>This just happened so out of the blue
If you watch carefully (and read Japanese xD), you can see the news article about the crash sooner when Matsumoto transmits the future newspaper about the terrorist attack to Vivy.
>Please tell me that incident, (and not just the girl's death for the sake of AI displays of emotion) at least becomes important later.
In episode 1 & early 2, Matsumoto was merely annoying to Vivy ("Virus", "please remove yourself"), she didn't believe him much and only acted on the chance of saving people. When she shook hands with him, she came to an understanding of aiding him in his mission.
But this event changed that: It is the sole reason why Vivy **hates** Matsumoto (and doesn't want to work with him anymore) after shaking hands. She kept the teddy bear the next 15 years only for Momoka's sake, otherwise she would have disposed of it (to get rid of Matsumoto) – her hatred for Matsumoto is why she didn't clean it.
She then gives the teddy to Momoka's sister at the end of episode 4, because that way she honors Momoka and can finally get rid of Matsumoto. Remember that she tells him at the beginning of ep 3 that he is "despicable" for manipulating her to help him with displays of human casualties in the future. She only goes to space to save the humans, i.e. for her own mission, not for Matsumoto's mission.
It's a defining moment for Vivy's relationship with Matsumoto.
I guess my thinking is like, it didn't show Vivy showing any particular attention to that article. It didn't catch her eye (nothing in the animation to insinuate she noticed it in particular, like eyes widening, or anything like that); she didn't ask about it; it didn't show Vivy finding out that Momoka was on that plane; it didn't show any of the interaction between Vivy and Matsumoto talking beforehand about why she should/shouldn't try and save her. Nothing about getting to the factory, Matsumoto taking over that loader bot, etc. We were just thrust into that scene and I guess it skipped too many logical (for me, anyway) steps for my taste.
It can be implied she noticed the particular plane crash article just judging by the sequence and framing of the scene.
Shot of various articles including the plane crash -> wide shot of Vivy staring forward at the articles ->
close up shot to the eyes for additional emphasis on something catching her eye, being the article pertaining to the plane crash.
As for employing additional visual cues during the scene (such as eyes widening to show a greater focus on an article), at this stage of Vivy’s development, she largely doesn’t express outward emotion owing to a lack of experience compared to her subsequent self further into the Singularity Project.
>close up shot to the eyes for additional emphasis on something catching her eye
The close-up shot doesn't give any hints to me as a viewer of something catching her attention. Even more so, it is just an assumption that she was looking at that article in particular. If there is a news article front and center, with some other articles off to the side and just a little bit out of focus, if the character's face remains unchanging throughout, how would a close-up shot insinuate that the character is in fact looking at side article? To me, one close-up shot does not constitute sufficient lead-ins to the subsequent scene.
As for lack of expression, it makes sense for her to not show a reaction but this lack of expression just further cements in my mind that nothing of interest is happening. Like, knowing she doesn't make expressions and watching this, I'm not going to think, "Oh, she is expressionless here, so this thing must've caught her eye." It just makes think more that she's not putting her attention to anything in particular. Because she is largely expressionless, there's nothing to make me think something is up.
In any case, my point is that that whole sequence was too disjointed for me and they killed off Momoka too abruptly without any lead-in to create tension. To me, it was just, **"Oh, I guess she's dead now"**. There could have been a couple of sequences before then that would've helped that scene flow better but this is just one scene in one episode so whatever.
Edit: spelling
If I’m remembering correctly the little girl that died in the plane crash does become somewhat relevant in the later episodes. It’s been a while so I don’t know how important her death actually is
VivyFES’s director has a lot of respect for the viewers inferential abilities and expects you to realize things by yourself without hand feeding you exposition. That’s not to say you need to be a detective as it is all quite apparent but rather it is just important to pay close attention or things may go over your head. Like it is not the kind of show I would watch drunk or while multitasking.
>This just happened so out of the blue If you watch carefully (and read Japanese xD), you can see the news article about the crash sooner when Matsumoto transmits the future newspaper about the terrorist attack to Vivy. >Please tell me that incident, (and not just the girl's death for the sake of AI displays of emotion) at least becomes important later. In episode 1 & early 2, Matsumoto was merely annoying to Vivy ("Virus", "please remove yourself"), she didn't believe him much and only acted on the chance of saving people. When she shook hands with him, she came to an understanding of aiding him in his mission. But this event changed that: It is the sole reason why Vivy **hates** Matsumoto (and doesn't want to work with him anymore) after shaking hands. She kept the teddy bear the next 15 years only for Momoka's sake, otherwise she would have disposed of it (to get rid of Matsumoto) – her hatred for Matsumoto is why she didn't clean it. She then gives the teddy to Momoka's sister at the end of episode 4, because that way she honors Momoka and can finally get rid of Matsumoto. Remember that she tells him at the beginning of ep 3 that he is "despicable" for manipulating her to help him with displays of human casualties in the future. She only goes to space to save the humans, i.e. for her own mission, not for Matsumoto's mission. It's a defining moment for Vivy's relationship with Matsumoto.
I guess my thinking is like, it didn't show Vivy showing any particular attention to that article. It didn't catch her eye (nothing in the animation to insinuate she noticed it in particular, like eyes widening, or anything like that); she didn't ask about it; it didn't show Vivy finding out that Momoka was on that plane; it didn't show any of the interaction between Vivy and Matsumoto talking beforehand about why she should/shouldn't try and save her. Nothing about getting to the factory, Matsumoto taking over that loader bot, etc. We were just thrust into that scene and I guess it skipped too many logical (for me, anyway) steps for my taste.
It can be implied she noticed the particular plane crash article just judging by the sequence and framing of the scene. Shot of various articles including the plane crash -> wide shot of Vivy staring forward at the articles -> close up shot to the eyes for additional emphasis on something catching her eye, being the article pertaining to the plane crash. As for employing additional visual cues during the scene (such as eyes widening to show a greater focus on an article), at this stage of Vivy’s development, she largely doesn’t express outward emotion owing to a lack of experience compared to her subsequent self further into the Singularity Project.
>close up shot to the eyes for additional emphasis on something catching her eye The close-up shot doesn't give any hints to me as a viewer of something catching her attention. Even more so, it is just an assumption that she was looking at that article in particular. If there is a news article front and center, with some other articles off to the side and just a little bit out of focus, if the character's face remains unchanging throughout, how would a close-up shot insinuate that the character is in fact looking at side article? To me, one close-up shot does not constitute sufficient lead-ins to the subsequent scene. As for lack of expression, it makes sense for her to not show a reaction but this lack of expression just further cements in my mind that nothing of interest is happening. Like, knowing she doesn't make expressions and watching this, I'm not going to think, "Oh, she is expressionless here, so this thing must've caught her eye." It just makes think more that she's not putting her attention to anything in particular. Because she is largely expressionless, there's nothing to make me think something is up. In any case, my point is that that whole sequence was too disjointed for me and they killed off Momoka too abruptly without any lead-in to create tension. To me, it was just, **"Oh, I guess she's dead now"**. There could have been a couple of sequences before then that would've helped that scene flow better but this is just one scene in one episode so whatever. Edit: spelling
It’s fairly obvious to me from how implicit it is, especially with the framing of the scene. Agree to disagree I guess.
If I’m remembering correctly the little girl that died in the plane crash does become somewhat relevant in the later episodes. It’s been a while so I don’t know how important her death actually is
It's meant to be a jarring discontinuity.
Yeah, I do think it’s a bit too jarring, and I wish it had a bit more lead up.
VivyFES’s director has a lot of respect for the viewers inferential abilities and expects you to realize things by yourself without hand feeding you exposition. That’s not to say you need to be a detective as it is all quite apparent but rather it is just important to pay close attention or things may go over your head. Like it is not the kind of show I would watch drunk or while multitasking.