Well The Intent was never to make a review as I only wanted to address a few points but here we are
These are peaceful days, thanks to a secret crime-fighting organization of all-girl agents: Lycoris. The elite free-spirited Chisato is their all-time strongest agent, alongside the coolheaded talented-but-mysterious Takina. Working together at a café, they serve coffee and sweets as well as childcare, shopping, and teaching Japanese. The chaotic everyday lives of this mismatched duo begin.
Ok let's talk about Nishikigi Chisato
So I stumbled upon this comment "Chisato, to be frank, learns nothing, as her depthless character won the hearts and minds of people over, simply because she is cute and annoyingly positive all the time.
I'm not sure what he means by "no depth and learns nothing." Her past may appear straightforward at first glance, but that is not the case. Chisto saves people not only because Yoshimatsu saved her, but also because the term "saviour" is significant in this context. Chisato would be a killing machine right now if she had chosen her words wisely (as Chisato herself indirectly agrees in episode 10) so the narrative here beautifully displays the relationship between purpose of life and life choices so that you do not confuse your life choice for the purpose of life. Mika and Chisato's conversation was excellently staged.
So moving onto learns nothing further, people liking her simply because she is cute and annoyingly positive all the time. So he's basically calling chisato a cute Goody Two-Shoes.(I personally don't like those kind of characters at all but hey Chisato was special and there's something different about her which I'll explain further).
Which I wouldn't really disagree but not completely agree with it as well, I agree that I myself at the start liked chisato just because how cute she was and the VA did an amazing job, but wooooo chisato is not your typical Goody Two-Shoes if you observe carefully chisato didn't seem to care/ nor did try to help the lycoris from getting killed by Majima, whereas a goody two shoes character would have created a lot of drama for that and even tried to help the lycoris. Not only that but on ep4 she also stopped takina from getting involved in the train incident (which shows how deeply she cared about takina) which reminds me of what she says in ep 13 that "There are many things that I like exactly as they are. What's going on in the world, I don't care" as demonstrated in Ep 4 (as stated above), Ep 12 and Ep 13 where Chisato is willing to kill Yoshimatsu and Majima in order to save Takina (which shows that she understands that being positive does not help all the time and this is something which she learns). She also learns to move forward (the theme of Lycoreco is "moving forward"), as throwing the locket into the seas demonstrated. She already knows the dark aspects of the world and what it has to offer, so there isn't much to learn!
Being positive, goofy, and cute aren't the only reasons I like Chisato. If you've noticed, she doesn't appear depressed in the anime despite everything going on around her in order to maintain her cheerful image and not worry others. She is not only a strong character (both psychically and mentally), but she is also calm and does not snap as often as most characters do, and she is willing to kill when necessary to save those she cares about, despite how much she despises killing.
I understand that she did act up a bit when she shot yoshimatsu but that was only because it was yoshimatsu, However, this was not the case with Majima
Chisato who had given upon everything lying down there hears takina's voice( you can clearly hear chisato's heartbeat for a moment there which signifies the grave situation and yk it seemed that she came back to life just to save takina which I personally loved) and drags majima down( here if you pay attention to takina's voice that was literally definition of despair and shows how scared/worried she was desipte that she ran to save her without hesitation both the Mc's VA's did an amazing job overall in the anime) along with her with the intent to kill him and die along in the process but damnn the way she keeps shooting majima was brutal/merciless and cold. Also If you watch carefully you can see majima being sacred of chisato when he getting shot as the young chisato's flashback was shown which represents that and if you remember correctly Majima told that he was scared of young chisato. Finally takina running off a falling glass to save chisato gave me goosebumps.
Chisato truly is a gem/cute/lovable character and who can be brutal at times(maybe she has a switch that flips her over) and now that yoshimatsu who restrained her abilities is gone she's more fierce than ever.
Also I stumbled upon this comment "She had some quick development in the beginning, only to be reduced to Chisato's guard dog. Regarding takina
I'm not gonna bother saying something about quick development because everyone to their own and I personally like the quick development because in most of the animes they take a pretty long time to develop charcters like takina which feels pretty dragged.
The chisato's guard dog is completely a ridiculous statement. Like why would you not want to guard the person if his/her life is in danger. :skull:
Takina has to be the most developed character in this entire anime because of how she evolved with each episode, but I believe episode 3 was a watershed moment where she decides to do what she wants rather than what is expected of her. I like Takina because of how she was portrayed and how genuine her smile was whenever she saw Chisato happy.In Ep 11, despite the tension in the air, her killing intent, she did not shoot Yoshimatsu and his assistant who were fleeing with Chisato's heart and Personally, I don't believe she missed it on purpose, but rather unconsciously, demonstrating how much she cared for Chisato and didn't want to hurt her by going against what Chisato desired. That was completely insane.
Spoiler, click to view
People have commented on how poorly it was handled politically, as well as how the cover-up process was not elaborated because it was focused more on chisato and takina, but that's exactly what you wanted. Personally, I believe that was never the main goal of the anime because all of the other elements were designed to develop the relationship between two characters, and if you remember correctly, lycoreco was originally intended to be a dark anime, so expecting a lot more focus on the subject matter was a bit much to ask.
I also came across people calling this a yuribait anime which is not exactly the case People still don't understand the meaning of yuri bait You can call an anime being a yuri bait when it hints a romantic/sexual relationship between the two characters but Lycoreco showed no signs of that not even in the trailer, key visuals let alone in the anime. I totally understand why you would want to ship them because I'm a huge yuri fan myself but that's just wrong and I stand by my statement of Lycoreco not being a yuribait anime. If you want to know what true yuribait looks like watch Maria-sama.
Finally, let us discuss anime. Let's just put everything else aside and appreciate how well the lighting is used in this anime. Another thing to note is how the ED (which is a banger) kicks in at the end of the anime, which really enhances the experience of watching it.
Spoiler, click to view
Lycoreco was not on my radar when the season began, but the premise piqued my interest. It's a common one, but this one was well executed. The anime simply did what it needed to do and did it well, without deviating into nonsense or deviating into something unnecessary. Kurumi was a darkhorse who went unnoticed but did a lot of work in the background that is overshadowed, and also, like her personality, she appears to have given up on the outside but hasn't on the inside, especially how she and Mizuki boarded the plain despite having no intention of leaving. Mika's character development was certainly unexpected, but it came at the right time. The dynamic between Mika and Youshimatsu is also appealing to me. Dealing with the past and his relationship with him in terms of chisato was definitely intriguing. Though Majima was given little depth or effective characterization, his actions and dialogue give you a good idea of what he was up to, and I get the impression that he was a Battle Maniac. The characters, on the other hand, are very well developed. The animation was fairly clean, and the art impressed me the most. It could have done better with some plot point explanations, and there are a few gaps that need to be filled, so a s2 is possible. I was mostly pleased because it met my expectations. A well-paced anime that alternates between lighthearted fun and serious action that is wholesome at times and is perfectly balanced, and I don't mind S2 filling in the gaps with a slice of life theme.
