Vivy Fluorite Eyes Song Archives

From the first episode, Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song grabbed my attention and as we past the mid-season and into the home-stretch for the anime I more or less declared that this one could be my pick of the season if not the year (at least for sci-fi anime).

Those of you who read my review of this time-travelling, AI filled anime will know that it really did stick the landing and was definitely a series I was glad to have picked up and watched weekly.

But as the season ends I find myself looking back and wanting to pick out those moments that really went above and beyond. So here are my favourite five moments from Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song and oddly it isn’t the spectacle that stuck but the moments where Vivy was really quite human.. As always, I’d love to know which moments stuck with you so if you watched the series be sure to leave a comment.

Moment No.5 From Vivy: Her Interactions With Matsumoto

Matsumoto explains his anguish of his humour not being appreciated to a non-responsive Vivy.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song.

We all know how hard it is to tell a joke and hear nothing in response. Worse to receive a dead-pan blank stare. The anime capitalised on this awkwardness early in building the relationship between the very robotic Diva and Matsumoto, the far more savvy computer program from the future. Episode 2 particularly highlighted this and delivered some great moments as a result.

By the midway point, Matsumoto frequently found the shoe on the other foot and during Diva’s reign before Vivy re-awoke, the dynamic was entirely reversed with Diva being the casual and mischievous voice to Matsumoto’s more serious tone.

Basically, watching the evolving relationship between the two characters, whether it was Diva and the teddy-bear form, or Vivy and the cube, or any combination of these characters, they brought an interesting chemistry to the show and their relationship was a strong pillar around which the series was built.

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Moment No. 4 from Vivy: Kakitani Talks To The AI

Vivy saves Kakitani from drowning.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song.

Kakitani appears in the very first arc of Vivy as a young and impressionable terrorist who is rescued from death by Vivy. Apparently that isn’t enough to convince him to change his view on AI because he appears across multiple narrative arcs, aging each time and always as part of TOAK and pretty much always saved by our protagonist.

Episode 5 is particularly note-worthy though because after Vivy rescues him from drowning they have probably the first real conversation in their decades spanning relationship.

As much as I wasn’t keen on how the series brought their relationship to an end and the final outcome for Kakitani ultimately this was another relationship that was interesting to see develop over the course of the series and one that really shaped who Vivy was as a character.

Moment No. 3 From Vivy: Elizabeth Rips Off His Arm

Elizabeth takes the gun, and the arm.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

This was a moment that I actually missed my first time through the penultimate episode as it happened in an instant. By chance I’d captured the still and when I rewatched the fight sequence I couldn’t help but note how cool it was.

Also, this is the one moment that made my top 5 from the series that isn’t a direct Vivy moment.

Instead, the focus is Elizabeth. As Elizabeth helps Vivy and the team break into the tower for the final show down she gets some very cool moments but none are better than when she takes another robot’s gun, arm and all, and then blows him away with it.

Okay, in the grand scheme of things it is a small point and yet it is the small things that sometimes make all the difference and this was a nice little insertion into what is otherwise a pretty standard infiltration mission that goes horribly wrong.

Moment No. 2 From Vivy: Vivy Accepts Her New Mission

Vivy accepts the singularity project.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song.

There’s a moment in every hero’s journey where the hero finally just accepts that they are doing this. Sure they’d already answered the call to action but part of them was hoping someone would help them or somehow things would change and they wouldn’t need to walk that path. And then they realise this is it.

For Vivy, that moment came at the end of the third narrative arc (episode 6) where she 100% committed to the mission Matsumoto had given her. No longer existing only to sing and make people happy, she also had to carry out the singularity project, and she made this choice knowing that it was the only way she could achieve her first goal because the end of the world kind of kills your audience.

However, it was also when Diva and Vivy really became two distinct personalities, a character point that is beautifully built on later in the series.

Anyway, her declaration in this episode marked a real turning point for her character and was just very nicely handled.

Moment No. 1 From Vivy: The Dramatic End To Their First Mission

Vivy takes a leap of faith.
Image from Vivy Fluorite Eye's Song.

And at last we have my favourite moment. It might seem odd that it comes from so early in the series but really it was probably this dramatic conclusion to the first narrative arc that really hooked me into Vivy and set me up for the season of enjoyable viewing that followed.

Basically at the end of the mission, she’s is in a tower that is collapsing and she has to make a dramatic leap into another building.

Cue some solid music accompaniment and a gorgeous animation of her flying past the moon with the glass sparkling around her.

Vivy is wounded and well out of her comfort zone in this mission and this moment felt truly rewarding. Totally impractical and anyone who wants to look at the physics of her jump is going to draw the conclusion that she well and truly didn’t make it, but it was very cool nonetheless and one of those moments that just made me smile.

And isn’t that why we watch any anime?

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song - Best Moments — Share your favourite moments in the comments.

Images from: Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song. Dir. S Ezaki. Wit Studio. 2021.

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Karandi James

From beginning to end, Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song has been a fascinating ride.

Ashley Capes has sponsored reviews of Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song.
https://thereviewheap.home.blog/

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.

Click here for more anime reviews.

Vivy chooses to continue with the Singularity Project.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song. — ^{Vivy makes her choice.}

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 vision of the apocalyptic future.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song. — *^{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.

Vivy giving Matsumoto etiquette lessons.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song. — *^{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 working on her song in the archive.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song. — *^{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 will not give up.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song — *^{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 island to be shut down.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song. — *^{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).

Vivy taking on another computer.
Image from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song — ^{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.