First Impressions / Vividred Operation

「約束」 (Yakusoku)
“Promise”

Life’s all good—until your docking operation’s interrupted by laser fire mid-way through. As Saegusa puts it, “YOU WERE WIDE OPEN” and our heroines are put through quite the ridiculous training regime to rectify that fact. I suppose what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… but darn, uh I don’t know… seems excessive none the less.

Either way, we get the addition of Shinomiya Himawari into the fray as expected this week, as a series of events once again lead to our heroines inevitable meeting. And by series of events… I mean an epic home run off Saegusa from Akane, right into Shinomiya’s camera. Ironically enough, it hits just as Shinomiya catches Kenjirou running around the classroom… and those were some darn funny moments.

In any case, Shinomiya finds herself pretty much forced (peer pressured?) into going out to see the streamer plant, and gets caught up in the return attack of the Alone defeated earlier in the episode. Of course, she ultimately inherits the yellow ignition key and assists in defeating the Alone via the always flashy Final Operation… but here’s where I end up having pretty much my only real qualm about these past episodes—the fact that there’s quite a bit of rushing through. Sure, in many ways the plot wasn’t exactly expected to be a strong point in this series, but it really doesn’t do any favors to that by forcefully fitting in a painful past memory and then overcoming it in the span of one minute. I suppose the ultimate result overpowers this with its usual dose of flashy awesomeness, but darn it. One wonders if it wouldn’t have been better to just add that one or two extra episodes at the end to at least give it some proper development.

And last but not least for this week, I found it quite interesting (and kinda funny) that the transformation sequences of our heroines are actually record-able and can also be interrupted mid-way. It’s kinda like those random Power Rangers episodes from my childhood where they’d occasionally make this one episode where their megazord gets attacked mid-transformation or their ultimate weapon gets intercepted mid-way or something… Ah, good times.

Looking forward to next week, seems like the cast continues expanding, as Homura Kuroki Rei seems primed to make her leap forward as an integral member of the cast—rather than the mysterious girl who gets 5 seconds of screenshots to power up the enemy. Now that you mention it though… that’s also quite similar to Power Rangers. Hm.

Full-length images: 32.

 

ED3 Sequence

ED3: 「Stray Sheep Story」 by 綾音 佐倉 (Ayane Sakura) & 彩 内田 (Aya Uchida)

Preview

71 Comments

    2. I’m also curious, if they can dock with one another we can get a total of six different flavors, or twelve depending on how docking works. What I DO like about docking… no more lolis 😛

      Ren
      Reply

  6. This show makes no sense. Apart being cliche beyond belief and utilizing every trope out there, the girls somehow magically know exactly how to activate their complicated transformations and know instinctively how to fly/maneuver in their new suits, manage to be able to not only use their weapon but take it to 200% (really? 200%?), forehead kisses equate to power-ups through physically combining the girls, and the MC keeps popping keys from her chest like she’s handing out gum………..

    ………and I absolutely love every second of it.

    7godeohs
    Reply

    2. I agree, the show makes no sense at all(like how in the first episode they said that 95% of the world depends on the energy produced from the manifestation engine but wouldn’t that be dangerous for most of the world to depend on most of their energy from one energy source, in one location which could be a target for destruction?), but nevertheless the show is quite entertaining from the animation to the exhilarating fusions that Akane does with the other characters.In one word to describe the show: whimsical.

      Dualash
      Reply

    3. What exactly is the problem with 200%? Both of the girls individually can power up to 100%, so after they dock, it’s obvious – if you have 100% of something and then you add 100% of something else then you get 200% of the combined total. Umm, you do, don’t you?

      Angelus
      Reply

    4. Sometimes its nice when things don’t need to worry about the details. You see the details aren’t that interesting to begin with. So many series get caught up on stuff like realism that they can’t focus on what is most important.

      Steins;Gate you are saying their half-assed explanations about microwaves, cellphones, cathode rays and time travel made sense to you? Did it really matter that their pseudo science is totally implausible? Once you got past worry about details the show was great.

      Shin
      Reply

  7. Much better episode than the last, it was better paced and Hiwamri actually got to show of her powers. Naked Collider reminds me of Nu Gundam’s fin funnels. Vivid Yellow is awesome, nothing can beat the brutal honesty of a Giant Frickin Laser Beam. Also she has drill hair and lots of frills on her getup.

    fragb85
    Reply

  9. look like wall-e camera girl is seem watching & hacking to wonder about these alone attack got akane’s grandpa hmm wonder & akake, aoi, & wakaba is doing training practice.

    baseball workout class time while wall-e camera seeing grandpa weasel oh “home run” akake smash wall-e camera so go wall-e camera girl house give enter yet some talks & notice every try to discent akane’s grandpa weasel.

    better idea go outside give camera-computer girl a makeover see big device til alone attack give stop the device camera-computer stop the device & almost got splat give brief flashback she was lonely & no friends.

    til akane appear save her & now become vivid yellow & combine big blast send alone away all good & oh yellow is a fan of akane’s grandpa.

    jeri
    Reply

    2. Vivid Red is so OP like in all power ranger serie so we will see it last damn all Vivid is superOP with their 200% naked one-hit-kill attack that cute villain girl probably wasted her arrow everytime. Villain why don’t you learn to kill MC in first episode when they are not powerful and don’t have many Nakamas. Every time you just make them stronger and lose in the end!

      pokpok
      Reply

  11. You may call it rushed, but this episode felt much less so to me than the previous one. The pacing of all the various elements worked much better, with no one edging out any of the others, but all of them instead fitting together into a mostly functional whole. Still, yeah, they could have used more time to properly develop Himawari’s backstory, but they’ve made it plain that they weren’t going to, so this is probably the best we could have hoped for.

    Wanderer
    Reply

  15. Whose smart idea was it to put a fricking baseball field right next to a bunch of glass windows? And the Wall-E girl joins the cast…I wonder if gawking at power plants is some new hype among young girls in the future. Sure, it looked like something Nikola Tesla cooked up, but still. Ah, I guess we had to fill the requisite nerd position somehow.

    However, I have to seriously question the competence of the adults in this show. Not only were there no guards near the power plant, but even the engineers thought ‘ah, screw it’ this episode, apparently. I mean, really, they had to rely on a young girl to get the thing running again? What was everyone else there doing? Admiring the big bloody fire?

    And so the girls docked again, turning into a giant canary, and vanquished the giant Ohmu reject. I do wonder if some enemy is going to show up that can’t be vaporized by docking, and with that I don’t mean a creature that needs ‘omg 4P docking!’ but something that actually puts up a fight. Would be interesting to watch. Now I just feel bad for them. Poor Alones.

    God this show is gloriously silly.

    Dvalinn
    Reply

      1. Regardless, I find it hard to believe there was absolutely no human was keeping an eye on the thing in case something like this happened, especially with the attacks happening on a regular basis.

        Dvalinn
        Reply

  16. Where the Hell is my obligatory ass shot!?

    Well at least they showed Aoi rubbing hers. But still, Vividred Operation has delivered an ass shot in each episode. It doesn’t feel like a VO episode without that obligatory asshot… -Teartear-

    Anyways, our 4 rainbow babe lollies are finally assemble! Now to try to recruite Rei into the harlem. Which I expect would be a challenge, for the first 10 mins maybe? But according to that preview, she just needs some friend lovins. Which comes by default within the cast. Looking forward to next weeks.

    Solara
    Reply

  21. If Kuroki Rei joins the club she may very well become their Judas (as in sabotaging from the inside out); all we know is that she has an antagonizing role so far (and without any explanation at that), so I think her role may continue to be highly dubious…

    J-Luke
    Reply

  22. Yay, all four of them are assembled. Now all that is left is to wait for my limited edition UNO card collection.

    Say, if that bow-girl ends up representing black and joining them, am I allowed to think of Voltron? Not only the colors, but the key motif.

    Goodwill.Wright
    Reply

  23. So Homura and Mami were introduced LOL. XD A lot of people started loving Yellow-chan immediately.

    Let’s hope THIS TIME AROUND(as in no depressed dude is making the story), Yellow-chan gets to keep her head, and innards, intact.

    Now, Vivid Red when?

    TheMoondoggie
    Reply

  24. Himawari-chan @ Ganbaranai

    https://randomc.net/image/Vividred%20Operation/Vividred%20Operation%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
    With such an amazing figure, it was a shame Himawari chose to live a hermit’s life.

    Wakaba, despite all her seriousness, seems to carry her own portable closet everywhere she goes in case she sees someone cute and has the urge to dress them up. XD (Though the dress this episode seems to be reserved for Momo at first, since Himawari was complaining about how tight the dress on her chest)

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  28. So, anyone noticed that Kuroki Rei didn’t provide as ass-shot in this week’s episode? I mean, all the ass-shots I could capture on my media player were from Aoi-chan and Saegusa-chan. And the focus of Himawari’s transformation emphasized her “plot” rather than her “backstory”. XD

    foureyeszerosoul
    Reply

  29. Yeah, i am with you, that these “Introductions” Episodes was much rushed. Because these Docking is only Possible if you Trust each Other and has no Mistrusts. And here we have 2 Episodes of Girls that have just meet. Anyway, i see this as “Introduction of the Cast” Episodes and overlook this. But are they dump or so? No one doubts why this “Alone” gets a “Power up” after being defeated? But then again, i see this as “Introduction of the Cast” Plot. I bet next we will see, what background the “Black Rouge Ranger” has, for doing this all

    Germanguy
    Reply

    1. Perhaps these “Black Ranger” is on a Vendetta for her Parents, and Alone is giving her a “Weapon to Slay Evil forces” into her Hands, and use her. From the 1 Seconds of the Start Episode, she has to overcome her Darkness in her Heart….

      Well, thats Classic among the Anime World

      Germanguy
      Reply

      2. I dont say that this will the “Back Ranger”… But, you wonder what the “little One” is appearing in the ED?….

        If i am correct, then the “Anime Industry” should learn to keep Spoilers away… Yeah, i know they need some “moments” to hold the Viewers “Curiosity”. But this is a Double Edge Sword

        Germanguy
        Reply

  30. Series really reminded me of Power Rangers too. Especially how they keep using that arrow to give a powerup transformation like they did with Rita’s staff. If we follow this classical pattern, they need at least 1 more ranger for the perfect 5.

    I think Kuroki Rei will be kind of like Tommy who switches sides but it isn’t clear if she will be a special ranger. Tommy was always the best. Momo for pink is the other possibility. It seems natural for new dockings to be unlocked too.

    I did wonder why they called all their attacks “Naked” though. Are they supposed to be the naked mahou shoujo sentai?

    Shin
    Reply

  35. Docking reminds me of Kamen Rider Den-O.
    Wonder can Akane dock with all 3 girls at once?
    Like Kiva and Den-O having their 3-in-1 forms, also like the Perfect Strike Gundam 😛

    Wonder why Momo isn’t VividPink yet.
    VividBlack…
    Think along the line of Green Ranger in the original Power Rangers..

    Wonder will there be a form upgrade?
    Or maybe another device so each girl can powerup to their Vivid forms without docking?
    Then dock again to Super Vivid? 😛

    If Kuroki becomes VividBlack will the real enemies step up?

    Thought its mahou shoujo but its more of kamen rider + sentai.

    iron2000
    Reply

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