There isn’t a weekly summary this week and after writing about it for two months, it wouldn’t be fitting to have nothing published for the final episode of Vivy. Many times before, I would see anime that have great opening episodes before crashing and burning as it crosses the finish line. Frankly, I’m just happy if a show could manage to hold itself together the entire way. Thankfully, Vivy managed to stick the landing even if it was predictable with its excellent execution of its themes and Wit Studio’s direction.
After that complete shitshow of a mission last week, everything goes much better this time around and it’s not surprising given the original creator wrote Re:Zero, an looping isekai on hard mode. Compared to how they interacted in the earlier parts of the anime, it’s been a journey to finally see them treat each other as equal partners in the singularity project.
I’ve always wondered why an AI like Navi existed, especially when that function of the park could have been handled by a more generic management system but that bit before Vivy got onto the main stage was to tie the promise to Kitsshina and the ending performance together. I doubt an AI like Navi enjoys seeing all the park patrons all being butchered and it was a nice touch to have it emulate the child who Vivy promised to perform on the main stage. After all, no one who Vivy promised to sing for has actually listened to her song. Of course, we’ve already seen Diva sing in the same place but this was so much more meaningful than episode 7’s opening credits. Seeing Vivy’s pain, growth, revelations, and expression of humanity, so to speak, are what’s important. We saw her attachment to Momoka, the little girl who died in the plane crash, her irritation and anger towards Matsumoto at first, her witnessing the compassion and dedication of Estella on the satellite, her inability to cope with Dr. Saeki’s suicide, her withdrawal, renewed determination, and in this final episode, her appreciation and fondness towards Matsumoto. We see all of this expressed through her song, which hits with a huge emotional impact. Having Matsumoto bodycheck an incoming satellite and seeing a reincarnated short-haired Vivy was just icing on the cake.
Vivy is by no means a perfect show. All the actions undertaken by Vivy/Matsumoto felt like it didn’t matter when it came to the big reveal of the antagonist. As well, The human element wasn’t all that strong until the final arc of the show as evidenced by Kakitani’s recurring appearances and subsequential reveal of his motivations for eradicating AI. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed all the aspects of Vivy’s journey in migrating the AI uprising through her singing as an AI robot. The animation, action and music only add to the reasons why I started writing about seasonal anime again. This is an easy recommendation for viewers looking to introduce their friends to anime as it is short, doesn’t have typical anime bullshit filler and hits all the right notes of a compelling story. Well done to Wit Studio and Teppei/Eiji for smashing this out of the park. Bravo.
9/10
