Lycoris Recoil

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 so ... many 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 has ... some 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.

I started watching this show when the first episode aired, but immediately dropped it, hopping more episodes will be out later so that I could watch the show at 2x speed. I already had mixed feelings about the show, and still do. Although my over all rating is a 7/10, this show's high score is carried mostly by the art, animation, sound and VA and general plot. Wait...that'ts the entire show right? Well..Sigh, let me explain.

Zero spoiler summary of the show: Imagine a world where instead of one John Wick you have hundreds of them, and they are all cute, adorable lollies. That's it. If ... that is your thing, go for it.

But, I also didn't like John Wick. I feel like every show or movie regardless of what genre or style seems to not understand what a GUN is. I know this might sound nit picky because this is an anime, but this anime is trying to ground itself in modern day reality. The concept is to have an inconspicuous team of school girls act as a counter terror organization and prevent terrorist attacks BEFORE they even happen. Well, oddly enough, other than the first 2 minutes of the show, NOTHING about this organization is on the down low (inconspicuous). Other than the girls dressing up like school girls, they fail to bother to actually be stealthy. Gun fire galore, evidence and ammo casings everywhere, blown up buildings and trains. These girls SUCK at their jobs. The plot of the story is interesting enough to keep watching, but other than the main character having her quirks, everyone else is still a NORMAL teenage girl, except armed to the teeth, capable of shooting and hitting mid air from 100 yards with a bone stock iron sight glock. Are you kidding me?

I still don't understand why people who make these shows don't go to a gun range, oh wait, is that even allowed in japan? I dunno, take a tour of the army training facility or something. Go watch some youtube videos! The data is out there, and yet we still can't make a cohesive and believable gun show. Its not that hard! Unlimited ammo magazines, glocks capable of hitting moving targets a mile away, machine guns the size of tank cannons, you name it, its all here. But if that is they case, then why is their entire organization pitched as a low key CIA? Because it obviously isn't! The whole goal was to allow people to live in peace if they think that there is no such thing as terrorists, simply say that a terror attack was an "accident". Okay, how do you explain the fact that 10 middle school age girls just fired a literally army's worth of ammo and explosives in the middle of a 30 million person city? ITS SO OBVIOUS that its an accident right?

Sigh. I feel like this show is great. The animation, sound, music, va, character design, etc, but man, if it actually stuck to what it advertised maybe I would recommend it, but I can't really be serious with this show. Its more akin to a comedy than something serious.

I know that most people watching have probably never fired a gun in their lives so its completely plausible that most people can justify the idea in their head that if a little girl from birth was trained to fly around with a gun and hit things, that she totally could, but man...I can't tell if this is a really bad kids movie with too much shooting for kids to watch or is this an adult mafia film with under age characters.

What would fix the show for me? Keep the plot, make the girls adult age, with adult mentality, with real gun fights, with real purpose and real life limitations. Imagine Black Lagoon but with silencers.

I feel like this show requires me to make tons of excuses for everything, "oh its just anime". Its been far too long that I have seen a show with more realism, adult character interaction and conversation, and more purpose.

So... we have a... uh... a character that told you not to die despite you heavily suffer from anything that is beyond anyone's help...
This anime... have criminals, and a group of girls doing anti-terrorist thing. The one that most skilled, Chisato... CHOSE NOT TO KILL ANYONE. 1-13 episodes, what do you get? A character wanting to be Gintoki that fails completely... Since you might want (or you might just do not like this review and scroll this down completely) to know my reasons, I will bring all rivers to you.

On the other hand, first two episodes, we had determined Takina, but she lost her job, ... so she had to go somewhere else. She landed on a cafe with a skilled Chisato in that cafe. That's all, the spoilers from me.

However, like some to many stories, Takina's character is killed completely after chapter 3. I went on hiatus over this anime, and then I tried to look back to see what this anime worth with such average score of 8+. I am totally glad I did not continue watching this story.

This anime has done following crimes:
1) Insulting those who look for salvation by committing suicide/euthanasia. Yes, committing suicide is totally the worst, but if someone commit it with intention to save yourself completely out of this universe, not because of other influence but self-decision, is totally ok. Someone has been tortured about some to whole life, either physically or mentally. Telling someone to not waste their life while still being tortured is telling them to keep suffering more for somebody. Someone that has incurable disease and is so tortured so much for some to most of his/her life, yet that person is told to live for somebody is totally a horrible act from anyone who told.
2) Insulting animations that has killing. Of course, in real life, we might have conflicts with political issue, and terrorism that the core problem might lie in politics. We can always find a stage to be able to start debating constructively. Yes, terrorism can be stopped that way. However, if there are reasonable reasons for someone to kill somebody (Ex: Your father killed my father, and the criminal was proven not guilty), yes, I would try to go killing your father, and yes, you would try to protect your father by either killing me, or anything else. Let say, for example, if someone hired Chisato, and Chisato did what Chisato always did, shooting with red paint. The suspect turned out to be rich, and in court, he was proven to be not guilty. The suspect then continued killing someone that is a family to that person who just hired Chisato. What would that person say to Chisato? Appreciating her for trying to talk a sense to the killer who is after that person's family? "Why do not you kill him/her?" is something that employer would ask. Furthermore, in an episode, Chisato just cried when she could just save someone by firing with a real bullet. There are animations that has this kind of main characters that hate to kill someone and does not have what it takes to do it. It is a terrible, terrible act.
3) Killing a character: basically, I do not mean by physically killing a character. What I meant is Takina was totally absorbed by Chisato, and Takina later was treated much like a stunt double later on.
4) Insulting someone's nature: there are more of animations now that start to tell somebody that their lives are wrong. This starts to happen, and this animation is one of those kinds, insulting your life.
5) Antagonising certain aspects (continue with 6)
6) Generalising: only characters you see in the cover are well designed. Others? They are literally no existent. From no.2, yes, this animation ANTAGONISING you killing people EVEN IF IT MEANS YOU REASONABLY DEFEND YOURSELF. This animation antagonises those who kill and support characters so badly, and this is the reason why everything becomes so stinky and horrible in this so-called anime.

Actually, the character that has more interesting aspects between two main characters is Takina. If Takina was not absorbed, she might have become someone important to work under something like Japanese secret police that ward off and kill anyone who make injustice act that hurt somebody else so badly. Takina could be someone like Violet Evergarden who had little personality, yet Violet Evergarden was one of the characters that made the show so engaging, interesting, and magnificent, is because of how environment, other characters, click to each other including Violet Evergarden, and as a result, the show had become phenomenal. On the other hand, Takina was turned from someone who might be able to get in the clicking environments and characters into a joke.

Other interesting characters are Majima and Mika. Others? Not so much, or even downright boring/ugly.

In Gintama, Hijikata Toshiro once said to Otae "You are not Buddha. You think you can bring salvation to everyone you meet? If there was someone you could save with that half-hearted sort of kindness you just talked about... what would you do?". This anime TRIES TO FORCE FEED YOU that Chisato can bring salvation to everyone she meets. Consequently, it turns to be cringy, disgusting, and downright ugly until the end. (I am one of a big fan of Gintama, so sorry that I refer Gintama so many times.)

Lastly, if you still cannot summarise how I have felt watching just 3 episodes of this anime and the last two, all I can say is I am disgusted, ashamed that I thought of looking at this thing. I totally, utterly cannot believe this anime has 8+ score as there are some animations that has lower scores, and they are better than this one. It is not about my personal choice anymore but author's prejudice, cringy perspective that the author tried to force feed, popularity contester candidate, and stinky smell from SAO. If you want the shortest recommendation from me, whom you seem to think as nobody, YOU MUST NOT WATCH THIS ANIME. Please watch something else like March Comes Like A Lion, A Silent Voice, Akudama Drive that I just watched before publishing this review, Uncle from Another World, Fuuto PI, Violet Evergarden, and some to more of many good anime that are old or currently airing. The list I just post are good ones that I can find.

Have u ever feels regretful after finished a series?
that's what i feels today

come to watch this series simply because of A-1 studios, also with my free time gets a little bit expanded since i only do my final project on my undergraduate.
i watch Aldnoah Zero S1 & S2, 86, SAO, Kaguya-sama, and that experience make me feels that the studios always success to deliver some good stuff, at least at their standard that i familiar with.
that's why i had some curiosity whether this studio will continue their success to deliver good visual & animation or even fail a little bit in this show (and ... engage kiss too)
but after finished this series, I feel regret, i feels naive, knowing that "it's okay to watch anime just for the visual"

Let's make it clear,
1. the Plot is simply generic, nothing special, just like isekai that had been milked for some years
Cute Girl Doing Cute Things, that's what this series all about (also add some gun action)
imagine, having adult failed to do their job? then simply let the kid do your job, oh don't forget make them "cute", so people wouldn't realize they are the actual "hero".

2. low quality of characterization, definitely 0 interest (even empathy too) on any character
almost all the character are designed to be "cute", simply just another cheap-waifu-bait (feels good not to get the bait, that's why i hate this show)

3. The ending just meh, not the worst but definitely generic AF
this was my biggest regret, since i do slightly expect the ending will be some plot twist, especially about the final villain.
but it's seems like the director are afraid AF to do some move, they just make sure "everybody happy" at the end.

4. Music is just mid, nothing special

some people might notice this series have some gay element, and yuri too
but since the plot is just trash, i don't care at all
TLDR, all i feels is just regretful, knowing i spend around 30 minutes every week just to watch this generic show
never do this again

Story: 4/10
Animation: 8/10
Characters: 3/10
Sound: 6/10
Entertainment factor: 4/10
Enjoyment: 3/10

overall Score: 5/10 (helped by animation only)

In short, this ‘Lycoris Recoil’ does not tell a reasonable and continuous story. It is not recommended to watch this anime to appreciate its story. Also, for those who have a strong desire for Girls' Loves, it is strongly not recommended to watch the last 3 episodes of this anime.

The series composer and director don’t have enough skills to deal with esoteric philosophy arguments. The characters show a kind of naive and vain justice.Their beliefs and activities are not logically self-consistent. This inconsistence began to appear concentratedly in the 11th, 12th and the 13th episodes making the watching experience fall straight into the hell. ... And the final ending dose not make much sense; it creates a feeling that the author wants to give a happy ending just for the ridiculous pure goal of having a happy ending.

Although the heroines’ love is romantic and sweet, and the animation and characters’ visual design is wonderful, still, it is very hard to say that this anime is good. The good performance in the first several episodes has not been kept all the way to the end. This anime does not escape from the curse of original anime, which is that they will start in heaven and fall into hell eventually. Its drawbacks overshine the advantages, in the last several episodes. A fundamental requirement for a good service (yuri, moe-moe or ecchi) anime is to have no plot making the audience feel stupid. Clearly, this anime dose not fulfill this requirement. Thus, it is ultra non-recyclable trash from the point of view of both service and story.

I dropped after the first episode but picked it back up after seeing the high review score. That was a mistake and a letdown. If I had to describe this in one word, it would be dull. Its basically about a couple of girls trying to pick up the pieces of their lives after having been kicked out of the main plot. Young assassin/gunslinging girls is a plot that’s probably been done to death. This anime attempts to try something new by crossing that genre with a slice of life story about two girls trying to find meaning outside of ... the organization, but it really just fails at both. Very little story at all- just odd jobs, banter, with some occasional action thrown into the mix that you never really care about and are never really drawn into. Visuals were appealing, but the characters themselves were largely uninteresting. I thought it would get better after the Spike Speigal looking character was introduced, but that hope slowly dwindled.

No idea why this is rated so high, it’s a waste of time imho

Englsh.
A series that I expect nothing from it, I received nothing from it and I don't expect anything from it in the future, many people in my social circle recommended it to me as an entertaining series in addition to having a good story but when I started watching it I was very lazy keep watching it, the story is not interesting at all, besides being very predictable, I think I'm sick of seeing protagonists who are the best at what they do and defeat anyone, look at it and I'm sure many will like this series because I have verified it by my friends ... that it is so, but I found it an insufferable series, I think that it does not risk anything in the genre and also does not innovate at all, that is if there are many characters that are not at all relevant and quite clichés, the which do not contribute anything to the plot and are only to make the series more attractive, I think that if the series wants to survive today it must be more innovative or die into oblivion.
I do not recommend it, but if you want to give it a try there will be no problem.

Español.
Una serie que espere nada de ella, recibí nada de ella y no espero nada de ella a futuro, muchas personas en mi circulo social me la recomendaron como una serie entretenida ademas de tener una historia buena pero cuando la empece a ver me dio muchísima flojera seguir viéndola, la historia no es nada interesante ademas de muy predecible, creo que ya estoy harto de ver a protagonistas los cuales son los mejores en lo que hacen y derrotan a cualquiera, miren se y estoy seguro que a muchos les gustara está serie porque lo he comprobado por mis amigos que es así, pero a mi se me hizo una serie insufrible, creo que no arriesga nada en el genero y ademas no innova en nada, eso si aparecen muchos personajes que no son nada relevantes y bastante clichés, los cuales no aportan nada en la trama y solo son para hacer mas vistosa a la serie, creo que si quiere subsistir la serie en la actualidad debe de ser mas innovadora sino morir en el olvido.
Yo no la recomiendo, pero si quieres darle una oportunidad no habrá ningún problema.

If you like slice of life with cute girls and an action twist, this show is great... for about six episodes. The last four episodes are a boring mess where the show throws out every strenght it had in exchange for "spetacle" and a terrible plot. A finale so horrible that it makes the first half of the show worse in retrospect. To make matters worse, if you want to get invested in this for the action, this show is going to bait and switch you *hard*. It starts ok and gets worse as the show goes, and on top of that, there are full ... episodes that are all slice of life and drama.

All in all, I walked into this show expecting some dumb fun. I ended up falling in love with the characters hard for the first six episodes or so. And then it was just a downhill slope. I'm never going to rewatch this, I never want to see a season 2. I can't recommend it for anyone.

Lycoris Recoil is an anime that asks an important question: What if instead the reason why Japan is so safe were because of an anime girl defense force that kills targets in secret before they do anything wrong. It then turns into a buddy-cop story line between Takina, a hard boiled Lycoris agent who does not play by the rules, and Chisato a seemingly carefree agent who refuses to kill her targets.

I wanted to like this show a lot more than I actually did. I really like shows with Cute Anime Girls doing pretty much anything, and Chisato and Takina's opposites attract friendship is really ... the only thing I liked about the show aside from the animation quality, which was superb. The other characters were pretty dull, at least until the end, the action scenes were generic and uninteresting.

The opening was also really good. It always made me feel light and fluffy inside, but I don't really count that.