Lycoris Recoil is easily one of 2022's strongest anime entries and has topped the trending charts numerous times over the past few months. Much of its success can be attributed to the way that it blends multiple anime genres like action, slice-of-life, comedy, drama, and more. Where Lycoris Recoil arguably shines the most though is when it taps into its "buddy cop" formula, featuring Chisato and Takina.
This is because Lycoris Recoil is a buddy cop show at heart. It often capitalizes on Takina and Chisato's odd dynamics as a pair of orphan-girl-turned-assassins. And, as with traditional buddy cop formulas, the two have clashing personalities that make their friendship and chemistry all the more endearing. The following elements of Chisato and Takina's friendship prove that point further.
7 They're Polar Opposites
Lycoris Recoil plays on the stereotypical trope of extroverts and introverts getting along and providing a much-needed contrast to each other's shortcomings as people. In this case, Chisato is the extrovert and Takina is the introvert; both of them polar opposites in terms of demeanor.
Chisato is bubbly, upbeat, and carefree while Takina is cold, calculating, and dry. Chisato can be overbearing or too noisy at times and Takina is too critical and aloof. Together, they cancel out each other's negative qualities while becoming more efficient when performing at their best. Opposites do attract, after all.
6 Chisato Helps Takina Enjoy Life
Takina is the classic no-nonsense emo girl in anime who embodies the classic INTJ behavior. She can be so serious at times and often forgets that people are human beings who typically function off of emotions and empathy. That's why a lot of her colleagues in the DA dislike her to the point of shunning and avoiding her.
She even had a hard time adjusting to her new life in Café LycoReco due to her focus and commitment. Chisato helped her see a new perspective on life that involved making the most out of failure or poor incidents. She taught Chisato that not everything has to go according to plan and that she should just live in the moment.
5 Takina Puts Order Into Chisato's Life
In contrast, that doesn't mean Chisato's life is any better. While she does have a more positive outlook and approach to setbacks, Chisato's lifestyle is a little too carefree and messy, as is symbolized by her chaotic house. Takina provided her with the much-needed structure and rigidity.
Since Takina's personality type has a tendency to stress over details, control, and order, she effortlessly organized Chisato's day-to-day life and, in turn, also extended this "project" to Café LycoReco. She even fixed the Café's miserable financial situation with a big overhead and surplus. It's therefore safe to assume that both Chisato and Café LycoReco could easily have gone down crashing and burning if Takina hadn't stepped in to take control of the reins.
4 Their Skills Are Complementary
Due to their conflicting personality types, how the two assassins/café maids approach situations and tasks is also different. Takina prefers a more calculated risk while Chisato goes in guns blazing, improvising most things. One could even say that Takina is the brains and Chisato is the brawn, especially since the former has more logical intelligence while the latter has better close-combat skills.
That isn't to say Takina's combat skills are sub-par. It's just that she excels at engaging enemies at longer ranges. Chisato, meanwhile, typically gets up close and personal. Thus, Chisato is the perfect point man (or girl) for Takina's plans, and Takina is also the perfect backup for Chisato's spearheading. That's why the two excel together as a duo; they cover each other's combat weaknesses.
3 Conflicting Morals
Another aspect of their personality where the buddy-cop duo clash is in their morals. Takina, due to her initially cold personality, doesn't care about murdering people. Chisato has this hard rule for herself where she will not let blood be spilled by her hands, hence the magical rubber bullets that somehow penetrate metal.
This could have easily created negative friction between this buddy-cop duo, but Chisato's altruistic and empathetic outlook rubbed off well on Takina. The latter even stopped being too gung-ho in combat after getting paired with Chisato. This certainly had a noticeable impact on Takina's character development and how she values life.
2 They Both Look After Each Other
By the end of the first season, it became pretty clear that to Takina, Chisato was an irreplaceable friend. Even after finding out that Chisato only had a few months of life left due to her failing heart, Takina still valued her life more than anything. The younger and less developed version of Takina wouldn't have cared that much.
This display of camaraderie was one of the highest points of the show. Takina even ruined her shot at getting back in the DA just to save Chisato, even knowing that she'd eventually die anyway in a few short months. Of course, there's no denying that Chisato deeply cares for Takina; she does care for everyone's lives, but Takina seems to hold a special place in her heart.
1 Powerhouse Tandem
As mentioned earlier, the two were an unstoppable duo whenever they decided to work in tandem. They raised the Café out of bankruptcy (which still wouldn't have been possible without Chisato's extroversion), and they single-handedly saved the DA and the whole Lycoris operation by stopping Majima.
In fact, both of them could have gone on to greater lengths and heights if they wished or if they knew their potential. This kind of professional partnership practically has no weakness since they cover each other's faults and imperfections. Together, the two of them make up the perfect Lycoris assassin. Hopefully, Lycoris Recoil Season 2 explores that notion further.