In a season with several major returns such as Classroom of the Elite season 2, The Devil is a Part-Timer season 2, and other beloved sequels such as Made in Abyss season 2, Danmachi season 4, Overlord season 4, etc never would I have imagined that my favorite show would end up being none of the above. Heck, the idea that an original CGDCT anime could steal 13 weeks of my life is insane. I say that since I’ve had my fair share of bad experiences with promising original anime betraying my expectations (Takt, Wonder Egg, etc). Therefore, this came as a very pleasant surprise. Here’s why Lycoris Recoil is my anime of the season, and even potentially of the year.
Lycoris, back when it got announced, was a show that was marketed as cute girls working at a cafe and after watching a bunch of shonen stuff, this was just the kind of show I desired to relax to and enjoy. So naturally, when they revealed the true nature of the show, I was slightly perplexed and just a tiny bit disappointed that it wasn’t the cute girl cafe show I was promised, instead it was a show about a cafe but more action-packed. Regardless of my first impressions of the show, I ended up loving the 13-episode journey way more than I expected. Not to mention, it's an original show so there weren't any annoying source material fans trying to spoil shit and the most we could do was theorize.
Pointing out the obvious, the show's central appeal is the two main girls of cafe LycoReco, Chisato and Takina. Even putting the well-written story aside, it was always a pleasure just to watch the relationship between the two of them develop throughout the show. Both initially had opposing ideologies, with Takina being the extreme killer type while Chisato took the more pacifist route, which led to Takina being at odds with Chisato. Throughout the show we got to see Takina opposing Chisato’s methods, coming to accepting them following episode 3 and then eventually breaking the shackles that was DA to live life of her own accord at the cafe. While Chisato was the most beloved character, Takina was the true MVP of the show as she showed the most significant development throughout. If anything, I would legitimately be willing to watch a show with just ChisaTaki shenanigans and nothing else, and I'm sure many others would feel that way.
I can’t write this review without mentioning the impeccable voice acting from the case of LycoReco. Chisato is already a beloved character but Chika Anzai did an incredible job of breathing even more life into her and making her an absolute bundle of joy. I literally cannot get enough of how good her voice acting is and I could probably listen to her voice for hours on end without getting bored of it. Of course, I can’t ignore Wakayama Shion who voiced Takina. She too did a very good job and had a lot of moments where her voice shined the most, such as episode 12. Being a fan of Misaki Kuno, it was very interesting to hear a more adult-like voice from her rather than her usual kid voice since she mostly voices children in anime. Regardless of this, she did a very solid job. I could go on about more characters such as Mika, Mizuki, and especially Majima, who is voiced by my goat Matsuoka but you get the point already, so moving onto the more technical aspects of the show.
Tackling two different themes can often be very challenging to pull off for not just anime but any media in general, leading to very unnatural transitioning and can feel out of place or distracting even. Lycoris on the other hand was written in such a way that it was able to incorporate the dark aspects of the story and make it work smoothly with the wholesome and more laid-back aspects, thus making it work very well when the show often switched between the two largely contrasting themes. This is something we would definitely have to credit the director Shingo Adachi for as it is known through interviews that he was the one who revamped the originally very dark story that Asaura, the writer, proposed and chose to show more wholesome themes as well in a perfect manner. Such a combination leads to another aspect I really like about this show. When it comes to tension-inducing situations in the show, Lycoris Recoil truly knew how to induce anxiety of the highest degree within us. What makes this show different in that sense is the attachment I had to the characters to the point where whenever they end up in threatening situations such as episode 6, I can’t help but be left on the edge of my seat and when we are left with a cliffhanger like episode 9, I ended up being anxious about it all week. It’s a stressful but at the same time very welcome experience that only certain few shows have been able to offer for me so far.
One significant ingredient of this show that I feel is rather underappreciated is the use of “show, don’t tell”. When it comes to shows like Demon Slayer, It annoyed me whenever they explained every tiny detail through monologues and such. Therefore I appreciate the fact that this show left many things to our speculations and each episode often encouraged rewatches to fully grasp what they were trying to tell us. Oftentimes I would have to rewatch an episode more than twice to find out almost everything, and I say almost because even then there would be times when I missed certain details and I would only be filled in by people on social media posting about it.
Even with its fair share of CGDCT, the show also has just as much intense and heart-stopping action to offer, with very well-executed and choreographed gun fights, showcasing a variety of firearms that are sure to excite gun enthusiasts. If one were to keep up with the social media of Asaura, writer of LycoReco, one would know that he’s a huge gun enthusiast himself and therefore it’s safe to say that he had some sort of involvement when it comes to this. A-1 pictures once again delivered when it comes to animations
The show features some pretty solid soundtracks as well. This is one of my favorites and the one they use during the action scenes.
Earlier in the review, I mentioned how I've had bad experiences with original shows such as Takt and Wonder Egg. A common phrase I heard throughout the broadcast of the show was “hope it doesn’t pull off a Wonder Egg” or something along the lines of that, and I can definitely see where they’re coming from when they say that.
Despite that, I always had a feeling that Lycoris would not end up that way regardless of how it ended. The reason I felt so was because one of Wonder Egg's main appeals was the initially very intriguing storyline which eventually fell apart and mostly the action, and when I look back on the show I realize that nothing else really appealed to me. I never felt any attachment with any of the characters nor did I ever see any memorable dynamics between the four girls that could redeem the show in any way. Lycoris on the other hand had a very well-crafted story as well as solid character dynamics, in addition to well-choreographed action scenes. Even if by some chance had Lycoris’ story fallen off, in the future I would’ve remembered the show for the developing relationship between Chisato and Takina, and their days in the cafe together.
A complain I often heard about this show was its unrealism, but I never got why people started criticizing the show just based on this alone. I still remember when Mothers Basement first brought up the entire "armor piercing rubber bullets" thing, though he said that that while it was illogical, it didn't bother him because of the other aspects of the show that make up for it. Despite that, many others including the likes of Gigguk started using that term as a means of criticizing, and while Gigguk didn't entirely hold that against the show, it still led to a lot of people being influenced by that. If people were to try and push realistic expectations onto anime, then there's no point in it. Of course, i'm not tryna say that shows can entirely get away with doing ridiculous shit, but when it's done by a show like Lycoris in such a manner that it doesn't ruin the story, I feel like it's better to let that slide since the show has a lot of other amazing things to offer. The writers have no obligations to be held back by realism.
But if there was one point of criticism I personally had, it’s that they just didn’t have enough episodes for the show to reach its fullest potential. Several things were left unanswered such as Mika, Mizuki, Kurumi and Majima’s past, the third division besides Lycoris and LilyBells (HollyHocks I believe?), more in Chisato and Takina’s pasts, the feud between Lycoris and LilyBells, etc. I do wish they gave us some explanation for those unless we end up getting a second season. Overall that didn’t really ruin my experience in any way though and in the end I still loved the show.
Adachi once said that he wished to create something with his team that they can all be proud of after 1-2 years of hard work. If the audience and staff say they had fun, then he'll know he did a good job and at the end of the day, I think that’s what matters more than anything and the key to a successful show. I hope to see this show return in some form and continue Chisato and Takina’s everyday life. Would highly recommend this show as it has something to offer for everyone. Heck, even Hideo Kojima recommends it, so why not give it a try?
