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

Mika Supporting

Sakaki, Kousuke Japanese

Nakahara, Mizuki Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami 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

Adachi, Shingo Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard, Series Composition

Reviews

Nov 16, 2024

deadlyspawn

Recommended

Take Violet & Daisy (2011) - give them Gun Kata from Equilibrium (2002) - with the setup of Gunslinger Girl - and a relationship akin to Buddy Cop Films - place them in a future Utopian City less incriminated & controlling than Psycho-Pass (so far anyway), think rectify instead of avert - you get Lycoris Recoil.

I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it was. From episode 1 I was locked in and it managed to keep me locked in until the end. The action was great and it was awesome to see it wasn't just added in to attract viewers. ... The slice of life moments were great too, the comedy wasn't forced and seemed natural to the moments/conversations especially by not repeating themselves on that front.

The characters were well thought out as well. Not one-dimensional, parodies or caricatures of cliché "go to" formula's. Are they relatable to other characters that have been seen? of course; such is story telling and humans only have 76 personality types so quantifiably, even people in reality can get a bit familiar after reading/watching many stories along with getting older. Sorry I digress yet what I have just said you can see in the characters in this story, the older characters act like "9 to 5 again!" and the lycoris are giving their all to become what they want to be.

Many people who enjoy deep concepts without having the dialogue being too pretentious and complicated will certainly enjoy it just as much as those who can read between the many contextual lines presented for those who can. And honestly, it makes it realistic, it trusts the audience can comprehend without having the characters explain obvious choices and actions.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Nov 1, 2024

Serkan_kun

Mixed Feelings

I think it's an overrated anime for its score. I don't think the anime is a bad anime, it's a good anime to watch. It has fun scenes, good animation and music. But I couldn't find anything special in the anime.

There are many illogical scenes and moments in the story of the anime. Raising orphaned girls and using them as weapons is a very controversial topic in itself, but I found it strange that no one touched on it throughout the anime. Little kids hacking a huge organization with ease, schoolgirls fighting terrorists (what's their goal?)... things like this are far from realistic and cliche ... for an anime like this. At the end of the story, the scenes with the antagonist seemed to me too far-fetched and illogical.

As for the main characters, I have mixed opinions about them. Chisato and Takina are characters with contrasting personalities, their friendship was great to watch. But I think Takina was overshadowed by Chisato in the story, her story could have been made more interesting. Her character developments stops. I didn't like the yuri scenes between these two characters, it is nothing more than a cheap tool to attract audience

Story - 5/10
Art - 8/10
Sound - 8/10
Characters - 7/10
Enjoyment - 5/10
Chisato and Takina - 7/10
Overall - 7/10
Favorite episode - 4
Favorite character - Takina
Recommendation level - Medium

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 22, 2024

ScarlettSkone

Not Recommended

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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	Poll: who is your waifu among the two main characters Chisato or Takina? deg - Jul 10, 2022	43 replies	by six20 »» 3 hours ago
	Poll: Lycoris Recoil Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Sep 24, 2022	455 replies	by Haystack_Science »» Nov 20, 9:19 AM
	Poll: Lycoris Recoil Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Sep 17, 2022	293 replies	by Haystack_Science »» Nov 19, 10:26 AM
	Poll: Lycoris Recoil Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Sep 10, 2022	249 replies	by Haystack_Science »» Nov 16, 10:48 AM
	Poll: Lycoris Recoil Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Sep 3, 2022	195 replies	by Haystack_Science »» Nov 11, 8:51 AM