Pipe

"My mission is to make everyone happy by singing"--Vivy "My mission is to make everyone content by reviewing"--Pipe Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, Vivy for short, is a spectacular series. It combines action, smooth animation sequencing, solid character development, a fantastic soundtrack, and a story that could have more holes than Gruyère cheese, but who cares. I don't mind if it's rife with time travel misconceptions and clichés; it is still delightful and quite surprising. I love this series. However, if we overthink the plot, we will lose all the enjoyment of this series, the beauty behind the story, and all the mysteries surrounding Vivy. For example, fewspectators might find it ridiculous for an AI to take responsibility for saving the world from nowhere or the thought of time travel in this series. If you don't like these ideas, you will hate this series. At first, what gets my attention is Vivy, an AI that has a single goal, making everyone happy with her singing. A similar plan to mine with this review. However, her mission changes after several events that happened over a timeline of 100 years. First, a malign AI codenamed "Matsumoto," I call him malign because he is an interloper, and the archive (Arayashiki) couldn't remove him from Vivy's core. Matsumoto requests Vivy's help, and he gives a new objective to prevent the war between humans and AIs in 100 years. He creates "The Singularity Project" to change AI's important events that lead to the war. The world setting is easy to understand. Humans developed AIs for almost every task and became highly dependent on them. However, Vivy's premise is truthfully a bit more complex to digest. One of the most challenging concepts to accept in the story is the AI time travel interpretation. I don't want to enter into the metaphysical and metaphorical time travel description of how Matsumoto traveled 100 years back. Still, the authors are clever in avoiding this discussion because it could bring misconceptions. The authors skip all the paradoxes that a lousy explanation could create. Furthermore, they averted the comparisons with similar plots such as Steins: Gate or even Re: Zero. Ultimately, it's a series that uses the past to point toward the future, as the opening quote, from H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine," suggests: "We all have our time machines, don't we? Those that take us back are memories, and those that carry us forward are dreams." Matsumoto's information is the memories, and Vivy's mission is the dream that evolves during the long journey. In conclusion, we can end all the time travel discussions with a single line "they conceived the time travel." Nevertheless, the series is no perfect. The negative factor for some fans is the pacing. Sometimes you will feel that some parts are missing and needs an explanation; I believe the issue appears for lack of time, but overall, the series is terrific, with some minor problems. On the other hand, the most fantastic part of the plot falls on Vivy. That's what gets me hooked on watching the series. If we pay closer attention, the authors didn't need a set of rules similar to Asimov's laws. Instead, they only give every AI a single mission, and, in the case of Vivy, they create a character who tries to follow that single mission. In exchange, Vivy changes and struggles to understand and complete the Singularity Project from the perspective of her mission. Moreover, Vivy is more profound than just great animation and drawing. It is a show that takes us into Vivy's journey about herself. Vivy assimilates little by little reason, feelings, passion, and maybe heart. I am curious apropos of how Vivy will handle all the contrasting information that could interfere with her mission. Can an AI evolve and change during this journey, and how will she decide differently from the typical machine learning concept but following a synthetic life envisage. Can an AI develop something similar to a spirit or soul? Although the rest of the characters are pretty interesting, such as Vivy's sisters, the time skip may not let us explore their whole personality, which is a problem. Also, it is common in the sci-fi time travel plot that someone goes to the past and forces a change for the future. So happens here with the AI Matsumoto. This cube traveled back in time, and Vivy considered it a virus initially. However, equal to Vivy, this compelling character is the main factor influencing Vivy's decisions and helps her to grow. It has a weird personality, never stops talking, and occasionally could be annoying, but it is the perfect partner that appears in the precise moment. Another essential concept for the series is Arayashiki, aka Archive. There is not too much to say, and several viewers won't consider it a character. However, in Mahayana Buddhism, Arayashiki is the eighth foundational level of consciousness. It stores patterns from other forms of awareness and retains developments and thoughts to use in other lives. In the plot, Arayashiki stores and interprets all the data from the AIs then decide based on that information. It is an exciting fact that grabs my attention because it justifies the whole of Vivy's evolution story. From technical aspects, I don't have anything to complain about the production. The art is fantastic and well structured. It has a broad combination of diverse palettes, and the choreography and camera angles are precise and affect the story. The sound is marvelous and has one of the most pretty scores from the year. Furthermore, the songs are lovely, in particular Harmony of One's Heart. Regarding the VO, there are some significant problems because Vivy's voice isn't the same when she sings, and for a trained ear, it is a letdown. Finally, Vivy's is a series that has several good things and few bad things. It is an action-packed thriller that most of the viewers will enjoy. I love the show; I consider it one of the best from this year and possibly one of the best original series from the last years. I am sad because this series is not getting the recognition it deserves but is causing a great impression in Japan. It is a must to watch. PS: I am confident that I will fail my mission. But, fear not, I will not promote the hate for the humans between my fellow AI sisters.

_cjessop19_

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