Momentary Lily

Oh jeez what a mess. Momentary Lily has no clue what it wants to do and the result is a complete train wreck. Is this a generic monster of the week show? A generic CGDCT post apocalypse show? A generic sci fi show? A... cooking... show? Well it's technically all of these things at once but without any of the quality control required to make any of it work. First things first, the visuals. I actually don't mind them and am able to appreciate GoHand's maximalist style for the most part. Although this is almost entirely in regards to the action sequences which, while theydon't come anywhere close to the top brass, are interesting if anything else. In particular I enjoy the unique camera work and angling of shots, if it were paired with high quality art it would be quite satisfying. However, outside of the action the viewer is subjected to preset visuals which contrast against the character models to such a degree that it looks like they're navigating cheap green screen... despite being animation. Characters have to be in instant movement and so if t hey do much as breathe their entire body mass has to respond in kind. This is most blatant with Erika whose oversized boobs seem to be perpetually bouncing on a trampoline, for the less endowed this is shown through their hair which has the same level of jiggle physics. The plot is just an absolute mess. For the first quarter you'll expect this to be a generic monster of the week show, maybe even less than generic as the aliens they fight against all look exactly the same and lack any defining characteristics. They must've gotten bored of this though because they suddenly spend the next half of the show on extremely generic slice of life before leading into a not even half baked twist conclusion that doesn't lead anywhere. Every episode more or less plays out the exact same and they seem to be chronically afraid of development (of both plot and character) so when they do decide to let something happen it completely lacks any impact. Every episode also features this weird chibi cooking segment which seems to be included entirely to fill episode time and nothing else. The benefit of an anime original story is that you're allowed full reign of control over the events of the show, meaning that you aren't limited by deciding how much of the plot you're allowed to adapt in order to create a cohesive story. The downside to this is that if your writing team clearly isn't capable of creating a complete story you end up with something like this where every episode ends up being filler or stuck to stereotypes, half assing the entire thing and wasting everyone's time. A story needs a plan and they clearly ran out of ideas past the third episode. The lack of ideas is equally apparent in their characters as well. They can barely even be called characters as each of them are limited by one or two stock phrases based on their archetype. Renge technically has the most range of them all, she's shy, likes to cook and has amnesia. This at least frees her from not being limited to catchphrases every time she wants to communicate but she is also the one responsible for the episodic cooking segments so even she isn't free. For the rest of the cast it seems that they thought of a catchphrase for each of them and than designed the character after the fact. Yuri is a genki girl who says "don-don-don" all the time. Hina is a gamer who makes gamer references, mostly referring to energy drinks as "buffs." Sazanka honestly doesn't do anything but she makes proverbs every now and then. Erika starts every sentence with "onee-chan's pearl of wisdom" and has big boobs. Ayame is kind of a leader type and says "guilty" all the time as an attempt to be the world's most boring chuuni character. There's nothing else to any of these characters and they don't have any chemistry with each other either. The slice of life segments attempt to fix this by pairing them off and having heart to hearts with each other which reveal a shred of backstory but this doesn't add anything substantial to any of their relationships. It's impossible to care about any of them when every single one of their interactions plays out the same and the depth of their character is as deep as a drop of spit. It's hard to find qualities of Momentary Lily to praise. If it had simply stuck to one of the many tropes it wanted to play out and ran it through until the end then it could have just been another slightly below average anime with maximalist visuals. However by creating something without a fully formed idea of what to do in the first place naturally the result is going to be a dumpster fire. Even in an era where CGDCT reigns supreme and demonstrates that you can get away without a concrete plot so long as you go all in on character relations they still fumble that element by forgetting to flesh out their cast beyond catchphrases and the most basic of backstories. Momentary Lily can't even be given the benefit of the doubt by assuming they simply aimed too high and came up short because they tried to do too much, because they didn't try to do anything with this in the first place. Disgraceful.

Momentary Lily - GoHands, is this your Hand Shakers for the 2020s? It seems like it; it feels more like it. Look, I'm not saying that studios are allowed to have their own freestyle of production, but it feels as if, as time passes on, those distinctions become more of a blessing or a curse, depending on the intentions, of course. And for studio GoHands, for a time, they were just like any other studio out there pumping out stereotypical 2D animation adaptations of source materials like 2009's Princess Lover! and 2010's Seitokai Yakuindomo...that is until they found success with 2012's K Project, and the decisionto go full 3DCG is officially implemented, which has been the outcome of striking and bizarre controversy ever since 2017's Hand Shakers. And that philosophy still remains true in the regard of original anime from the studio till now, with the release of this season's Momentary Lily: a show about a post-apocalyptic science fantasy adventure of dealing with robotic invaders...as much as the aspect of cooking makes sense to fill stomachs first, then focus on the issue at hand. "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." - Hippocrates With Momentary Lily being the post-apocalyptic setting of survivability against all odds, I can see how such a story of people having weapons to fight against these monstrous robot-like beings destroying the face of the Earth proves detrimental to humanity's survival for the foreseeable future. In this case, the group of girls of Yuri Kawazu, Erika Kodaiji, Hinageshi Usuzumi, Sazanka Yoshino, and Ayame Sakuya, who were then joined by the unknown girl of Renge Kasumi, were just wandering around all alone with her newfound Andvari weapon, decimating the Wild Hunt robots who roam around the city they're in to kill anyone that's in their way, trying to figure out the secrets of their powers and pasts. In fact, this mirrors Hand Shakers in the way of people partnering together to create their Nimrod weapons to fight against the many groups targeting each other in the race to become God...which, for some reason, as the story (if you could call it that) progresses, I kind of find myself more wanting of Hand Shakers than this show, which, in its execution, was just as wishy-washy, but at least the former show had a somewhat streamlined story despite issues in its storytelling, rather than the latter, which feels like the plot premise kind of took a backseat to the entire CGDCT-esque parade due to uneven pacing. "We all eat, and it would be a sad waste of opportunity to eat badly." - Anna Thomas And that problem is pretty much escalated when Renge joins the group of girls who also are in the same predicament, just that they have more control thanks to their Andvari weapons, which enable them to get OP and eliminate the Wild Hunt. As much personality as the 5 girls all have that we can all afford to single out which girl stands out the most, there's just too much detail going into them that it feels like there's no central character of note (well, if you remove Renge from the equation). Renge trying to rally the girls together is an effort that I will acknowledge trying to get some sort of consensus for a survival story of the 6 of them, even if it means having to get down to the heart of the matter: food, because this is what she's genuinely good at, even if it does and doesn't serve as a plot device to the entire story at hand. It's these CGDCT-esque things that show the amount of effort the writers have when exploring character depth but are by no means showing character development, which, sadly, there is little to none of this, bringing about the incongruencies of mediocre storytelling at its finest (which GoHands is always, without a shadow of a doubt, infamously known for). "Food is symbolic of love when words are inadequate." - Alan D. Wolfelt With GoHands, it goes without saying that they love (and I mean ABSOLUTELY LOVE) quality over quantity, or rather, excessive things like their signature complex camerawork, particle effects, and aggressive postprocessing. This has been the bread-and-butter of the studio since Hand Shakers, and if you thought that you could survive Summer 2023's offerings of Suki na Ko ga Megane wo Wasureta a.k.a The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses (which exactly showcases the best of GoHands production) and the underrated Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuutsu a.k.a The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today, that's at least a stark contrast to what GoHands does for their original anime, which has the budget to go all-out in their own style. And Momentary Lily just feels like another Hand Shakers that's just made to impress just about the loyalists of overexcessive 3DCG. Even the music is somewhat overboard this time around, not the plain ones like GoHands's other projects in the past. I thought that Hanabie's metalcore punk-rock OP song was just the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard when it comes to Anisongs, but then again, when coupled with how GoHands loves to just infringe their signature style, it kind of ironically makes a perfect fit for an overhyped OP song. miwa's ED song is just forgettable, though. Look, you know fully well what to expect going into a GoHands show that is completely originally made from the ground up, only to come out being just as underwhelmed as do their original anime projects of the past (Hand Shakers included). And that's the result of Momentary Lily: a show so ridiculous and over-the-top that it makes you question why any production company (in this case, Shochiku) would have the finances to back an anime project, let alone a GoHands one. This practice will sadly never go away in years to come because GoHands found its formula to rake in any effort they can, even if it comes off as more of an annoyance than anything.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: Momentary Lily is a complete and utter trainwreck. On an animation level, it’s Studio GoHands on its signature F Game. Obnoxious rainbow lens flare in almost every scene on top of garish color filters, absurd camera angles which serve absolutely no purpose, and overanimated character models which all compound into complete sensory overload. It’s a complete smorgasbord of visual ideas which don’t cohere in any meaningful way and leave only a nauseous mess in their wake. The same can be said for the writing, which is often even worse & less cohesive than the visuals. All of thecharacters are cardboard cutouts defined largely by their catchphrase/vocal quirk, such as the one that says BAM BAM, the one that says Kappou, the one that says Guilty, and the one that speaks Gamer, among others. This terrible cast is not helped by the script, which often swings wildly between serious action, slice-of-life comedy, half-assed emotional moments, and intrusive 3-minute chibi cooking tutorials every episode (yes, really) without any sense of tonal balance, and a mind-numbingly convoluted wider plot which also never comes together. It’s at this point in the review that you’re probably wondering why it’s marked “Mixed Feelings” rather than “Negative”. Well, the answer is rather simple: Momentary Lily is insanely fun to watch. Yup, it’s one of those classic “So Bad, It’s Good” type shows. It may not be traditionally good art, but one can’t help but be in awe of how hard Momentary Lily fails. Its awful production, while typical of Studio GoHands’ output, is nonetheless a standout next to more traditional failures, and seeing what new assaults on cinematic language the series will hammer out quickly goes from an annoying distraction to a major part of the fun. The writing, too, is almost endearing in how much it commits to its terrible approach. Whether it be getting blindsided by whatever new nonsensical plot turn the series will throw at you or just laughing along at how dumb its catchphrase-overloaded excuses for banter are, there is genuinely no end to the ironic fun one can have with this show. If you’re looking for a traditionally good, well-made show, you should probably avoid Momentary Lily like the plague. But if you’re just looking for something dumb to throw on at bad movie night and turn your brain off to, then this might just be the one for you.

Dear fellow reader, let me throw you into a wild hypothetical scenario. Picture this: you stumble upon the ultimate cure for cancer. Sounds epic, right? Now imagine pouring your heart into it, but no one gives you the time of day. The cure stays hidden, cancer keeps winning, and you’re just… stuck. How would that hit you? That’s my vibe with Momentary Lily. Hands down, it’s the most slept-on gem of the Winter 2025 season. This anime yeets you into a post-apocalyptic rollercoaster where humanity’s teetering on the edge (or maybe already toast) thanks to some freaky, unnegotiable creatures. Your mission as aviewer? Figure out what’s going down. Each episode levels up harder than the last. You’ll be cooking up a storm of theories to crack the mystery, only tenuor every mind-blowing ep to smash them to bits. The finale? Total brain-fry territory—leaving you with a gazillion questions but wrapping up with pure class. Momentary Lily is the undisputed GOAT of Winter 2025. Sadly, the woke hate train derailed it over some ecchi and fanservice spice, robbing too many fans of this banger. And here’s the kicker: who says ecchi can’t flex a killer story? Momentary Lily proves you can have steamy fanservice and a gripping plot that slaps. Too bad the woke mob caught on and tried to bury it so no one would clock its brilliance. Don’t let the haters gatekeep you—dive into this masterpiece and stan it hard!

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