Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「Sing My Pleasure」by (Kairi Yagi)
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「Ensemble for Polaris -私たちの約束-」 (Ansanburu fō Porarisu -Watashitachi no Yakusoku-)
“Ensemble for Polaris – Our Promise”
I am thoroughly enjoying Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song, especially after this fourth episode which how now opened up the door to much more. With the Sunrise Hotel arc coming to a close, I do wonder what will happen next in Vivy’s 100-year journey.
Note: I will be referring to Diva as Vivy from now on as she’s finally chosen to claim the name as part of her identity.
Recap
Vivy, with Matsumoto glue to her side, is undercover at the Sunrise Hotel to prevent its crash into the Earth. With Estella’s prints and code all over the crash that caused so many casualties, humans turned their distrust towards AIs into hate, and the rest is history.
Last episode had us wondering if Estella has gone rogue, but we find out now that she has a twin. An identical AI twin carrying the same code and build as her, meaning, she’s the one behind Ms. Leclerc death as well as the crash that Vivy is now trying to prevent.
Meanwhile, Estella meets Momoka’s younger sister, Yuzuka. And it’s this reminder, 15 years later, of Momoka’s loss that spurs Vivy to finally let Matsumoto upload combat data into her. And from that moment on, Vivy takes the stage.
She soon discovers that Toak is behind the AI double, Beth, as well as the crash and proceeds to stop them in their tracks. With the help of Matsumoto and Estella, Vivy somehow survives to see another day, and the AI standing in the world isn’t in jeopardy.
Review
Rather than going into the nitty-gritty of the story, I thought I’d list out the events and details that elevated the series this episode:
- The opening scene in the AI scrap yard brought me right back to Detroit: Become Human. I know I’ve referenced this video game before, but if you are in fact enjoying this series, you might enjoy the game.
- The two white doves’ symbolism at the beginning and the end offered a casual ‘full circle’ moment to the episode.
- Watching Vivy receive the combat upgrade was really satisfying. As things get dicier, I was doubtful she’d be going through the rest of her journey without the necessary skills.
- Vivy is evolving and learning to connect with humans and AIs using a gesture she knows is symbolic to both. To the former, the gentle headbutt acts as a representation of emotions transferring, while for the latter, it acts towards data transfer. Little sprinkles of humanity throughout the episode really humanize her character.
- I loved the electric zaps spewing off of her body as she fought against the Toak terrorists and Beth. Just a sign that she’s overloaded with data that perhaps she wasn’t built to use. This gets me wondering if she’ll be changing her body part to accommodate.
- Beth was a very interesting character, even if she was short-lived. I am curious to know why her memory was wiped once Vivy head-butter her.
- The fight scene between Vivy and Beth was reminiscent of some of the most emotionally charged combat scenes in Neir: Automata, another game that dives into the reality and consciousness of machines.
- I thought it curious that the fantastic sound design in said scene (Beth’s broken/synthesized voice) could evoke so much emotion, especially as she yelled out Estella’s name.
- Bringing Yugo of Toak back into the fold was a really great tactic offering complexity to the plot. Yuzuka and Vivy bonding moment, combined with that ending, struck a chord. I may have cried.
Normally, I would try to guess what will happen next but who knows? At this point, I trust that anything can happen in the 13-episode journey.
Preview
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The fighting animation one cut scene was really awesome.
I hope they remove the OP music and just replace it with vivy singing in the op just like episode 3.
MissSimplice, there is a clear explanation for why Beth’s memory was wiped when Vivy headbutted her. As you recall when Vivy headbutted Yuzuka, it said that is the way AIs transfer data between each other. Matsumoto says later on that it botched the attempt to inject a reformatting virus into Beth, which led to Vivy asking Matsumoto to send it the data for the reformatting virus. Vivy had decided in that moment to transmit the reformatting virus into Beth through a headbutt. Small context details like these that happen through exposition are common in Re:zero and now apparently Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song too, which is not surprisingly given that Nagatsuki Tappei is one of the main writers for this show.
Oh thanks for this. Yes, I totally assumed it was from the headbutt but I’m a little dense when it comes to tech, aha. Never would have understood the correlation between Mastumoto’s actions and Vivy’s. Appreciate the insight 🙂
Episode 04 Among AI
I call it:
This is gonna be duel of awesoem animes every saturday, between 86 and Vivy.
Both tackle serious topics – war, racial persecution, AI impact on society,
Both have healthy dose of feels to make ourselves moved.
Both have excellently animayed fight scenes.
One thing that jarred me was Toak blazing away from assault rifles on a space station, risking overpenetrations and depresurrization.
One thing that made me laugh was vivy “disposing” of Matsumot by gifting him as a plushie to little sister of her first human friend.
One thing I loved was first, deeper plot twists behind the spacestation incident (It seems in OTL, Toak successfully masqueraded the incident as AI failure).
Another was study of devotion of AI to her “Master”, down to yandere-like qualities.
Final touch was inclusion of guy Vivy once saved (and earned his hatred) in previous episode.
One significant aspect of combat seems to be that normal humans of Toak are clearly no match for combat abilities of vivy who is not even dedicated combat model AI. This bodes bad for mankind if the plan fails and war breaks out after all.
Last but not least we have kinda cliffhanger about how the incidents final outcome will affect history trajectory towards the war.
Matsumoto still sus as hell. Blame Monokuma.
I really liked this episode and the total 360 from what we presumed as a rampant AI crimem to a story of estranged “sisters”, was unexpected and quite moving.
Anyway I think that those zaps from Vivy’s joints are a bad sign. Her initial fear of losing part her singing abilities using combat software may also be a foreshadow of what may happens if she push herself to the point of overload.
Yeah – maybe the fix will be to change up her body parts, but then as you said, that may affect her ability to sing. Plus, I assume it’s much more complex than just switching one arm for another.
Excellent episode that had a touching touching end. The fighting scenes were very brief but also very, very good and clear-cut – unlike the clusterfuck that is called Episode 14 of “So I’m a Spider So What”.
The little differences in singularity point events (engine failure happening 24 hours earlier, expected crash site in the city instead of the ocean with hundreds of casualties) show that history is slowly changing, and it might come to a point where Matsumoto will no longer be able to predict the next singularity event because history has diverged too much.
I think that Matsumoto’s creator anticipated this eventuality and this is one of the reason he paired him with Vivy. Sooner or later she’ll be the one to determine the best outcome because she is evolving while Matsumoto remains static and, more importantly, he seems to be oblivious to the fact that people can change as shown with the politician.
Matsumoto definitely won’t be able to predict upcoming patterns. Things are changing too drastically as was his intent. However, I’m not sure Matsumoto’s true mission is to prevent the uprising/evolution of AIs. I think it’s to ensure Vivy’s evolution. If she changes, as she learns to make more choices, interacts with both humans and AI, she’ll evolve into a complex being with the ability to influence those around her (AI and human alike). Maybe she’ll bridge the gap, first by altering Yugo’s idea of destroying the AI.
If we go back to that first episode with the scientist in the future sending the signal to the past, saying Vivy is the only one able to save them, that might be a clue towards this. Perhaps Matsumoto was sent back to help in Vivy’s development only. He cannot be sure what will happen with all these changes but he can ensure she doesn’t end up gathering in the museum again as a vocalist AI of the past (in the original timeline).
Another important detail this episode reveals is how the premise of building AIs with a single-purpose ‘Mission’ is a huge design flaw – what happens if an AI has been compromised by someone with malicious intent?
The episode also highlights how ‘Missions’ can be reinterpreted and extended by the AIs themselves, however they see fit – much like how Vivy agrees to take on the role of protecting the future so more humans can listen to her sing. Elizabeth’s “mission” as a Lifekeeper is to protect her Master, hence she decides to protect her Master’s dream. This harks back to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, which by design is meant to be a safety feature, but can still be reinterpreted by robots/AI due to its ambiguities and loopholes.
Poor Yugo, he’s been saved twice by an AI despite how much he hates them.
Will we see him a third time? I hope so.
Terminator meets Nier Automata.
I think that bests describes the series moving here from now on.
I gotta say, seeing Devola and Popola at the end singing their song in atonement hit hard.
I had to check again if this series was also written by Yoko Taro.
I just wanted to confirmed that Vivy is on my Watch/Hook List. But this happen since Ep 02
But i must admit with this Episode 04 it refined it more to my liking. I was afraid that Vivy would from now on reacting to the Anti-AI Terrorists. But preview gave me hope to turn the table
>Beth was a very interesting character, even if she was short-lived. I am curious to know why her memory was wiped once Vivy head-butter her.<
I think i can try to explain. Beth got the Virus to shut her down or get rid of it from Matsumoto.
Now what she needed at the End was "please restart the Operation System!"
And this hard headbutt was the "Reset Button"
Also dear Animators…
Do not bring Ballistic Guns ( in this case Machine Guns) to an Space Station, where a thin layer of Metal keep the Space Outside…
It is the same as in an Pressured Air Plane in the Altitudes. if one hole appear the Air get sucked out.. Best old example would be “Goldfinger”
Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHXevnoAciY
Yup. As far as I know, FBI developed special ammo to use onboard airplanes, with reduced penetration. But it was for pistols not assault rifles…
This is turning out to be a very, very solid series. One of the better anime originals in a long while.
I’m enjoying it, but it’s VERY derivative: Hatsune Miku meets Detroit Become Human meets Madoka, with My Hero Academia music (when it’s not just generic).
It reminds me of how Last Exile was a mashup of Turn A Gundam, Escaflowne, and Harlock — they don’t bother to hide the DNA.