English Dub Review: Assault Lily Bouquet “Jade Vine: Forget Me Not”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Riri’s birthday is tomorrow, and Miss Yuyu wants to give her a gift. But just because they’re pledged together now doesn’t mean Yuyu actually knows all that much about her underclassman. She decides to ask around to learn more about Riri’s habits and what she might like as a present.

Once she learns about Riri’s strange affection for a drink called Ramune, Yuyu decides to take a day off from training and go to Riri’s hometown in order to track the drink down. She discovers that while many people have fled the surrounding area after the Huge attack, there is still a kindly shop keeper who remembers Riri. And by the end of the day, she’s given Riri more than just a bottle of ramune.

Our Take:

The fifth episode of Assault Lily Bouquet is one of the best episodes yet. After a slow, rather directionless episode last week, Jade Vine: Forget Me Not returns the focus to our main characters and their relationship. But instead of following Riri around like usual, Yuyu takes center stage, allowing us to get to know her and her feelings for Riri like never before.

Riri still hasn’t found the final two members to join the legion. Yuyu notices she’s feeling a bit down, and decides to do something special for her birthday. Yuyu only finds out about her birthday because Fumi finds a tablet computer (that Riri confuses for a cutting board) which is able to display personal info and stats for some reason. It’s not much, but it does hint at a world that was once more similar to our own.

Watching Yuyu try to track down the perfect gift for Riri takes up the first half of the episode. It’s kind of like last week’s episode in that it features a montage of visiting with random girls across the school, but this time it’s more fun because this isn’t something Yuyu would normally do. It’s very telling when everyone knows things about Riri — her habits, her favorite candy — but Yuyu knows none of it. The two of them may be pledged together, but Yuyu is still working on letter herself get closer with her comrade.

The perfect opportunity arrises when she learns that Riri loves a drink called ramune. Assuming it must have been sold in her hometown, Yuyu takes a day trip to the location. It’s a nice detour mid-episode that gets a bit more atmospheric that the show normally does, showing off wide expanses of dark forests and deserted towns. It almost seems like a dream Yuyu has — we never see the shopkeeper who sells her the ramune. But in the end of her journey, she feels like she’s gotten closer to Riri just by being close to where she grew up.

The ending is great — Yuyu gives away her bottles of ramune to needy kids but runs into Tazusa and Thi Mai, two delightful fellow lillies, who help her find a vending machine that’s close to campus and filled with ramune. Of course, Riri knew about it the whole time, but that doesn’t make it any less special. Yuyu took the time and put in the effort to do something nice for her pledge, and Riri won’t forget it anytime soon. Charisma might be Riri’s special power, but Yuyu herself gets more charismatic in this episode than she’s ever been before.