The long road of Vivy and Matsumoto's 100 year long journey has finally met it's long-awaited conclusion. As I'm sure most of the community tends to agree, the end of an anime is a very important factor to the view of said anime as a whole. This is especially true for original anime, as there is nothing to compare it to. Nothing to spoil. No ending to already know. We all go in with the same amount of knowledge unless you're unlucky to not get to a new episode quickly enough and get spoiled before watching it. That said, my phrasing regarding the plot of Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song being referred to as a "100 year long journey" reminds me of a very cliché line I'm sure everybody's heard before; that it's not only the destination (in this case, the ending) that matters, but the journey itself. Despite how cliché that is, it's not untrue. Though the ending is a major factor in the reception and perception of an anime, the events that lead up to the ending are equally, if not more, important. "Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song", created by Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu original creator Tappei Nagatsuki and anime scriptwriter Eiji Umehara (also known for being the main scriptwriter of ChäoS;Child), is a moving original anime that delivers the idea and point of it's epic journey that transcends time itself in a very refined fashion, and wraps up that journey in a similar manner.

The story of Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song starts in the year 2061, a not-so-distant future where domestic AIs are a very normal sight, as they take up the jobs that we'd usually see humans in as part of whatever the mission assigned to that AI is. Our protagonist, Diva (a.k.a. Vivy) is the first intelligent, human-looking AIs that are above the usual robotic appearance. She is the first, but not the last, as we find out later. Vivy's mission: To make everybody happy with her singing. Vivy's life as an AI is soon changed when the Singularity Project, involving her, begins without her warning. An AI by the name of Matsumoto (who looks suspiciously similar to Wheatley from Portal 2) arrives claiming to be from 100 years in the future, being sent back in time to enlist Vivy into the project to stop a conflict between humans and AIs that took place in the future he came from. Though reluctant to believe Matsumoto at first, Vivy soon finds herself in over her head involved in the 100 year long journey it would take to stop the coming conflict, helping Matsumoto to change events of the past at "Singularity Points" to change the course of the future in a way that would prevent the conflict.

However, this journey is not without feelings of loss, suffering and dark figures holding Vivy and Matsumoto back from their goal... and furthermore, this project will not always line up with Vivy's initial mission.

Nagatsuki and Umehara did a very good job at constructing this plot from the ground up, from the discreet details in it to the symbolism in how Vivy and Matsumoto's progress would be presented. The only thing that pulled me out of the story, if anything, were the huge gaps in years between episodes, especially with how little those gaps were actually mentioned. Though it was to be expected, I had some trouble following the story at certain points early on, but this problem is lessened later on.

The art and animation of Vivy is one of the best aspects of it. The art style is unique, making great usage of colour without making things too diverse in colour that it would be difficult to focus on one thing at a time visually. The character designs from Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai illustrator Loundraw were a great touch to the overall theme, and it's clear that he understood the work and the character designs it needed. They're quite diverse and interesting designs without being too over the top. Just some regular anime hair colouring, but used in a sensible matter, as it was only for the AI characters. All of the humans looked and felt... well, human. There are also these close-up shots of characters at certain points of the series that show more details of the character designs than the normal shots. Outside of the fact that they, undeniably, looked amazing, they also added to the feeling of the scenes they were used in, emphasising the drama of those scenes and the pressure placed on Vivy. Funnily enough, these scenes were also... really chilling sometimes. There was one of these shots in episode 7 that actually sent a chill down my spine. There was some CG used for some of the more robotic looking AIs in the series, including Matsumoto himself, that was honestly some of the best CG I've seen in an anime in quite a while. The only thing that beats it out on CG quality that I can think of would be the CG typewriters from Violet Evergarden. Regarding 2D animation, the general animation was quite good, there was a lot of life in the way each character was animated, and it was clear that a lot of effort went into it, but the sakuga scenes... simply fantastic. Wit's animators did a phenomenal job.

Though Vivy's characters were really well-executed, of the factors I'm including in this review, I did find it to be the weakest of them. Vivy and Matsumoto themselves were very good, well-written characters, and the character interactions between them and others in the story were great, but suffer mainly from the problem that the interactions with most of the characters are very short-lived, and it does make it hard for certain side characters to receive the screentime they need for big enough contributions to have a real impact of the plot. It's not a particularly bad complaint, as this aspect comes with stories over a long period of time, and IS undeniably part of the main overarching point of the series, but it's still there and did pull me out of the experience on multiple occasions. For example, I feel that, in the end, Kakitani didn't receive enough screentime as an antagonist for Vivy's final confrontation with him to have the full extent of the impact it could have had.

Honestly, I'm not really enough of an expert in sound design to go into the use of sound effects in incredible detail. Anybody can recognise good use of sound effects where it's found, so that's enough for me to say that this factor of the sound was... pretty good. All of the sounds were used correctly to my perception, every attack in the action scenes of the series sounded how attacks of that force should sound when they land and, I have to say, as somebody who's heard a lot of bad gun sound effects in video games, the sound of gunfire in Vivy was realistic and sounded relatively close to the real deal. The music of Vivy was executed very well, both in the music itself and the placement of that music in the series. The soundtrack was composed by the legendary Satoru Kosaki, who's also responsible for the music in the Monogatari and Suzumiya Haruhi series', both of which are series' that I'm fond of the music (and the anime themselves) in. Not a single problem with any of the OSTs he did for Vivy that I can recall. The OP and ED themes, all performed by the "characters" themselves and released as such, were also very good. The lyrics were beautifully written, the vocals were on point every time and the instrumentals were performed very nicely. The voice acting is also something I'm not qualified to talk about in high detail, but I know enough to say it was really good. Each line carried the weight it needed to and meant what it was supposed to mean, and none were wasted on unnecessary conversation as everything felt important. The casting was also really nice. Atsumi Tanezaki (Mizore Yoroizuka from Hibike! Euphonium, Arisa Uotani from Fruits Basket (2019)) as Vivy and Jun Fukuyama (Lelouch vi Brittania from Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch, Yuuta Togashi from Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!) as Matsumoto was already good enough, but then they also pulled Takehito Koyasu (Do I even need to say who he voiced?) and Youko Hikasa (Rias Gremory from High School DxD and Mio Akiyama from K-ON!), which just completely impressed me. Cast combos this good don't come along so often.

I found Vivy to be very strong in regards to pure enjoyment, none of the episodes felt boring and there was something to enjoy in every episode. There was always something to look forward to every week, and I love it for that. All of the episodes were interesting, advanced the plot and had great scenes and dialogue. The action scenes and all-out fights were very enjoyable, both for what they contributed to the plot and the absolute eye candy animation during them. Nagatsuki, Umehara, and everybody else who worked on this project and made it possible... thank you.