Moving onto my next review, a look at the colorful world of Vividred Operation.

In the distant future, the invention of the Manifestation Engine prevents Earth from experiencing an energy crisis, this seems like an ideal future but the peace gets disrupted by the appearance of the Alone, a malevolent alien race hell bent on destroying the world aided by a mysterious girl. Earth's greatest defense comes from a group of hi-tech magical girls with giant weapons and fusion powers to stop the Alone.
Now you'd think that by watching this show you would see an entirely original idea for the Magical Girl genre, certainly the colorful majorette costumes, creative fusions and weaponry certainly make this show stand out but tell me if you've heard these before.
Happy Go Lucky girl given superpowers to fight unseen nightmarish monsters whose fate is being manipulated by another girl with her own unique reality warping powers. (Madoka Magica)
The Alone don't seem to possess a normal form and are just shapes by nature who do a lot of laser shooting. (Strike Witches)
All female characters seem to show their butts to the camera once too often. (Also Strike Witches)
Characters are assisted by a talking rodent. (Negima)
Enemy is being manipulated by a crow. (Princess Tutu)
One of the characters is named Aoi Futuba. (Shared with a character from You're Under Arrest and Cat Planet Cuties)
All weapons are overly large and mechanical looking. (Symphogear)
Lead character seems to know what to do despite no training whatsoever and manages to persuade others into it. (Also Strike Witches)
Even the cast look like improved versions of the cast of Ground Defense Force Mao-Chan even down to the costumes.
So yeah, for something that looks original it looks like the forbidden love child of Madoka Magica and Strike Witches raised by Symphogear and that's a little disappointing for so much promise, it's good if your new to the genre or want a different setting to your magical girl shows, but in all honesty they wasted a lot of potential, and what a potential it had with it's fusions, it's so far the only Magical Girl series that's successfully forged fusion as a workable power without being completely stupid with it. Unfortunately unless a Season 2 is made, I can't overlook the fact that a series that looked like it had such a huge budget is really not as original as it seems and I deem that a failure.
Subtitled only, no dub, a dub would probably work though so I wouldn't write off one.
Final Verdict: It presents itself as original but anyone who's seen Madoka Magica and Strike Witches can see that Vividred Operation isn't that original at all. On it's own and without that prior knowledge, it's competent enough to keep your attention but you'll end up disappointed that the creators didn't run further with some of the ideas when you finish the show which spoils an otherwise epic showcase.