[Anime]/Vividred Operation - First Impression

Finally got around to watching episode one of Vividred Operation and I have to say that you can quickly tell that director, Kazuhiro Takamura, has definitely borrowed heavily from his past success with Strike Witches. So, yes, I definitely expect some of the fan service that was seen in SW previously but it's not nearly as over the top or as in your face as it was before so far. Not that it was a bad thing, but even fans of Strike Witches admit that it was a little overdone at times.

The story revolves around Akane and her family (younger sister, Momo, and grandfather, Dr. Isshiki), who have been major players in creation of something called the Manifestation Engine. This has been able to provide free energy to the world via some pretty nifty tech that I'm not quite sure would work, but hey no need to nitpick that right now as they could have an explanation that they haven't gotten to just yet. Either way, the world seems mostly at peace and there aren't many problems in the world in the realm of any real massive conflict or any other such problems. An ideal utopia for all intensive purposes. Nothing can wrong with that, right?

Not many other characters have really been introduced formally yet and I won't really reveal much else in that area of things to avoid spoilers. The same goes with most of the episode as well, these are just thoughts I'm having after seeing the first episode.

All in all, what's not to like? Actual character development, an interesting plot (so far) and a few curve balls thrown in and one helluva transformation sequence along with some great 3D animation that's been used in the right way during battle sequences. The production level of the show is definitely up there and will continue to be most likely if previous works are any indication of that. I'm not too worried there to be perfectly honest.

So far this series is going to keep on the watch list as it's been interesting enough and there has been a few surprising turns that I really didn't see coming at all...which could be quite amusing and interesting down the road.

I probably won't be writing much more on the series until it's completed and do a full review. However, if you're interested in keeping up with the series as it airs, you can find it Crunchyroll here. Supposedly Hulu is also simulcasting the series, but at the time of this writing I couldn't find anything on the site so they could be on a 7 day delay there, similarly like non-premium users on Crunchyroll.