Excalibruh
You ever watched an anime that made you question life and what it means to exist? Well am sure there’s plenty of those out there with the tens of thousands of anime out in the world. But what if you started watching an anime that made you think of robot’s existence? Like all the monologues and anecdotes you could think of out of Agent Smith’s mouth. All of it comes into being a single show. It’s Matrix meets Terminator 2 meets Detroit Become Human. It’s Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song.
Robot Waifu To The Rescue
The show is an original made by Tappei Nagatsuki of Re:Zero and Eiji Umehara who directed Appleseed and wrote Beelzebub. With Studio Wit as the production house and Aniplex being the producers. The show hasn’t gotten a lot of buzz from mainstream but soon as it premiered, it garnered a cult following. So far, 10 episodes have premiered with plans for 3 final episodes coming soon.
Vivy stars an android in the near future, that is tasked to sing. Sing her heart out, with the main task of ensuring people’s happiness from these musical conceptions. However, she got roped into some robot apocalypse situation when an A.I from the future is tasked with her to follow the singularity project. Which is in tandem of the A.I’s goal of averting the android disaster that will wipe humanity off the face of the Earth. It’s upto Diva (or Vivy) to learn Kung Fu and pave the road to enlightenment with some femme fatale righteousness.
World Of Hurt
Vivy’s world is complex, yet it hits the ceiling with hard hitting questions and strong emotions. The intro is a brutal introduction into its world. Androids going from being humbled and endearing to full on bashing a person’s skull or breaking it with their synthetic hands. The show’s philosophies are centered around existentialism, creationism, self-awareness. Basically what it means to be human, alive, and have purpose in life. A lot of it is similar to what Ghost In The Shell, though GITS deals with nihilism in the digital world, Vivy deals with finding hope in a world losing its touch.
So much back and forth banter, some humor, lastly but not the least, action packed scenes. Full of intense fighting, destruction, gung-fu, so on. The set pieces are so beautifully shot. Thanks to the beautiful animated sequences from Wit. Pro-tip though, Wit was found by one of the producers of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Vivy is a beautifully crafted anime with wonderful character design. Especially our protagonist, Diva.
The OSTs are literally to die happy for. Seriously. Voice acting is superb. So much high production quality, it only carries the shows in one half, while the rest is held up with great writing and cool character montages.
Go Watch It?
Yet in some way, the Sci-Fi dweeb in me feels like it has some issues that hold it back. Like maybe some parts of the show catering to tropes. Some plot lines that I feel other shows have done a better job over. Plus, I’ve seen Ghost In The Shell, this probably feels like a homage, but it’s kind of cheap in ways I guess?
Regardless, this anime is putting a lot of other shows this season to shame. It’s crazy, yet nobody is talking about this. In due time, it’ll come around. While you’re reading this, if you want to watch something that oozes with style, flash yet quite a bit of substance to hold it, do give it a go. It’ll have some impact in you in this post-pandemic world we’re currently in.
Did you enjoy reading this artilce? Then read more about Invincible: A spoiler free review
