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Revealed on Friday afternoon on Aniplex USA’s social media pages and during the Lycoris Recoil Special Event Panel at Anime NYC 2023, Aniplex would announce that Lycoris Recoil, the original anime series created by Spider Lily and Asaura and directed by Shingo Adachi, will be making its debut on Toonami on January 20, 2024.
https://twitter.com/aniplexUSA/status/1725657621259018465
Lycoris Recoil is an original anime series directed by Shingo Adachi, the character designer and chief animation director of Sword Art Online, another show that has aired on Toonami. Lycoris Recoil is animated by A1 Pictures; this will be the third show Toonami has aired from the studio, after SAO and Blue Exorcist. The show ran in Japan from July 2 – September 24, 2022, and was simulcast and simuldubbed on Crunchyroll.
The plot summary (via Anime News Network) is as follows:
These are peaceful days, thanks to a secret crime-fighting organization of all-girl agents: Lycoris. The elite free-spirited Chisato is their all-time strongest agent, alongside the cool-headed talented-but-mysterious Takina. Working together at a café, they serve coffee and sweets as well as childcare, shopping, and teaching Japanese. The chaotic everyday lives of this mismatched duo begin.
The English cast for Lycoris Recoil includes:
- Lizzie Freeman as Chisato Nishikigi
- Xanthe Huynh as Takina Inoue
- Jennifer Losi as Mizuki Nakahara
- Lisa Reimold as Kurumi
- Bob Carter as Mika
- Kayleigh McKee as Kusunoki
Steve Staley serves as the English Voice Director, while Brian Anderson serves as the ADR Script Writer.
One of Lycoris Recoil’s notable claims to fame is that acclaimed video game creator Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding fame), is a huge fan of the show. Kojima originally stumbled onto the show simply by browsing through streaming services, and thought it may have had a relation to the critically-acclaimed 2021 film, Licorice Pizza. The show has no relation to the film (even though lycoris, which is a type of flower, does sound a bit like licorice candy), but upon checking it out, he turned out to really like it regardless, and has become a fan of Lycoris Recoil ever since.
小島秀夫 on Twitter: “アマプラはあまり慣れておらず、「コーダ あいのうた」を探すのに戸惑った。探索中に「リコリス・ピザ？」風の名のアニメ「リコリス・リコイル」を偶然見つけた。暗殺ライセンスを持つ少女アサシンが喫茶店へ出向？！ありえへん設定と導入！日本アニメらしい？と、気づくと3話まで観た。4話は何処だ！ pic.twitter.com/0M46gDJpfV / Twitter”
アマプラはあまり慣れておらず、「コーダ あいのうた」を探すのに戸惑った。探索中に「リコリス・ピザ？」風の名のアニメ「リコリス・リコイル」を偶然見つけた。暗殺ライセンスを持つ少女アサシンが喫茶店へ出向？！ありえへん設定と導入！日本アニメらしい？と、気づくと3話まで観た。4話は何処だ！ pic.twitter.com/0M46gDJpfV
Given that Lycoris Recoil won’t be joining Toonami until the new year, Toonami has yet to reveal where they will plug in the show in the schedule at this time. The schedule is always subject to change and there is always the possibility for other new and returning programming that can also be announced in the coming days or weeks (especially with Anime NYC is currently taking place this weekend). Furthermore, the months of November and December tend to see the lineup preempted for holiday marathons (and sometimes, if we’re lucky, a movie) for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so Toonami might be a bit hesitant to plug in more shows to the lineup right away, especially given IGPX, Demon Slayer, and Dr. Stone all returned to the lineup just last week.
The turmoil of Warner Bros Discovery under the leadership of David Zaslav since 2022 has lead to company-wide budget cuts within the company; combined with Sony’s near-monopoly on the anime industry (after acquiring Funimation in 2018 and Crunchyroll from AT&T in 2021, alongside owning Aniplex since 1995), straining Toonami’s long-standing relationships with the now combined Crunchyroll LLC, has made things difficult for the block to bring in new programming. However, since My Hero Academia returned to the better cartoon show for season 6 last year, Crunchyroll and Sony have at least lightened up in regards to partnering up with Toonami again. This brought the return of additional shows to the lineup, which so far has included Attack on Titan for The Final Chapters, Dr. Stone: New World, Food Wars: The Fifth Plate, the One Piece crossover with Dragon Ball Super and Toriko, and just last week, Demon Slayer for season 2. As we’ve seen time and again since Toonami’s revival, nothing is impossible.
As always, if you wish to see a show make its way to Toonami, continue watching the block every Saturday and make your voice heard by sending your show requests to Toonami’s Facebook page or by directly messaging Jason DeMarco on Twitter (@Clarknova1). We also recommend letting the respective show’s licensors, whether it’s Crunchyroll, Aniplex, Sentai Filmworks, Toei Animation, et. al. know through their respective social media outlets.
Edit 11/18 @ 12:00 a.m. PST: Corrected a previous error where instead of the show’s launch date of January 20, the date was accidentally written as January 13, a week before. Apologies for the mistake.
What are your thoughts on today’s news? Are you looking forward to seeing Lycoris Recoil on Toonami? Let us know by commenting below or directly on our social media.
