One of A-1 Pictures best original works, Lycoris Recoil, is finally coming back with a brand-new animated project, with an unintentionally ominous title, Friends are Thieves of Time. The first video is uploaded on Aniplex’s YouTube channel with the second installment coming on April 23rd. The series of shorts follow the main characters of the series in a more slice-of-life setting, interacting at the cafe and enjoying each other’s company. Compared to the main series, which takes a sharp dip into the more action-oriented aspects of Lycoris Recoil‘s world, it’s a nice break that perfectly sets up any potential sequels the series may have in the future.
Lycoris Recoil: Friends are Thieves of Time will have six shorts depicting the daily lives of the core cast, and provide a bit of additional character development for each of them during their “downtime”. Being an entirely original project, having extra content like this series is a great way to fill in gaps for fans wanting more out of the characters. This isn’t the only spin-off material fans have gotten, either, with the anime also receiving a light novel adaptation, a serialized manga, and like many other popular anime, a live-action stage play. Considering there’s been no word from the production studio regarding whether a Season 2 is in the works, this new series of shorts could be hinting at more story-heavy content to come.
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Lycoris Recoil Was the Dark Horse Hit of 2022
Despite being a single season with a very humble 13-episode run, Lycoris Recoil is an exceptional action series oozing with charm that hides much of its drama underneath a delightfully pastel surface. Unlike other anime that put adorable girls in dangerous, combat-heavy positions, like Akiba Maid War or more fantastical properties like Puella Magi Madoka Magika, Lycoris Recoil uses every moment to deliver an emotionally profound story of healing and learning to forgive oneself for mistakes that have been left behind in the past, all while delivering on the admittedly fun “girls with guns” gimmick. The series follows Takina Inoue, a member of a government-run, all-female assassin organization that plucks orphaned girls from their otherwise mundane upbringings to give them a new purpose in order to serve and protect Tokyo. After dismissed by her agency for recklessly trying to protect a colleague on a mission, Takina is sent to live with Chisato Nishikigi, a fellow former member of Lycoris who runs a cafe that operates as a front for an under the table, mercenary-like project.
Lycoris Recoil gives audiences a story that has an unexpected amount of depth, and while it does feature many iconic “cute-girls-doing-cute-things” tropes, it breaks up these light-hearted moments with extremely well animated fight sequences and a political mystery focused on a looming terrorist organization that is constantly one step ahead of Chisato and Takina’s investigation. It became an instant cult hit upon its release, earning praise from the likes of Hideo Kojima, the legendary game director behind titles like Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding. In Japan, the first Blu-ray released that collected episodes from the series was ranked among the best-selling physical releases of 2022, and the light novel spin-off selling remarkably well upon release, selling 29,414 phycial copies by November of that year.
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