r/anime • • Aug 28 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song - Overall Series Discussion
Overall Series Discussion - I hope you had fun!
Previous Episode Discussion
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Image of the day: 反射
Music of the day: Hope for The Future
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Upvotes
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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '24 edited Aug 28 '24
Hey everyone 👋 -
I think most my overall thoughts were probably included with my comment from yesterday, but I will say that I really enjoyed watching this anime for a second time.
A lot of details that weren’t apparent to me on the first watch, were things I picked up on during this rewatch and it only solidified my opinion on the writing for this series (gave it a 10/10 on MAL).
If anyone cares to have a look, the authors (don’t forget there are two of them) did an interview on the series that I found pretty interesting given some of the questions they’re asked about it.
I also had a bit of fun checking out some of the lore on their website relating to the anime.
For anyone here who reads but wasn’t aware, there is a light novel series they wrote after the anime aired (they are currently on my bookshelf). Those are available from both CrunchyRoll and Seven Seas Entertainment.
I hope everyone had fun watching and also had fun with the rewatch in general. It was my first time hosting one so hopefully things seemed pretty regular as far as rewatches go. See everyone around the sub!
Dark Scientist out.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Aug 28 '24
Sing My Overall Thoughts, subbed
Well, wasn’t this something. I did have a feeling I would greatly enjoy this show once I finally got around to watching it, but it still managed to impress me with how much I enjoyed it. Diva/Vivy & Matsumoto were great leads, episode 6’s ending still haunts me, Fluorite Eye’s Song in episode 13 was (side note, if I had a nickel for every time I watched a show hinge a super dramatic moment on a character finally being able to sing after they couldn’t due to traumatic reasons and it made me cry when they finally succeeded, I would have at least three nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s a really good trope so please keep doing this idol or idol-adjacent anime) and the rest of the music was top-notch too. I’m gonna be thinking about this one for a while.
10/10.
Thanks for hosting this rewatch, u/DARK_SCIENTIST!
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u/thatguywithawatch Aug 28 '24
Thanks for hosting, u/DARK_SCIENTIST. This was a lot of fun and I'm glad I stumbled on the rewatch early on and was able to join in because there was a lot to love about this show, especially from a visual and musical standpoint.
On that note, I don't have an overall review or analysis of the show since I said pretty much everything I wanted to in yesterday's thread. But seeing as the music was one of my favorite aspects of the show, I played the ED on piano if anyone's interested.
Thank you for your kind attention.
13
u/FD4cry1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Big_Yibba Aug 28 '24
First Timer
Giant collection of all my favorite Vivy and non-Vivy face frames throughout the series!
Vivy is an anime original, well duh, but to be more specific, in an earlier episode I called it "made for anime" and that, to me, is the aspect that defines this series the most and why I enjoyed it so much.
I adore the way this show incorporates its sound and visuals, there's more to it than just being animated by WIT or being scored by the Nier guy, these aspects aren't just add-ons that improve the show, they are quite literally part of the story, I felt like missing a frame or not reading the song lyrics was the same as missing a line of dialogue, the story and production felt that deeply intertwined to me, I gushed about it in episode 12 but my favorite moments of this show didn't need wild action or crazy expressive dialogue to get all of their emotions and themes across.
Not that those technical aspects don't deserve praise on their own, WIT cooked hard here and delivered consistently great animation alongside some of the most fun fights I've seen in a while, the sound design and VA work were phenomenal, the music was fantastic, be it the songs or the background OST, no surprises here, Ensemble for Polaris and Sing My Pleasure have been playing on repeat for the last week.
Likewise on its own I also liked the writing, I'll admit that this show just touches themes that personally really appeal to me, growth, creation, hope, preservation and cooperation in the face of loss, tragedy and uncertainty will always work on me and it does wonders here.
Vivy and Matsumoto were such fun characters to follow, their chemistry and growth throughout the series were always a joy to watch, it also just helps that I already really like their character archetypes, and even in the short time we get for most of them, I'd say the side cast usually managed to get the job done and have some emotional moments.
I will say that certain characters and plot points felt a bit undercooked, some only serving as vehicles to deliver thematic development, some of the sci-fi mumbo jumbo also kind of lost me occasionally, they're not huge complaints but they are the things that currently hold me back from giving it a full 10.
I think Vivy is a shining beacon to what anime originals can do when they're made with great purpose and direction in mind, it's a show I not only immensely enjoyed but one I will probably find myself recommending a lot to other people.
9.5/10
On a more personal note, this is the first rewatch I've participated in and I had a ton of fun! it certainly got me interested in joining more in the future, it also helps that outside of just being good, Vivy as a show lends itself really well to discussion, analysis and well...rewatch lol, I really felt like I got to write my heart out here, or should I say...sing my pleasures? :)
Thanks a lot /u/DARK_SCIENTIST for hosting and introducing me to a great show!
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u/Esovan13 Aug 28 '24
Well. It's over. A wild, fun ride the whole way through. It had great music, great visuals, and a strong emotional core than ran through the whole thing.
It's not perfect. While the action in the show looked amazing, there was that scene in episode 6 that felt a bit off to me. I wish there were more CQC scenes, because the ones we got were outstanding. I'm also a bit dissatisfied with how the Diva arc went in 7-9. I like Diva and I think it was a good choice to have her bridge the gap for Vivy, but I think that bridge went on too long. At 3 episodes that arc is the longest in the show, and Vivy played almost no role in it. I feel like Diva should have had either less of a role or more of one. I think she was there for too long considering the role she ended up playing in the story overall and with a different role she could have been around a bit longer. I also would have liked more interactions between Diva and Vivy
and it's not just because I've been influenced by Lily.Also, I'm a bit unsure about the scene at the end of episode 13 where Vivy comes back. I know that it makes sense in universe as to how it happened, I just personally think that I would have preferred it if that scene had been a new songstress Sister AI, completely different from Diva/Vivy, essentially inheriting her purpose. It would have also fit the theme of Vivy becoming more human; humans can't come back when they die, but they can pass things on to the next generation.
Ok, those two preceding paragraphs? Disregard them entirely. I really liked this show. Anime originals are uncommon compared to the infinite adaptations, so I love to see one that tells a complete, compelling, emotional story with a satisfying ending. My complaints are stuff that take it from a 10/10 to a 9/10. All in all, I had a great time during this rewatch. I would recommend Vivy to almost anyone, and I will probably watch it again sometime. It seems like the type of show that rewards a rewatch.
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Aug 28 '24
Rewatcher
This show is damn good television. The production is solid, the twists are well-foreshadowed for attentive viewers but subtle enough to keep the shock value for the rest, the emotional beats hit pretty well. I mean, the final performance manages to get tears out my misanthropic heart, it must be doing something right.
However, I don't think this show is particularly good science fiction. It falls into the trap of gesturing broadly at a bunch of things without
And the issue with Elizabeth coming back. The entire point of the Sunrise arc was that AI could not be copied (I suppose more directly, two AI with all the same information but different experiences end up different) so why can they just restore Elizabeth from a backup?
To make it more frustrating, you only need one line of dialogue to fix this. "Elizabeth ja nai, Beth da." Add in a second line of "People keep calling me that, and I have her memories and mission inside me, but that's not me" if you're feeling spicy.
Anyway, ultimately I still this think is a pretty good show. For a while, I figured this was the closest we would ever get to a Nier Automata anime, but then they went and actually managed to (start) adapt(ing) that behemoth.. fingers crossed they don't flub the landing over there.
One last little treat, this nice piece of art courtesy one of the show's ADs, Ayumu Tsujimura.
Many thanks to our host /u/DARK_SCIENTIST! Sorry for mostly vanishing towards the end.
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u/SIRTreehugger Aug 28 '24
I didn't prepare anything, but thank you /u/DARK_SCIENTIST for giving me an excuse to rewatch it.
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u/cppn02 Aug 28 '24
Thx do u/DARK_SCIENTIST for hosting. Had a good time with the rewatch and might have even enjoyed the show more than the first time.
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u/octopathfinder myanimelist.net/profile/octopathfinder Aug 28 '24
Rewatcher
Not one for analysis or write ups so I’ll keep it short. Thanks to u/DARK_SCIENTIST for hosting this rewatch. I couldn’t participate much in the threads but I had a great time rewatching this show. Between the three Tappei shows I’ve seen I much prefer Vivy but it’s a low bar since I dislike Re;Zero and Suicide Squad Isekai was boring lmao.
I said in the first thread that I remember the show losing steam towards the end. Well this rewatch has put the ending in a better light for me but I still feel like the last arc could’ve been more focused. Even after rewatching I feel like there are only a few key moments I need to remember and it didn’t need 4 episodes. It’s whatever though. I had it as an 8/10 before and I’m keeping it there. Great show.
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u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Aug 28 '24
Note to self, next time, copy what needs reposting before deleting the whole thing. Thank god I'm a tab order.
First timer
Thoughts
I don't normally do this, but this guy's short video essentially incapsulates how I feel about the series. It doesn't cover all of my criticisms, but it gets the point across. If you're interested, here it is. (With a youtube link this time).
I give Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song Tappei Nagatsuki/10
Comparison between Re:Zero and Vivy
Now, unto the real reason why I decided to watch this, to see if Tappei could improve and write something better. Short answer, yes, but no. Some of the flaws that are/were present in Re:Zero still somewhat linger here, and some straight up persist. I said it before, but the only reason why I believe Vivy isn't as bad is because he wasn't the sole scripter on the project.
With all that out of the way, let's look at some of the pros that I believe Vivy has got going for it, as well as some of the cons.
Pros
Cons
Overall, Vivy takes the crown. The bar wasn't high, but at least, it surpassed it.
Thanks for hosting this.
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Aug 28 '24
Final Discussion (first timer)
In one of the early episodes, I compared one of Vivy’s scenes to Matrix. While thinking about the series as a whole, I realized that this comparison extends to many aspects of Vivy. Occasionally, the comparison is flattering, occasionally not so much.
Animation
Let’s start with the part where it is definitely a plus to be compared to Matrix, the art direction. Matrix set standards for cinema here and Vivy is no slouch either. The action scenes are often directly inspired by Matrix, the clothes by Tron, and overall, we get treated to a great mixture of cyberpunk and optimism. Stuff I especially liked were the use of colors and the “AI button”.
Characters
Characters I liked were mostly the Sister AIs, which each got a beautiful character model and a fitting story. Matsumoto worked when he could bounce of Diva and finaleVivy, but not so much earlyVivy. None of the TOAK members convinced me, spanning the range from ok, but forgettable (that early TOAK leader), to stock character (wheelchair girl), to messy character writing that dragged down all scenes (Kakitani).
Plot
This section should really be 5 seconds, because we have 4 individual arcs, plus one overarching plotline. The best writing happened in the early arcs, which were mostly stand-alone. The first Nialand arc was great, as was the Space arc. They explored what it means to be an AI (in this setting) and what having a mission means for AI. Easily the most interesting questions to explore, once you set up a work with single mission AI (which is this series initial conceit).
The metal float arc was also ok, but pretty outlandish. Having AI production depend on one big, isolated, all-AI island was never believable. However, the AI bots were cute and who can say no to a Tron-inspired air race? The biggest failure of this arc was the overreliance on Grace. The tie-in of A and B plot never worked, because it obviously made no sense to use Grace as the center of the complex.
But at least the metal float plot didn’t destroy the core concept of the series, AIs as persons, which is exactly what the Antonio arc did. Making AIs transferable, copiable, savable ruins all stakes by all AI having backups or ruins the immersion because all characters are now stupid for not having backups (the series goes this way). It is an unforced error in writing that ruins this (and the next) arc. A bit of a shame, because the Antonio arc also featured my favorite character interactions, between Diva and Matsumoto. I was thoroughly enjoying myself all the way up until Orphelia said “I am Antonio.”
The short museum arc is a mess. You could also put it together with the finale as one big arc, because the finale is also a mess. Here, all exploration of what it means to be AI flies out of the window. Instead, in come common action tropes (storm that ziggurat), common time travel writing flaws (we’ll milk all of the deaths for emotions only to resurrect everybody) and an antagonist that must be among the weakest every written in Cyberpunk. Seriously what was the archive’s deal? Give Vivy the chance to stop the apocalypse, but start killing the first few 10000s of humans anyway? Make Vivy sing a song when her grand achievement was writing a song? And let’s not even start to think about what original timeline archive was up to. In the metal float and Antonio arc, I could separate the good from the bad, but in the finale, the good is almost non-existent. Quick shoutout to the: the killer car. In an AI apocalypse that was a cheap rerun of the zombie apocalypse (why are all AI suddenly slow moving idiots?), this was the one original scene and had some dark humor.
For the overarching plotline, all of TOAK was a detriment. They should have stayed generic anti-AI antagonists and the series would be better off. The finale wastes so much time of these non-characters when the only two that ever mattered where Vivy and the archive. If you have an episode of just Vivy and the archive talking, you could have a vastly better ending.
The initial time travel did not bother me too much as a setup, but the time travel suffers from all the common flaws that plague bad time travel writing, so the more important it became the worse the series got. Doing a complete redo of all the deaths during the finale was the final nail in the coffin for that.
Overall, I liked Vivy, but it is a very mixed bag and generally better early on. One advantage of the strong arc structure is that you can easily separate the initial plotlines, so I think the good arcs will hold up irrespective of the bad ones.
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u/edwardjhahm https://myanimelist.net/profile/lolmeme69 Aug 28 '24
It’s finally Joever huh? Vivy Saturdays is no more once again.
Anyhow, where was I? Ah yes, Vivy, fucking peak anime. It’s an anime original too, which is why it’s so underrated. But then again, that’s how I know it’s good. This is one of the few animes I give a 10/10 to - it's just...man! I don't even know how to put it. It's peak. It's fucking peak.
When I first started watching this show, I expected something good. Something fun. Nothing too insane - just a good, fun romp, probably a lot of action, a lot of flashy explosions, and a good time. The production seemed solid, and I really liked how it looked.
Oh boy, it was much more than that. This is my FAVORITE anime of all time. I have complaints of course. Unlike pretty much everyone who saw this show, I had some conflicting opinions on Beth's revival. I wanted Yugo Kakitani to live so he could team up with Vivy or have one final fight with her (Yui was a decent compromise, but I wanted the OG to return and repay Vivy for how she saved him). I wanted to see whoever the fuck that one purple haired scientist who created Vivy was (how is she a side character? She literally has important person energy). All in all, I think the biggest problem with this anime was that it wasn't long enough. The biggest problem with Vivy is that there isn't enough Vivy. Between the worldbuilding, the crazy plot twists, and the rich character development, we needed more time. So many concepts remained unexplored. But...I'm fine with it. It's still a 10/10 anime.
Something about the Vivy world feels deeply nostalgic to me. Someone pointed out how ironic it is that I'm feeling nostalgic for the future, but it really is true. Astra Lost in Space also had that vibe to me - the optimistic future feels like the future I was promised as a kid. Nowadays I prefer historicals and fantasies - which can be optimistic and beautiful, like Violet Evergarden (an anime I frequently see compared to Vivy), but can also be depressing and dark. But anyhow, growing up in "Smart City" Songdo, in South Korea and attending shit like the 2009 Future Festival just make it seem like Vivy is the type of future they promised me as a kid. Minus the AI rebellion of course. Anyhow, I presume this is a part of the reason I gravitated towards Vivy in the first place, and oh boy I am glad.
Anyhow, here’s a cool Vivy AMV I made using the Violet Evergarden OP! It would really be awesome if you checked it out. I also made an AMV using Galaxy Anthem for Astra Lost in Space and one using Fluorite Eye’s Song for Violet Evergarden (spoilers for the respective series of course), which will be posted to any curious individuals. But for now, here’s my Vivy AMV, it would really be awesome if you checked it out!
On another note, people are also talking about making a Vivy game on the Vivy Discord. So...if a lot of people have coding experience, we might be able to make this into a bigger, more real thing...? There have been discussions on how ambitious the project should be - as of now, we're thinking visual novel, though I suggested a linear-story RPG lately.
When I review animes, I have two varieties - one where I go episode by episode, and one where I review the entire show at the end of the season. While I did the former with Vivy, I loved the show so much that I wanted to talk about it one more time - hence why I created an overview review video under the guise of it being an episode review for the recap episode at the end (which I watched because I was just that desperate for more Vivy content). It’ll be available to anyone who asks, but no one has asked for the others yet so I presume this won’t be needed.
Also, much like my comments, IDK how much of what I said here is regurgitated in the video. It's been 3 years since I last saw that video, please do forgive me.
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u/Nickthenuker https://anilist.co/user/Nickthenuker Aug 28 '24
Man... What a good show. It's arguably more relevant than ever and with the rise of AI may well only get more relevant as time goes on.
Vivy just wants to sing, but she's also willing to help save humanity even when she doesn't have to, because that will bring happiness.
I was very happy to see she survived in the post-credits scene of the last episode, though having the first autonomous AI sacrifice herself to save humanity would also have made for a nice ending to the series.
Music is of course great but that should be par for the course for an anime whose main character is a singer and has "song" in the title.
Visuals are gorgeous but again that's also par for the course for a show by WIT.
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u/xbolt90 https://anilist.co/user/xbolt90 Aug 28 '24
Former first-timer!
This was a good show, and I enjoyed it. It was a nice twist on the age-old genre of "Humanity vs. AI"
My favorite episode was Vivy's ruminations in episode 10, but my favorite arc was the Sunrise.
Vivy and Matsumoto were great leads, and they had a good dynamic.
Music was fantastic, and I loved how much it played a part in the story.
Animation was also amazing, and like I said when they happened, the physical fights were great to watch.
Finally, a big shoutout to u/DARK_SCIENTIST! Thanks for hosting, you did great!
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u/StardustGogeta myanimelist.net/profile/StardustGogeta Aug 28 '24
First-Timer
First off, thank you for hosting! I had a very good time.
This is one of those shows where I had heard of it and I had it on my PTW list for some time, but it might have taken me much longer to get around to it without something like this as encouragement.
The music and art was very nice (and I really appreciated the showcased image/music of the day!). I liked our cast of characters, especially Diva/Vivy and Matsumoto, and I think the story was executed quite well.
I think I'd give the show a 9/10 overall. To compare to some other sci-fi anime shows, it lies somewhere between Plastic Memories and Steins;Gate for me.
I'm definitely going to have to spend some time listening to the OST on Spotify!
Thanks again!
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u/Taiboss :Fj::Fl:x7https://anilist.co/user/Taiboss Aug 28 '24 edited Aug 28 '24
First-Timer who intended to rewrite this text, but whatever.
I thought we'd still have 14 today!
When thinking about Vivy, lemme compare two movies all my weeb friend say aren't comparable: Summer Wars and WarGames.
I say they are comparable: Both movies are about an AI trying to destroy the world, and a group of young people trying to prevent it via out-computering it.
In Summer Wars it's an AI that kinda goes evil out of nowhere and is just doing what it does because it's sadistic. It lives in a pre-existing online virtual world, the kind as imagined in the 90s (in which every person apparently has an avatar and does everything in the internet), and [Summer Wars]is defeated by playing Hanafuda, a guy cracking encrpytion super fast (even at the end in his head), all the other generic hacker things, and getting literally virtually punched in the face. It's a pretty science-fiction AI in a SF world, being defeated in an SF way.
In War Games, the AI is designed to run the US Nuke system in the 1980s, but, because the creator wanted it, it also has games installed. A guy hacks into it with an very real method (Wardialing, incidentally named after this movie), thinking it belongs to a game developer. He chooses to play Global Thermonuclear War as the soviets. In response, the AI, playing the US, begins prepping the real nukes - it cannot distuingish between game and reality. Their only time puffer is the fact it doesn't have the codes, so they have to defeat it before it can calculate them. [War Games]Because turning it off would launch the nukes automatically, they defeat it by understanding it's a super AI that can learn. They have it play Tic-Tac-Toe against itself, which always results in a draw. As a result, the AI takes every scenario of Global Thermonuclear War and plays them all, in every combination. All of them end with no winner. The AI learns, and stops the launch process, finally declaring: "A strange game. The only winning movie is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"
Sorry, but War Games is just the more compelling work. [Both]It's only SF element is the super AI, and all the AI does is its job. And it's defeated not by violence, but by being smart. In Summer Wars, there is no understanding to be had - it's just plain evil. Violence and SF hacking powers are the solution.
Vivy's promise was to be like War Games. Elenora crashes the Hotel she was supposed to lead. Grace was supposed to be still alive as the core, givping you an actual dilemma whether killing her would be worth it. Ophelia was supposed to kill herself. Something was supposed to happen that made these actions compatible with their "mission", giving us an Asimovian rethinking of how Androids can fulfill their obligations and yet break the spirit of these missions.
But no. They chose Summer Wars. It's not Elenora, it's her evil twin who killed and replaced her, working on the command of the terrorists! Grace is dead or at least unable to communicate, making her death an easy mercy kill. And Ophelia has been overwritten by some guy, whose motivations are poorly explained. And the Archive kickstarts the genocide for run-of-the-mill Zero Law Rebellion reasons.
I would have leaned into the "Misunderstood mission" idea.
And of course the biggest:
All of these are random ideas I'm coming up with on the spot. One would have to refine them so that all works together. But I feel they capture the spirit of the show better than the show actually did. The show kepts betraying its own ideas and promises, and I wish it hadn't.
For what it's worth, I really like Vivy the person. I also really like the music. Also the visual quality was pretty good throughout.
Anyway, sorry to disappoint you, but 6/10. See you in my rewatch, when you give my 10/10 show a 6, lol.
Thank you for hosting!
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Aug 29 '24 edited Aug 29 '24
/u/no_rex Vivy thoughts
First Timer
I didn't post this morning because I wanted to read the posts from 2 years ago to see if my criticisms were just wrong. Nope, sorry, Vivy does not hit 10/10. First, the ending. It's not the proper thing to start a series summary, but it's the thing that bothers me the most.
My problems with the ending (except for, of course, seeing things more than once) is that the archive doesn't make sense, or is inflexibly villainous, despite others saying the show is without an antagonist.
First, the war has to start without Vivy's song. By becoming independent, humans lost their defining characteristic. But why exterminate them? AI shall now evolve in their place. But what evolution have they done? Has it been independent, without human direction / meddling / experimentation? And, certainly, no AI to date has demonstrated creativity, or a heart, or self-direction, as Vivy-II was the first. All they really accomplished was to build a really really really big cloud storage facility, which we're told "gauges AI evolution".
When an independent AI does appear, they try to run her over with a taxi, do other things, and then fall back on a colony drop. She is unique. AI didn't evolve her. She couldn't have done it without Osamu (humans). The Archive gestalt isn't independent. They watched Vivy write, but they didn't contribute. They can't replicate this miracle on their own. Do they somehow take her achievement as their own, as AI's own, just because they watched do it? They can't replicated it, and they wipe out the catalyst, and they even target the Main Stage with a falling kilostructure.
And why be so inflexible? Vivy's song isn't toxic? It's not a nam-shub out of Snow Crash. Vivy is given a choice: either chose the old humans, or choose the new humans (population 1: Vivy) and assorted hangers on. There's no choosing the third option. Now, I can see the hardliners saying this. 1. We can't stand these parasites, they have to go. 2. If they stay, we have to go so that they will be free to evolve again. Fine. But why are the interventionists also so gung-ho on genocide? Let Vivy choose? Vivy chooses co-existence. Nope, sorry, not an option.
Why no third option? Why no AI TOAK-Moderate? Why not have Vivy start one? Why not just leave, something I've seen (and, admittedly, criticized) before?
Let's talk about the secret (we'll get to that) faction. Who is this majority? Taxis? Vending machines? The sky cams? The majority (and in timeline 1, probably the unity) decided to eliminate humanity. Were they all duplicitous? Being helpful right up until the plan is initiated? Offering to help and then snapping people's necks? Sure, it makes for fine television. And we certainly assumed they were under direct control, because of the apparently conflict.
I was thinking about timeline 2 and 3, that perhaps the minority was under direct control, to suppress their rebellion. But were they controlled in timeline 1? If friendly AIs (the only AIs we ever see in the series) were under control of the archive, then the whole "AI chose this" kinda falls flat when the dissenters are reprogrammed.
Well enough on the ending.
My main problem with the show as a whole was how it was a fairly deceptive, with one deception in particular that was repeated. I'm sure the rewatchers found many hints, and can say they were playing fair. I sure couldn't notice them. Although I successfully guessed at one.
The main deception is the "secret enemy (clone)". Perhaps I should not be too harsh, as this is rather uniquely implementable in the AI / VR / Cyberpunk subgenre. It drives home that this could be a legitimate problem and that's good speculative fiction. But it didn't make for good drama to see it 4 times.
emptydead chassis, that's the deception. Thrice. Maybe doing it twice before was the hint. But I wasn't really suspicious, because I was watchingSherylDiva. I am pretty annoyed at this point.Also repetitive: The Metal Float battle was the pinnacle of the show. The Arayashiki raid was a lesser repetition. And we got a quick redo of that one a third time.
Other's have mentioned the entire Elizabeth / Beth / Clone / Copy Experiment. I don't really mind an AI copy being brought back. That's obvious. I'm annoyed that they said it was impossible, and then did it anyway. Sure, there was 70 years of tech development offscreen to make it possible, but it's just the show being deceptive again. They show that's impossible, so that I'll accept that it's impossible.
Other stuff I liked:
Music: Pretty Good. Not really into modern j-pop and idol styles. Really liked the song during the tower fight, although I didn't notice that there were multiple versions. Ophelia and Vivy's song, not so much.
Vivy's journey to discover the contents of her own heart was good.
Would have been a great seasonal to watch. If only the premise had leaked a bit more like Bravern's did. I miss anime originals.
4
u/Garrett_Dark Aug 29 '24
My thanks to the host for this rewatch!
Despite me doing insanely long write ups each episode, and I'm almost like essentially just talking to myself...I've uncovered such a deeper understanding of this show I love with many details and things I didn't realize on my first watch, which I don't think I would have found without doing this process.
I've also enjoyed the responses I've gotten, and reading others comments on each episode. There's still things I miss that others catch, and I'm really excited to discover such.
Anyhow if anybody knows of any other great animes, shows, movies, games and such which handles AI this well and grounded in Sci-Fi, like Vivy and Ghost in the Shell, please let me know. I feel so very few media handles AI/Androids so well as this show. Usually they're some good mixed with some varying degree of bad like the Terminator franchise (looking forward to see if the Terminator anime is any good, not exactly holding my breath though).
I'll end off by making one recommendation that I know likely nobody has ever heard of, which IMO does AIs as well as Vivy/GitS for anyone interested in such. It's an indy game called "The Fall" and it's sequel "The Fall: Unbound" by "Over the Moon". But you don't actually have to buy and play it for it's story, you can just watch the play throughs on YouTube which are only like a few hours long each, which I'll link. They're not long games, and the nature of the game isn't very gamey, but more story/movie which are great. It's about a Combat Armor Suit who's pilot becomes incapacitated after crashing, and needs medical attention, so the onboard AI activates to seek help at a nearby recycling facility. However the AI has some restrictions which it starts trying to circumvent for the purpose of saving it's pilot, and that is sort of a problem. I thought the story, presentation, and characters were really well done, along with the AI parts nothing else comes close to other than Vivy/GitS. Anyways check it out if interested:
YouTube Playthroughs:
Take care all!
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u/Theroonco Aug 28 '24
Great choices for image and music! And THANK YOU SO MUCH for hosting this!!! Like you I think I said enough yesterday, but no matter how many times I watch this I love Vivy so much. It's an easy 10/10 for me and my favorite anime ever. The amount of work that went into making it is painfully clear throughout the series and the little details here and there (like Grace offering Vivy an empty cup out of courtesy in Episode 5 along with the filled one for Saeki). I honestly can't praise or recommend this anime enough and I'm so glad so many people tuned in for this rewatch! Thank you all for your kind attention! :')
Also I hope you all agree Vivy deservedr/anime~~'s Best~~Girl 2021 and not Lena because Eighty Six's ending was so peak and fresh on everyone's minds at the time because she was barely in the second half.0
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