While Episode 4 of Lycoris Recoil had a handful of moments teasing fanservice, the episode never once gave fans a glimpse as it was meant to focus on the deeper meanings of the episode. Series director Shingo Adachi came back this week with another brilliant episode that brought Chisato and Takina closer together, not as partners, but as friends while never once letting the main plot skip a beat.
Connecting the Dots
As I’ve said since the start, everything in Lycoris Recoil is tied together in one way or another. Take for example how Kurumi was introduced. Yoshi blew her apartment to pieces in episode 1 while Chisato and Takina were getting acquainted and we never thought anything of it. Then in episode 2, the whole mission was focused on rescuing her, but we didn’t know that until the very end of the episode. The same goes for Episode 4, while Chisato and Takina had more leisure time to themselves, Yoshi kept pulling the strings, possibly being the reason behind the subway incident in the last episode.
And in that return led to a new antagonist, Majima, that wants to take down as many Lycoris as possible. And who is helping him? Robota. And who hired Robota in the first place? Yoshi—the same man who’s fascinated with finding out what Mika and Chisato do for a real living. And it’s no coincidence that the end of Chisato and Takina’s day together ended with the incident in the subway involving Majima that Chisato told Takina not to get involved in.
While Chisato may have been acting kind and sweet all episode with Takina, there’s more of a reason why she told Takina not to get involved in the incident when it happened. Not having their uniform on seemed like a piss-poor excuse that even Takina knew. But we won’t find out why Chisato told her not to get involved until later because obviously she still knows things that haven’t been spilled yet—further adding to the allure of who Chisato really is.
Chisato and Takina
While some fans may have been disappointed in the “fanservice” department, once you look at what the day meant for Chisato and Takina as characters, you begin to realize the moments at the aquarium, restaurant, and shop were all more than just teasing fans and having some funny moments.
This episode brought Takina out of her shell for the first time. As her character development couldn’t be incredible enough, Chisato continued to dig deep and bring the real Takina out ever since meeting her in episode 1. It’s been a slow burn and not-so-slow burn at the same time with Takina’s character development. It’s just a wonderful display of consistency on Adachi and original story creator Asaura’s part.
And while it looked like Chisato didn’t have the development potential Takina did, she also received some stellar development in episode 4. We finally got closer to Chisato on a personal level and the episode did a wonderful job of making us feel like Takina—shocked when hearing all of this for the first time. Not only this, but now we have some more insight into who Chisato really is—or possibly isn’t.
Lycoris Recoil Episode 4 Wrap-Up
Episode 4 of Lycoris Recoil was more than its (almost) fanservice and its appeal of “cute girls doing bad-ass things”. In fact, the series has always been more than that appeal and will continue to be much more than that. And if any of these four episodes couldn’t prove that at this point, then you’re missing out on something much more incredible that’s in the works.
Episode 5 of Lycoris Recoil will air on Saturday, July 30, exclusively on Crunchyroll.
Screenshots: Crunchyroll
© Spider Lily / Aniplex / ABC Animation / BS11
