I wasn’t expecting Lycoris Recoil to immediately follow up on Majima’s stunt at the train station but not doing so makes you wonder what Episode 5 would entail. As it turns out, this episode has Chisato and Takina serving as bodyguards for Matsushita, an elderly, terminally ill magnate hooked up on all sorts of life support, who wishes to tour around Tokyo before his impending death.
While striking up a conversation with her client, Chisato casually drops the fact that she too has technology keeping her alive. In her case, it’s an artificial heart. Color me surprised. You watch Chisato fight and this girl seems so superhuman that you wouldn’t think she has any kind of health issues. Then again, this checks out with what we know about Chisato so far. She said last episode that she received help from the Alan Institute and this is evidently what she meant by that.
The show gets a little silly by having Takina try to feel Chisato’s chest a couple of times to verify if the latter’s heart really is fake. Seems a bit bold for Takina to do but I can’t blame her for being curious. Also, Chisato did peak under Takina’s skirt last episode so I guess there are very few boundaries left between them. I suppose now is a good time to acknowledge that yes, there is a strong yuri undertone in this show. I don’t know if the show is actually going to let a Chisato x Takina ship sail but with moments such as these, it’s hard not to wonder if there is something going on between them. It certainly feels that way at the end of the episode, where Chisato lets Takina rest her head against her chest. I get that it’s to sate Takina’s curiosity and to show a high level of trust between the two but come on, it does have an intimidate air to it.
Knowing this show, I half-expected the tour to be goofy filler but the trip is fairly dry of Chisato and Takina being a silly couple together. It gets a little more entertaining when the episode introduces Jin (Mitsutoshi Shundou), an old associate of Mika’s who has been hired to kill Matsushita. Jin proves to be a formidable and entertaining opponent as he manages to give LycoReco the slip a couple of times and even injure Takina in a direct encounter. He’s only outmatched when Chisato shows up. I’ve enjoyed the action so far but considering that the past couple of fights have been cakewalks, it’s refreshing to see someone give our heroes more of a challenge.
After the fight, Matsushita demands that Chisato kill Jin, as the assassin killed his wife and daughter years prior. Chisato refuses to do so however and Matsushita seemingly kicks the bucket. It’s then revealed that this assassination plot was to test Chisato and make her kill someone. Jin was simply hired to be an unknowing pawn for the scheme. Matsushita and his entire backstory are all fabrications, with his body being that of a drug addict. The one controlling him is the real mastermind of this plot. I want to say the culprit is Yoshimatsu as all the equipment used appears to belong to the Alan Institute and Chisato is connected to him and the organization. However, the show does not show his face. It’d be weird to obscure Yoshimatsu’s identity at this point so chances are, this is actually someone else with ties to the Alan Institute.
Right now, I’m confused as to what the goal is here. What reason would someone have to make Chisato break her no kill rule? Is it to tell her deep down, she’s a killer and she should embrace this dark side of her? Is it to simply break her? I suppose that’s just a new mystery box to add to the list. Honestly, I feel that a better candidate for this test would ought to be Takina. Chisato is the better fighter but she seems to have stuck to her policy for some time now. Takina has only recently adjusted to this approach. I hate to say it but if anyone could reverse course with enough nudging, it’d be her.
You get an update on Majima at the end of the episode. Here, he and his men execute a Lycoris that’s tailing them. Majima in particular runs the poor girl over with a car, which is so over the top that I can’t help but find it funny. I’m confused as to whether or not this is the big crime Majima is pulling. He could be trying the make the Lycoris more publicly known and that could be difficult for the DA to cover up but this could also just be him culling the opposition.
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