Lycoris Recoil – 07

“Time will tell”

Lycoris Recoil’s seventh episode begs to question of who exactly can be trusted with so many entities banking on Chisato becoming a killing machine. Although her friends are very close to her, she might not have to worry about keeping her enemies closer for too much longer with how close they’re gaining in on her.

BEDFELLOWS

One main takeaway this episode gave us was that Mika and Mr. Yoshi have quite an extensive relationship back when they were hitmen. The show has no bones about Chisato and Takina being shipped to such a degree that they come off like more than just life partners. It is odd, however, when the shoe is on Mika’s foot considering how Mr. Yoshi seems to have his own ideas in mind about how to use his former comrade and Chisato. The show used to dance around what Mika is really like outside of his responsibilities due to his hitman past, but it does look like they’d be more comfortable with confirming that Mika and Mr. Yoshi were romantically connected.

We’ve been given so much information about why Mr. Yoshi is suspicious given his connection to both the DA and the weapons smugglers, but his history with Mika raises many questions about what kind of bond they had. My best guess is that their promise extends toward Chisato’s existence, and that, by taking her in and watching her grow, Mr. Yoshi placed the responsibility on Mika to watch her grow until she was a formidable weapon. Much of Mika’s moral dilemma is how much Chisato should be in the loop about what purpose she serves for both LycoReco and the Alan Institute.

It doesn’t help that Mika and Mr. Yoshi might have deeper emotional ties than just a professional relationship with how Mr. Yoshi tried to use their connection as an added incentive to do as the Alan Institute would demand. Mr. Yoshi leaning in close to kabedon Mika as they remember glimpses of their past definitely reads as a clearer message that they had more of a romantic past together than what’s shown now.

THE WILD WEST

It’s also the episode where I was tearing my hair out because Chisato only eavesdropped enough to catch one small snippet of Mika and Mr. Yoshi’s conversation. It feels like she fumbled the bag with possibly getting all of the clarity she could out of what the two expect of her. Then again, I can see it being an emotional response on her end to butt in immediately out of denial that she was given a second life by LycoReco and the Alan Institute because she makes for a useful weapon.

But I can also see it being a plot device so that we can have the true motive for keeping Chisato around spelled out for her when she bumps into Majima again. Now Majima’s a strange character because there is so much plot armor around him that only gets stronger as we learn more about him. On top of causing the old tower incident, he also met Chisato back when she was a wee child, and somehow the gears turning in his head only let that memory resurface long after their fight.

But my suspension of disbelief comes less from how Majima’s memory works and more from how much domestic terrorism he can get away with. The dude goes from murder spree to murder spree just about every day, destroyed a subway station, shot up a police station, and somehow it’s still being covered up and not under ironclad investigation.

I know the DA is saving face and wants none of their lack of foresight to go public, especially not when news of the attacks would mean that the city is ruled by a police state for nothing. At the same time, there’s only so much accountability the higher-ups would try to shirk off before having it thrown in their face that a dude that doesn’t make his presence a secret could waltz up to a public place, go on a mass shooting spree, and then travel to a new place for a new crime. At this point, Majima gets away with so much that it feels like the DA is treating him like The Flash movie by trying to find out a way they could possibly keep them around when the writing is on the wall to get their shit into gear.