Assault Lily


Assault Lily is a Japanese mixed-media franchise created by Azone International and Acus. It mainly consists of two lines of toy figurines titled Assault Lily and Custom Lily. The series takes a theme of combining "girls" and "weapons" and revolves around teenaged girls called "Lily" who have to fight against monsters called "Huge" using their weapon called "Charm". Two novels have been published; the first, titled Assault Lily ~Hitotsuyanagi-tai, Shutsugeki Shimasu!~, was released in June 2015, and the second, titled Assault Lily Arms, was released in July 2017. Three stage plays based on the series have also been performed.
An anime television series adaptation by Shaft, titled Assault Lily Bouquet, aired from October to December 2020. A spin-off mini anime, titled Assault Lily Fruits, aired from July 2021 to January 2022.

Plot

In a near future, humanity is threatened by the existence of monsters they call "Huge". To anticipate this, the whole world unites against Huge and succeeds in developing a decisive weapon called "Charm" that brings together the power of science and magic. Since Charm shows high synchronization to teenage girls, these girls are called "Lily" and are regarded as heroes. To train them, the Lily training institution called "Garden" was established all over the world to counter Huge, and became a "sanctuary" to protect and guide people.

Characters

Yurigaoka Girls Academy

Team Hitotsuyanagi

;Riri Hitotsuyanagi
;Yuyu Shirai
;Kaede Johan Nouvel
;Fumi Futagawa
;Tazusa Andō
;Mai Thi Yoshimura
;Shenlin Kuo
;Yujia Wang
;Miriam Hildegard von Gropius
;Yuri Hitotsuyanagi

Alfheim

;Soraha Amano
;Kusumi Egawa
;Ena Banshōya
;Ichi Tanaka
;Araya Endō
;Shizu Itō

Reginleif

;Shiori Rokkaku

Ludwig Private Academy

Odaiba Girls' School

Sagami Girls' High School

Other characters

;Moyu Mashima
;Shinobu Izue
;Misuzu Kawazoe
;Matsuri Hata
;Kogetsu Takamatsu
;Mayuri Uchida

Production and release

An anime television series adaptation titled Assault Lily Bouquet was announced on October 13, 2019. The series was produced by Shaft, directed by Shouji Saeki, and chief directed by Hajime Ootani, with Mieko Hosoi designing the characters. Akito Matsuda composed the music, and both Saeki and Shaft, under the pseudonym Fuyashi Tō, are credited for series composition, with Saeki himself writing the scripts for all of the episodes. Kazuya Shiotsuki, Sayuri Sakimoto, and Kentarou Tokiwa were the chief animation directors; and following episode 8, Akihisa Takano joined as a fourth chief animation director.
Raise A Suilen performed the opening theme "Sacred world". Hitotsuyanagi-tai, a unit consisting of the main characters, performed the first ending theme "Edel Lilie" from Episodes 1–4, 6–7, and 10–12, while Hikaru Akao and Yūko Natsuyoshi performed the second ending theme "Heart + Heart" for Episode 5 as their characters Riri Hitotsuyanagi and Yuyu Shirai, respectively, Hitotsuyanagi-tai performed the third ending theme "GROWING*" for Episode 8, and Miku Itō performed the fourth ending theme "Mabataki" for Episode 9 as her character Yuri Hitotsuyanagi.
The series was originally scheduled for a July 2020 debut, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it aired from October 2 to December 25, 2020, on TBS and BS-TBS. Funimation licensed the series and streamed it on its website in North America and the British Isles. On October 29, 2020, Funimation announced that the series would receive an English dub, which premiered the following day.
On January 12, 2021, it was announced that the series would be getting a spin-off mini-anime, titled Assault Lily Fruits, which was released from July 20, 2021, to January 4, 2022. Shouji Saeki returned to direct the series with Akito Matsuda's music; Yumi Shimizu designed the series' chibi characters; and Shaft producer Miku Ooshima wrote the screenplay. Hikaru Akao, Yūko Natsuyoshi, Ayaka Fujii, and Kaori Maeda performed the series' theme "Can't Stop Fruity" as their respective characters.

Episodes

''Assault Lily Bouquet''

''Assault Lily Fruits''

Other media

Light novels

A light novel adaptation, titled Assault Lily ~Hitotsuyanagi-tai, Shutsugeki Shimasu!~, was published by Micro Magazine under their imprint GC Novels. It written by Kasama Hiroyuki and illustrated by Yaegashi Nan and Mieko Hosoi.
A second light novel, titled Assault Lily Arms, was published by Azone International in July 2017.

Volumes

''Assault Lily ~Hitotsuyanagi-tai, Shutsugeki Shimasu!~''
''Assault Lily Arms''

Manga

A manga adaptation by Kousuke Tsukinami, titled Assault Lily League of Gardens -full bloom-, was serialized in Bushiroad's Monthly Bushiroad magazine from July 8, 2020, to February 8, 2023.
A spin-off manga illustrated by Minori Chigusa, titled Assault Lily Last Bullet: Secret Garden Sweet Memoria, began serialization on the Manga Ōkoku website on June 30, 2022.

Volumes

''Assault Lily League of Gardens -full bloom-''

Stage plays

A stage play, titled Assault Lily: League of Gardens, ran at the Shinjuku Face venue in Tokyo from January 9 to January 15, 2020. A second stage play, titled Assault Lily: The Fateful Gift, ran at the Tokyo Tatemono Brillia Hall from September 3 to September 13, 2020. A third stage play, titled Assault Lily: Lost Memories, ran at the Sunshine Theatre in Tokyo from January 20 to January 30, 2022.

Mobile game

Assault Lily: Last Bullet, a role-playing video game developed by Pokelabo and published by Bushiroad, was released on January 20, 2021, for Android and iOS.

Reception

In a review on Erica Friedman's Okazu, Kristin called its "yuri undertones" a trap for yuri fans, saying she "highly it will be worth it unless you're really into the skin and bouncing boobs of teenage girls." James Beckett of Anime News Network called Kaede's confession of love to Riri a good sign for those fans tired of having lesbian characters "doomed to the Wasteland of Subtext."