Vividred Operation

I am usually loath to dropping a series, but 6 episodes into Vividred Operation and I can't watch any more. I initially chose to watch this anime as it was an original and I love when visual media can put out something spectacular all on it's own. Unfortunately for me though, visual media has failed me this time.

Story - 3
An interesting initial concept but everything is very dull and predictable. The story plods along very straight forwardly without any twists or turns and you know exactly what is going to happen when the outline of the episode is shown in the opening minutes. I felt ... as if my time had been wasted by the end of each episode.

Art - 8
The highlight of the series. The animation quality is up to the industry standard in this day and age however, the bright, vibrant sceneries and characters make every scene extremely pleasant to watch. If I had one issue it would be that the fight scenes with the Alone could have been more spectacular but they do still look good regardless.

Sound - 5
There's nothing to complain about but also nothing to praise. All the voice actors do their job adequately, however due to the simpleness of the plot, and thus dialogue, there is not really anything in particular to note. . The ending theme does change with each episode, depending what the episode is focused on, which is a nice touch. However, the opening theme doesn't stand out at all and don't get you pumped up and ready to watch the episode.The background music suits every scene but it doesn't really stand out or add anything to the scene.

Character - 3
There are no real stand out characters, all of our protagonists fit generic archetypes and have no progression. The only interesting character is Rei, a mysterious girl who is in Akane's class but seems to be helping the Alone's. However, when her story is explored in episode 5, you can pretty much map out what is going to happen to her for the rest of the series, making her just as dull as the others.

Enjoyment - 2
My main gripe with the show, other than the points above, is that for some reason, it is regulation for middle schools' female uniform to consist of hot pants. There seems to be no practicality to this other than to get as many butt shots of the girls in the show as possible. I was left laughing and sighing at some of the ridiculous shots that were either nothing but butt or included someone's butt at the side of the shot for no good reason. When a big breasted girl gets thrown into the fray the ridiculousness just gets worse. I feel as I've said butt way to many times in the paragraph, but hey, there's VO has a lot of butts!

Overall - 4
If you want to just sit and let your mind do nothing for 24 minutes and you don't mind seeing an abundant of ridiculous fan service, then you might be able to get some enjoyment out of this series. On my experience though, I cannot recommend Vividred Operation to anyone as, other than the visuals, there is nothing to recommend.

I was going to write an introduction to slowly draw the reader in, and compel them to read my review. It was going to be full of evocative language and rhetorical flourishes. But you know what? This is going to be crazy long as it is. Let's just get started.

STORY:
Awful plotting, awful continuity, and awful character motivations. Yeah. That about sums it up.

Vividred Operation is a decent series. It's about a young girl who, one day through strange happenstance, stumbles upon a threat that could wreak chaos upon the Earth, and takes up arms against a threat from another world.

Oh, sorry. That's Magical ... Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Let me try again.

Vividred Operation isn't a bad show. It's about a few young girls who team up to become magical girls. However, the show is less about the plot itself, as it is about the relationships between the characters. Despite its flaws, it manages to be a memorable show with some solid characterization and interesting twists on the magical-girl formula throughout.

Oh, sorry. That's Puella Magi Madoka Magica. One more time.

The problem with Vividred Operation is that it doesn't really try to do much that was new. It doesn't try to put a spin on tired material. It doesn't... try to do much of anything. The story is just a mish-mash of tried tropes tossed into a blender by some uncreative writers that thought that whole silly "writing a creative story" nonsense would simply get in the way of their panty shots.

The amount of continuity glitches, plot holes, and ignorance of base human psychology run rampant. Characters know things they could only know through reading the script. The show's "science" is more or less a bunch of gobby-gook that the writers make up on the spot. The show doesn't bother to even try to keep its own continuity straight!

Yes, yes. I know the plot is goofy. I know that I'm probably not supposed to take it seriously. That's no excuse to not try. The show isn't even popcorn-movie level entertaining, because of the rampant continuity glitches and illogical and incoherent character behavior. It distracts you and pulls you out of the story even IF you're trying to do nothing but have a good time!

CHARACTERS:
Oh, hey! Let's chat about the characters! They existed. Aside from Kuroki Rei, I'd say that we already have a solid candidate for the most boring cast of 2013.

I don't know what to say about most of Vividred Operation's cast. I thought about comparing them to cardboard cutouts, but then I realized exactly how cruel that was to cardboard cutouts. Here's your typical Vividred Character: They have a name. They have one or two defining character traits. In essence, that makes up their entire identity as a fictional being.

But what about character development? Nah. Almost all of them go through a minimal character arc, and really... don't do that much. The story really tries to make it look like the cast is developing, they really do. But we don't see it. The characters seem to go through experiences that should change their attitude towards other members of the cast, and then this is mostly disregarded and almost never talked about again. There is little self-reflection, and almost none of the characters even bother having any kind memorable backstory.

Notice that I kept using qualifiers. There is a single character of interest: Rei Kuroki. She's a dark magical girl (Well, Dark Sufficiently-Advanced-Technology Girl), who is working with the Alone and their mysterious benefactors for reasons unknown to the viewer. She's actually a rather compelling character- she has an interesting personality, she pretty much steals every scene that she's in, and when you learn her motivations, they actually make some degree of sense. (Okay, that's partially because she's a blatant rip-off of Fate from Nanoha. But I'll take what I can get.)

The villians are rather stock with unimpression motivations. There's really no reason to watch the entire show just to learn exactly why the Alone are coming to Earth: it isn't a plot twist of mind-bending proportions.

So congratulations Vividred. You managed to have one memorable character. In the long run? Doesn't amount to much.

Art:
Looks pretty, but ruined by the blatant fanservice.

The animation is smooth, the character designs are decent (although several of the characters are colored such that they look like they're blushing half the time, which annoyed me), and the backgrounds are fantastically done. The show definitely does look pretty. So why did this get such a low score? Because of the blatant fanservice shots. And are there plenty of blatant fanservice shots. The amount of fanservice in the show is simply obscene, and in the end there is no excuse for it.

Sound:
Opening and Ending are pretty meh. Maaya Uchida is pretty much the only voice actress that even tries, and the sound is overall rather bland.

Really, there isn't much to say about the music in Vividred Operation. It's... okay? I guess? It's nothing particularly special, and rather easy to tune out. The opening theme and end theme aren't bad, but they're pretty generic, as far as openings and endings are concerned. Nothing separates them from the hundreds of competing OPs and EDs out there.

The seiyuu performances are... acceptable. They certainly are voices, and there certainly is acting, but pretty much none of them even try to go beyond their comfort zone and add personality to their performance. The except is Maaya Uchida, who voices Rei. She really does try to add some nuance to Rei's character, and you can tell that she's putting the effort in. It definitely adds to the show, and is probably a key part of what makes Rei a compelling character. It's just a shame her talent is wasted on this show.

So... what have we learned?:

Vividred Operation is a mess. Bad characterization, poor plotting, blatant pandering, and just poorly thought out on every level. There are plenty of shows that do exactly what Vividred tries to do, and do it better.

I love the part with the mayonnaise in Vividred Operation, I felt like that was a very emotional part and a great representation of America. You start with rice, which represents a new land, unexplored by people other than the native residents. Then suddenly a vessel containing a foreign kind of edible substance arrives, and it begins to unload itself onto the barren rice, and soon the rice on the top is overwhelmed by the sudden flash of mayonnaise. Oh, but it doesn't stop there, nope, the mayonnaise just keeps on pouring, completely submerging the top layer of rice. The submerged rice is then dug ... up and devoured, revealing the plain rice that was being protected by those on the surface. They are then, in turn, covered with mayonnaise and are consumed. The mayonnaise continues to pour as the rice is devoured, leaving nothing but mayonnaise in the rice bowl, thus the bowl is now a mayonnaise bowl. However it isn't long until the main protagonist of the show has to run off and perform the necessary tasks to continue the supposed plot that exists in the show. And once she leaves, the mayonnaise that took over the bowl is left unattended. Eventually, the mayonnaise will begin to spoil and rot from it's own developments, thus leading to the downfall of the mayonnaise and the bowl is left useless. Then the girl gets home and washes the bowl, only to put another serving of rice in it, thus beginning the circle of life all over again.

Ya amuricuh

Watching this anime was painful in so many different ways, it's not all bad though so I'll try my best not to bash it too much...

STORY: The story....this anime is one drawn out lesson of friendship conquers all, so basically expect the basic magical girl formula but with technology and aliens thrown in. The story is so irrelevant that if you watch the episodes where the girls join you could skip to the end and still be able to follow the story. Basically it's power rangers meets the powerpuff girls except less awesome than that sounds and more likely to make you hate your computer/ ... TV screen.
ART: The art is pretty good, the designs for the alone particularly the speaker's final form and the girls' docking transformations were awesome; it has that bright slice of life kind of feel the CG was amazing
SOUND: The sound was pretty much average the opening and ending themes are nothing memorable and the voice actors do their jobs, nothing more, nothing less the background music does a good job of staying in the background.
CHARACTER: I have never hated a group of characters as much as the ones in this anime,the girls are all pallete swaps of each other with one or two character quirks added that attempt to make friends with anything on two legs that they come across. Every single character is an underdeveloped cliché cardboard cutout. The most interesting character was the villain of the series who in my opinion was too good for such a weak show.
ENJOYMENT: There was no joy here only suffering, I fell asleep more times than I could count and developed a newfound respect for the deep characterization and story telling that is power rangers, this show finally made me question my commitment to finish whatever I start and when I found I still had 7 episodes to go I came as close to existential despair as I ever have.
OVERALL: I'm not exactly sure who this anime is for, the bright colors and non-existent story tell me it's for 10 year old girls maybe but the little girl swallowing, universe breaking entity at the end says otherwise, I'm sure somebody in some dark remote corner of the universe will watch this and like it but unless you want to keep being beaten over the head with "friendship conquers all" for 12 episodes watch something else, hell the bad guys are even called the alone so yeah it was pretty bad
P.S: The so called ass-centric ecchi scenes aren't worth it

(This is a spoiler-free review adapted for this site)

[Synopsis]: In the future 95% of the world’s energy is supplied by the Manifestation Engine – a massive machine that purportedly harnesses the power of the sky. One day giant, mysterious entities known as ‘Alone’ appear and attempt to destroy the engine however it’s inventor, Kenjirou Isshiki (Terasoma, Masaki), creates the Vivid System in order to combat them. His granddaughter, Isshiki Akane (Sakura, Ayane) and her friends utilize the Vivid System to transform into mech-like warriors in order to fight back against the Alone and save both the Manifestation Engine and Earth.

[Characters]:

The main characters in the ... show are Isshiki Akane and her three friends who she gathers over the first few episodes in quick succession.

Because the show is essentially a mahou shoujo you can expect what Akane’s character is like – upbeat, cheery, enthusiastic, and friendly. She is quick to latch on to people and can become upset when she can’t help others or when she fails. I feel that, while Akane is a perfectly fine character within the context of the show, her character-type defines her to a T and at no point did I feel that she was a departure from the cute, friendly magical girl trope that she exhibits. Because she is what she appears to be and never anything more I felt pretty bored with her as a character.

The other characters are not much different unfortunately. As mahou shoujo are classically color oriented, Akane’s friends of course exhibited the characteristics more or less associated with their archetypes and become the blue, green, and yellow magical girls alongside Akane’s red. They aren't very complex characters and ultimately just want to be friends with each other like ‘all young girls’.

To explore the remaining characters – Akane’s grandfather is fairly present but is accidentally transformed into a plush sea otter thus fulfilling the show’s professed necessity in having the classic animal companion/guide for the magical girls. While the antagonist(s) of the show are the Alone that attempt to destroy the Manifestation Engine, there is of course the ‘dark magical girl’ who works against Akane and her companions. Kuroki, Rei (Uchida, Maaya) is more or less similar to everyone else in the show in that she exemplifies her archetype and behaves throughout the show accordingly. She is lonely and desperate but not beyond saving and this character trait, as always, serves as a good amount of tension within the show.

[Art/Animation]:

The art was on point and pretty high-quality in A-1 Studio’s fashion. The show used CG quite well and to good effect in the action sequences without making it look out of place or distracting. The character designs are pretty much what you would expect of a mahou shoujo – the girls are each somewhat oriented towards their magical girl color each other visible trait backs this up in different ways. Takamura Kazuhiro is responsible for both the character designs and directing and this feels incredibly similar in approach to one of his renowned shows Strike Witches. You can hardly go a few minutes without having multiple crotch and ass shots of the girls even in casual dialogue and while I would describe this approach as distracting and distasteful, other people gravitate to this style and so I simply want to prepare prospective watchers for this element of the show.

The other thing I feel that I need to touch upon is the transformation sequences. In classic mahou shoujo style each girl has a transformation sequence when they shift into their Vivid engine palette suit and additionally a transformation beyond this when any of the girls combine with Akane to create a more powerful mech-girl. The sequences themselves are really well animated and are some of the better transformation sequences I have seen and they aren't done to death each episode like they are in some shows (they are often more tastefully edited down so that they do not play the full sequence each time after the audience is acquainted with them). While they are very good sequences I wouldn't say they are reason enough to watch the show – only one strong element alongside the good animation and CG.

[Story]:

I want to be upfront with the fact that, Vividred Operation is not a show that borrows elements from mahou shoujo in order to create a new genre or explore the story differently – it feels most akin to a reskin of the genre itself, substituting ‘technology’ in place of explicit magic and trading away certain design points in similar fashion. The show sticks very closely to its premise in that the magical mech girls defend the engine from the invasive Alone and eventually reach a final conflict in which the fate of things are decided. It is not an original plot but it doesn't pretend to be one. The show is not comedic however the characters are moe and by product of this there are comedic elements within the show despite the fact that it lacks gags or even mild jokes – it is comedic in the same way that being cute is comedic.

Something I have to stress to prospective viewers of the show is that you cannot ask questions when it comes to the underlying logic of the show – Once you do, everything starts to unravel because hardly anything makes sense to begin with outside of the large picture conflict between a foreign entity and us, the human race. I say this because there is a great danger in what Vividred does when it trades away its aesthetic elements of magic for those of the technological. It is somewhat neat to have mech-girls instead of inexplicably magical ones however by making the show rely on technology, a purportedly explainable thing rather than magic, the typically incomprehensible element of the show – it begs explanation for each piece of ‘technology’ it utilizes. Now of course there is no explanation for why anything works the way it does and that is the slippery slope where the show is concerned.

Why does Akane’s grandfather make the ‘docking’ (the combination of two girls into one stronger girl) require a kiss to activate the Vivid Drive? Why is the Vivid System capable of self-replicating in the case of Akane’s friends however is not put to greater use in order to destroy the Alone? Why are the palette suits, which are empowered by means of the Manifestation Engine, immune to EMP’s while everything else in the world that runs off of the engine is treated normally? There are no enjoyable answers to these questions and there is nothing to read into – they are simple logical inconsistencies born out of poor writing and lazy implementation. You would be much better off treating the show as if they were just magical girls and frankly you’d have a hard time proving that they aren’t. Clarke’s third law has a place in all of this (that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic) however it is the fundamental reasoning behind the implantation and use of the technology rather than its actual existence that is called into question.

All of that aside, because the show relies so heavily on all of the tropes and elements of the classical mahou shoujo genre, it is highly predicable in the plot department and so needless to say this is probably the show’s weakest point.

[Music]:

The music was one of the better parts about the show. It was pretty good all things considered and my only gripes are that it didn't have much diversity in that most of the songs sounded the same (which worked fine for the show) and that occasionally the scene would demand more tense music but the score at the time was awkwardly upbeat and heroic which somewhat damaged the mood rarely.

[Final Thoughts and Rating]:

Vividred Operation is a show where you get what you expect. If you know going in that the show could be summed up as ‘well-animated fan-service put to pretty decent music’ then you would find just that and not much else outside of minor character quirks.

Because of the route the show took, in occupying all of the classic themes of majou shoujo and nothing else, it lacked the extra ‘something’ that made those shows work in their own way. Just as an example – there really is no ‘coming of age’ element in Vividred however it can commonly be found within the genre. Something like that would have greatly improved the show in my opinion because it would have given the show a sense of sentimentality and relatability – giving the show an ultimate meaning amongst the otherwise nonsensical things that transpire.

Rating: 4

I give Vividred Operation a 4 because at the end of the day I can only think of it as unoriginal, nonsensical in the extreme, and hyper-sexualized to the point of being obnoxious. I like the animation and the music and the transformation sequences are really good however everything else fails pretty spectacularly. It over-acknowledges its genre and never tries to be anything more than what came before it.

[Recommendations]:

Because of the nature of being a ‘4’ I probably wouldn't recommend Vividred to anyone because I feel like the genre is executed elsewhere far better. Its a perfectly fine show if your aim is to watch fan-service within a mahou shoujo

There may be an argument for Vividred being a decent gateway show into the genre of mahou shoujo, especially to those who are more skeptical of it, because it has decent action and the animation and music is on point. However I would say that even this is a dangerous sentiment as the show could also very easily turn people off of the genre entirely because of its negative aspects. If one can approach the show with this in mind, then it would probably be an alright thing to explore tentatively.

Hamtaro and his friends learn the importance of friendship. With a lot of ass shots in the way.

Watch it if you wear a fedora, haven't got other anime to watch and you have nothing else to do.

I have a couple of animes I consider "guilty pleasures". I know they're below average, but I was sucked in by an interesting universe, premise, or art style, and became invested in what I was watching. Even when things become dull or predictable, I continue to plow through because I genuinely want to see what is next. I'm INVESTED.

Vividred Operation fails to invoke investment. At all. In any way.

The entire thing felt like magical girl paint-by-numbers constructed from the leftover scraps of Strike Witches. "Spiritual successor"? More like "shameless knock-off"!

The first 2 episodes were some of the most ... painful I've ever experienced since Sword Art Online, and since Vividred was aired back in 2013, I have no problem giving you plenty of spoilers.

A list of complaints, given in mostly-chronological order (I refuse to go back and do research, it's not worth it):

Why is the genius scientist grandfather turned into a stuffed animal? Does it serve the plot? Will it lead to anything? Nope! We needed a cute animal mascot for our magical girl show without any magic, and he was the least important character, so he got the short straw. They literally throw out some science-y gobbledegook and handwave how he ended up transferring his consciousness. At least Lyrical Nanoha character Yuuno had a REASON for being a ferret (He was a mage, and injured, and transformed to conserve energy and later to remain incognito. It gets dropped once the plot picks up and we don't need a mascot anymore.).

The island is being destroyed! Planes are being shot down left and right! Entire ships are sinking, drowning thousands of sailors! What is your reaction, Akane?!
"How terrible."
Do you mind not sounding like you're reading off your grocery list, Akane?!
"How terrible."
This is a warzone, Akane! Put some actual EMOTION into it!
"Look, Aoi! You get to be a psuedoscience girl, too! Wow! Your outfit is so pretty, even though it's the exact same as mine in a different color!"
I DIDN'T MEAN LIKE THAT!

Say Akane, didn't you used to be afraid of heights?
"I got over it."
I know you just saved your friend from certain death and all, but trauma-born fears don't just-
"I GOT OVER IT."
Okay, okay, you got over it. Sheesh...

So the whole reason Akane and Aoi can't "dock" (basically fusion dance with double entendre name because FANSERVICE) is because of friendship troubles. What deep, dark secret is preventing them from fusing?
Well, when Akane first met Aoi, she decided to randomly give her a tomato pulled right out of her ass (including obligatory ass shot).
It's just like, BOOM HI I ALMOST HIT YOU WITH A NEWSPAPER WANT A ****ING TOMATO?!
And apparently this is enough to ruin their friendship because Aoi hates tomatoes! So she lies. This is not a big deal, but the show makes it out to be because FRIENDSHIP. Even Akane thinks her tomato-lying-friendship-crap is crap, and they transform into a cool-looking fusion. It's still kinda disappointing, but we needed more looking cool, and less being cool. We're cool like that.
This is all done with flashbacks in the middle of a ****ing warzone, by the way. So there's that.

Okay, so there's a lot of fanservice in this show. Unlike Kill la Kill, you can't ignore it in favor of the awesome. And unlike Strike Witches, there's no in-universe excuse for the butt shots.
You see, Strike Witches gets away with it by not only having lots of World War II paraphernalia, but by establishing a universe where magic meets science, and taking some refuge in audacity. At one point in the second season they test fly a JET version of the Striker units, and the girl using it carries FOUR 30 mm cannons and a FIFTY MILLIMETER CANNON that's THREE TIMES AS LONG AS SHE IS TALL! That's awesome, that's amazing, but it's even better because there are canon reasons behind all of it.
Strike Witches ensures its characters are always in their panties because they couldn't use their equipment otherwise. The Striker units are worn on the legs, so every time you get a butt shot, chances are you get a shot of something vaguely resembling a WW2 era plane. Not to mention that the show has military attitude. Butt shots aside, you will never see a Strike Witch gush over how cool they look or have friendship problems while battleships are sinking.
It's do or die, and that gives the show some much-needed investment, because if the CHARACTERS are invested, then the VIEWERS are invested. And it's hard to care about the fate of the world when the main characters are still squealing over their bright shiny new costumes and superpowers.



Overall, I couldn't watch this show. You want a show with mecha magical girls? Try Lyrical Nanoha for technomagic, plot, and character. Try Strike Witches for WW2, technomagic, and butt shots. Try Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill if you want mechas, plot, character, butt shots and HOTBLOOD. Try Gonna be the Twin-tail if you want mecha girls and genderflip.

Don't try Vividred Operation. The only thing you'll get is a nosebleed...no, not that kind! The kind you get after slamming your head against the wall!

I saw a preview of this anime on YouTube, and saw several scenes about the military which looked good to watch, that's why I tried watching this anime.
But unfortunately there are too many shortcomings!

1. The story telling is not neat, in my opinion this is almost similar to Mahou Shoujo anime or similar.

2. The character's character is bad, even though the character design is cute, it is made to be cheerful, even though it is in a state of war against the enemy.

3. There was a lot of screaming, I got bored hearing the voice of the main character who often shouted Aoichan......!!!

4. Comedy that ... is forced and doesn't know the place, in my opinion, is very inappropriate in the midst of a battle that claimed many victims inserted with comedy that isn't even funny at all.

Finally, this anime is only shown to people who like fan service and does not prioritize the storyline or anything else, So I hope you don't watch it unless it's just for fun without thinking about how this anime conveys the story.