Lycoris Recoil | One of the best.

Not only was episode thirteen was the best episode of the bunch (no surprise), but it is also one of the best final episodes I’ve seen in a long while. For sure, Lycoris Recoil has turned out to be one of the best anime to air this season and has found its place on my ever growing “favourite anime” list.

The number of terrorist acts in Japan has never been lower, thanks to the efforts of a syndicate called Direct Attack (DA). The organization raises orphaned girls as killers to carry out assassinations under their “Lycoris” program. Takina Inoue is an exceptional Lycoris with a strong sense of purpose and a penchant for perfection. Unfortunately, a hostage situation tests her patience, and the resulting act of insubordination leads to her transfer out of DA. Not thrilled about losing the only place she belonged to, she reluctantly arrives at her new base of operations—LycoReco, a cafe in disguise.

Takina’s new partner, however, turns out to be quite different from what she imagined. Despite being the famed Lycoris prodigy, Chisato Nishikigi appears almost unconcerned with her duties. She drags Takina along on all kinds of odd jobs under the simple explanation of helping people in need. Takina is even more puzzled when Chisato takes down a group of armed assailants without killing any of them. Feeling like a fish out of water, Takina itches to get reinstated into DA—but Chisato is determined to prove to her that there is more to a life than just taking them.

I thought we saw everything in the final episode. We saw friendship, happiness and suffering all within one episode alone. Episode thirteen was without a doubt a lot to take in and for good reason. Takina valuing her friendship with Chisato so much to the point where she risks her own life and well-being for Chisato. Mr. Yoshi and Mika’s suffering. They both they different ulterior motives, however, the one thing that tied them to the hip was doing what was best for Chisato. In their own unique ways. They both wanted Chisato to continue living, however, Mr. Yoshi’s way of achieving that goal was very questionable.

Personally, I don’t really understand why Mr. Yoshi went about things the way he did, but, I guess his own death ultimately allowed Chisato to continue living so that’s a plus.

The final battle was also pretty entertaining because we had the hero (Chisato) having a normal conversation with the anti-hero (Majima). They’ll battle it out, then take a break when Chisato needed one so they could continue their battle at full strength. There was something about that I thought was pretty entertaining and very admirable on the side of Majima.

He didn’t want to fight someone who wasn’t able to give their all at that moment in time, so he took a breather with Chisato until she was able to fight appropriately again. I thought that showed an immense amount of respect because they didn’t bother attacking each other while they took a break. Instead they discussed each others motives, and what drove their actions. It was very insightful.

What blows me away even more is that even after the fall from that radio tower, Majima is still alive. But hey, that’s something I’ve come to expect because he survived an RPG strike that hit his getaway car point blank. After that happened, I was convinced that Majima possesses some next level superhuman survivability characteristics.

Personally, I loved that Lycoris Recoil had a happy ending, I was so scared that it was going to be one of those original anime that was about to give us a sad or bittersweet ending. That’s the problem with extremely well done original anime, you build a connection to the characters and you’d hate to see anything happen to them. I didn’t want to see anything bad happen to Chisato because her character as a whole is just so bright, humble and colour. She always made me smile and the prospect of anything bad happening to her would have destroyed me emotionally.

Anyway, that’s enough about the final episode. I can honestly go on and on about it but I won’t. Overall, I definitely think that Lycoris Recoil is one of the best anime to air this season. I do not think there is any debate about that. For only being thirteen episodes long, the there was a lot going on each episode.

It seemed as though every episode introduced a new element to the wider story, which by the way, is extremely well written. We have Takina’s bid to get back into the DA, Chisato and the importance of her own values, the ALAN Institute, Mika and Mr. Yoshi. Majima and Chisato, Chisato’s artificial heart.

You put all of this together, coupled by the fact that the characters themselves are very entertaining and interesting. Then you have the ground work for what turned out to be a pretty great anime. Not to mention the anime itself is extremely well animated, episode thirteen for instance is a shining example.

Though I will say, maybe Lycoris Recoil crammed in a little too much all at the same time. I can definitely see it be a little too much information to take in all at once. But for me, I thought each episode had a nice balance to them. There were the lighthearted moments, followed by the problem, and a conclusion that would often lead into the next episode.

Each episode was structured in a way where it let out just enough information relating to the next episode without telling you or blatantly showing what would happen next. Which was great because that would make you want to watch and continue watching the anime. That pull factor was there, that “it” factor was there. However, which way you want to put it, each episode made you want to watch. Which is the most important thing.

Overall, Lycoris Recoil is definitely going onto my list of favourite anime. I loved everything about it, I enjoyed every aspect of it and it was very entertaining.