Before this review begins, a quick spoiler notification:

There won’t be any explicit spoilers past the first episode, with very minor allusions which could be seen as a spoiler to some, but it serves as a way to be relatable with my fellow completionists. Thank you for your time.

iNTRoDuCTioN

Vivy Fluoride Song is an anime about a bottle of toothpaste trying to stop toothpaste from being created. Developed by the same game company that created the widely popular “Advancing Titans”, Fluoride takes a different route and is instead an original creation as opposed to the money maker that is a manga adaptation. Directed by a man who has done nothing significant and with a story created by the man who was responsible for the Rem vs. Emilia war, this had all the makings of a good show. Unfortunately, unlike most, I cannot help but feel a little disappointed.

To give a little background, the story follows computer singer Diva as she gets commanded by a block from Minecraft to stop a war between computers and not computers 100 years in the future. As the game continues, you will have the opportunity to go all over the world and take on a bunch of different jobs. You get to be an astronaut, a bodyguard, and even a spy! However, we soon find out that the Minecraft Cube’s timeline is different than the one that the game shows us. Most likely, as most of us hypothesize, because of this Diva and her affecting the timeline. Man isn’t time travel confusing?

Now that we are all caught up, this review is going to be told in 5 parts: Story, Characters, Animation/Music, and then My Enjoyment, followed by a Conclusion. Story and Characters will be the longest for this review, and the other three will probably be on the shorter end.

SToRy

The story is told with episodic arcs set years apart from each other with each arc consisting of about 2-3 episodes: an episode to set up the conflict and an episode to resolve that conflict (if there are three then the two episode format is just spread over 3 episodes). While this pacing has its merits, not really spending time on bullshit and instead focusing on the core moments that shape the Japanese Civil War, its drawbacks become apparent as the series progresses.

One very large drawback is that there is no reason for any viewer to give a shit about this world beyond very small nods to “oh yeah that's a thing”. Because we jump several years in time between these episodic plots, we are hit with a ton of whiplash and are given very little opportunity to adjust to the technological innovations that were created in between the arcs. We watch the world after it evolves, not watch while it evolves. That said, one of the very best things about this world is the gigantic dildo that sticks up into the air and progressively gets larger as the computers get better. I enjoy that very much and must say that his character development is the best in the series… wait shit this isn't the character portion ok back to the story.

Not only do we feel a lack of connection to the world but because of the focus on the major story beats, there is no downtime. When there is downtime, it's for the specific reason for our little toothpaste bottle to connect to a certain person (or sometimes herself) just so that their actions, whether to cause the conflict or resolve it, can be justified by us the players. When characters exist for 2-3 episodes at a time, rather than feeling like one cohesive story, the anime feels like a bunch of stories strung together with the loose explanation of “oh yeah time passed between then and now”, most of the time not even showing what happens, but rather telling us.

This is a little side note but a lot happens within the story that just kinda does. Like how does the cube time travel? How does a lot of this technology work? A lot of the time plot holes are explained with the always convenient but never enjoyable “shit happens because shit happens”.

This show is a big practitioner of “Tell don’t Show” which is a crucial flaw to the writing of it. While the big plot points happen on screen the minor casualties of those plot points are rarely shown if ever and are rather told to us in the form of drawn out conversations between the minecraft cube and the toothpaste as they catch up after their multi-year separation. They don’t even get coffee!!

Towards the latter half of the show, we can really see how the show is trying to fit so much storytelling into such a short time. Not only does every time jump happen at a larger rate than before, but time jumps begin to happen within the episodes themselves. This is all fine and dandy, but once again nothing is done by showing us, we are told about things that are happening rather than seeing them unfold ourselves.

I won’t divulge into the ending of the show, but to simplify it as much as I can, it ends in one final 3 episode arc that does a lot of what we had already seen with this show. Lots of telling, not so much showing, and fight scenes that feel forced rather than coming naturally. This said, the characters introduced (or in one case reintroduced) are welcome additions and make the final arc probably the best one the series has to offer.

Now if you’ve stuck around long enough to listen to me bitch about the story, let me compliment it for a little bit before I go and bitch about the characters.

The story in its entirety, when looking past the shortcomings, is a very interesting take on AI. While not completely original, it offers a dialogue to be had about AI in the real world as they are becoming increasingly more advanced with each and every day. The episodic/arc structure of the show is also something to compliment as not only does it keep the pace moving, it also means that if you're not enjoying a certain setting or a certain character, you know you won't be with them for long. There is no real "worst" or "best" arc for me because they're all about equal in terms of quality, but if there is a worst arc for you then you can rest easy knowing it's only 2 episodes of the whole show. Not only that, but the settings the show takes us to are all very interesting and provide several different outlooks on how AI affects the world and how the world in turn affects the AIs.

CHaRaCTeRS

Within Fluoride Song, 2 characters are important, and the rest are side characters that only show up in like one arc.

The first of the two characters is our little toothpaste bottle Diva, a singer who for plot convenience is also a badass. When in singer formation she goes by the aforementioned name Diva and when she’s a badass, we call her Vivy. As the series progresses, Diva proves to be a little computer Barbie doll and gets dressed up in all sorts of jobs. How she achieves the ability to get said jobs, never explained. She just does because she’s a badass ok? Don’t question the method. Trust the method. Believe in the method. Our Diva Star has a goal of “making everyone happy with singing”. How she’s going to make everyone happy is beyond me, I know several people who don’t like J-Pop. It’s also mentioned that Diva is the first human-computer or whatever that means. That means in our Minecraft Cube’s timeline she is put into a museum. She isn’t in one now because apparently her becoming a badass also makes her a better and more popular singer, however that works. Now Diva has several computer sisters and every single one is important to the plot. Don’t worry though, you don’t need to remember them because they all die. Jk jk jk, or am I?

The second of the two is our good old Minecraft Cube who is from the future. He isn’t always a cube, instead early on preferring the much more popular method of possessing a teddy bear. Not only does his character evolve from bear to cube, but his animation also evolves with him: going from a 2D teddy bear to a 3D cube. Now, this guy is serious. He’s from the future and goes back in time using some sort of technology. He says that AI bad and that AI should go away. Now Mr. Minecraft Cube, sir, I’m no gynecologist, but are you not an AI yourself? Anywho our Cube is a wonderful piece of technology, being able to fly, transform into a plane with multiple versions of himself, and can even be an anti-virus software!!! Honestly, we should get Matsumotos on every single computer. Now, this character is pretty much what drives the story forward, only appearing every few years to say “hey shit's kinda gonna happen so let’s stop it”.

There are more characters, but most are really only important in their one arc, in fact now that I think about it most die at the end of their arcs so yeah we don’t have to go over them.

Scratch that there is one and he’s a dude that toothpaste saves back in the first arc and then for some fucking reason he decides to show up in every gosh darn arc. Calm down, you aren’t a protagonist stop causing issues. His character arc is alright at best and just straight cringe at worst, somehow (it isn’t explained) he shows up decades into the future having not aged a bit but instead now has AI bits inside of him. Again, we aren’t explained how he gets those shits inside of him, but he does anyway, and then his arc is finished.

aNiMaTioN aND MuSiC

This will be the shortest of all of the segments because there isn’t really much to talk about here. If you’ve seen Advancing Titans or Viking Chronicles, then you know that WIT studio stands for Without Investment Training.

I made that up but WIT makes some pretty gosh darn pretty drawings.

The music is also fairly nice to listen to. It doesn’t give me an eargasm but it's still nonetheless pleasant to listen to. The opening “Sing my Pleasure” is a pleasure to listen to, pun intended, and it is added to my anime ops playlist if that says anything. Somewhere in the middle of the show, the opening plays at the end of the episode instead of the ed (which is mid to begin with) and honestly the op does not work in the context it plays in. I think I’m in the minority when I say that, but I digress.

My eNJoyMeNT

Overall, this game is a fairly interesting romp through the woods. I’d say that in comparison to other Spring 2021 anime, I’d put this towards the middle/bottom of the list. Why? Well to me, an anime doesn’t tell me how good it is through the color of his skin, but rather the content of his character. The anime’s story is somewhat good, yes, but its shortcomings are noticeable to a fault. A lot of people will defend the show because of its animation and yes, the animation is incredible and the music is really good, but that doesn’t make the anime better than a 6/10 in my opinion. Furthermore, personally, I am a fan of toothpaste and would rather not have them seize creation.

Overall I enjoyed it when I wasn’t paying too much attention to the story but was instead looking at the pretty drawings. The drawings are good.

CoNCLuSioN

Vivy Fluoride Song is an alright anime to sit and watch, but not one I’d suggest spending every waking hour thinking about. While the world and it’s characters have good elements to them, the flaws the anime presents are not those that can be forgotten about. This review has definitely been a negative one but I would not call this a “Bad Anime”. In fact, a 6/10 score is above average on my rating scale. The animation is amazing to look at so if you can look past its story flaws, you can enjoy this show for the animation alone. That said, the flaws are too glaring to give the show anymore than the score that was warranted in this review.

I’m writing this paragraph while I’m editing the review, it’s about 2 AM right now and I want to add the fact that this probably would’ve done much better as a 2 cour or even 3 cour season. I was thinking this sentiment from early on but was in the minority then but it seems that I am in the majority now. The pacing is fine but if it were 2 cour, had longer arcs or just flat out didn’t skip 100000000000 years every other episode, it would’ve been a fine show in WIT’s collection.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day.