This past weekend some of the Fansubbing crew hit up Anime Expo and checked out the premiere of Momentary Lily, the newest anime by GoHands. It's slated to come out January 2025 with no English language licensor decided yet, but given this industry's track record, you can probably expect to see it on either Crunchyroll or HIDIVE.
The episode starts off with some high school girls talking about normal high school girl things. Y'know, video games, skincare, and being an older sister. Normal stuff. This gets interrupted by an alarm warning them of approaching Wild Hunts—the monsters that led to all the other people in the world disappearing. Each of the girls then pulls out a charm that transforms into a giant fantasy weapon with a Norse name to do battle with the Wild Hunts. The fight scene hits us with all the frenetic camera work, 3DCG backgrounds, wide angles, bold colors, and overblown lens flare we've come to expect from GoHands over the years.
After the fight, the girls return to their hangout and we're introduced to Renge, an amnesiac who's managed to survive alone in this barren world. After a short run-in with some cleaning robots—whose exact function is still somewhat mysterious—Renge runs across the girls from the first half of the episode. Not having spoken to anyone since everyone disappeared, she tries to prepare herself for her first conversation in who knows how long, but is interrupted when the girls notice her and go to introduce themselves. Comedy ensues as Renge freaks out and is overwhelmed, with the girls Yuri, Erika, Hinageshi, Sazanka, and Ayame introducing themselves.
Most of the remaining runtime is dedicated to Renge noticing the rest of the girls are eating canned food and ingratiating herself with them by sprucing up their meals with a little bit of Kappo. After several minutes of cooking and eating delicious anime food, another Wild Hunt appears, catching everyone by surprise. The girls scramble to intercept the enemy when Renge reveals a secret she's been hiding: she also has a weapon that can stand up to the wild hunts, which she uses to handily defeat the threat. The episode closes out with Yuri, the presumed leader of the group, and Renge agreeing to work together while vowing to never become friends—because it would be too sad to lose one.
As I alluded to in the blurb, old heads might remember that back in 2013 GoHands screened the first episode of Coppelion at Anime Expo, a full 3 months ahead of its air date in Japan. That show also featured high school girls in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, albeit with a much darker tone and a much greener color palette. The similarities are amusing, but ultimately aren't that meaningful. Perhaps somewhat cynically, you could see both premieres as GoHands attempting to put themselves in an advantageous position when shopping around for a licensor, but regardless, it was probably a smart way to directly market their new show to fans.
So where does that leave us with the show? Is it good? Well, no, not really. The GoHands house style is polarizing, to put it charitably. Momentary Lily episode 1 does not shy away from the camera angles and movements that some people complain give them literal motion sickness. Not to mention all the characters (other than maybe Renge) have a single personality trait each. Erika is the "older sister" and she doesn't let you forget it, mentioning it at least half a dozen times throughout the episode. Plus her bouncy, busty bosom is impossible to ignore in every shot she's in. Hinageshi is the (capital G) Gamer of the group, relating every single thing that happens back to some gaming term, with "buff" and "debuff" being her favorites. Ayame is the "class rep"—but don't call her that! Sazanka is the gyaru, who spouts off more yabais than you could shake a stick at. Then there's Yuri, who has some other insane verbal tic that I honestly don't even remember anymore. It's clear the creators want the slice of life to be a focus and not just window dressing, but a slice of life anime lives and dies by its characters and most of them feel more like TV Tropes pages than believable people in this world. Will I be watching this show come 2025? Probably, if only to see whether it devolves into an utter trainwreck or if it manages to tell an interesting story about this honestly pretty cool world it's set up.
Thanks to Anime Expo for providing Fansubbing with press badges!
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