What they say:
Many years have passed since the incident at Metal Float. Vivy, now going by the stage name Diva, is a popular songstress A.I. who packs stadiums after having her memory of the Singularity Project wiped. The annual Zodiac Festival approaches and now Matsumoto must convince Vivy to stop the next turning point in A.I. history.
The review:
Content (Please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Vivy has not only had the incident of Metal Float removed from her memory, but the entire Singularity Project. She has no recollection of Matsumoto or any of her past actions attempting to stop the fast approaching war. After so many years, she’s like a completely new A.I. determined to carry out her mission. After the Metal Float incident, Vivy’s breakdown caused a complete reboot. I guess we’ll have to wait until next week or even later to see how she truly copes with her “error” as Matsumoto calls it. Though we may not, given that we never saw how Vivy dealt with the loss of her first fan after episode two.
Vivy is now living a new life, though. She even has a new fan in another sister A.I. named Ophelia. Ophelia is clumsy but she clearly has an angelic voice, as seen when she mesmerizes the crowd during the festival’s rehearsal. Then it’s Vivy’s turn to rock the small crowd. “Watch and learn” she says before heading off. She’s gotten a lot more confident in her singing since the reboot and I’m curious to see how that might change once she recovers her memories, if she does. There are hints that not everything is gone, too. Before singing, she notices a suspicious man in the back she recognizes. She chases after him immediately after singing.
This is another performance we don’t get to see in full, and we don’t get to absorb the others’ reactions. The show seems to be saving her act for last. Vivy has saved many people now, but she was never the “star” of the show. Instead of having Vivy be the true star every episode with a performance of the week, the writers have opted to make everyone else’s stories opening acts, and Diva will be our finale, the main attraction.
She chases the suspicious man into a storage room where a rogue A.I. attacks her. This is when Matsumoto enters in cube form to save her. He calls her Vivy but she has no memory of being called that. Realizing that the more logical choice would be to not hinder the mission by bringing up her trauma, he pretends not to know Diva and goes on his way.
The animation in this series is still consistently gorgeous. It looks fine most of the time but will occasionally switch to shots like the one above for a moment. the eyes in particular are a focal point of Vivy’s detail. It works whenever it’s done. Eyes are the windows to the soul, as they say. And every time Vivy experiences some kind of heightened emotion, the show focuses on her eyes. Though there wasn’t much focus on the overall world this time, mostly taking place inside the stadium, Vivy’s archive, or the park in front of the storage room.
Though Matsumoto tries to get away from Vivy, she confronts him and threatens to keep the information she knows about the suspicious man a secret unless he agrees to tell her about their relationship. He caves and tells her about the Singularity Project, though appears to leave out the gruesome details. They agree to work together on Matsumoto’s next mission, to prevent the suicide of Ophelia. An A.I. committing suicide is an unprecedented event in Matsumoto’s history that creates tension between humans and A.I. Unfortunately this is where the episode ends. An episode ending quickly can be a good sign of brisk writing. However much of the time is spent on Vivy and Matsumoto talking to each other. We’ll have to wait until next week to learn about this suspicious man, the rogue A.I. who attacked Vivy, and why Ophelia might see a need to commit suicide. I wonder if this will also connect back to the previous mission and whether it could be a catalyst for Vivy remembering her failure to save Saeki.
There was also no sign of Toak this episode. I wonder if they’ll try to sabotage the festival somehow. Given all the years that have passed between this act and the last, it’s likely the particular Toak member who’s conversed with Vivy is either very old or dead. It’s a big question mark regarding anti-A.I. efforts in the series. I look forward to see what became of them. Maybe the suspicious man is connected to them.
Overall a solid episode this week. We’re clearly moving further ahead in the timeline and showing real progress inching toward the inevitable war, which should now only be a few decades away (as evidenced by the looming tower, which is showing more progress on completion). Vivy’s personality change feels real even if we haven’t seen the growth. Her confidence, her skill, her notoriety all indicate a number of years have gone by. The show doesn’t need to tell us. However this episode was also fairly uneventful, and doesn’t get interesting until its latter half involving the suspicious man and Matsumoto’s new mission. However, next episode does look to be great as a result of this setup, and things should move quicker next week. I’m still eagerly awaiting the destination, even if the writers want me to enjoy the ride first.
In summary:
The episode was low maintenance this week, and I can understand why given the horror note the last episode ended with. I’ll accept it as a necessary lull if the following episode doesn’t feel rushed. The animation and music are consistently good from Wit studio, though there wasn’t much focus on the backgrounds and setting like the last act had. There are still many questions that need to be answered. Hopefully, we get them next time. The episode is a big “look forward to the next one,” but it was handled well enough in that regard.
Grade: B+
Streamed by: Funimation
