Reviews

Jun 30, 2021
Vivy -- Fluorite Eye's Song

There are many aspects of this show that are great, even spectacular. The art is fantastically handled, some of its higher budget scenes/stills are beautifully drawn. The sound can easily rival the likes found in Macross, a franchise famous in Japan for decades for its music, with the opening song easily a top hit. To top it off, the action scenes are masterfully handled and choreographed.

Looking purely at its superficials, Vivy is easily a masterpiece even given the already glittery scene of anime at its time of release.

If this much is all that matters, stop here. The rest of this review critiques the story, characters and intended messages/thematic exploration as expressed by the show in its presentation and may contain spoilers.

So, where to begin...

Amongst anime, there are only a handful of titles that handle the topic of ever advancing AI and their impact and interactions with human society. While these titles are rare, Vivy is not a first to tackle this topic and there are definitely a few meaningful older titles that can be named: Chobits, Plastic Memories, amongst others.

In Vivy's specific case, the scenario being prominently shown is that of an impending "war" between humanity and the AI that they have created. I put "war" in quotes because the supposed "war" is really more akin to a massive, global scale terrorist attack and not really the traditional idea of a war.

Now, the premise, or "topic" of the anime itself is of great interest. When handled well, it could be the cementing element in a show that can mark that title as a masterpiece for years, and varying how actual AI development in real life ensues, even decades. It is certainly a topic with a great deal of room to explore, and ever so much possibility to bring about an eye-opening tale that enlightens its audience.

However, despite the bold choice of topic, Vivy was not really anything so lofty. It's visuals are great and there will probably be no denying this for at least a few years to come. However, when it comes to exploration of its themes and topics, it didn't really do so hot.

To begin, the very basis of exploring a topic or theme entails that as many perspectives and options are considered and covered. Think of it as a sort of simulation of "what if this happened?" and then try to cover the reasons for why this would happen and the options and viewpoints of the many different people that are affected.

In Vivy, there is an impending "war" between AI and humans, and while one could easily see why some humans would want to coexist with AI (their usefulness, cheaper labor for corporations, etc), the opposite is pretty much left untouched. A terrorist organization exists to specifically stir up hate for AI but why? Did the AIs steal their jobs and left them homeless? They sure don't look that way but if that was the case, say so? Yet the anime never touched upon it. Did an AI steal someone's love interest so the hate stems from emotionally traumatic envy? Well, we can't know. It's not said. It isn't explored.

In the first place, why are AI like Vivy even made? R&D costs money and anyone whose head isn't in the clouds knows this. What economic advantages did the sponsors of such a research and development endeavor see and seek when they funded the creation of an AI that would be self aware and be human-like on the inside? We, as humans, may be driven to reproduce by natural instincts but we are certainly not driven by natural instincts to make AI with a will of its own to potentially defy us with one day. Why not just seek to emulate the functions they are made for, minimize labor costs across all economic fronts and have a surplus society where humans can just live how they want without worrying for food or housing?

None of the above questions are addressed.

Instead, what we have, is a show that is effectively, "Hey, there's an impending war between humans and AI, here's your first mission: do X." "Okay, mission X done? Do mission Y." "Oh by the way there is a viewpoint that doesn't think humans should exists at all, they are the real enemy." But, again, why??????

So, with a bucketload of questions raised but not answered, addressed, or explored, a relatively simple plot of "save the world from chaotic robots" and not a whole lot of artistry to the storytelling techniques used, the story's half of the score deserves two points off.

Moving onto the characterization, the show focuses heavily on its AI characters who actually live long enough throughout the timespan covered by the show, such as Vivy and Matsumoto. Of the humans that get shown, they are simple enough and get enough characterization for side characters of a 13-episode show. The issue is, the AI characters are somewhat cheating the characterization rubric by being... well... not human. It's effectively a cop-out.

On one hand, they aren't human so they aren't subject to the same standards of believability as a normal (biologically) "human" character (elves, dwarfs etc count too). Afterall, the starting basis of reasoning for biological creatures is that they worry about survival and reproduction whereas an AI's basis of reasoning revolves around whatever purpose their creators gave them. On the other, it's not like it would be ethical of me as a reviewer to just shrug that off and pass them with arbitrarily full or half marks.

Still, based on what they are supposed to be, Vivy and Matsumoto, amongst others like Ophelia are supposed to be machines. They behave according to the AI installed/operating in their circuitry but are effectively computers. Some of the things I did expect is better computational prowess for combat situations compared to humans. This is indeed shown to be the case in most of the scenarios where the enemy are a band of humans. However, one inconsistency is the action scenes involving AI vs AI. Watch a computer play chess against another computer and it should be obvious that the opponent AIs in some scenes don't really seem like AI at all in terms of their abilities and are more on par with normal humans. Now we can argue specs if we want to, but one would think if AI are employed for combat scenarios, they shouldn't be too low spec.

Other inconsistencies are as already discussed above, why do AI have a "heart"? But let's assume that there was an explanation. Well, for beings that should have a "heart", they certainly do seem very monotone in their behavior. One would think constant interaction with humans would give them a bit more lively of a personality. The only one that passed this was alter-ego Diva. It also took an awfully long time for Vivy to write a song of her own volition whereas those with a "heart" generally have no problems expressing themselves of their own volition.

Now, I won't dock points off characterization for stuff that's more or less a story/premise/thematic issue, but I believe it would be fair to take off two here, one for each fault noted.

Still, the show is a good scorer overall. The perfect choreography, stills, and music definitely bumps the score up. While I initially gave this show a tentative 8/10 while watching, the final score comes out to a respectable 7/10.

Story: 6 - Characterization: 6 - Art: 10 - Sound: 9
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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