Halfway through the Lycoris Recoil catch-up. So far, so good. It helps that Chisato and Takina are a fun pair. I must admit that the story can lose me a bit with all the plot threads it’s setting it up. Sidetracking into CGDCT territory certainly doesn’t help with that. That said, I wouldn’t I’m not interested in seeing how all of this pans out.
A conceit going forward appears to be Majima not bothering to track down Chisato and locate LycoReco. The dude is just off doing his own thing while helping Robota hack into the Radiata AI. Both Chisato and Takina are still chilling at LycoReco. It’s very odd because Majima is clearly interested in Chisato and unless LycoReco take measures, he most certainly could find her again with Robota’s help. I suppose Majima isn’t in a rush, it’s not like he and Chisato won’t meet again, but that feels contrived to me. Why wait now when he previously went out of his way to find her last episode? I can’t imagine LycoReco is hard to find either. It’s a cafe open to the public. How hard would it be to locate it?
You learn a couple things about Majima’s backstory. To start off, Majima is the one responsible for the attack on the old radio tower, meaning he did run into Chisato back in the day. You’d think he’d notice the physical resemblance between smol and current Chisato but to be fair, I imagine Chisato’s demeanor throws him off. Judging by the flashback, young Chisato doesn’t appear to be as happy go lucky as her present-day self. You also learn that Majima is an Alan Institute kid like Chisato. I’m curious in what way did the organization help him. I notice that some characters often say that a child helped by the Alan Institute has a “mission”. Is there some purpose these kids must fulfill for receiving aid? That Majima is an Alan Institute kid gives him an interesting connection to Chisato. Their backgrounds seem to be pretty similar and yet, their views are polar opposites to each other.
I got to say, Majima using altered security footage so that the DA can’t figure out which location Majima will next attack is really smart. The dude definitely learned his lesson from the train station attack. Between this and his fight with Chisato last episode, Majima is proving to be a more interesting character than I expected with how intelligent he actually is.
The main plot of this episode starts when Chisato notices an anonymous text sent to Mika’s phone. The sender asks to meet up with Mika at a high-class bar to discuss Chisato’s future. Chisato worries that the sender is Kusunoki and LycoReco is at risk of closure so she rallies the others into spying on Mika’s meeting. As easy as it would be to assume that this is another one of Chisato’s shenanigans, all the other girls do have an incentive to keep LycoReco open so they agree to team up. Personally, I would’ve liked to see the spying element last a little bit longer. Watching the girls barely prevent Mika from figuring out what they’re up is pretty funny.
With fake credentials provided by Kurumi, Chisasto and Takina get access to the bar. There, they discover that Mika is meeting up with Yoshimatsu. Since Mika is gay (and no, the show never brought this up until now), Chisato and Mizuki assume that he and Yoshimatsu are out on a date so they decide to call off the stakeout. That is, until Chisato learns that Yoshimatsu is the one who provided her with the artificial heart ten years ago. Naturally, Chisato reveals herself to thank Yoshimatsu though the meeting doesn’t go as she pictured, due to Yoshimatsu being bound by contract to not acknowledge his involvement with Chisato’s heart transplant.
I’m not sure what to make of Yoshimatsu’s relationship with Chisato. Like, he clearly cares about Chisato to some degree, certainly enough to risk violating his contract by checking up on her at LycoReco. Conversely, I get the impression that he doesn’t approve of the path Chisato is taking. When Chisato says she’s using her second chance at life to save others, Yoshimatsu acknowledges it but he also notes that Chisato is a Lycoris. He later tells Takina that Chisato doesn’t belong in the world she occupies. Presumably, he’s referring to the peaceful life at LycoReco. Both lines of dialogue suggest that Yoshimatsu doesn’t think Chisato can hold up to her ideal. Maybe the man really is the one who puppeteered Matsushita and the one getting Majima (curiously another Alan child) to cross paths with Chisato. Mika seems to suspect as much.
Knowing that Mika is gay, you can’t help but wonder if there might actually be going on between him and Yoshimatsu. It certainly comes across that way when Yoshimatsu pulls a kabedon on Mika, a flashback detailing their shared past plays, and Mika is unable to shoot Yoshimatsu when he tries to threaten him to leave Chisato alone. As far as I can tell, Mika appears to have feelings for Yoshimatsu and the latter is aware of it, even using it to his advantage in some instances. Even if I’m wrong here, I do think this relationship is really interesting. Mika wants to give Chisato the best life she deserves but to do that, he has to confront an old friend or lover who has a different future in mind for the girl. That’s a very compelling dilemma to add to the story. I’m definitely curious to see how this plays out in the end.
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