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The magical girl world goes a bit (fantasy) science oriented as the world must be saved.
What They Say:
On an artificial island, Akane Isshiki, an innocent 14-year-old girl, lives a simple but happy life with her level-headed little sister Momo and their genius inventor grandfather. On clear days just over the water, everyone on the island can see the revolutionary invention that solved all the world’s energy problems, the Manifestation Engine. Thanks to the Manifestation Engine, the peaceful days that everyone had dreamed of had arrived.
But suddenly, a mysterious enemy called the “Alone” appear out of nowhere aiming to attack the Manifestation Engine, jeopardizing their quiet way of life. Equipped with incredibly powerful Palette Suits designed by her grandfather, Akane and her friends must rise up together in this desperate situation. Their friendship is the only hope to save the world.
The Review:
Audio:
Though the audio presentation for this release is weak in that we’ve only got the original Japanese language track, it is a strong track overall with it done using the lossless PCM encoding. The series works a pretty solid action dynamic here with the way the mix works as the action goes all over the screen when it comes to the way they fly about it in dealing with the enemy. The nature of the action allows it to expand well between the alien invaders themselves and the way that the girls flight and abilities work. Because of it being lossless, it has a louder and stronger feeling here that definitely gives it more impact as it plays out. The dialogue side is handled just as well as it plays out as there’s some good placement and depth throughout due to the way the characters are setup on the screen. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in early 2013, the transfer for this series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is enhanced for anamorphic playback. The twelve episodes of the series are spread across three discs with four episodes per disc. Animated by A-1 Pictures, what we have here is one of those series that manages to look fantastic on DVD. The animation itself is well detailed as we get some great backgrounds and lots of detail in the character designs as well, but the colors pop off the screen in a fantastic way that makes it, well, vivid. The look of the show is definitely one of its selling points and it’s a great looking release with solid colors throughout and a high bit rate even compensating for the lossless audio. There’s a lot to like here with this show and its transfer from top to bottom as it’s easy to get lost in with how it looks.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release brings us a clear keepcase to hold the three discs inside with all of it inside a slipcover that uses different artwork than within the case. The slipcover gives us a cute image of the main cast of girls in their various colored uniforms as they float over the sea, which means lots of blues to balance against the character material. It’s busy but it works well since we get a good range of characters that aren’t completely on top of each other. The back cover goes for a white approach for the background that keeps it simple while letting the small bits of character artwork pop all the more. The premise is well covered and we get a good breakdown of the discs features, on disc and in package, as well as the episodes by number and title. The technical grid is small and simple while conveying all that’s needed.
The case artwork gives us a cute image of Akane in her school uniform leaping across the sky that isn’t quite so strong with the colors but is one that definitely works well to highlight her personality. The back cover does the same kind of design with Aoi but adds in a bit of the staff listing material along the lower left. The reverse artwork does the same kind of layout but gives us the other two girls with Himawari and Wakaba getting their panels to stand out with. It’s a simple but good cover that definitely lets each girl stand out. It also includes a great little package of five postcards that are really glossy and highly appealing with the character artwork that’s used.
Menu:
The menu design for this release is done nicely though it’s a bit much in terms of the colors and the way it all connects together. The left side has the navigation with the logo along the bottom that has a fair bit of color to it since it plays up the four aspects of the show. The white with the blue lined backgrounds combined with the navigation pieces just makes it feel pretty busy. The right side has a monitor block that has different pencil lined artwork of the cast in different configurations across each of the volumes. The navigation does work easily and smoothly and there are no problems in getting around. The subtitles also aren’t locked as you can turn them on and off from the main menu.
Extras:
The extras here are pretty good overall though it’s just the basics in an expanded way. We get the clean opening sequence and the multiple clean closing sequences since there are a few of them. We also get the complete series of web previews, respective to each volume and episode, that shows how the series was promoted online.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While the majority of series that come out every season are ones that are adapted from manga and there are a lot of very enjoyable ones, I do admit that I tend to gravitate more towards the original works. A-1 Pictures always manages to bring a few out every year and Vividred Operation is one that hit in the winter 2013 season. I didn’t get to see the simulcast and I think that worked out for the best as the show works really well in a nice and tight little package here that tells a story with a beginning, middle and end but also plenty of room for more as well. While it is an original show, it does follow a lot of standard design aspects here and it really is just a magical girl show with more of a technological side than anything else. And that works out nicely in the end.
Taking place in a relative near future as little has changed about the way the world actually works, the core difference is that a device called the Manifestation Engine was invented by a scientist named Kenjiro Isshiki. This mammoth device is something that was built near the island of Izu Oshima revolutionized the world in that it solved all the energy problems. All power stems from this island sized device that has a whole city built around it and a thriving society on the islands around it as well. The Manifestation Engine is a pretty easy device to work with as it’s not really explained and we don’t see how it actually makes an impact with other kinds of devices beyond structures, but it’s totally changed everything and made the environment a whole lot better, creating peace everywhere in a sense. When it was created, Isshiki did end up involved in an accident along the way that caused him to essentially be excommunicated because he was warning of some sort of disaster to come because of it. But because of the radical change to the world (which in essence normalized it), he wasn’t heeded.
Now seven years later, Isshiki has spent his time with his granddaughter Akane at the family home while Akane’s mother is in the hospital as she’s dealing with some medical issues of her own. It’s covered light, and tied to the event that clued Isshiki in to the threat that will come some day, but it’s given only a token nod. What our focus is on is the kind of fun relationship that Akane, a second year middle school student, has with her grandfather. One that really goes off the rails in a comical way here as he’s been building a device to help deal with the impending threat that only he believes is coming. While Akane doesn’t expect it when it happens, she’s been given a device that allows her to transform and power up to deal with the mysterious invading aliens known only as the Alone that are aiming at the Manifestation Engine itself. Simple, straightforward plot as there’s a place to defend, a mysterious enemy we never really know and cute girls that crop up to defend it.
It does do some quirky stuff early on though as through an accident Isshiki seems to die and has his mind transferred into the body of a stuffed otter and they stuff his human body in the fridge. This allows Isshiki to hang out with Akane on some of what goes on and is drawn into the management side of the Manifestation Engine hierarchy to try and show them that he was right all along. Isshiki brings some good old school kind of comedic material to the show here which is a lot more fun to watch than I would have guessed. But he’s not a dominant figure as the show wants to introduce more girls along the way to pair up with Akane since she can gift them with similar devices and combine with them to produce a new form to deal with the enemy. The first up is the most obvious as her friend from the last couple of years, the shy Aoi, is easily drawn in and the two of them figure out how to fight the enemy together which ends up reinforcing their friendship nicely.
As it goes on, we get another couple of girls that helps to flesh it out which is pretty nice to watch as they’re all rather fun. The next one up is Wakaba, who is focused on kendo and being athletic so she has the tall and strong approach but with some good humor and fun along the way as she deals with the others. While Akane brings in the red and Aoi the blue, Wakaba takes on the green role and her transformations are pretty fun. Similarly, the fourth member of the group is Himawari, the buxom member of the group who does the yellow transformation and is the smart one of the group who telecommutes to school until she discovers these new friends. There isn’t anything really new brought to the table here with the group that’s brought together, but they come together well, and quickly in the first few episodes, and there’s a good bit of fun about it as they’re all loners in their own way that have found each other.
While the show has the faceless enemy to work with for most of it, we do get something to connect with when we’re introduced to Rei Kuroki, the quiet girl in class with an obvious dark (black) look about her with how she accents her uniform with a scarf. Rei wants nothing to do with the other girls, though they keep trying to draw her in and make her a friend, but Rei will have nothing of it for the most part, even though you can see that she wants to. She doesn’t become one of the Vivid Team though, which is a nice change of pace for things here, and we learn her back story in a good way as she came from a different world that was destroyed due to their discovery of the Manifestation Engine. This leads to exploring more of why the Alone are here and how she’s a tool for them, but one that certainly makes sense and has quite the carrot attached to it. Normally the character in this position doesn’t always come across well, but Rei manages to be a fun character to watch as she softens and changes while still trying to achieve her goal.
Vividred Operation really gave me a great looking show here and I’ll easily admit I loved the outfits that the girls wear, the kinds of tools they have and the general world look. I even liked the goofy school uniforms which really don’t make sense in a real world. What bothered me with the show, and I know it’s a staple of a number of anime series, is the way it was just too gratuitous in its exploitation of them sexually. While we get the obvious swimsuit episode kind of fanservice, it was more the camera angles throughout that bothered me. With how they portrayed it, you could drive a car through the thigh gap that the girls exhibit. And going with an upskirt kind of approach to the angle, it just oversexualized them far more than you normally get. Not that the normal is right, but it’s what’s done, and usually more so with high school students than middle school. The repeated use of this throughout, not a constant, definitely drove me to distraction at times.
In Summary:
While I have certain quibbles with Vividred Operation, the show as a whole tells a fun and complete story while having plenty of room to do more with it should they want to. The general premise is one that is glossed over when it comes to the Manifestation Engine, but it serves to advance things without getting bogged down in details. This is not a show about deep meaning or a look at how society changes in certain ways. No, it’s about friendship and finding people that mean something to you. And kicking some large alien spaceship ass too. But mostly the friendship and fun that comes from making new friends, relying on each other and protecting each other. It works well in this regard and I’ll easily admit that I liked all the characters and would like to see more of them. It’s a beautifully animated show that is just plain fun to watch and really does deserve more, such as a dub and a high definition presentation. But what Aniplex did here is to make a great looking DVD release that should stand tall in any collection with how it looks and sounds.
Features:
Japanese PCM 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Clean Opening, Clean Closings, Web Previews
Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: C+
Extras Grade: B-
Released By: Aniplex USA
Release Date: December 17th, 2013
MSRP: $74.98
Running Time: 300 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.