'After failing his college entrance exams, 18 year-old Tsukasa Mizugaki is offered a position at the renowned SAI Corporation due to his father’s connections. SAI Corporation is known for its production and management of androids that possessed human emotions called Giftia. Tsukasa’s position is in the terminal service department where the main job is to recover Giftias that are close to their expiration, a graveyard department in every sense. To make matters worse, Tsukasa is ordered to work with Isla, a female Giftia who is never given any responsibility other than serving tea to co-workers.'
[There will be slight spoilers in the form of describing the basic plot in the following text]
I first saw this anime as a new release on Crunchyroll a couple of weeks ago and although I ignored it for a while, I did think it looked interesting. After finally getting around to watching the first 5 episodes I decided to share my first impressions.
Plastic Memories exceeded my expectations, what I read as the description caught my interest but looking back it doesn't really show off as much as it could. What I was expecting to be a comedy/romance anime between the 2 main characters Tsukasa and Isla turned out to be way more than that. A sad background story is there to make the serious moments that much better but at the same time the comedy parts stop it from being just plain depressing.
I personally really enjoy this anime so far, for me to pick a random newly released anime and for it to be as good as this was a nice change. Although briefly explained in the description of the anime, the main story is actually rather sad. A world where people can own Androids with human emotions that are designed to fill the gaps in people's lives in the form of family or friends that sadly have a predetermined expiration date. 1 Giftia lasts around 8 years before losing it's memories and personality, at which point it has to be shut down. Not everyone is okay with having the people closest to them taken away however and it's Tsukasa and Isla's job to try convince them to let them go.
With half the team being Giftia's you are left to constantly wonder when each of their expiration dates may be, combine that with the sadness of watching family being split apart forever and it really can be quite upsetting. Luckily the clumsiness of Isla and the awkwardness of Tsukasa add enough humour to stop the show from getting too depressing.
Overall I'm really liking this anime and would definitely recommend it.
I watch this anime as well as almost all the others I watch on Crunchyroll, the link is below:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/
Similar to Anohana, Clannad, Nagi-Asu, Angel Beats!, ...etc, Plastic Memories does seem to be hitting all the sad spots and bandaging those wounds with bits of humor, but I'm not particular fond of those sorts of melodrama. I'm clearly part of the minority with that opinion, too, so there's no point in going into the matter at length. Just upsets people, you know?. As for you post, it's brief, yet effective. It's not cluttered with nonsense, and you leave nothing out. You summarized the series, touched on key points, and personalized your work so the whole thing doesn't just sound like any other review about the show. Great job, and such.
ReplyDeleteI see your point and in most cases I agree with you, there are many anime where characters have their friends die left right and centre and they still sit there cracking jokes. In Plastic memories though I feel like they acknowledge the sadness but try to push it out of their minds, for example the humour normally comes when they're all together, yet when a character is seen on their own they normally look sad. Maybe I'm giving credit where it's not due but that's how it appears to me anyway. Also thank you for the kind words, they really do mean a lot. :)
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