Lycoris Recoil
Lycoris Recoil is an original Japanese anime television series created by Spider Lily and. It was produced by A-1 Pictures and aired from July to September 2022. Set in Tokyo, Lycoris Recoil follows two young orphaned teenage girls named Chisato Nishikigi and Takina Inoue, who were recruited in the Direct Attack organization to carry out assassinations under the "Lycoris" program while they work at a local café and perform various tasks such as childcare, shopping, and teaching classes.
A manga adaptation by Yasunori Bizen began serialization in Media Factory's manga magazine Monthly Comic Flapper in September 2022. A spin-off light novel, titled Lycoris Recoil: Ordinary Days, written by Asaura and illustrated by Imigimuru, was published under ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko in September 2022 as well. A stage play adaptation of the series was performed in January 2023. An original net animation, titled Lycoris Recoil: Friends are thieves of time, was released from April to May 2025.
Plot
Takina Inoue is a member of a government-sponsored all-female task force of assassins and spies made up of young orphaned girls known as "Lycoris", an undercover group named after the flower who eliminate criminals and terrorists in Tokyo while disguised as high school students to maintain peace in Japan, with roots in a fictional pre-Meiji group named "Higanbana".However, during an operation to intercept a large exchange of firearms, Takina starts firing indiscriminately at the enemies in order to save a colleague who was taken hostage, jeopardizing the safety of other Lycoris in the process. As a result, the agency dismisses her for disobeying orders. She is then transferred to work with another Lycoris agent, the bubbly and pacifistic Chisato Nishikigi, who is known for her involvement in the destruction of the old radio tower, in a branch of the agency which operates undercover as a café called "LycoReco". Intending to be reinstated back to the agency, Takina cooperates with Chisato in managing the café, while the peace that is being protected by Lycoris is being challenged by terrorists led by the deranged Majima.
Characters
Café LycoReco
Café LycoReco, also known as Sweets&Cafe LycoReco, or commonly known as LycoReco, is a small neighborhood café located in Sumida, north of Kinshichō Station. The café has a wooden exterior with stained glass windows. It features elegant greenery with a notable cheery tree. This café specializes in selling Japanese desserts and high quality coffee. It also serves a variety of clients from middle schoolers to people in their 50s. Prior to its establishment, it was a facility operated by Direct Attack, a secret organization tasked with crime prevention in Japan and carries out its duties covertly through the use of female agents known as "Lycoris".Chisato Nishikigi
Chisato Nishikigi is described as a beautiful, highly skilled and happy-go-lucky Lycoris agent. She works at the LycoReco, a branch of Direct Attack that covers as a café serving both Western and Japanese sweets. Considered to be the agency's greatest agent in its history, Chisato can dodge bullets even at point blank range, a skill regarded as "superhuman". She uses a gun given to her when she was young by Yoshimatsu, a member of the Alan Institute, and loads it with rubber bullets. She possesses an artificial heart, provided by the Institute to extend her life.Takina Inoue
Takina Inoue is a serious and confident young Lycoris agent. She possesses immense skills as a Lycoris agent, often going out of her way to complete missions on her own. After she indiscriminately fires at the enemies during an operation in order to save a colleague, the agency dismisses her, as she ignored orders and compromised the lives of the other agents at the scene. The agency transfers her to LycoReco. Wanting to be reinstated, she cooperates with Chisato on managing the café, as well as on their missions. Although at first she is often annoyed by Chisato's happy-go-lucky attitude, Takina comes to respect and appreciate her, and starts to consider Chisato her best friend and LycoReco as her new home. She also becomes a much nicer and less ruthless person thanks to Chisato's positive influence and altruism.Kurumi
Kurumi is a skilled hacker who goes under the code name "Walnut". She is first introduced wearing a squirrel suit. She is responsible for a hack of the DA's Radiata, an artificial intelligence regarded as being impenetrable. However, when her life is placed in danger due to competition from her rival "Robota", she requests security from LycoReco. After she was "killed" by mercenaries working under Robota, she starts living and working at LycoReco in exchange of support during LycoReco's missions. "Walnut" is actually the name of an artificial intelligence program she operates.Mika
Mika is a Afro-Japanese man who is the manager of LycoReco. Chisato views him and Yoshimatsu as her father figures, and Mika reciprocates her feelings. Later in the story, it is revealed that at one time Mika and Yoshimatsu were in a mutual same-sex relationship, raising and training Chisato as their surrogate daughter and the perfect weapon for DA. However, Mika's fatherly feelings became so strong that he changed his mind and left DA, though he continues to support the organization via LycoReco.Mizuki Nakahara
Mizuki Nakahara is a 27-year-old worker at LycoReco who was previously a member of the Intelligence Division of DA. She helps Chisato during her missions, notably when the hacker Walnut requests a security detail. She desperately desires to get married, even going so far as to accepting a job at LycoReco in hopes of meeting a man. She and Kurumi were about to move abroad after LycoReco closes down, only to remain in Japan to assist with the attack on Majima.Direct Attack
A secret organization that prevents crime and terrorism via an all-female task force of assassins and spies made up of young orphaned girls known as Lycoris.;Fuki Harukawa
;Sakura Otome
;Kusunoki
Alan Institute
An international organization that seeks to find and support geniuses.;Shinji Yoshimatsu
Others
;Majima;Robota
Development and production
When 's former editor-in-charge had a meeting about Saekano with Shin-ichirō Kashiwada, a producer from A-1 Pictures, he spoke positively about the offbeat nature of Asaura's works. He then introduced Asaura to Kashiwada. Later, Asaura received an invitation to a new anime project. Kashiwada had read Asaura's Death Need Round, which is a "girls with guns" work before he invited Asaura to the project. Asaura, therefore, decided to include guns in the new story. He created the main characters and the worldview, with some deliverables including the synopsis and a few short novels. Asaura's initial pitch was rejected as too violent and dark to be broadcast on television, and the project went through some revisions before Adachi joined the project as director. Adachi introduced the idea of the DA organization and the Lycoris taskforce in order to connect Asaura's previously established narrative elements, and the work ultimately took on a lighter dramatic tone, with Adachi saying that his goal as series director was to make the viewers laugh every five minutes.In an interview with Febri in August 2022, Adachi noted the influence of Tsukasa Hojo's City Hunter, how the show's setting changed from the original concept, and his desire to accurately depict action and "the way the guns are used," but also have the work appreciated by more than gun enthusiasts. He also told Febri that unlike other productions, he hardly drew any pictures on set, saying that animation and illustration was done by other staff members, like assistant director Maruyama Yusuke and animation leader Yamamoto Yumiko instead, but that he focused on storyboards, and noted they got cast members with a "lot of dubbing experience" to be part of the voice cast. In a previous interview, in June 2022, Asaura told Animate Times that he looked at the show's character designs "before the director" and that Takina was "almost unchanged" from the original proposal while Chisato was "completely different in the early stages."
Character designer became involved with the project after meeting Adachi at Winter Comiket. Having never done character art for an anime before, Imigimuru felt it would be impossible to do the job, especially finding three-dimensional art difficult as he never drew them before, but saw it as a lifetime opportunity so the designer accepted. In contrast of designing the backgrounds, he finds designing the characters to be easier as the premise and the personality of the characters had already been done before his involvement.
In Lycoris Recoil, some scenes take place in Sumida City, Tokyo, and features Kinshichō Park, Sumida Aquarium, water bus on Sumida River, aerial view of Ryōgoku, etc. On February 11, 2023, "Cafe LycoReco Presents After Party! Tomorrow is another day," was held at Sumida Triphony Hall, and the production of a new animation was announced during the event.
In June 2025, CyberAgent-owned Abema Times said that Spider Lily may be a specialized collective pseudonym for the anime's production staff since Lycoris is the genus name for the red spider lily.
Anime
Announced in December 2021, the series was produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Shingo Adachi, and features an original story by Asaura, character designs by Imigimuru, and music composed by. The series aired from July 2 to September 24, 2022, on Tokyo MX, GYT, GTV, and BS11.In February 2023, a new animation project was announced. It was later revealed in July 2024 to be six animated short films which centered on the daily lives of the characters from the series. In January 2025, the new project was announced to be titled Lycoris Recoil: Friends are thieves of time and the staff in each short was unveiled. The short films were released on Aniplex's YouTube channel and other platforms from April 16 to May 21, 2025.