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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 9 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:4503#1552] |
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In spite of what the series may seem like with its focus on gun-action involving a secret agency with teen orphans as agents, Lycoris Recoil mixes that up with elements of slice-of-life comedy focused on agent Takina Inoue forced into having to partner with Chisato Nishikigi who works at a cafe, while performing side missions to dispatch criminal activity. The series is more focused on exploring the growing bond that Takina and Chisato have, as the former undergoes a gradual character change as she becomes less aloof and develops a more lively personality where the bond becomes more important to her than her involvement with Direct Attack. This same development is sadly lacking with Chisato, who largely retains her same lively, energetic personality throughout the anime's run despite the more serious shift in the show's storytelling in its second half. Matter of fact beyond moments with Chisato and Takina's chemistry and nicely animated combat scenes, Lycoris Recoil is largely pretty typical with its story developments and character types in play with Lycoris Recoil's main plot involving a terrorist group's plans to expose Direct Attack and Chisato's origins. This makes the more serious developments offered up with these plot elements to come off largely underwhelming, especially in the rather anti-climactic way it chooses to resolve a major plot development that affected Chisato in the title's final episodes. In short, I don't really get the fanfare for Lycoris Recoil in spite of being one of this season's hyped titles, as the series is largely rather typical fare in spite of the decent focused offered up in Chisato and Takina's chemistry. Not sure if I'd be tempted to want to rewatch this one again anytime soon.
Last updated Saturday, September 24 2022. Created Saturday, September 24 2022. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:4503#628] | ||||||
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(One episode watched): After something about 'a disaster ten years ago' and a smashed radio tower being replaced by a new, elaborate one, we see several scenes of these girls drawing pistols with silencers and swiftly polishing off obvious miscreants (like a terrorist with a bomb). Takina cuts lose with a machine gun, mowing down several crooks (but somehow not touching their hostage). Ah, I thought, this is actually going to be a modestly disturbing, gritty show much like Gunslinger. And then Chisato reveals her own philosophy of what a Lycoris should do, part of which is that they should not kill anyone and should make themselves useful to ordinary citizens in all sorts of ways. So, mixed signals. What was clear was that other than the Lycoris concept itself, there was not much which seemed novel or interesting about this show. Takina and Chisato stumble across the solution to a vexing case, partly because they are extremely smart and partly because they are extremely lucky. Solving cases in a realistic manner takes far too long. They are totally immune to fear, but don't seem to have been brainwashed in any way like the Gunslinger girls. They're just stereotypically cool. And their opponents are stereotypically evil. When you think about it, the whole concept of extra-judicial murders carried out by a secret organization is troubling. Who decides who deserves to die? It almost seems that the conventional police and many ordinary people are well aware of this supposedly secret organization and are perfectly OK with it. No attempt is made to address questions like this, and in general the show does not seem very 'deep'. Neither of the main characters seemed interesting to me. I had begun wondering why I had not yet seen any Summer 2022 series which could be written off after one episode, but here at last was one. Last updated Wednesday, July 06 2022. Created Wednesday, July 06 2022. | ||||||||
