English Dub Review: Assault Lily BOUQUET “Lily of the Valley: Return of Happiness”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

It’s Riri’s second day at the academy of Lilies, and she’s determined to find out what’s bugging Miss Yuyu and make a Schutzengel pledge with her. However, the older upperclassman won’t even give her the time of day.

Riri explores the school with Kaede and Fumi, meeting some interesting new girls like Miss Moyu and learning more about Magie and CHARMs. But despite all the cool new things to do at Yurigaoka Academy, she still isn’t satisfied until she asks Miss Yuyu to be her Schutzengel. Surprisingly, her idol accepts, but things may not be as good as Riri wants to believe.

Our Take:

The second episode of Assault Lily Bouquet takes its foot off the gas for a bit, letting Riri and the audience wander around the academy building and learn more about the strange new world the show is set in. It’s a more laid back pace, and I think it works fairly well after the mile a minute premiere — although there’s still a lot going on beneath the surface here.

Riri is still fixated on Yuyu, of course. It makes sense that she’d be curious about the girl who saved her life, but I can’t help but feel like her interest is a little overblown for the five minutes she spent with Yuyu years ago. Once she finds out about the Schutzengel pledge tradition, where an older lily takes an underclassman beneath her wings, she won’t stop until asking Yuyu, despite it being standard for the elder girl to propose the pledge.

She ends up entering into the pact with Yuyu despite being initially refused, thanks to some fast talking by Kaede. The brown haired girl is all over Riri after bonding with her in the premiere, and it doesn’t seem like Riri is that interested in her. Fumi, on the other hand, has a fun dynamic with her, and I could see a pledge between them happening which would be a lot of fun.

The world that the lilies live in gets a bit more background in this episode, too. Kaede mentions that one of the reasons they have a sauna is that the adults of the world feel bad for relying on a bunch of teenage girls for their safety. Apparently, the lily program is taxpayer funded as well, and all the girls’ private information is sealed until they come of age. Some aspects of the series like Magie and CHARMs are still a bit conceptual, but it’s nice to know that the lilies don’t exist in a vacuum.

The ending of the episode leaves it clear that Yuyu isn’t in the pledge to actually help Riri. No, it looks like she has some dire lessons in mind to teach the girl who idolizes her — and Riri may come out of this experience a different person herself.