Do you prefer Lycoris Recoil or Princess Principal ?
Both are CGDCT shows while also having action and a majority girl cast (but having plenty of male adults)
I prefer Princess Principal though Lycoris Recoil seems to be more popular.
Princess Principal seems to explore its political themes better and has more interesting antagonists. Plus the grey morality is emphasised more.
I think Lycoris Recoil didn’t explore Japan’s state surveillance and control enough.
I prefer Princess Principal though Lycoris Recoil seems to be more popular.
Princess Principal seems to explore its political themes better and has more interesting antagonists. Plus the grey morality is emphasised more.
I think Lycoris Recoil didn’t explore Japan’s state surveillance and control enough.
Commentaires
Tried to watch Lycoris Recoil, but couldn't get through more than two episodes before I gave up on it.
Lycoris Recoil really tickles that little part of my brain that goes 'ooh, yuri!'
Princess Principal is a show that takes itself a lot more seriously in exploring its themes.
I said better, never said it’s the best thing ever.
I
Ange (dubbed): "Not me. No, sir, not me."
Ange (subtitles): "no, no, no, no." \[spoiler alert that you don't need but tapdancinghellspawn might\]>!\>each gunshot is punctuated by each "no"<!< Whoa, that's cold.
I would also say Lycoris is just easier to casually watch. Whereas Princess Principal rewards attentive viewing over several episodes.
Stringing everyone along with subtext only gets you so far, and I want to see how much that shift in priorities impacts their missions!
I found Lycoris Recoil more enjoyable overall
Even though Princess Principal came out in 2017, I didn't watch it until 2023 (didn't start watching anime at all until 2016 and any seasonals until 2020), so I saw Lycoris Recoil first when it was airing as a seasonal back in the summer of 2022.
Although I would say that while both have that CGDCT element aesthetically, in practice Princess Principal sticks more closely to a more purposeful tighter narrative while Lycoris Recoil is more Action + Slice of Life. And is handled a lot more loosely, at least until the end, at which point it could feel messy or a little too rushed or ill-executed.
But in fairness, Lycoris Recoil aimed to wrap up its main story all within that season whereas Princess Principal didn't and was left very open-ended and in the middle of affairs, with the story continuing in the film series.
They're superficially similar yet simultaneously quite different where it counts and both really close in my estimation to be honest. Neither are in my Top 50 but I've considered placing both on an even larger favorites list, if I ever make it, contingent on watching more series.
Not that it's on the level of Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu, Berserk, Higurashi, Lain, or anything like that, but I do find Princess Principal to have better writing. Lycoris Recoil's writing of its main storyline is just sloppy to me. Writing to me is typically a series' most important attribute, above animation and visuals, acting, music, etc. And in my view the writing is Lycoris Recoil's weakest aspect. So how can I like it as much as I do? It has strong everything else in a blend that is just infectious.
The OP is good music with great visual synergy, the ED is a great memorable catchy song, and the in-show music has some really beautiful dramatic pieces and fragments of them that heighten emotional moments. Even though it's the least important constituent aspect to me, I was surprised how fluid the animation often was in gunfights and combat scenes.
When I first saw and heard Chisato and the voice acting behind her, I felt as if I had never seen a character quite like this before and I had seen hundreds of series already by that point. The normally bubbly energetic mile-a-minute chaotic mind, ever-optimistic girl. And then her serious efficiency. Similar traits exist everywhere, but not to that degree and extent in the same manner, and that character went a long way to selling and making a huge part of the series' appeal for me.
Takina was also great and I'd go as far as to say that I enjoy their relationship duo more than that between any two characters in Princess Principal, but I also feel part of that is Princess Principal having more stringent plot emphasis which siphoned some time away from pure character moments (yes, characterization exists within and as a part of the plot itself as well, but hopefully you know what I mean - Slice of Life downtime moments when characters can be doing totally plot-unimportant things).
Slice of Life is one of my favorite genres, really only next to Thriller, and therefore I like seeing it combined with some of my other favorites, like thriller, drama, and horror. And/or with ones I don't often see it paired with, like Action.
So for Lycoris Recoil it's the unusual Action + SoL combo I think they got magic out of, Chisato's singular energy and stupendous vocal performance, music, and just how well polished and put together everything was apart from plot writing. I'm also very into series which manage to include a combination and balancing of these light and dark elements so thoroughly, where you have an authoritarian or totalitarian police state dictatorship running society in the background but cute cafe girls who, despite their job and involvement with it, are also in their own lifestyle and own bubble. I think that's really fascinating, fun, and scarily realistic.
For Princess Principal, the setting is a lot more interesting and elaborate and realized being an alternative Victorian Britain Cold War West Germany vs. East Germany type parallel. The plot and writing overall is a sizable amount better. The OP is also good and the ED vaguely cute but forgettable. The in-show music is about equal to Lycoris Recoil's level of resonance and beauty - maybe even a tad superior intrinsically and how and where it's used. From the OST, "Why Should We Be Apart?" and its usage in the first episode from Princess Principal takes my breath away. I also am quite keen on "On a Day so Calm".
I like alternative history content as a history otaku so I prefer Princess Principal's plot and setting. The characters are good, but I prefer Lycoris Recoil's ones and their relationship dynamics, even though the Princess Principal gang I feel like has a solid basis and are ones you'd get much more attached to if it went on to become a much longer series.
I dislike how Princess Principal didn't go on to have a second or even multiple other TV-aired seasons after that and only continued in the film series, but don't blame that on the series as an artistic/creative product as the creators probably had no control over it and it came down to scheduling control and money. As I prefer linear storytelling generally, I slightly dislike how the episodes are needlessly out of order to overly complicate the narrative just for the sake of it without having any deeper meaning apart from that, and that *is* on the series, but it's not a big deal.
I think that about covers everything. Princess Principal lives by its setting and story, then enhanced by characters, music, and everything else. Lycoris Recoil's story isn't bad, if clumsily handled, but lives by its characters and everything else, and I feel like I wouldn't really mind if they were placed in any other story as they'd make it equally a fun time.
Edit: Didn't expect to end up writing somewhat of a whole review, but that's what happens sometimes.
Princess Principal has a unique steampunk London setting, an [absolutely stellar soundtrack](https://open.spotify.com/album/4j6VsyzNHfHQVpRfmzqUcd), an amazing English dub, neat alternate history, excellent character design, an interesting and unique cast (many of whom have compelling backstories) and a moody, mostly heavy covert political vibe with fairly tight writing. It has some sci-fi elements that border on magic, but it goes out of its way to try to ground them in some manner and maintain a semblance of logical internal consistency. The lighter moments tend to be far-enough removed from the serious content that they don't clash with the tone of the series and all but one episode drive either the plot or the characterization in a forward direction. It's an extremely solid anime-original, probably my favorite show in that category, and it's one I remember fondly and can happily rewatch at nearly any time.
Sure, Chisato and Takina are totes adorbs, but over-all Lycoris Recoil is *extremely* poorly written, and I think that series' fans are way too eager to overlook how many plot holes and tonal and character inconsistencies it has. It pushes ["rule of cool"](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool) to an incredulous degree, between normal hatchbacks doing barrel rolls, car doors failing to stop non-lethal bullets but then also somehow stopping RPG explosions, "hacking" being omnipresent and capable of literally anything, certain characters shrugging off massive injuries because of plot armor, comically absurd plot twists, and huge buildups and misdirects that ultimately have mundane or implausible payoffs. It's impossible to take it seriously because of how cheesy and untethered from reality it is, but then the brutal killings and terrorism make it hard to take as a goofy buddy cop romp. So the end result is a lot of spectacle that's fun in the moment (if you can leave your suspension of disbelief at least a couple cities away) but falls apart as soon as you apply any critical thought to its character or story writing.