(L) Vivid Red Operation

[U<3Anime]

Originally Posted by winhlp32

This anime never fails to make me double over in laughter, and so effortlessly too. I'd imagine the writers were also in stitches as they reviewed the script in the production process. Who cares about the plot, the themes and feelings of the show that they tried to get across was conveyed well, and I felt warm and fuzzy watching every episode. Homerun.

Only sad thing is the art got really bad at times, particular episode 9 and 11. Thank goodness this final episode was mostly great. Really liked Vividred's designs, but was a little disappointed that a Vividblack didn't appear since it was fully possible.

Onto more serious matters, now that this show is over, I think its safe to declare anime as officially dead.

There wasn't much of a hook after they showed all the vivid combinations. There was some intentional or unintentional humour here and there, but boy, did it put me to sleep with the drama.

All the action felt rather sparse, short and just uninspiring. The moment they rolled in the stock footage from transformation to attacks in the last episode speaks alot for itself. It's either they were really running thin on budget or no one in the team knows how to choreograph good action. I wish the final boss could put up more of fight but it just ended up being a sitting duck. Yes, just sit and wait for akane to dock with her combinations before attacking her. Whatever happened to the idea of interrupting their docking that they brought up earlier in the show? The whole sequence just felt rather sloppy and sluggish.



Rei's farewell fails to build any emotion because it was just rushed. Here's the door> here take my scarf> ok thx bye! Felt like I was watching one bad mahou shoujo parody at the end. There's good cheese but there is also bad cheese. I feel this show falls more into the side of bad cheese.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Why is Vividred so freaking overpowered anyway? Is it because it's the result of two girls from different world fusing or is Rei and Akane's friendship the strongest ever, in which case Aoi got NTR'd hard? We'll probably never know.

Well, it was explained before that Rei was stronger than a normal human. Besides, Vividred is the opposite to all the others. I mean, until now, the Vivid would be color-coded according to the girls who kissed Akane. Also, in all these transformations it seemed to me that all the girls became power for Akane, which would explain why after every time they were exhausted while Akane wasn't.

On the other hand, since Akane kissed Rei, the resulting Vivid was red. I suppose you could see this transformation as Akane's declaration of friendship. So, instead of sucking power from Rei, like she did with all the other girls, she gave herself to Rei, she became power for her. So, in a way, this was more Rei's Vivid than Akane's, despite the color.

[Sol Falling]

Final episode...was pretty, but kind of lacked dramatic tension. They didn't really manage to do anything meaningful with the themes, either. Not particularly memorable.

I guess this would qualify as one of those series which do everything well except fizzle out at the end, for me. I guess the hook was meant to be Vivid Red finally showing up, but given that it's the finale, I still could've expected something more. And out of the Vivids, I still like Vivid Blue the best, anyway. Dat lace.

In the end, the best thing about this series was its character designs. I sure did enjoy this series for the eyecandy. Hopefully though, next time they can wrap those designs around a more meaningful/interesting story.

[Lord of Fire]

I guess I'm one of the few who likes Vivid Red the most, then. Probably because red is my favorite color (along with black) and it involves the two characters I grew to like a lot.

Anyway, quite a satisfying show overall. Very predictable in most ways, but I didn't watch this show for its originality, so I don't really care. Wouldn't mind more of this.

[Triple_R]

VRO went for SuperMegaHappy McDonald's Meal End, and just blared "The Power of Friendship!" up to maximum volume, presenting a narrative conclusion about as complex as a Ronald McDonald story for kids. To be fair, I think this is better than a dark end, as that would have been ill-fitting given what this show was like for the most part. I also liked how the final attack was basically a FALCON PUNCH! powered by yuri.

Nonetheless, there wasn't really enough sense of struggle in this finale, imo. It would have helped if Giant Crow Monster had at least managed to hurt the girls a little bit. But instead, it actually went down quicker than some of the other Alones did (albeit it required four Vivid combinations, including a brand new one, for that to happen).


On the whole, a fun little series, but yeah, not terribly memorable. I guess if nothing else, this show is a safe suggestion for anybody looking for a very upbeat mecha/magical girl fusion. Something that ultimately has even more sugary sweetness than Nanoha does.

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

On the whole, a fun little series, but yeah, not terribly memorable. I guess if nothing else, this show is a safe suggestion for anybody looking for a very upbeat mecha/magical girl fusion. Something that ultimately has even more sugary sweetness than Nanoha does.

Most magical girl shows have more sugary sweetness than Nanoha does. That was one of the things that made Nanoha stand out back when it first aired.

[Master_Yoma]

A very nice ending but it was predictable but so much great butt shot in this

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

Most magical girl shows have more sugary sweetness than Nanoha does.

I don't think so. Nanoha combines genres and it's more battle focused, but the cheese on character interaction is almost on the level of Card Captor Sakura. It's definitely more cheesy and sugary than Sailor Moon, to be honest.

This series is quite up there too.

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

It's definitely more cheesy and sugary than Sailor Moon, to be honest.

Is that the only yardstick you have for comparison? Most magical girl series used to be written specifically for young girls, and were accordingly saccharine sweet.

but the cheese on character interaction is almost on the level of Card Captor Sakura

CCS is generally considered significantly more mature and well-written than the norm for magical girl series. Some of the reasons it's popular are because it's different from the poorly-written fluff I'm talking about. Well, ok, some of the overly sweet stuff isn't poorly-written, but lots of it is.

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

Most magical girl shows have more sugary sweetness than Nanoha does. That was one of the things that made Nanoha stand out back when it first aired.

Vividred Operations is EXACTLY the kind of Magical Girl series Madoka Magica was written to mock, and possibly, deconstruct. But then again, it's clear that the writers probably aren't trying to write a serious story here - after Nanoha and Madoka Magica, trying to write an archtypical Mahou Shoujo Story like Vividred Operations seriously is probably very difficult.

[justsomeguy]

Thoughts:
* This show went by too fast in general and wrapped everything up too neatly. I actually think it needed more fillers, if just the explore the characters a bit more.
* The fights are not particularly good, and have the same tactics. All of the Alone are just beamspammers, some have crappy monster design, and many are defeated too quickly, some practically offscreen. The Vivid System's individual forms are basically only used in their introductory episodes (Wakaba didn't even get that!), and the Moth Alone battle (the best battle of the show, since it took actual planning and effort).
* Aoi was shafted on attention. She's supposedly Akane's best friend, but got overshadowed by Rei, Himawari, and Wakaba, in that order.
* Momo also didn't get to do much, other than sit back and worry about the others.
* Considering all the military hardware that gets destroyed, thousands of soldiers must have died, but the show basically ignores them.
* The ending was too clean, rushed, and resolved everything, even Akane's mom and the professor's body-switching, just like that. The tremendous explosions in the finale also should have caused mass destruction to the surrounding area with heat and shockwaves, but they just dissipate. Rei even got to go back to her own world, and come back, in less than 10 minutes from the viewers' perspective!
* IMHO the focus on middle schoolers' bodies was a bit creepy.

Score: 7/10. Still, in terms of action it was the best of the spring season that I've watched (besides the hand to hand fights in Psycho-Pass).

[Ridwan]

Wow, the last episode was embarrassingly clichetique. Was fun....

[Scarletknive]

Originally Posted by solidvanz

Is it just me, or after that picuture I can imagine her saying "The hand of mine is glowing red. Its burning grip tells me to defeat you."? Needs to SS that picture... Apparently I cant find 1...

[solidvanz]

More large images from the final episode:

Spoiler for For better view:

[Triple_R]

Here's what I would have changed for the finale.

1) You have a freakin' giant crow. Make use of that powerful motif! The crow has three types of attacks. In addition to basic beam spam, it can petrify (turn objects into wood) and stonify (turn objects into craggy stone). It's death and decay, writ large. Have it take out a couple fighter jets by turning them into stone, and then those jets fall and crash into the ground below.

2) At least let Akane get some scratches and bruises.

3) Rei meets her parents. Her parents explain that they told the Crow to make Rei go to school so she wouldn't get behind on her studies. Tearful family reunion. Gives the Crow the lightest touch of nuance, and makes it seem like the Crow just snapped from being drunk on power.

4) No scene of Rei coming back. Leave that open-ended. Just this little sense of potential loss makes the ending feel a little less like "forced happiness".

5) Akane kisses one other girl on the lips. I don't particular care which one (well, not her sister, lol).


That's it. I think this would have made this ending the perfect way to end off this show.

[bastek66]

Story was retarded, they never explained anything about that crow.
Show was ass.

[Random Wanderer]

3) Rei meets her parents. Her parents explain that they told the Crow to make Rei go to school so she wouldn't get behind on her studies. Tearful family reunion. Gives the Crow the lightest touch of nuance, and makes it seem like the Crow just snapped from being drunk on power

Except they didn't. The school clause was an order given by Them: the beings the crow was working for. This likely was to force Rei into having social interaction, so that people would sympathize with her and someone would be willing to defend her when the inevitable "execute her immediately!" conversation came up.

Also, although this is just a guess on my part, I think Rei was being tested in a fashion as well. By choosing in the end to help save Akane's world rather than destroy it, she proved that her own world was worthy of a second chance. Had she not gone to school and met Akane and the others, she would never have had the chance for that change of heart.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by bastek66

Story was retarded, they never explained anything about that crow.
Show was ass.

Given which body part this show loved focusing on, this really made me laugh!

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

Except they didn't. The school clause was an order given by Them: the beings the crow was working for. This likely was to force Rei into having social interaction, so that people would sympathize with her and someone would be willing to defend her when the inevitable "execute her immediately!" conversation came up.

Also, although this is just a guess on my part, I think Rei was being tested in a fashion as well. By choosing in the end to help save Akane's world rather than destroy it, she proved that her own world was worthy of a second chance. Had she not gone to school and met Akane and the others, she would never have had the chance for that change of heart.

Those are good thoughts/possible explanations.

But in any event, it would have been nice to meet Rei's parents, even if only for a minute.

Anyway, my suggestions are no big deal. VRO was a fun watch, and at least we did get to see VividRed.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

5) Akane kisses one other girl on the lips. I don't particular care which one (well, not her sister, lol).

Why not?

There's nothing hotter than yuri incest.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Why not?

There's nothing hotter than yuri incest.

I completely disagree. Besides, there's too much incest in anime as it is.