English Dub Review: Assault Lily Bouquet “Lily: Purity”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Since Yuri’s death, Riri and the rest of the Hitotsuyanagi squad have been a bit down. In her funk, Riri has come to realize just how much she idolized Miss Yuyu at the beginning of her Lily training, and how she’s now in it for more than those selfish reasons — she wants to protect those close to her.

And she gets the perfect chance to put that into practice when a group of three Huge launch a sneak attack on the academy, which is evacuated by everyone except Miss Yuyu, who has been seeing visions of her ex-Schutzengel and is in a crazed state of self-sabotage. Riri is the only one who can save her, but is she up for the challenge?

Our Take:

After several breather episodes to recover from the passing of an innocent victim, Assault Lily Bouquet kicks into high gear this week for the penultimate episode. Lily: Purity finds our two main girls separated, with Yuyu majorly in her head about everything that’s led up to these final moments. It’s a lot going on, and it makes for a densely packed episode heading into the finale.

The opening of the episode is innocent enough — the girls are still on the mend after the shock of losing Yuri. But hope shines on the horizon, as Fumi and the rest of the squad are eager to throw a party (themed like Riri’s favorite drink) in order to get everyone back on track and on the same side. But Yuyu is the key to the puzzle here, and she’s not in any position to get stuck back into the same place as before.

The powerful leader that so many of the Lily’s look up to has never been the most stable person. Even her special skill is one that makes her lose control, so it’s not exactly surprising that she’s started seeing Misuzu, her old pledge who supposedly died fighting the Huge, more frequently. The CHARM Misuzu was using when she died has been experimented on by Miss Moyu, and she’s made some startling discoveries, namely that it seems like Misuzu had extremely strong Charisma as her special skill, to the point where she was able to erase the memories of those around her.

We see this taking place in a flashback where Yuyu confronts her, as well as other suspicious scenes where she sits under a beautiful tree full of cherry blossoms and compares them to the Huge. It’s a big surprise to unveil Yuyu’s ex-Schutzengel as the potential mastermind behind the recent Huge attacks, but it’s not entirely out of left field. She’s always been lurking around the edges of the action in the form of memories and the affect her passing had on Yuyu, so it feels right in a way to draw her in for the finale. And if the girl she has so much guilt over turns out to be a wrong ‘un, then that could be a good way for Yuyu to shake off those feelings of inadequacy she’s been suffering.

It looks like the finale is sure to bring some more major moments, as the Huge are (somehow) blocking every Lily from using their Magi except for Riri. She’s been training for a time like this — now let’s just hope she’s ready for a showdown. She won’t be alone; Fumi, Kaeade, and the rest of the squad will be by her side. But it looks like Miss Yuyu, Yurigaoka, and the entire world will hinge on the upcoming battle.