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Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song- Writers Share the Anime's Unique Creation Story

The official website of Wit Studio's original television anime Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song- released an English translation of a roundtable interview with the series writers and producers. In particular, writers Tappei Nagatsuki (Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Warlords of Sigrdrifa) and Eiji Umehara (Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- episode scriptwriter, Chaos;Child) shared the unique story behind the creation of the anime: It began as a concept novel co-written by Nagatsuki and Umehara, which was then adapted into an anime.

Umehara explained that the idea of creating an anime with Nagatsuki began when the two worked together on adapting Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- to anime. "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."

He stated that the benefit of this approach was that it helped establish a shared vision of the work among the staff. Compared to a completely original title, he claimed that it is easier to use a novel to serve as a guide. Nagatsuki stressed that the novel was only used as an initial concept, saying that as the script meetings progressed, differences surfaced in "the characters' personalities, the events of the story, and even the narrative arc that leads to the ending." Umehara said that the only downside to this approach is that it takes "a tremendous amount of time." The project began at the end of 2016; work on the novel began in 2017 and concluded in the latter half of 2018.

For further discussion on the themes and creation of the anime, check out the full interview on the website.

The story takes place in "Nialand," where "dreams, hope, and science" exist together as an AI theme park. The theme park is where the first autonomous humanoid AI is born. Vivy is an AI who sings on stage for park attendees every day, as it is her directive to "make everyone happy through song." She performs wholeheartedly for the attendees in the park. One day, an AI named Matsumoto appears before her. He says he has come from 100 years in the future with the directive of "working with Vivy to correct history, and to stop the war between AI and humans that breaks out 100 years from now." The 100-year journey of the AI songstress Vivy begins.

The anime will premiere in Japan on April 3. A novel in the franchise titled Vivy Prototype will ship on April 30.

Source: Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song- official anime website