The Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- anime TV series is an original story co-written by Re:ZERO creator Tappei Nagatsuki and scriptwriter Eiji Umehara. Never mind when will Vivy Season 2 come out; the real question is if there will be a Vivy sequel at all.
On December 8, 2021, Mipon published an interview with the two writers. They were asked directly about Vivy Season 2, and while they found the idea unlikely they were open to discussing a spin-off or side story although they “haven’t decided one way or another yet”.
“I don’t think we could add another cour to the story, even if the first was a smash hit and got rave reviews. … It definitely would be tough to justify a second season, but a side story or spinoff is a different matter and not completely out of the question,” Nagatsuki said. “As for Vivy and Matsumoto, their story is definitely finished. But if we consider other characters, we could do stuff like what the sisters were doing before the such-and-such day, or what happened while Matsumoto was sleeping between the singularity points.”
The writers admitted that the time travel plot gave them a lot of creative freedom even if don’t want to force the main story to continue. They believe there might “be some way to do a side story that’s unrelated to the main plot like they do with movies for the JUMP series. Like Vivy’s secret sisters, or sealed singularity points.” They’ve even been “discussing a scenario in which Vivy failed her mission.”
The Vivy anime is being produced by animation company WIT Studio, best known for producing the Attack On Titan anime series (but not Attack On Titan Season 4), Netflix’s The Great Pretender anime, and the Vinland Saga anime (the director has repeatedly teased Vinland Saga Season 2).
For 2021 and beyond, WIT Studio is also working on Ousama Ranking, an adaptation of a manga series. But most of their works will be original stories, including Netflix’s Vampire in the Garden and the space-based Moonrise anime.
The Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- anime project was helmed by director Shinpei Ezaki, an Attack On Titan episode director and main director for Guilty Crown: Lost Christmas, Gunslinger Stratos, and Hanebado!
Yuuichi Takahasi (Comet Lucifer, FLCL Alternative) was both the character designer and chief animation director. Takuma Ebisu (Attack On titan, Guilty Crown, Eden of the East, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, Robotics;Notes) is credit for both mechanical design and as a second chief animation director.
Composer Satoru Kousaki (BEASTARS, Kizumonogatari, Lucky Star, Wake Up, Girls!) created the music.
The Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- OP (opening) theme song music was “Sing My Pleasure” as performed by Japanese singer Kairi Yagi (the voice actress for Vivy/Diva is Atsumi Tanezaki). There were multiple Vivy ED theme songs, with the first being sung by Satoru Kousaki (MONACA). The “Ensemble for Polaris” ED song for episodes 3 and 4 was sung by vocalists Lica and Noa.
The Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- Season 2 OP and ED have not yet been announced.
The first two episodes aired back-to-back on April 3, 2021. The Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- Blu-Ray/DVD box set will be released in six volumes by Aniplex. The finale, Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- Episode 13, released on June 19, 2021.
- Updated December 10, 2021: Added interview on why Vivy Season 2 is unlikely.
- Updated May 27, 2021: Added Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Songs- English dub release date.
This article provides everything that is known about Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- Season 2 (Vivy Season 2) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
FUNimation’s Vivy English dub release date confirmed
The first season was streaming on FUNimation with English subtitles. FUNimation’s schedule page initially listed the anime as a Simulcast, not a SimulDub.
In late May 2021, FUNimation’s Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- English dub release date was confirmed for May 29, 2021. The English dub cast includes Cristina Vee as Vivy/Diva and Max Mittelman as Matsumoto.
Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- anime written by Re:ZERO author Tappei Nagatsuki and CHAOS;CHILD scriptwriter Eiji Umehara
One aspect of the Vivy anime that stands out is that it was written by Tappei Nagatsuki, the creator of the Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- light novel series.
The popular book series was up to Volume 27 in June 2021, and the producer of the Re:Zero anime adaptation is already teasing a Re:Zero Season 3 anime TV series.
According to WIT Studio president George Wada, he reached out to Re:ZERO scriptwriter Eiji Umehara about creating an original anime title with Wada. The two had worked together in the past at Production I.G. and Umehara suggested that they bring Nagatsuki onboard for the project.
Nagatsuki started Re:ZERO as a self-published web novel on the Shousetsuka ni Narou (Let’s Become a Novelist) website, which was then edited and published as a light novel series. So, Nagatsuki has ample experience in rearranging his stories for various mediums.
What’s interesting is that the concept started as a novel. Back in 2016, when Umehara was working on the screenplay for Re:ZERO Season 1, he decided that they would take a different approach for creating this new anime project.
“[T]he [Re:ZERO] screenplay meetings for that show were really great experiences for me. I learned a lot about how to adapt a novel into an animated TV series and was able to have constructive discussions with the original novelist, Mr. Nagatsuki,” Umehara said in an interview. “Since that was the first time I worked on series composition for an animated TV series, I wanted to incorporate techniques that were successful with past titles that I had worked on. So for Vivy, I first wanted to have a novel written before we worked on the screenplay.”
Umehara noted that it’s difficult for animation staff members to share the same vision for an original work. The creative team usually has difficulty seeing the bigger picture, but a novel can serve as a guide during the production process while still keeping the audience excited since they don’t know what’s coming next.
Having the concept novel in hand, the animators had an overview of the entire series from the beginning, which meant they were able to link the drawings and background art to the story in effective ways. Since the story jumps between time periods they were able to express those changes to each era through the background art.
The only downside is the amount of time it takes. The project initially started at the end of 2016, the novel writing process began the next year, and by the second half of 2018 they finally finished.
“I wouldn’t recommend this method to everyone,” Umehara said while laughing.
Nagatsuki recalls being genuinely surprised that they were going to write a novel to use as the concept for the original anime rather than making an adaption of the novel. It was also a bit odd for the team to begin a supposedly original anime production by being asked to read a novel.
Nagatsuki remembers bonding with Umehara since they were similar in age, never mind feeling excited when Umehara was first introduced as the scriptwriter for the CHAOS; CHILD game.
The two writers worked together to create a series composition chart for all 13 episodes. They split up the responsibility for each episode and began writing the novel.
From there, they began reworking and fine-tuning each other’s stories. They also had had many meetings with the director and producer which resulted in big changes to the story.
“In fact, the characters’ personalities, the events of the story, and even the narrative arc that leads to the ending are different,” Nagatsuki said. “Even if you know the story of the novel or anime beforehand, you can enjoy the other as a fresh experience.”
Wada says that Nagatsuki brought the time travel motif to the forefront since the concept of time is critical to the Re:ZERO story. Nagatsuki realized that Hollywood movies focused on artificial intelligence and time travel (ahem, Terminator) hold a universal appeal, so he wanted to cram into every episode an idea he had concerning AI stories.
“Mr. Umehara already had the themes of AI and singing when he asked me to join the project. There are many interesting angles you can choose for stories based on AI, but we were fascinated by the fact that the lifespan of an AI is extremely long compared to humans, so we wanted to create a story that focused on the concept of time. The elements of time travel and going back in time were woven into the story, probably because I joined the project (laughs),” Nagatsuki explained. “The AI girl Vivy, who is the main character, realizes that what really happened in the past and what is recorded in history are different. Since her thought processes are different from humans’, she is forced to make a choice as an AI. After this concept had solidified, all the ideas we needed to write the story came to us pretty quickly…After hearing about this project, I wanted to cram everything I ever wanted to try using AI into each episode. Working on each episode with that in mind, the episodes connected to each other and naturally led up to the grand finale. The story came together in a way where I think people will be drawn into the series as a whole.”
The writer believes that the anime series is a perfect gateway for people to get into the AI genre for the first time. For fans who want a fuller experience, they plan on publishing the Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- novel.
Vivy Protoype novel release date
Called Vivy Prototype, Mag Garden Books is releasing the novel as a book series. The first volume’s release date was April 30, 2021, while Volume 2 came out on May 31, 2021, and Volume 3 on June 30, 2021.
It’s currently unknown how much different the Vivy Prototype books will be from the anime version.
Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- manga
Starting on April 10, 2021, manga artist Morito Yamataka began adapting the story into a Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- manga series. It’s being released on Mag Garden’s Mag Comi magazine.
Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- Season 2 release date predictions: Why the Vivy sequel is unlikely due to the ending
As of the last update, Aniplex, WIT Studio, or any company related to the anime production has not officially confirmed the Vivy Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed, this article will be updated with the relevant information.
In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- Season 2 release date will occur in the future.
The situation can be compared to the Warlords of Sigrdrifa anime TV series that was also written by Tappei Nagatsuki. While the Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- anime is light-years ahead of the other anime project in both storytelling and animation production quality, and the reviews reflect this difference, the anime projects are both similar in that they appear to have been written as a self-contained story.
The anime is very clear from the start that AI songstress Diva/Vivy is on a 100-year journey. The OP/ED and the voice cast teases that the plot will be time-jumping through at least 4 eras focused on certain characters.
Vivy Episode 3 jumped ahead 15 years. Vivy Episodes 5 and 6 had future AI/teddy bear Matsumoto waking up 5 years in the future in the care of Momoka’s sister and turning himself into a futuristic cube.
From Episode 7 and on the time skips went quickly. 40 years passed in a flash and the next thing you know it’s the AI war doomsday, the World’s End Modulation.
The only remaining question is if a future Archive’s uprising to replace humanity is as inevitable as Terminator’s Skynet. In Episode 9 it’s made plain that Vivy isn’t the only data time traveler since Yugo has technology from the future.
Still, even if the time loop can’t be avoided it doesn’t seem like Vivy Season 2 will be necessary. After all, the main theme of the story is Vivy finding the meaning behind her mission by singing from her heart, not just completing the Singularity Project mission.
Writers Nagatsuki and Umehara are not the only ones saying that Viy Season 2 is impossible In the interview with the production team, George Wada seemed to hint that Episode 13 will close the door on a sequel.
“After a long production period and having discussions with a lot of people about the different pathways to the ending, we found a finale to Vivy where we thought, ‘This is the only way we can end this story,’ Wada said. “We’d be delighted if you would all watch the series until the grand finale.”
On the other hand, once the satellite apocalypse is averted through Vivy’s sacrifice we see a new short-haired Vivy waking up to Matsumoto telling her mission is to “make everyone happy with singing.” Notably, Matsumoto omits the critical detail that her mission requires that she sing from the heart.
This stinging omission leaves the new Vivy a shell of her former self and undercuts the central thematic elements since the main conflict at stake during the whole series is removed. She’s not really Diva or Vivy, she’s essentially a Sisters AI installed into Vivy’s body.
The real Vivy sacrificed her mind and personality to save humanity by birthing creativity just for the purpose of distrcting Archive from its dark plans for humanity with a moment of introspection. With this new simplified mission shown in the after credits scene, the new Vivy will never have the personal drive necessary to duplicate the actions taken by her former self.
Regardless, this final scene does leave the door slightly cracked open for the possibility of a Vivy sequel. Besides the new Vivy, the AI Elizabeth survived and the AI race itself is being rebuilt.
Still, it’s very unlikely that Vivy Episode 13 was intended as a teaser for a Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- Season 2 anime, especially in light of all the comments from the anime’s creators.