ViVid Strike! Specials

The first few episodes only exist as a reminder that this universe has magical fights, too, and not just boxing matches. Apparently boxing has just become all the rage and everyone is doing it, like how a few seasons ago being a magical girl was all the rage and everyone was doing it. Such a confusing setting, but the story was fun I guess. The last episode does double duty as an epilogue and a "the beach episode." Truly a masterclass in how to make bonus content to put on the home release. Ultimately it doesn't add much to the main story, you could skipall 3 and not miss much. I enjoyed it the same way you might enjoy watching reruns of that show you've seen a thousand times already. It's mildly entertaining, but you're really only watching it because nothing else is on.

Vivid Strke Specials are an unusual case. Rather than simply being "specials" as the name would suggest, these episodes actually provide several revelations to some characters, which may not be so obvious at first glance, and even less so when you realize that: first, there are only three; and second, that only one of them is a full-length episode. These episodes aren't anything groundbreaking, but they help to explain certain plot elements that wouldn't be obvious at first glance, necessarily. The more obvious of the two is the correlation between the first and second episodes. Standalone, they don't do much. Together, they provide an interesting contrast:the first shows Fuka's relationship with Nakajima Gym, and the second Rinne's relationship with her Frontier Gym. It's pretty telling of their contrast to show the different ways they practice, gain experience, and bond with others. The final episode is a complement more than anything; it wraps up Fuka and Rinne's arc and gives a worry-free relaxation ep, gathering up all the main characters thus far since ViVid (which is still a lot) for a fun beach adventure. Overall, this was an enjoyable side adventure and good as an extra. However, you may be disappointed by the filler-ish nature. 7/10.

We are back into the world of the Vivid Strike ladies with a 3 episode OVA that not only gives us a more detailed analysis on some of the relationships that weren't fully addressed in the original 12 episodes of the original show while giving us closure with regards to the unresolved plot points that were prevalent during the final episode of the TV series. The first 2 episodes of the ova focuses on the timeline between the fifth and 6th episode of the Vivid strike TV series. These first two episodes of the OVA only have a run length of 14 minutes each. The thirdepisode of the this OVA is a full length 24 minutes episode and it pretty much continues from where episode 12 ended. In the first episode of the OVA, Fuuka has won her first practice match against Corona and is incredibly pleased with her progress as she is developing her striker skills. Her trainer Einhard is concerned about her becoming cocky so she arranges a mock synthetic magical battle against two members of the Nakajima Gym (Rio and Corona) at different location. This is the first time throughout the entire story of Vivid strike that we really get to see the magical abilities of the vivid strike girls since all the other fights throughout the TV series are strictly hand to hand combat matches and in the main series Rio and Corona are the two female fighters that we get to see the least with regards to their fighting ability in the main TV series. These fights against Fuuka are pretty much the only action you'll see in this three episode OVA but they're still incredibly entertaining when it comes to seeing the immense magical power that both Corona and Rio possess. The second episode focuses on Rinne and her relationship with the Frontier Gym and it takes a portion of the episode and the looks at the personal history of the gym owner of the Nakajima gym (Nove) and the character of Viktoria and her personal relationship with Rinne. It's a very dialogue heavy episode with very little to no action. I think the purpose of an episode of this is that it shows Rinne's mindset before her battles during the winter cup since the timeline of this episode happens just before episode 6 begins in the main TV series. The third episode of the OVA is pretty much the epilogue of the entire tv series. The unresolved plot points of episode 12 are resolved within the first few minutes of the episode and the episode is pretty much the quintessential beach episode which is pretty common in the world of anime where we get to see all the ladies from the Vivid Strike series enjoy some relaxation at the beach while wearing their bathing suits. At least there is no uncomfortable nudity when it comes to this beach episode. We have a competitive beach volleyball tournament, some delicious food, and some great banter between all the ladies of Vivid Strike. At the end of this episode the biggest thing we can take out of the entire experience is that while the fighters of Vivid Strike are fierce competitors when it comes to being in the ring and they want to improve everything about themselves and their fighting ability, they can still remain the best of friends outside of the ring. The animation is just as good as what was shown in the original tv series. The music is still good as the rest of the series. The OVA's don't have an opening song and it pretty much uses the same ending song as the tv series when each OVA episode ends. The OVA is a nice appetizer into giving a little more insight in the word of Vivid Strike and it's nice to get a proper epilogue to the Vivid Strike story-line. However, the harsh reality is this short 3 episode ova doesn't really equal to the greatness of the original tv series. I don't think it needs to improve upon it because when it comes to an OVA of this caliber - it's not about exceeding what was originally put in front of you but it's about adding a nice addition to an overall pleasant experience.

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