Forum - View topicAssault Lily Bouquet (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Assault Lily Bouquet (TV) Genres: Action, Magic, Fantasy Plot Summary: ]On Earth in the near future, mankind was on the verge of destruction from an attack by a mysterious life form called the Huge. The whole world united together against this threat, using magic and science to create weapons called Charms. Around the world institutions known as Gardens raise girls called Lilies to wield these weapons. Riri Hitotsuyanagi managed to pass the exam to enter the prestigious Garden known as Yurigaoka Girls' School. She entered in an attempt to find Yuyu Shirai, a girl who rescued her in her past. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24165 |
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Episode 1
I wonder how many shows there have been about schoolgirls using weird weapons to battle creatures threatening humanity? One or two, I guess. Nothing about this one super stands out based on the first eppie, but it was okay enough for me to check out further eppies. May not be a keeper, though, especially if I do decide to raise my standards somewhat. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Quite a few, I remember a few years ago it was running quite a trend, and I was actually a fan of some of the more obscure ones. And even the half decent ones I can be into. And I like what I see in the first episode, to the point that I would already be accusing it of ending up disappointing me after leaving a good impression. Also has a lot of yuri subtext, actually so bold that I would be hesitent to call it subtext since the first episode was pretty clear that the one girl pretty much outright said that she is not loose and thus is giving up whatever feelings she had with the other girl to dedicate herself to Riri. Another girl had a nosebleed over girls, and I would hazard that you probably could connect the whole lily thing since they are often a symbol of and to my understanding meant to be similar words. So, I will just hope that this won't be one of the shows that I will say that I stupidly had high hopes for and ended up just doing cheap uninteresting jokes and simple yuri bait. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4158 |
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That's not Yuri subtext, that's Yuri text which was right in the title from the start and in the how was destined partners, rings, nosebleeds and the snuggling. I would rate the episode as "phenomenal"; When I started playing it, I was thinking that we were overdue for a My Hime style show and this is close enough for me, kind of My Otome combined with Simoun.
The episode had me hooked right from the start as I keep trying to figure out how Riri was narrating in style of chatting with someone she just meet on the train. It was an exposition dump in a scattershot, scatterbrain style with lots of stops and asides... it less about introducing the world and more about Riri herself yet she's holding info back from us about herself, that much is clear. And going by my notes for such stories, Yuyu's assumed partner... And, yes, the first thing I thought of when I learned Riri came through on the waitlist was "OK, who died?" Yes, everything could be nice, light and fluffy but 1: This is SHAFT and 2 Lilies should ABSOLUTELY not fight each other, according to Riri. So.. how long will the wait be? And the soundtrack is amazing, varied, rich and very expressive. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 12 (finale)
That felt a bit sudden, like they have this massive climax where pretty much the whole school does that one technique of passing a magic bullet, defeat the enemy, and then with what time left in the episode they find out about the leader of all the Huge and Riri and Yuyu go kill it. Did they know they were going to be inside of a big ball afterwards? Because they just kind of go in with a giant parasol parachute, their school uniform, the weapon to win, and not really anything else to protect from the ocean. It really felt like they just wanted to wrap everything up. I kind of wanted to like this show more than I did, but parts just bugged me, and for that I think I am going to need to talk about the yuri bits. Indeed, yuri could barely be subtext in this show, it did not hide at all Riri's name sounding like lily, an often symbol of yuri/lesbians, not that Yuyu and Riri together make "yuri". They even had a Vivio like daughter that was called Yuri. Vivio being from the also magic tech Lyrical Nanoha franchise, which got paper thin in hiding starred a lesbian couple. But I don't think it is perfect, specifically from how this series is big into the big sister/little sister, kouhai/sempai brand, which kind of creates a picture of a young girl (lesbian) adopted by an older one, before they graduate with the kouhai adopting their own kouhai, and presumably the elder growing out of it. Maybe the show would be saying that they are not necessarily going to be straight eventually, and their formed bonds won't break like that, but this kind of element of the Japanese culture just sits funny with me, because it is not necessarily true queer acceptance. Also feels like the idea of toxic relationships was left a little weird. Like just late in the show it kind of revealed that Yuyu's relationship with Misuzu might not have been entirely healthy, since we saw that Misuzu used her power of Charisma to overwrite Yuyu's will to make her more dependent. And there could have been something there, about someone might use their imbalance of power to control other in a way that is not equal like a relationship should be. Kind of like how this whole subgenre of yuri exists as an imbalance of power between the kouhai and senpai. But this episode just kind of went that Misuzu actually did like Yuyu a lot, so it kind of makes it alright what Misuzu did to her mind. And how you could also read into the kouhai be abandoned by the sempai, characterized by Misuzu seemingly dying because or instead of Yuyu, which had messed her up. At least I don't find them fully resolved. It all leaves me thinking that it is a little exploitive. It is fine if not everyone thinks that way, some are just for a bit of the light fanservice and will call me all Shonen Jump Weekly for not being happy with just having a yuri show, that it somehow has to reflect my own morals rather than the Japanese culture. I also am not quite what else to think about the whole plot of Yuri dying in the show just as she had just got some acceptance and became a full person. I am sure that I could read into how her story is about how she is demonised because she is not exactly like everyone else, being treated as too dangerous for what is deemed normal, and how the defense was that she as just as valid as everyone else. To say that although not likely intended, you could read something about yuri itself or queer couples being treated as differently, maybe just property meant to be kept where it belongs rather than real people. Maybe even something about a need for a tragic end. But I am not really sold if there really big depth here. The show was pretty though. Somewhat expected when you have SHAFT on it, but also avoided the needs to get abstract with symbolism like SHAFT can often be. It looked good, it sounded good, I think that it got some good details in and could have fun with its light yuri tones. I liked some of the extended cast thing, although it does get a bit extensive that it makes me wonder if it is part of some game with a large cast. Anyway, my rating is Good (7/10), its quality is worth about that much, but at least a whole bunch of other stuff I can talk quite a bit about how I would question it. |
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