The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - SI-VIS: The Sound of Heroes

Members of the SI-VIS co-ed vocal unit are wildly popular both inside and outside Japan. Their true secret identity is a group of heroes who fight against a mysterious calamity threatening to destroy the world. Through their live performances, they gather the power to fight.

SI-VIS: The Sound of Heroes is an original anime project by Aniplex and Sony Music. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.

I feel like SI-VIS: The Sound of Heroes is trying very hard to be a modern Macross. That may not actually be the case; after all, the combination of pop music and fighting science fiction isn't necessarily exclusive to that storied franchise. But there's still something about this premiere that has me thinking that it desperately wants to be more than it is, quite possibly by riding on the coattails of a familiar franchise.

That may be unfair of me. SI-VIS: The Sound of Heroes could simply be trying to combine the candy-colored world of idol anime with something a little different, and on that front, I can't say that it fails. Pop supergroup SI-VIS has rocketed to stardom with their collection of pretty members, most of whom, judging by this episode, dance while only Siren sings. But they've become so ubiquitous that takeovers of Shibuya by pop-up concerts are the norm, and Aomori country kid Kyoya desperately wants to be part of it – especially since group leader Yosuke is his cousin. But like most of the public, Kyoya is unaware that SI-VIS is just a front for protecting Tokyo from…uh…monsters? Aliens? I'm not sure, but the creatures can apparently vaporize large swathes of city if their “mirage” touches down.

On the one hand, I'm glad SI-VIS: The Sound of Heroes doesn't overexplain. There's an incredible lack of infodumping, and that's generally a good thing. Yosuke never tells Kyoya what's going on, the story shows him starting to figure it out. We don't know how long any of this has been going on or why SI-VIS is uniquely able to keep it at bay. The episode gives us the space to start formulating our own theories while also leaving the door open for the possibility that whatever vanishes isn't destroyed, but perhaps simply moved. While I wouldn't call it anything approaching a masterclass in trusting the audience, it's still a welcome method of storytelling.

The “but” you sense coming is that there's not quite enough information that is given, and it's withheld in an obnoxiously familiar way. Yosuke (like Asuka in DIGIMON BEATBREAK, actually) says that he'll tell Kyoya “later,” and of course he's removed from the narrative just before he's able to provide that. It's a cheap narrative trick, and while there are some decent stakes with it, when combined with the very tropey other members of the group (including nonverbal Nagi, whom I suspect of being one of the mysterious creatures SI-VIS is fighting) and the overt silliness of the premise, it doesn't quite work. That said, this really does need a second episode to make its case. The music and visuals are catchy enough that I don't mind giving it one.