Miyu Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jun 16, 2025

elite_aiyaan

Recommended

A goddam masterpiece. That's what it is. Lycoris Recoil isn't just cute anime girls using guns. It's a deep political action thriller and I love it for that. It isn't afraid to go dark, to the very depths of ethics and humanity to look itself in the mirror and ask the hard questions. There's no such thing as peace without evil, and a balance is always required. Peace without Evil is just Delusion.
There's Lycoris, cute lil school girls clearing out "evil" without anyone knowing for the greater good. Lycoris flower, or Red Spider Lily as it's more commonly known, is a symbol usually associated with ... death, so poetic af.
Then there's the DA, the organization that handles all the dirty work with Lycoris. Let me say, Companies, no matter doing how noble of a work, getting their workers in trouble who actually do all the work, to save their own ass in name of "Greater good" is absolute bullshit. You're taking cute lil orphan girls and making them killers, which many times results in them dying before they even become physically or emotionally mature. Don't tell me they're mature, they're brainwashed. All of them. They don't know the world they're trying to protect.
Chisato is my favourite character here, a ray of sunshine in this abyss. She's the one who chooses rubber bullets in a world of Nuclear Missiles, and still wins.
Then there's Yoshi and the mysterious Alan Institute, grooming geniuses in various fields. Yoshi is one of the better villains I've seen in recent times, but alas he was outshined but someone from the same series.
Majima the MAN. Not just an evil incarnate. I mean he does kill innocent people. He's obviously evil. But the way he's after Alan Institute and DA? Bro knows what he's doing. He isn't just sake for evil. An ideology for change. That's what he has.
Real peace can never come from covering up evil and making people believe it doesn't exist. Ignorance is NEVER a bliss. It's hell. Real peace comes from understanding evil and empathizing with it, not trying to eradicate every time it shows itself. Coz that's impossible.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 25, 2025

walshc25

Mixed Feelings

Wasn't going to write a review on this, but I figured I should type out something quickly.

Despite the constant statements of shippers online, this isn't a yuri anime. The two main characters aren't physically affectionate at all, and merely have a close friendship. There isn't even any sexual tension. People on the internet will turn any same-sex friendship into boys love or girls love these days it seems.

That has nothing to do with the rating though, it's a show that does somethings right and somethings wrong. The villains are interesting, there's basically 3 of them and have their own motivations that sometimes ... come in conflict with each other. The story is somewhat captivating and I liked Chisato, her ability and the story around her. It made for an enjoyable watch.

The things they got wrong though are difficult to overlook. Lycoris' purpose isn't questioned. It's methods of using high school aged girls as assassins seems ridiculous. The protags are mostly all female while the villains are mostly all male, which while I'm not demanding a 50/50 split, does seem a bit out of place. I didn't really like the slice of life moments, I kind of found them to be pretty run of the mill and a bit like padding from the main focus of the story which should be the action.

Unlike bad anime where the author has no clue what they're doing or are just horribly executing it, Lycoris Recoil had a lot of promise to be even better than it currently was. If they made lycoris not all high school girls, if they questioned lycoris' morality, if they refused to fall back on tropes and maybe made the world a little more bloodier and dangerous (won't say why due to spoilers, think Evangelion) it could probably be a 8 or a 9 for me.

The make or break for most people will be whether or not you like Chisato. If you do you'll likely rank it higher, maybe even higher than me. If you don't you'll rank it lower. I think a 5 fits it perfectly.

Would I recommend it? Yes, provided you're looking for something decent and not something that's going to be your next favorite series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 22, 2024

ScarlettSkone

Not Recommended

Funny

I wanted to like Lycoris Recoil, but I found myself disappointed.

Lycoris is a comfort show masquerading as a more complex one. The dystopia is not meaningfully examined, and the problems with it are scape-goated onto a “return to monkey” anprim idiot. For the main two characters, I could ship it, but they are a little generic, as are all the characters. The existence of Kurumi’s character, in particular, makes me want to commit hate crimes.

It’s fine to write a silly show about cute girls doing cute things, but seeing Lycoris Recoil’s set up and promises of more exciting complexities while having characters dodge bullets on ... reaction time is infuriating. Watching it, I felt like I was watching something written but someone too scared to say anything for fear that it’d be polarizing. Lycoris Recoil’s cowardice leads to two big problems: 1) pro censorship and 2) it’s not gay enough.

1) The whole dystopia setting of Lycoris Recoil is used more so as an edgy backdrop than as the pretense for any real social commentary. This ends up as a big problem when the status quo of the world is one of censorship and main character Chisato explicitly defends the status quo against main antagonist Majima. It’s pro censorship, there isn’t any other way to read it than that. To me, it seems that Lycoris Recoil is too scared to say anything meaningful against the world it creates, trying to write girls that just want to live, it refuses to comment on the dystopia and ends up approving and accepting it.

2) Lycoris Recoil isn’t gay enough. I see this anime on all these gay lists, and everyone that I see accepts this anime as a fun little gay anime. Frankly, it isn’t gay enough. Yes, I do want these characters to scream from the rooftops that they are homosexuals attracted to each other. I’m somewhat exaggerating, that was a little hyperbolic, but my sentiment is sincere.
Stories exist in the context of the world around them, and in our current world, I could fully see a homophobic idiot watching Lycoris Recoil and then coming away feeling happy about how cute these “two best friends” are together. I don’t want to get into an argument about whether this anime is supposed to be gay or not, and dammit, my subjective desire and wants tell me this anime isn’t gay enough.


If you want to write a comfort anime about gay characters being gay, sure, but don’t try to use dystopia’s for their aesthetics, and it’d better be gay, damnit. BE MORE GAY!

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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