Lycoris Recoil Volumes 2 and 3 Review

When we left Chisato and Takina at the end of the first volume of Lycoris Recoil, the girls were in the midst of a mission to protect genius hacker Walnut. Will they manage to make it out alive? Let’s find out with two further instalments of this manga adaptation.

Our heroines have ended up cornered in a warehouse with several thugs shooting at them, but Chisato is undeterred and fights back, while dodging bullets left and right. After all, she’s not prepared to hand over Walnut! Takina, meanwhile, is growing even more frustrated by the fact that Chisato is using non-lethal rubber bullets and even stops to do some first aid on one wounded thug (who was hit with one of Takina’s regular bullets instead). Even if they’re enemies, she doesn’t want anyone to die.

Ultimately, the Walnut mission is successful, and they discover that the genius hacker is actually a young woman called Kurumi. As part of the mission, Kurumi faked her own death, so now she intends to hide out at Café LycoReco and support the team on a technical basis. Chisato is thrilled to have her, but Takina’s mind wanders back to hopes of returning to HQ…

And when the duo are invited to HQ so Chisato can take her physical exam to keep her Lycoris license, Takina demands to tag along and hopes she can convince the commander to transfer her back.

This arc takes us through to Volume 3, where the girls are still at HQ and now engaged in a mock battle with two of their fellow Lycoris. Takina’s reputation is on the line, but if she wants to win, then she’s going to have to put her trust in Chisato. They’ve been through a lot together in a relatively short amount of time, but they’re such opposites that it doesn’t mean Takina is ready to open her heart to her current partner.

While there are plenty of tense, action-packed sequences, both volumes also devote time to cheerful slice-of-life moments, be it a board-game night at the café, or Chisato taking Takino underwear shopping after discovering she’s been wearing men’s boxers! This helps balance the drama and gives us a window into the everyday lives of these girls, as well as showing how Takina is beginning to loosen up as she’s subjected to Chisato’s carefree lifestyle.

It’s impressive how well balanced this ends up being, particularly as these aren’t very long volumes and there’s so much packed in. Yet, we’ve got a good grasp of the cast, the world and the overarching enemy that’s moving in the shadows. Yasunori Bizen’s art continues to be a real highlight as well, perfectly capturing the atmosphere of A-1 Pictures’ original work and offering thrilling battle scenes.

As of the end of Volume 3, we’ve covered the first four episodes of the anime, which is pretty good pacing in my opinion. We’re starting to get a better idea of who the true enemy really is, and the story is set to turn up the heat as they make a move against Japan that the Lycoris can’t ignore. I’ve watched the anime already, but I’m looking forward to seeing it all play out again in the manga volumes to come.

Lycoris Recoil Volumes 2 and 3 come to the West thanks to Yen Press and continue to be translated by Kiki Piatkowska with lettering by Adnazeer Macalangcom. Both releases read well; the dialogue between Chisato and Takina, in particular, is very witty and lively, which matches up well to the atmosphere of the anime. There are no translation notes, but both volumes do include several colour pages each, which look wonderful!

Volume 4 is already available in English, with #5 scheduled for release in July. Yen Press have also continued releasing a variety of comic anthologies for the series, and they have another light novel (Lycoris Recoil: Recovery Days) due for release in March. So there’s certainly a lot of this series out there for fans!

Overall, Lycoris Recoil’s manga continues to be a delightful read. It balances the tension of the overarching plot with plenty of slower scenes where we get to watch the girls having fun. Whether you’ve watched the anime previously or have just been reading the manga, you really can’t go wrong keeping up with this one.

Our review copies were supplied by the publisher Yen Press.