There has been numerous anime narratives which include cute, harmful women and femme fatales, and something which has most lately caught the interest from the community is called Lycoris Recoil, a 13-episode anime thriller and rollercoaster with bullets whizzing past constantly because the figures navigate their lives as professional assassins.
Because of the premise surrounding youthful women who’re trained as assassins at nighttime underbelly of society, initially glance, Lycoris Recoil appears similar to Gunslinger Girl, a mature title in the early 2000s that presented similar elements. So, can there be more for this similarity than you would think? Could Lycoris Recoil be inspired by Gunslinger Girl? Let us discover.
Plot
Lycoris Recoil is definitely an original anime occur some form of Japan where the amount of terrorist functions continues to be considerably decreased because of the influence of Direct Attack (DA), a syndicate that raises orphaned women to become skilled assassins underneath the “Lycoris” program. After an action of insubordination inside a fragile hostage situation, the gifted Lycoris, Takina Inoue, is transferred in the DA HQ to some café in disguise referred to as “LycoReco”.
Takina is assigned a brand new partner who differs from what she imagined, as she is actually a enormous Lycoris however, the infamous Chisato Nishikigi couldn’t appear less thinking about her responsibilities. Chisato takes Takina on various odd jobs and assignments underneath the guise of “helping people”, and just what makes this specific partner especially strange for Takina is always that Chisato performs her jobs without killing anybody. While Takina is eager to strive and produce her place back at DA HQ Chisato is raring to educate her new partner there are new ways to effectively complete a project.
Gunslinger Girl is placed in the middle of Italia, in which the Social Welfare Agency rescues youthful women from hospital beds and provides them a new chance at existence through cybernetic enhancement. The women are brainwashed, stripped of the former personalities and lives and educated to be assassins which are utilized as attack dogs for that Italian government.
Despite being included in literal killing machines, they’re still little women in mind, plus they grapple with assorted difficult feelings because they aim to be acknowledged through the people they love, even if they’re only to appear as tools for use with regard to keeping social order.
Government Dogs
One of the leading similarities between your narratives of Lycoris Recoil and Gunslinger Girl may be the presentation of secret divisions inside the government which are given the job of the place and adoption of little women from several types of disadvantaged situations. The actual idea behind using little women for such tasks is always that they can be regarded as minimal threatening kind of person, as well as on a story level, it presents a harsh contrast between your darkness of murder being an occupation and also the innocence of youthful women.
The Lycorises (“Lycorii”?) in Lycoris Recoil are similar towards the cyborg assassins from the Social Welfare Agency in Gunslinger Girl however, there’s the marked difference backward and forward for the reason that the Lycoris agents aren’t always cyborgs, nor could they be particularly obtained from hospitals however, Chisato comes with an analog heart, which may effectively make her a cyborg. The DA is an even bigger agency compared to secret branch from the Gunslinger Girl Social Welfare Agency, and for that reason, there are many more Lycoris agents than you will find, for insufficient a much better term, cyborg gunslingers.
However, what both agencies share is the wanton management of these child operatives, and the possible lack of genuine care received by them. For his or her particular agencies, the only real factor that means something is results, and for that reason, the mental welfare from the agents isn’t a concern. This really is apparent in Lycoris Recoil within the conditions surroundingTakina’s expulsion from DA HQ. Her insubordination made her not able to handle orders, along with a tool that can’t do what it’s allotted to do is regarded as useless.
Both in series, the positions from the agents as secret dogs from the government involves be a significant internal conflict in some manner, and also the desperation to handle the most callous, brutal orders to become acknowledged is one thing present with the figures both in series. This grappling with too little affection within their upbringing, in addition to developing their very own feeling of self is prevalent both in Lycoris Recoil and Gunslinger Girl however, the second is much more enmeshed within the significance of that element towards the narrative.
Guns of the Arsenal
Overall, Lycoris Recoil and Gunslinger Girl take similar styles and bring them in directions which are parallels without a doubt, but run in various directions, especially with regards to the contrast in Lycoris Recoil‘s lighter general atmosphere to Gunslinger Girl‘s more emotional, broody and subdued atmosphere. You will find certainly dark elements both in series, because they are both largely based on the grimy underbelly of the particular societies, and both series are certainly character driven despite Lycoris Recoil focusing its gaze mainly around the primary duo of Chisato and Takina.
Gunslinger Girl requires a slightly broader approach, with several figures of significance several perspectives inside the fundamental context of youthful women educated to kill and feel nothing. It’s apparent that Gunslinger Girl is a lot more dramatic and gritty in the approach up to the more subdued moments within the series, while Lycoris Recoil is nearly vibrant and cheery in the general atmosphere. This is helped along through the vast improvement in the skill of both series – Gunslinger Girl has an infinitely more classic method of the skill, and it has significantly less vibrancy to the colours and character designs than Lycoris Recoil that has a nearly-KyoAni feel towards the visuals.
Another interesting similarity is the existence of partners or “handlers” within the lives from the youthful assassins either in narrative, as well as in both anime, the knowledge of the value of the connection between your assassin as well as their partner grows because the series progresses. Both Lycoris Recoil and Gunslinger Girl possess a concentrate on the relationships created between your assassins, and there’s a focus on the humanity from the supposed killing machines. Gunslinger Girl presents this concentrate on numerous primary figures, and just how their identities as asssassins comes to become a major internal conflict for figures like Henrietta while Lycoris Recoil is basically centered on Chisato and Takina. While there are several marked similarities between your series, it remains hard to say without a doubt whether Lycoris Recoil was directly inspired by Gunslinger Girl, or maybe they just occur to share several similarities.
