Assault Lily: Bouquet Episode 11

Assault Lily: Bouquet Episode 11

What Does it Mean to be a Lily?

Let’s start off this review by tying something that was shown for a second or two in this episode back to an episode earlier in the series. What second-long scene am I talking about? The one in which we see the headmaster of Yurigaoka Academy when he’s younger witnessing a HUGE launch similar to the one that happens in the present.

Why is this scene important? Honestly, I don’t know yet. But, it does tie into a seemingly offhand comment from an earlier episode (I forget which one). I didn’t bring this up at the time, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about ever since it was said.

When the headmaster is on the phone with some government officials, one of them refers to him as a first-generation Lily.

Moyu Mashima from the anime series Assault Lily: Bouquet
Moyu Mashima

Maybe this was a mistranslation. But I don’t think that’s the case. I think the headmaster really does have something to do with the origin of the Lilies. And that origin may have been what we saw in that short flashback.

Obviously, the headmaster is a man, and all the Lilies we’ve seen in the series are young girls. So it stands to reason that the headmaster isn’t really a Lily in the same sense as these girls. Instead, perhaps he’s referred to as a first-generation Lily because he was one of the first people able to manipulate magie.

And if this is the case, perhaps this past HUGE launch that we were shown in this episode is when he gained that ability. We see that this new HUGE is able to disable the use of magie. So maybe in the past, a HUGE caused the headmaster to awaken his use of magie.

Rare Skills: Charisma and Laplace

Two Rare Skills were at the center of this episode: Charisma and Laplace. Before I get into explaining the two, I want to say that I no longer think Riri has the Rare Skill Charisma. I now think her Rare Skill is Laplace. But why do I think that’s the case? Well, there are two main reasons.

First, it was always assumed that her Rare Skill was Charisma despite it never actually being confirmed. So now that there’s a “better” version of Charisma we know about, it makes sense for that to be the Rare Skill Riri actually has.

Second, when the new HUGE disabled everyone’s use of magie, Riri was the only one able to continue using it. This hints at her rare skill not being Charisma (and therefore being Laplace instead) because it was stated that even the other Lilies with Charisma were unable to manipulate magie.

Misuzu Kawazoe from the anime series Assault Lily: Bouquet
Misuzu Kawazoe

But what’s the actual difference between Charisma and Laplace? Charisma is a Rare Skill that allows a Lily to manipulate others and draw them to her. Basically, it’s the power of friendship. Laplace, on the other hand, allows a Lily to manipulate the magie of anything and control them at will.

Misuzu having Laplace as her Rare Skill seems to be the case. She was able to manipulate the magie of Yuyu’s old CHARM, she was able to manipulate the magie of the HUGE by using Yuyu’s old CHARM, and she was even able to manipulate Yuyu — though to what end she did this hasn’t yet been explained.

Riri having Laplace also makes sense for the story. How are the HUGE going to be defeated once and for all? Probably by having their magie overwritten by Riri. And how is the current HUGE threat going to be stopped? Probably by combining Rare Skills and having Riri share her Laplace (and therefore her ability to keep manipulating magie) with the Hitotsuyanagi Legion.

Remember how in the previous episode we saw Fumi sharing her Hawk’s Eye with everyone? The same thing could happen with Riri’s Rare Skill now. It appears that while the Lilies can’t use their CHARMs, they’re still able to use their Rare Skills and therefore can combine them. I’m basing this assumption on Yuyu’s eyes turning red, which indicates that her Lunatic Trancer was active even when her CHARM wasn’t.

Who is Misuzu?

I had a lot of questions regarding who Misuzu really is after watching this episode. First, there was the implication that she could have been using her Rare Skill on everyone in the academy. Since everyone has fond memories of her, maybe that was due to her using her Charisma (or Laplace) on them.

Then there was the claim that Misuzu had purposefully implanted Yuyu’s old weapon in a HUGE and sent it back to the nest where it infected the rest of the HUGE. It was implied that she did this in order to make the HUGE less aggressive, as their aggression increased after the CHARM was removed.

That makes Misuzu sound like a hero, but what if she wasn’t? We don’t really know what her plans were with controlling the HUGE. Perhaps they were only less active because they were planning for the attack that’s currently occurring.

Misuzu using her Rare Skill from the anime series Assault Lily: Bouquet
Misuzu using her Rare Skill

You might think that there’s no way Misuzu could be an antagonist, but I’m not so sure. We did see a seemingly suppressed memory Yuyu had in which Misuzu talks about struggling to hold back her urge to harm Yuyu right before she uses her Rare Skill on her. We can assume this Rare Skill usage is what caused this memory to be suppressed.

It seems to me that Misuzu was much different than everyone remembers. There have been hints of this throughout the series, such as when she tells Yuyu that all Lilies are fated to die fighting HUGE. I think that Misuzu had some sort of hatred towards Lilies and was using her Laplace to manipulate how everyone saw her.

And, what if Yuyu’s hallucinations weren’t hallucinations? If Misuzu really can manipulate people’s minds, could she not have faked her own death? Originally Yuyu only saw her when she was alone, but now she’s seen Misuzu multiple times around Riri and even around Moyu.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Misuzu has actually been alive all this time and has been using her Rare Skill to mask her presence.

Conclusion

What do you think of Assault Lily: Bouquet episode 11? Do you think that the headmaster can use magie? What do you think of the possibility that Riri’s Rare Skill is actually Laplace and not Charisma? And do you think Misuzu is still alive and has been manipulating everyone? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the final episode is available here.

Leave a Comment