Lily from anim.o.v.e

Lily as seen in Lily Starts a Band.

**Lily from anim.o.v.e** is the main protagonist and titular character in *silylily - The Story*.

As a singer and lesser known member of Internet, Lily fails to attain the attention she desires and struggles to further her career. She regularly loses sight of what is most important, causing her to face hardships with her friends. Throughout the series, she learns and grows as friends such as kokone and Cocorobo assist her, but she is plagued by a dark secret that comes back to haunt her.

## Summary

### History

As a child, Lily dreams of becoming a "rockstar." At school, she befriends Gumi and Namine Ritsu, but animosity forms between her and Kamui Gakupo as they battle for Gumi's friendship. Upon growing up, Lily pursues a career in music by forming a band called anim.o.v.e with Mosh, a man she met at a concert. Mosh and Lily perform at various venues, attracting the attention of Luna, who Lily falls in love with. Lily eventually invites Luna to join the band, which creates tension between the members. Mosh and Luna vie for Lily's attention, causing the band to fall into shambles.

Learning about a music genre called "vocaloid," which consists of singers who work with various producers to create techno-styled songs, Lily expresses interest in it to further her career. She joins a house of "vocal-synths" called AHS along with Hiyama Kiyoteru, Kaai Yuki, and SF-A2 miki. This decision infuriates Mosh and Luna, causing anim.o.v.e to split up and Lily to break up with Luna. Shortly after joining AHS, Lily is kidnapped by someone who turns out to be Gumi. Gumi brings Lily to her own vocaloid house called Internet, which she shares with Gakupo.

While performing at Internet, Lily develops feelings for Gumi, but Gakupo regularly stands in her way. Over time, Ryuto, CUL, and galaco join Internet, but galaco does not stay for long. Lily has a consistent music career, but pales in comparison to Gumi and Gakupo's fame. When Namine Ritsu becomes an UTAU, a counterpart to vocaloid, she covers many of Lily's songs and becomes more popular. As a result, many of Ritsu's fans begin to spread hate for Lily and Ritsu goes along with it. Lily's career rapidly declines.

When kokone joins Internet, Lily despises her, believing Internet to be putting too much money into expansion. They have a rough relationship until they visit a festival together with Gumi and CUL. Gumi and Lily had planned to spend the festival together, but as soon as they arrive, CUL runs off with Gumi. This leaves Lily and kokone alone together for the evening. Despite everything, Lily learns to appreciate kokone and the two become close friends.

Chika and Otomachi Una later join Internet, but Lily and Chika do not get along. Una quickly becomes just as popular as Gumi, becoming one of the few Internet singers to receive attention from their management. Over the years, Lily becomes less and less popular, eventually falling into obscurity.

### Forming Friendships

Disappointed by her failing music career, Lily is approached by a fairy named Aoki Lapis, who offers to grant her a wish. She is also approached by Lapis' sister Merli, who makes the same offer. They accuse the other of being evil, but Lily gives her wish to Merli and subsequently becomes the most popular vocaloid through the eyes of a fish, revealing Merli to be the evil one. This does not hinder their friendship and Lily invites the fairy on a camping trip along with many other friends. While camping in the haunted Execrated Forest, Lily and company are pursued by an evil cat, the ghost of Suzune Ring, demonic creatures called Indefinable Shadow Beasts, and poor weather conditions. Lily meets a roomba named Cocorobo, who claims to be a girl trapped inside by Ring.

After finding the sacred Fountain of Diolacov, Lily is able to turn Cocorobo into a human again, but the two are later captured by the "wild cat" along with Lily's other friends. The cat turns out to be a possessed vocaloid named Nekomura Iroha, but Lily is able to lure her to the Fountain of Diolacov and knock her inside. This cures Iroha of her possession. The two of them, Cocorobo, and the rest of Lily's friends are soon rescued by Una in Internet's helicopter. To repay Lily for saving her, Cocorobo agrees to be her personal maid and moves in with her. Iroha turns to a life of crime, but retains regular contact with Lily.

Haunted by the memories of Mosh and Luna, Lily struggles to be recognized as a member of Internet, but is frequently comforted by Cocorobo and kokone. Despite being unpopular, the three of them form a tightly knit friend group. kokone promises to never leave Lily and the two of them start to do everything together. Lily becomes reliant on Gumi and kokone, but soon finds herself in a position where her friends are too busy to hang out with her. She befriends Sonika because of her similar appearance to Gumi. Over time, Lily's relationship with Gumi evolves, her friendship with kokone strengthens, and CUL's sister ROSA joins Internet.

### The Past Returns

Lily wins a mansion in a suspicious contest and invites many of her friends to spend a night in it, but they are haunted by a mysterious presence. It turns out that Iroha held the contest, but the "presence" haunting the mansion forced her into it. Lily and the guests are kidnapped by the presence, who reveals itself to be Luna. Luna attempts to convince Lily to abandon being a vocaloid and return to her. Lily instead convinces her to coexist with the other vocaloids. Lily's words get through to her ex, but not before Luna activates an explosive in the mansion. The mansion is blown up, but everyone is able to escape beforehand.

Returning to life with the other Internet vocaloids, Lily makes a bet with kokone around Halloween season that the latter cannot be scared for the whole month. Lily is then visited by a mysterious girl, Prima, who guides her in attempting to scare kokone. Lily summons a demon known as The Tails Doll, but it attacks her instead. Thanks to guidance from Prima, kokone is able to rescue Lily, but neither of them are able to deduce who Prima is.

When Christmas season comes around, Lily does not receive an invitation to a major concert that Gumi, Gakupo, Una, and CUL are invited to. Ritsu also receives an invitation and torments Lily over it, threatening to cover her songs in front of a massive audience. Enraged, Lily distances herself from kokone and Cocorobo, focusing more on fame than her friendships. On the night before Christmas, Lily eats a bad fruitcake and passes out, only to be visited by three ghosts who show her the error of her ways. She relives her falling out with Luna, she sees Chika and Ritsu drive kokone and Cocorobo away from her, and she sees a future where kokone dies of a broken heart without her best friend. When she wakes up, Lily agrees to change her ways. She rekindles her relationships with Luna, Cocorobo, and kokone, allowing all of them to have a satisfactory Christmas.

In a new year, Lily convinces kokone to sneak into an Internet concert with her. They borrow a stolen car with stealth gear from Iroha, but later find out they were invited to the concert after all. Under instructions to not return the car, Lily and kokone go for a drive, but police officer Yuzuki Yukari recognizes the vehicle as one stolen by the infamous "cat bandit." She pursues the two, claiming to know who they are, which makes Lily believe she is being chased because of her dark "secret." Lily crashes the car and uses an emergency "lamp" from her gear to summon Merli, who had been trapped inside it by her sister. Merli offers Lily a wish in exchange for freeing her, but Lily and kokone are arrested by Yukari before the wish can be made.

### A Life of Crime

Lily and kokone are imprisoned together, but they are soon rescued by Una. Refusing to return to the Internet house where the police would find them, they seek out Merli so Lily can wish their names clear. Meanwhile, Yukari enlists the help of Ritsu to catch Lily. While living on the streets, kokone chews Lily out for being a bad friend and always dragging her into trouble. After a row, the two go to sleep and Lily awakens to find kokone has left her alone. Lily is then captured by Ritsu, but rescued by kokone, who had gone to find a baseball bat to use as a weapon. kokone makes Lily agree to resign leadership to her, then the two make up and continue to seek out Merli.

kokone captures Merli in a net, but her and Lily's names are cleared when lookalikes are arrested in their place. However, Ritsu and Yukari find and arrest kokone for attacking Ritsu with a bat. In jail, kokone's leadership over Lily allows her to make a wish on Lily's behalf. kokone wishes the police were after Ritsu instead of her and Lily, which allows her to be released and reunited with her yellow friend. They return to the Internet household to resume their regular lives.

Cocorobo later leaves for a convention, depriving Lily of basic luxuries she relied on Cocorobo to handle. She and kokone seek out a new maid and hire Acme Iku, a "Maidloid." Iku proves to be catastrophically bad at her job, but Cocorobo comes home just in time to save the day from her. Lily embraces Cocorobo and promises to never replace her again. Soon, Lily and Gumi are given housekeeping jobs of their own when Iroha goes out of town and hires them to watch her many cats. One of them, Scourge, attempts to rile the cats into rebelling against their babysitters. Scourge attacks Lily and runs away to raise an army, causing her and Gumi to pursue him. After finding Scourge, the girls meet Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, two supervillains that take a liking to the vocaloids. The two agree to look after Scourge, recognizing him as a fellow villain.

On the last day of their cat-sitting job, Scourge returns as a full-fledged supervillain and captures Lily and Gumi. They are saved when Iroha returns and Scourge returns to his regular cat self for her. However, Iroha is soon arrested by Batman for the crimes she committed while out of town. With nothing left to do, Lily and Gumi go on a double date with Ivy and Harley, but Scourge swears to take Lily down. It is not long after that Lily receives an invitation to a concert that everyone in Internet is expected to perform in. However, she develops a "vocold" sore that spreads all over her face, making her ashamed of her appearance. When famous vocaloid Megurine Luka visits to help the Internet singers prepare, she convinces Lily to perform by showing a photograph from her own first performance where she also had the sores. With renewed confidence, Lily is able to perform a groundbreaking show and inspire members of the audience who have blemishes just like her.

### The Dance

With a major dance coming up, Lily struggles to find a date when she learns Gumi and Gakupo are "guests of honor" and cannot date. She is oblivious to kokone's attempts to ask her out as she tries to land dates with others such as Luna and SpongeBob SquarePants. She learns that Luna is dating somebody else, but it is not until the dance that she learns this person is Ritsu. Failing to find someone to dance with her, Lily decides to approach Gumi anyway, but she is put in an isolated zone as punishment for it. In the bathroom, kokone interrogates Luna to discover the latter is dating Ritsu to prevent her from leaking Lily's secret to the world. After agreeing to keep this a secret, kokone visits Lily in the isolated zone and the two share a dance.

After a heartfelt moment, kokone slips Ritsu's plan to Lily. Having stolen Gakupo's katana, Lily challenges Ritsu to a duel on the balcony, but Ritsu wields a magical blade called VY2. After an intense duel, Lily is able to knock Ritsu over a ledge, but she falls off soon after. She is caught by Gumi, who happens to be outside, but Ritsu falls on her head and develops amnesia. Lily convinces Ritsu to leave her alone and Gumi agrees to dance with Lily, even if it is against the rules. However, kokone is conflicted after helping Lily reconnect with Luna and Gumi, having feelings for Lily herself.

### Going Grunge

Animosity develops between Lily and flower when Lily continually pesters the punk rocker. Following an altercation that left Lily hospitalized, the blonde asks Gumi about her fame. Gumi refers Lily to Luka for career advice, and Lily is subsequently inspired to start a band when she sees one that Luka manages. She convinces kokone and Cocorobo to join her, then the three of them head to Luna's house to receive equipment and lessons. She finds that Luna has developed a taste for an addictive substance called honeydew, but she refuses to try it for herself. The girls practice under Luna's tutelage until they are ready to perform a concert. They name themselves Enlightenment and call their genre of music "vocagrunge."

Sonika becomes Enlightenment's roadie and the band has a groundbreaking performance that ends the careers of many other musicians. Lily is hailed as "bigger than Hatsune Miku," but vocagrunge is discovered by famous vocaloids flower, Kagamine Len, and Fukase. The three start their own band and outsell Enlightenment. Infuriated, Lily finds herself consuming honeydew with Luna, reaching a state of intoxication that causes her to nearly drown when she attempts to walk on water. Gumi rescues her and the two share a heartfelt conversation. Gumi explains to Lily that her influence matters more than her fame, a message Lily understands after a while. The next day, Lily meets up with flower to reconcile their differences, but finds flower has disbanded her band due to vocagrunge going out of style. Undisturbed, Lily proclaims Enlightenment as the definitive vocagrunge band.

Enlightenment is scheduled to perform at a party Gakupo plans for Gumi's birthday. Lily plans to confess her love to Gumi, but cannot work up the courage to do so. At the party, a cloaked figure attempts to crash it to hurt Lily's image. Gakupo calls Gumi up to a stage to announce he is bringing her on "The Great Vocaloid Tour," the biggest vocaloid concert in the world. During the announcement, the cloaked figure swings in on a rope and kicks Gumi unconscious. Gakupo spots that the figure has blonde hair and is quick to identify Lily as the only guest with the same hair color. Lily is kicked out of the party and drowns her sorrows with honeydew.

Inebriated, Lily sees a vision of Gumi that reprimands her for never speaking her mind. The vision ends when kokone comes to join Lily, having left the party in anger after Lily's expulsion. They do honeydew together and they both become terribly intoxicated. kokone drunkenly confesses her love to Lily, but it goes over Lily's head. With a new sense of energy, Lily decides to confront the partygoers to express her innocence. She tosses a large piece of honeydew behind her, but it coincidentally hits the cloaked figure on the head and knocks them out. Later, the partygoers unmask the figure to discover it was Rin sitting on Len's shoulders. When interrogated, the twins explain they were hired by someone who has it out for Lily. When Gumi wakes up and hears about what happened, she makes Gakupo apologize for his mistake. Lily fails to confess her love to Gumi and Sonika is kidnapped unbeknownst to her.

### Lost in the Forest

Enlightenment is booked to perform at a venue in the Execrated Forest. As Sonika is missing, Luna drives the band members to the location. Shortly afterwards, Luna disappears along with the van, stranding Lily, Cocorobo, and kokone. They discover Ritsu tricked them into coming out there, causing her and Lily to relentlessly argue. During their fight, Cocorobo and kokone are captured by Suzune Ring. Lily and Ritsu argue into the night, but a storm forces them to take shelter in a cave. When they find out that the cave is occupied, they run away in terror and wind up lost.

Lily tries to take honeydew to calm her stress, but Ritsu smacks it away from her, claiming that even as much as she hates Lily, she refuses to let her enemy go down such a dark path. They proceed along a cliffside, but Ring leaps out at them, startling Lily and causing her to slip over the edge. Lily grabs onto a branch and Ritsu reaches a hand to the vocaloid, insisting that Lily trust her. After some inner debating, Lily takes Ritsu's hand and is pulled back up. Finding Ring has disappeared, the two decide to set up camp for the night. Before they fall asleep, Ritsu admits to Lily that she only torments her out of jealousy, envying Lily's life and friendships.

While exploring the forest, Ritsu admits to knowing about Lily's crush on Gumi and encourages Lily to confess. She also hints toward kokone's romantic interest in the blonde. They come across Tei, who is carrying the body of Len, but she denies that he is dead and agrees to show the girls to civilization. Tei leads them to a village called "Lilytown," where all the citizens are obsessed with Lily. They hail Lily as their queen, making Ritsu envious. After a day of being neglected, Ritsu storms off, but Lilytown is then invaded by Rin, who is looking for Len. Rin places Lily in a guillotine and threatens to decapitate her, but she is knocked out from behind by Lily's guitar, which is wielded by Ritsu. Ritsu rescues Lily and the town praises her. Tei gives Lily and Ritsu a map to lead them out of the forest, but Ritsu does not let Lily look at it.

Ritsu guides Lily to a large castle and knocks her out. When Lily awakens, Ritsu has restrained her and she is confronted with the one who had been hunting for her, alongside Scourge, SpongeBob, and Ring. The figure admits to having Sonika, Luna, kokone, and Cocorobo hostage, as well as knowing Lily's dark secret. After insisting that Lily confess to her evil misdeeds, the figure reveals herself to be Lapis. Lapis recalls how Lily sided with Merli over her, choosing to align with evil over good. Before anything can be done, Merli teleports into the kingdom and saves Lily.

### Turning Evil

Merli brings Lily to her evil lair, but Lily is taken aback by how grim everything is, especially the sight of Violet having been taken prisoner. Merli explains that she is only "evil" because she opposes societal expectations that Lapis upholds. She offers Lily the chance to join her in the fight against good, but Lily cannot find it in herself to become evil. Lily leaves and returns to the Internet household, but finds Chika there alone after Gakupo forced the others to leave early for their tour. As a result, Lily is alone on her birthday.

Lily starts a journal where she writes a letter to Gumi at the end of every day, planning for Gumi to read it after the tour. After a depressing birthday, she consults Poison Ivy for guidance on her situation with Merli. Ivy explains that going against the people in power is a true display of commitment to helping others, which gets Lily thinking. The vocaloid ultimately decides to work with Merli and become evil. She moves out of the Internet household to stay in Merli's lair, allowing Lapis to consult the lone Chika while looking for her. Merli trains Lily on how to be evil, making her commit crimes such as robbing the rich Hatsune Miku. They decide to build an army to fight against Lapis, so they recruit Tei and MAYU. However, both of them are too disturbingly evil for Merli's taste.

Lily mentions wanting to recruit Iroha, but the cat-girl in question has been arrested. They head to her household to request the use of Kiyoteru's demon powers to help her escape. Kiyoteru denies this request, citing his powers as a possession from an Indefinable Shadow Beast held back only by glasses blessed by LUMi. The girls instead decide to work with Ivy and Harley, but find the prison is blocked by a magic spell. Ivy and Harley distract the guards while Lily and Merli sneak in, but Batman arrives and apprehends the villains, causing Officer Yukari to catch Lily and Merli. Kiyoteru arrives just in time to unleash his demon form and defeat everyone that stands against him. This allows Lily and Merli to save Iroha, then escape with Harley and Ivy. With their army fully formed, the group stays in Merli's lair and awaits their next attack on Lapis.

### A Perilous Quest

While using social media, Lily realizes she is unable to attain any reach. Merli concludes that Lapis is affecting their contact with the outside world, so with the help of Violet, they are able to break into Lapis' kingdom with Iroha. While Merli and Iroha battle Lapis' minions, Lily goes to rescue her friends from their imprisonment. Lapis unsheathes the magic sword VY2, blessed by LUMi, but she loses it after Lily and her freed companions defeat her. Lapis and her minions teleport away, but Prima arrives to tell Lily and her friends what Lapis is planning. Prima reveals to have been watching Lily, and claims she and a carefully select group of people must find LUMi's other sacred artifact, VY1.

Lily later awakens in an underwater chamber with seventeen others. She reunites with Merli, Cocorobo, kokone, and even Gumi. Prima reminds the heroes of the mission and gives Lily VY2, placing her in charge. With magic granting them the ability to function underwater, Lily leads the group outside, but Lapis takes over the ocean from her kingdom in the abyssal plain. A giant anglerfish attacks the team, causing them to split into smaller groups. Cocorobo carries Lily away as kokone and Iroha follow them. They venture throughout the ocean, fighting off the occasional fish, but Lily and Iroha consistently argue and try to outdo one another. kokone is also disturbed by Lily's behavior. Their in-fighting does little to hinder them from finding VY1, but they are attacked by Lapis and Violet. Cocorobo makes off with VY1, but is captured after "losing" it. Merli then leads Lily, kokone, and Iroha onward.

The four fight their way onward, eventually settling down to tell stories. Lily offends kokone by recounting the unflattering time they were arrested together, causing kokone to walk away. She is then kidnapped by Violet just before Lapis attacks the group. Merli holds her off, allowing Lily and Iroha to escape. The two are then drawn to flower by Solaria, goddess of the sun. They find that flower has VY1 and they are the only three apart from MAYU to have evaded capture, but MAYU has betrayed the group. They travel together until they are attacked by Lapis and Violet. Iroha lets herself be captured in order for Lily and flower to escape with VY1. The remaining two walk along, Lily trying to lighten the mood with jokes, until they are stalked by MAYU. MAYU soon attacks them with her ax, knocking Lily out of the battle and fighting flower. They battle over to a chasm where hungry fish swim at the bottom. Lily then throws VY2 at MAYU, hitting her with the hilt and sending her into the chasm to her death.

Lapis, Violet, and Ritsu then surround Lily and flower, but flower pushes Lily away before being captured. Lily runs away until she finds a cave with a bright glow coming from inside. She discovers the cave to be the dwelling of LUMi, meeting the water goddess face to face after going inside. LUMi, who is unable to interfere directly with fairies of good and evil, assists Lily by blessing her. She explains that the blessing will take effect when Lily can overcome disparity in a time of need. She then warns Lily that VY1 was made as an act of divine interference, meaning it can only work after accepting a sacrifice. Only a dedicated soul with a true desire to use the artifact may be accepted. The conversation is cut short when Lapis and Violet invade the cave, forcing Lily to hide while the fairies confront LUMi. Lapis chastises the goddess for failing to assist her in finding VY1, accusing her of letting evil triumph. LUMi rejects Lapis' idea of "goodness" and accuses her of being just as bad as the evil fairies. Declaring herself as the one who decides right from wrong, Lapis kills LUMi with a spell.

Lapis and Violet leave, allowing the mortified Lily to come out of hiding. She is then joined by Prima, who claims the creation of fairies was a flawed procedure. She tells Lily that the gods created good and bad fairies to dictate right and wrong, but gave the fairies too much power. Prima then decides to tell Lily who she is. She refers to herself as an "advisor" to the gods, sent to watch a special person on Earth. When Lapis targeted Lily due to her connection with Merli, Prima was tasked with watching over Lily. With her limited power, she guided Lily forward in the best way she could. She says there is nothing more she can do apart from walk Lily to Lapis' castle to save her friends. After motivating the vocaloid, the two of them set off together.

### Facing Lapis

After a long walk, Lily and Prima reach Lapis' castle. Granting Lily a safe entry, Prima sends her onward. Lily wanders the castle until she sees what appears to be kokone. She follows kokone into a dark room and finds that she has been brainwashed. kokone attacks Lily, who refuses to fight back. Lily tries to get through to her friend, but kokone refuses to listen and insists that Lily hates her and takes advantage of her. Lily tries to explain that kokone is her best and most loyal friend, and just as kokone prepares to kill her, Lily is able to get through. kokone snaps back to reality and embraces Lily before the two set off to find their friends.

They are eventually stopped by Ritsu, who points them in the right direction and gives them a key to a locked passageway. Surprised by this, Lily thanks Ritsu before she and kokone find their trapped friends. While distracting Lapis, Ritsu is killed for betraying her. Lily and the others destroy the kingdom from the inside until it finally crumbles. They escape by boarding a fish piloted by Ryuto and another member named Oliver, but they then notice both Yuki and VY2 are missing. Realizing Yuki went back into the castle to kill Lapis, Lily runs in after her.

Lily is confronted by Lapis from atop a balcony, who tells her that Ritsu is dead and prepares to kill her. Lily denounces Lapis as a hypocrite and a terrible "good" fairy, but before Lapis can shoot Lily with a spell, she is stabbed in the back by Yuki. Lapis' falls through the bannister and dies when she hits the floor. VY2 then dissolves from the act of killing a fairy. Lily then escapes with Yuki and flees with the others on their fish as the castle crumbles behind them. She tells Merli that Lapis died in the destruction. Soon, the team arrives at the vessel they started the journey in, but Prima meets them to inform them that Violet has taken over the ocean and plans to seek revenge.

### Sacrifice

The team fights an army of fish sent by Violet before taking shelter in a cave. They discuss the sacrifice needed to open VY1, so Gumi volunteers to make it. Lily tries to talk her out of it, but Gumi expresses regret for leaving Lily behind to go on tour. She believes that she will make up for it by sacrificing herself to save Lily, but her attempt to sacrifice is unsuccessful. Merli then steps forward and declares that she is the one meant to be sacrificed, even mentioning that she and Prima agreed to it before the start of the adventure. She gives a tearful goodbye and tells Lily she was "a better sister than Lapis ever was." Lily and the others cry as they watch Merli give her life to use VY1. The vortex to the magic-sealing sanctum is then opened.

Prima explains that the vortex can only be closed by stabbing VY1 into the ground. Lily then gathers the others to discuss a strategy for fighting their way to Violet, but she cannot think of anything. When Iroha sasses her, she recalls how LUMi told her that her blessing would only work once she overcame disparity. This gives her an idea, so she leads Iroha to Violet while the others work together with the people they formerly argued with to fend off the fish army. Lily and Iroha fight Violet, but they are soon blasted into the sand and nearly killed. However, the blessing activates and causes them to merge together into "Rio." With newfound power, they battle Violet until they wear her down.

After the fight, Lily and Iroha return to normal, but Violet uses her last bit of energy to tackle Lily. They wrestle over to the vortex and Lily prepares to sacrifice herself, shouting for kokone to close the rift behind her. She describes the act as a necessary cost for getting everyone involved in such a mess. After some convincing, a tearful kokone declares her love for Lily before stabbing VY1 in the sand. This closes the rift and supposedly seals Lily and Violet away for eternity. However, while kokone and the others are mourning the loss of Lily, Solaria returns to reveal that she teleported Lily away at the last second. This leads to a happy reunion as Solaria fades away, having fulfilled her objective. Lily and the others then return to their vessel, which brings them back to the surface.

### Going Back

For her last note in the journal she wrote for Gumi while on the tour, Lily writes a letter to Merli, thanking her and telling her how everything changed. While everything returned to normal after the members of Internet returned from their tour, Chika became distant and only speaks to Lily when necessary. She brushes this off as the holiday season approaches. At a Christmas party, she is kissed under the mistletoe by a punk rock girl named Fuiro. Lily develops a crush on her and keeps in contact with this new friend. Fuiro later invites her to a New Years party, where she is surprised to see Luna and flower as well. Fuiro tells Lily about their plan to start a new band as a supergroup, but before she can invite Lily to join it, kokone arrives in punk attire in an attempt to impress Lily.

Lily is baffled to see kokone's new getup, but her friend quickly becomes the life of the party, stealing Fuiro's attention away. When Fuiro decides to invite kokone to join the band instead of Lily, Lily storms off and goes for a walk. She sees a statue made to commemorate Merli and speaks to it, expressing how pathetic she has become. She is later found by kokone, who had left the party to search for her. She explains that she only donned the new appearance to impress Lily, but stops herself before she can confess her love directly. Regardless, as the countdown to the New Year begins, they decide to share a kiss out of friendship. After they do, kokone runs away after telling Lily she declined Fuiro's offer. Confused, Lily returns to the party and is soon brought in as part of Fuiro's band.

## Characterization

While writing Lily, silylilyanimove's admin wanted to refrain from making her unlikable or antagonizing in a way that would be difficult to sympathize with. Due to her unpopular status as a Vocaloid character, the writer did not want to perpetuate any negative personality traits often attributed to her. Initially, Lily was planned to be a tragic protagonist in over her head and often reckless. As the story progressed, the character developed more flaws and became a victim of her own mind.

Many of Lily's quirks were derived from cartoon protagonists. As the overall storyline became more serious, many of these quirks became played straight and evolved into character flaws. In Lily Gets Hate, Lily is shown to be sensitive to criticism to an obsessive extent. She is also shown to be abrasive and sometimes rude to her friends, even though she loves and cares about them. She struggles with understanding concepts that are right or wrong, often letting ambition or emotions come first. It can be inferred that Lily is emotionally-guided and needs assistance from her friends in order to make the best decisions for herself and those around her.

Many of Lily's emotional conflicts may be attributed to a lack of self-worth. In Lily Has a Problem, she prepares to hide herself from the world when she develops sores on her face. She likely lacks confidence in herself and relies on the opinions of other people. This could possibly mean she is not necessarily a "failed" musician, but one who amplifies negative feedback in her own mind to the point where it destroys her mentally.

Lily's relationships were difficult for silylilyanimove's admin to figure out. Her relationship to Gumi fluctuated from being a best friend relationship to a romantic one, ultimately devolving into a crush. The admin did not want to disappoint readers that did not like Lily and Gumi as a couple, but as the storyline moved in its own direction and became more detached from the meme-heavy Twitter account that hosted it, they decided to go through with the crush. kokone's crush on Lily came later during the writing process, the admin deciding it simply felt right. Cocorobo was not always intended to play a secondary role to Lily, but after her introduction, the writer appreciated their dynamic and decided to make it continuous.

Over time, the admin figured Lily needed to extend her relationships to other characters. This led to kokone and Cocorobo being put aside in favor of Merli and Nekomura Iroha. Even Mayu and Sukone Tei were considered as potential new members of Lily's core grouping. The admin appreciated the dynamic between Lily and Merli, seeing Merli as a good magical mentor for her. Lily's relationship with Iroha was also built through jokingly spiteful interactions with a parody account for the character. For a time, this was pushed as the new designated trio. Even so, it was not widely accepted by silylily followers, who continued to favor posts involving kokone and Cocorobo. Due to this, after a long hiatus, silylilyanimove scrapped the storyline involving them and pushed the ongoing plot directly into the Deep Sea Lily special. This reunited the core trio and even killed off Merli. At the same time, Lily and Iroha had been well established as a continuous dynamic on the account, so they are still paired together frequently for comical interactions.

At the time of Deep Sea Lily, silylilyanimove's admin also wrote comics to be added to the series in post. They were built toward establishing another group that would coexist with kokone and Cocorobo. This put her together with Luna, flower, and a new character named Fuiro, who all had alt rock-inspired designs. They were advertised as being part of a band before its formation was added to the lore. This was meant to take silylily in a different direction that would make use of Lily's punk nature while still keeping with the ongoing story. Since Fuiro was a new character to Vocaloid, the admin felt they could freely write her and establish her as a new crush for Lily. flower and Lily had an established relationship of their own with their history of annoying one another in the comics. Luna was written to be Lily's ex, referring to how their band anim.o.v.e split up, but her inclusion in the series involved how she and Lily came to terms with their breakup.

Lily's characterization in the "soft reboot" remained mostly the same, but amplified her punk rock personality. The relationship between Lily and kokone was also farther pushed, largely due to its popularity on silylily. It also acted as a conflict to the even more popular relationship between Lily and Gumi. With Fuiro joining the plot, Lily's relationship troubles became essential to her characterization. This ties into her lack of self-worth and desire for approval. She often talks to her deceased mentor Merli and expresses how much of a failure she thinks she is. She feels responsible for Merli's death and carries the weight of it along with her other struggles. This may even tie into her more rebellious nature that developed after Deep Sea Lily.

## Trivia

* Lily often answers questions on Tumblr, frequently acknowledging events from the series. Many of her answers are non-canon, but others might be considered as such.
* Lily's band Enlightenment is a parody of Nirvana.
* Much of Lily's backstory was revealed through tweets on silylilyanimove.