Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song-

Welcome back to Terminator. In this year’s rendition, we have a blue-haired cyborg idol and a Minecraft cube that travel back in time 100 years to stop an impending A.I. apocalypse. Fasten your seat belts, as we explore why this anime is one of the best original series that has been released in the past decade. Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song is an anime-original series created by Wit Studios, the same studio that has done the likes of Attack on Titan, The Ancient Magus' Bride, and Great Pretender. Vivy, the first ever autonomous AI, is sent back 100 years into the past to try and prevent certainevents from occurring in order to prevent the calamity that takes place in the future. Think of the world lines in Steins;Gate and Vivy being similar to Okabe, minus the kookiness and the depression. The story is co-created by the same person who created Re:Zero, and you can definitely see the quality of the writing and how well the dark and thrilling themes are presented. Although the idea of “Artificial Intelligence gone rogue” has been touched upon a million times in pop culture, said themes stay fresh as the drama and the goal of preventing mankind’s eradication keeps the tension high and ourselves wondering if and how Vivy achieves her mission, and keeping myself and many others hooked on the show. One of the highlights of this show is the art and animation, and my god did Wit deliver on this show. Vivy has some of the best animated hand-to-hand fight scenes all year, my personal favorites being the Vivy vs Elizabeth fight and the Diva and Matsumoto vs Antonio and Yugo fight. They also did quite well with the CG, which, if you didn’t know, they actually used Minecraft to model out Matsumoto’s flight-enabled form. Although some CG models might stick out like a sore thumb, I’d say the CG is well above average compared to some of the shit you’d see in other seasonal shows, and the producers did a really good job of integrating the 2D and 3D animation. The art work is equally just as amazing as the animation. There are a lot of detail to the character designs and backgrounds, and the zoom-in shots that are hyper-detailed are pieces of art. Wit studios flexed their Phantom Blood muscles to bring out some of the best art and animation they’ve ever produced. It’s of the highest quality, and it makes you want to scream “look at that budget!” For an anime that centers around an idol, it does a fantastic job of providing amazing OP/EDs and OSTs. Sing My Pleasure and Galaxy Anthem are ones for the Spotify playlist, and the VA for Vivy does an excellent job. The OSTs are used properly to intensify the fight scenes and amplify the emotions for the dramatic scenes when needed. The show wouldn’t be as great as it is without the music, so props to the composer and sound director for doing such a great job. The characters are either a hit or miss, and you can either hate them or love them, Matsumoto especially. Personally, Matsumoto is a fun character to watch as he interacts with Vivy and tries to speedrun the series since he’s way too OP, setting the breakneck speed of the show. I can’t see anyone else who can fit the role that Matsumoto plays, since he’s the one who provides all the crucial info to the plot and guide Vivy towards their mission goal. And he does have to act like a dick since Vivy constantly tries to dismiss him. But if you do hate him, then it’s understandable. Vivy is an alright character. She has her goals to become the idol king and to understand ‘what it means to put your heart into something’, but she is more of a tool to drive the plot, since Matsumoto has more of an influence on the plot than she does. These two are always fun to watch whenever shenanigans occur. There isn’t much to say about the villains or the girls that Vivy meets throughout the series, since they only stick around for 1 or 2 episodes. Some pose a serious threat towards Vivy, as seen in the epic fight scenes, whilst some are there as a “villain of the week” kind of character. In all honesty, I think the characters are the weakest part of the show, but I can’t really complain too much since the pacing of the anime is like a million miles an hour. Overall, this show was a blast. The dark nature of its themes, given thanks to the creator of Re:Zero, mixed with us knowing that one wrong move or something not going as planned can mean failure and the destruction of mankind and the drama that comes with it, makes this an edge-of-your-seat anime that definitely draws similarities to the likes of Steins;Gate and Re:Zero. Although this show might be about an idol saving the world, and won’t be up many people’s alleys due to it being idol-related, this show is definitely one to check out. Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song is a great show, and one of the best original series that I’d highly recommend you check out. Overall: 9/10.

If you are annoyed by faulty logic or plot holes you are gonna be bothered by this anime a lot. Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song is a story about time traveling ai and an unfulfilled songstress ai going on a quest to save humanity by destroying ai's. While the concept sounds interesting it was also hard enough to implement that studio Wit had to bend logic and story in order to accomplish their idea. Let's start with the obvious one... time travel doesn't make much sense, but it is to be expected in those kinds of stories, what is worth critiquing is the poor handling of how thecharacters interact with time travel. Matsumoto, the ai from the future, despite the knowledge of when he and our protagonist need to intervene to change the course of history he leaves resolving these problems at the last moment. Everytime they need to solve a crisis Matsumoto knew about they barely make it partly because he gives Vivy no time to prepare. Another problem this anime has is bad antagonists. Toak, the anti Ai terrorist organization, is never a threat. Every time they show up its almost like a gimmick, they always end up being easily beaten. The fact that every Toak antagonist is childish is also hurting their intimidation factor. Vivy in itself is a gorgeous show, with high production value. Action scenes are great but often lack in story weight to back it up. Soundtrack is really enjoyable and connected to major character moments which I really liked. Speaking about characters it is a really mixed bag. For example we have Vivy with nice development (I really enjoyed what they did in episodes 7-9 btw), we also meet Matsumoto who you either gonna love or hate and at the end of the spectrum we have awful Toak characters. Authors also wanted some additional character drama with other Ai's which is also a hit or miss with relatively good Estella-Elizabeth relationship and not that good Ophelią-Antonio drama. There is a couple more forgettable characters but I think you get the idea. Getting more in depth with Vivy and Ai in general there is even more problems. First of all if you are making Ai singers for example, to entertain humans, why would you make them imperfect? Why all of those non combat machines are so durable and strong? It just doesn't make sense. Next paragraph is the SPOILER territory! Let's talk about the last couple of episodes. I don't get why archives are unsupervised by humans, they didn't even give a reason to this, it is the most important part of maintaining this ai utopia and no one catches that they have faulty ai running it all? Reason for archives actions are also pretty bad. How do you get from helping humanity in its evolution no matter what to "well we tried... let's kill them all." And also why when you respect Vivy so much and will do whatever she wants would you make it for her so hard to prevent the annihilation of humanity? It is very unfortunate that such an ambitious anime is only enjoyable when you shut your brain off.

I feel weird walking away from this show with such a positive opinion of it, because if it wasn’t so unbelievably gorgeous, I honestly think I would’ve dropped it very early on. Maybe this is just me, but even at its most competent and interesting points, I don’t think I ever really bought in to the premise of Vivy at all. Vivy is a show about our cute, autistic, android waifu who goes back in time to stop her fellow androids from genociding the human race, which she can do because she’s Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator and has a talking teddy bear robot sidekick who knowsliterally everything and can accomplish literally anything as long as he can plug himself into it. And while I promise you I want to sit here talking about time travel even less than you want to read about it, let me just say that out of the several dozens of scientifically, relativistically viable real-world theories about how time travel could or should be possible, not a single one functions similar to the way it does in Vivy. Oh, and did I forget to mention Vivy is also an idol? And the androids’ AI programming relies on evolution to improve itself? And Vivy actually has an alternate timeline personality called Diva which supplants her shyness with pure Chad energy? Yeah, this is a very silly story, with very silly concepts, and an understanding of its own scientific foundations which is thin enough to make you question how seriously it even wants you to take it, but a premise is still a premise, and if you can accept such a premise, I wouldn’t characterize Vivy as a broken or particularly illogical story. It follows its own rules and never undermines its own script, and even if someone like me finds it a bit hard to swallow, you shouldn’t let anyone get away with calling it downright bad. While I would never claim it isn’t inspired by better, more memorable works, this show is nothing if not an original standout amongst the usual seasonal shlock. Vivy is easily one of the more competently co-written anime I’ve ever seen, and I think it’s because both writers knew why they specifically were brought onto the project. Eiji Umehara is a well-established sci-fi writer who has written for works as classic and prestigious as Masamune Shirow adaptations and even more modern sci-fi collaborations with 5pb visual novels, and his expertise in the field really comes through. As much as I might make fun of the distinct campiness of the show’s genre juggling, the actual realization of its ideas is quite thorough and interesting. From the gravitational physics of a rocket launch and atmospheric reentry to the structural interworkings of androids with exposed innards, so many of the action set-pieces and unique artistic elements in this visual spectacle of an anime heavily rely on intricate knowledge of actual technology. Now, you may be wondering, then where does Tappei Nagatsuki chime in? Well, if you’ve suffered through Re:Zero, you’ve probably already guessed. Whether it be the show’s sophomoric political dimension, its pseudoscientific plot devices, or its characters’ juvenile emotions, EVERYTHING is explained and expounded in torturous, tedious detail, leaving no room for inference or nuance, assuming it had any to begin with. And unlike my smaller complaints thus far, I don’t really have any way or even any desire to excuse this subpar writing. It just dilutes the show and gives the whole thing an air of immaturity and amateurishness. Even the themes of AI vs humanity which the show tackles are seriously cookie cutter stuff, and the sci-fi not being hardcore enough for true fans of the genre aside, this is the one true and tangible problem with Vivy. But who even cares about any of that—this show is drop dead gorgeous. Aesthetically, it is quite typical, but as one should’ve long since come to expect from the powerhouse, WIT Studio, it has double the frames, triple the artistic acuteness, quadruple the post-production detail, and quintuple the cinematic ambition of all its contemporaries. Shinpei Ezaki is a director who I’ve always seen as simply trying to rip-off Tetsuro Araki, and this is no surprise given how closely he’s worked with that legendary man over the course of his own relatively short creative career, and while Vivy doesn’t really stray from this formula in any capacity I can notice, I don’t mean this to be an insult at all. Vivy, despite its sci-fi posturing, is most definitely an adorable waifu action show first and foremost whether it likes it or not, and despite Nagatsuki dumping exposition on a whim, the pace of this show is lightning fast, and its number-one priorities are aways beautiful artwork and pretty colors, wildly ambitious and badass action choreography, and gorgeous futuristic locations which aren’t over-designed messes. Vivy and her teddy bear who’s name I forgot to mention was Matsumoto are both charming and lovable in their own way, and they’re nowhere near the obnoxious teenagers of Re:Zero or, for that matter, Senyoku no Sigrdrifa. The side characters are solid as well, and the arc-to-arc structure of the show really works magic when it comes to the arrangement of frequent and increasingly extravagant climaxes to each self-contained story. From a narrative standpoint, I think anyone would agree the ending is more hokey than the rest, but the animation production behind it all is never any less magnificent than it ever was at any point. Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song is absolutely delicious, delectable popcorn entertainment I would recommend to just about anyone. Regardless of the fact it’s somewhat silly here in the real world, it’s sensical and thoughtful in-universe and, either way, always places its fantastic action and likable characters above its sci-fi elements which one may find more than a little fast and loose. Even picky eaters such as myself will be hard-pressed sticking their noses up at such a laudable and incredible production, and I have no doubt WIT Studio will continue to grace us with their daring and outstanding original productions for as long as time and money will allow. This is an epic which follows Vivy throughout the course of a hundred years to stop evil and save the world, and if it wasn’t for production companies like the ones funding and crafting it, we in the community would be waiting about that long for one such beauty to air. Despite her grand destiny, Vivy’s personal wish is simply to make everyone happy with her singing, and I think that childish innocence and simplicity echoes through the heart of every element of the show, which, despite its scientific and technical decorations, just wants to be entertaining, fun, and staggeringly beautiful. If you ever wandered what a Hollywood action film would be like if it had actually likable and well-rounded characters, actually interesting concepts and innovative ideas, actual theming and some level of deeper meaning to make it at all worthwhile, and actually competent and artful cinematic direction which is more than just a thoughtless vehicle for over-the-top visual action, then look no further than Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song. With proper expectations, it will not disappoint. Thank you for reading.

What does it mean to sing with your heart? Time and again, this question echoes throughout VIVY: Fluorite Eye’s Song’s 13-episode runtime. Neither the story nor the setting are particularly unique: whether through movies or retro anime series, we’ve all been familiarized with futuristic settings, the concept of A.I. and the imminent human-A.I. conflict plotline. Yet, I will make the case that what this particular series accomplishes with this toolbox is something of note. I confess that I came into this show with high expectations. Before I became engrossed in the fantasy genre, sci-fi used to be the type of fiction I was most invested in— whether it was dozens of Star Wars Expanded Universe material, Doctor Who series, Asimov short stories… There’s no wonder something that focuses on A.I. would have me excited. The story follows Vivy, an A.I. songstress, on her journey to define something as ambiguous as “heart” — a seemingly impossible undertaking, given her robotic, non-human nature. Her companion A.I. Matsumoto and the threat of a future A.I. revolt serve to establish a framework for what is, at its core, a deeply personal character journey for our songstress protagonist. The narrative is a ruthless one; throwing multiple dilemmas towards Vivy, questioning her — sometimes to the point of trauma, although the story never gets gratuitous with its darker aspects, saving them for key, memorable instances. Let’s talk about Vivy for a moment, since while each arc is filled with colorful side characters almost equally worthy of scrutiny, she is the one that forms the heart of the narrative. I loved Vivy. I could talk about the small things that endeared me and kept my attention — like her gradually developing, close companionship with blabbermouth Matsumoto, or her tendency to pick up tiny habits from those she encounters throughout her 100-year journey — but what mostly stuck with me were the greater themes and struggles of her character. From her choice to give up her initial identity as “Diva” to embrace “Vivy”, voluntarily stretching the definition of her given mission as a songstress A.I., to the narrative unexpectedly slapping her in the face for her righteousness around the middle point, the twists and turns her character takes are infinitely engaging. I could go into the way the story explores how certain individuals deal with trauma through her in the latter half (in an exceedingly unique way, given her inhuman nature), but the point here isn’t getting into spoilery details. I also had fun tracing her development according to the “Hero’s Journey” structure. Combine all that with a cool demeanor that nevertheless lets moments of emotion (yes, even for an A.I.) slip, and a charismatic design — Vivy’s character was a recipe for success from the beginning. Of course, the side cast more than lives up to the main character, each as conceptually enthralling as the last and equally well-executed within the short timeframe of each arc. The story doesn’t allow you to forget that all these characters aren’t human, with demeanours unique to A.I., and yet managed to draw emotion from me for these inhuman beings. Be it a sibling dynamic that’s about showcasing that feelings of inferiority, familial love and compassion can still be wielded by the inhuman; a tragedy where one who wants nothing but the simplest things in life is forced into a destiny greater than her; a take on dependence and twisted, yet also paradoxically purest love… watchers may know who each of these ideas I’m mentioning is attached to. Vivy’s songs play a key narrative role in every one of these situations and story arcs. Speaking of the songs: they constitute one of the main charms of this show, with character or plot significance behind each insert. Songs like A Tender Moon Tempo wowed me with the way their impressively written lyrics both connect with the characters and offer something more, while delivering an incredibly pleasing melody, that I found myself listening to them long after the episode’s airing. I’ve felt similarly with most of the songs, save for rare exceptions. If you come to VIVY expecting A.I.s to be a form of racial commentary, or anything of the like, you will find yourself disappointed. The story doesn’t subscribe to any politics and its societal commentary is mostly part of the framework for the focus on the characters; from the beginning, the ideal notion of A.I.s being equal to humans is scrapped. VIVY is, above all, about the question of humanity’s dependence on A.I.s, and whether they can co-exist in such a state. I couldn’t finish this review without talking about the stellar production. With gorgeous still shots, clever directing and framing choices, and fights that may very well be some of the best animated of the year, Studio WiT adorned this story with some of the most breathtaking visuals. Of course, as with many other pristine-looking shows, detractors who pay little attention to everything being presented above will try making arguments along the lines of “style and no substance”, or try picking convoluted CinemaSins-level plot holes (easily explained away by a second watch). I’ve even witnessed odd attempts to conflate VIVY’s world with Asimov’s laws of robotics for his own fiction, or claims that Vivy is dull as a protagonist due to the anime not slapping you in the face with her development and quirks as most others in the medium do. I pray that you do not form preconceptions based on such comments – although there is a small caveat to the show that I must point out. The show is hindered by its 13-episode limit; while it manages to flesh out its ideas well in every arc, sometimes there is little breathing room left for the viewer. Had this been a 2-cour show, with slightly longer arcs, I believe its emotional peaks would’ve hit even harder – perhaps enough for me to elevate it to the 10/10 it probably deserves. VIVY is a show that, without a doubt, benefits most from rewatches. Whether it is spotting details initially missed, recontextualizations, or simply understanding the (quite hefty) story better, I couldn’t recommend it enough. In fact, I would recommend the English dub after watching the original, as I am more than satisfied with the performances in both languages, although some slightly different characterization may be spotted in the dub. I wouldn’t recommend VIVY: Fluorite Eye’s Song to those looking for an easy watch, as its writing style demands more than casual attention; however, if you are willing to invest yourself into this science fiction epic, you will be more than rewarded for it.