Momentary Lily\u2019s creators want to prove slice-of-life genre can work in the apocalypse GOHANDSMomentary Lily is an upcoming anime series brought to life by GoHands, a studio known for their stunning 3D animations and impressive digital camerawork. These two facets are both present in Momentary Lily, which follows a group of superpowered high school girls living in an apocalypse where humanity has been eradicated by alien invaders. I got the chance to attend the world premier of the show\u2019s first episode at Anime Expo 2024, where I was treated to GoHands\u2019 beautiful handiwork and an exclusive panel with the anime\u2019s creators. Right out of the gate, I could tell that Momentary Lily is a feast for the eyes. The bright colors, fluid animations, and eye-popping action in its debut episode make it worth a watch for the visuals alone \u2014 but there are a couple of conflicting elements that I found myself focused on during the screening. For one, the series is set in a post-apocalyptic version of a futuristic world where humanity appears to be nearly completely wiped out. However, the girls all remain extremely cheerful and constantly banter back and forth with each other as they go about their daily lives, taking out titan-sized monsters with machines for heads. On top of that, Momentary Lily surprised me by being one-part action show, one-part cooking show, as a newcomer to the group introduces the rest of the gang to her culinary skills by creating a meal out of ingredients she scavenged during her travels. It made me curious to try out the recipe itself, and it provided a wholesome moment for viewers to catch their breath amidst the ongoing chaos in the episode. Momentary Lily manages to balance extremely serious, life-or-death sequences with slice-of-life style storytelling in a way that isn\u2019t jarring. It feels natural \u2014 and it\u2019s something that the anime\u2019s creators really want audiences to focus on when they watch it. \u201cWe wanted to depict the daily lives of people fighting and eating to survive, since other anime series in this genre usually don\u2019t showcase slice-of-life elements,\u201d they told me in an exclusive interview. \u201cEven though the invaders are coming to attack the girls, their lives and friendship are the main focus of the series. And humans have to eat, too. Cooking is part of their lives.\u201d Throughout our conversation, the team seemed excited that I understood the point of the show \u2014 that, even though the girls are in an apocalypse, they still have to eat to survive. Their friendship is also a big part of that dynamic, and the world doesn\u2019t stop just because aliens are invading. People still have to eat and take care of one another. Momentary Lily features six individual female main characters, each with their own special weapon. Their unique personalities and stories are one particular thing the team is excited about bringing to the world when the anime eventually airs in 2025. \u201cWe\u2019re going to gradually show you what this world is like, little by little,\u201d they said. \u201cAnd we want viewers to get to know the characters, their personalities, and their characteristics. Each girl has her own, different personality, so that\u2019s why we\u2019ve included a slice-of-life element, so viewers can see that the girls have more than one side to them.\u201d Given that the anime has six female protagonists, it was important for the team to represent high school girls in an accurate way \u2014 so they asked their female coworkers for help to achieve this goal. They also hired a professional coordinator to teach them about cooking due to the show\u2019s heavy emphasis on post-apocalyptic cuisine. It\u2019s clear that the minds behind Momentary Lily care deeply about the project, aiming to provide audiences with a different take on the usual post-apocalyptic anime fare\u2026 but a teaser for episode two shown at the end of the screening made me wonder if this seemingly lighthearted series has a secret dark side, similar to titles like Made in Abyss or Puella Magi Madoka Magica. When I mentioned this during our conversation, the team wouldn\u2019t say yea or nay \u2014 but merely said \u201cthank you\u201d in response, leaving the possibility up in the air. They were curious about my favorite anime, quizzing me about what mahou shoujo (magical girl) series I like best. I answered with Pretear and Tokyo Mew Mew, and of course Sailor Moon, because who doesn\u2019t love fighting evil by moonlight? All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with the Momentary Lily team and walked away feeling as though they\u2019re genuinely working hard to bring a new, fresh take on a popular anime genre that they hope will find success with viewers worldwide. Although it\u2019s unclear if the show will air Stateside, it\u2019s set to premier in 2025. I\u2019d recommend Momentary Lily to fans of magical girl anime, beautiful animation, and high-octane action sequences. Although it\u2019s difficult to get a read on the overall quality of the series based on one episode alone, it looks like things could turn out very shockingly for the girls in future episodes, and I\u2019m excited to see where the story takes them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Momentary Lily\u2019s creators want to prove slice-of-life genre can work in the apocalypse GOHANDSMomentary Lily is an upcoming anime series brought to life by GoHands, a studio known for their stunning 3D animations and impressive digital camerawork. These two facets are both present in Momentary Lily, which follows a group of superpowered high school girls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}