DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA DramaPlastic Memories: Say to good-bye
NOVEL DramaPlastic Memories: Heartfelt Thanks

REVIEWS

• 

  EricGreyjoy

  75/100
  A different point of view: The human psychology and morality in Plastic Memories

  Artificial Intelligence and human-like androids is always an interesting topic. The concept of "humanity" or being alive always fascinated me. Plastic Memories is not original in that aspect. As we know, this cow has been milked a lot in the recent years. For example, movies like Ex Machina or I, Robot and even the relatively recent video game Detroit become human tackles these psychological concepts and try to put yourself in the position of the androids and make you empathize with them.

  What i mean with this is that the psychology of the show could be deeper than you expect when you first look at the tags or the synopsis, because this is known for being a tear-jerker romantic slice-of-life anime. Let's start with some context:

  The history sets up a world in the near future where androids and humans live together in harmony. The main point of the show is that humans developed a new technology-advanced model of android that can manifest human emotions, the so called "Giftia". From this point, the anime shows interesting concepts about how Giftias interact with humans and how they interpret their own feelings. However, an element that makes the plot goes on is revealed in the first episodes:
  The Giftia have a limited lifespan and it is already known since they are created
  This new element change the perspective of living from the point of view of the androids. Some of them, like our female protagonist Isla (アイラ), decided to no generate memories that will be gone the day that she will be "recovered".

  • Here comes the main moral dilemma and the core of the show:

  do you prefer to live to the fullest? accepting the fact that, at the end, the pain will be harder and the persons around you will suffer more because, after that, you will no longer exists. Or do you prefer to live on your own to get through your life the most painless possible way?

  Our male human protagonist, Tsukasa, joins the company that is in charge of recovering the Giftia before their time ends, because when it does, well...

  The Gifitia lose their mind when their time surpass a specified number of hours (the exact number is not revealed in the show) and can be dangerous for humans. This behavior is called "wanderer"

  I have a theory about this error. Could it be possible that this error is related to the interference of the accumulation of memories (because they can't forget) with the emotions? damaging the OS. At certain number of hours a fatal error occur, intensifying the level of the emotions and losing reasoning. This would explain the fixed lifespan. But they never gave an official explanation or what the researchers are doing to fix it. It's just an accepted fact.

  Sadly, this example allows me to highlight one of the most important flaws of the show: They never dig into the details of what is proposed. It is an interesting world, but underdeveloped in favor of the romantic relationship. The possible reason: the low number of chapters acts against the quality of plot.

  But one thing they did well is the development of the recovery process. Teams of two people (a Giftia and a human) will go to the client house and spend time with them, trying to understand the feelings of both sides and make the recovery the most friendly possible way. That's the reason, i think, they always make this duet team. To try to show the both points of view of the situation to their clients.
  even if it's only one department that does this the "human" way

  At the end, the shows wants to deliver an important message: live your days like there is no tomorrow. Journey before Destination. Make the most beautiful memories with your people and accept the bad ones as part of yourself. As the history progresses, Isla understands the reason of living, changing her opinion and accepting what she is and how she want to be remembered.

  With its flaws, i will save a little part of my heart to Plastic Memories. Because, when the years go by, it will be part of my own memories.

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• 

  SasoriNeko

  45/100
  Horrible writing sugar-coated with a quirky, adorable girl.

  Although Plastic Memories has bored me out of my mind, I managed to pull through every episode, hoping it would get better. And unfortunately, it did not.

  In this review, I will be explaining what I liked and disliked about the show's animation/art, characters, sound, story and my personal enjoyment.

  ---

  STORY: 2.5/10

  From my perspective, Plastic Memories had devastatingly atrocious writing. It had multiple pointless conventions which were supposed to build emotion, and these sections have failed miserably. First of all, I don't quite get the build up. It felt like it was lacking, but nevertheless it still contained multiple points of experience for the cast. The pacing in the first half was mediocre, and then when found out about Isla's lifespan, it slowed down to the speed of a dying snail. I figured they were trying to show that Isla had only a short amount of time left, but instead the time she spent with Tsukasa seemed to drag on forever. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who expected Isla's sad truth the moment she appeared. The only thing that held on was the interesting story which played out in a futuristic setting. I wavered over the wonderful idea of how AI's acted very much like humans.

  ---

  ANIMATION & ART: 7.5/10

  Despite it's downfalls in the story, the animation was surprisingly clean, and the visuals were stunning. The designs and style were nothing special, but I found the art to be quite an eyeful. Advanced technology seems difficult to draw/animate, and there was enough variation in the character designs to differentiate them. I understand that it is incredibly complicated to animate, so it is impossible for me to rate this any lower.

  ---

  CHARACTERS: 2.5/10

  I really DESPISE how shallow the characters can be. For instance, that tsundere girl is acting all 'cold' one moment, and the next she's crying her eyes out. If you simply think about it, it may not be such a big deal. However, I couldn't stand the transition between these two emotions. It felt extremely wrong to a great extent. I can't properly put it into words, but these characters just feel so....... shallow. It's as if they do not have their own personality that they can stick to. They were written to feel sad about the current situation, or to look kind just for the sake of creating emotion. But in the end, these goals were not reached. I cringed. A lot. Not to mention the awful character development, which was barely even there. Even in the final moments of the very last episode, nothing has changed at all. The characters have only changed so little, the relationships between them remain unfazed, and everything about them just feels so empty. To sum it up, the characters are pure garbage, made only to suit the writer's desires to create an emotional story that ended up flopping. Yikes.

  ---

  SOUND: 7.5/10

  Let's talk about voice acting. It's just the usual voices, nothing unique. None of their words resonated within me as they were said so bluntly. I found the MC's voice to be tremendously irritating. Moving on, I shall share with you my thoughts on the music. More than half of the time, I skipped the OP. It was very offbeat, and the pitches were strangely out of place. Not the least bit catchy at all. I would only listen to the first 5 seconds of it. That's all I can bear. The chorus sounded like the horrid noise of a dying whale.

  ---

  ENJOYMENT: 2.5/10

  Absolutely boring. I almost fell asleep at every second of it. No exciting moments, no interesting twists. Everything was expected, and felt exceedingly artificial. A monotonous story, dull characters... Could this get any worse? I thought. Of course it did. Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing a negative review about it.

  ---

  In conclusion, this is one of the worst romances I've ever seen. I probably should've dropped it. Even so, I learned a whole lot more about quality thanks to this. I understand how certain aspects can affect the entire anime, a useful tip I can benefit from in my own novel writing.

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• 

  NarcReal

  98/100
  " I hope that one day you will be reunited with the one you cherish. "

  [WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER]

  If you've done it or want to get spoiled, you are allowed to read this review.

  " Isn't it sad how some people only value themselves by how much the wrong people value them. "

  - Isla

  Plastic Memories. Many people dislike it due to premises do this anime has promised to the audiences. It's written by the same author of Steins; Gate, so, of course, people would expect more from this anime to tell more about the inherited level of science fiction based on the creator. Yet, they won't find it here as it's another bittersweet premise and a slice of life with sci-fi as its background. People always oddly value a show by its previous quality. I must say it's good yet means you can't see the hidden value behind the authenticity of the anime itself. The philosophical value of humanity and the morality of Giftias who want to be treated as human it's somewhat a very good premise to start with.

  " Sometimes, it takes a little bit of sadness to know what happiness is."

  Her true words prevail in the story about the anime itself. It's very sad and joyful, at certain times, it happens simultaneously throughout the story. It tells about Tsukasa Mizugaki, a boy who accepted to SA Corp., an android company that produced a Giftia, a new form of android that has the most amount of emotion and artificially human qualities which much better than its model predecessor. At first glance, he met Isla, a Giftia which he thought that she is also a human yet she's not. He had been introduced to the terminal service, his duty was to take the Gitias which have past their age before it's turned to be a dangerous creature as they start to lose the memories. He has formed to a group with Isla and of course, there will be some unwanted obstacles and risky chance while they execute their job, death is not the exemption. The main story comes from Isla and Tsukasa who fall in love with each other even they already understand their difference as a creature, both mentally and psychically.

  " It's hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember."

  This quote truly tells about the characters. How can I forget them? They are so memorable, given to the story itself. Isla, a clumsy yet adorable girl who formed into a team in the terminal service. She has the most of it as she is the first main character besides Tsukasa (even though the story's point of view told about Tsukasa himself) who curious about emotions, happiness, and sadness. She had her crush to Tsukasa and she wants her memories to not be erased as she doesn't want to lose "the one who gave her beautiful memories". Tsukasa, a boy who also had a crush on his beloved girl, and he had taught her a lot of things about this world. ~!He made Isla thought that the world isn't that dangerous, it's beautiful. For the supporting characters, I'll give some views on Michiru Kinushima, a tsundere mean Giftia girl who admires Tsukasa yet also supports Isla and had a tragic past trauma about her family. I can tell a lot about the other characters but it'll waste your time to read this review.!~

  " Memories do not always soften with time, sometimes some grow edges like knives."

  I must say the song is not so strong trait for the anime but it has a very deep meaning. I love listening to "Ayasake no Starmine", it has a soft and playful tone of a song yet so deep meaning and gives you the warmth about this anime for worthwhile. For the roles, I'm very satisfied with the voice actors, althought Isla's voice isn't that loud, I can hear and feel her words deeply and it's pretty for me. I want to cry and smile, or even laugh every time I hear her voice, it's well fitted to her character as a playful, cold, and caring yet clumsy and childish personality. About the other characters, I don't see any problem with the other voice characters, they are well fitted to the roles as well.

  " Having happy and beautiful memories doesn't always bring salvation. The more beautiful a memory is, the more painful it can become, it can even become more terrifying. Both for the one who's leaving... and the one being left behind."

  Plastic Memories is an underrated anime which not only teaches you the morality about being a human, it also gives you the sentimental feeling between two different creatures who fell in love with each other and will always be together even when the death separates them. It also has a premise which is simple and understandable for most of the audiences and will give you the warmth of both joyful and sadness at the same times. It gives you solely of a slice of life and drama with sci-fi as the background. So, for whom it may concern, don't watch if you expect an anime with a scientific premise like Steins; Gate. It won't give you something similar to the show, as it doesn't match the same pain with it. Do watch if you love series like Violet Evergarden, Clannad, and Angel Beats. I haven't watched Clannad and Violet Evergarden, but I'm sure it has a similar premise as Plastic Memories. Overall, I enjoyed this show so much as I have watched it five times and cried with the same number of times too. The story was thoughtful, joyful, playful, and hurtful at the same time and I should recommend this to whom love the slice of life genre. You can say that I rate it too high, but it doesn't mean that I overrate this show. Plastic Memories is the most underrated series I've ever seen in the slice of life genre and I'd give it a very high score to not forget about the memories do this show have.

  That's all and thank you for reading this review. Feel free to check any of these if you enjoy this one.

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