Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song – Key Point Review
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Vivy is a strange blend of anime and science fiction tropes including: Out of control AI robots, vocaloid-esque anime girl robots performing, a secret double life and a mission to help save the world, etc. The combination of these elements in the anime is pretty clunky and the story is decent at best. That said, this anime is surprisingly entertaining and definitely worth watching. It has great combat scenes, interesting artistry, and the story is good enough to keep to most interested. The plot has its share of inconsistencies and is very repetitious whenever the “life as an AI popstar” theme is touched on, but it is enjoyable if you aren’t nitpicking small details. Despite none of the elements in the anime being particularly unique, the blend definitely is, and you should check it out if you want to see something a little off the beaten path. The ending is fine, but it has a contrived feeling since it tries to tie in the slower plot points about her singing career.
SETTING:
The setting isn’t overtly Japan, which is an interesting change of pace. Most of the anime takes place in an unnamed city and its various sub locations: 1. The amusement park Nia Land; 2. the area in or around the Arayashiki tower at the city’s center; 3. An AI only accessible cyberspace realm called the “Archive”; 4. A satellite in space; and 5. An island called the “metal float”.
STORY:
Diva / Vivy is an AI robot female popstar main character with split personalities. The reasoning behind the portrayal of her split personality is a bit weak.
Matsumoto is a side kick who leads the plot forward. He is intended to be a bit annoying, but he’s a good character.
The plots consists of looping through fictional historical events and timelines with potentially different outcomes each time.
The story lacks some important transition scenes, and that weakens the anime. This is partly understandable, since they only had 13 episodes to tell the story. However, if many of the repetitious “what does it mean to sing with all your heart?” scenes were shortened, they definitely would have had time to make meaningful transition scenes. There is a 14th “episode”, but it is the equivalent of a recap episode.
This anime has some amazing combat scenes.
It is interesting that the love themes in this anime aren’t centered around the main character. Only support characters directly discuss love. The love themes in this anime are strange and involve both abuse and abandonment. You shouldn’t expect anything heartwarming to come from these subplots.
AI evolution themes.
AI rights, abuse, and equal treatment plot points.
A lot of time is spent on the main character’s singing career, but these scenes are very repetitious.
One of the basic points of the anime is that AI can only have one mission, but it’s obvious that isn’t the case, despite the anime always trying to stay in that framework. The main character’s split personality issues try to resolve the discrepancy, but does so poorly.
The ending is fine, but a little weak. It tries to tie in and focalize the slower parts about her singing career. It also backtracks in odd ways that weaken good plot points laid out early on. I’d like to give more detail on this, but my explanation would have spoilers.
Much of the drama throughout the show is suspenseful. While many of the outcomes can be guessed, it does throw you occasionally.
CHARACTERS:
This anime has a number of interesting characters, especially the AIs who managed to develop/mimic unique human personality traits mixed with their own AI culture. Some of the secondary and tertiary characters would have more interesting personalities if more time was available to spend on growing their characters.
Diva’s insightful, upbeat, and charming personality is very well done. Vivy’s personality is meant to be robotic and serious, but her personality comes off as a little inconsistent throughout the anime (the story attempts to depict growth in her personality, but does so weakly).
Matsumoto, the side kick AI, has an intentionally annoying and hyperactive personality, but it is well done.
Clothing designs for the main character AI robots in the show are well designed and interesting.
Most other characters are in uniforms, but the designs at least have some neon stripes to help spruce things up slightly.
DIALOGUE AND VOICE ACTING:
The dubbed voice acting in this anime is very good over all.
The dialogue is a little weak at times, but isn’t bad. Because this is an anime about AI robots, many conversations are very formal and awkward, but it’s intended to be that way. There is an odd disconnect between different AI speech mannerisms in the same situations/timelines. You’ll see similar AI models, but one will be essentially human in terms of personality, then another in the same setting that talks like a robot. This isn’t bad thing, and the awkwardness of the juxtaposition can be likened to human beings at different levels of their mastery of communication skills.
ANIMATION:
The animation is good, especially in some of the more intense combat scenes.
There are times when the camera angle will pan to still shots of the AI characters’ faces at dramatic moments. These are meant to be artistic and remind the viewer that the characters are AI robots, but much of the time these still shots come off as awkward.
MUSIC, OPENINGS, AND ENDINGS:
Passive tracks: Even outside the opening and ending themes, the anime has good music. The vocal version of Vivy’s song sung at the end of the anime is especially awesome and powerful. It’s worth listening to even as a solo track outside the anime, although, the long version isn’t as good as the cut selection they used in the anime itself.
Opening theme: “Sing My Pleasure” by Kairi Yagi. This is a good song by Kairi Yagi and will set up a lot of the tracks you’ll hear in the anime.
Opening animation: The opening animation is decent. It gives an accurate feel for what the anime will be like, but it doesn’t do justice to previewing the awesome combat scenes. At the time of posting this, Funimation hasn’t uploaded a video of the Vivy opening to their youtube account yet, so the link below will have to do for now. It’s not a big deal, but it cuts off the end of the opening animation.
Ending theme: “Flourite Eyes Song” (Instrumental) by Satoru Kōsaki. The composition of this song is amazingly good. The only problem I had with it is that it’s lo-fi and I would have appreciated a crisp, clean piano piece. If lo-fi is your jam though, then this will be a hit if you like piano instrumentals.
Ending animation: The ending animation is cheap and lazily done. The only upside to it is if you stare at the dominos, they are a bit entrancing, just like real dominos falling would be.
Photo Credit: Wit Studio
Author username: Marro Danatalle