The new original anime with script by Nagatsuki Tappei has premiered. “Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song-“ released its first 2 episodes already, and it already seems promising enough to me to say it might turn out as one of the best anime shows of the Spring 2021 season. Two of the reasons are in the title. WIT Studio is handling the animation production. They previously worked on the first 3 seasons of Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, and most recently Great Pretender. The artstyle and animation are beautiful, as fans have come to expect from the studio.
The story is written by Nagatsuki Tappei and Umehara Eiji. It’s Umehara Eiji’s first work where he’s credited as the original creator, but he’s worked on the script for Beelzebub, he’s the main scriptwriter of the visual novel ChäoS;Child, and he also worked on some episodes of Re:Zero’s first season, among other series. Nagatsuki Tappei, on the other hand, is the original creator of Re:Zero, and many anime fans now know his name. He also worked on the script for Senyoku no Sigrdrifa last year. He’s delivered plenty of suffering to both his characters and us, and it looks like we’ll be seeing more of it in Vivy. The music is also great, with Kousaki Satoru in charge.
The story begins with AI going rogue on the humans, mercilessly slaughtering them as cheerful music plays in the background. A scientist voiced by Takehito Koyasu (Dio, Zeke, Roswaal) manages to hang on and escapes to a computer room. He seemingly does something to help save the situation by altering the past, and leaves it all to Diva. Now, we saw Diva before the massacre began, and she seemed to have been hurt or something judging by her hand. She just warmed up her voice and went outside. Some minutes later, as the scientist was about to lose his life, he talked about her. He said the burden of the 100 years was too heavy, and that she was the one who saved him. We saw some flashbacks and he asked her to “one more time, for who I was that day” as he got shot.
After this, we are apparently back a 100 years in the past. Diva is an AI who has one mission, to make everyone happy with her singing. But don’t let the music tag stop you from watching this. The only time we actually got singing so far was when the AIs were killing people at the very beginning, and a few lines when Diva gets introduced. She is voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki (Chise from Magus’ Bride, Mjurran from Tensura). She works at the NiaLand park, but no one visits her stage. One day, she breaks down and something like a virus infiltrates her ‘system’. It tells explains to her that it came from the future and that it needs help to destroy AIs.
It uses its programmer name, Matsumoto, and takes the body of a bear Diva got as a present from a little girl, her fan. The voice actor is Fukuyama Jun (Koro-Sensei, Lelouch, King), and he speaks almost too fast for the subtitles to follow. He then tries to convince Diva he’s really from the future, but she doesn’t believe him. That changes a bit when he predicts a nearby event and ends up affecting an important life, which they then work on saving. There were many beautiful shots, and the story just got started. We don’t know if Matsumoto is really from the future. He might actually be a villain who’s behind the future’s events, and there are many other possibilities to think of. There’s also the chance they aren’t even in the past.
We know and expect suffering and plot twists just because it’s Nagatsuki Tappei, and the setting will potentially allow for some really huge ones. We did get something unexpected at the end of the second episode already, though might be too much of a spoiler if anyone reading wants to watch it. Both episodes are out on Funimation, and you can also read their synopsis:
NiaLand is an A.I. theme park that brings dreams to life with science. Vivy, the first autonomous android to work there, has hopes of making people happy with her singing. One day, an A.I. teddy bear named Matsumoto appears, claiming to have come from 100 years in the future—where a war between A.I. and humans rages. Their century-long journey starts now!
The title of the first episode was “My Code – To Make Everyone Happy With My Singing”. Episode 2 was “Quarter Note – The Beginning of the One Hundred-Year Journey”. And episode 3 will be titled “A Tender Moon Tempo – A Pleasant Chat with the Stars”. It will premiere next Saturday on April 10.
It’s far too soon to say “Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song-” or any other anime is the best of Spring 2021, but the first 2 episodes show huge promise, and it’s definitely an anime you should not sleep on and give a shot at least!
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All images via Funimation
Official Website: vivy-portal.com
Official Twitter: @vivy_portal
©Vivy Score / アニプレックス・WIT STUDIO