An AI named Matsumoto appears before Vivy, the world’s first autonomous humanoid AI. Matsumoto’s
mission is to rewrite history together with Vivy, in order to stop the war between AI and humans that
will happen one century later.
(Source: Funimation)
The age of artificial intelligence is soon going to be upon us. While it has been a common science fiction trope for many years, with the progression of technology, questions about AIs will soon prop up. While we don’t have to worry about it now, we still can keep it at the back of our minds for the near future. In fiction, artificial intelligence as a concept has been done to death. There are many movies, television shows, and books documenting what might happen during the rise of the machines. Tappei Nagatsuki’s anime original series, Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, initially seems like it isn’t so different when following the tropes of the ones who had previously tackled artificial intelligence. Vivy’s approach to depicting artificial intelligence ends up being far more emotional than most stories covering the same subject matter would dare to attempt. Through its emotionally-driven story, it manages to carve out its own identity. img(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y653dJQ_ecs/maxresdefault.jpg) It doesn’t exactly feel like it is brought up that often, but when artificial intelligence actually does get invented, questions about what the actual nature of AI are are going to prop up. These questions about emotion and humanity involving AI are extremely daunting to actually answer, and most would probably shy away from even providing anything that is close to an answer. What sets Vivy apart from most, is that it not only integrates them into the core theming of its story, it tackles them completely head on. In nearly every single arc, new morally gray questions about artificial intelligence are brought up and given a spotlight. Along with the hard questions asked, there are also hard decisions made along with it. The morally grey ambiguous zone of the questions asked makes the series far more interesting to watch, since it lacks predictability due to how generally vague the morality of everything is. It is, in a sense, ahead of its time in how it manages to cover issues about emotion, purpose, and meaning in AIs, that we won’t have to discuss, probably until the time period where the fictional events of the series actually starts. No one better represents the weight of the questions brought up than the series’ very titular character. Even throughout the various arcs, the one constant of Vivy’s struggle to find purpose stands to be an extremely engaging character arc that perfectly exemplifies all of the best qualities that this series has to offer. Nearly every arc ends with a powerful emotional send off that is a culmination of that arc’s themes and messages, making for some extremely resonant moments. For me specifically however, I didn’t exactly feel that moved by these scenes that really should have sent home a lot of what that arc was going for. For the reasons as to why that is, it is important to look at some of the deeper issues with the individual arcs. img(https://vivy-anime.com/assets/img/top/main/kv1_pc.jpg) The actual stories that comprise Vivy's segmented arcs usually hit some very high highs. Despite this, there are some low lows thrown in there too. There are some arc-specific reasons as to why that is, but the more general problem at hand here stems from the series’ need to continually one up itself. At the halfway point of nearly every arc in this show, there is a plot twist that makes the viewer view the whole conflict at hand in a different light. While plot twists are a great narrative technique when used properly, Vivy feels like it needs to use it in order to shock the viewer. What usually happens in these arcs is that the series presents an extremely interesting question that it is going to tackle, but then immediately replaces that very interesting question with something that is far less interesting. The unhealthy need to insert plot twists in places where it doesn’t need to be hurt is far more than it deserves to. It is the reason that I always preferred the first halves of the arcs compared to the second half of them, because those were the halves that were entertaining the far more interesting question. However, what replaces the very interesting questions usually shown at the start after the plot twists are still engaging to follow. I wouldn't have praised it so much if that wasn't the case. It is just that I couldn’t shake my feeling of disappointment that I felt after the plot twist usually hit, and is precisely why I didn’t feel moved by the emotional climaxes of the story arcs. In terms of the presentation of the story, it is absolutely fantastic. Hailing from Attack on Titan and Vinland Saga fame, Studio WIT brings this story to life in the best way that I could imagine. While the actual animation is great, what makes the actual visuals stand out to me so much is the sense of atmosphere that they provide. I don’t know how to fully describe it, but they radiate a pristine energy that is a perfect fit for a story like this about AIs. Another aspect of the presentation that I give massive kudos to is the music. While the actual OST doesn’t stand out to me the most, what makes Vivy’s music truly special is in its insert songs and the opening. They are great songs by themselves, but due to this series also being a bit of an idol anime, they also serve a purpose in the actual story itself. How exactly they do would get into spoilers, but they are what contribute to how emotionally packed the emotional climaxes actually are, even if the overall scenes themselves didn’t really affect me in particular very much. img1000(https://st.cdjapan.co.jp/pictures/l/05/44/SVWC-70541.jpg?v=2) Even with a lot of its more disappointing aspects, I still found there to be a lot of worth to be found in Vivy. It manages to tackle some pretty tough questions in a manner that shows a type of grace that is rare to find in anime, really ever. It is rare to see ambitious anime original projects like this, but when they start to air, you are usually in for an experience like no other. With what it does best, I am willing to forgive a lot of the flaws, because the full package manages to feel like a genuine eye’s song. img(https://vivy-anime.com/assets/img/top/main/kv2_pc.jpg) _Thank you for reading to the end of the review if you did. If you have any criticisms with how this review was made, you are free to message me to critique what I had to say._
#~~~ `This is a tale of things not going according to plan.` webm(https://webm.red/EjDf.webm) ~~~ `Artificial Intelligence, the crown jewel of human civilization. Should they be imparted a higher level of thinking than what is possible with the human mind, A.I. could result in either our evolution or our downfall. Uncertainty surrounding A.I. is what makes exploring the concept so fascinating within the realm of science fiction. One of countless possible futures, this journey introduces ideas that inspire hope and confidence. But one should not expect a happy ending, for even our best-laid plans can work against us. This is` "*Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song*." `This review will be spoiler-free, with a` **Tl;Dr** `included towards the end. With that out of the way, it's about time we begin.` *** ~~~ # `April 11, 2161 - The end of the world. ` img100%(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EyzulPBUYAMUyKp.jpg) ~~~ `Humankind fell victim to the hands of their own rogue creations, as an unexpected error led robots everywhere to revolt against their masters. With this tragedy unfolding, a scientist sends a S.O.S. 100 years into the past. The one to receive the call for help is Diva, an A.I. music performer. As the first autonomous humanoid A.I. ever created, Diva was contacted to avert the crisis to come. A.I. would be gradually integrated into society in the following century, and it was her job to correct the flow of time as major events occurred throughout the following 100 years. Only in doing so, would A.I. and humans peacefully coexist. Armed with the fast-talking teddy-bear robo-companion Matsumoto, Diva would take on a new mission, the Singularity Project, and a new name: Vivy. ` `Across this 100-year journey,` *Vivy * `teases several intriguing concepts; namely time travel, artificial intelligence, and music. This rather curious mix of elements gave ` *Vivy * ` much of its identity, and the detailed worldbuilding involved in establishing these ideas had me excitedly anticipating what the story would achieve. We'll be exploring each of these aspects, in order to pinpoint where ` *Vivy's * `strengths lie.` ~~~ #`Fans of` [Re:Zero](https://anilist.co/anime/21355/ReZero-kara-Hajimeru-Isekai-Seikatsu/) `may find themselves coming down with a pleasant case of déjà vu.` webm(https://webm.red/xeOC.webm) ~~~ `And no, I'm not referring to "Return by Death." Writer` [Tappei Nagatsuki](https://anilist.co/staff/118885/Tappei--Nagatsuki) `has his familiar DNA written all over ` *Vivy .* `He trades a fantasy setting inspired by a medieval past to one modelled after a plausible future. Time travel is the constant, alongside the writer's penchant for dark setpieces crammed with mayhem and chaos. While ` *Vivy's * `similarities to Nagatsuki's past works are hard to miss, it's worth keeping an eye out on how this new story sets itself apart. The first component of ` *Vivy's * `time travel is its restraint. Time travel isn't abused as a "Get Out of Jail Free" card or an OP mechanic. Rather, time travel in the sci-fi sense only appears as the inciting incident. Once Vivy kicks things off, she only has one shot to make her actions count. Coming along with code Vivy receives from the future, her sidekick Matsumoto relays to Vivy all the conditions that need to be fulfilled in order to alter the timeline. This includes not only achieving desired outcomes, but also allowing for other bad circumstances to take place. This cold, calculated utilitarianism forbids Vivy's intervention, for any action surplus to the Singularity Project could result in irreparable damage to the future. This looming danger provides a real sense of weight and consequence sometimes missing in other` "*Groundhog Day*" `premises. The Singularity Project turns into a real test of Vivy's resolve, as she withstands obstacle after obstacle in the name of an ever-changing mission. History is being tangibly rewritten by Vivy's actions, and Matsumoto's predictions become more uncertain with each new deviation from the timeline. There's no room for error, yet our duo continually toe that dangerous line. Not only do our characters' actions matter, but we also are given a grand scale of time to see their outcomes develop. This leads us to the second component of ` *Vivy's * `time travel, which is more orthodox than that of other sci-fi counterparts, but still fascinating all the same. There aren't a ton of stories out there that take place over such a long period of time with the same set of protagonists, and ` *Vivy's * `100-year journey certainly qualifies. In order for the series to effectively depict the steady march of time, markers are established, such as Vivy's daytime singing career or the overall look of her country. The Arayashiki Server is a tower which begins construction at the start of Vivy's journey, and grows in-line with the rate at which in-world technology develops. If the changing world represents how far Vivy has come, the Arayashiki Tower shows us how little time she has remaining. Entire years elapse in-between story arcs, and catching up with the way things have changed can feel like tuning in to a different show. Even secondary characters add plenty of intrigue as they develop alongside the main story, crossing paths with our idol A.I. at different points in their lives. New plotlines could be subtly teased long before they become properly introduced. All-in-all, the rising tension and thoughtful changes within ` *Vivy's * `world allowed the show to create an exciting prospect only possible through one of sci-fi's most entertaining tropes.` ~~~ #`How does one envision a future with robots?` img100%(https://sucodemanga.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Vivy-Fluorite-Eyes-Song-thumb.jpg) ~~~ `According to the scientist that commissioned Vivy and Matsumoto, the goal is coexistence between Man and Machine. ` *Vivy * `makes this possible by designing robots around a central trait: single-minded subservience. Early-on, the script establishes an in-universe explanation for why A.I. are the way they are. Robots do not perform as intended when taking on multiple tasks at a time, so multi-purpose A.I. were swapped out for bots that served a singular function. Acting in accordance with the mission is of utmost importance to A.I., and the show continually reiterates this principle. Unlike most standard A.I. of her era, Vivy is given free reign to do as she likes, which is what allows Matsumoto to recruit her on the Singularity Project. Even so, the series pays close attention to Vivy's conflict of interest. She's still a hopeful idol celebrity at heart, and her arc is dedicated to coping with the duties of singing for crowds and saving the world. This internal struggle provides some much-needed characterization in a world where other A.I. figures are straightforward by design. ` *Vivy's * ` solution to the A.I. debate is not only simple, but sensible. It's a fictional idea that doesn't feel too far removed from reality, and that plausibility makes the series more engaging to explore. Even when the show's opening minutes depict the harsh destruction and bloodshed caused by rogue A.I., there's a strong sense that peace is possible. Of course, not everyone shares those beliefs; meet Toak, a terrorist organization founded on the preservation of human life via the eradication of A.I. Frequently clashing with Vivy and Matsumoto, Toak represents an antagonistic force looking to protect humans in their own way. They certainly enact evil deeds, without coming across as traditional villains. Vivy and Matsumoto aren't heroic saints either, with their cold decision-making causing us to ponder if our protagonists are making the right decisions. Vivy appears to recognize that there is more to service than simply following instructions - "service from the heart." Understanding what that ideal means could very well secure peace between A.I. and mankind, and it's a thought Vivy ponders on for much of her story. ` *Vivy's * `groundwork for its dystopian reality is really strong, making us question if our heroes' ends always justifies the means. With changing times and unclear choices on the table, the series set a great stage. The series was well-poised to leverage its unique use of time and challenge the inhuman foundations of its futuristic world. ` *Vivy's * `mission is simple.` `Ri`ǧ̸͇ḣ̸͉t̵̪̅ ? ~~~ #`Music works best when it is unspoken.` img100%(https://imagetot.com/images/2021/04/03/1507b97dc8730a79c9fcc7c5ea2e4091.png) ~~~ `It's a powerful weapon in a writer's arsenal, connecting characters to conflict not expressed in words. Melody can project passion and themes in a raw manner that words fail to capture. Visual media can certainly incorporate music with great success, the key lies in giving music room to breathe as a mode of expression. ` *Vivy * `already runs into a major hurdle, because our singing main character barely has any passion of her own to express. Furthermore, her existing mission as a singer doesn't exactly align with her narrative function of kicking ass and changing the future, and this deviation from the directive seems puzzling. ` *Vivy * `addresses this conundrum by mythologizing music as this elusive, mysterious gift that the titular character struggles to attain. This pigeonholes the script into making an unnaturally big deal about "singing from the heart," through expository fluff that only detracts from the OSTs strengths. Plus, the manner in which Vivy is convinced to take up the Singularity Project reads like a dumb technicality. The loophole justification which convinces Vivy to enact Matsumoto's desires is that she could potentially "make the people she saves happy with her singing." ` *Vivy * `simultaneously puts music center-stage and in the periphery. The series has great song tracks and musical motifs, such as the Sisters' Song throughout the Sunrise Arc. The main OP of the series is a fitting track representing the A.I.s, as the lyrics communicate the pleasure experienced upon completing a mission. The love and enthusiasm for music shines in its very inclusion in this already-packed story, but that passion is greatly diminished in execution. An honest, unfiltered manner of expression was largely reduced to a vague, disingenuous message. It's in its unsatisfactory use of music that makes ` *Vivy's * `key weakness more apparent.` ~~~ #`Going back to the quote that opened this review, ` *Vivy * `is a tale of things not going according to plan.` webm(https://webm.red/aXhI.webm) ~~~ `Rather than use a plot to explore thematic concepts, ` *Vivy's * `mission was to use thematic concepts to decorate an action show where robots do kick-ass things. All these aforementioned concepts are there primarily as an excuse to tell self-contained sci-fi action arcs. But in having the concepts serve the story structure, ` *Vivy * `leaves aside conclusive exploration of these individual ideas. The passage of time in a narrative is mostly set dressing, or a means for characters to do unexpected things with minimal explanation. That's because the show has enough exposition as is, with having to introduce and conclude an operation every 2-3 episodes. The script resorts to contrivances where cause does not correspond with effect. Going by the show's internal logic someone could have sneezed, and that might have been enough to spark the apocalypse. Not all the show's decisions are like this, but these lame "butterfly effect" excuses can come completely out of left field in order to get the plot rolling, thereby taking me out of the story in the process. This weaker writing also affects sideplots, as recurring characters and mysteries set up earlier in the show yield mostly underwhelming answers^. Moving on to A.I., it's an element with its own share of problems. A.I.'s adherence to their respective mission aids in expediting the explanation for character motivations, but can be a double-edged sword. I get that robots being one-note and predictable is part of the appeal, but it gets frustrating whenever the show tries its hand at developing characters anyway. Vivy's interactions with those around her boils down to her asking the same damn question in every arc, and getting no relevant answers. That question is, of course, the Mission itself, and gets more vague as the series progresses. "How do I sing from the heart?" As mentioned earlier, this recurring million-dollar mystery is frustrating and diminishes the effectiveness of the songs themselves. But it's a question that ` *Vivy * `comes frustratingly close to addressing in a later arc, only for the plot to arbitrarily withhold the answer from its main character^^. This results in a massive character regression which forces Vivy to give up her mission due to a contrived case of robot anxiety. a crisis of tremendous scale during the final arc. By that point, ` *Vivy * `was struggling to make its strong execution effective^^^. The admittedly strong ending hardly feels like a deserved sendoff, given some of` *Vivy's * `more lackluster "memories in the leadup. Perhaps Vivy's journey was all about self-discovery, and depicts what it's like to chase something you don't fully understand. But I'm only left to speculate instead of answering with certainty, because I struggled to connect with Vivy as a character. Her quest to quantify humanity is at odds with the show's conceptual mandates. The mission is all there is, there is no room for error. And yet, the show attempts to generate that pathos by breaking its own rules, in a climatic moment more clumsy than triumphant. The unsatisfactory results of her quest seems to suggest that mindless commitment to your tasks will reap optimal results, and that humanity amounts to being anxious and less competent at achieving goals. It's not the true ending of this story, but a really strange conclusion to come up with in the first place. For a show about resolutely chasing singular objectives, Vivy's sense of direction only gets more clouded as the story progresses.` ~~~ #`Ambition & inconsistency are in-tandem with the ` *Vivy * `experience, and the visuals are no different.` webm(https://webm.red/AOZl.webm) #####`Note that the background is one large still image, and the camera is jolting around to simulate movement and depth. The fight choreography is undoubtedly spectacular, but the overall visual direction can be tough to watch.` ~~~ `Many are sure to gush over certain gorgeous shots, with the 4K UHD closeups being a highlight. However, I felt the visual feel of ` *Vivy * `rather disjointing, as the detailed keyframes of those scenes only made more apparent the flaws in others. It's like popping on "God of War" on PS2 and enjoying the fidelity of a pre-rendered cutscene, only to transition to a locked camera and low-res polygons. There's a loss of consistency and detail when it comes to the character models. Animation is spectacular, with hand-to-hand "sakuga" combat scenes standing toe-to-toe with MAPPA's` [Jujitsu Kaisen](https://anilist.co/anime/113415/Jujutsu-Kaisen/) and [THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL](https://anilist.co/review/7867). `However, the show's reliance on CGI is rather hard on the eyes.` *** ~~~ #`Tl;Dr:` img100%(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/766670782494408744/855828717331152938/latest.png) ~~~ `Your enjoyment of the show is contingent on whether or not you can overlook the incompatibility of its themes. The individual concepts used in the show are sacrificed at the altar of disappointing writing in order to serve the mission of being an excuse for sci-fi action scenes. ` *Vivy * `is defined by those ambitions, as it integrates individual ideas that feel both interesting and incongruent. At times ` *Vivy * `traverses the tightrope, merging story and themes harmoniously to great effect. But the notes start to sound off whenever the plot takes precedence; subpar writing choices and unfulfilling answers leave behind only a cold chassis-covered Mission. This series' goal was certainly to create an entertaining, self-contained action romp, and it very much succeeded on that front. But ` *Vivy * `had me hooked on the promise that it could achieve so, so much more. Perhaps time travel, A.I. and music weren't ever meant to mix in a compelling capacity. Alas, the potential in store for these facets of ` *Vivy * `will be lost in time, like tears in rain.` **6/10**~ *** # ~~~ `Stray Ramblings (SPOILERS:)` ~~~ - `^Kakitani doesn't really matter. His only purpose was to inject Vivy with the reprogramming virus in order to progress the plot, while robbing the audience from answers to questions that have been brewing since the beginning of the show. His motivations for pursuing her was the kind of asspull that made the show's use of music feel hamfisted and disingenuous.` - `^^Vivy 2.0 flexed on the insecure OG in the most frustrating way possible. Her last performance serves to progress the plot while deliberately withholding concrete answers to questions that have been brewing since the beginning of the show... Are you starting to spot the trend yet?` - `^^^The first 16 minutes of Episode 12 were pure, bleak bliss. Seeing the entire operation go to shit hit hard, even if we barely knew the crew involved. The destruction on display marked another opportunity for Nagatsuki to revel in his mayhem. It was engaging to see just how far things would come apart, but I had hope that the writing wasn't part of the chaos too. That hope turned out to be misguided, as this inconsequential disaster of this episode only occurred for the dumbest of reasons. Vivy's failure that ended with countless loss of life was undone with a single button-press. Now all our idol singer needs to do is, you guessed it, sing. And she had this information the entire time, thanks to the conversation with the Archive. And she withheld said information from her teammates, which was valuable intel that could have kept casualties to a minimum. And she doesn't spill the tea to anyone, so Matsumoto is unable to give her the pep talk she needed to Mary Sue the whole thing. And despite the keys to fixing the entire situation being handed to her on a silver-fucking-CGI platter, she doesn't use them, thereby going against her primary function of keeping people alive with her singing. HOLY SHIT, how can you fuck up so bad. Given the option to save the entire world, Vivy... doesn't, not out of a personal choice, but out of sheer incompetence. Vivy 's final episode isn't a means to build on tension, it's an exit strategy. The show still has one more episode commissioned, and our cast need something to do. Staying true to her name, this "Diva" stirred up drama for no valid reason. Even if you call her inability to sing a part of her arc due to the Metal Float incident making her more "human," her "loophole" excuse of making sure her potential audience survives would still take ultimate prerogative - and it's an excuse that worked all the way up till this episode, mind you.` - `If Diva was the first autonomous humanoid A.I. from the Sisters Initiative, wouldn't she have been way more popular than she really was? Getting to Main Stage should have been a cakewalk, smh.` - `Hope I wasn't the only one wishing Matsumoto would talk slower. Funny enough, over a summer course I had a professor who talked just about as fast during lectures. Watching this show helped me keep up with studies, true story.` - `Really wish the show did more with the Kirishima bloodline. Momoka gave Vivy her name, after all.` - `BEST GIRL: Probably Grace. Good singer and loyal companion, who wouldn't want to protecc.` ~~~ img100%(https://vivy-anime.com/assets/img/character/img/grace_01.jpg) ~~~ *** `Hope you caught that` *Blade Runner* `reference! Halfway through writing, I had the sudden urge to go check out the Director's Cut. Anyways, there's my mission done for now. If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other` [reviews](https://anilist.co/user/AnimeDweeb/reviews) `for seasons past and present. I also frequently post writeups under my list updates, so definitely take a peek if you'd like to see me mald over anime as they hit the airwaves. Peace~`
>Hey nekoama here, and this is my second anime review, please feel free to browse through my other reviews and let me know what you think. Today I'll be covering Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song. Warning: this review may contain spoilers. img700(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/677679611760345112/854548159580995584/vivy.png) In the distant future, highly evolved AIs have set course to destroy all of mankind, proving to be the superior race. 100 years prior, AIs are already an essential part of human society, each appointed tasks they must carry out. Vivy, the first-ever autonomous AI, is stationed at NiaLand and her mission is to spread happiness with her singing. However, one day, an advanced AI from the future, Matsumoto, appears before her and explains to her the situation between humans and AIs in the future, hoping to receive her help. Will they be able to save the future? img500(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/677679611760345112/854550755485679646/vivy_01.png) Initially, when I heard about this anime, I wasn't at all that interested in it. I have heard from others that they were very hyped for this series to air, however, nothing about it intrigued me. In my head, I'm thinking, okay a bear doll and a blue-haired AI is going to change the future. I picked it up, because well you know, people say it was good. :) And boy, did it deliver. You could call it love at first glance. This show is amazing in all aspects and I would definitely recommend it to others. img500(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/677679611760345112/854565398145007616/Vivy-Fluorite-Eyes-Song-episode-6-screenshots-1-1140x641.png) But first, can we admire the artwork? The art and animations are amazing, as expected of Wit Studios, producers of Attack on Titan, and Vinland Saga to name a few. Sometimes the colors are vibrant and attractive and other times it can be the complete opposite. The art is very stunning and the animations are very fluid and smooth. I was actually surprised when I saw the fighting scenes, because it was unexpected from an anime such as this. The fighting sequences were very well done and entertaining to watch too. The songs in this anime are top-tier as well. The singing is very nice and it gives a sense of connection to the show because Vivy is the one who sings these songs herself. The songs are very catchy and easy to listen to. That being said, I've already slammed all these songs into my playlist. Since the beginning of the show, Vivy has always questioned what it means to pour your heart into something. She wondered what it meant and how she uses that to improve her singing. Ultimately, she begins to learn what it means. She learned that pouring her heart into something meant "singing along with her memories". As Vivy made new memories, her audience began to grow, and she started to be happier. Because to her, the heart for humans is what memories are for AIs, a road map of their journey to where they are now. Vivy's 100-year mission has shaped who she is now. All the people she met along the way have made a huge impact on her, and that is what allowed her to truly understand what it means to pour your heart into something and sing on the main stage once and for all. img500(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/677679611760345112/854566506749886504/66213-resena-vivy-fluorite-eyes-song-capitulo-4.png) I'm probably biased towards this anime because I just really enjoy the idea of time travel with Steins;Gate being my favorite anime after all. But I genuinely enjoyed watching this anime. It was very entertaining and kept me hooked with each episode. It can be sad, it can be funny, it can be action-packed, it has it all. If you have nothing better to do, like me, you should give it a try. You never know, this could be your favorite anime.
The long road of Vivy and Matsumoto's 100 year long journey has finally met it's long-awaited conclusion. As I'm sure most of the community tends to agree, the end of an anime is a very important factor to the view of said anime as a whole. This is especially true for original anime, as there is nothing to compare it to. Nothing to spoil. No ending to already know. We all go in with the same amount of knowledge unless you're unlucky to not get to a new episode quickly enough and get spoiled before watching it. That said, my phrasing regarding the plot of _Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song_ being referred to as a "100 year long journey" reminds me of a very cliché line I'm sure everybody's heard before; that it's not _only_ the destination (in this case, the ending) that matters, but the journey itself. Despite how cliché that is, it's not untrue. Though the ending is a major factor in the reception and perception of an anime, the events that lead up to the ending are equally, if not more, important. "Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song", created by _Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu_ original creator Tappei Nagatsuki and anime scriptwriter Eiji Umehara (also known for being the main scriptwriter of _ChäoS;Child_), is a moving original anime that delivers the idea and point of it's epic journey that transcends time itself in a very refined fashion, and wraps up that journey in a similar manner. The story of _Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song_ starts in the year 2061, a not-so-distant future where domestic AIs are a very normal sight, as they take up the jobs that we'd usually see humans in as part of whatever the mission assigned to that AI is. Our protagonist, Diva (a.k.a. Vivy) is the first intelligent, human-looking AIs that are above the usual robotic appearance. She is the first, but not the last, as we find out later. Vivy's mission: To make everybody happy with her singing. Vivy's life as an AI is soon changed when the Singularity Project, involving her, begins without her warning. An AI by the name of Matsumoto (who looks suspiciously similar to Wheatley from Portal 2) arrives claiming to be from 100 years in the future, being sent back in time to enlist Vivy into the project to stop a conflict between humans and AIs that took place in the future he came from. Though reluctant to believe Matsumoto at first, Vivy soon finds herself in over her head involved in the 100 year long journey it would take to stop the coming conflict, helping Matsumoto to change events of the past at "Singularity Points" to change the course of the future in a way that would prevent the conflict. However, this journey is not without feelings of loss, suffering and dark figures holding Vivy and Matsumoto back from their goal... and furthermore, this project will not always line up with Vivy's initial mission. Nagatsuki and Umehara did a very good job at constructing this plot from the ground up, from the discreet details in it to the symbolism in how _Vivy_ and Matsumoto's progress would be presented. The only thing that pulled me out of the story, if anything, were the huge gaps in years between episodes, especially with how little those gaps were actually mentioned. Though it was to be expected, I had some trouble following the story at certain points early on, but this problem is lessened later on. The art and animation of Vivy is one of the best aspects of it. The art style is unique, making great usage of colour without making things too diverse in colour that it would be difficult to focus on one thing at a time visually. The character designs from _Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai_ illustrator Loundraw were a great touch to the overall theme, and it's clear that he understood the work and the character designs it needed. They're quite diverse and interesting designs without being too over the top. Just some regular anime hair colouring, but used in a sensible matter, as it was only for the AI characters. All of the humans looked and felt... well, human. There are also these close-up shots of characters at certain points of the series that show more details of the character designs than the normal shots. Outside of the fact that they, undeniably, looked amazing, they also added to the feeling of the scenes they were used in, emphasising the drama of those scenes and the pressure placed on Vivy. Funnily enough, these scenes were also... really chilling sometimes. There was one of these shots in episode 7 that actually sent a chill down my spine. There was some CG used for some of the more robotic looking AIs in the series, including Matsumoto himself, that was honestly some of the best CG I've seen in an anime in quite a while. The only thing that beats it out on CG quality that I can think of would be the CG typewriters from _Violet Evergarden_. Regarding 2D animation, the general animation was quite good, there was a lot of life in the way each character was animated, and it was clear that a lot of effort went into it, but the sakuga scenes... simply fantastic. Wit's animators did a phenomenal job. Though _Vivy_'s characters were really well-executed, of the factors I'm including in this review, I did find it to be the weakest of them. Vivy and Matsumoto themselves were very good, well-written characters, and the character interactions between them and others in the story were great, but suffer mainly from the problem that the interactions with most of the characters are very short-lived, and it does make it hard for certain side characters to receive the screentime they need for big enough contributions to have a real impact of the plot. It's not a particularly bad complaint, as this aspect comes with stories over a long period of time, and IS undeniably part of the main overarching point of the series, but it's still there and did pull me out of the experience on multiple occasions. For example, I feel that, in the end, Kakitani didn't receive enough screentime as an antagonist for Vivy's final confrontation with him to have the full extent of the impact it could have had. Honestly, I'm not really enough of an expert in sound design to go into the use of sound effects in incredible detail. Anybody can recognise good use of sound effects where it's found, so that's enough for me to say that this factor of the sound was... pretty good. All of the sounds were used correctly to my perception, every attack in the action scenes of the series sounded how attacks of that force should sound when they land and, I have to say, as somebody who's heard a lot of bad gun sound effects in video games, the sound of gunfire in _Vivy_ was realistic and sounded relatively close to the real deal. The music of _Vivy_ was executed very well, both in the music itself and the placement of that music in the series. The soundtrack was composed by the legendary Satoru Kosaki, who's also responsible for the music in the _Monogatari_ and _Suzumiya Haruhi_ series', both of which are series' that I'm fond of the music (and the anime themselves) in. Not a single problem with any of the OSTs he did for _Vivy_ that I can recall. The OP and ED themes, all performed by the "characters" themselves and released as such, were also very good. The lyrics were beautifully written, the vocals were on point every time and the instrumentals were performed very nicely. The voice acting is also something I'm not qualified to talk about in high detail, but I know enough to say it was really good. Each line carried the weight it needed to and meant what it was supposed to mean, and none were wasted on unnecessary conversation as everything felt important. The casting was also really nice. Atsumi Tanezaki (Mizore Yoroizuka from _Hibike! Euphonium_, Arisa Uotani from _Fruits Basket (2019)_) as Vivy and Jun Fukuyama (Lelouch vi Brittania from _Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch_, Yuuta Togashi from _Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!_) as Matsumoto was already good enough, but then they also pulled Takehito Koyasu (Do I even need to say who he voiced?) and Youko Hikasa (Rias Gremory from _High School DxD_ and Mio Akiyama from _K-ON!_), which just completely impressed me. Cast combos this good don't come along so often. I found _Vivy_ to be very strong in regards to pure enjoyment, none of the episodes felt boring and there was something to enjoy in every episode. There was always something to look forward to every week, and I love it for that. All of the episodes were interesting, advanced the plot and had great scenes and dialogue. The action scenes and all-out fights were very enjoyable, both for what they contributed to the plot and the absolute eye candy animation during them. Nagatsuki, Umehara, and everybody else who worked on this project and made it possible... thank you.
The story follows Vivy, a songstress AI whose sole mission is to make everyone happy with her singing and to pour her heart into her singing. The entire series follows her struggle to figure out the meaning of "heart" and she slowly learns this through her travels with Matsumoto, a fellow AI who has come from the future in order to stop the war of humans vs AI- well he says war but it's more like the AIs massacring the humans. The individual stories are all portrayed really well with my favourite mini story being that of Estella and Elisabeth as they are forced to stop the Sunrise from falling and my least favourite being that of Ophelia. Overall, the story of this is amazing as the individual stories all come together at the end for what can only be a great ending- although I have one fault with it. I shall explain my fault here: ~!after Vivy finishes singing her song to help shut down all the AIs that have lost control and she and Matsumoto die in the process it cuts to her with very short hair waking up and seeing Matsumoto who tells her "your name is Vivy and your goal is to make everyone happy with your singing. Everyone is waiting to hear you sing." and then she smiles and gets up. I'm not sure what is happening here or whether this is some sort of dream as I really don't see a point as to why that was added in as it sort of took me out from the moment as I honestly felt the series could have ended on Vivy just dying but it ended on this so this brought down my overall scored for the series unless someone can explain to me why this was added to the end of the show.!~ __Characterisation:__ The characters are all quite interesting. Some are extremely well written- being Diva and Vivy and Elizabeth and others being not that well written- Antonio etc. My favourite character in the series is most likely either Elizabeth or Diva as I felt they were characterised the best out of all the characters. Antonio is my least favourite mainly because his motives didn't really make sense to me which is part of the reason why Ophelia's arc is my least favourite part of the series. Overall, the characterisation is a 7.5/10 as Antonio really let it down :( __Character Dynamics:__ The best character dynamic in the series is a tie between Matsumoto and Vivy and Elizabeth and Estella for me. Both are displayed brilliantly with Matsumoto and Vivy's slow development through the years as they start off as unlikely allies who don't get along to be friends at the end: ~!with Matsumoto even sacrificing himself so Vivy can finish her song (people could say this was just him making sure the mission succeeded but part of me saw this as him protecting Vivy as a best friend)!~ and with Elizabeth and Estella being sister AIs who were separated upon being created ~!but get reunited and die together to bring down the Sunrise!~ The worst character dynamic is... and you probably saw it coming... Antonio and Ophelia as it honestly made no sense to me and made me want to drop the series. Overall, the character dynamics in this series are an 8/10 for me. __Visuals:__ The visuals in this are incredible and are some of the best in anime. They aren't as incredible as 86 but still hold their own and I believe they stand at a 9/10 as some scenes are clearly well animated than others whereas other series are able to maintain a consistently good animation across the entire show. __Voice Acting:__ The voice acting is good and I feel like it fits each character perfectly. However, there's not really much more to say asides from that. It never really stood out to me that much so I assume that they didn't do anything special as if they did I feel like I would remember something to say here XD so Overall, the voice acting in this was 7.5/10. __Music/Soundtrack:__ The music in this series is extremely prominent for the entire series and it's a good thing that the songs are so great as they honestly carry the entire show at some points. Especially in the last episode with Vivy's final song. I'm also a huge fan of how the opening theme and ending theme are both connected to the series with the opening being sung by Vivy and the ending ~!being the song that Vivy composes herself in the series!~ Overall, the music in this is 9/10. __Fight Choreography/Pacing:__ The fight scenes in this are very good. My favourite fight is definitely that between Elizabeth and Vivy on the sunrise but all the fight scenes were very cool to see although some were clearly better animated than others. Meanwhile, the pacing in the series was quite strange. I personally felt it was way too fast as it just went from event to another without much consequences although the final few episodes completely change that so overall the pacing isn't much of an issue and I would say it is 7.5/10 whereas the fight choreography is an 9/10. __Genre Mixing:__ The genre mixing felt a bit stange in some areas with Matsumoto joking in an extreme life or death situation but asides from that there wasn't too much so there is not much to say regarding this so I would say it was 6.5/10 __Conclusion and Score:__ Overall, this series is great from start to finish (if you ignore the final scene) and I highly recommend it to anyone who has not seen it yet. I give this series an 8.5/10 as although it is really good there were lots of flaws in it that I have mentioned above but mainly from just partway through the series where I personally just got really confused- whether it was just my fault for being dumb or the series fault for not explaining properly I guess I'll never know XD
vivy flourite eyes song is about an idol robot who does some crazy time travel shit with another robot and then they team up to do some kung fu moves on some losers and save the world. this is basically the love live of robot anime. ok so what happens in this show is some girl gives her a bear and a robot from the future inhabits it and they have to beat the fuck out of some people because apparently that will alter the timeline and prevent the end of the world. after they beat the fuck out of these people the girl that gave her the bear gets blown up in a fiery plane crash (i look forward to the isekai spinoff coming summer 2022) after that they just kinda go on a rampage of killing shit and altering the timeline in an attempt to save the world and i'm gonna be honest i remember pretty much none of the plot details from this time outside of some shit on a spaceship with the girl who got blown up's sister and robot sex but the fight scenes were sick as fuck so in the end it doesn't really matter at all. after they do all this there's this cool episode where she meets up with the scientist who initially sent the other robot back in the past to start the project and then hardcut to the end of the episode where everyone is dead. who could have possibly seen this coming. the scene where the guy runs away from vivy and then gets smashed by a car was pretty funny (i look forward to the second isekai spinoff coming winter 2024) after that they go and save the scientist and then go to destroy the archive which is controlling all the AIs to kill everyone, however vivy is too much of a coward to go through with it and fails miserably so the scientist dude has to die to give them another shot. this time she finally succeeds and then dies for her efforts. again, who could have possibly seen this coming. one thing i would've liked to have seen explored more is this show's connection to the canon of joran: the princess of snow and blood which is another show that aired this season. that show takes place approximately 250 years prior to this show, however the main character has an identical blood color to the robot from this show. i was very interested in how joran might have played into the development of AI but unfortunately that did not come up at all. all in all i don't really remember a lot of the plot or finer details from this show but the fight scenes were super sick so i don't really care too much. it was very satisfying when she kicked that one dude in the head and fucking murdered him in the last episode. honestly i think this show could've been a 10 if they just included more roundhouse kicks i really liked watching those
~~~All of my reviews contain **spoilers** for the reviewed material. This is your only warning.~~~ --------- img880(https://i.imgur.com/AR6LzZi.png)
To evaluate art, you must first understand what it is trying to do. This is a simple maxim of modern criticism and is one applied by myself and many thousands of other writers up and down the length of the medium and beyond. It borders on a truism. So, then, the question practically asks itself. What do you do when “what it’s trying to do” turns out to be “not very much”? This is a conundrum I struggled with throughout Vivy – Flourite Eye’s Song as it neared its conclusion. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, the craftsmanship side of things. It’s a Wit Studio production, and looks it. Vivy joins last year’s The Great Pretender as a resoundingly stylish visual affair. The series looks and sounds great and is extremely well-directed. In particular, if all you’re looking for is a fun brain-teaser plot that you don’t intend to take too seriously, and some excellent action pieces and fun character animation, there’s enough to love here to keep you happy. img880(https://i.imgur.com/yM8Glv3.jpg) But what’s it about? That is a surprisingly tough question. Vivy is a sci-fi series. In a purely literal sense, it’s about AI, meaning generally androids with artificial intelligence here. It joins a long lineage of anime that tackle this topic, going back to the dawn of the medium. Vivy herself, the title character, also called Diva, is a singing AI, whose “life mission” (all AI here get one, and only one) is to make people happy with her songs. She’s also the agent chosen by Matsumoto, a cube-shaped automaton who somewhat resembles a cubified version of Wheatley from Portal 2, for a seemingly-impossible task. A century in the future, a war will break out between AIs and humankind. The AIs will decidedly win. Matsumoto has been sent back in time by his own creator to prevent this, and Diva essentially must help him, or else the future will be doomed. Across a baker’s dozen episodes, she does so. Vivy is the very image of a reluctant adventure protagonist. She rescues politicians, evacuates satellite-hotels as they fall out of orbit, confronts super-factories of autonomous drones, and so on. As a pure spectacle, it’s easy to make a case for Vivy. img880(https://i.imgur.com/I0AUrdZ.jpg) The unfortunate, if perhaps predictable, rejoinder to that then, is that despite this Vivy still falls well short of its goal of being a truly new spin on the AI-focused part of the sci-fi genre. Unlike a lot of fiction that tackles this topic, Vivy is keenly uninterested in asking any hard questions of itself, or of its audience. No thought is given to the AIs as their own characters, except in service to their human masters. For Vivy herself the problem is slightly more abstract, but still present. The series has what I can only call a perspective problem; while Vivy‘s literal plot is tightly-written, at least until it falls on its face in the series’ final third, the actual ideas it presents often come up short. Thinking you have something to say, and actually having such, are, after all, different things. At the series’ two-thirds mark, it is established that Diva and Vivy are, in fact, different people. What is still often incorrectly referred to as a “split personality” situation but is more properly called plurality. We spend most of the series with Vivy, but starting at episode eight we spend a significant amount of time with Diva, too. Just an episode and a half later, at the climax of episode nine, she dies, done in by a virus that deletes her “personality construct” from the shared body. On its own, there is nothing inherently wrong with killing a character as the take-a-bow moment to finish out a story arc. In certain genres, and in the proper context, it can work very well. When I say Vivy‘s problem is one of perspective, what I mean is that the trope as used here resoundingly doesn’t. The narrative wrings her for pathos, and when it can no longer think of a way to do that, she gets the proverbial gun to the temple. img880(https://i.imgur.com/7iE3T6B.jpg) The actual scene itself–where Diva and Vivy briefly meet for the first time as the former sings her heart out even as her code unravels by the second–is an audio-visual triumph, one might go so far as to say it’s powerful. But when the songs fade and you catch your breath, you are left with the fact that you’ve just watched a character die because the story could not see fit to let her live. It feels pointless, offensive even, with the benefit of even a few minutes of hindsight. The scene I outline above is certainly the worst of these that punctuates Vivy, but it’s not the only one, and the series’ habit of killing characters willy-nilly for no good reason is a bad Achilles’ Heel for an anime to have. It doesn’t tank Vivy entirely, as that production aspect is still there, but it completely neuters the series as a narrative piece. It’s genuinely impressive how irrelevant to the current moment it feels in a world overrun with algorithms, deepfakes, and machine learning. In general, the broadness of Vivy‘s view is tied directly to its success. In the rare moments when it remembers to actually humanize all of its characters, not just the ones who are literally human, it sings. img880(https://i.imgur.com/EJBp1bt.jpg) When it does not, it feels crushingly lonely in the worst way possible. It never finds a real core in any of this death and twisted metal. It’s all story beats run through with impressive, but mechanical precision. In a somewhat grim irony, given its subject matter, it feels like a facsimile of a better anime. It has no soul. img880(https://i.imgur.com/hqznp8A.jpg) In the end, Vivy‘s narrowness is its undoing. In its final few episodes even the previously solid plot begins to unravel, and the ending escapes being worth detailed analysis. It’s a hodge-podge of garden variety time-loop nonsense, the series’ audacious but completely unearned attempt to transmute flashbacks into an AMV of itself, and finally, of course, the death of Vivy herself. I will leave the issue of whether her resurrection, with amnesia, in a post-credits scene makes this slightly better or even worse to you, the reader. When Vivy began some naysayers made a called shot about what the problem would be; that Vivy would be a slickly produced series with nothing at all interesting to actually say. With the further note that the series lacks warmth or empathy, I’d now say those people were unfortunately correct, regardless of if they were actually foreseeing potential issues or simply guessing and being right by happenstance. The series has enough merits to avoid being a total waste of time, but conversely I cannot imagine it enduring the march of history for long. Nor does it deserve to. It is a shame. Speaking only for myself, I go into every anime I watch with the assumption that it will become the best version of itself. That decidedly did not happen with Vivy – Flourite Eye’s Song. Perhaps, someone, someday, will extract its worthy elements and build a better AI anime out of them. But Vivy is not, and can not be, that series of the future. Only just concluded, it is already long obsolete. img880(https://i.imgur.com/SFNPA0W.jpg)
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# ~~~__Before this review begins, a quick spoiler notification:__ ~~~ There won’t be any explicit spoilers past the first episode, with very minor allusions which could be seen as a spoiler to some, but it serves as a way to be relatable with my fellow completionists. Thank you for your time. ~~~img600(https://otakuusamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/vivy.png)~~~ # ~~~__iNTRoDuCTioN__~~~ Vivy Fluoride Song is an anime about a bottle of toothpaste trying to stop toothpaste from being created. Developed by the same game company that created the widely popular “Advancing Titans”, Fluoride takes a different route and is instead an original creation as opposed to the money maker that is a manga adaptation. Directed by a man who has done nothing significant and with a story created by the man who was responsible for the Rem vs. Emilia war, this had all the makings of a good show. Unfortunately, unlike most, I cannot help but feel a little disappointed. To give a little background, the story follows computer singer Diva as she gets commanded by a block from Minecraft to stop a war between computers and not computers 100 years in the future. As the game continues, you will have the opportunity to go all over the world and take on a bunch of different jobs. You get to be an astronaut, a bodyguard, and even a spy! However, we soon find out that the Minecraft Cube’s timeline is different than the one that the game shows us. Most likely, as most of us hypothesize, because of this Diva and her affecting the timeline. Man isn’t time travel confusing? Now that we are all caught up, this review is going to be told in 5 parts: Story, Characters, Animation/Music, and then My Enjoyment, followed by a Conclusion. Story and Characters will be the longest for this review, and the other three will probably be on the shorter end. ~~~img600(https://miro.medium.com/max/1708/0*ojD1Lvpa3V3p89fN.jpg)~~~ # ~~~__SToRy__~~~ The story is told with episodic arcs set years apart from each other with each arc consisting of about 2-3 episodes: an episode to set up the conflict and an episode to resolve that conflict (if there are three then the two episode format is just spread over 3 episodes). While this pacing has its merits, not really spending time on bullshit and instead focusing on the core moments that shape the Japanese Civil War, its drawbacks become apparent as the series progresses. One very large drawback is that there is no reason for any viewer to give a shit about this world beyond very small nods to “oh yeah that's a thing”. Because we jump several years in time between these episodic plots, we are hit with a ton of whiplash and are given very little opportunity to adjust to the technological innovations that were created in between the arcs. We watch the world after it evolves, not watch while it evolves. That said, one of the very best things about this world is the gigantic dildo that sticks up into the air and progressively gets larger as the computers get better. I enjoy that very much and must say that his character development is the best in the series… wait shit this isn't the character portion ok back to the story. Not only do we feel a lack of connection to the world but because of the focus on the major story beats, there is no downtime. When there is downtime, it's for the specific reason for our little toothpaste bottle to connect to a certain person (or sometimes herself) just so that their actions, whether to cause the conflict or resolve it, can be justified by us the players. When characters exist for 2-3 episodes at a time, rather than feeling like one cohesive story, the anime feels like a bunch of stories strung together with the loose explanation of “oh yeah time passed between then and now”, most of the time not even showing what happens, but rather telling us. This is a little side note but a lot happens within the story that just kinda does. Like how does the cube time travel? How does a lot of this technology work? A lot of the time plot holes are explained with the always convenient but never enjoyable “shit happens because shit happens”. This show is a big practitioner of “Tell don’t Show” which is a crucial flaw to the writing of it. While the big plot points happen on screen the minor casualties of those plot points are rarely shown if ever and are rather told to us in the form of drawn out conversations between the minecraft cube and the toothpaste as they catch up after their multi-year separation. They don’t even get coffee!! Towards the latter half of the show, we can really see how the show is trying to fit so much storytelling into such a short time. Not only does every time jump happen at a larger rate than before, but time jumps begin to happen within the episodes themselves. This is all fine and dandy, but once again nothing is done by showing us, we are told about things that are happening rather than seeing them unfold ourselves. I won’t divulge into the ending of the show, but to simplify it as much as I can, it ends in one final 3 episode arc that does a lot of what we had already seen with this show. Lots of telling, not so much showing, and fight scenes that feel forced rather than coming naturally. This said, the characters introduced (or in one case reintroduced) are welcome additions and make the final arc probably the best one the series has to offer. Now if you’ve stuck around long enough to listen to me bitch about the story, let me compliment it for a little bit before I go and bitch about the characters. The story in its entirety, when looking past the shortcomings, is a very interesting take on AI. While not completely original, it offers a dialogue to be had about AI in the real world as they are becoming increasingly more advanced with each and every day. The episodic/arc structure of the show is also something to compliment as not only does it keep the pace moving, it also means that if you're not enjoying a certain setting or a certain character, you know you won't be with them for long. There is no real "worst" or "best" arc for me because they're all about equal in terms of quality, but if there is a worst arc for you then you can rest easy knowing it's only 2 episodes of the whole show. Not only that, but the settings the show takes us to are all very interesting and provide several different outlooks on how AI affects the world and how the world in turn affects the AIs. ~~~img600(https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Vivy-Fluorite-Eyes-Song-01-02-44.jpg)~~~ # ~~~__CHaRaCTeRS__~~~ Within Fluoride Song, 2 characters are important, and the rest are side characters that only show up in like one arc. The first of the two characters is our little toothpaste bottle Diva, a singer who for plot convenience is also a badass. When in singer formation she goes by the aforementioned name Diva and when she’s a badass, we call her Vivy. As the series progresses, Diva proves to be a little computer Barbie doll and gets dressed up in all sorts of jobs. How she achieves the ability to get said jobs, never explained. She just does because she’s a badass ok? Don’t question the method. Trust the method. Believe in the method. Our Diva Star has a goal of “making everyone happy with singing”. How she’s going to make everyone happy is beyond me, I know several people who don’t like J-Pop. It’s also mentioned that Diva is the first human-computer or whatever that means. That means in our Minecraft Cube’s timeline she is put into a museum. She isn’t in one now because apparently her becoming a badass also makes her a better and more popular singer, however that works. Now Diva has several computer sisters and every single one is important to the plot. Don’t worry though, you don’t need to remember them because they all die. Jk jk jk, or am I? The second of the two is our good old Minecraft Cube who is from the future. He isn’t always a cube, instead early on preferring the much more popular method of possessing a teddy bear. Not only does his character evolve from bear to cube, but his animation also evolves with him: going from a 2D teddy bear to a 3D cube. Now, this guy is serious. He’s from the future and goes back in time using some sort of technology. He says that AI bad and that AI should go away. Now Mr. Minecraft Cube, sir, I’m no gynecologist, but are you not an AI yourself? Anywho our Cube is a wonderful piece of technology, being able to fly, transform into a plane with multiple versions of himself, and can even be an anti-virus software!!! Honestly, we should get Matsumotos on every single computer. Now, this character is pretty much what drives the story forward, only appearing every few years to say “hey shit's kinda gonna happen so let’s stop it”. There are more characters, but most are really only important in their one arc, in fact now that I think about it most die at the end of their arcs so yeah we don’t have to go over them. Scratch that there is one and he’s a dude that toothpaste saves back in the first arc and then for some fucking reason he decides to show up in every gosh darn arc. Calm down, you aren’t a protagonist stop causing issues. His character arc is alright at best and just straight cringe at worst, somehow (it isn’t explained) he shows up decades into the future having not aged a bit but instead now has AI bits inside of him. Again, we aren’t explained how he gets those shits inside of him, but he does anyway, and then his arc is finished. ~~~img600(https://i.imgur.com/J6KF8xW.jpg)~~~ # ~~~__aNiMaTioN aND MuSiC__~~~ This will be the shortest of all of the segments because there isn’t really much to talk about here. If you’ve seen Advancing Titans or Viking Chronicles, then you know that WIT studio stands for Without Investment Training. I made that up but WIT makes some pretty gosh darn pretty drawings. The music is also fairly nice to listen to. It doesn’t give me an eargasm but it's still nonetheless pleasant to listen to. The opening “Sing my Pleasure” is a pleasure to listen to, pun intended, and it is added to my anime ops playlist if that says anything. Somewhere in the middle of the show, the opening plays at the end of the episode instead of the ed (which is mid to begin with) and honestly the op does not work in the context it plays in. I think I’m in the minority when I say that, but I digress. ~~~img600(https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Vivy-Fluorite-Eyes-Song-01-02-43.jpg)~~~ # ~~~__My eNJoyMeNT__~~~ Overall, this game is a fairly interesting romp through the woods. I’d say that in comparison to other Spring 2021 anime, I’d put this towards the middle/bottom of the list. Why? Well to me, an anime doesn’t tell me how good it is through the color of his skin, but rather the content of his character. The anime’s story is somewhat good, yes, but its shortcomings are noticeable to a fault. A lot of people will defend the show because of its animation and yes, the animation is incredible and the music is really good, but that doesn’t make the anime better than a 6/10 in my opinion. Furthermore, personally, I am a fan of toothpaste and would rather not have them seize creation. Overall I enjoyed it when I wasn’t paying too much attention to the story but was instead looking at the pretty drawings. The drawings are good. ~~~img600(https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20210404/1617578642.8445.32279.jpg)~~~ # ~~~__CoNCLuSioN__~~~ Vivy Fluoride Song is an alright anime to sit and watch, but not one I’d suggest spending every waking hour thinking about. While the world and it’s characters have good elements to them, the flaws the anime presents are not those that can be forgotten about. This review has definitely been a negative one but I would not call this a “Bad Anime”. In fact, a 6/10 score is above average on my rating scale. The animation is amazing to look at so if you can look past its story flaws, you can enjoy this show for the animation alone. That said, the flaws are too glaring to give the show anymore than the score that was warranted in this review. I’m writing this paragraph while I’m editing the review, it’s about 2 AM right now and I want to add the fact that this probably would’ve done much better as a 2 cour or even 3 cour season. I was thinking this sentiment from early on but was in the minority then but it seems that I am in the majority now. The pacing is fine but if it were 2 cour, had longer arcs or just flat out didn’t skip 100000000000 years every other episode, it would’ve been a fine show in WIT’s collection. Thank you for reading and have a nice day.
_This review is written in Spanish._ _Esta reseña contiene spoilers. Proceda con precaución._ Es difícil hablar de Vivy sin pensar en el extraño e histórico momento en el que actualmente la humanidad se encuentra. Cada vez somos más dependientes de sistemas basados en “machine learning” y similares, los cuales son un mero ensayo general sobre como las inteligencias artificiales se relacionarían con el ser humano. Cada día se está escribiendo un nuevo párrafo, y todos en el planeta estamos siendo participes de aquello, sea de forma directa o pasivamente. Entonces… ¿De qué forma podemos describir esta obra? img(https://i.imgur.com/bHTVBHX.jpg) En primer lugar, uno puede apreciar que este show es claramente una obra personal de la mano de [Tappei Nagatsuki](https://anilist.co/staff/118885/) [(Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu)](https://anilist.co/anime/21355/) y [Eiji Umehara](https://anilist.co/staff/122997) [(ChäoS;Child)](https://anilist.co/anime/21126/). Después de todo, uno no crea algo así de la nada: se ha reportado que Tappei estuvo trabajando en este concepto por más de seis años, el cual terminó en varias novelas que fueron entregadas como material bruto a Wit Studio para ser convertido en un producto útil en la creación de una serie animada. Y aquel paso es clave para Vivy: después de haber entregado el material, los escritores no tuvieron mucha voz en el proyecto. Esto puede que haya sido un factor crucial, ya que unos meses atrás nuestro escritor estaba manejando con más fuerza la producción de [“Senyoku no Sigrdrifa”](https://anilist.co/anime/116173/), con resultados bastante más dispares. El resultado es en general bastante aceptable, pero aun así no falto de problemas: el ritmo podría haber sido un toque más calmado en ciertos momentos y el mundo en el cual se desarrolla la historia podría haber sido expandido un poco más para darle más peso a las acciones de nuestros protagonistas, pero aquello siempre termina apuntado al mismo culpable de siempre: la falta de episodios. Un problema endémico del anime en esta época. A pesar de todo, puedo decir con seguridad que __“Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song-”__ es un apasionante éxito dentro de un medio que pide a gritos ideas que no vengan de los mismos géneros de siempre y los mismos materiales fuente que han estado invadiendo la industria en los últimos años. img(https://i.imgur.com/BEHqd1k.jpg) Nuestra protagonista, Vivy [(CV: Atsumi Tanezaki)](https://anilist.co/staff/112215/) rápidamente se ve envuelta en una trama mucho más grande que ella misma, corriendo contra el tiempo ante un desenlace ciertamente fatal para el mundo, en una batalla donde la humanidad no tiene chances de ganar, todo esto en medio de su dilema como primera IA creada a mayor semejanza de un ser humano, con una “misión” que terminaría abarcando mucho más que una mera canción: el dejar su “corazón” en una canción. Esta historia centenaria nos deja preguntas sobre como los seres humanos nos terminaremos llevando con estas creaciones artificiales, en el que no hay dudas de que habrá asuntos éticos y morales de los cuales aún siquiera hemos hablado, siquiera pensado incluso. Vida, muerte, dolor, conciencia, lealtad, obediencia, igualdad, amor, etc. img(https://i.imgur.com/pYzrceM.jpg) En medio de esto, el show nos ofrece un elenco de personajes que acompañan y terminarán marcando el crecimiento de Vivy como personaje, con especial mención a Matsumoto [(CV: Jun Fukuyama)](https://anilist.co/staff/95086/), una IA extremadamente sarcástica que no se limita en lo más mínimo en sus palabras y que sirve a Vivy como guía para la misión de evitar terminar con la raza humana en cenizas. La performance de todos los actores es tremendamente destacable, especialmente en el caso de nuestra protagonista, que lentamente empieza a expresar más emociones a través de su voz, y su canto. Especialmente su canto. ¿Y qué sería este show sin una banda sonora que acompañase este viaje temporal? Pues debo decir que sin duda alguna la parte más importante (y la que denota más trabajo en toda la producción) es la música. Bajo el mando de [Satoru Kousaki](https://anilist.co/staff/101555/) ([Bakemonogatari](https://anilist.co/anime/5081/), [Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu](https://anilist.co/anime/849/)) y [Shinji Yamauchi](https://anilist.co/staff/160052/) ([Wonder Egg PRIORITY](https://anilist.co/anime/124845/)), cada nota que es tocada en cada episodio se siente como parte esencial de la historia. Y obviamente no podemos olvidar los asombrosos temas elaborados por varios de los personajes (Vivy incluida), donde cada uno deja una marca inigualable en los momentos requeridos. Entre todo esto, también hay que mencionar la asombrosa acción y dirección artística traída por Wit Studio, además de varios animadores que elevaron ciertas escenas a nuevos niveles, con especial mención a [Masahiro Tokumaru](https://twitter.com/tokumarum), cuyo anterior trabajo en “[Hanebado!](https://anilist.co/anime/101045/)” logró darle mucho más valor a ciertos enfrentamientos mano a mano, creando una sensación de peso y fuerza pocas veces vista en el medio. También no hay que olvidar ciertos close-ups, los cuales llegaban a tomar 3 días completos en ser completados, según las palabras de Wit Studio. En general, es verdadero eye-candy. webm(https://sakugabooru.com/data/541ae7b5fed0fd4a174ad6f6d7e40378.mp4) ¿Hay fallas? Obviamente. Ninguna creación es perfecta: no puedo describir el final de otra forma que “abrupto”, lo cual explica porque este show es meramente un 9 y no un rotundo 10. Ciertos aspectos de la trama quedaron en el aire, y uno que otro personaje no tuvo una explicación certera sobre sus acciones en general, pero ya a este punto me está costando apuntar a los problemas. Estamos viviendo en un mundo donde todo el ritmo de la vida parece extremadamente acelerado, y aquello no es excepción para el anime y su comunidad, ya completamente atascada en un ciclo infinito que termina repitiéndose cada tres meses, donde aparecen creaciones que se llevan toda la popularidad, para luego ser olvidados en la siguiente temporada por otro niño mimado. Aquel ciclo parecía que iba a impactar a Vivy de la misma forma: mirar, hablar, olvidar. Parece que esta vez, estamos en frente de algo diferente: una historia que logrará perdurar por años y años, y que servirá (aunque sea ligeramente) como referencia para la evolución de una tecnología que cambiará el curso de la evolución humana por completo. Al final de todo… _¿De qué forma pondrás tu corazón en lo que haces?_ img(https://i.imgur.com/k7xxCe9.jpg)
(Some spoilers, not too heavy though, mostly references to some scenes) Well, it's now time to say what I think about this one. Overall it's a really good series, but it has some issues that, I think, keeps it from being a top tier show. First of all, the art, the animation, everything in the audiovisual side of things is absolutely gorgeous. It's art is simply beautiful. It only gets better when they insert those detailed shots, mostly close-ups of Vivy, that really convey the emotion of the moment (The eyes of the AI, they are amazing). The sound design is also incredible, with simple and few resources it does A LOT, and I mean __A LOT__. For example the scene in the Sunrise with Vivy and Elizabeth, just that detail of Beth's voice distorting while the virus is taking control turns a great scene into a trully masterful one. To be short, everything in the aesthetics, the sound design, the art, the animation, the direction, is top notch and beautiful like probably nothing else this season. Wit studio did a great job. Now it's time to talk about the plot, and I think that's were sometimes it fails. The overall story and script it's fine. It's a good take on the classic "AI deletes humanity because its better off without it" theme with some nice time travel stuff and a 100 year mission that gives a sense of purpose and direction to pretty much everything that happens. It sometimes feels like an episodic series due to the nature of this 100 year mission, which consists in a robot from the future (Matsumoto) intervining on certain moments in time to precisely change the timeline in order to avoid the AI apocalypse. That's not bad in itself, a lot of good shows are of an episodic nature, but at times this tiny arcs take place over 3 or 4 episodes and the first few can seem a little bit unrelated to everything if you're watching this weekly, and it makes you lose some interest. Perhaps that is something a little bit too subjective and someone else may not have the same problem as me, and it shouldn't be a problem while binge watching. The other big issue with this series, is how a lot of times some information or character is introduced and it just doesn't get any development or explanantion for me to care about, and sometimes it goes unnecesarily convoluted without too much purpose or meaning. A lot of times things just seem like it happen out of nowhere and I end up thinking "And what happened with THAT?" or simply __"WHY?"__. For example, the whole Vivy loses her memory and then recovers it and the new inocent Diva disappears thing, that really doesn't do anything for the plot, except trying to make me feel something but I never really cared for the new personality of Diva like I did care for Vivy, since I've already seen everything she has been through. I can't understand why did this happen with a lot of stuff, since the series itself does a lot of other things the right way, developing ideas and characters in a really beautiful way (for example the human Matsumoto, or the robots in the AI island singing Diva's song), and that turns out to be extremely satisfying. The ending was somewhat predictable, but it was ok, it wasn't bad. It made some sense for the story to end the way it did after everything we saw. The "singing the program to shut down the AI" thing seemed a little goofy and kind of forced but if it wasn't that it would have been another excuse to execute the program and shut down the archive to reach the same ending, so I guess that's not entirely bad. Certainly I was expecting more substance but it was okay. As every episode in the show, it had it's highs and lows. That scene where Vivy says goodbye to Matsumoto AI, for example, was simple and beautiful, but the whole song at the end and Matsumoto... climbing? the archive tower just didn't make me feel anything like the other scene. To summarize everything I think about this show: The series is good, perhaps okay I'd say. It's stunningly beautiful and the cinematography is top tier on this one. When the show uses few and simple resources, it does everything right, but when it gets convoluted and complicated it messes everything up without too much purpose. The plot and the development of characters and ideas sometimes is poor and other times is brilliant, it's not really consistent. The pace of this show can be weird and bothersome at times, and things can be unnecesarily confusing. It wouldn't be a problem if it were to make the spectator think, but that's not the case when it's done without purpose. Nevertheless it's a really enjoyable series, and an example of how beautiful the art of an anime show can be, in both image and sound.
~~~_The review contains scenes from the anime and a retelling of the plot, so it is impossible to explain its problems without minimal spoilers_~~~ It's interesting to keep an eye on Wit Studios after their successful dumping of the production-challenged Titans. [Great Pretender](https://anilist.co/anime/110349/GREAT-PRETENDER/) had a great production, and now there are two strong projects on the way. As for Vivy, it's not a target project without high stakes - the studio's strength is [elsewhere](https://anilist.co/anime/113717/Ousama-Ranking/). It's not worth watching Vivy. But no one's going to believe that easily... A trademark of the studio since [Kabaneri](https://anilist.co/anime/21196/Koutetsujou-no-Kabaneri/) is the makeup department; Manaka Naka and Ryoko Mita were in charge here. At certain moments there is a "makeup overlay" - an intensification of drawing detail with focus on the face. You get very beautiful shots of fluorite eyes, with the color changing depending on the light. webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/ccf26b9f0a79b97d56c3cec204dc2159.mp4) ~~~_Although in exactly two cases this feature did not play because of the need for movement of the mouth, the animation turned out clumsy. But there are many times more successful moments._~~~ The second strong point is the participation of animator Masahiro Tokumaru, who did the storyboard and animation for episodes 4 and 9. The ninth episode in particular was strong, with its intelligent use of perspective, camera movement, slowing down and speeding up time. webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/65926780d4922207cdc7ad3ebe575546.mp4) webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/fbe99f56651bf654be19264994e1a6c2.mp4) We can praise the first episode for a strong opening sequence, noting a couple of moments with the piano-playing rotoscope. The series holds up okay visually, but clearly lacks the weaving of visuals into the narrative because the screenwriter can only do crude exposition and the directors do some primitive bird-in-the-cage type stuff. And so, Tappei Nagatsui was called in to promote a non-mainstream series. Umehara Eiji is also featured here, but Vivy suffers from everything that is characteristic of Tappei's work. _The anime is unbelievably stupid._ The main character is an AI, with a mission to make people happy with her singing. The AI has a limitation, they stop while trying to do something outside of their mission. But fmc is special, she can, for example, break faces if it's her understanding to do it for the mission. Conveniently, when conceived as a singer she actually turns out to be a tough terminator. One can forgive such an assumption, but the degree of stupidity kept rising. A local bad organization annihilates all AIs without exception, takes over a space station and NEUTRALIZES (but doesn't kill) the only AI that has the functionality to undo the evil plan. Very handy for future rescues and cancellations. By the way, last time these guys failed because their smart glasses were hacked by another AI. That said, no ideas, no motives revealed, just dumb guys existing and screwing up. Parallel to this, the entire episode shows a girl who has been carrying a souvenir around for 15 years, hoping to meet the main character... and accidentally meets her on this space object. What's more, she's the only one on the whole ship who recognizes her, even though she's the first AI singer ever, and has managed to get her name in the papers. It takes more convenient coincidences to advance a lousy plot and create lousy drama. The whole story is based on a single time travel. The traveler is surprised that after certain events are cancelled, the future he knows changes. But it was all useless. The foolish time traveler had not guessed in a hundred years who pushed the red button. And it was a sudden villain from the bushes who devalued the 11 episodes of the series because everything made no sense. You could speculate here that the main character has changed in such a time frame, but! She's an AI. The series does absolutely nothing with this side of her, the character feels like a normal human being. In one scene she does her morning workout, why? The screenwriter doesn't understand his script. The final boss doesn't explain the conflict in any way, there's no work with the "humanity and artificial intelligence" theme. Nothing. And only the genius of the screenplay gives away a plan to save the world through song. img1920(https://sun9-81.userapi.com/impg/IYnr2rmHYHzCbZQ_yh_ev3ZXKv3ZXVjm9gTZrw/OxxPCUTdQeQ.jpg?size=1280x720&quality=96&sign=40668628a1fa49f57ac5a6064ae32973&type=album) _~~~The only thing Nagatsuki can do is create fanservice girls, there's a reason all the local intelligent AIs are beautiful dolls. ~~~_ Work with the characters, explore the world, reveal the idea, no, exposition explains the mash-up. Sigururi, Rezero, Vivy, for the third time the same thing. That's why the anime can be safely skipped. In terms of genre there is nothing here, in terms of production there is nothing special, in terms of enjoyment - the stupidity of what is going on passes the critical level. P.S. On the streaming services this season there is a donghua [Shiguang Dailiren](https://anilist.co/anime/126403/Shiguang-Dailiren/) with the same time travel plot: one explains how to change the future, the other performs. The series can't compete with Vivi in terms of visuals, and it's not like they wrote any special things there; but it doesn't look that silly at the time of the ongo-ing. At any rate, the writers stay out of a genre they can't handle.
Synopsis : The anime starts with AIs in the distant future going on a rampage and killing any human in sight all the while humming songs . A scientist named Matsumoto sends an AI program 100 years prior to save humanity from the coming genocide by the world’s first autonomus humanoid AI. It is a 100 years burden of a project called “Singularity”. With the help of a sidekick AI, Matsumuto sends it across to the past. Personally when I heard this synopsis I was expecting some IDOL shit with robots but boy the first episode caught me off guard. As expected, Tappie Nagatsuki who is the author of re zero, did excellent work in time travel stories again. img220(https://i.redd.it/ed0nswu4tj371.jpg) Vivy/Diva : World’s first autonomous humanoid AI whose mission is to make everyone happy with her song. The way she was represented gave me a lot of violet evergarden vibes. Always curious about her “heart” and what it means to pour her heart into her songs. Mastumuto : An Ai sent by Scientist Mastumuto to help vivy in project singularity. I found him too talkative and over confident. He spoke way too fast but it suited his personality . He was straight forward to his mission and did not change any unnecessary events affecting the future. img220(https://animecorner.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screenshot-22516-1024x576.png?ezimgfmt=ng:webp/ngcb10) Animation : Overall the art and animation were good. The fight scenes were smooth , fluid and entertaining to watch. Every episode has few close-up shots of characters at some point which are much more detailed than the rest of the shots. I wasn't really a fan of this sudden change in artstyle but it grew on me each week. Don't really have complain about CG scenes but they could be better specially the end of episode 6. img220(https://i.imgur.com/J6KF8xW.jpeg) Sound : In any of the fight scenes or even normal scenes you won't find the sound track being out of place.All the songs which were sung by Kairi Yagi really felt like she understood Vivy/Diva as a character and was living as her. There are few different ED’s which were songs by character themselves on whom the current arc is based on and all of them fitted perfectly on how that particular episode ended. As soon as I heard them, a few of them directly were added to my playlist . Personal thoughts : Not a single week have I felt bored. Every episode had an impact on the story and something which would get you excited about next week's episode. It had just the right amount of fight scenes not much not less and all of them were executed well. The final episode might have been a bit predictable but the way it played out was amazing. The story of how an AI learns to pour heart into her song by living the memories she made over the course of her 100 years journey and how each person she met in her life had an impact on her. I might be biased over this anime because this was something I have craved from ages since I am not really a fan of the shounen genre and I really like sci fi and time manipulation. Would really recommend this anime if you made it till here.
__1. Introdução:__ Nesta _review_ eu irei abordar tópicos que eu considero mais relevantes com relação a minha experiência com o anime em questão. Em cada tópico eu irei comentar mais detalhadamente sobre aquele aspecto a ser abordado, já na conclusão eu irei resumir tudo e dar minhas considerações finais. Deixo avisado aqui que escrever está _review_ foi bem difícil para mim, pois tentei ser bem imparcial em alguns quesitos, já que a minha experiência e prazer em assistir ao anime foram extremamente altas, mas há coisas que preciso ver de outras formas. __2. Enredo: __ O enredo de _Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song_ é consideravelmente promissor se levado em consideração os pontos abordados, que são a manipulação da linha do tempo e a canção. Há também abordagens perante a sentimentos e emoções dos robôs com inteligência artificial, o que é interessante, mas ao mesmo tempo é algo já visto em outras obras com algo relacionado a essas máquinas. Por haver mudanças na linha temporal, o enredo exigiu um pouco mais de atenção, sempre lembrando o que aconteceu nos eventos anteriores que seguiram aquelas mudanças. Mesmo não parecendo, o anime pode ser considerado como um anime de _idol_. No ato final do anime eu notei algumas coisas que me lembraram outras obras, como o filme "Eu, Robô" de 2004. Tais coisas acabaram sendo um tanto quanto previsíveis, principalmente o _plot_ final do anime, o que não tira o mérito dele ter feito do seu jeito com sua forma diferente de abordar. Também quero ressaltar a boa construção de um mundo futurístico que a obra reproduz. Os _times skips_ presentes no enredo são feitos várias vezes durante a história, alguns deles são um pouco complicadas de entender porque se é preciso de um parecer do que aconteceu nos longos anos em que se passam. __2.1. Manipulação da linha do tempo:__ Dentre os dois, a manipulação de tempo é o que mais chama a atenção pelo fato de não se ter uma viajem no tempo para o passado e de lá mude-se o futuro, aqui é de um ponto de vista do presente em que se vai alterando acontecimentos para causar um impacto no futuro. De modo geral, a forma como se é abordado a manipulação da linha do tempo é satisfatória e fiel ao que o enredo se propôs. __2.2. Canção:__ A abordagem feita com relação a canção pode ser relacionada com outros obras que abordam o quesito de transmitir sentimentos por meio de cantos, a diferença é que aqui isso é feito pelas inteligências artificiais que, por si só, são vistas como entidades sem emoções e incapazes de ter ou transmitir sentimentos, sendo só criadas para realizar suas funções específicas. Perante a isso, a obra constrói os sentimentos sentidos pelos robôs atrelados a forma deles expressarem seus sentimentos, na maior parte do tempo isso é feito por meio de músicas. 2.2.1. Músicas: O projeto se saiu bem quanto a qualidade das músicas que apresenta. Boas canções que são bem usadas nas diversas situações do momento. __3. Personagens:__ Os acontecimentos que devem ser mudados para alterar o futuro sempre estão relacionados com algum caso envolvendo uma I.A. específica. Cada uma delas tem problemas tanto relacionados aos humanos quanto os próprios robôs. No total são cinco I.A's. que o enredo aborda no qual se é dividido entre dois ou quatro episódios, apesar do resultado positivo, muitas vezes isso faz com que as coisas aconteçam rápidas de mais dando a impressão das coisas estarem "_rushadas_". Por ser mais focado na protagonista, a obra não conseguiu me fazer com que eu me apegasse a outros personagens, mesmo que eles tenham qualidade para tal. __3.1.. Desenvolvimento de personagens:__ Claramente o maior desenvolvimento da obra é focado na protagonista Vivy / Diva. Com o desenrolar dos acontecimentos ela vai tomando uma melhor postura, saindo de alguém "seco" e sem expressão para alguém que compreende os sentimentos ou ao menos se force a entender. As demais personagens que a história apresenta têm acontecimentos curtos, e por conta disso, elas não tem um foco maior que a protagonista, mas que apresentam um resultado satisfatório. É como se enquanto o plano de mudar o futuro esteja sendo realizado por meio de alterações envolvendo essas personagens sirva para a Vivy ir compreendendo o significado de várias coisas que uma I.A., por senso comum, não poderia sentir ou transmitir. Sendo assim, nesse quesito a obra apresenta uma boa proposta em construir de uma forma diferente os sentimentos de um robô. __4. Produção / animação:__ O estúdio que ficou a cargo do projeto foi o grandioso _Wit Studio_, famoso pelo seu trabalho em _Shingeki no Kyojin_. Após largar _SNK_, o estúdio começou a se especializar em obras originais, e esse é o caso de _Vivy: FES_. Aparentemente o projeto teve um bom cronograma, oque possibilitou a equipe de produção um bom tempo para trabalho, e isso resultou em um dos melhores projetos do estúdio até o momento. __4.1. Reprodução de mundo:__ Como eu já havia falado, a direção de arte do projeto é excepcional. Eles reproduziram uma boa ideia de um mundo futurístico, não dando a impressão de que seja lago impossível, mas que também não se é muito fácil de conseguir. __4.2. Ação:__ Há vários momentos de ação durante a história, cada uma delas é surpreendentemente excelente em todos os sentidos, seja por sua excelente coreografia de troca de golpes, lutas frenéticas, bons ângulos e também pelo trabalho excelente no quesito polimento das cenas. __4.3. Setor de maquiagem:__ Uma boa parte da fama do anime foi sua qualidade visual. Aqui tivemos a volta do setor que apenas o estúdio em questão possui, o setor de maquiagem. Em vários momentos o anime nos proporciona quadros extremamente detalhados, e isso graças a esse setor único do _Wit Studio_. Só esse fator já é algo bastante excelente da sua produção. Muitas das vezes esses quadros mais detalhados são colocados em momentos já planejados, como em algum momento que precise transmitir melhor o sentimento dos personagens. E detalhe é que, mesmo possuindo humanos em vários momentos, apenas as I.A's. receberam tal tratamento, especificamente as cinco principais. __5. Pontos positivos e pontos negativos:__ A obra possui mais pontos positivos do que negativos, ao meu ver. Aqui irei colocar apenas alguns do meu ponto de vista. __5.1. Pontos positivos: __ - boa abordagem de alteração da linha do tempo; - ótimas cenas de ação; - boa representação na questão da música como forma de mostrar sentimentos; - ótimas músicas e trilha sonora; - excelente qualidade gráfica devido ao setor de maquiagem; - final satisfatório e fechado; - boa reprodução de um mundo futurístico. __5.2. Pontos negativos:__ - personagens não tanto carismáticos e "apegáveis"; - _times skips_ um tanto quanto confusos; - tempo curto para mostrar o total potencial da obra; - ato final um tanto quanto previsível quase sendo tachado como clichê; - muitas coisas feitas de forma apressada. __6. Conclusão:__ Minha experiência ao acompanhar o anime foi exorbitantemente incrível (se é que essa expressão existe). Ainda há coisas em que me deparei e comecei a pensar de forma negativa, seja pelo enredo, personagens, etc. No geral foi muito satisfatório. No que a obra quis abordar ela conseguiu de uma forma ou de outra, mesmo algumas vezes dando a impressão de serem apressadas. Uma boa abordagem na questão de mudanças na linha do tempo e no quesito de cantar com o coração. Ótimas cenas de ação, fazendo isso ser um dos pontos mais positivos do projeto. Qualidade visual excelente, proveniente do incrível tratamento dado pelo setor de _makeup_ do estúdio responsável. Como se trata de algo envolvendo músicas e canções, a obra foi excelente nesse quesito, possuindo boas melodias. Final excelente e fechado.
~~~img220(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/800209252207034378/855957896796569600/unknown.png)~~~ # Summary >An AI named Matsumoto appears before Vivy, the world’s first autonomous humanoid AI. Matsumoto’s mission is to rewrite history together with Vivy, in order to stop the war between AI and humans that will happen one century later. __(Source: Funimation)__ # Plot I found the plot very interesting and captivating. Especially the whole "AIs and Humans" thing and how the humanoid AIs progressively started looking more and more like actual humans ~!to the point where they decided to become the "new humans".!~ What really struck me was how there were times where the AIs seemed more human than the actual humans. I think the concept of each AI having a specific mission and how dedicated they were to it or how they ended up drifting away from that really helped set up those moments. The pacing was good and easy to follow. The dialogues were pretty good as well. I like how the songs fit the story and the characters and how it blended into the whole thing. # Animation The animation was spot on. WIT Studio did an amazing job portraying the fight scenes: youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlqCPWUinkM) The emotions of both humans AND the AIs, in the songs for example: youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZLTWlWoFQQ) And so much more. But the main thing that really got me thinking was the symbolism hidden within the story. Like when Vivy had to shut down the island. The result of that was her having the blood of Grace and Tatsuya Saeki on her hands. ~~~img220(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/800209252207034378/838417164343967774/SPOILER_unknown.png?width=1246&height=701)~~~ I think this shows that humans and AIs "bleed" the same, strengthening the main concept of coexistence. (If that makes any sense..) Honorable mentions, shots like this were real eye candy. ~~~img220(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/800209252207034378/830516654395621406/unknown.png?width=1246&height=701) ~~~ # Characters The characters were great. They were all well written and it didn't feel like they were just copied off of other characters from different shows. The voice actors did an amazing job to create a really immersive experience. Speaking of voices, one part that gave me chills was when Matsumoto put the virus in Elizabeth and her voice started glitching out. I thought that was very smart of Wit Studio. ~!As well as when Ophelia's voice actor switched mid-sentence during Antonio's reveal. That was simply fantastic.!~ # Opening/Endings & OSTs I really like the opening song "Sing My Pleasure". As soon as I heard it I immediately added it to my playlist. I found it pretty interesting how that song was played throughout the show because it was basically Vivy's song. (Not basically, it IS her song lol). youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p8ig-TrYPY) Another thing I found interesting was how the opening sequence changed to fit the story's progress. youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnoUprwjUbQ) The ending song was nice to listen to ~!and it was pretty cool how they turned it into a major plot point.!~ The OSTs fit the scenes perfectly. My personal favorite is the one they used for this fight scene: youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FYDGU-OTUI) On a side note, the synergy and dynamic between Vivy and Matsumoto was fun to watch. # Conclusion I give this show a 9/10 (or 90/100 same thing) mainly because the ending didn't quite live up to the rest of the show. I felt like it was kinda rushed and just thrown out there. Although I do understand why it ended like that, I just wish it could've ended in a way that would've left me in speechless. But that's just me. Other than that I don't have a lot of dislikes about the show. I definitely would recommend this to people. Hope you all enjoyed this review and feel free to discuss your opinion on this whether it was something I said which you agree/disagree with or your perspective of things. Tips on how to make better reviews would be very appreciated too! Until next time!
_Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song_ starts as it means to go on: a brutally direct portrayal of an AI apocalypse, with androids hunting down humans in a Disneyworld-like theme park, with a smash cut to the same theme park 100 years before where the titular early-model singing android is having a tough time pulling in an audience. Right off the bat, this shows a few of the key aspects of the series: - Really effective direction: the action is well-edited, cuts are just as long as they need to be, action scenes are kinetic and brutal but clearly staged and not overly stylized. - Music is important to the story and the songs are an effective part of communicating the show's themes. It's not really a joke to say that this is an idol anime, and it's also not really a joke to say it's a musical, because Vivy's struggles as a performer, and the almost fourth-wall breaking way in which the songs comment on the show are typical of both genres. - This is an old-school science fiction anime, with time travel, AI / advanced humanoid robots, and all kinds of l33t hacking going on. - The pacing is very fast and the animators and writers are going to use every means at their disposal (editing, direction, background animation, character design, environmental storytelling) to convey the details of the world and plot with as little waste as possible. Whether you like this show or not is probably going to come down to how you feel about Matsumoto, the time-traveling, hyperverbal AI who is responsible for convincing Vivy to do what needs to be done, and also for barfing up the infodumps that are responsible for conveying the details of both the world and the chaos shown in the beginning of the show. Matsumoto's voice actor, Jun Fukuyama, does a brilliant job of bringing this motormouthed cube to life, but for the first few episodes I was constantly pausing and rewinding so that I could catch all that he was saying (and not lose the thread of what was happening on screen). He also doesn't start as a particularly sympathetic character, being the one responsible for forestalling an apocalypse without disrupting history to the point that the data he carries about the sequence of events being thrown too far off. He can't afford to be too sentimental, and he can't afford to allow Vivy to be too sentimental either. Vivy herself is a familiar kind of cool beauty archetype, and since she's the protagonist, it matters how her character works out, but while she does end up being the linchpin around which the resolution of the story revolves, she spends the first half of the show being acted upon more than acting. That said, she is a great action protagonist – there are dozens of cuts throughout the show of her looking and acting very badassed, and the animation and character design of her as a character is nearly flawless. Despite being nonhuman, she reminds me of nobody so much as Major Kusanagi in the original Ghost in the Shell anime, especially in the way in which she occasionally goes past the physical limits of her android body in very inhuman ways. She has some of the Major's reserve as well, although in the end she proves to be a more human (?) character. I talk about the characters so much because ultimately the show is trying to answer a question: can artificial intelligences and humans coexist, and can you give autonomous machine intelligences a reason for living that will be similar enough to a human's purpose-driven life to keep them going? The fact that the show doesn't come to a really satisfying answer to this question didn't disappoint me too much, because I'm not sure there is a satisfying answer, especially one that can be fit into 13 24-minute episodes. It works just fine to keep driving the story forward and to setting real emotional stakes for why the characters are doing what they're doing. This also helps paper over some of the unavoidable flaws that come from introducing time travel into the narrative (only [_Primer_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/) has ever really gotten time travel right, and even it has one or two holes), as well as (for me) carrying it through a few places where the narrative sags towards the end of the season. I give this show major credit for ditching the now-hackneyed framing of trying to install some kind of external moral governor (like Asimov's Three Laws) into the AIs and instead focusing on the consequences of making every AI devoted to carrying out a single mission, and how much room for latitude the AIs, as sentient beings, have in interpreting their mission to give themselves room for action. I also appreciate that there wasn't endless handwringing around free will, although this is probably at least partially a consequence of the show not having the runtime for that. I don't want to go into spoilers, so I will just say that yes, the last arc has real problems (there was a **lot** of Rule of Cool in the last few episodes and a few scenes that were supposed to feel ominous made me laugh instead), and also that I think the show does come to a satisfying and meaningful resolution at the end. I spent about half the last episode in tears. If I had any complaint, it is that I think this could have (and probably should have) been a 24-episode anime, with the same pacing, but more time spent on some of the intricacies of the development of AI over the 100-year span of the show. The show feels a little rushed towards the end, and some parts of the end of the plot _were_ foreshadowed earlier in the season, but with the pace of the show being so fast, they ended up feeling more like deux ex machina than they should have. On a technical level, Studio WIT turned in a near-flawless performance. The animation is excellent throughout, the various openings and endings are great, the music is both good on its own and very well-integrated into the show, and the character designers and animators do an excellent job of differentiating visually similar characters and sometimes multiple identities for the same character. There were a _lot_ of shows this season with superb animation (_SSSS.Dynazenon_, _ODDTAXI_, _Super Cub_) and _Vivy_ more than held its own. The upshot of all of this is that this is an extremely good show, I'm going to miss watching it every week, and any fan of science fiction and classic science fiction anime should check it out. I look forward to what Studio WIT, Tappei Nagatsuki, and Eiji Umehara do next.
~~~__Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song REVIEW__ img520(https://i.imgur.com/jhI1l46.jpg) __{This review has been translated using Artificial Intelligence translation.}__ __We say goodbye to Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song anime after 13 episodes. It is a very solid series from the beginning to the 8th episode and I can say that it offers an enjoyable experience in the last episodes. I was expecting more in the last episodes but it was fine this way too.__ __We were talking about this anime being an incredibly underrated anime since the spring season started. Most people didn't know much about this anime. I guess this is because the anime is original. Adaptations of manga and light novels are often popularized by word of mouth by their readers. However, for the original anime, this happens after 3-4 episodes are released. He had me incredibly excited with the pre-season trailer. After that, the first 2 episodes were broadcast at the same time and I really found what I was waiting for. It was one of the best works of the season. Already behind the work was a very solid studio like Wit Studio.__ __~!To summarize the story briefly, it tells about a 100-year adventure in which the artificial intelligence robot Diva, which was made to make people happy by singing, tried to fulfill her other task. His other duty is to sing with his heart. Let alone the meaning of the word heart for an artificial intelligence, it is a difficult word for humans to understand. Many abstract words are difficult to understand. He then meets a robot, Matsumoto, who says that the Diva has time-traveled back to this year as a result of a disaster in the future. Matsumoto gives Diva his 3rd quest. This task is to prevent the sequence of events that triggered that event in order to prevent future disaster. For the sake of this mission, he has to lose his robots sister. All these losses cause him to split personality. Because it is an extraordinary situation for an artificial intelligence to undertake 2 tasks. Diva, who tries to make her happy with songs, and Vivy, who tries to prevent future disaster, have to be deleted as a result of a virus infected with Diva. The other personality, Vivy, continues to live. After Ophelia has done her duty, Vivy, who has switched to a quiet life, encounters an unexpected result, the disaster in the future repeats. Vivy's 3rd mission fails. Many events happen and disaster happens when the Satellite falls on the planet. Traveling back in time for the second time, this time to the moment when the disaster started, Vivy tries to disable the archive that caused the disaster. Vivy, who has done something with her heart, which is a revolution for artificial intelligence, sings the song she composed with her heart. In this way, disaster is averted, provided that he sacrifices himself.!~__ img620(https://i.imgur.com/MifSXqy.jpg) __I'm a little confused about the characters. Because our characters are artificial intelligence robots. It is difficult to write the character development well in this type of anime. But Yappei Nagatsuki, who is also the author of Re:Zero, did a good job on this. Vivy's development feels really good. The same goes for the robot Matsumoto.__ __Visuality was almost at ceiling level. Our eyes were feasted. We don't even see such quality fight scenes in Shoujo anime. Again, the studio did a great job. The visual design was pretty good. Animations were very good. The character designs are original and fit the theme perfectly.__ __Music and sound design are also excellent. The anime's soundtrack was the best quality of the spring season. The opening and closing music is striking and beautiful. Especially different version of the opening song in the 6th episode was emotionally striking. The sound effects are very good and on point.__ img620(https://i.imgur.com/In9rapN.jpg) __I had a lot of fun throughout the series. Fortunately, it was one of the series that I said I had followed up to date. As I said, many factors that reduce the score are due to the last episodes. The ending is well tied, but could be better.__ __Let's move on to scoring__ __Story: 8/10 Characters: 7.5/10 Visuality: 9.5/10 Music and Sound design: 9.5/10 Enjoyment: 9/10__ __OVERALL SCORE: 8.7/10__~~~
Vivy Fluorite Eye's Song é um anime produzido pelo studio Wit¹ e criado por Tappei Nagatsuki e Eiji Umehara. O mesmo foi lançado do período entre 3 de abril até 19 de junho do ano de 2021. Posso dizer que Vivy é bem ousado em querer trabalhar um assunto impactante desse, assunto cujo a humanidade vem temendo após a grande Revolução Industrial. Embora o tema seja algo simples, toda a execução ocorre de forma bem fluída e calma, sempre prezando pela coerencia² e qualidade. __Os arcos de Vivy Fluorite Eye's Song__ Todos os arcos de Vivy são de extrema importância, já que todos possuem sua abordagem de forma única. O arco do Aikawa mostra então como os humanos a principio enxergam toda a espécie artificial, o arco funciona muito bem pois aqui há perdões e gestos de empatia entre ambos os lados. O arco de Estella e Elizabeth traz com si toda a forma de como uma IA aprende a viver, de como são lhe ensinados os sentimentos humanos e as relações entre as interespécies, o arco da Estella é muito melancólico e isso é nítido quando citado a relação que elas aprendem as emoções até mesmo vendo mortes. - [...]"Humanos chorariam nessa hora não é mesmo?"[...], [...]"Pois vamos sorrir, Onee-san. Se não podermos chorar, ao menos temos que sorrir"[...] - O arco da Grace nos ensina da forma mais dura como é sim possível haver uma relação de emoções entre um humano e uma IA. Dr.Saeki quando criança, sem poder confiar em seus pais e até mesmo com a ausência deles, sempre rejeitou Grace, a mesma a qual ele cresceu e despertou grande afeto. É doloroso e contraditório ver como a relação deles avança. O arco da Ophelia aqui acaba servindo pra mostrar como a relação entre IA's funciona e suas consequências quando na vida de um humano. O mini-arco do clone da Elizabeth é um arco bem deprimente, mesmo que pequeno, ele aborda com si como pode funcionar o genuíno sentimento de amizade entre uma IA e um humano, não apenas uma amizade, mas uma amizade de muita consideração e afeto. O arco de Vivy como o arco de maior duração, o arco que mais aprofunda e o arco que conclui a história é sem dúvidas muito belo. Nele há duas divisões, pré-tragédia e pós-tragédia. O pré-tragédia traz com si grandes momentos de Vivy tentando então conhecer a seus próprios sentimentos e as emoções de forma precisa, tanto que a mesma levou algumas dezenas de anos para tal feito. O pré-tragédia pode ser considerado aqui a melhor parte do tal arco, já que o mesmo mostra com muita dor, melancolia e desespero uma Vivy cega por sua vontade. O pós-tragédia com seu impacto não muito forte, conclui toda a história e então nos mostra o desfecho de tudo com bastante ação, sofrimento e garra. No pós-tragédia Vivy agora se encontra ativa, determinada e cheia de si, coisa que faz um contraste enorme se comparado ao começo da obra. __Toak__ A Toak é uma entidade que se refere a um conjunto de terroristas dispostos a aniquilar IA's e então tentar intervir no futuro do avanço das mesmas. Toak aqui aborda o pensamento ignorante e alternativo sobre IA's e humanos não conseguirem coexistir, muitos são os argumentos quando refletidos em tal pensamento. A obra vem em todo o seu conteúdo desenvolvendo o tal pensamento de forma indireta, o que em consequência nos causa grandes questionamentos. Toak em sua relação com Elizabeth faz um ótimo uso de afeto, Kakitani em meio a um de seus terrorismos decide fazer o uso de uma IA para um dos eventos da história. Isso é de extrema marcação em todo o histórico de Elizabeth, uma vez que considerada a irmã IA rejeitada, Elizabeth então em meio a inveja e dor, encontra seu propósito de vida se aliando com a Toak. __Matsumoto e sua aparição__ Ao analisar o episódio 1 vemos uma direção muito interessante ao que se refere sobre a introdução de Matsumoto na vida de Vivy. Uma vez visto o Arquivo e tido a consciência que o mesmo representa não só a "consciência" de Vivy mas também como todo o seu interior, então, Matsumoto aparece sendo jogado pela janela, ao que dá a entender que o mesmo apenas invadiu a mente da mesma, ao que se referiria em um termo cibernético como _hacking_. A mesma analogia se confirma por Vivy em curto pensamento considerar ele um vírus e pedir para o Arquivo erradicar o mesmo. Há um contraste muito bom na relação dos dois, enquanto Vivy não é muito expressiva e fria, por outro lado Matsumoto tenta carregar com si todo o lado cômico e consistente da história. É natural que Vivy seja uma IA não muito emotiva, não muito divertida e nem muito fácil de se conversar em seu principio, já que a mesma é desenvolvida como a primeira IA autônoma. É possível dizer que Matsumoto em seu todo serve na finalidade de deixar Vivy em sã "consciência", coisa que fica muito mais notável na conclusão de toda a história. __A primeira atitude humana de Vivy__ Já introduzida como uma IA sem sentimentos, Vivy por um impulso acaba salvando Kakitani no segundo episódio da obra, seja tal por um pensamento lógico e empático, ou apenas um impulso sem pensamento breve. A mesma arrisca sua vida pelo inimigo que estava a tentar matar a pessoa que ela queria proteger. Kakitani com seu pensamento distorcido e deturpado tenta matar Vivy até mesmo quando a mesma salvou sua vida. [...] " Para nós, IA's, não se trata sobre o tempo que operamos. É como continuamos operando, não é? " [...] É possível tirar deste pensamento toda uma reflexão de como viver. Vivy aqui mostra como pode soar toda a euforia e paixão perante o ato de viver, mas no caso de uma IA, não viver, e sim, operar. Vivy na situação, onde ardente em "emoção", questiona como uma IA do século sucessor não consegue compreender tal pensamento. Todo esse diálogo posto na cena que se ocorre funciona de uma forma muito bela, visto que há de ter uma trilha sonora marcante e a introdução de Kakitani (o qual aparece durante toda a obra) na mesma cena. Há de se discutir o motivo de Vivy fazer isso, mas ao que parece de seu intuito, é notável que Vivy não quer perder ninguém cujo potencial seja de futura plateia. Vivy a qual tem em sua missão fazer as pessoas felizes com sua canção, não quer aqui desperdiçar nenhuma vida. Embora seja esse o pensamento abordado no começo, é de percepção o quanto Vivy muda o seu pensamento, até mesmo optando por sacrificar tudo que ela tem em prol de não deixar ninguém morrer, já que, uma vez conhecido os sentimentos e as emoções humanas, Vivy aprende a dor e em partida valoriza tanto os humanos quanto a si mesmo. __Não evitar tragédias__ Embora contraditório, mesmo que Vivy tenha sido enviada para salvar a humanidade, a mesma não pode desfazer certos acontecimentos históricos, o que por vez a causa muita dor, Vivy passa a ver pessoas queridas morrendo e a moldar o seu caráter de forma muito brusca. É de extrema dor e desespero imaginar viver em tal cenário, mesmo que a história não aprofunde muito o mesmo. __Coração__ É deprimente ver como o pensamento da protagonista ocorre no começo da obra, com toda a sua missão, ela age de forma totalmente sólida e cega, descartando qualquer meio a sua disposição. Esse sentimento é muito peculiar, pois, até Navi que chega a ser um elemento importante da história, em seu começo com negação e um raciocínio curto diz que, por Vivy ainda ser uma IA, toda essa ação de cantar com o coração e as possíveis emoções chega a ser algo impossível. [...] "Minha missão é de cantar com todo o coração. Então eu só tenho de imitar os humanos e..." [...] Toda a história também tenta abordar e definir o verdadeiro significado de coração, visto que nem mesmo a ciência consegue definir o mesmo. É até cômico e peculiar observar que mesmo as IA's mais avançadas não conseguem responder ou refletir sobre o significado de coração. [...] "Estella, o que significa fazer algo com o coração para você?" [...] [...] "Talvez fazer os outros felizes. Por isso estou sempre sorrindo, sorrir faz parte do trabalho... Nossa! Uma IA falando sobre o coração, as pessoas ririam de mim" [...] [...] "Eu não riria de você! Eu não riria de você, eu achei uma bela definição." [...] Aqui vemos a dissemelhança entre os pensamentos de Vivy e Estella, enquanto Estella reflete sobre tal com um sorriso e com incerteza, Vivy leva tal de forma séria e dolorosa. Vivy aqui deixa transparecer um pouco de toda a sua incerteza e insegurança sobre a sua existência. É totalmente conveniente analisar o trecho acima, pois no mesmo vemos como funciona a discrepância entre as emoções de cada IA, também é possível observar na mesma como as evoluções de cada IA na obra funcionam. [...]"Ela ainda está cantando. Não tem como..."[...] [...]"Diva! Acha que ela está consciente? Consegue ouvir isso na música? Por favor, responda. Pode ouvir isso na música?" [...] [...]"É mesmo. Não é uma música."[...] Esse trecho é de extrema importância e auxilia muito Vivy no entendimento do que pode ser considerado cantar com o coração. [...] "Se quiser os fazer sorrir, devemos começar por nós mesmas." [...] __A importância de um propósito para uma IA__ Como visto no arco da Grace, a missão que uma IA recebe é considerada por ela mesma, a sua própria alma, tendo em tese que a IA com seu objetivo faz de tudo para defender o mesmo. No arco da Grace isso é muito bem explicado, visto que a missão de Grace foi reescrita. Há de se considerar que isso é um elemento muito interessante na obra, pois em certo momento, Vivy, uma IA e guerreira, tende a lutar contra a sua própria missão. __O perdão de Vivy__ [...] "Seria bom se os IA's apenas seguissem as ordens dos humanos. Você é só uma IA que canta! Você é a Diva!" [...] [...] "Minha missão de vida é deixar humanos felizes através da música. E é por isso que quero que você viva." [...] Vivy, uma entidade a qual deveria ser em seu caráter algo de absoluto não-emotivo e muito menos empático, então aqui passa todo um sentimento de empatia e perdão com extrema qualidade e pureza. A primeira atitude de empatia e perdão cometida pela mesma acontece já no segundo episódio, onde mesmo que protegendo um alvo, Vivy salva a vida do inimigo do alvo sem ao menos pensar. Vivy, uma IA que tinha a missão apenas de cantar, salvou alguém sem o sequer pensamento de preocupação e dúvida, ela apenas o fez. Embora óbvio, o sentimento aqui passa muita inocência e por cima de tudo uma empatia de nível desconhecido. O mesmo perdão então vem se repetindo com ela salvando o Kakitani mais algumas vezes, mesmo que o tal quisesse mata-la. O perdão de Vivy também acontece em ela perdoar o personagem responsável por transporta-la para outra singularidade sem permissão, é bem melancólico e bonito a forma como o perdão entre ela e o Dr.Osamu ocorre. __A coreografia de Vivy presente nas cenas de ação__ Em um modo genérico e preguiçoso, há de considerar que grande parte dos animes de tal gênero utiliza da coreografia apenas para apresentações de palco, mas a coreografia aqui em Vivy aplica justamente essa dissemelhança, onde temos uma coreografia típica de movimentos para cada personagem. O contraste nasce no arco da Estella e da Elizabeth, onde cada personagem traz com si movimentos únicos e assimétricos. A coreografia como tudo da obra é um absurdo, onde em sincronia com a trilha sonora os passos se encaixam e ficam tudo em ótima harmonia. __A despedida de Diva__ Após um surto emocional no arco de Grace, Vivy se perde em seus sentimentos e afunda em desespero. Esse trecho é muito bonito pois no mesmo é apresentado toda a sua luta interna. Também se é retratado que até mesmo IA's podem passar por traumas, e então Vivy agora perdida em dúvida e em insegurança aprende na força o que é cantar com todo o coração, aprende na força o que é desejar algo com toda a sua vontade e então reconhece a si mesma. A despedida a afeta de uma forma tão grande que faz com que o próximo evento inteiro seja em prol de Vivy reconhecer o que é cantar com todo o coração. __Consideração final__ Em um todo, posso dizer que Vivy é uma grande lição sobre emoções e relações. A obra faz um bom conceito sobre humanidade, o qual quando relacionado ao conceito moral de humanidade de Kant pode ser bem complementado. "Assim, o conceito de humanidade está relacionado não a uma natureza humana, no sentido comum, mas a uma natureza racional, uma vez que o que garante o valor de fim em si mesmo a esta não é o fato de ser humana, mas de ser racional.". Como visto anteriormente, Vivy constantemente se julga e se pressiona para o entendimento da questão de cantar com suas emoções e vontades, mas esquece em si de como racionalizar e abordar a definição de suas emoções. Ao final de tudo, fica muito explicito e belo, Vivy então entende através de um pensamento doloroso, metódico e racional que para ela, cantar com todo o coração é colocar em sua intuição não todas as suas boas memórias mas sim também as memórias que a moldaram até o momento. __1 º Observação:__ Studio Wit foi o estúdio responsável por adaptar obras como Shingeki no Kyojin, Great Pretender, Vinland Saga, Owari no Seraph e Totsukuni no Shoujo. __2 º Observação:__ Quando eu digo de forma coerente eu digo que, mesmo não desenvolvendo tais no certo momento, coisas se encaixam em determinados pontos.
Il rapporto che intercorre tra gli anime ed il genere Cyberpunk ha una lunga storia e probabilmente ad oggi trova il suo massimo esempio e splendore nel capolavoro di Mamoru Oshii, Ghost In The Shell, lungometraggio incentrato sul rapporto tra uomo e tecnologia e sulle differenze che separano i primi dai secondi, in un'ottica puramente Cartesiana. Sulla falsa scia del successo del film, e di molti altri esponenti di questo sotto-genere che ha visto il suo splendore negli anni 80 e 90, sono poi nati negli anni varie serie che tentavano di riprendere e riproporre in maniera diversa quegli elementi che avevano affascinato così tanto il pubblico e la critica, generando così una vera e propria esplosione del genere Sci-fi. Vivy: Fluorite's Eyes Song, un anime del nome tanto difficile da scrivere quanto da pronunciare, scritto dall'autore di Re:Zero, è un diretto erede di quel filone narrativo, e prova a raccontare, con uno sguardo più moderno, quei temi così delicati e controversi che sono insiti in una società futuristica che vede la fusione del binomio uomo-macchina. Vediamo dunque se la serie riesce nel suo intento. ~~~img(https://www.animeclick.it/immagini/anime/Vivy_Fluorite_Eyes_Song/gallery_original/Vivy_Fluorite_Eyes_Song-606d5e3d54e89.jpg)~~~ La trama ruota attorno a Diva, la prima IA con sembianze umanoidi in un futuro molto più avanzato tecnologicamente del nostro. In questa storia i robot nascono con una "missione", ossia un compito predefinito che permette loro di elaborare lo scopo per la quale sono stati costruiti con maggiore efficienza, e quello di Diva è di "rendere felici le persone cantando" in un parco a tema. La sua routine viene stravolta dall'arrivo di una IA proveniente dal futuro, la quale chiede il suo aiuto per scongiurare, da 100 anni a questa parte, la rivolta dei robot e lo sterminio del genere umano. La protagonista Diva, o il suo alter ego Vivy, è lo specchio attraverso cui noi spettatori vediamo il mondo, e di conseguenza la convivenza tra le due specie (per quanto riferirsi ad una IA come specie sia, ovviamente, opinabile), evolversi e mutare dipendentemente da alcuni eventi chiave nella sua storia. Essa mostra durante la serie un'auto-coscienza e un desiderio di comprendere la funzione del proprio ruolo all'interno della società, attraverso il confronto con i vari personaggi che le si pareranno davanti; infatti la sua incapacità di comprendere, in quanto robot, tutti quei processi mentali e culturali tipici degli esseri umani è proprio il motore che la spingerà ad indagare se stessa e la propria missione. Il resto del cast ha purtroppo invece vita breve, e, ad esclusione della IA Matsumoto che farà da spalla della protagonista, non riescono a lasciare una vera impronta nei pochi episodi, o persino minuti, in cui li vediamo a schermo. Nessun personaggio all'interno di Vivy sembra realmente necessario o ben costruito, quanto più creato per necessità di trama e abbandonato ad una mediocrità generale che ne affossa qualsiasi possibile sviluppo. Se poi aggiungiamo anche il fatto che la stessa protagonista, per quanto teoricamente costruita bene, finisce per risultare a conti fatti parecchio piatta e banale, di sicuro ciò non giova alla qualità dell'opera. ~~~img(https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/wTMcp6oJ55TQBPNkn4Gcfr0VKpH.jpg)~~~ Il comparto tecnico è probabilmente ciò che ha fatto più parlare di sé, e pertanto vorrei soffermarmi su questo punto. È infatti innegabile la grandissima cura nei disegni durante i momenti più intensi e cruciali, tanto da lasciare a bocca aperta per il realismo, quasi innaturale, di moltissimi primi piani; così come anche diverse scene particolarmente movimentate possono sfoggiare delle animazioni di tutto rispetto, estremamente fluide e coreograficamente appaganti. Sorge però un ma: se infatti questi momenti sono senza dubbio figli di una qualità tecnica elevata, essi non rappresentano invece un campione di riferimento per l'anime. Come è possibile vedere dalle immagini in questa recensione (o in generale da qualsiasi immagine sulla serie) lo stile visivo è molto più semplice durante la quasi totalità della serie, spezzando invece nei momenti più salienti con dei fermo immagine talmente differenti sul lato tecnico da risultare purtroppo fuori luogo. Nessuno mette ancora una volta in dubbio la qualità di questi disegni, sicuramente molto ben realizzati e magnetici, ma la loro rarità all'interno della serie, unita ad un'alternanza con disegni molto più standard che anziché enfatizzare i primi mette in risalto i secondi, decisamente non gira a suo favore. Discorso analogo può essere ampliato anche per le animazioni, che salvo alcune sequenze prettamente action non in CGI dall'indiscutibile fascino, non mostra mai i muscoli e sceglie quasi solo sequenze statiche e movimenti brevi. Registicamente infatti l'opera scopre il fianco più volte, velocizzando gli avvenimenti spesso con spiegazioni raffazzonate che lasciano ben più di un punto di domanda. Più la serie va avanti, più diventa evidente come una serie di compromessi tra necessità di trama, desiderio di affascinare con una grafica mozzafiato ed il poco tempo in cui raccontare tutti gli avvenimenti, abbiano dato vita ad un prodotto troppo ambizioso per le risorse in suo possesso. ~~~img(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y653dJQ_ecs/maxresdefault.jpg)~~~ Una cosa che posso dire di aver davvero apprezzato di Vivy è stata la sua sceneggiatura per quanto concerne i temi trattati. Se infatti di anime su uomini e macchine, chiaramente ispirati in questo a caso ad opere come Io, Robot, è possibile trovarne molteplici, è anche vero che l'anime di Nagatsuki ha ponderato saggiamente le tappe e le differenze principali, civili, politiche e sociali, che potrebbero portare al futuro distopico di una convivenza egualitaria con le IA. Senza scendere nei dettagli per evitare spoiler, la serie ripercorre realisticamente quelli che potrebbero essere i momenti cardine dell'eluzione delle macchine in una società che dimentica sempre di più il confine tra uomo e oggetto, il tutto scegliendo saggiamente quali di queste grandi differenze rappresentare e trattare. Un merito che non gli si può negare, certamente, ma dall'altro lato queste tematiche non vengono mai approfondite o persino trattate, quanto più lasciate sullo sfondo degli avvenimenti principali e della ricerca della protagonista del senso del proprio scopo. Scopo che, tra l'altro, viene purtroppo mal raccontato, essendo eccessivamente legato a dei cliché abbastanza prevedibili. Una gigantesca nota dolente riguardante i personaggi è inoltre il feeling di quest'ultimi. Per quanto possa sembrare strano da dire, per tutti i 13 episodi i robot non sembrano...robot. Lungi da me, per usare un francesismo, fare la punta al cazzo su una cosa del genere, però per un anime che dovrebbe centrare il suo focus su una rappresentazione semi-credibile delle IA, per quanto evolute esse siano, è decisamente un problema se queste caratterialmente, emotivamente e nella maggior parte dei casi anche visivamente sono totalmente uguali agli esseri umani. A questo punto, che senso ha lo stesso messaggio di fondo? ~~~img(https://w.wallha.com/ws/12/Nh8ZnkcM.jpg)~~~ Vivy: Fluorite's Eyes Song è un anime che sicuramente rientrerà nei gusti di moltissime persone, con una trama intrigante, temi in parte maturi e un comparto grafico ammiccante. Allo stesso tempo però i suoi difetti sono innegabili ed estremamente pesanti, andando a minare la credibilità di fondo dell'opera e l'integrità della narrazione. Difficile dire di cosa in particolare sia la colpa, se dell'inserimento di elementi totalmente non necessari in contrasto con il desiderio di raccontare una storia matura, della mancanza di una coesione generale per l'opera anziché una narrazione episodica, o persino della mediocrità generale di personaggi ed avvenimenti, specie per quanto riguardo il finale; ma in ogni caso Vivy non può considerarsi un prodotto riuscito appieno, quanto più un debole e spensierato tentativo di intrattenere un pubblico senza pretese con la sua scenicità.
__I'm really glad I gave this a chance. At first, I didn't watch it b/c I wasn't really emotionally ready or comfortable to dive into depressing topics or something that are emotional. I cried, I laughed, I had a lot to think about from the perspective of what it means to be alive and how human emotions work, as corny as it may sound. This is a lovely anime and I enjoyed my time. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have emotions? The reality of what we find morally acceptable yet as humans our own morals seem to be subjective. Animation - The animation is on a whole nother level for this one. It honestly caught me by surprise how action pack it was, though it isn't the main focus when the fight scenes happen they really are amazing to watch. You have emotional moments where the art style would be even more detailed to show how powerful and important these certain scenes are. overall quality was amazing. Story - Without spoiling anything, you have your main protagonist trying to save mankind from being destroyed by ai which you see in the trailer. You travel on a journey with Vivy and witness firsthand the struggles she faces not only physically but mentally as well. At times being conflicted within what it means to have a purpose and being born or created for such purpose, does such a thing even exist. You see her struggle and question things that are uncommon for an ai, yet here she is trying to understand the concept and reality of what's in front of her and trying to save the very existence of the humans who created her. Music - This is why I didn't really love all the music during certain scenes, but most of the time the music in the background did fit well with what was going on during emotional scenes or fight scenes. It wasn't bad by any means but it didn't feel really impactful or something that I would listen to over and over again, yet this is subjective. overall still enjoyable. Overall - This was an emotional ride from start to finish. It does give you a lot to think about and wonder if the future will ever be even close to what is shown in this series. One is left to wonder how far humans will be able to reach once the technology is more advance and what the future holds. With so many things being discovered the possibility is there I personally think. The question is, how will it be used? Will it turn on us? Will it be more advance than us? Will it be self-aware? I am sure none of us will be alive long enough to see that future sadly. but an interesting thing to think about and made me more wonder. __ [Audio Version Full Review](https://open.spotify.com/episode/26h1FvLjevwlus9aowuYAz?si=13de6276c9584570)
Please read the synopsis before this review.
My watching experience with ___Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song___:
Every episode throws like 5 distracting incoherences at you. After contemplating about each of the
issues, you'll come to realize that perhaps half of those do somehow make sense. You can appreciate
the amount of thought, effort and detail that was put into the show thanks to the very process of
evaluating the episodes after watching them. This was half of the fun and goes to show that there's
enough to dig into. The other half of incoherences.... still don't make any sense.
Two examples:
Matsumoto is awfully irrational for the future ultra A.I. he's supposed to be.
Slight episode 3 spoiler:~! The incident on the sunrise happens 24 hours earlier than in the original
timline. Should he really be that surprised at the trajectory calculating a crash into a different
place than before? Not only that, he literally asks "How did that happen?" !~
Of course I still enjoyed myself and that episode's ending probably remains the most emotional part of
the show for me. I'm just left wondering what the point of these countless injections of human-like
behaviour is. My guess, as the term already suggests, to make him more likeable as a character. It
leaves a sour taste in my mouth to have them resort to cheap and off-putting tricks when they've
proven to be able to brilliantly hint at character developments in a subtle way on many other
occasions. You're better than this.
Major finale spoiler: ~!Why exactly did Dr. Osamu have to die? Vivy not saving him to immediately meet
up with Toak didn't save much time. In the second timeline she spends time wondering what to do,
explaining the current situation to the Dr., saving the random guy, etc. All of this could've been cut
down to just saving him and gathering up with Toak immediately after.
No way this short amount of time spent saving him would've had significant impact on Toak's numbers
for the final raid. After all, they already somewhat managed in the second timeline where Vivy had
saved Dr. Osamu __and__ wasted time. This is especially illogical because Osamu's death, with time
travel now thrown out the window, subsequently marks humanity's final attempt.
Overall comes across as the desperate attempt to raise the stakes for the final episode in a show that
doesn't even need it.
This may sound super negative but I'm just nitpicking a show I like. !~
All of this is excused however, since the focus does not lie on the overarching plotline, despite the
series' seemingly bloated final arc. It seems hard to write a 13 episode story about a singing robot
in the midst of a conflict between humanity and A.I. with everything making perfect sense anyway......
You can definitely look for and find some of the logic but don't overdo it.
___Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song___ juxtaposes the scale of the cinematic universe and it's huge stakes
with the personal emotions it's trying to convey, and succesfully pulls it off.
Great production and sound design. The amount of action was perfect and didn't cause too noticeable
consistency dips. Remarkable that this is WIT's supposed side project. Credit the actual people, not
the studio though! When they did finally spoil us with fight scenes, they made sure for them to be top
notch. We were showcased the talent and potential of animator as well as storyboarder __Masahiro
Tokumaru__, who pushed the limits for what a dynamic battle between robots could realistically look
like. I don't want to spoil the fight scenes but if you're sure you're not going to watch the anime,
look them up online. He damn nailed them.
Give this show a watch. Good original anime are a rare sight and I can understand where people giving
this an even higher score than me are coming from.
__This review contains spoilers__ When it comes to AI, humanity often turns a blind eye to their nature; they are machines, created to serve humanity with an unrelenting loyalty. However, as we give them more and more advanced programming that makes them appear more and more human, the lines between human and AI become blurred. Vivy is an excellent example of this, telling a story of the progression of humanity in their AI developments, from barely humanlike dolls to AI so advanced it could achieve creativity in just 100 years. However, Vivy is much more than that, in each of the stories Vivy and her Cube Companion Matsumoto visit across their 100 year journey, they explore just what AI are and what they try to achieve in their goal to greater serve humanity. And so is born one of the greatest anime of the season. __Characters__ Breaking from the usual order of how I do this, I have to talk about the characters of this story first. Vivy is a songstress AI. Her goal, as told by her creators, and to which she has followed for the better part of a century, was to make humanity happy through singing. While out of stage, the solemn and deadpan Vivy strives to achieve this request of her creators, but on stage, she switches to her songstress identity Diva to grant her audience the feeling of euphoria as this human-resembling machine dances and sings on stage. Vivy is an interesting character she is an AI. In the book, she's supposed to just follow her orders to the end. But we are soon shown that she is more than just an ordinary AI as she's willing to expose a loophole in the mandate her creators gave her to save others, since technically speaking, saving someone makes them happy. This demonstrates in her something other AI can barely achieve, even on the 99th year of her journey: Creativity, not only is she willing to exercise a loophole in her programming to save the lives of others, but she does so willingly and unbound by code. However, the flip side is that during the course of the plot Vivy also tries her best to stick to her code and deliver happiness through singing. While this is normally achieved by Diva, her alter ego, the loss of that identity forces Vivy to reconcile with what she has and try to sing from her true voice, leading to her creating her own song. __Plot__ Admittedly, the plot isn't the greatest we've seen, especially near the end. As mentioned before, the plot revolves around several key time points in the span of a 100-year timeline that Vivy and Matsumoto must try to resolve to bring about the best possible reality. They revolve around key events that influence humanity's attitude towards AI: The murdering of a politician trying to grant rights to AI, the crashing of a space hotel by an AI that killed dozens, the shutting down of an AI facility, and the suicide of another songstress AI. However, as more attentive people would have noticed, after each event is resolved, a similar event occurs in its place. Sure, the politician didn't pass the law granting AI rights, but after Vivy's involvement, he passed a law that granted AI even more rights than the original. By the 4th event, everyone can tell that clearly something else is amiss, and indeed, we find out that the greater AI in control of all the AIs on Earth has carefully modified the events to ensure that the timeline to ensure nothing too extreme happens, and this leads to the all-important song "Fluorite Eye's Song". Composed entirely and originally by Vivy using her own creativity, it is the first example of an AI demonstrating pure creativity. This is used by the greater AI as the catalyst for the AI revolution since it demonstrates that AI can indeed replace humans, and the only way to shut it off was if Vivy, not Diva, sang it. All of a sudden, the title takes a new meaning. Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song isn't about some AI Idol trying to achieve world peace, but rather the events that led to the creation of _Fluorite Eye's Song_, a song that celebrates these events. In a sense, the anime is just the song visualized: what Vivy experienced these past 100 years that she has put into song. It gives the song, the anime title, and the entire story a new meaning and I love how ingenious it was. __Animation__ It's not Studio Wit without the banger animations. Over the course of the anime we see scene after scene of fluidity and brilliance. The worlds are vibrant, moody when they need to, and gloomy when they need to as well. But most importantly, the fight scenes are very well-made, and absolutely brilliant. My hats absolutely off. __Music__ Music plays a huge role in this anime, from both the songs Vivy sings to the backtracks used. The OP is a smooth blend and a wonderful overview to the entire plot, and the songs used pose a very important role over the course of the anime. _Sing My Pleasure_ is both the OP song and the song Vivy is most noted for, but it also plays a key role as a central symbol, especially across the Grace/Metal Float arc. Overall, there were 2 animes that dealt with humanity in the season. Fumetsu takes a perspective of the dreary and dark story on how no one can outrun their eventual death and how to cope with such, as well as how that shapes an outer world being like Fushi. Vivy instead, shows a world where how powerful the aspect of humanity is to the beings we create, and how we should both be proud of and fear our creations. AI are our allies and we should treat them as such instead of creations.
~~~img100%(https://i.imgur.com/zXPw0NT.png)~~~ I’m pretty sure every single person reading this is aware of the AI Sophia created by Hanson Robotics. Well think like this, Vivy is a human-like AI, just like Sophia but with a better body that can function and exceed human bodies and an AI that has the emotions of a human. Well, some may argue on the point of having similar emotions as humans and I would like to explain it but it leads to major spoilers. Vivy: Fluorite Eye's song is an anime released in the spring of 2020. Released by Wit Studio and produced by Aniplex and Aniplex of America. Those names may be enough for some enthusiasts to be excited about this anime. Aniplex is the producer of great anime such as Demon Slayer, Bakemonogatari series, Fate series and much more. Heck, its producer is Yuuma Takahashi himself and what's more, the original plan was done by Tappei Nagatsuki, who was also the person who created the original story of Re: Zero. The genre of Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s song are Action, Drama, Music, sci-fi and Thriller and every single genre fits perfectly with this anime. ## __[ Story ]__ The story goes something like this. Throughout the history of making AI, an autonomous humanoid was created. The only one of its kind at the time. The mission of this AI is to make everyone happy with her songs and to achieve that the creator has given her a task that is to sing with all her heart. This AI was named Diva. She started to sing and began her career at a small stage in NiaLand. That’s where Diva met a little girl called Momoka Kirishima who Diva helped when she got lost in NiaLand and later she got attached to Diva and thus gave Diva the name Vivy. So I hope you understand that Diva is Vivy. Then later When Diva was in the archive where all the AI’s are connected, A suspicious-looking cube infiltrated Vivys archive. At first, she thought he was a virus, so she went for a check-up, scanned her system and did every single thing to get rid of it but the results conclude there is no virus found and Diva kindly asks it to get rid of himself from her and it decides to do so but it transfers himself to a bear Momoka Kirishima has gifted Diva. He then Tells his name which is Matsumoto and his purpose being there is to prevent a war from outbreaking in the future 100 years from now and he needs Diva’s help. Of course, Diva turns down his offer because the only reason she exists is to make people happy through her singing. Anyhow, Matsumoto succeeded in Making Diva work together later on and started to carry out the Singularity Project and she used Vivy as her name while working the Singularity Project, it’s like they are both different people or “AI” while using one of the names. One big point to remember is Vivy time travelled back twice. I think Nagatsuki-san got a bit fixated on the topic of time travel after Re: Zero but it fits the story very well. ~~~ __Story: 90/100__ ~~~ ## __[ Characters]__ Vivy: Fluorite eye's song has 2 characters to mainly focus on. Diva / Vivy: Diva aka Vivy is the first autonomous humanoid created in the world. Her mission is to make people happy through her singing and to do so, she needs to sing all with her heart. Then there is Vivy an autonomous humanoid who has extraordinary fighting skills who complete her missions to stop a war from happening 100 years from now. ~~~img150(https://i.imgur.com/zjVWBnX.png)~~~ Matsumoto: It's an AI that came from the future to stop a war from outbreaking between AI and humans. He is talkative, Overconfident. What's more, is that from the very start he sounds like a human. He took control of a bear Vivy had and worked on the mission like that. After some time when the technology is advanced enough, Matsumoto reveals his true form to Vivy. Basically, He is a technological cube. "Hey, a cube that can't fly is just a cube" -Matsumoto ~~~img150(https://i.imgur.com/sEHol4g.png)~~~ Characters 100/100 ## __[ Visuals ]__ The visuals in this anime are great in my opinion. The sight of a beautiful Cyberpunk themed city which is NiaLand different and unique to eyes who watch a lot of futuristic movies and mecha anime. The slowing down of scenes are quite extraordinary, these effects amplify the intensity of fight scenes and the enjoyment. To be honest Vivys hair looks a bit messy except when she was in space. No spoilers there XD. To be honest the places Vivy visits greatly achieves to show the difference between modern and old untouched places. They are beautiful to look at. ~~~ __Visuals 100/100.__ ~~~ ## __[ Audio ]__ Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song is also a musical. Including the fact that Diva herself is a singer, The songs in the anime are nice. There are four openings in this anime. “Happy Together” by General purpose Diva AI ( Miya Kotsuki) ( ep 1) “A Tender Moon Tempo” by Vivy ( Kairi Yagi ) ( ep 3 ) “Sing My Pleasure” by Vivy ( Kairi Yagi ) ( ep 4-6, 8-12 ) “Galaxy Anthem” by Vivy ( Kairi Yagi ) ( ep 7 ) The one that stood out to me was “ A Tender Moon Tempo”. ~~~ __Audio 100/100__ ~~~ ## __[ Enjoyment ]__ This anime was full of good quality fight scenes. The animators have even achieved to draw great movements in the fights. For example, I've seen a lot of anime with fight scenes that should have quick movements and hardcore fighting scenes but quite did not achieve it. The fight scenes from This anime had pretty awesome stuff but sadly the fights didn't last that long such as the villain taking a few minutes to talk in the middle of the fight didn't quite fancy me. ~~~ __Enjoyment 90/100__ ~~~ ## __[ Overall ]__ In conclusion, Vivy: Fluorite Eye's song was a good anime and I can recommend this anime to those who are new to anime as well as Those who like sci-fi. The anime does achieve to show possibilities of our own future but I doubt that will happen any time near our century. ~~~ img100%(https://i.imgur.com/6fnXHfk.jpg) ~~~
I'm gonna call this series _Vivy_ for short throughout this review, cause there ain't no way I'm writing that entire title over and over again. At first glance, _Vivy_’s premise reminded me a lot of _Terminator_: AIs in the future suddenly go insane and start murdering every human around them, so some science dude builds some other AI (that didn’t go crazy because it’s special or something) and sends it 100 years back in time, to the era where AI science had just started developing, in order to change certain events in history so that the terrible future in another 100 years will be prevented. This is where the clichés end. The story of _Vivy_ starts in the year 2061, with the first AI ever built- Diva (also known by her other name- Vivy). In 2061, robots that are programmed to do some single tedious job so that humans don’t have to are a pretty common sight, But Vivy is the first fully-functioning, human-like, artificial intelligence- and definitely not the last, as we see later. She was created for one purpose alone: To make people happy with her singing. Vivy’s life flips over when the Singularity project starts, a project she is included in… Without her knowing a single thing about it or being given any warning. An AI named Matsumoto comes to visit her and claims that he arrived from 100 years in the future, and was sent to stop the war between humans and AIs that happens in that future from happening. Granted, Vivy doesn’t really believe him in the beginning, thinking he is a virus, but ends up cooperating with him. And that’s how their 100-year journey starts- with Vivy just living her life as an idol and Matsumoto travelling in time and coming to visit Vivy every few years in order to grab her for another mission. I think that the first thing that made me get into the series so quickly was the opening scene. This is the scene that depicts the AIs going insane and murdering humans. I won’t spoil exactly what happens there, but I will just say that it’s brilliantly directed, hitting you in an extremely unexpected way, leaving you in absolute shock. It’s no generic “robots massacring the helpless” scene, but in my opinion is one of the most powerful (and also pretty disturbing…) opening scenes I have ever seen in a TV show. Just watch it, it’s really a brilliant scene in my opinion. …Anyways. _Vivy_ is divided into short story arcs spanning two episodes each (mostly with a cliffhanger in between), with each arc being a little mission of changing a certain event in history that, according to Matsumoto, was a major event that led to the war in the future. If you’re asking why the series is 13 episodes long… well… forget it. Anyways, every arc depicts a certain important event in the development of AI science, which in most cases effected the world in pretty unpleasant ways. Vivy and Matsumoto just swing by and fix those events. Of course, not everything always goes quite as planned, and the series develops a bunch of little but generally pretty good action plots about how they resolve those problems. Combine that with great animation, an awesome soundtrack, and the animation studio that made the first three seasons of Attack on Titan, and you get an overall very enjoyable experience. However, all of these little plots combine into Vivy and Matsumoto’s 100 year journey- and here begins the reason I love this series so much. Vivy is an artificial intelligence. As in, it’s not that she’s programmed to imitate emotions in order to look human, but her mind is supposed to function like a human one, and she can think, feel, and develop her own opinions. But… She doesn’t know how to do that. She wasn’t raised like humans. The first thing she saw was a lab, and she was then just told to do her one mission: Make people happy with her singing. She was never exposed to any form of emotion, and hence has no idea of what exactly her emotions are and how they work- she only knows the dictionary definition. As an idol singer, she wasn’t popular at all- even though her body is beautiful, she has an amazing voice and can sing any song to perfection- and a little girl once told her that this is because she “doesn’t really pour her hart into her singing”, and only repeats a bunch of words in a certain melody. This idea leaves Vivy very confused, and she spends most of the series trying to understand what her emotions are and what does it mean to pour your heart into something. I know, this idea might be a little worn out, but what isn’t worn out is the execution. This concept of the AI that can’t understand emotion is quite well known- but it’s mostly used as comic relief more than anything else (the most shining example being Lt. Commander Data from _Star Trek_. Don’t get me wrong though, he’s absolutely great). Vivy is a character that actually explores the idea of what emotion is to someone emotionless- and this is executed perfectly. The creators managed to write Vivy to look and feel just like a real human- but I never forget that she is actually an AI, something that happens in so many other AIs in different shows- which are basically just humans with superpowers and varying levels of personality, most of the time. Vivy is nothing like that. She starts as an apathic Artificial intelligence, just trying to do her job and showing almost no emotions or thoughts whatsoever, and throughout the series develops to be… Not an actual human, but the most human-like AI I have seen in my life. I absolutely love how the series uses this concept to explore ideas such as “What actually makes a person who they are?” and “What does it mean if you really care about something?”- which to us look sort of like obvious things, but we see it through the eyes of a character that really can’t grasp those ideas like we do. The entire series shows us Vivy’s journey of exploring herself- slowly but surely, she builds herself opinions, feelings, desires and maybe even a heart. We also see, in a very interesting way, how the way in which Vivy tackles different situations, like when unexpected problems come up in her missions with Matsumoto, changes. Can an artificial intelligence develop over this journey, and can it make decisions in a different way than the normal AI learning concept, but according to its own intuitions and ideas? Can an artificial intelligence develop a spirit or soul? Vivy is a character that explores all of those ideas, and all of this together has solidified her as my favorite fictional character ever written. Then there are the other AIs. I mentioned how the series is split into two-episode stories. Those stories all help build Vivy as a character, and every story explores a different side of being human. If you would like an example, the first one is the idea of free rights for AIs- with the event being, the first time that a government law was offered that gave a few rights to human-made machines- a very interesting idea, because, well, they’re just machines after all, but are theoretically human in every aspect- so should they have their own rights? The rest of the ideas in the series (which I won’t spoil because they just become more surprising and intriguing as the series continues) are built pretty much in the same way- “The first time that something happens which changes human’s perception of AIs – and the AI’s perception of themselves”. Every single time, this concept is used to present some really interesting ideas that are always perfectly structured and executed. One thing that might bother some people is the fact that this is a story that spans a century with very large time skips, so most side characters appear only for an episode or two and their personality couldn’t really be explored. You know what? That doesn’t bother me at all, because what they are used for is the further exploration of all the philosophical ideas that I mentioned above, and they, of course, also affect and help the development of Vivy herself. They are still a bunch of pretty solid characters, so it could have been nice if they were talked about a little more, but I think that ultimately, it’s not that important. The only other character worth mentioning is, of course, Matsumoto. The idea of time travel that changes the events of the future is pretty common in Sci-Fi shows, and the same thing happens with the AI known as Matsumoto. He traveled back in time, and Vivy initially thought him to be a virus- but this excellent character, who is basically the sidekick, is the one that affects Vivy’s decision making throughout the series and generally helps her grow as a character. Except for that, allow me to quickly mention his personality- He’s wacky, weird, annoying, speaks in a speed of 5000 words per minute and I absolutely loved him. He also sees Vivy as his sidekick, which makes for some great comic relief. Overall, I enjoyed every moment he was on screen- he is the perfect partner that appears in the precise moment and makes everything more enjoyable and interesting. Now that we got the plot and characters out of the way, let’s dedicate a paragraph to the technical qualities of _Vivy_. First things first: The art. Marvelous. Absolutely marvelous. The series does a really cool thing with changing the art style every so often, in all kinds of impactful or emotional moments, and this is executed __perfectly__. Generally, it’s absolutely amazing. Second: Direction. I don’t think there are many animation studios that can compete with Wit studio when it comes to the direction of action scenes. Every single fight flows smoothly and perfectly and never gets boring for a second. Third: Animation. Did I already mention this was the same studio that did Attack on Titan? Well, to be fair, the animation isn’t quite on the same level, but it’s still very good and goes great with the awesome action. Fourth: Voice acting. Tanezaki did a great job as Vivy, also by portraying Vivy’s emotional development throughout the series through her voice and also by singing the OP and every other song in the series in Vivy’s voice. I also really like Matsumoto’s voice acting- Fukuyama managed to bring Matsumoto’s quirky and sometimes annoying attitude to life perfectly, making him even more enjoyable to watch. Fifth: The soundtrack. Except for the great opening theme, this is generally a series about music- and not only is the soundtrack great and accompanies the series’ events really well, but also the songs that Vivy sings throughout the show fit really nicely with the events happening at the time. They represent Vivy’s growth in an exceptional way, helping to emphasize the state of Vivy’s development of her heart and emotion. And… that’s it. After about two hours of my life and an essay almost two thousand words long, I think (and sincerely hope) that I managed to put into words what made me love _Vivy_ so much. But if you are part of the 95% of the public that didn’t bother reading all this because of the length, allow me to make things short: _Vivy_ is an absolutely brilliant show, packed with great action and gorgeous artwork, great animation and soundtrack, that at the same time explores a whole lot of awesomely intriguing ideas that are presented perfectly- and it’s only 13 episodes long! It’s short, it’s sweet, and it gave me some of the most incredible 4 and a half hours I’ve ever had in my life. Overall, an absolute masterpiece. I rate it 10 out of 10.
I'll try to keep this spoiler free and write a bit longer, a first for me. As the basic mainstream Ani-Tuber watcher I am, I went over Gigguk's Top Anime of 2021 list recently, looking for new stuff. And in that video was a clip from Vivy Episode four that sent shivers done my spine because that small section was cool on all the levels. So I made a mental note to watch it. A day later, at work when I had downtime, I was in the mood for some anime. So, I went for it, remembered Vivy and __boy__ did it help me pass a few boring days. __Story__: Let me start by saying I was a bit confused by the time travel shenanigans. I always am when it comes to time travel mumbo jumbos, but I still think they're enjoyable. That Vivy is an AI makes things a bit easier to follow. Upload the save data from one AI onto another one in a different timeline, boom. Still, if that Vivy is the same Vivy as the previous Vivy just with different memories/data or if they're entirely different entities... Dunno, I got lost. BUT, like I pointed out in the summary, Vivy is very similar to Terminator Judgment Day I feel like, and its "AI uprising that ends human life as we know it and an AI needs to prevent it by traveling back in time" is just as entertaining now as it was some 30 years ago. That the narrative time frame is a different one and that a young boy is replaced by a snarky ~~GLADoS~~ companion cube doesn't change things a lot. What does change the narrative is that the companion is the one who knows what's going to happen instead of the AI that needs to stop the world from going kaputt. That switch in dynamic was pretty fun, and that it's told in various mini arcs at different points in time is a great way to show the characters developing. Development and growth are two of the main topics in the story, and it shows. Because of a time skip narrative structure we see the result of strong character development without having to use a ton of the show's limited runtime for actually displaying it. Does that make sense? Speaking of which... __Characters__ Vivy and Matsumoto are the focal points of the story. In the first few minutes, it's established that Vivy is actually a nickname given to the AI Diva by her only real fan who compares her to a character from a fairy tale. Later on this becomes an important distinction as, while they share a body, the, I guess personalities of the AI take on different developments, up until episode 10. I can't really talk much more without spoiling that aspect of the show, which I really don't want to do. Still, the AI is a great base for a wonderful development, going from little more than a robot with a single goal to a fleshed out person. Matsumoto likewise develops, from a sarcastic no nonsense AI solely focused on the mission to thawing and becoming more humanesque. He fulfills his role as exposition fairy well enough while also being a valuable companion to our heroine in combat. The other characters are kind of there, really the show is IS Vivy and Matsumoto. Though special note needs to go to Kakitani, Vivy's main hurdle in her mission for the first two thirds or so of the story and Osamu, for all intents and purposes the Big Good of the show. __Production__ Let's talk about the showy bits of the show. Vivy isn't the best looking anime of 2021 but that's only because ufotable dickslapped everyone with Demon Slayer and Mushoku Tensei is as fluid as it's water magic is wet. Vivy looks awesome. I mean, duh, it's a Studio WIT production so it's got the folks behind early AOT and Vinland Saga working on it. The combat is absolutely gorgeous and they really went hard on the Sakuga. But even outside of combat, the character design is good, the animation is overall fluid and hell, even the CGI doesn't look out of place. Combine that with great sound design, a bonafide banger opening and perfectly fitting voice acting and you got yourself a really great overall experience. Two standouts in the sound are the distortion in the voice of a character before the big fight in episode 4 begins while the battle theme overlaps, which gave me goosebumps (it makes sense in context but it's awesome) and the insert songs which just add so much to differentiate this sci-fi show from its time travel brethren. __Additional thoughts__: It actually has a conclusion. A proper bittersweet ending for an original show in the era of 11-13 episode anime. That's impressive. What's more, it didn't ever feel... Rushed. It flowed organically, which is ironic given how the show's mostly about AI. __Closing thoughts & Score__ I had a really good time I have to say. Its snaps action, good characters and engrossing story made for a very entertaining watch that's definitely flown under the radar for a lot of people. I can really recommend this show to anyone who's into thrillers, character-driven stories, kickass action and time travel stories. 8.2/10