Plastic Memories

From one of the creators of Steins;Gate comes an Anime First show that looks like its going to be real promising. The premise and the setting of the show, in particular, has me hooked given its potential to explore themes such as handling the idea of death and love with someone who only has a set amount of time to live. While the first episode preview has elements of slice-of-life and workplace comedy, I suspect that the show is going to go dark by its midway point. Thus, I highly recommend you get your Kleenex boxes ready.

The page for the series is online now and you can watch the preview below:

Any other first thoughts on this show?

edited 3rd Apr '15 5:58:18 AM by sanfranman91

Not to double-post, but the first episode just went online on Daisuki. Overall, I thought the pacing was a bit rushed, but the pilot was pretty solid and filled with tear-jerking moments. The shifts in emotions near the end was a bit jarring, but a much needed moment in hilarity after the rather somber scene of a child Giftia being contained. It should be an interesting tale to see unfold, so I'll stay on board for the time being.

Thoughts from others?

edited 4th Apr '15 12:51:52 PM by sanfranman91

I have little idea as to what's going on because the narrative is actively avoiding explanations which causes the dramatic situations to be somewhat less so. In terms of characters, they're not exactly interesting - Stereotypes ahoy! - which is already a massive red flag for a story driven by it's characters. The art and animation for the first episode is unremarkable and one episode isn't enough time to get a sense of the soundtrack.

Overall, meh. Probably going to drop it unless it bucks up really quickly.

I kinda sorta agree with this.

I might stick with this show, but I have so many things to watch this season...

While the characters are a bit stereotypical, I can tell that some such as Isla have lots of layers that will be unveiled soon enough. With the amount of experience she already has in the business, I wouldn't be surprised if she soon finds herself in the exact same situation as the androids she deactivated in the past and I really appreciate seeing her human emotions coming to play.

I have also have that feeling that they're deliberately holding some things regarding the narrative until later episodes. It is a gamble for the creators to do this, but I'm optimistic that the writers could pull it together given that they're already tackling some big philosophical questions such as what one could do if he/she had a predetermined lifespan.

Yeah, this is going to be another Keyclone, and thats saying it nicely. Going to pass on this.

edited 4th Apr '15 3:13:42 PM by Memers

I'm interested. How are the official subs? I've watched Daisuki's subs before and while I don't mind them too much I hear they can be a bit...stiff so I'm not sure whether to try them or go with fansubs once those appear.

The official subs are not bad. I watched a bit of the Crunchyroll and Daisuki versions, and I think Crunchyroll is slightly better. However, Daisuki is the only version I know of that is free so it's something worth considering if you're not interested in subscribing to pay services.

This kinda feels like Blade Runner, only much lighter and softer.

Watching it now; first anime episode of the spring season for me.

They actually have synthetic souls. Implying they've successfully isolated natural souls. Cool.

This guy got hired without knowing shit. I wish life were that easy!

Oh look, it's a tsundere, and she's already making unprovoked pervert accusations.

They also hire teenagers, dang that's pretty nice for them.

It is, of course, quite rough to have a human-like companion, often even an adopted child, who can only be with you for 9.5 years. Just as bad to be a person who will only live 9.5 years. But that is the drama hook and it is soooo effective.

Isla. Stop being moe. Stop it.

Well, at least it seems they're sturdy enough to last the maximum amount of time.

Oh hey, a yandere who also has red hair.

Damn the first episode isn't even over and I'm already sad.

I'm not crying. You're crying.

Soooooo how is the first episode? I've heard generally good things about it, though some say the more comedic moments stand out like a sore thumb.

I find the humorous bits preferable to a constant stream of existential angst and drama.

Further episode 1 impressions:

• The Dogakobo flair is present— just check out that one scene transition.
• The premise of what amounts to robot euthanasia is worth exploring. It isn't often that we deal with robots that are more fragile than the humans. There are bound to be threads upon threads discussing the morality and legality of the circumstances of Giftia.
  • Had to chuckle at the awkward monologue in the beginning, though. Writers should have saved that for later when it's become relevant for the MC.
• In fact, the episode could have benefited from slowing down the pace, and instead spent the time on warming us up to the characters, who are at present rather stereotypical. Given that three jobs in a week is considered a lot already, the episode could have just focused on one retrieval and used the extra time for more character development/build up for the emotional hard-hitters.

Plenty of room for improvement, but all in all it was a decent watch.

Okay, who here was actually surprised with the revelation at the end of ep 2?

Nobody?

I thought she was already past her limit, actually.

Fun fact: her time limit equals out to the amount of time between the date episode 2 aired and the end of the Spring anime season.

Hmmmm. I wonder how this will end??

Scratch that, I wonder how they're going to keep this guy oblivious about Isla's coming end-of-life when he should realise that right now. Especially after that graph.

I was thinking along the same lines.

Anyway, anyone else's suspension of disbelief a bit strained with them using highly advanced, probably very expensive androids for manual labour at a car shop?

I just took that as the setting being a highly idealized utopia where issues such as infinite free energy, automated labor, etc. were already solved and anyone who works does so mostly out of either personal satisfaction or desire for a societal standing.

I mean otherwise using robots with souls to retrieve their expiring kin while having a human just follow them around keeping an eye on them seems like an extravagant waste. There wouldn't really be anything to collect either, as robots with souls would probably be out of reach for most households unless they were dirt cheap.

I'm liking this. I don't usually fall for the cutesy stuff, but somehow Isla works for me. I think it's a combination of good voice work, expressiveness and her being slightly over the top. The subject matter has some bite as well, hope they'll manage to use it properly.

edited 13th Apr '15 2:55:57 PM by GabrieltheThird

Car shops charge a fortune, no reason they couldn't afford an android. In fact, it's not like the people we've seen in the show thus far looked super rich. And the others have mostly just used their androids as surrogate children, whereas the car shop is probably making a profit from a source of labor that's stronger and has more stamina than a human and doesn't need to be paid after the initial down payment.

I do wonder if it's really a utopia where nobody has to work to survive, or if androids are making it even more difficult than it is today for people who need jobs to find them (thus why Tsukasa needed his dad to pull strings for him and being threatened with being fired if he didn't figure out how to do this job), but that may not come up in the series. Actually, what am I saying, there's a 17-year-old high school student working in this company and Tsukasa himself just barely graduated, personal connections aside.

I assumed it wasn't about the labour, but the companionship - Giftias are basically humanoid pets. Having a highly capable worker on hand was just a plus.

The only important thing about this episode is that Chuuni mode is amazing. Also Isla doesn't know how to dress herself, and Tsukasa and his coworkers are all dicks, but we already knew that.

I'm honestly thinking of dropping this, as per the three episode rule. This ep was just Romantic Comedy hijinks.

So far, I'm loving this show. Yeah, ep. 3 was romcom hijinx but the humor was well done enough, and that emotional last third made it worth it.

Also: this show looks fucking gorgeous.

See, that's actually kind of why I liked this episode: because it followed after the end of the last episode, turning the whole thing into an exercise in Dramatic Irony. It flips the meaning on a lot of things, the same way "end of lifespan" makes her clumsiness kind of sad instead of the standard anime Dojikko schtick. Right now, they're stuck acting out parts from completely different shows, and that really drives the distance between them home.

Plus, character building for Tsukasa (he is extraordinarily determined, especially in light of Japanese social conventions) and the office (is this just Comedic Sociopathy, or are they going to make a point with it? Isla's been like this for a while and no one's cared). This feels like one of those shows which might be a lot more interesting when you consider social context.