ViVid Strike! 06

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Training is pauses as news that Fuuka qualified for the Winter Cup is announced. Nove reveals the tournaments first round bouts, which has Miura facing Rinne. Fuuka thinks Miura will win, so Miura suggests that if this happens, they arrange for Fuuka to face Rinne after the tournament. Jill passes the news to Rinne, who agrees that if she loses to anyone from Nakajima Gym, she’ll face Fuuka afterward. However, she doesn’t think she’ll lose, even if she has to face Einhart in the finals. Meanwhile, Miura spends the night with Nove and Fuuka, allowing Fuuka to better understand Miura.

At the Winter Cup, Vivio wins her A-block match easily. A nervous Fuuka easily defeats her punk opponent. Rinne and Miura have their match, where Rinne agrees to handicap herself to Miura’s style. This results in Rinne getting knocked down twice. Everyone is surprised that Rinne is able to get up when she should be able to. Miura is going for a finishing blow to get her knock out, but Rinne blocks it. Rinne’s defenses are so high, she’s able to absorb the damage. With that, Rinne shatters several of Miura’s ribs, putting her down like a mad dog.

Thoughts/Review

Boring tournament is still boring, no matter how they try to dress it up with massive violence. And frankly, I’m just not that keen on watching young girls try to kill each other.

Miura: Destined to LOSE!

The moment Rinne was paired to fight Miura in the first round, Miura was going to lose. There was absolutely zero doubt as to the outcome. The writers were going to attempt to make it as dramatic as possible, but it was still boring. I just had to roll my eyes and watch Miura get crushed by Rinne after Rinne should have been defeated twice.

I will give the writers one thing, but it is minor at best. In an attempt to try to throw an element of doubt as to the outcome of Miura’s fight with Rinne, they had Rinne and Jill agree that if Rinne lost to anyone from Nakajima Gym, she’d fight Fuuka. For me, this didn’t cause me to think that Rinne would lose to Miura or anyone else from Nakajima Gym.

While I’m thinking about it, in the ViVid anime, there were safeguards in place so that people could go all out in a tournament. As I recall, you could feel pain and such, but you wouldn’t have several of your ribs shattered and in all reality, a lung torn to shreds and collapsed.  So where the heck is this technology in ViVid Strike! 06?

Anger Management Rinne

The writers worked overtime to make Rinne a sympathetic character in the previous two episodes. Fine, I understand why she has so many anger management issues. She has a lot of rage inside and that smug trainer of hers isn’t helping. Sadly, Rinne’s adoptive family have no clue because Rinne suppresses it in front of them, maintaining a controlled front.

I rolled my eyes at Rinne giving herself a handicap so that she wouldn’t use any grab techniques. For me, that was pretty much advertising that Miura would prove more than Rinne had bargained for, so she’d end up using a grab technique in the end. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. Even if Rinne only did it briefly, she violated her own promise. I wonder if this will be addressed in the next episode.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Not much else to say about ViVid Strike! 06, so I’ll do some final thought bullet points.

• I hate Vivio taking third chair in this anime series. Fuuka is first, Einhart is second, and Vivio rounds it out. I swear, a part of me thinks King Records is so angry about the Nanoha (seiyuu) situation, they are taking it out on Vivio.
• I’m NOT looking forward to seeing Rinne crush Vivio. In fact, I’m going to be quite angry when that happens. 😡
• We were introduced to a lot of extraneous characters from ViVid last episode. In the one group shot, I’m missing Fate and Nanoha.
• Current Earth technology (iPads, smart phones, etc.) in a future tech world still makes me cringe.

In the end, ViVid Strike! 06 goes to the place I like least in anime and manga — the bloody tournament. I’ll keep slogging on to the eventual Rinne vs. Fuuka battle to beat each other senseless.