A1 studios nailed the direction of this as it fits effortlessly into the themes and direction of the show as a whole so far. Focusing on the major themes of parallelism, opposition, and isolation. Chisato and Takina are shown almost always opposite/parallel each other in this opening, mirroring the acts of one another or acting in opposites. Chistato on one side of the screen and Takina on the other, interestingly enough though the side that they're shown on flip flops during the opening, but they end on the same sides that the began on. Regardless, its really well set up to show the differences between our two characters here, and can even be argued to tie into the Tokyo Towers in the opening. Chisato representing the old and destroyed one while Takina the one under new construction. Despite being shown as opposites and not appearing together on screen for some time in the opening, we also get moments of camaraderie/solace between the pair. Their moments where they are dressed in normal clothes shows them looking the same way but at opposite angles. Chisato is looking downwards while Takina upwards, this changes in the next moment though as the pair gaze at each other in their work clothes. Potentially showing how their lives outside of Lycoris bring them closer together than their missions do? Moving on however, the foreground is shown to be desaturated to further the isolation of these two girls for obvious reasons due to their upbringing, and we see it further into the opening once more.
This time, it's a drove of Lycoris agents with only two seeing color, though more interestingly is the prior scene that sets up this moment. Badges fall to the ground before being replaced with Japanese Spider Lillies, and is soon therafter replace with explosions as a transition from the girls. To me, this screams something along the lines of the replacibility of these girls who protect their society, further playing into their isolation. Tools of peace rather than protectors, which brings us to Mika, the owner of Cafe LycoReco. He's shown to be involved in the Tokyo Tower terrorist attack previously, being how he has his connection with Chisato, but also why he's one of the few adults shown in color. He's not lost sight of what Chisato and these other girls do, and how they should be treated as people as well. And it's maybe in that way that after we're shown Chisato and Takina doing what Lycoris are meant to do, and seeing Chisato lament that, that we see a glimpse of a normal life for the girls. Casual clothing and smiles on their faces in the daylight. Lastly though, they wrap the opening up in a cool spy movie-reminiscent style sequence before returning to a cuter final scene of the girls. Really, a very impressive opening for a wild number of reasons. The people behind Lycoris Recoil really know what they want from this show, and how they want to do it. Now, onto thoughts from the episode itself!
Now forgive me for how messy these thoughts will be as there's a lot to go through. First and foremost, modern accuracy! I'm a huge car guy so I recognized it right away, the red supercar that Chisato had seen was essentially a perfect model of the Lexus LC500, so someone at A1 has some exquisite taste in luxury vehicles. Moving on to more "important" accurate stuff though we have the weapons. Chisato's standing out the most as it's an "older" model weapon compared to Takina's, as evident by the wood grain in the handle. My guess would be something along the lines of a Beretta pistol, maybe an M9 of some sort? Also just based on looks it seems there's a muzzle brake or something of similar effect to the front of the pistol. I'm not a huge gun expert though so don't quote me on the validity of that haha. Regardless we see her loading her signature rubber bullets, which is done really well. On the other hand, Takina almost certainly has a pistol that's been modelled after a glock, based on the boxier design and the location of the chamber. In a way it sort of shows off the differences of the two girls, Chisato with some more personal and bespoke and "pretty", while Takina goes the standard and typical route. Regardless, the AKs of the episode were also really well done, enjoyed seeing the lighter stocks on them for more, *ahem*, "aftermarket" use cases. Also, the sounds of the weapons remained really well done and enjoyable.
Moving on to *content* of the episode though, it was really fun! Chisato was full of energy and jokes throughout the whole thing, and really introduced an air of mystique to the episode as well. Takina helped balance out the reality of it, and kept things a bit more grounded at times. Overall, a really solid balance between the pairing, but Chisato is the flashier of the two so harder to not give her the edge when she disarms a guy, tosses a grenade into an empty room, and then throws the dude in front of the door that's flying off its hinges to knock him out. The choreography of the fighting and everything in this episode was really well done. Lots of life and character without being too unbelievable or crazy. Though speaking of that, I'm really curious to find out more about Chisato's past due to her ability to dodge everything (which Takina happily tests for us haha). I've got a strong feeling that it'll be tied into the Alan Organization personally.
Of course, Walnut wasn't as huge a surprise for me, but more so how we got there was. I was thinking that Mr. Yoshi had a connection to Walnut in some way and was pulling the strings to get her out safely and easily, but that didn't turn out to be the case. Was it still true that he was manipulating Robota to help Walnut? Maybe, hard to really say. There's a lot about Mr. Yoshi and Mika that we don't know, so makes it hard to know which side he's playing in general. Back to Walnut though, I definitely hadn't expected Walnut to be in the suitcase, I was more so thinking it was a body double or fake and that Walnut had already been transferred by Mizuki and Mika or something along those lines so was a pretty cool surprise.
This second episode is really setting things up compared to the first. Not quite as crazy, but still just as fun, though with a stronger focus on the future and bringing us into the fold. Definitely has me curious for where we're gonna end up, though at a minimum I know we're following the thread of the arms deal currently, and that *might* cross paths with the Alan association? Regardless, there's a really good setup for an awesome sort of spy-action thriller series here with a nice and healthy helping of moe thanks to Chisato. Really enjoyed this episode and really looking forward to the next one! |