In order to cut down on crime and terrorism, an organization called Direct Attack was formed. They take orphaned girls and turn them into agents that protect the country in the Lycoris program. Takina is one gifted agent, but after a hostage situation leads to insubordination, she is transferred out of the main unit to a lower key branch of Lycoris ran out of a cafe. Despite being paired with a famed, but more easy-going Lycoris prodigy Chisato while there, Takina is determined to get back into DA, but her new partner is determined to prove that there is more to life than just taking lives.
While its plot takes awhile to take shape, the slick cuteness of Lycoris Recoil immediately made everyone fall in love with it. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Lycoris Recoil, head on down below.
Anime Like Lycoris Recoil
For Fans of Secret Agents
Princess Principal
After the discovery of a mineral called Cavorite, it led to the rapid creation of advanced military technology and plunged the world into conflict. Now London is separated into two nations by a wall that divides the city. While neither the Kingdom or the Commonwealth of Albion are outwardly hostile, they continuously destabilize each other through espionage. At the prestigious Queen’s Mayfaire School, a series of girls are enrolled that are actually Commonwealth spies who do covert work for their nation.
While Princess Principal is different in setting, it does feature a group of girls doing undercover work for their government. Like the Lycoris, these girls dress in uniforms to blend in and use expert skills to carry out their missions. While the Lycoris aren’t specified as spies like in Princess Principal, they do have similar jobs.
Aria of the Scarlet Ammo
In response to Japan’s sky-rocketing crime rate, the Tokyo Butei Academy is established where armed detectives hone their skills to later become mercenary-type agents of justice. Kinji Tooyama is an anti-social and blunt young man that used to be in the Assault Division, but now underachieves in Logistics in order to hide his embarrassing, but powerful ability.
Both series take place in worlds where an organization specifically trains young high schoolers to combat crime and keep the city safe. Furthermore, both series star characters who have recently been kicked out of their more prestigious part of this organization and now languish on the fringes of it only to be partnered up with someone powerful who is actively choosing to be outcasted.
Gunslinger Girl
In Italy, the Social Welfare Agency rescues girls dying in hospitals and gives them a second shot at life using cybernetics. However, these girls are then brainwashed and turned into assassins that carry out missions for the government. Despite this, they are still children and crave recognition from those they love, even if that love is manufactured.
As Gunslinger Girl is about taking young girls, training them, then telling them to do the government’s dirty work, it bears a similar set up to Lycoris Recoil. However, where Gunslinger Girl differs significantly is in tone. It is a very serious anime where this air of melancholy hangs about every moment. It is more understandable considering that characters do die unlike the relatively bloodless Lycoris Recoil.
Release the Spyce
Momo is a shy teenager that wants to follow in her father’s footsteps as a police officer. She also has a unique ability to determine what someone is feeling with a simple lick. One day, Momo is recruited by her classmates into a secret agency that works to unravel crime with their unique abilities.
Both series fully revolve around a secret agency that works from the shadows to take out threats. Their agents are high school girls in uniforms that do the dirty work. However, while Lycoris Recoil has a larger plot slowly unfolding, Release the Spyce is a little more straight forward and is somewhat sillier.
For Fans of Cheerful Girl and Emotionally Distant Girl Duos
The Executioner and Her Way of Life
For years, the Lost Ones have come from the distant world of Japan to a fantasy land. Not even these Lost Ones know how or why they arrive there, but their immense powers only bring destruction. In order to secure the safety of their world, Executioners are charged with exterminating these Lost Ones. While on the job, Executioner Menou happens across Akari, a Lost One summoned by an ambitious king. However, she finds that the girl is immortal and cannot be killed. Traveling with Akari, Menou seeks a way to end her life.
While vastly different in setting, if you like the dynamic that Chisato and Takina have, you get the very same in The Executioner and Her Way of Life. While it is distinctly more a growing friendship in Lycoris Recoil, The Executioner and Her Way of Life is definitely more girl’s love oriented.
Assault Lily – Bouquet
Humanity is pushed to the brink by an entity known as Huge. To combat this, a weapon called CHARM was developed. Best used by teen girls, these young warriors known as lilies are trained up to use CHARM in special schools.
While also having a similar set up of government-managed teen girl warriors with big guns protecting their country, Assault Lily also features a similar character dynamic. However, the main character in Assault Lily doesn’t quite have the same kind of confidence of Chisato or Takina. She is more the hopeful amateur type with her colder mentor.
Warlords of Sigrdrifa
When a mysterious entity known as the Pillars appeared above Earth, humanity was driven to the brink. Coming to the aid of humanity, the God Odin bequeathed them battle maidens known as Valkyries. With the ability to strike back, humanity supports these combat maidens as best they can.
Both series follow government organization that feature battle maidens, but in Warlords of Sigrdrifa, they use aircraft. Despite that, both plots follow those who were recently transferred from their old post because they are problematic. However, they find encouraging camaraderie at their new post. While not necessarily about a duo, the group in Warlords of Sigrdrifa has a solid mix of characters that all go a long way to support each other with their varied personalities.
For Fans of Slowly Unfolding Conspiratorial Plots
The Detective is Already Dead
Kimizuka Kimihiko is a magnet for bad events. He constantly gets caught up in everything from witnessing drug deals to getting kidnapped. This time, he was forced to carry an unknown package on a flight by criminals, which leads him to an encounter with the legendary detective, Siesta. After helping this beautiful girl unravel a case surrounding a mysterious organization she is hunting, he becomes her assistant. Fast-forward four years later and Kimizuka attends school aimlessly. After four years of international adventure, he is without purpose now that Siesta is dead. However, after meeting a girl that received Siesta’s heart from an organ transplant, this leads him right back to his mystery-solving days.
Both Lycoris Recoil and The Detective is Already Dead start off with interesting action moments before diving head on into less intense slice of life moments for a large bulk of the series. While The Detective is Already Dead has mysteries that it gets involved in, even they seem pretty relaxed even though the stakes are high. What these series have most in common, however, is in the later half they tend to really go off the deep end in complexity with their plot.
Terror in Resonance
After a terrorist attack on a Japanese nuclear facility, the country was paralyzed to act. After six months of searching for the perpetrators, the public is shown a video of two boys known as Sphinx who take credit for a recent bomb attack. The pair are soon linked to the terrorist attack on the nuclear facility by police. Threatening more mayhem to come, it is up to the police to catch these terrorists. However, Sphinx has been very careful to never kill anyone with their attacks. Instead, they hope to use them to expose a secret government experiment and its cruelty.
Most obviously, both shows are about terrorist plots and those plots are interspersed with the slice of life moments of the charismatic characters. However, Terror in Resonance is about the terrorists from their point of view and often has a more melancholic tone compared to the often chipper Lycoris Recoil. It also shares an element of children taken and specifically trained by an organization for a purpose.
Eden of the East
On an event known as “Careless Monday,” Japan was hit by a series of missiles in a terrorist act that fortunately did not harm anyone. Months later as the attacks are all but forgotten, Saki Morimi goes on a celebratory trip to America. There she falls into unexpected trouble with a man named Akira Takizawa, a man that appeared before her completely naked. Drawn into the mystery around him, Saki’s life is changed forever.
Both series hook you initially by having cute characters that you want to watch more of. However, as things go on and the plot unfolds, then the intrigue takes over your interest. You want to know more about the characters and even more about the vaguely hinted at plot that each series feeds you in small and often unclear portions.
Steins;Gate
In a rickety old building in Akihabara, mad scientist Rintarou Okabe and his lab assistants work on so-called future gadgets. However, their most successful contraption to date, the Phone Microwave, a machine that can turn bananas into gel, also has the added function of sending emails into the past, thus altering the flow of history.
Both series start off practically silly in their character relationships despite the professions that the main characters have. Yet, as things go on, more and more begins to unravel until you are in full-on government conspiracy mode in what turns out to be a pretty complex plot. Lycoris Recoil doesn’t quite reach the complexity of Steins;Gate, however.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Lycoris Recoil? Let fans know in the comments section below.
