Vividred Operation

Now this isn't really a series made to impress. You won't convert your friends to watch anime with it, but it seems to be here to suit a certain audience.

You have the typical characters:
Akane Isshiki - The gullible, hard working, air-headed main character that sees the good in everyone; or is maybe too dense to see the obvious bad. She will rush in and think later and try to make friends through persistence.

Aoi Futaba - The sheltered bigger breasted friend that's somewhat shy.

Wakaba Saegusa - The hot-headed sporty type with very capable skills but with the obvious weakness to something small, like bugs.

Himawari Shinomiya - The reclusive genius too good to attend school.

and lastly, Rei Kuroki. The typical "bad guy" with a past that has put her in her current position. She's mysterious to everyone besides the main protagonist. She is also why this anime is like the power rangers as (possible spoiler)
It has the basic story of young girls trying to save their country from a threat using a mystical science powered magic.. maybe that last part isn't so basic. Anyway, the series is quite generic in following the magical girl genre with having a talking pet/mascot (Cardcaptor Sakura, Madoka Magica, Sailor Moon) as they tackle head on with monsters probably just interested in a town full of girls in hot pants with camera shots being shown between their upper thighs (crotch shots to put it boldly), while they get through their hardships. Their hardship of keeping the worst secret from a friend possible. Not liking a tomato.. Ahem.

Though I would not recommend Vividred Operation to anyone, the animation is nice to look at. I honestly detest graphics being used on characters as opposed to cars and such (you can see Akane like this in the start of the opening song) but everything else is done reasonably well. This can be seen through the magical girl transformation sequence and the fusion between characters.
Sadly... That is all I can give this anime credit for. With the weird fashion of wearing nothing but short shorts so short they resemble panties at home and at school, as well as the attacks being named 'naked-something-or-other', it is quite awkward to watch these young girls like this. I do watch and enjoy ecchi anime: Kiss x Sis, To Love-Ru etc. So I am familiar with the genre, which may make it more acceptable that I just don't think this anime needs that fan service.

I felt like giving up after watching the first two episodes, but pushed myself onwards to the current 7th episode. It does improve slightly after the second episode to make it a bit more worth watching, but if you are looking for an anime with a good story, or a magical girl anime with an unexpected twist like Madoka Magica, I suggest you try another. This anime are for those that want to be happy and watch something that'll make them smile and laugh, something slow paced, not taking itself too seriously and this is not a bad thing and I do enjoy it to that extent. Otherwise, I can not see any real hardships developing, any real connections with characters to sympathise with them nor a satisfying ending because everything seems to be too forced to be happy and that makes it a let-down for me personally.

2 / 5 stars.

I can do this all day, folks. But let's be serious.

From mad or genius mind of (bloomers) the man who directed (chacha) Strike Witches, Kazuhiro Takamura, comes Vividred Operation. Set in the (between-the-legs) future, on the island of Izu Oshima (it's a real place, you can look it up), humanity has entered (pantyshot) an age of peace; thanks to the Manifestation Engine that (junk-in-the-trunk) has solved an energy crisis that half a decade ago by the time the (moneymaker) story starts. The end.
Just kidding. Why in the heck would the (booty) director of Strike Witches make everything already at peace!? We follow our protagonist Akane (buttshot) Isshiki - an energetic fourteen year-old - whose already impoverished (tushie) life is flipped like an angry gamer's table when a hostile alien (keister) force called the Alone threatens Earth. Akane's grandfather, one of the developers of the Manifestation Engine, gives her access to the Vivid (whoopie cakes) System, which grants her and her friends - Aoi Futaba, Wakaba Saegusa, and Himawari Shinomiya - the power to fight off the Alone menace (also, yuri).

Forgive me for my snarking, but this is seriously what my experience has been like. Boiled down, Vividred Operation falls into the Action and SciFi genres, with heavy use of magical girl elements and maybe some Super Sentai (or Power Rangers if you think that way). Because I really just want to get this review out, I'm just gonna dump it all into a disorganized mess (which is to say, what I do every time).

I would like to go into the terms of character development, plot advancement, how the anime handles itself; but in all honesty, I think that'll be impossible in this case. The case being that there is little to point out that viewers have already seen.
The main characters of Vividred Operation are all given stock backstories and personalities: Akane is the energetic heroine who we follow; Aoi is the kindly ojou who was the protag's best friend; Wakaba is a competitive athlete who initially makes a rival out of the protag; Himawari is a reclusive hacker who serves as someone to show the protag's extroversion to; and Rei is the morally ambiguous loner who somehow shows up in every fight almost as if to hint something!

But if there's something Michael Bay, I mean, Takamura is known for focusing on, it's most certainly not the story. Yup, we're totally here to watch the action. And this being done by A-1 Pictures, the studio that brought us Birdy the Mighty, and Sword Art Online, it really delivers the action, and they deliver it excellently. The action is most certainly the highlight of this series, shining in most if not all of the battle scenes. Oh wait, you thought I was talking about the fanservice? Oh well, it was inevitable.

Tragically, this can't be said for the rest of the series. I can easily say that it is virtually impossible to tell if the creators of the series took it seriously or not. Besides the action, the other main point of the series, just like its cousin, is the sheer amount of fanservice. Vividred Operation makes absolutely no secret out of this, with the gratuitous shots of the characters' butts at any opportunity it can find, even opening with a rather uncomfortable shot between Rei's legs from behind in the first few minutes, and the second Akane gets screentime is with a shot at her keister. Most notably gilded by the animation budget are the transformation sequences, though in ways that cause me to bury my face into my palm and shake my head at. Though fluid the transformation (or henshin, if you prefer) sequences feature the heroines inexplibily being stripped to their undies before being decked out in their Magical Girl outfits, which manage to be more modest than their school uniforms. This doesn't get into their Docking sequences (think "GATTAI DA"), which feature the one of the girls kissing Akane, albeit on the forehead, and prompting them to transform into an adult, technicolor-haired being... who is naked for reasons that still elude me. And to top it off is the naming of their weaponry, all implementing the word "Naked" for whatever reason. (Wut?)
Beside the excessive implimentation of fanservice, friendship is an incredibly common theme of the series, and it played to the point of it being saccharine. Much of the time is spent on Akane making friends, which is to say recruiting other girls to fight off this alien menace that not even F-22 frickin fighter jets don't stand a chance against; despite the fact that they're more comrades than friends, allies with the same goal of fighting off said menace. Anyone aware of how an actual friendship would work would agree that in this show they develop at a freakishly unnatural pace, right down to everyone approving and even enjoying Akane's over-application of mayo on everything, giving that woman with the mayonnaise jar on the bus a run for her money. I'm aware that the characters are middle schoolers, and thus lack the intellectual and emotional maturity of likely a majority of the audience that watches the show. I am also aware of a Western animated series that also focuses strongly on the concept of friendship but has garnered a large adult fanbase, as I am a part of that fanbase. But the difference is simply that while one focuses purely on the magic of friendship and all it can achieve (while doing a good job at it), Vividred Operation is way too centered on fanservice and giant monster battles to properly balance everything out, falling between the valley of adolescent distraction and quality entertainment.

My final verdict: Is Vividred Operation really worth watching? Ehhh, kind of? To be honest, as much time as I spent ragging on this series menagerie of flaws like someone sitting in the peanut gallery, I can say that not once was I actually bored (considering I watched because I was so freaking bored). Vividred Operation is complete and utter cheese, with its array of cliches, gratiutous shots at the donkey (what? it's as close I can get), and saccharine use of the power of friendship, but as they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Vividred Operation is either a slog to go through because you can only watch it when you are alone, or the most enjoyable pile of cheese... with some extra mayonnaise.

Final Score: 4.8/10

(I have not watched either Strike Witches or anything in the Nanoha line, so my point of view on this show may differ from the majority.) In terms of anime fandom, I belong to the Sailor Moon generation, and the "magical girl" genre, though it did not originate from that show, has been definitively shaped by it. Watching Vividred Operation made me feel like I was watching a love letter to the older show, but ditching the doofus in the cape and focusing on the core group of friends instead. (Yes, you can read plenty of shôjo ai subtext if you choose, but the script leaves that up to you.) On top of that, VO dispenses with all of the filler that made SM infamous, as well as its low production values, giving us a lean, glossy half-season of wall-to-wall action with only a few quiet, character-based moments to break it up a bit. (That our main character is endlessly cheerful and upbeat instead of morose and whiny is also a big plus.) As for the fan service, yes, there is plenty of it, including a number of eye-roller moments, but that has been true of "magical girl" shows for as long as they have existed. ... VO reminded me of when SM first made me a real anime fan, and I am sorry to see it end so soon, but the fact that it was able to recreate that feeling is why I feel it deserves 5 Stars. Fun references to SM that I noticed: The final shot of the OP is essentially the final shot of the Sailor Stars OP, but the big one is that Rei, if you un-feather her hair, is identical to Rei from SM, down to using a bow and arrow and having the same face.

The first time I saw the girls transform, I immediately was reminded of Sailor Moon, but the coloured outfits reminded me of power rangers. The show also had that whole kids out having fun, oh no... evil monster appeared! let's go crush it vibe that gets a bit repetitive.

I felt there was decent character development and would likely watch another season if there ever was one.

Their choice of shorts - if they can be called that is a bit distracting at times.

Like the title says, if you want something unique, you'd best look elsewhere. This anime is about as Generic as it comes both in terms of plot and characters. It also feels quite rushed and there's no real character development over the course of the 12 episodes (Of course, it could be argued that it was too short for any real development).

The characters are one dimensional and really predictable and it plays along with every other Magical Girl anime out there...granted in this case it was Girls using advanced technologies to 'grant' themselves 'power.' Which added a bit of a unique twist to the whole genre dominated by purely magical girls...that said, it's not the only one out there that does this.

After watching all twelve episodes...do I feel like I wasted my time? No, not really. Sure, it wasn't the greatest anime out there and it was really, really predictable but...it was still cute and very much watchable. Though to compare it to other "Magical Girl" Animes...it's more like a...happier, shorter version of Sailor Moon without half the episode being dominated by transformation sequences.

A solid 3/5 for me as this anime was simply "Average"

I wasn't quite sure what I expected the first time I opened this show. The basic premise--world in danger, young girl acquires tremendous power and good-naturedly attempts to save it with her newly-powerful friends--isn't anything new, but it stays well inside its premise without haring off into other genres.

It's not for everyone, though. One of the earliest shots of the show has the main character, a young girl who has hit puberty but is nowhere near adulthood, on her hoverbike--and it gives you a birds-eye view of her behind, wearing skintight short-shorts and leaving very little if anything to the imagination. They do even more panty shots in this show than in Strike Witches, a show I stopped watching because it gratuitously sexualized young girls. Ugh.

However, I kept watching this one. Yes, there are way too many of those from-behind crotch shots. Yes, it shows young girls in their underwear. And yet, despite this, the show never tried to overtly sexualize the girls. Their bonds of friendship are just that. If you want to read too deeply you can think of loads of lesbian scenes, and I'm sure there are some fans fans doing just that, but I suggest not doing that. The girls show no signs of sexuality; please don't force it on them.

If you can accept the admittedly-disturbing number of admittedly-disturbing from-behind crotch shots of young girls as an artistic choice--or otherwise ignore it--you'll find a show that has magic-level science, isn't too very deep, but has sweet and kind-hearted characters who are reasonably well-characterized for a single season run. The characters are what drew me in, and the good plot and pacing kept me coming despite the relative predictability and all those crotch shots.

Despite its relative lack of depth, the show never delves too deeply into angst or veers off into wacky chibi. The stakes are high and they feel credible throughout the run without feeling too over-the-top. I won't say this is a show you'll need to watch again and again, but it's good for a single run-through if you can get past the limiting factors mentioned above.

The whole idea behind this show: Magical girls created by Science. An alien race that only these girls can fight, flying bikes and a new energy source making the whole world peaceful. The whole world this story is set in is brilliant and well thought out. But I was greatly disappointed in the way this show is portrayed.

After watching 2 episodes, I had to stop. The reason? The ridiculously tight shorts all the main characters seem to be wearing. Super short, super tight and super camel toes all around. And it doesn't help that there are an outrageous amount of shots of their vag areas. And these girls are in high school aka under age.

It just felt wrong.

Disappointed and grossed out by this.