English Dub Season Review: Assault Lily Bouquet Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

In a world that’s similar to ours at first glance, there are monsters called Huge that roam about in search of places to cause destruction. The only defense against these creatures are Lillies — teenage girls trained for combat with weapons powered by Magi called CHARMS.

The show follows Riri Hitotsuyanagi, a new arrival at Yurigaoka Academy, where the Lillies study, train, and live. Riri is an enthusiastic newbie who was inspired to become a Lily after watching a group of them valiantly fighting off Huge from her hometown years ago. And the one Lily she specifically adores is Miss Yuyu, one of the top fighters in the academy who needs to work on her interpersonal communication skills.

As Riri increases her skills and becomes a Lily worthy of the name, she makes plenty of new friends at the academy, and even forms a Schutzengel pledge with Yuyu that bonds them together as a pair. There are plenty of challenges that lie in wait for them throughout the season, though, such as powerful Huge, the political situation that Yurigaoka is in, and a mysterious newcomer with amnesia who Riri names Yuri. But no matter that comes their way, as long as they’re together, they can face anything.

Our Take:

Assault Lily Bouquet is a show that follows in the vein of others like Madoka Magica and Land of the Lustrous that feature a large cast of girls with magical fighting abilities. It’s put together relatively well, and has enough intrigue and action to appeal to those who don’t mind the sometimes harsh contrast between kicking butt one minute and sitting around sipping tea the next. But it also has plenty of issues that hold it back from being a huge success.

This is a show made to sell collectible figurines and other merch (every character who appears onscreen gets their name displayed next to them so you know who to buy), but it does a nice job giving viewers a broad range of girls to root for. The cast of characters is large and they come at you fast, which can make the early episodes seem a bit overwhelming. Once things settle down and the main group of girls is established, the show is able to perform some interesting character development with them.

Riri starts off as the super genki new kid on the block, obsessed with Miss Yuyu to the point where everything else falls by the wayside. Throughout the show, she slowly grows into more of a fully rounded person, taking more responsibility onto her shoulders and taking Yuri under her wing. In a later episode, she recounts how she was too singleminded at the beginning of her career as a Lily, and now wants to fight for her entire squad. She’s a solid main character to cheer on, and makes a great compliment to Yuyu.

Miss Yuyu herself is probably the most interesting character from a physiological standpoint. She’s been under lots of mental stress and self-blame ever since her former pledge, Misuzu, was killed in battle. When we first meet her, she’s a socially isolated snob who has to be drawn out of her shell by Riri. It takes a while, but by the end of the series they’re connecting in a way that shows how much Yuyu has changed for the better. There are plenty of other great characters too, like Miss Moyu, Ando, and Mai Thi.

The plot is where the show has its highest peaks and its lowest valleys. While the overall story of the show isn’t too complicated at first — big monsters go BANG! — revelations later on down the road add some nuance and a hint of mystery. There are questions about what the Huge actually are, for one thing. Yuri herself is a Huge, supposedly made from their DNA, and there’s also a whole thing where it seems like the Huge have been operating under the will of Misuzu herself. Unfortunately, the conclusion to this is a bit of a letdown, with the show trying to hint at a deeper plot when there was nothing there.

The English dub produced by Funimation is well done. It stars Sarah Wiedenheft and Lindsay Seide as Riri and Yuyu. They do an admirable job conveying a range of emotions, and by the end of it I had gotten pretty used to their voices. The supporting cast members provide good performances as well, making for a dub that can be enjoyed without detracting from the experience.

Assault Lily Bouquet certainly won’t go down in history as a must-watch series. It doesn’t have the staying power of other magical girl classics like Madoka or the unique brilliance of Flip Flappers. But it does have some CHARMs of its own (see what I did there?) — with nice visuals, some interesting character arcs, and plenty of fierce female fighters to cheer on. While there’s no word on a season two yet, there is a brand new mobile game that just came out in Japan, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the franchise sticks around.