Assault Lily: Bouquet

Assault Lily Bouquet is an enjoyable story, but its enjoyment could run hollow.

The story follows Riri Hitotsuyanagi, a new "Lily" student that joined the school to follow the person that saved her, Yuyu Shirai. However, the story is more complicated than that; we need to understand the concept of Lily, Charm, Huge, Garden, Rare Skill, Legions, Schutzangel, and that part is where the plot becomes messy.

One of the most significant flaws in the series is the amount of information handled during the plot. These defects not only creates chaos, but they also affect the story with unnecessary threads. We can appreciate these defects ... with the characters. They keep introducing characters every time without a proper background or need. I have been trying to find a good explanation, and my conclusion is Assault Lily Bouquet is just a prelude that introduces the setting of the incoming game that will be launch in January 2021. That reason explains the need to add condensed information in only twelve episodes. Despite these problems, the series can be enjoyable if you spend some time understanding the plot.

On the other hand, the best, most exciting, and most poetic part of Assault Lily Bouquet the one section where Yuyu's feelings and her craziness side collides, leading to a fight toward artistry instead of just settling for commerce. The rest of this messy "prelude" is almost all commerce (fan service, unconcluded plot, etc) focused on the future game. As a positive part, how Yuyu's controlled her madness, the mystery surrounding her, and her relation with Riri kept me watching the story. The darkness developed in this part of the story is acceptable and at least worth the time. Meanwhile, additional information is misplaced. For example, Yuri's introduction could have been handled better, and there are several enigmas around her.

Still, Assault Lily Bouquet does a moderately good job building an intriguing plot and an acceptable mystery. Some of the visuals are quite lovely: The characters' design, some charms ideas, the backgrounds were the plot reaches the climax. Also, the sound is acceptable, has a score that does the job, and I cannot forget about the OP, Sacred World, which is excellent with good composition and rhythm.

Finally, we like to compare this series with Granblem, Madoka, etc., and it could be a mistake. We should try to understand the plot elements and enjoy the relationship between Yuyu and Riri and how they work their problems to enjoy the story and avoid comparing with different franchises that will always lead to differences and discrepancy. Overall, Yuyu's main plot is good and will be worth your time, and why not? It will help you to decide if the future game is worth your time.

Facts:
Is this series popular? To date, the series is 18 on the Japanese TV ranking, and that isn't an awful position for a series that several viewers are considering a piece of garbage. On the other hand, Tonikaku Kawaii ended in place 24. (These aren't the final season position yet, but I made my point)

Assault Lilly was a great ride from beginning to end, and was in my opinion, one of the sleeper hits of the season.

Based on the dolls of the same name, Assault Lilly brought to characters from the toy line in the setting of a magical girls school to train girls to fight monsters. Basic premise, but really fun execution in my opinion. As a fan of Mahou Shoujo and general CGDCT, I thought Assault Lilly was another good addition to the genre. While the plot is not outstanding, it was well written enough for me to grow to love the girls, empathise with them when ... they went through adversity and care about their development.

I’m a simple man to please, so cute girls/waifus plus action, drama and yuri undertones are more than enough to satisfy me. If you’re looking for a really fleshed out story and world, you won’t find that in Assault Lilly. It’s very obvious that it was made to promote the toy line. That’s ok in my opinion, not everything has to be Homer or Socrates to be enjoyable. For what it is, Assault Lilly is great.

My only real gripe about the series is the CGI. SHAFT do their usual job with the art, direction and everything else, but CGI was pretty subpar in this show in my opinion. I don’t think it’s a distraction, but it was definitely really noticeable in action sequences. Other than that, SHAFT did a great job as usual.

With enjoyable characters, cute moments, action and enough thighs to satisfy the horniest of us, Assault Lilly was a thoroughly memorable experience and I will certainly miss it. Assault Lilly gets 10 thighs out of 10.

So far, Assault Lily: Bouquet isn't an awful show per se, but it's sorely lacking in originality.

For starters, the concept is straight out of RWBY -- teenage girls with gunblades fighting against evil monsters that threaten humanity. We have a similar high school setting to early RWBY -- hell we're introduced to our naive protagonist on her first day at the academy, and she immediately meets a rich heiress who eventually becomes a close friend. Like, it doesn't even try to hide this part -- episode 3 starts off by revealing everyone has a semblance... er sorry, "Rare Skill".

However, that's still a fun enough ... setting to play with, so maybe the characters will make up for it?

Sorry, I can't even say that with a straight face. It took the first roll of the OP for me to figure out exactly who our main character Riri Hitotsuyanagi was going to be, even before the show introduced her.

See, about a decade ago Shaft made this show you might've heard of -- Madoka Magica. It was a big success -- and ever since then everyone and their dog has been trying to ride on its coattails. In other words, the magical girl genre has been consumed with innocent, pink-haired protagonists and cold dark-haired deuteragonists. I'm not even saying Madoka invented this character dynamic, but it's hard to pin this on anyone else when it's been ingrained down to the designs. Yuki Yuna is a Hero, Granbelm, Magical Girl Raising Project -- even shows outside of the genre like Revue Starlight (well, mostly just the Homura part in that case). Not to say it's been completely cookie cutter -- some of them do a solid job of putting their own spin on it -- but it's been starting to get really stale. Half the time, you can take one glance at these characters and know exactly what's coming from them.

Despite it being their own progeny, Shaft's been far from immune to this -- if anything they've shown they have no problem playing even stronger into it than everyone else. Magia Record's main pair of characters were one of the clearest examples of this trend -- but even that was forgivable considering it was a Madoka spin-off.

Assault Lily's just as blatant with no excuses to be found.

If this was the first time I'd seen it, I wouldn't care that much, but it's been a decade y'all, come up with something else. I also don't actually think this character dynamic is that great -- especially the protagonist part -- and I love Madoka Magica. It plays well off Madoka's plot (which heavily drives Madoka's entire cast) and adds strong contrast, but put into most other shows it's really not that interesting. An innocent, pure, goody-two-shoes really isn't a very interesting POV for most stories, and this one hasn't really felt any different.

The rest of the cast is a bunch of cliches that haven't really been fleshed out at all yet. I'm expecting this show to just go the Magia Record route and have a bunch of mostly disconnected stories fleshing out the like, 15 named characters who mostly have significant effort put into their designs. Four episodes in, I can’t keep track of all of them, and I can barely even tell which ones are important to the show. I'm also expecting to never care about most of the cast because there won’t be enough time to develop them meaningfully -- as is, the show has speedrun through Yuyu's character arc. Episode 4 also awkwardly shuffled into a new character’s arc just to speedrun through it even harder, so this is a concerning trend.

Okay, but what about the production quality? Even Magia Record had that as a pretty strong saving grace, and Shaft has produced some of the prettiest and most stylistically memorable shows of the past ~decade (eg 3-gatsu no Lion, Madoka Magica, and the Monogatari series).

It's... not bad? I certainly haven't had any issues with it. The opening's solid, the character designs are nice, the animation's felt fairly fluid... but I don't know, it's not really standing out to me. I feel bad complaining about it, but given we're talking Shaft, I can't help but want something more than this bland packaging.

As for anything else about the writing, I've been struggling to put my finger on why exactly, but the tone and direction of the show feel a little all over the place. For instance, I was expecting a darker shift in tone from the backstory of Yuyu, but the show didn't really build up towards that shift at all. It's been really light and comedic -- befitting of the high school-esque setting, but really strange when the show switches to a life-threatening fight against a 'Huge'. For specific instances, the first episode has both Riri and Kaede almost get killed, or the third episode casually points out the Huge they're fighting has killed dozens of Lillies... and yet there's not really any tension or grit to the actual fights, and these details feel quickly forgotten. In general, the world-building has felt rather slap-dash and poorly thought-out/defined so far; that being said, it's only been a few episodes, so I can't really say that much yet.

I really do hope this anime is able to pick up the slack and find its own voice in future episodes, but as of now I'm starting to feel a little indifferent towards it. Shaft can certainly do a lot better than this. It's /okay/ for now, but I worry it's going to get more and more tired and insubstantial as time goes on -- especially with such a large cast awkwardly looming. There’s at least a certain cutesiness to the character interactions and their ‘yuri’ namesakes, but so far the show doesn’t really feel committed to this angle (or any angle, for that matter).

I'd be honest, I didn't have any expectations when I started watching this. For me it was another side series done by Shaft. The show delivered what it promised from the first few episodes (i.e. thighs). The story isn't anything mind blowing, but I didn't expect it to have it in the first place. But the way it's presented will sure make you curious, and raise some questions, and make you think. If you don't want to think much, you'll still find it enjoyable. The art and animation is great, and Shaft has made a good use of 3DCG. I love the opening song, the ... characters are funny and you'll remember their personalities and faces, not necessarily their names.
There are so many characters and you'll see people complain about it, but you don't have to focus on them. They are not the main focus of the story but still if you're interested about them, you'll find something about them on the internet and the upcoming game. The show has its fun movement, sad moments and you'll see the main characters developed a lot by the end of the first season.
The show is Yuri, Action, Thighs, Bath Scenes. No nudity or anything inappropriate though. There's handholding if you consider that lewd. Those are the selling points of the show. If you hate such type of material, honestly you're not going to like it. But still if you watch it and then complain about a not so original and average story, it's your fault. Watch it for great visuals, Shaft, and everything else I mentioned above. The show is nowhere near the other great works by Shaft, but the world it’s set in has potential. If I have to compare it with something, I’ll compare it Symphogear series. So if you like that, you’ll probably like this more.

“In the midst of death, life persists.
In the midst of untruth, truth persists.
In the midst of darkness, light persists.” - Mahatma Gandhi

(At a pre-production introduction meeting in Shaft's HQ)
Bushiroad: Greetings, we're here to promote our newest toy line of figurines made by Azone International, it's called: Assault Lily and Custom Lily. Combine girlish youthful heroes termed "Lilies", with their powers of "Rare Skill: Magie" charging anti-weapons called "CHARM (Counter Huge ARMs)" and fighting against monstrous monsters called "Huge". In addition, we also have a mobile game coming up soon and really stretched of resources, is there any way that you can help us make this ... advertisement grow?

Series Director Shouji Saeki: We can help think and pen down a fictional story based on your synopsis alone. Oh, and by the way, you have come to the correct studio to discuss this project! WHY? We embrace our signature "magical girls gone heavily dark" scenario (popularized by Madoka Magica), the ever-so-popular THICC thigh angle shots (for some sweet-ass thirsty fanservice) and strong Yuri/death-bait undertones. And while at it, let's create a "sanctuary" for them (Yurigaoka "Garden" Academy training school) to enjoy some CGDCT elements of fun and protect one another, because it's the power of lesbian love! ALL HAIL YURI (self-insert for jokes xD)

With that, Assault Lily: Bouquet is established, and that's all you're required to know watching this show. exact to the T. Just great, and who cares about the off-throwing terms of Schutzengel, Schild, Charismas and Rare Skills anyways...

“Though lovers be lost, love shall not.” - Dylan Thomas

If the story plot doesn't hook you, then the characters will, starting from the first-year MCs of a new-gen Lilies Legion:
- Riri Hitotsuyanagi, the energetic and motivational pink-haired protagonist leader, and writhe with a "saviour complex" after being saved by another girl:
- Yuyu Shirai, the dark-haired idolized sophomore of the Academy, and simultaneously a broken-hearted wreck of a lone wolf deuteragonist (due to her past). Easy complications molded her to take up the tutelage of Riri, establishing a contract between both of them in the form of Schutzengel and Schild (think of it like a parent-child relationship).
- Kaede J. (Johan) Nouvel, a French girl whose family is the forefront manufacturer of the CHARM weapons. She's always envious of all the developing Yuri relationships and attempts to be the butt of all jokes. Of all the girls in the team, I genuinely love her "intimidating" character personality a lot, no joke about that!
- Fumi Futagawa, the obsessed otaku of the Academy, if you have a question about Lilies, she's the go-to girl to watch out for.
- Tazusa Andou, the alienating character when it comes to trust conflicts and the experimentation of her abilities as a "Boosted Lily", creating the harsh and taxing people-growth.
- Mai Thi Yoshimura, a Vietnamese easy-going girl with a vibrant personality. Just don't troll her with tenacious trainings.
- Kuo Shenlin, a Taiwanese girl who is kind to others and looks out for people, mainly her friend:
- Wang Yujia, a Chinese girl whom is an introvert and needs reliance on people on the emotional front.
- Miriam Hildegard von Gropius (just call her Gropi), a German girl whose genius status is unrivalled, but the same can be said for her extreme game addiction, much less a troublemaker.
- Finally, the temporary member Yuri (I won't reveal how her name came about), made from a mix of both human and Huge DNA, though showing exemplary abilities of an Artificial Lily (while she lasted).

Overall, not to worry if you forget who they are, because their names pop up ALL THE TIME to get you "invested" into their generic quirky character dynamics that make up the Hitotsuyanagi Team. Plus the other characters (of which I'll not mention because of the sheer number of them all), it paints both a fun and grim dramatic picture of relations that both explains and answers the only question: "Who and what are you fighting for?" It isn't a clear-cut case of just fighting against monsters, that's the very obvious-but-cliché part, and you can fill in the blanks of close speculation to accurate depiction of how all of this'll unfold.

“The bitterest tears shed over graves, are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” - Harriet Beecher Stowe

And since it's Shaft, in the 10 years (from the time of this review) ever since Madoka Magica came out, it has been the only studio to start the "magical girls gone heavily dark" craze structure right, and then seemingly just gave up its strong foothold altogether with the spin-off Magia Record. Since then and in-between, many others have tried to replicate the structure (see Yuuki Yuuna, Mahou Shoujo Raising Project, Granbelm among few others) to differentiating results of success. Assault Lily: Bouquet is no different, and the visual (both art and animation) style is almost symmetrical of the dark fantasy genre on both its setting and character designs, yet asymmetrical when it comes to everything else. This makes me wonder if the director's future work (of Luminous Witches) will have a direct copy-and-paste feature.

“Analysis of death is not for the sake of becoming fearful, but to appreciate this precious lifetime.” - Dalai Lama

The sound design and music though is really good, and sadly the only area where I can praise in a sea of "obligatory" originality. I already know that RAISE A SUILEN has a monstrous fanbase in Japan (because of their BanG Dream!! foundations), and barring the Cardfight!! Vanguard theme songs, this is the all-female group's 1st ever theme song to hit mainstream anime, and NGL, it's a banger song to start the show alright. The Hitotsuyanagi Legion team of VAs coming back for the ED and it's a visual showcase of death flags here and there (along with some sweet Yuri, DUH).

“In life, we weep at the thought of death. In death, perhaps we weep at the thought of life.” - Marilyn Monroe

As a whole, Assault Lily: Bouquet does only one thing right: add a number onto the onslaught of dark magical fantasy genre-based shows. Even if coupled with some decent action, this is still pretty tame by Madoka Magica standards, and the willingness of Shouji Saeki to even try is an admiration in itself, but I wouldn't push past against it. A mediocre-to-fine show if I can call it best, in an otherwise great effort of advertisement to potential fans that'll fap at anything Yuri-related.

Ending this review on a positive note:
“I joyfully await the exit – and I hope never to return.” - Frida Kahlo

There is a lot to say about how Assault Lily is so far, is it bad? Is it good? Well let me explain.

I feel somewhat in the middle when it comes to Assault Lily so far, wouldn't say it's a bad anime, but it's a good one at best. Let's start off with the characters. We've got a wide bunch of a cast, with some interesting and deep backgrounds when it comes to some, but also with how the story that has been set up, it just makes you interested in a more in depth look on the characters, and what they can offer. Which ... is good for a show. The characters have that going for them, but they're a bundle of personalities that really mesh well with one another. Along with the obvious Yuri vibes for even more extra fun. It's very cute and charming.

As for the story itself, it's a fun plot so far, with how it's set up. So far considering where it's at, there isn't much to tell besides what it's set up at the start not that is a bad thing, but the school setting, and seeing what lillies are all about is still a good starting point, But I'm sure it'll go more deep as it goes along, and I cannot wait to see what in fact does happen.

The art and sound are fitting for the moods, and also in terms of the art, are colourful, and nice and good to look at, cannot go wrong there.

Would I say watch it? For sure, it's setting up stuff for now, which just gathers more interest, and you'll be keen to know what it's setting up is.

Assault Lily Bouquet takes place in a all girls school/ training facility for Lilies.
A Lily's duty is to fight mages, the monsters that are roaming the world and that pose a huge treath to humanity.

The two main characters Yuyu and Riri are very different but still have a strong bond to one another.

Yuyu is a cold, frightening and misterious girl with a sad backstory that does not have many friends.

while Riri is a fun, cheerful and openhearted girl.

As for the other characters there's not much to say, they all have pretty much the same personality and I can't remember a ... single name.

The anime has a shoujo-ai feeling to it and I hope that it actually goes in that direction. As for the story the only thing that I am really intersted in is Yuyu's backstory as nothing else really got me invested, the monsters look like a mixture of the franxx and that pokemon magnemite and they aren't very "cool". None of the characters other than Yuyu really have any depth to them.

The music is great and the OP is a Bop!
The animation is also really good.

And it has very funny moments. My personal favorite line (this far) is “if I were a masochist I’d be over the moon”

I recommend Assault Lily Bouqet, it is cute, fun and simple with a tinyyyyyyy bit of depth to ONE (1) character and it has that "monsters have taken over the world and only teenagers can fight them and those teens only purpose is to fight these monsters and nothing else" feeling that Darling in the franxx and Evangelion has.

7/10

This show blew my expectations out of the water. It isn't the best anime I've ever seen, but it's a heck of a lot better than the ratings make it seem!

I'll start with the bad. Out of the many characters, only a select few get any kind of development or deep characterization at all. This goes for most shows, however. There is some serious yuri-bait, and while you wish some of the people get together, it's an anime that isn't solely centered around a single relationship so you know it's not going to happen. Some of the story elements are more than a little confusing, ... especially towards the end, but any casual viewer should be able to get the gist of most of it. The last thing is that there are definitely some cliche moments, but what else can you really expect from a yuri-bait, sword-gun fighting, monster killing, drama, comedy, action anime?

I know I just said a few things I didn't appreciate as much, but those things are FAR outweighed by the good in my opinion. First, the visuals are actually pretty good, I'd say a little above average. The soundtrack is downright awesome, and the op and ed are both really great! The story, while really just an excuse to get some cute girls wielding sword-guns fighting monsters, really lends itself to the characters and interactions it sets up. This show is still mostly just fun, but there are some actually really touching or moving moments. In one scene, I actually felt some tears welling, which was not anything I expected from this anime. ALSO, THESE CHARACTERS DEVELOP!!! And while it's really only the main 2 that have development, the development works really well with the story. Speaking of the story, the first bit is more lighthearted, and it gets slightly more drama heavy towards the second half. That brought down my rating a little, but then the show absolutely killed it towards the end, and even the drama and emotional scenes made the show better! The ending was good too, even if it was a little confusing. And while you can't really tell 100% of the time what is going on during the action scenes, it's just so damn awesome you can't really bring yourself to care about that little stuff.

Overall, this was just a hell of a good time. I'm sure all the reviews with low ratings have good reasons for it, but in my opinion this show more than delivers on what it set out to do.

To summarize: this anime isn't very good. I particularly find fault in the protagonist Riri's naivety, to the point it's annoying. In cliche bishojo naivety, Riri follows her Onee-sama foil Yuyu in the path of a Lily, another bishojo-with-weapons warrior fighting against unknown enemies, like Madoka Magica, Brave Witches, or Toji no Miko.

Unfortunately, unlike its superior brethren above, Assault Lily does not do anything to differentiate itself from the pack. It spends the first four episodes hanging worn tropes like teasing a "secretly" overpowered-protagonist, showing fanservice bathtowel scenes, and not fleshing out its protagonist outside of her interactions with her idol Yuyu. Riri is ... obsessed with Yuyu to the point her interactions with other characters feel more like stepping stones to get closer to Yuyu rather than actual supporting characters to help her bring out more personality.

That's not to say Riri is apathetic, she cares about Yuyu's wellbeing, but she's just so narrowmindedly naive to the core, she essentially denies herself of any characterization, to the point she's just a walking trope of a naive female protagonist (e.g. Yoshika of Strike Witches season 1).
her pursuit of her heroine foil.
But other than her unnatural Yuyu obsession (which other characters also point out once, but is overshadowed), Riri has no redeeming traits to her naiviety that borders on ego (that is pointed out once in the anime and then ignored after), and like most other naive protagonists, she finds a way to justify her want to help Yuyu even if it means prying into old wounds.

Riri's initial relationship with the quiet, cynical and brooding Yuyu has her naivety challenged by Yuyu herself, who wants to "teach" the naive Riri about how cruel the world really is, but by episode 4, this foreshadowing loses its chance to appear as Riri is quickly established as the calming Beauty to Yuyu's inner revenge-filled Beast, but the buildup to that moment is neither emotionally investing for the viewer, nor is it memorable.
This anime would be a great modern day military retelling of the whole Yuri genre's Onee-sama trope if it wasn't for the lack of depth in anyone except Yuyu herself, whose personality has turned from kind to cool girl from past trauma,in a Akemi Homura style of events.

A weekly TV show needs to be interesting in its first half to have people care about it as much as its director(s) does, but if the director doesn't flesh out the characters properly, no one will care what happens to them next week. To be fair, dramatic twists are typically executed in the latter half of an anime, but in order to keep an audience interested in watching a TV show on a weekly basis, even a anime like Assault Lily must have something that an audience can get invested in at the beginning. Like yuri-baiting or the cleavage fanservice for example, which the first half of this show has plenty of, though it isn't anything more than casual fanservice.
Sound and Art are rated high because the chara design is beautiful, and the opening song memorable (it's played by Raise a Suilen of Bang Dream). The rest of the soundtrack however is forgettable.

Overall, I disliked the protagonist's naiviety bordering on ego, and the lack of any characterization for anyone except her foil Yuyu. Assault Lily has the potential to be a bishojo-with-weapons interpretation of the classic onee-sama Yuri school genre (Maria sama ga Miteru, Strawberry Panic), but its lack of characterization and story hooks in the early half of the episodes wastes said story opportunities in favor of fanservice, fight scenes, and too many characters to remember or care about.


Even hardcore fans of the genre might be hard-pressed to find a reason to watch Assault Lily for its characterization OR plot, as there is very little of it in the first four episodes. Overall, Assault Lily has potential to shine on paper, but in execution it's inferior to its fellow bishojo anime.

The definitive underdog of the season. The 6.46 score is undeserved. I don´t understand why is this rated so low.

The story was nice. They constructed a great world with lots of possibilities and ways to carry the story. Animation was great (especially on Yuri fighting the robot) and sound was amazing (banger OP, great four endings, nice insert songs). Characters were also nice and beautiful, with none of them being hateable. Incredible how they got to attack by literally passing a bullet with Guardiola´s or Cappa´s style. Amazing football reference there. I really enjoyed this anime, and still wonder why score is so low.

Story: 7/10
Art: ... 7/10
Sound: 9/10
Character: 7/10
Enjoyment: 7/10

Overall: 7/10
Should you watch it? Yeah, give it a try.

I got bored of the show really quickly the plot was actually something that could be interesting but as of so far they haven't done anything with it and the characters were badly written all of them are one dimensional especially the main character shes just so boring and annoying. the art and music were good but not good enough for me to stick with the series. I think its an okay yuri anime overall and they had really cute scenes most of my problems come from the fighting scenes and characters. Anyway to summarise

Pros
Cute scenes
Yuri
Amazing op
Cool character designs

Cons
Boring ... plot
Characters are one dimensional

Overall it's okay

First of all. I'm a big fan of yuri series.
But I've never watch yuri aside from romance, So I guess this is nice seeing action one.

The story in the early episode is pretty make sense. Your cliche anime girl going to school stuffs. Well this one is apparently going to military school because they have magie or something. Alright pretty basic stuff. But the more story progress, the deeper it gets. But I can't seem to empathy to the character because how fast the story is. Even though the anime is emotional roller coaster, It didn't attach to me. Also, the dialog seems to have ... very lazy writing that it's starting to annoy me.

Art, and sound is an exception because the studio is pretty well known for making good quality anime.

The character is fine. A little bit too much character I should say, but I like shipping stuff so it's ok for me.

Enjoyment absolutely ruined, anti-climakx, ending doesn't make any sense at all.

Overall, Did I get wholesome yuri? Absolutely yes. Did I get a good story? No

There is no need for a long review. Assault Lily : Bouquet has nothing too deep or emotionally intense to offer; it isn't original either, but it's very well executed. If you want something fun to watch with a fast pace, nice battles and cute yuri, please yourself.

The musics (opening and ending) are actually fantastic. The art is of superior quality. The yuri is pleasant and explicit, nothing serious, but nothing vulgar either. The story and writing are nothing memorable, neither the characters are, but they are still good company for a season.

The general rating is way too stiff in my opinion. I saw a ... lot of yuri anime rated 7 on 10 here and those were far from being as good as this one.

To be honest, I didn't know what to expect about this show when I first read about it, but I decided to give it a chance because its premise looked interesting. So, after watching this show twice, once in Japanese and the other in English, was Assault Lily any good.

Story
The premise of teenage girls fighting a supernatural threat is pretty commonplace is anime, but Assault Lily puts an interesting spin on it by giving special focus on their weapons, their Charms. The girls, known as Lilies, use their Charms in order to fight giant monsters called Huge in epic battles throughout the landscape, while at ... the same time, they try to navigate through the pressures of what it means to be a Lily. The show doesn't shy away from depicting teenage girls as wiser and smarter beyond their years, such as talking politics and science or behaving like soldiers. That said, it doesn't become overly dark and gritty and still manages to maintain a stable balance between cute girls doing cute girls and intense action that wouldn't look out of place in a shonen anime. (7/10)

Characters
The protagonist, Riri, is basically required to be an everygirl, the character viewers are supposed to relate to the most or the easiest. She experiences much of the Assault Lily universe for the first time and ends up asking the questions we ourselves would ask if we found ourselves in those exact same situations. Riri is unexpectedly paired up with the seasoned veteran Yuyu, and their relationship quickly become the most interesting aspect of the show.

Riri and Yuyu evolve through their interactions with each other and by the show's end, it's become obvious that the two ultimately bring out the best in each other. I also enjoyed the supporting cast, such as the shy Fumi, the proud and elegant Kaede, the quirky and cheerful Miriam and the genius scientist Moyu. The character writing is easily one of the best aspects in Assault Lily. (9/10)

Art
The character designs, the backgrounds and the lighting are absolutely gorgeous, and while the action scenes are good, average viewers can notice that the girls are animated through CGI in order to facilitate movement, and that breaks supsension of disbelief. (7/10)

Sounds
The opening and closing songs are some of the best I've listened to in recent years, and the vocal performances are amazing. The show definitely benefitted from talented voice actresses in both versions, but if I had to pick a favorite, I'd pick the English dub, as it featured excellent performances from Sarah Wiedenheft (Riri), Lindsay Seidel (Yuyu), Dawn M. Bennet (Kaede) and Suzie Yeung (Fumi). (8/10)

Overall
Assault Lily was one of the finest anime I've watched in this past few years. It has great action scenes, beautiful character writing, incredible music and excellent vocal performances. I'm really glad I watched it and I definitely recommend it. (8/10)

All female anime is something i typically stay away from because they're either not aimed at a male audience, or they are and usually rely on conspicuous amounts of service to provide entertainment (which i don't personally find all that stimulating).

AL:B kinda falls in the middle, but does so in a surprisingly tasteful manner. The characters don't exist simply to satisfy male fantasies (though they are designed in such a way to be overtly "kawaii", there is a maturity/sensibility to it) and they each have their own distinct personalities with their own individual past, goals/ambitions, etc. The story as a whole isn't exactly deep, the ... show just kinda runs with a lot of assumptions about the universe, not worrying too much about minor details. Which in itself is neither here nor there as a criticism, but does mean that the ambiguous amorphous alien antagonist we see in a lot of low tier shows of this kind leave a lot to the imagination as the show goes on around it/them. Since these antagonist(s) are largely cheap and thoughtless that does remove a whole dimension of the show as an untapped resource to draw people in.

That being said, the show does have decent focus elsewhere. With decent character development from/between the protagonists even if it all seems by the numbers (suffering certain character tropes rather than to make them unique individuals) I feel like that's largely intended since half of the stimulus provided from the show is in fact the appealing aesthetic. My take is that the show is implicitly intended to be easy, thoughtless watching.

So i feel like it can be summarised as such: cute, simple, easy, aesthetic. The friendship scenes can be corny, but that comes with the territory and the combat scenes are actually really well done and cool. It's just a well balanced show that doesn't do particularly poorly or well at anything except for having amazing art. It's by no means top tier, but definitely better than average and was surprisingly to my taste.

overall score: -low six- (6.2)

First things first The chara design here is really......how should i say it "eye catching"

The story is so-so but the fight scene does show some great animation and quality in it. here you basically have all of your generic essential character like the energetic one, the lazy one, the cute one so-on, so-on. even tho the chara and the plot is nothing special the thing that caught me is the way they serve the show.

The way they show from scene to scene and from other perspective to another perspective is just somewhat indifferent for me to see. They didn't only focus ... on the MC but also focuses on the other character despite having so many of them.

ps. yuyu and riri has the best thighs no debate.

I was really looking forward to watching Assault Lily back when I first heard about it last year because the character designs looked great and I thought the concept had potential, even if it wasn't the most original idea in the world. However, I was also slightly concerned it would end up being a glorified toy commercial to sell merch, among other things, and unfortunately it turned into pretty much all the things I was worried it would become.

First I'll start with the things I enjoyed about it, and then I'll move onto the more negative aspects that I had problems with.

Art and Sound: ... The animation is easily the best part about Assault Lily, the animation, character designs, and fight scenes are beautiful, and since the art was what attracted me to this show in the first place, they did pull that off quite well and I have no complaints there. The music is also very good, I loved the OP and EDs, and most of the BGMs are enjoyable, though it's not Yuki Kajura or Hiroyuki Sawano levels of quality.

Worldbuilding/Lore: The worldbuilding and lore in Assault Lily was mostly what kept me going, there are a lot of fascinating aspects to it with the connections between Lilies and Huge for instance, and I really wanted to learn more about it, but unfortunately much of the worldbuilding potential was squandered in favor of cutesy moe yuribaiting, which I'll get to in a moment.

Characters: This is where a lot of my issues arise with this show. It has a bloated cast of one-note characters who get little to no development and end up being one-dimensional magical girl tropes. It's hard to keep track of and even remember all the characters, which is probably why their names show up on screen every time they appear. The only characters that get any development are Riri and Yuyu, and while I like their relationship, even after 11 episodes I still feel like they haven't developed their bond very much, they don't share much of their intimate feelings or desires, and they rarely open up to one another. The only semblance of bonding between these two is when Yuyu goes into PMS berserk mode and Riri has to calm her down, but even this feels forced and contrived.

Story: The plot is nonexistent, if you asked me what this story was about, I honestly couldn't tell you. It feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be, and the writers were just putting down whatever popped into their heads, which is mostly boring slice of life stuff that drags on forever. Whenever any interesting tidbits of lore come up, they're just vaguely mentioned and then they move right on without really expanding on it at all, which is disappointing because the worldbuilding has so much potential. The pacing is incredibly slow and directionless, like the creators had no idea what story they even wanted to tell, until the last 4 episodes when they pretty much went "well I guess we gotta come up with some kind of ending." It puts so much focus on the yuribaiting and slice of life aspects for 80% of the show, then occasionally decides to toss out a few crumbs of "story" that take forever to get anywhere. It doesn't have to go full on grimdark like Madoka Magica, but I think the balance between the more lighthearted and serious moments could have been handled much better.

Fanservice: This aspect is the worst part for me, and it really soured a lot of my enjoyment of the show. Now I love yuri, but what I can't stand is yuribait, and this is exactly the latter. We've got all these girls flirting and being cute with each other, but it never goes anywhere because all the characters are bland tropes with no development, and most of the times it comes off as super cheesy and dumb more than anything. Like, they literally put "yuri" in the name of the academy, the names of our two main characters (Yuyu and Riri), and even an entire character named Yuri who is portrayed as a "daughter" of sorts to Riri and Yuyu. It's eye-rolling levels of yuribaiting and it's severely offputting to me. I actually do ship Riri and Yuyu because I like their dynamic, but the show does barely anything to develop their relationship and to get them to know each other better. Aside from that we've got tons of bath scenes as well as thighs, and it's just...whatever, I guess. It's not ecchi levels, but I have a big aversion to fanservice and it's honestly disappointing to me that this seems to be the only thing people care about in this show, rather than the story or characters.


Overall Thoughts: I've seen a lot of anime over the years (180 to be exact) and I've seen my share of amazing shows, very good shows, decent shows, and plain bad shows. Assault Lily falls into the category of decent shows for me. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen, but it's far from the best. The animation, character designs, fight scenes, music, and worldbuilding/lore are all great and have potential, but it suffers from a directionless plot, an overstuffed cast of bland characters, and pointless, annoying yuribaiting and fanservice. If they come out with a second season for Assault Lily I probably won't watch it, because even with its few good points, that's not enough to outweigh its massive narrative problems for me, and once the final episode airs next week and I finish up this show I'll be moving on to other things.

First Review so ignore if it may sound weird but,
If you are here to watch thicc waifus doing one on one yuri action, then this is the show for you.

Story
Don't expect too much from the story since it the old world conquered by some random alien and trying to kill everyone in its path and special troops called lily are there to defend. Did you feel anything, I am sure you did not.

Character:
Nice thicc characters and all-female so enjoy the girl on girl action.

Art:
Character design good, the story has tried to put a soul in it, but till the 3rd episode, not much of the ... background is known.

Ara Ara Onee-sama!!!!

I'm really conflicted over my scoring. I really want to give it 10 for the delicacy of thighs throughout this entire anime. Like not only is there a lot of thighs, but they're all so great.

I feel overall as an anime, it's worth a 7, pretty average across the board, so I gave it a 7 to fit in with that. but I really would give it a 10 based on the thighs alone.

thighs, I swear that's the main plot, nothing had my attention more than the beauty of the thighs in this anime, which is a variety of thigh highs and leggings, and just ... thigh in some occasional scenes.

I get that all I've really mentioned was thighs this and thighs that, but that is literally the only reason why I wanted to write this review

I tried to give this a show a chance, I forced myself through as much of it as possible until I couldn't anymore.

When it shows action it is well done and competent but most everything else is bland and boring.

Most of the characters are barely tropes with barely enough screentime to even develop that far. The two main characters get a little bit of development but everyone else is relegated to tropes or basically being a background character in the main cast.

I know people love their cute girl shows with hints of (or doused in) Yuri but this doesn't feel like it should even satisfy ... that. The characters aren't worth investing your interest in if you can even find some interest. There is basically no development to speak of.

It's not like it's even a slice of life, where you are seeing their day to day lives and wacky antics. Large swaths of the show is just them sitting around doing nothing but talking as if they are going through the motions of a slice of life but without any heart.

I'd say just ignore this show, it's not worth cost of the production and it's only saving grace is it put food on the studios table.

If by some miracle there is some major change that shifts this show into being good, then it's first 7 episodes would still be regarded as an awful slog.