Tokyo 24-ku seems like it was running low on steam this week. Either that or it is a lull before a storm however when the characters are all dispersed the way episode 6 left them, a lot of the charm of this anime seems to be missing in action. Maybe it is a case where if I was able to binge watch and move straight to the next episode it wouldn’t be so obvious but really all I got out of this episode was that Shuta is pretty useless on his own (and we already knew that) and bread is apparently awesome.
Not that Shuta is actually on his own. None of the characters in Tokyo 24-ku are. Shuta has Mari and his mother to support him as well as his father returning at the end of the episode. Kouki has a whole organisation around him. Even Ran has a group on the run with him. The problem is, other than Mari, none of these supporting cast members have really done much to feel like more than background noise.
Tokyo 24-Ku felt a little underwhelming this week.
For an anime that has given us one trolley dilemma after another and life or death stakes every other week, an episode that just looks at the reality of growing up felt very flat. Yes, childhood friends grow apart. They connect with others and their goals move them down different paths and eventually they may no longer connect even if they want to.
And as much as Shuta seems to think there is, there’s no magic moment when you stop feeling like a kid and realise you are an adult. You just kind of keep going and one day you look back and wonder how it is you got where you ended up. Maybe that’s a really cynical way of looking at it but really Shuta seems to be agonising over his own lack of progress but he’s working in the bakery and improving his skills and still helping people out. Seems like he’s doing what he actually wanted to do.
His dream of being a hero isn’t so much squashed as taking a new form and finding ways to help people within his actual means.
Of course, I probably have another reason to feel down about this episode of Tokyo 24-Ku. For whatever reason they felt the need to nearly drown Shuta is the public bath after he took a bath while exhausted. I’ve mentioned before on this blog I have issues with drowning and here it felt like such a pointless scene. Not to mention both of the characters who went to perform CPR did so terribly.
First we get Kinako, Ran’s friend who has been left behind now that he’s on the run, who went for the usual cliche kiss approach to CPR and didn’t even try to hold his nose or literally anything that would actually make it effective. Fortunately she dithered so long Shuta’s father turns up. However he just goes for some super glowy mystical chest slam forcing the water out of Shuta’s lungs (though in reality probably cracking a rib in the process) and Shuta coughs himself awake. As usual, no ongoing effects from nearly drowning.
Honestly, I shouldn’t be annoyed at an anime for not accurately representing reality particularly in a show where magical phone calls increase abilities and give visions of the future. It isn’t like Tokyo 24-ku has tried to be particularly grounded. Still, poorly demonstrated CPR bothers me.
Anyway, the one actual plot point we get from this episode of Tokyo 24-ku is that the new phone alert system is spreading through the ward and arrests are up. Whether that ends up being a good thing or the next step toward the loss of freedom remains to be seen.
Images from: Tokyo 24-ku. Dir N Tsuda. Cloverworks. 2022
I think the most startling thing about that reveal was that Koki took so long to figure it out. That, and wondering why the tube was initially covered by blue scales which kind of magically disappeared to reveal the girl. It all seemed like there were a lot of unnecessary moving parts in this sequence. And no one in the audience was surprised to find that the deceased Asumi is at the centre of given she’s been making phone calls to the boys all season.
Tokyo 24-ku stepped its story up this week.
While the previous episodes of Tokyo 24-ku seemed to be settling into a rhythm of give boys a problem, deal with problem, then spend time dealing with the fallout, all with the ongoing mystery of the various political and corporate shenanigans in the background, episode 6 deals with the fallout of last week’s terrorist attack but shift the attention firmly onto the governor of the ward and his personal mission.
Between the terrorist’s released video and the governor himself, this episode is full of lines examining safety, privacy and freedom as the people in the ward are faced with the decision of whether to install the latest version of hazard cast onto their already quite invasive phones. If it wasn’t quite so ham-fisted, it would be an excellent opportunity to talk about internet privacy and freedom of speech though to be honest Tokyo 24-ku is nowhere near sophisticated enough to really get into the nuance of the issue and is rather just hoping that by at least referencing a topical debate they can gain additional emotional buy-in from the audience.
And they are right in that it works. The story unfolding in Tokyo 24-ku definitely makes you think of all those news headlines and current debates in parliaments over social media and other online issues. Not to mention it goes even further and directly has the governor declare one of the terrorists claims to be ‘fake news’. If you hadn’t already connected with topical issues and concerns there’s no way that phrase didn’t.
But where things get a little more interesting in Tokyo 24-ku is in the way the three boys at the centre have definitely fallen out and gone their own ways. Even Shuta notes that while Koki is working for SARG and Ran is with DoRed (now targeted by SARG because of the terrorist incident), he really doesn’t have any standing in the game anymore as the son of a baker with no job or real connections to anything.
This was something that became fairly clear in episode 5 as the other two acted with purpose and Shuta kind of bounced around the cruise ship and ultimately accomplished nothing.
For the other two, you might hope that friendship would win out but through Ran we see flashbacks to their childhood and Ran also directly states that he knows Koki will not stand with him. It doesn’t appear like Ran is particularly surprised or upset by this, which makes you realise that Ran and Koki were connected to Shuta and the three were only really held together by Asumi and Mari. Such fragile bonds were bound to break.
There’s still a chance the two will find a common ground to come together again but at the end of episode 6 it seems they’ve both made their choices. And as the childhood connection between RGB breaks, so does the school building start getting demolished. Yeah, the symbolism isn’t subtle but again it works.
We’re at the half-way mark of Tokyo 24-ku and quite clearly this episode marked a turning point. That kind of leaves me a little unsure about how the story will proceed from here but I do know I want to know where it is going and whether they can bring all the parts together.
Images from: Tokyo 24-ku. Dir N Tsuda. Cloverworks. 2022
Tokyo 24-ku might risk starting to feel repetitive if the boys receive missions that are all just slight variations on the trolley dilemma and yet we see in this fifth episode that there’s still some room for them to explore. While the first dilemma they faced was easily overcome by finding a third option, the second problem that floated their way ended in failure due to a lack of communication (and the scale of the disaster they were up against).
In this fifth episode we see again the boys having been posed a variation on this question. The options given to have a terrorist shot dead or have a boat full of people blown up. Even learning that the boat is full of the wealthy and probably corrupt who are the cause of numerous problems in the district doesn’t really make blowing up the boat seem like an actually viable solution and Kouki, the most rational of the team, more or less draws a line on this one. He’s going to use Sarg to take down the terrorist and that isn’t up for debate.
Tokyo 24-ku divides its lead characters this episode, both physically and morally.
Where Shuta boards the boat, ambitiously hoping to find the explosives themselves and neutralise them, his role this episode is considerably diminished as the main drama focuses on Ran and his allegiances as well as Kouki’s determination and black and white view of the world.
Sure, Shuta gets a brief action sequence where he gets to hop about and avoid gunfire but ultimately he doesn’t manage to retrieve the explosives or have much impact on anything and is actually so in the dark about everything else that has transpired he doesn’t even know why after the events are resolved he cannot contact either Ran or Kouki.
This really is Ran’s episode though with Kouki merely providing the contrasting perspective this week in Tokyo 24-ku. Unlike the other two, Ran recognised the terrorist in the vision and through a series of flashbacks we learn about Ran’s childhood and growing up as well as the formation of DoRed with his partner in crime (or I guess partner in art would be more appropriate).
But, disillusioned by his lack of artistic talent compared to Ran, he delved into hacking, at least until Ran surpassed him there as well. Still, he developed an App that if used correctly could have been an amazing thing for so many people and yet, as Ran had cautioned while his friend was developing it, if used incorrectly things could go badly wrong.
And so the mystery behind the mind-altering drug in the slums is finally revealed.
Where the audience of Tokyo 24-ku can really get drawn into this episode is in seeing the sequence of steps, mostly innocent ones, that ended up leading a character to such a dark place. A simple feeling of inadequacy as well as being broke and having little power or ability to protect his family, an app developed with the optimistic goal of making people’s lives better and selling it in order to reap immediate rewards, and then the ugly spiral downward after realising just what had resulted from actions that were never intended to harm.
Even though he is ultimately painted very clearly as a terrorist and his actions are clearly no longer driven by that optimism or hope to change the world for the better, you can’t help but wonder how things might have been different if the world hadn’t failed this character so completely.
Though ultimately what this episode of Tokyo 24-ku leaves me wondering the most is how will Ran choose to deal with this. In the moment he very nearly made an irrevocable and incredibly poor choice but was stopped, weirdly by the guy who had been about to make the same choice.
Will Ran be able to work with Kouki or Shuta again? Or is this the catalyst that takes Ran from being someone who wants to change people through art to someone who wants to take more drastic actions and will this see him at odds with the other two?
As I said at the start of this post, Tokyo 24-ku could fall into too familiar patterns if it just set up a trolley dilemma and had the boys resolve it but so far each incident has highlighted different aspects of the political and social situation within the ward as well as the personalities of the boys themselves. I am curious to see where this will go.
Images from: Tokyo 24-ku. Dir N Tsuda. Cloverworks. 2022
Tokyo 24-ku seems to be going for a pattern of having an episode full of action as the boys attempt to prevent some disaster followed by an episode of contemplation, decision making and a few titbits of conspiracy thrown in for good measure. Though I’m not entirely sure why I keep thinking of the main characters as ‘boys’ when they are all graduated from high-school but potentially it is because the overall tone here feels like they could be middle-schoolers at times.
Actually, as much as I have enjoyed what Tokyo 24-ku has delivered so far, I must admit the three boys at the heart of it, RBG themselves, feel kind of out of place for the underlying issues and larger scale political manoeuvring that seem to be going on. Even with Kouki’s connection to law enforcement through his internship as well as his father’s position giving him access to information he should have, it really doesn’t help the group feel like they have a place in the events actually going on and yet there they are in the centre of everything.
I wonder if that will fade as the story goes on or whether this is just the result of some adolescent wish fulfilment where of course the problems must be solved by the innovative younger generation and people in older established positions must either be irrelevant, useless, or actually the cause of the problem.
Tokyo 24-ku continues to be interesting but isn’t really able to carry some of the dramatic themes it seems to be introducing.
For episode 4 of Tokyo 24-ku we dive right into the funeral of the teacher, Kaba who died in the botched attempt at rescuing people from the tornado, and see the characters once again mourning the loss of someone they cared for as well as understanding their own sense of failure. Kouki and Ran aren’t taking it quite as hard as Shuuta but that is because they are each continuing to fight injustices in their own ways day to day.
Ran continues his street art campaign and even begins a series devoted to Kaba to remember his life even if only briefly before someone paints over his work. Kouki has thrown himself into the investigation as an intern and has buried himself under paperwork. It is only really Shuuta who as no real direction as helping his parents in the bakery is nice and all but doesn’t give his inner desire to be a hero an outlet, and like with the disaster that killed Asumi, Shuuta’s confidence has taken a major hit with the death of his former teacher.
However I was wrong in my prediction last week when I suggested that Kozue wouldn’t leave her house again after the tragedy. Instead she instigates most of the second act when Shuuta spies her walking around alone at night and follows her only to lose her in shanty-town. During the course of his search for her he gets caught up in a drug bust that Kouki is a part of and then runs into Ran who uses his network to locate her. Turns out, despite all the half-hints that maybe she’s into drugs or something shady, Kozue is actually just looking for the art that is appearing around town remembering Kaba.
While the boys of Tokyo 24-ku are involved in this there’s also some background noise. We know the drug D is spreading and causing violent incidents and there’s also the mysterious hacking incident that took place after the tornado. Throw in the desire of some of the higher ups to ‘redevelop’ the 24th ward including the building of a casino, and there’s more than enough intrigue going on.
After a relatively quiet and reflecting episode, Tokyo 24-ku does give the boys another phone call from Asumi only this time the message is very personal for Ran. The choice, take out a terrorist before he denotates a bomb or let a boat full of wealthy people die. Only, unlike the last two questions, this one seems like it isn’t as time pressed and it also seems like there are plenty of other options. I guess we’ll have to see how it plays out in episode 5.
Images from: Tokyo 24-ku. Dir N Tsuda. Cloverworks. 2022
Tokyo 24-ku does a good job in episode 3 of lulling you into thinking we’re going to focus entirely on the cooking competition and that the danger is going to come from standing up to the developers. And certainly the early stages of the episode that is exactly what the anime focuses on as the boys and Marin find out that all the cabbages have been purchased prior to the competition leaving them short of a critical ingredient.
The cabbage crisis however is a bit of a red-herring and fairly easily resolved when their former teacher comes to the rescue having secured supplies for them. However that is also a bit of a misleading moment because then I was waiting for some other problem to develop or for the yakuza-like thugs of the opposition to prevent the stand from operating. Mostly though things are peaceful largely because the owner of the competition is convinced he’s already won.
Tokyo 24-ku fills this episode with potential threats that don’t quite develop, until a really big disaster emerges.
There’s one thing I have been wondering through episode 1 and episode 2 of Tokyo 24-ku that really has nothing to do with the plot or general enjoyment. It is more I’m wondering why the three boys are referred to as RGB when RBG seems easier to say to me. Maybe I’m nit-picking but RGB doesn’t sit comfortably with me and every time I hear it in the anime or read it in the subs my brain tries to rearrange it into the more comfortable acronym. Okay, I’ll just accept I’m fixating on something utterly unimportant and get back to reviewing this episode.
Anyway, while most of the characters are enjoying selling the food or eating, there is a parallel story with the teacher’s daughter, who is more or less shut in her room and still traumatised from the death of her friend in the fire. See he asked her to come to the food festival and after going through the social media of her friends’ there decides to venture outside.
And now Tokyo 24-ku really has set the stage for the disaster. During the judging the teacher reveals the cheap ploy being used by one group to win the competition more or less assuring that Marin will be victorious but then the boy’s receive a call. Yes, one of those calls. And unlike the first mission they were given this one is going to cost multiple lives regardless of the outcome they choose with a tornado about to bear down on the festival.
I’m going to admit, I wasn’t expecting natural disasters to be thrown their way. Man-made concerns like speeding trains are one thing and there are options but the only real option with a tornado is to get out of its way and they really haven’t been given enough time.
Now Tokyo 24-ku more or less has you where it wants you. Part of your brain is thinking the boys will pull off some super insane rescue and manage to evacuate or protect everyone, much as they managed to save Marin and the train in the first double episode.
However, the other part of you looks at the situation and realises that there is no chance of evacuating that whole area and nowhere near enough shelter.
Throw in some poor communication between the boys themselves and while they certainly saved some people this was not a flawless victory.
Oh yeah, the girl who was coming to the festival, leaving her house really for the first time since the fire tragedy… Well I don’t think she’s leaving her house again after this effort.
Anyway, Tokyo 24-ku remains solidly watchable with enough decent moments of tension and character work even if for the most part it isn’t quite hitting the solid emotional notes it feels like should be. In episode 3, while the interesting scene transitions remain, the visuals feel like they’ve become a lot more conventional and less interesting and the rescue sequence toward the end has nowhere near the visual excitement of the train rescue. It isn’t bad but its definitely not blowing the viewers away.
Images from: Tokyo 24-ku. Dir N Tsuda. Cloverworks. 2022
Rather than ploughing forward with a new mission or rescue, Tokyo 24-ku instead takes episode two to really deal with the fall out from the train track rescue as well as to give some more clarity around the events leading up to the tragic fire that took Asumi’s life. It is an interesting choice and it is one that shifts the focus from the action to the characters but even more toward the world building behind them.
I do find it interesting how many anime deal with the idea of a street mall or some other traditional venue being put at risk by new developments. It is one that comes up again and again and I guess in a country that is as populated as Japan and with limited land for development it is a conflict that would continue to come up. Do you leave the old street mall in place or is the shiny shopping complex now enough? Is the first primary school built on the island worth saving or should it be removed to make way for something new?
While the present day characters in Tokyo 24-ku are facing a real threat to their mall both in lack of customers as well as pressure to win an upcoming competition we learn that the kids were facing a conflict of their own prior to the fire that changed their lives. When they learned their primary school building was to be torn down they turned it into a community art project in a bid to save it and seemingly were getting quite a lot of public attention. And then someone burned it down causing the tragedy that split the central trio apart and still looms over all the characters in the present.
Tokyo 24-ku is slowing building up a picture of the world these characters are in and it is really helping to ground them.
All of these very real world conflicts might seem at odds with a story that opened in episode one with characters that gained seeming super-powers after receiving a mysterious phone call, but that first episode did establish enough of the world that this conflict feels like a natural progression. More than that, it makes it clear that the solution to the problems facing these characters isn’t going to be a simple one.
So when all is said and done, this was a strong follow up episode for Tokyo 24-ku and I think for me it did what I needed it to do and that was to make me believe in the world these characters lived in. With that relatively established now I’ll probably happily suspend disbelief unless the story goes right off the rails in the future.
However, this episode also showed one of the problems Tokyo 24-ku is probably going to carry with it all the way through. With three members of RBG to catch up with and learn about their past experiences and their current circumstances as well as Mari who acts as the go-between and holds most of this episode together and the story ends up being told in pieces as we cut from one to the other. Not helped by the inclusion of a scene that is clearly establishing a potential future antagonist as well as building up the conspiracy by having the teacher meet with a member of SARG.
It means no one character gets really enough time on screen in a twenty-four minute episode. Mari is about the only one who really gets sufficient screen time but for the majority of the episode she acts more as a catalyst rather than a character. Which made the scene where she did break down and cry after remembering the tragedy that took Asumi’s life fairly memorable because for so much of the episode Mari is just the happy girl who tries to pick everyone else’s spirits up.
All and all, there’s a lot to like here though that isn’t to say that Tokyo 24-ku isn’t biting off more than it can chew. This week didn’t touch at all on the idea of the surveillance people are under and it may find soon it has too many ideas running around. Then again, maybe it knows exactly what it is doing and will bring them all together. I’m keen to find ot.
Images from: Tokyo 24-ku. Dir N Tsuda. Cloverworks. 2022
An original anime from Clover Works coming out this season with a potential sci-fi tag? Okay, I’m at least giving Tokyo 24-ku a first look because that seems like a good mix of ingredients for something that will at least be intriguing even if it doesn’t end up quite sticking the landing. That said, I went in largely blind and hadn’t watched any promotional videos for this anime so I kind of spent most of this double episode wondering what the overall focus is going to end up being (if it has one).
Though, that said I did pause fairly early on to look up who was voicing some of the characters because there were some oddly familiar tones here and I kind of discovered all three of the main characters here have some impressive talent behind their voices.
Of course none of that tells you what Tokyo 24-ku is actually about and that’s probably because I’m still a little confused. I mean the actual events here all make sense but the eerie opening sequence as well as a range of standard dystopian themes pop up throughout making it difficult to know where the real focus is outside of the three characters who are all trying to deal with their grief from one of the opening incidents in their own way.
Is Tokyo 24-ku worth watching?
Between the idea of constant surveillance (almost Psycho Pass style) and the idea of predicting crime with one character lamenting that criminals can’t be arrested until they’ve committed crimes (reminding me strongly of Minority Report), there’s more than enough substance to sink your teeth into. However we also have a terrorist fire bombing a school (the opening tragedy) and a potential ghost in the machine moment where the voice of a dead friend/sister calls out to the central characters through their mobile phones and sends them to avert a future tragedy (seemingly giving them super-powers in the process).
If you think that’s a lot, I’m right with you and I’m very glad Tokyo 24-ku at least didn’t try and pack all of that into twenty minutes going instead for a longer run time. There’s also the whole part where the officials sped up the development of a train so much they couldn’t even deal with the emergency that occurred because basic safety features like the ability to stop it remotely weren’t working.
It’s a CloverWorks anime which means visually it has the potential to be great and already this first episode has declared the visual style of this anime with the three main characters each having a signature colour and seeing some very fluid movement sequences. However, I can’t say that CloverWorks has a great track record at this point as for every Bunny-Girl Senpai and Season 1 of The Promised Neverland we end up with a season 2 of the Promised Neverland or Dakaichi (which as much as I loved Dakaichi was not visually impressive or even consistent).
That said, this first episode of Tokyo 24-ku was pretty pleasing to the eye and I’m looking forward to exploring the settings and locations more.
Where the first episode of Tokyo 24-ku really shone though was in its three main characters. While the introduction to them, outside the burning building with tempers flaring, is a little on the blunt side, after we jump the year into the future after the tragedy and see each of the boys having gone their own way with their lives coming back together is actually pretty satisfying.
While our overly athletic type, Shuuta, clearly wants to be a hero his confidence is shattered after the fire and he’s finding himself a little adrift. It isn’t such an uncommon way to set up a character but he isn’t just wallowing in self-pity as he still maintains a cheerful air as he helps his community in his own way. I kind of felt his character was really well done particularly when his confidence breaks during the final dramatic rescue in the episode.
However, he’s outshone by the two other characters introduced in the first episode of Tokyo 24-ku (at least in terms of making me intrigued to know more about them). Ran is a graffiti artist who is clearly at odds with the system and willing to step outside the law to achieve his ends. In his own way he is also playing hero but he works through art and hacking.
Likewise, Kouki is the more straight laced on the trio wanting to enter politics and currently interning at the organisation that is seemingly behind all the surveillance. It isn’t hard to see how these three bonded as students because even though their approaches are miles apart they all have strong convictions and aren’t afraid to act on them.
I also really liked that Tokyo 24-ku didn’t just make them all super strong or fast. After the mysterious phone call they receive each finds their natural abilities heightened and in the dramatic rescue that makes up the final act of this episode all three employ their skills to support the others.
Naturally it isn’t all smooth sailing. Tokyo 24-ku clearly has divided this group after the tragedy that occurred a year ago and bringing them together won’t be as easy as a single phone call and rescue operation. Hopefully they can continue to make them interesting as they find a way to repair the relationship between them (or maybe they will all go their own ways in the end).
Tokyo 24-ku may not be the anime of the season and may fizzle quickly after this opening episode but I’m solidly in at this point. While the story itself is reminiscent of many others the characters here work well together and I’m looking forward to seeing more from the cast.
As always though I’d love to know what you think. If you watched Tokyo 24-ku be sure to leave a comment.
Images from: Tokyo 24-ku. Dir N Tsuda. Cloverworks. 2022
From beginning to end, Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song has been a fascinating ride.
I really can’t thank Ashley enough for choosing Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song as his series to sponsor reviews for this season. While I’d kind of flagged Vivy to check out given it was listed as a sci-fi/action and from Wit Studio (you know they people who brought us Attack on Titan) a few little points were keeping me from just jumping all in on watching the anime.
For instance the description of Vivy as an AI Songstress kind of sent up a red-flag for me. Was this actually going to be an idol anime disguised as sci-fi? And if idol-zombies couldn’t keep my attention I doubted turning the idol into a robot was going to make it any more interesting.
How wrong I was and how glad I am to have been wrong.
Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song will potentially be my anime of the year. I am almost certain it will be my sci-fi of the year regardless because I just can’t imagine another story coming out in the same year that feels as cohesive, well planned, and ultimately as lovingly crafted as Vivy. That’s not a declaration that this anime is perfect, there’s definitely flaws and moments that miss their mark, but there’s so much effort put into it that you can kind of forgive its imperfections.
So what is it about?
Essentially we start our story the way so many time-travel stories begin with a vision of a future apocalyptic event and a scientist frantically typing away on a futuristic looking computer and apologising to someone for something we don’t really yet understand.
A future we wish to avoid.
However, Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song then takes us back 100 years before this incident where we meet Diva, an AI programmed to sing to make people happy and it is to her that a futuristic program or virus enters allowing Matsumoto to appear before her and to give her a new mission – the singularity project.
Essentially, she now has to change pivotal moments in history to prevent the AI rebellion in the future and save humanity.
In the process of deviating from her original programming, Diva ends up manifesting two distinct personalities and Vivy (previously just a nickname bestowed on her by a fan) becomes her own being.
The Diva comes out.
What follows is a a series of stories that are told over two and three episodes where Matsumoto awakens to warn Vivy of a key moment and to direct her to take action before he goes back to sleep and we then jump into the future again.
While this might have felt disjointed in another narrative, Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song links each of these developments together smoothly and we see in each encounter how their actions have changed, or in some instances not really changed, the future pathway. We also get to see the gradual changes in Vivy herself as she assimilates the experiences from each moment into her programming and by the end of the 100 years we see a far more fleshed out character.
That character development is one of the key strengths of the series.
Without such a protagonist, this story would have felt pretty formulaic and fairly sterile. However Vivy, the autonomous singer and robot tasked with changing the future, is a character who draws you into her story and her inner conflicts. Each mission teaches her something and seeing her in five or ten or twenty years after that mission and realising how it has changed her again is a really rewarding viewing experience.
Vivy will show us something we’ve never seen before.
By the time we get to the finale, this is a character who is well and truly dear to the audience’s heart and her final performance is an emotional affair to be sure.
Over the course of the story, Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song explores a range of themes fairly common for these sorts of stories. The underlying question Vivy is plagued by is what it means to put your heart into something. Unlike so many storeis, in this one we do hear Vivy’s answer that she has come to after 100 years of struggle. It is unimportant whether we agree with the answer, what is important is that the character finds closure in her answer.
There are also questions about AI rights and their purpose. The method by which they complete their missions. There is a terrorist group against AI’s that appear in most of the stories to muddy the waters. Politicians who use AI’s as a platform to raise their status. Individuals who fall in love. Robots who fall into despair.
Anyone expecting a scientific and sterile exploration of artificial intelligence will find all this focus on emotions somewhat distracting, however I found this approach in Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song to be fairly fulfilling. It also made the events and conflicts a lot more relatable to current affairs and various other situations.
Vivy knows her purpose.
However, that doesn’t mean the series just tosses logic to the wind and hope.
There’s a genuine effort to have the events in the story make sense. As questions arise, such as why Vivy was the AI that Matsumoto enlisted to save the future, the series provides an answer of sorts in fairly short order. Most other questions that seem like they might be a hole in the story get given explanations that at least on the surface satisfy and allow you to really just enjoy the story.
And enjoying the story really seems to be a priority for the people crafting it because from start to finish Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song comes across as planned and focused. There’s a clear end point and the narrative arc seems to be perfectly timed to satisfyingly conclude in that final episode.
As much as I loved Vivy, you won’t hear me clamouring for a season 2. This story is done and a most rewarding conclusion it is.
Of course, I wouldn’t object to a spin-off set in the same universe with a different AI at the helm of a different mission… but it isn’t needed.
The story is done (well, his story was at least).
Closure like this feels like a rarity in anime, more so in anime originals, and yet Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song has succeeded beautifully.
Additionally, the anime is beautiful. Visually the futuristic world is interesting and colourful and the AI designs, particularly their eyes, are stunningly details. However the fluid movements of the characters and the animation in general for this series are pretty solid.
The only real sticking point is in some of the more climatic fight sequences where the screen becomes very busy and I regularly described the scenes as ‘messy’ as so many colours and lights danced across the screen that details become lost. This is clearly an aesthetic choice, though it wasn’t one I loved (it does however get across the frantic nature of these conflicts).
There’s a look going on here and it kind of works but it is messy.
But I haven’t yet mentioned the sound of Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song.
For a show about a diva, it is inevitable there will be singing, however the way music has been integrated into episodes, conflicts and used as a pivotal plot point by the finale is something that should really be celebrated. The sound direction as a whole was truly masterful with some moments where sound and song were nearly overwhelming and other moments were silence was allowed and quiet contemplation followed.
Voice acting was similarly on point making each character distinct and emotional responses clear. Even the more robotic characters gave nuanced performances that enhanced their characters and really brought them to life.
In case I haven’t already made it clear, I really loved the experience of watching Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song. While there were one or two episodes in the mid-season that weren’t quite as compelling as others, and while there are a few scenes that don’t quite hold up to the quality present in the rest of the narrative, overall this is an anime that has been longingly crafted and is thoroughly enjoyable to watch.
Take a bow.
I can only hope we get more series like this one that feel so focused, well thoughts out, and deliver such a great ending in the future.
I’d love to know your thoughts on the series so be sure to leave me a comment below.
Images from: Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song. Dir. S Ezaki. Wit Studio. 2021.
We’ve reached the end of Vivy’s remarkable journey through time.
Starting a new anime is always a bit of a gamble. Whether there is a source for the story and whether it is finished doesn’t really determine whether the anime will end well as sometimes anime endings are either non-existent, rushed, or just take a huge deviation from any real logic. Original anime are even more of a risk with the stories more often than not collapsing in on their own premise before we reach the end. So how was this final episode of Vivy?
Vivy Fluorite Eye’s Song episode 13 demonstrated to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the team behind this anime always knew what they were doing. The resolution is so clear and everything is brought together incredibly neatly (perhaps too neatly). Nothing felt like it was rushed or crammed in just so that we could get to an end because the season was over.
‘Now’ is a good question given she’s been here ‘now’ before and it didn’t end well.
At the end of episode 12, Vivy had just been sent back in time to the start of the rebellion. Right from her awakening this time we see the small changes she’s making as the guy who previously got squished by the incredibly polite homicidal vehicle is now pulled to safety. That said, the question remains as to whether Vivy can do what she needs to do this time in order to actually change the outcome.
Spoilers.
What follows is what was perhaps the best choices for providing closure that could have been made.
The story splits with Elizabeth, TOAK and Matsumoto storming the tower as they did last time, though in episode 13 they are armed with Vivy’s knowledge of what happened the first time. Vivy on the other-hand makes her slow way (and why she’s not in any hurry is probably the only questionable part here) to the main stage in Nia Land. It is taking us back full circle to her roots where she sang on the small stage, dreaming of being on the main stage.
Prepare for the flashback.
Not content with just just giving us a location and a reminder of her initial goal, Vivy also finally answers the question of what it means to put her heart into something. While viewers may not agree with the answer she has found it is more important that after nearly 100 years of searching, she has found her answer.
She steps out onto the main stage with absolute resolve and then Vivy sings her original song crafted from the memories she has made over her extraordinary life.
Sing it, Vivy.
What follows is more a montage accompanied by the song. We see the attack on the tower interspersed with Vivy’s memories. Every key scene or character from the prior 12 episodes will make an appearance and while normally I’d count this as a distraction from a final conflict or a last ditch attempt to make me care about a character, here it felt perfectly fitting.
Vivy’s song is made of her memories and her answer that was found through all these experiences. She sings in order to fulfil her initial purpose of making people happy and it is one of the most fulfilling finales I have watched in a long time.
Of course there’s a few moments where you feel the writers really just wanted to have their cake and eat it too. The satellites are already falling and shutting down the system won’t stop that but somehow Matsumoto now manages to essentially collide with one of them and blow it up mid-air in order to save Nia Land from getting vaporised. It’s a little bit much.
Meanwhile, Vivy, having fulfilled her purpose also shuts down as she is connected to the archive and in a logical story that would be her curtain closing. However, in a story about heart and emotions, we get one final scene of her before the end and honestly despite it making no sense at all it made me smile.
Seriously, Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song nailed its ending. I can’t wait to write my full review.
Images used for review from: Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song. Dir. S Ezaki. Wit Studio. 2021.
Fair warning – Huge spoilers for this episode of Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song below.
There was a point during episode 12 of Vivy where my brain kind of clicked that somehow we were going to have to have yet another do-over. The first time they tried to change the future didn’t work because the Archive simply kept correcting their course but now they know who the actual enemy is and more than that, they’ve told Vivy how to beat them.
As the human extras were rapidly cut down and failure after failure plagued the mission, it became clear we were either in for an ending of mass-extermination that cautioned us against AI or this story was about to use a known plot device, time travel to give Vivy one final chance. And it was pretty clear from the pro-human-AI cooperation messaging in these final episodes which way it was going to lean.
Seems like too much effort.
So episode 12 has Vivy back inside the Archive and finding out why all the crazed robots are singing the song she composed. This is where Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song pulled one of those scenes that is an absolute pet-peeve of mine. Mid-conversation they just cut the sound and we see the character mouth something. Later on we’ll find out what but it is a lousy technique for building tension and it is way overused in anime.
Outside of that mood-killing moment though the rest of this episode hits pretty much all the right notes. Doctor Matsumoto doesn’t participate in the raid, probably just as well, but the rest of the TOAK guys, Vivy and Elizabeth charge over to the tower and begin their attempt at shutting things down. Of course there’s a really big clock counting down just to make it seem like they are fighting against time.
Oh no, only 3 seconds left. What now?
There’s a lot of action strewn through this sequence as they fight against basic security robots and make their way up the tower. In true Vivy fashion the animation is a little messy and chaotic but it all adds to the overall feel of the scene and the movement remains very fluid.
As we lose more of the human members of the team and Elizabeth and Vivy take to the central column, the visuals get even messier and the screen is at time a riot of colour and light but it all fits with the visual aesthetic we’ve seen before in this show so you either appreciate it or find it an eye-sore.
Still, this fight sequence was pretty intense.
I love that the struggle for these characters was real. They were desperately trying to achieve their goal and the sense of failure that landed on Vivy as the counter finished and the first of the satellites fell really had emotional weight, even if by that point it was kind of clear this isn’t where things would stand.
Vivy works really well here as a proxy for the audience. We’ve watched 100 years of time pass by now and seeing the satellites falling and realising that the project has utterly failed, and failed because of Vivy (a single person or AI having a single hesitation) the sense of despair is very real.
Finally though there’s nothing left to do. Matsumoto and Vivy simply acknowledge their failures. Which is when Doctor Matsumoto contacts them. He’s back at the computer where Vivy saved his life and where the whole story started and he’s got one last chance to send her data back to where the rebellion began. It isn’t much and it still might not be enough but it does get Vivy back on her feet.
It isn’t a foregone conclusion that we’ll get a happy ending and even if Vivy stops the satellites, she’s only going back to the point the rebellion started so thousands if not hundreds of thousands of humans will still die. But, I think in some ways that is even better.
No pressure.
Vivy’s never been perfect. As a singing robot she struggled to understand her mission of singing from the heart. She’s constantly failed to execute her missions as instructed and ultimately lost her ability to sing altogether. None of this has ever made her give up and she’s saved people along the way even if not everyone.
Perhaps that’s how it was always meant to be, but I guess we’ll find out in episode 13.
Images used for review from: Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song. Dir. S Ezaki. Wit Studio. 2021.
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