Sep 27, 2022
I did not like Lycoris recoil. In fact I sort of ended up hating it for various reasons.
The only redeeming parts are the animation, as you'd expect from the studio producing it. But then there's the parts I did not like. I am a big gun nerd, pretty much anything with weapons is worth a shot in my opinion, so I was looking forward to seeing it.
If I ever met any of the people working on Lycoris recoil I would ask them if they ever fired a gun before. The answer is most likely no, not because Japan has very strict weapon laws but
...
because this show bends reality however it wants to. The main character, can dodge bullets because the show says she can "calculate the trajectory of the bullets", giving her some sort of plot armor. Ignoring the fact that it is impossible to even do so in the amount of time it takes to aim and for a bullet to even hit it's target, all of the gun fights feel boring or just not intense at all.
What's the point of taking cover when the main character can just jump around and not get shot at all, not even machine gun bullets can hit her. All suspense is lost because of the characters plot armor. Her companion is indeed more vulnerable to death, but since Chisato is with her I again cannot enjoy any of the fights.
Then there's the guns, if there is one thing to note about guns beside how dangerous they are, it's that they are very loud, even standing outside you need to wear some sort of protection. Lycoris recoil seem to ignore this completely, and that is fine! Movie villains and heroes fire guns all the time without any problem. But later on in the show I see Takina (the companion) firing her gun with ear protection, yet outside in combat she doesn't have a problem. When you establish the fact that sound is a problem in the show, you can't contradict yourself. Oh yeah, Chisato's non leathal bullets can go through car doors, but not human skin. Is it wrong of me to think that Takina being kicked out of the organisation makes sense seeing how she picked up a machine gun to mow everyone down in a hostage situation?
Oh yeah, there's also the fact that the design for the Lycoris (the members of the organisation Chisato worked for) makes no sense. The uniform they wear and the equipment backpack they wear to store their gun/ammo is to hide them as school girls, so no one suspects that they are killing terrorists and to prevent them from being targets. This works until the main villain decides to kill a few Lycoris, so the whole point of the uniform turns completely useless half way in. Imagine undercover cops wearing a police uniform while undercover, it feels similar to something like that.
The equipment bag they have is also a odd choice, why not store the gun in a concealed pocked like actual police do? That way you can access it quicker when you need to. They do wear skirts (another design issue) so having them on the leg is not really an option, but in the 12th episode a Lycoris is actually shot before she can defend herself.
The ending also really sucks, to give a short summary, main terrorist want's to reveal the Lycoris to the world to dispel the myth that the Japanese society has no terrorist or is incapable of doing anything bad. So he hacks all the screens in Tokyo and shows footage of Lycoris next to dead bodies of terrorists, which in turn causes Lycoris outside to get attacked as well (although we only see like, one getting shot). But some hacker loli girl hacks into the screens and presents a message that it was all just a movie stunt to support economy. Meaning that everything that has happened up to this point is completely thrown away. It didn't feel like a good happy ending, rather just a disappointment. Especially you start rooting for the main antagonist since he actually has a goal.
I couldn't enjoy lycoris recoil at all, I hated every moment of the show. If you don't care for anything realistic and just want girls with guns, give it a shot. Girls und Panzer isn't realistic, but it doesn't matter because it never tried to be in the first place, Lycoris recoil bends reality however it pleases. When I see people saying they love this show it honestly feels like they like it because it's A1 pictures, not because they actually like the show.
That's all from me, I'm sorry if this felt like a rant, but I just had to get it off my chest. Lycoris recoil was a unwatchable disappointment for me, I'm sorry.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all