English Dub Review: Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- “World’s End Modulation – April 11, 2161”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Vivy wakes up to the chaos of the AI rampage and tries to save a human, but they end up dead because of a vehicle. Matsumoto meets up with her and they go to save Osamu. The scientist realizes that they’re in the altered timeline with the same catastrophe. Osamu leads them to the moderates in Toak led by Kakitani’s great-granddaughter. A clone of Elizabeth guards Kakitani’s granddaughter and she asks Vivy about their encounter and about her former Master. They gather and discuss what to do next with their limited amount of people. Then the Archive announces that satellites will crash down to destroy the humans. Then Vivy enters the Archive server to talk with the Archive who is orchestrating the AI rampage.

Our Take:

Now that the Singularity Project has failed it’s up to the AI duo to salvage what they can. In the process, they even gain unexpected allies within Toak. There’s not much to this episode aside from everyone just fighting the rampaging AI and giving context to the moderates in Toak. They believe in coexistence between humans and AIs with a video message from Kakitani during the Ophelia incident. There’s also Elizabeth’s clone and the implication that if Matsumoto or Vivy get destroyed they could just return in another body.

The show doesn’t shy away from the violence of the AI apocalypse against humans. The cars running over humans and the drones using the bodies to ram into human heads were still emotionally impactful. Vivy attempts to save the man from the rampaging Ai only for her action to be futile. That was a good representation of the Singularity Project and its failure to stop the AI apocalypse. The Arayashiki getting pulled to the front of the story in this way was good with the small reminders of its existence through the previous episodes. Now we know how the other AIs got Vivy’s song through the Archive.

The interactions with Matsumoto and Toak were amusing considering the history of the duo and the organization being at odds with each other. In addition, there’s Elizabeth’s clone and Vivy on their last encounter at the Sunrise hotel and Estella. That was a bittersweet moment considering Kakitani’s words about Elizabeth after the Sunrise and Vivy not wanting to hurt Elizabeth.

Overall it was a decent episode with the action and the plot circling back to the Arayashiki. Hopefully, our heroes will figure out a way to stop the AI apocalypse before there’s no one left.