Assault Lily Bouquet

Episode 5

I'm the one who just last week was imploring Assault Lily Bouquet to focus on just a single story tone or subject, so I can hardly complain when it actually goes for that in this episode, right? I'm sure those who are specifically tuning into this for the crazy swordfights will be disappointed to see the show trade slicing and dicing for simple slice-of-life, but I'm just happy to find out that Assault Lily can indeed put some polish on something so long as it's just one thing. I've already compared the lighter, fluffier half of the show's hack-and-slashfic composition to Strawberry Panic!, but this entire episode wouldn't be out of place in that series' earlier entries. The surrounding tone definitely contrasts: Last week, Yujia and Shenlin engage in a tense physical contest to dispel the former's deep-seated fears about her self-worth and be ready for battle against humanity's enemies. This week, Yuyu takes a train out of town to buy drinks for Riri's birthday!

There is a little more to it, but honestly, not much. Key to this whole exercise is that we're finally getting a whole episode centered on Yuyu's perspective, and at this point I don't know if we're supposed to take her seriously at all. Her whole impenetrable stoicism schtick didn't last past the third episode when her testing trial partnership with Riri was aggressively shifted into legitimate sisterhood, and all of her other attempts to remain emotionally distant have failed spectacularly. Indeed, the conceit of this whole episode is Yuyu wanting to do something genuinely nice for her partner after so much personality zig-zagging, only to find out she's as hilariously failure-prone at that as she is at teaching her tough-love life-lessons.

If I've got any contention with this episode's choice to focus on Yuyu, it's that I still came away with little idea of what exactly I'm supposed to think of her. Her struggles to interact with others in the wake of her previous partner's death, that I get. But then is she actually a fully empathetic person who's only barely learning to actually show it? Or is she genuinely still figuring out the feelings of other people? The episode goes both ways, as Yuyu remains blissfully unaware of the obvious advice others give her about Riri liking any gift she could give her, but easily internalizes the feelings of gratitude from the shopkeeper in Riri's home town, and is all too eager to give up the ramune she traveled all day for to calm some bratty kids. So she's still enigmatic by the end, but in more of a goofy, inscrutable sort of way rather than an obstacle in the path of Riri's own character. Granted that shift may indicate some future twists and turns for the latter, as we find out by the episode's end, so I can't really write it off either.

Whatever the incredibly light character work is actually trying to accomplish here, it's secondary to the presentational enjoyment this episode seems to be prioritizing. This entry ends up being a mostly-breezy piece coasting almost entirely on atmosphere, and it works. With Yuyu as our stoic anchor, seeing the antics of the more lively characters unfold around her marks them more clearly as comedic beats than anything else, and lets the tone come off mostly consistent. There is the faintest hint of a subplot with the characters Tazusa and Yoshimura, but it mostly amounts to them signifying Yuyu's own coming around by being the ones to join and formally complete the legion by the end. The rest is the same silly conversational antics you should expect from Assault Lily by now, culminating in my favorite part of the payoff where Yuyu just repeatedly owned herself in overcomplicating efforts for Riri's gift that weren't needed to please her partner. Yuyu's kind of mediocre, but Riri finds her efforts lovable anyway. It's the kind of relationship I'm striving for with this show itself.

As if to cut me off in regards to this episode's proceedings being too vapid, they even manage to work in some light world-building in ways that feel natural – a feat good writing can accomplish when it's not also trying to clumsily work in a swordfight somewhere. I like how the underlying mysteries are kept in-frame by simply letting us see elements of the setting and piecing them together, like the fact that half of Riri's home-town has been evacuated and cordoned off due to huge activity. It indicates that their threat may be more imminent than the arc-motivated major monster attack we'd seen before, and I like that. The other major point is a bit more in-your-face: Yuyu's roommate states at the end that Riri's Rare Skill is in fact ‘Charisma’, which maybe explains why Yuyu and the others have so easily been drawn into partnership and legion with her. I can't tell how far into meta-text or even parody an anime has to be to name and codify the natural magnetism a character gets in being the protagonist, but Yuyu's concerns over it signal they could be doing something with it going forward, so I'll let it be for now.

Like Yuyu's convenience-store gift to Riri, the successes of this episode are wrapped in an appealing presentation that I think is what truly elevates this episode to be probably the best overall time I've had with Assault Lily so far. Compared to the last couple of episodes, a lot of the cut-ins and reactions here are more noticeable as Studio Shaft's signature quirks, and that brings out the nicer looks overall. Characters have some great distinctive facial expressions, and there are hilarious little moments like Yuyu's rapid backwards-walk in the store aisle. Apart from the animation, there are even some delightful character touches in the direction itself, like juxtaposing Yuyu's panicked, confused inner monologue over ramune with her stock-stoic facial expression. It draws out comparisons to her more weary, exasperated appearance by the end of the episode, selling what she went through even though that ultimately wasn't as much as, say fighting a giant robot. Overall it makes a great case for Assault Lily not cutting corners in episodes like this and still being a cool-looking cartoon even when it's not depicting flashy swordfights. And given how nicely this one turned out, maybe it should stick to this kind of thing more often.

Rating:

Assault Lily Bouquet is currently streaming on Funimation.