Lycoris Recoil caught my eyes and attention in a single second because of how weird it is : some cute girls fighting terrorism, what? It is that premise that made me invested in the anime and I always looked forward to the next one and potentially in the run of my anime of the season. I have a special love for military anime and even a bigger love for cute anime girls, because they are cute I mean, and all of this was helped by some stunning visuals that really left me speechless at times. If I could find the right words I would define LycoRyco as an anime that brings immortal topics like terrorism and war, not really the war you expect but you get the point, and modern genres like the anime moe, comedy and for some verses even the romance, as well with greatly executed plot twists and an enjoyable pace of the story until some points.

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#So cute that ended up killing me several times This is an extremely weird analogy to make but Lycoris Recoil reminded me a lot of a title like Cod of War because it started in a certain way to then completely go out of the context and out of the initial meant way by completely changing settings, world building and by even deleting what the common sense is. The first 5-6 episodes were something that I always looked for one way for the anime itself because it was a completely new thing for me for how it was made, and for the other because it was really that fun to watch : so much to discover, so many question marks and so much to imagine happening; on top of everything I absolutely loved the cast of characters with the always smiling Chisato, a quiet and reserved yet on the way to change Takina, the mysterious Mika, the mental Mizuki and her dreams of finding a man, the absolutely cute Kurumi and so on with a great set of antagonists that would teach to many anime how to be a villain. The first impact I got from the anime, and what ultimately made me continue it, was truly Chisato because she is always so happy and never worried of what will happen with as well her great skills of combat that make her unpredictable. As well with her there is Takina that was her complete opposite of a more calm and cold girl that prefers to think and then act: I was really invested in their relationship of what it was meant to be, probably, a story of Takina changing for the better and coming back to the DA with the help of Chisato but instead it became a story about Chisato herself trying to survive everything that happens. Don’t get me wrong, it is clear that Takina’s story was still a main subject of the anime but over time it got overshadowed by her, which is not bad at all I mean but I felt like Takina got almost forgotten.

I loved how hilarious the anime was in oppose to the initial premise because I really rarely see a funny show that talks about sensitive topics like the terrorism and it was beautiful to see how well mixed they were, not too much or not too little. In fact it's unique the mix of the moe and the drama in it.
Something else that must be talked about is the great Takina development because she truly went from being absolutely cold and stubborn to becoming one of the most lovable characters I've seen in a long time.
The storytelling was really fluent and easy to take in this span and we even saw the great execution of the plot twists until this point.

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#However there are many questionable decisions

The only drawbacks of this anime were some really stupid takes and, ironically, Chisato herself.
Honestly the concept of "if you kill that bad guy you will become like him!" or "if I kill I will become a monster" is really old and surpassed. Chisato impressed me at the beginning for her ideal of not killing anyone because she was gifted life, and this even led to some great action scenes, but however it is not acceptable to have and see this mentality in a situation where your life and the lives of the ones you love are at risk. It is not acceptable to see such a funny and great character holding herself back for this stupid idea that, factually, almost led to the death of some other characters on the screen but she eventually led to the death of many many other innocents; simply because she let Majima and the other bad guys alive.
I find ironic how in a place where everyone was worshipping Chisato I saw Takina having the better character development and even putting her life on the risk to save someone who doesn't have the balls to do so, simply because of an ideal.
Also I have to shoot an arrow to the director because using the excuse of "it was a prank bro!" doesn't work where people shoot themselves, and after a cycle of repetitions the cliffhanger were absolutely predictable honestly and even boring.

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#But on the technical point it's impossible not to praise

But for sure Lycoris was immense for what it matters about technical performances because the arts, music and even the voice acting was absolutely top of the notch.
The animations were something fantastic to watch with some of the most fluid animations I've seen, the music was always pinnacle of what I could wish for and oh my god honestly the VAs gave their best in many many occasions; as well many expressions of the faces of the characters were quite amazing.

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#An absolutely fun ride, but not my anime of the year or of the season

Lyco was really fun and despite all the things that I didn't like I somehow managed to enjoy it; I'm still quite mad for the turnaround of Chisato who started as my girl of the season to falling down as a disliked one, but it's not a massive reason to downvote this anime because a single character doesn't make the anime.

Personal scores :

Story : 7.8/10
Characters : 7.5/10
Arts : 9/10
Music : 8/10
Personal Enjoyment : 6.8/10
Final : 7.5/10
Wish the final episodes were better managed