Anime: Vivy: Fluorite Eye`s Song

Watched it from start to end, and while I had high hopes in the beginning, in the end it just turns into a horrible ending.
I thought it was going to be an anime about AI and the effect on humanity, but in the end it was just a otaku dream.
Think about original Evangelion...
Up until episode 12 was very entertaining, but after that it was more or less piss in the drain...
I felt robbed of my innocence, and I expect hat I will not entertain any offers from this studio in the foreseeable future.

overall 5/10

Vivy is yet another one of those time reset anime where the point of the plot is to undo the plot. Something really bad happens in the future and a program is sent back in time in order to prevent it. Therefore it’s the done to death power fantasy offered by this concept: Are there negative consequences in your life? Keep going back in time until there are none. Despite the show trying to mitigate that by making it seem like the time travel part can only happen once, or that the characters are not allowed to fix every negative thing so the future won’t become too different, in the longrun it’s all bullshit because they clearly go back more than once and it doesn’t matter what changes they make to history, since the event they were trying to prevent wasn’t caused by the stuff they were preventing.

Despite that, the anime managed to stand out for many at the time of its release. Artwork and music were above average and every story was dealing with interesting sci-fi concepts regarding artificial intelligence. Every story was also very tragic, as many bad things were happening to the people involved with the events that were supposed to be leading to the tragedy in the future. This mix of elements is especially effective on easily impressionable people who will see the whole thing as very emotional, and won’t about the nonsense in the plot. As for anyone who cares more about good writing than how much something makes you cry with its overbearing theatrics, the show will fail him at everything besides its production values.
-It’s very hard to care about any of the characters since they change in every arc. You are given no time to like them before they get killed a few minutes after their introduction. The first episode for example begins with a massacre of people that mean nothing to you. They are background nobodies and yet the plot assumes that you will care to see them getting saved via time resets. Even though they mean nothing to you.
-The science fiction concepts are not explored. They are mentioned, they get a superficial infodump about what they are all about, and are then thrown away. Every arc is very short, isolated from the other arcs, and with its own themes, therefore nothing gets any significant exploration.
-The overall plot is not as elaborate as the show wants you to think it is. Despite showing you how the timeline is altered with every change, the arcs are disconnected by very long timeskips where stuff chance out of screen and in whatever way it suits the plot. There is no actual continuity, since you never feel like whatever the heroine does in one mission carries over to the next one.
-The main heroine is not some deep or memorable character. The show is just overselling her by being drawn as a hot sexy waifu with boobies that are half exposed most of the time. Other than that she’s an emotionless robot that changes several times because of amnesia, time skips, or because she’s dragged around in missions by the teddy bear robot and not because she has any control over her actions. Essentially she’s a plot device, following a computer program, and she doesn’t develop naturally like a human being. In fact she doesn’t develop as much as she gets rewritten, since she gets multiple amnesias that wipe her so-called progression.
-The finale is basically rendering pointless the entire series, since the changes in the timeline didn’t stop the disaster in the future. Also the main antagonist was so uninterested in achieving her plan, she just lets the heroine to do whatever she likes. Also there never were any stakes because the characters can go back in time again in case they fail. It’s a time travel story, what did you expect? Negative consequences that can’t be undone?

Thus, as a whole Vivy is a show about forgettable characters, superficial themes, no actual plot progression, or actual character development, and a finale that essentially tells you there never was any pressure of time or danger of losing. It’s another one of those throwaway shows that you might like the first time you watch it, because the artwork looks nice, it has a hot sexy waifu, and sad things happening all the time. But there is no replay value once you realize how lazily written and superficial it is as a whole, and won’t stand the test of time for most.

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song is a 2021 anime concerning AIs in the next century. Its also features themes of time travel towards the end. This anime is a bit uneven and bland at times, but it does have the premise, the overall execution, and the raw emotional aspect working in its favour. The plot, unfortunately, is lacking at times, but is still probably the strongest and most ambitious script, and therefore anime, of this season.

Probably the best way to sum up the premise is that it takes a lot from The Terminator (thankfully, Cameron's version, so the first 2 films) and some elements from, I dare say, Steins;Gate, though both influences only really come to the surface at the end. These two are very good reference points. The Terminator and its second sequel are generally seen in a very positive light, with James Cameron being seen as an excellent director at the time. Don't think I need to pipe up for Steins;Gate in an anime review. This does however mean that the premise, like with the concurrent 86 (2021), is somewhat unoriginal in and of itself, so it has to compensate for that with a good plot. Unlike 86 however, cliches in Vivy are much less obvious and rare thankfully. The story follows an artificial intelligence, Diva, as she tries to avert a cataclysmic event, in which AI turn on humans, a hundred years from the start of the anime. Throughout her century-long journey, she changes set historical narratives at different points in time as to avert a certain outcome and therefore changing the future. Along the way, she meets various other people and AI and how they act, which vividly changes Diva.



The first couple of episodes reminded me of The Planetarian. Diva was, for a time, also an AI with only a limited function whose job essentially was singing, as opposed to Hoshino Yumemi's job as a planetarium guide. In other stories there is a hint of loneliness experienced by the characters mentioned. Parallels can also be drawn with Violet Evergarden. Violet acted in a similar way to a robot and like Diva tried to explore concepts like emotion that were never given to her.

Because of the plot, the person who receives character development the most is Diva/Vivy obviously. Her character remains uneven, being very robotic at the start then becoming more emotionally aware. Then she makes a massive leap and becomes a very energetic character, even motivating her alter ego to live. With her alter ego, who is almost like a clean slate, she needed to find what motivated Diva, and the events leading up to the end are a decent attempt to convince one of Vivy finding what Diva had lost.

The OP changes about 1/4 of the way from a light hearted song and opening to a much more dramatic one. This newer opening is actually pretty good. The OP is a good song in itself and the opening is clean, powerful, and stylish. The ending is much more serene and light-saturated, with an equally serene ED consisting of just light piano playing.

The animation is superb overall. As always, Wit Studio makes very detailed animation, that is also very clean. They have these moments in the series when they show faces of AI in a very artistic way that differs from their normal animation, which really brings them to life. This is probably a distinguishing mark of this anime in terms of animation.

Vivy is a very good anime, probably the strongest one this season. It is a rather easy to follow story that encompasses a lot of concepts and has excellent plot. That said, its relative simplicity also means that it at times is obvious exactly where it is "simple", and therefore lacking in something. The plot contains very obvious places where it is welded to make it work, for one. But if you are looking for a convincing "tale through time" type of story, then this is a worthy candidate. I would binge watch it on a clear head to follow and appreciate it properly, though. Take a seat and a nice meal, and enjoy it.

Don't be fooled by the cover.
This is not a cute Cinderella/MagicGirl/SongContest story, but a pretty good SciFi thriller about the clash of society and AI.
Ignore the cheesy "I want to make everyone happy" repetitions and you'll be rewarded with a gripping tale of a journey through 100 years.
The SciFi-parts are by no means revolutionary, but they are also not bad. They are just a background for telling the story.
The animation is good. Character development a bit simplistic, but what can you expect of an AI?
For my liking there was not enough insight into the day to day interactions between humans and AI. It was kept a bit superficial for the sake of the speed of the story telling.
Very entertaining!