×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
EP. REVIEW: Assault Lily Bouquet


Goto page 1, 2  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Electric Wooloo



Joined: 19 Aug 2020
Posts: 307
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 1:08 pm Reply with quote
I don't disagree that it's a bit shallow thus far, but I think the artistry and execution make it still worth watching. Yuyu's subplot is fairly typical so far, but still drew me in since it was executed well. It didn't feel all that rushed at all, though I admit I'm a sucker for mecha-musume and mecha-musume adjacent series.

There's a lot more hints of worldbuilding in EP 3, with the HUGE being mentioned as regular creatures mutated by Magie meaning this isn't some invasion by alien creatures but perhaps something more "natural", and the cryptic "the line between winter and spring is blurred now" which hints at more widespread devastation.

As for Moyu's willingness to spill the beans in ep 3 but not 2, I read her as the practical type and the situation in ep3 warranted her explaining things so the new girls would kno what was going on. The situation is different in the heat of battle then sitting around a table.

Hard agree on Kaede though. Hyper gay Ojou who won't put up with Yuyu's ice queen attitude is my favorite so far.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 3:42 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
showing off the line of dolls – excuse me, action figures – for a TV anime audience.

Excuse you, figmas!

(I have no idea what's actually being sold but I assume it's figmas)

Anyway, I don't expect the show to break any new ground, but it's pretty gay so I'll probably enjoy it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Sisyphusson66



Joined: 04 Dec 2018
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 5:04 pm Reply with quote
Visually stunning show, but with a number of critical flaws. Chief among those for me it the onslaught of character introductions and reintroductions every episode that fail to actually establish them in any memorable way unless you are already familiar with the greater property being adapted.

Solving Yuyu's issues in the third episode is way too rushed and removes almost all of what little purpose the second episode has for existing.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:46 pm Reply with quote
Episode 1 opened with Riri talking to someone who wasn't there and ended with Yuyu being talked to by someone who isn't there. I recognized the narrative structure right from the start and appreciated it though I also knew I was being tricked from Yuyu's half decorated room- I recognized her first partner was dead from the personality change and I figured her side was the unfurnished one and episode 3 confirmed it as a last minute reveal.

So, the theme of the series is dichotomies... sorry, this is just a toy ad so I shouldn't look at it for anything creative. Sorry. Nothing to see here.

Still waiting to see what happened to Riri though.

The soundtrack is also really good and I like the RAS opener but I have no idea if they're trying to sell the band of another franchise or if SHAFT is just using them because they like their sound.

Epsiode 4- Riri starts a faction. "For what?" he asked innocently still expecting this series to go full My Hime after the third episode of characters saying why the Lilies SHOULDN'T fight one another. "See? They kill one another, that's why they shouldn't fight."

I don't know, you'll have to give me a few more examples before I really get it.

Again, nothing to it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
OtherSideofSky





PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 9:23 pm Reply with quote
I'm glad to see that someone is keeping the lost tradition of putting characters' names on screen when they show up alive and well, even if Assault Lily doesn't quite reach the heady, entirely gratuitous heights of Odin in that regard.

It's interesting to see how this series differs from the 2015 LN it's loosely based on (which I have read for God knows what reason; I do not recommend you follow my example). The cast is the same, but events have been significantly altered to put action scenes in the early episodes. The anime also cuts the teacher character from the novel as well as all the classroom scenes in favor of one-on-one training. There are also some setting differences, like CHARMs in the anime firing bullets instead of beams (maybe because someone pointed out a "laser machinegun" makes no sense). Mostly, though, I'm just glad that the anime cut the running gag of Kaede squeezing people's asses when she hugs them.

Quote:
one of those Class-S Yuri-shipping schoolgirl shows

Where does the "Class" part come from? I've seen it a few times on this site, but I've only ever seen "エス" or "S" in Japanese articles, papers, etc. and a search for "クラスエス" just gets shampoo and an English Wikipedia article.
Is it to distinguish things like Mari-Mite from actual prewar S fiction? If not, it seems kind of disrespectful to use the term for modern pastiches when it properly describes a genre typified by the works of actual lesbian and activist Yoshiya Nobuko and other contributors to early girls' magazines like Shojo no Tomo, doubly so because girls at that time seem to have also used to the term to describe real-life relationships. Even a novel like Otome no Minato (which has often been credited solely to Kawabata but was actually first drafted by Nakazato Tsuneko) differed fundamentally in audience, appeal, and social context.[/quote]
Back to top
OtherSideofSky





PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 9:29 pm Reply with quote
Florete wrote:
Quote:
showing off the line of dolls – excuse me, action figures – for a TV anime audience.

Excuse you, figmas!

(I have no idea what's actually being sold but I assume it's figmas)


A quick search reveals that they are officially called "action dolls." It looks like they have cloth clothes and some degree of customizability.
This anime is probably more to advertise the supposedly upcoming gacha game, though.
Back to top
Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Sun Oct 18, 2020 12:20 am Reply with quote
OtherSideofSky wrote:
Florete wrote:
Quote:
showing off the line of dolls – excuse me, action figures – for a TV anime audience.

Excuse you, figmas!

(I have no idea what's actually being sold but I assume it's figmas)


A quick search reveals that they are officially called "action dolls." It looks like they have cloth clothes and some degree of customizability.
This anime is probably more to advertise the supposedly upcoming gacha game, though.

Well, that backfired on me pretty hard.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:02 am Reply with quote
Shenlin just William Tell'd herself willingly nine times only to unexpectedly pick up her shield and hit it back to Yujia who just barely blocks it with her weapon in time. Shenlin then turns to Yuyu and tells her "... I just barely had time to do that."

Doesn't explain why, doesn't really even excuse how, she just comments that she almost couldn't do it. About time we have a boatlight character who acts like a proper boatlight character should - awesome yet also terrifyingly aloof.

Episode 4 of showing why characters shouldn't fight one another.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Electric Wooloo



Joined: 19 Aug 2020
Posts: 307
PostPosted: Sun Nov 08, 2020 9:14 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
This one manages to neatly ignore Yuyu's efforts from the previous episode to not take herself so seriously, putting her angst front and center again while also bringing all the other characters together like they're capping off some arc we didn't actually see.


Yuyu's a deeply traumatized person. I don't see why episode 3 would have brought her arc to an end or why she wouldn't have a similar reaction here just because she was down to earth last episode. Perhaps there is some disconnect between the episodes, but this series is looking more and more to be focused on Yuyu's past (what with the implications of this week's HUGE) and Riri helping her get over that. Trauma as deep seated as Yuyu's, to the point it impacts her everyday, can't be solved with one gay hug.

I do wish we were getting more of the side characters, but the focus of basically every episode so far has been on the main pair so it seems strange to complain that this one is too.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Mon Nov 09, 2020 5:12 am Reply with quote
Quote:
We see snippets of her second-guessing every thought or interaction she has with Riri, questioning how much of it is her own feelings or not. That's a solid path to complicate and possibly strengthen the relationship of the main girls, so of course the rest of the episode hardly does anything with it.


You do realize Riri unknowingly used "Charisma" to talk Yuyu out of a "Kill them all!" Berserker state right? What I felt was missing was when Yuyu told Riri "But I'm supposed to protect you!" was Riri's response of "No, you silly, I'm going to protect you."

Riri's CHARM broke but now Yuyu has two and with a Legion worth of CHARMs to fix, you don't exactly have to be Chekov to see what the next plot point is going to be.

"Next episode: Riri's Legion gets a new member!"
... that's not what the episode was setting up though. Unless the newest member is the Armory LILY who decides to not fix the rest just to study the reclaimed CHARM.

Was I the only one reminded of the Bikini Island H Bomb test, specifically the fleet of ships caught up in it when they were just spectators? People gather like it's a Social to watch what is clearly some kind of atomic explosion... something's kind of off here.
"It was blocked" Wait, that was a miss?!
"It's still moving!" Wait, you can tell?!

And the Huge can form pacts with CHARMs, episode 6 of alluding that out and out LILY fighting is not at all what we're doing here, really. It better not be like Queen's Blade, the series where HOBBY JAPAN spent one season marketing its characters only to pit them against one another in a second season.

That would be wrong.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Sisyphusson66



Joined: 04 Dec 2018
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 6:36 am Reply with quote
Electric Wooloo wrote:
Quote:
This one manages to neatly ignore Yuyu's efforts from the previous episode to not take herself so seriously, putting her angst front and center again while also bringing all the other characters together like they're capping off some arc we didn't actually see.


Yuyu's a deeply traumatized person. I don't see why episode 3 would have brought her arc to an end or why she wouldn't have a similar reaction here just because she was down to earth last episode. Perhaps there is some disconnect between the episodes, but this series is looking more and more to be focused on Yuyu's past (what with the implications of this week's HUGE) and Riri helping her get over that. Trauma as deep seated as Yuyu's, to the point it impacts her everyday, can't be solved with one gay hug.

I do wish we were getting more of the side characters, but the focus of basically every episode so far has been on the main pair so it seems strange to complain that this one is too.


I think the biggest issue is how deep a sense of deja vu this episode has when it comes to what happens with Yuyu, how it is handled, and how it relates to her past. It doesn't feel like a continuation or a development in Yuyu's trauma and her eventual (presumed) healing. Instead, it comes off as a complete retread of episode 3, just with less about her backstory. It feels exactly like it did in episode 3, rather than this being a moment where she could show some slight growth.

If episode 3 was moved up to episode 5 and made a two-parter with this episode, it would have worked much better.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Electric Wooloo



Joined: 19 Aug 2020
Posts: 307
PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 4:23 pm Reply with quote
I won't deny that it was something of a retread of Episode 3, but I feel that the several minute heart to heart between Yuyu and Riri prevents it from being a meaningless development. Riri's proclamation to always pull Yuyu out of her trance, and Yuyu's breakdown of how she's isolated herself for so long, do give us some more character development than in episode 3 which, as mentioned, was more focused on Yuyu's past.

That combined with the teaser's about the HUGE and Magie make feel, imo, like a perfectly competent episode. There were more similarities to episode 3 than were needed, but there were still enough differences to push things forward.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
JintoLin



Joined: 29 Sep 2020
Posts: 44
PostPosted: Sun Nov 22, 2020 6:52 pm Reply with quote
Florete wrote:
Quote:
showing off the line of dolls – excuse me, action figures – for a TV anime audience.

Excuse you, figmas!

(I have no idea what's actually being sold but I assume it's figmas)

Anyway, I don't expect the show to break any new ground, but it's pretty gay so I'll probably enjoy it.

Ha! You wish they were as cheap as Figmas. They're closer to $80-$100 a piece. I have the first four, who are the four lead characters of the anime, so the damned things better be appreciating in value! Very Happy
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Kaylee Smerbeck



Joined: 26 Jul 2017
Posts: 144
PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 11:56 am Reply with quote
Well this week gave the lesbians everything we wanted
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Electric Wooloo



Joined: 19 Aug 2020
Posts: 307
PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:32 pm Reply with quote
Still a bit of a drip feed of information, but I do like the slow worldbuilding. Like how the HUGE apparently contain the genomes of every creature.

Kinda expected spoiler[Yuri being an artificial Lili in some way or some sort of HUGE, turns out she's both!] I'm glad that even though the stakes are rising a bit we still have the moments of fluff and the amazing animation.

I suspect that spoiler[Kaede maybe being a traitor or a plant from her father is a red herring, and even if it isn't there's no way she would turn against Riri at this point.]
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group