Vividred feels a bit like that old comedy gag where some kind of professional is missing or otherwise incapacitated, and the misfit heroes have to fill in and try to do that person's job, usually to hilarious results. Only, in this case, the professionals are those who make anime, and the misfits are the Vividred folks who wandered in and thought they could make an anime by following a poorly-drawn diagram. They have the right ingredients for a commercially viable product—magical girls, animal mascots, beach episodes, giant monsters—but they don't know how to combine the ingredients, and they certainly don't know what heat to set the oven at. Everything feels like it's haphazardly tossed together, and none of the fan fodder is strung together by anything substantial.
Here's the curious thing—early on in the series, Ferret Grandpa says to Akane, “Hey! Here's this magic key I made you! And one for your friend! These are the only two that exist in this world, and only you two can use them, because you're the bestest of friends.” I'm not 100% sure that's exactly what the line was, verbatim, but it was pretty close. So imagine my surprise when I discover that you can basically will more copies of these keys to exist, simply by believing in friendship or whatever. Even if you've just met that gal for the first time. By the end of the fourth episode, there are not two, but FOUR Vivids. All have different colors, but all can “dock” with Akane to form some super Vivid[color] magical girl, because I guess the selection criteria for being a magical girl isn't so stringent after all. Oh, and because the show needs more cute gals, or whatever, there's also this girl who can control the Alone, because you know.
Look, anime is really infamous for pilots who can magically pilot sophisticated robots just by jumping into the cockpit, and magical girls who can excel without training, but Vividred Operation is especially egregious in this category. It was silly enough when Akane's best friend thought, “Yeah, hey, I'm totally gonna sacrifice my life and lunge at these monsters with my magic hammer,” but then when the third girl and the fourth girl jumped right into it too, it became ludicrous. These are girls who weren't even friends with Akane a day ago, and suddenly they're okay with fighting killer aliens and merging with her. At some point, Ferret Grandpa exclaims, “I can't believe [some girl] picked up on this so quickly!” but he doesn't realize that all of the girls have done so.
For the most part, I forgive most of this as generic, silly anime stuff. We've all been around the anime block enough times to not get surprised when ridiculous magical girl stuff like this happens. What pushed me over the edge was the beach episode. This episode was written by people who have never watched a beach episode before, and have only heard through the grapevine that such things exist. At some point, one of the girls (Akane, I think?) bends over, and she's got a button on her swimsuit that says, “Do Not Push.” So of course, someone pushes it. And her suit BALLOONS into this giant, Violet Beauregarde sphere, at which point the other girls assume it's a tent. Of course! What else could it be! So they dive under, and suddenly, eek! She's naked underneath!
Stop, stop, stop. This is ridiculous. This entire episode is a slap in the face of anime fans. I mean, if you're going to have a fanservice episode, at least make it reasonable and interesting. Just having bikinis and squishy boobs doesn't make it good. Fanservice without purpose is just a waste of digital paint. The bizarre training scenario that Ferret Grandpa puts the girls in didn't even merit existence, because up until now, we have only been led to believe that the girls are magically perfect at fighting. It's a mind-numbingly stupid episode, and it was the last nail in the coffin for me. I can't watch this show anymore.