English Dub Review: Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- “Sing My Pleasure – I Love You”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Dr. Saeki heads over to the Metal Float with Grace as Vivy treats the Toak members. Matsumoto questions Kakitani who demands to know why they’re there. They find out that they’ve been duped by Saeki who lands on the Metal Float with Grace. The rampaging AI outside breaks in and Vivy and Matsumoto go to confront Dr. Saeki about his real intentions.

Dr. Saeki explains how the Sunrise incident made Grace the administer to the Metal Float and his wish to save her. However, Vivy and Matsumoto reach the conclusion that she can’t be saved because Grace is the Float now. After reaching the core of the Metal Float Vivy destroys Grace. Afterward, she finds Dr. Saeki at an abandoned church and shoots himself unable to live on without Grace. Vivy breaks down with her words about her mission lingering in her head.

Our Take:

Vivy’s song hits differently now with this episode for a few reasons. There’s Grace (Laura Post) and Saeki’s story, Vivy’s mission, and the conflict between AIs and humans. On a side note, I do enjoy the comparison between Vivy and Grace with their missions and how Vivy is able to differentiate both missions with her identities as Diva and Vivy respectively.

For starters, there’s how Saeki and Grace met, fell in love, and the unexpected consequence of the Sunrise incident breaking them apart. It’s an interesting take on the romance between an AI and a human. Vivy’s song was Grace’s favorite song, and the lyrics’ meaning deepens with this episode’s events. Even though Grace is the entire Metal Float now we still get fragments of her through the AIs robots surprising Vivy and Matsumoto in the last episode and with her selection of the tone data.

Then there’s Vivy’s mission as an AI destroying other AIs for the sake of humanity and her accepting it fully. Vivy on the way to destroy Grace and her song sung in Grace’s voice was beautiful. It is also heartbreaking to see Vivy destroy Grace. The framing of the drop of blue blood that slides down Grace’s face like a tear was nice. Then there’s Vivy’s conversation with Dr. Saeki at the church about her mission. That was a good scene to show their feelings in the aftermath of Grace’s demise.

This incident is the first one with human casualties in the Singularity Project. How big its effect will have on the project is unknown for now. However, there’s an effect on Vivy with Dr. Saeki’s death, now that her hands are literally stained with both AI and human blood. It was a nice touch to emphasize her emotional distress as the screen flickers as her status indicator shows her turmoil of emotion in different colors. Then there’s Kakitani and his insistence that AIs should just follow human orders instead of diverting from their missions. It’s a conflicting perspective to Vivy’s actions, and it does make me wonder why he’s so insistent on it.

Overall that ending really makes me wonder about how Vivy is going to continue her mission after the deaths weighing on her conscience.