Behind the Scenes of the Much-Talked-About Spring 2021 Anime "Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song-"! Spoiler-filled interview with Tatsuhei Nagatsuki and Eiji Umehara, series writer and scriptwriter!

The original anime "Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song-" ("Vivy"), which has captured the hearts of viewers with its beautiful images, breathtaking action, well-crafted story, and heart-rending songs that defy the conventional wisdom of TV animation, recently reached its final episode. The show is a unique and original work of art.

The story is the hundred-year journey of Vivy, an AI "diva" - a story that was redrawn after meeting the AI Matsumoto, whose mission is to "correct history with Vivy and stop the war between AI and humans that will occur 100 years from now. The final development of the story may have surprised and moved many people.

The original novel "Vivy prototype" was written first before the animation was produced, and the original novel was written by Tatsuhei Nagatsuki and Eiji Umehara, who also wrote the series composition and screenplay. We interviewed the two men who created the story. They also share some behind-the-scenes stories that can only be told after all the episodes have been aired, and give us a look back at the work episode by episode.

Starting Point "The Birth of "Vivy

--Before we get into the specifics, please tell us how the "Vivy" project got started.

Umehara Yes, WIT STUDIO's Mr. Wada (President and Representative Director Taketsugu Wada) approached me and asked Mr. Nagatsuki, who I worked with on "Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu" ("Re:Zero"), to join me.

Nagatsuki At that time, instead of "Let's work together on a new anime," I was summoned to an izakaya to "discuss a matter," so it was a common deception (laughs).

Umehara I tricked him (laughs).

Nagatsuki Mr. Wada was also there, and he asked me, "What kind of story would you tell about AI and singing? I told him, "If it were me, I would talk about something like this, something like this: ......." Then he said, "Can we have another meeting like this? Then he asked me, "Can I set up another meeting like this?" and before I knew it, I was at the core (laughs).

--I think there were a lot of ideas for a work on the theme of AI and songs. I was surprised to hear you say that your original idea was a "space thing" when you appeared as a guest on "Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Radio- Audio Side" on YouTube.

Nagatsuki: That's right. It started out as a space story. I thought it would be a good story about Vivi, a character launched into space as an AI that serves as a "golden record" (*) to deliver Earth's culture to aliens. Vivi travels around to various stars and experiences various things--the story's framework itself remains unchanged, but the focus has shifted from "traveling around the stars" to "traveling around the ages. I feel like we have shifted from "traveling to the stars" to "traveling through the ages.

*Records launched with the planetary probe Voyager, recording various information such as sounds and images to convey life and culture on Earth.

Umehara It took a few months or half a year, but we came up with the story of a 100-year journey to revise history.

Nagatsuki The episodes of each sisters (diva AI) had been fixed to some extent, so we brought the episodes we were going to do in space directly to Earth, and the result is the story we are telling now after Earth-nizing it.

--I thought that some people might think of other famous works when they think of ...... on a spaceship with a song theme.

Umehara I think it's totally fine to think of them (laughs).

Nagatsuki This is also a way of thinking about how I create my work, but I don't think I have any originality. I don't have the sense of "I made this from scratch! I don't have the sense of "I made this from scratch!" at all, so I think all of your impressions are correct (laughs).

--By the way, you both work as "series composition and scriptwriter".

Nagatsuki: In writing the original novel, the Sunrise episodes are written by me and the Metal Float episodes are written by Umehara-san, but the overall plot is completely collaborative. Vivi will travel for 100 years, and in each episode, she will meet the Sisters and talk about them, and the ending will be like this.

1st Singularity Point "Meeting with Matsumoto - Preventing Senator Aikawa's death

--Now, I would like to ask you about each episode. The first is the first and second episodes in which Vivi and Matsumoto meet. This one was aired in the same week.

Nagatsuki: I believe that these episodes became a hot topic thanks to everyone who coordinated to air them consecutively. It was impossible to do the contents of episodes 1 and 2 in one episode, but that said, it was doubtful if the last pull of the first episode would make people want to watch the next one if it was carried over to two weeks. ......

Umehara Because of that, we ended up with 13 episodes (laughs).

Nagatsuki That's right. (laughs) Nagatsuki Yes, that's right. Originally, it was supposed to be 12 episodes. As a result, we had to add one more episode to make it 13, but this is the reason for that, isn't it?

Umehara: Mr. Nagatsuki told me that I should definitely start with Momoka's death on the plane as a "cliffhanger" (a pullback for the future). I thought he was right. However, I thought it would be absolutely impossible to do that in 20-odd minutes. So we increased it to two episodes.

Nagatsuki I probably came up with the plane crash at the end.

Umehara That was Mr. Nagatsuki. I can say out loud that it was Nagatsuki's fault (laughs).

Nagatsuki: I knew from the time we were working on the overall plot that we absolutely had to do that development in order to express the work's character. I thought it would be best if Matsumoto said something very cold and it ended there. But in order to do that, I had to have some contact with Momoka as a preliminary step, so it was impossible to fit it into a single episode.

--To be honest, I was thinking, "What? Momoka is going to die already? I thought, "Momoka is going to die already?" But that shock was the starting point of Vivi's journey.

Nagatsuki: As Matsumoto said, "This is where your 100-year journey begins. He helps Councilor Aikawa, who does not have a good impression of AI, but he cannot help his friend Momoka, who is very good to AI. I think I was able to express this well, like both the good and the bad parts of the journey that Vivi has to go through in the future. This is the first and second episode of the meeting.

Umehara This is already a Nagatsuki-san section.

2nd Singularity Point "Preventing the Fall of the Space Hotel "Sunrise

--From here on, episodes with each diva AI will unfold in an omnibus style. Episodes 3 and 4 are the episodes of the space hotel "Sunrise" in which Estella and Elizabeth appeared. How was this one created?

Nagatsuki: I mentioned that "Vivy" was originally a space story, and this episode retains the taste of a space story. However, the episode actually takes about twice as many episodes (as the anime) to complete. In the original novel, there is a mystery part to solve the "suspicion that Estella killed the owner," which led to Leclerc's betrayal.

Umehara Yes, there is.

Nagatsuki: I dropped that part and shifted the focus to the story of Estella and Elizabeth. There was a problem with the length of the story, and the mystery part was too simple to be shown in an anime, so I thought it was not worth doing. But I was happy with that, including the action elements, and I personally think we were able to animate it well.

--It was also nice that the ending song was sung by Estella alone in episode 3 and by her and Elizabeth in episode 4. To what extent were the two of you involved in how the songs were used and what kind of songs were chosen?

Nagatsuki: We left it up to Satoru Kamizaki and his team to decide what kind of song to use, but we imagined and set the scene where the song would be played. In this episode, Estella sang alone in episode 3, and in episode 4, Estella and Elizabeth work together to deliver the song to the guests in the life-saving pods. I knew I had to treat the songs with care, and I wanted to use them at the climax of each episode and in the most memorable scenes.

--I was also impressed by Estella's smile and her words. Moreover, I thought it was profound that it was not only in this episode, but also connected to the future episodes.

Nagatsuki That's right. （The (main) story is the vertical axis and the omnibus episodes are the horizontal axis, and in each episode, Vivi gains what she needs to fulfill her given mission.

In episodes 3 and 4, Vivi gets the answer to what it means to "put one's heart and soul into it," at least for Estella, by talking with Estella, and Vivi also experiences it. Based on that, we have episodes 5 and 6, and then episodes 7 through 9. I think Vivi must have traveled through those episodes while being told to "remember," and words like "don't forget" always appear in each episode.

Umehara In episode 4, Estella says, "Don't forget," and in Ophelia's episode, Kakiya says, "Don't forget. ...... that there were people your presence made unhappy." I wanted to have her say that in Grace's episode as well, but Grace can't speak, so I thought I could tell by her facial expression (laughs).

Nagatsuki This is where we had to gain experience, including "forgetting" at the end, and I made a conscious effort to create a story that progressed so that we would not forget the experiences we gained from meeting each character.

3rd. Singularity Point "Stopping the Artificial Island, Metal Float"

--The fifth and sixth episodes are the Metal Float episodes in which Grace appeared.

Umehara: In this episode, in the original novel, Saeki doesn't die (laughs). (laughs). In the anime, it ended that way, but originally it was a story in which he did not die. However, after discussing it with Mr. Nagatsuki, we decided that we could not do anything without having him take his own life in the anime. In creating episodes 5 and 6, what was most different from the original novel, and what impressed me the most personally, was the treatment of Saeki.

-With Vivi's condition in the next episode, you had to give her quite a shock, didn't you?

Umehara That's right. Vivi has to be withdrawn because of this event. But I never imagined that the picture would be that great, and when I saw the finished video, I thought, "Vivy will never come out of this" (laughs).

-- "Vivy" had amazingly beautiful pictures and amazing action from the first episode, but the action in this episode was truly breathtaking.

Umehara: Episode 6 was especially amazing.

--The song was playing, and it was really cool to see Matsumoto and Vivy in their fighter form charging into the fray.

Umehara From a battle point of view, we knew from the time we put together the overall composition that episodes 6 and 9 would be high in calories. I had them work hard on the drawings for episode 9, and for this episode 6, I had them work hard on the 3D camera work.

--I was a little concerned about this, but of course you wrote in the script that it was a battle scene, right? How much did you have in mind for the specific actions and how they would be presented?

UmeharaI think it depends on the scriptwriter. I once saw a famous script that only said "battle below," with about three more pages left blank (laughs). (Laughs.) I just specify the key actions. For example, in episode 6, Vivi defeats K5, who is modeled after Grace, with a single blow. The script specifies that Vivi is to be defeated with a single blow, but it does not specify that she is to hit him in the head with the bottom of her hand on his chin like that. I left the rest to the director, except for the key parts, so I was really surprised when I saw the video. For example, in episode 9, I didn't specify anything like "right fist out, left leg kicked up ......" or anything like that. I was most surprised at that part in terms of drawing.

Nagatsuki: I have only been involved in a small number of animated films, but I think that the way people who draw animated films use their heads is on another level. I have written novels in more detail than I have written screenplays, but I still don't think about the movements when they are animated, so when I see the images, I think, "What the hell? (laughs).

--(Laughs) - I really wonder what goes on inside your head when you look at even a single angle.

Nagatsuki: My favorite action scene in "Vivy" is in episode 9, when Kakiya throws Vivy into the warehouse and then Matsumoto, who looks like a giraffe, comes running in a half circle from the other side. What is this sense of speed? I thought to myself, "I love this scene. But there is nothing in the script that says, "Here, Matsumoto turns into a four-legged form and comes running and knocks Kakitani off his feet" (laughs).