If you are a frequent visitor at this site, then you already know I am a hopeless romantic. Give me a good love story designed to tug at the heart strings, and I instantly turn into a blubbering pile of feels. Even more so if the ending of that story is a bittersweet one.
This week, I’m taking a look at just such a show, a 13 episode love story from 2015 of androids and humans, Plastic Memories. Produced by Doga Kobo, the gang behind Gekkan Shouko Nozaki-kun, 11eyes, Myself; Yourself, and Yuruyuri, this is one of those series that designed to make you cry.
Which means it did make me cry. I’m super easy on that front. If it might bring a tear to the eye, I’m bawling.
Monday Anime: Plastic Memories
The show is set in the near future, after androids have been introduced into the world. Called Giftia, these androids are completely lifelike, right down to their ability to experience the full range of human emotions. However, due to limitations of software, all Giftia’s have a nine year life span, after which their data becomes corrupted and they lose all their memories, and can become a danger to humans.
The company that makes Giftia’s, SAI, has established a Terminal Service, which tracks the life span of Giftia’s, and retrieves them before they can fail. While at first, this sounds almost like a Blade Runner situation, it’s actually not. The Giftia’s have no desire to hurt anyone, especially the humans they are closest too, and usually willingly surrender themselves to the Terminal Service.
Some don’t, which is where Terminal Service has their real work cut out for them. Working in pairs, one human and one Giftia, they have to bring the Giftia in before anything horrible can happen.
Isla (plastic Memories) Gifs
Which is where our young protagonist, Tsukasa, comes in. Having missed his chance to enter a university due to health issues, his dad has helped him get a job with the Terminal Servcie, where he is paired with the somewhat loli looking Giftia, Isle. At first a somewhat fumbling relationship, they quickly bond, and soon, fall in love.
Then Tsukasa learns that Isle’s nine years are almost up, leaving him to decide how much further he wants to pursue their relationship. Does he want out now, or will he stay to the bitter end?
With a show like this, it’s super easy to screw up the world building. A lot of questions come up in terms of android rights, especially when we’re talking about fully sentient ones that are capable of all emotions. When I first sat down to watch Plastic Memories, I was pretty surprised by the fact that they actually tackled most all of these issues.
Funny, Blushing And Kawaii Gif Anime #1080777 On Animesher.com
It’s never a focal point of the story, mind you, but these things are addressed. Androids, by and large, are still property, but are not slaves in the way we would expect from a more cynical series. Instead, they are a responsibility. Yes, they are owned, but that ownership isn’t what you think. Their owners are fully responsible for providing them a home, clothing, food, and anything else they need. In return, the Giftia’s enhance the owners lives in a lot of meaningful ways.
Tsukasa’s first retrieval sets the stage for how this world works best. The Terminal Team is sent out to pick up a Giftia near the end of his operational life. Preparations have already been made, and he learns that in the weeks ahead of actual retrieval, the Terminal Service makes contact and begins preparing both the Giftia and the humans for what is to come. In this instance, it is an elderly couple, who had never gotten to have a child. The Giftia was their chance to experience that. While the Giftia is a young man, he presents himself as a successful business professional, allowing these people to know what it was to have a son who they could be proud of for all his accomplishments.
Their goodbye is heartfelt, and sad, but the Giftia thanks them for all they did for him, all they gave him, and the love and support they showered him with all of his life. This is the core conceit around which the series revolves. These androids are property, yes, but they are not slaves. They are an irreplaceable part of these peoples lives.
Plastic Memories Archives
Another retrieval revolves around a young boy who lost his parents and was raised by the family Giftia, who he sees as a sister. Another revolves around an elderly woman and the child like Giftia she refuses to part with, because this girl is all she has. Each retrieval is an emotional moment, as these people must say goodbye to one another after sharing a life together.
Maybe that’s what gets to me about it all. The idea of saying goodbye to a loved one. Knowing there is nothing that can be done, and allowing them to leave this world in peace, rather than, as we see at one point, a shell of their former selves.
At it’s best, fiction is more than just good storytelling, but a metaphor for something else. Plastic Memories accomplishes this by revolving around the idea of saying goodbye, forever, to those we love. Of the painful joy when it can be done at the right time, and the agony of when it can’t.
Plastic Memories Episode 7
Tsukasa, as a character, is pretty okay. He’s not the best, or the worst, in anime. Most of his actions are based on his feelings for Isle, which is to be expected from a romance themed series. However, there’s another side of his story arc that is far better done, and far more subdued. His slow journey to understand just what it is his job entails, how important it is to do it the right way, and just what it is he is offering both the Giftia’s and the humans who love them.
On that side of his character arc, is a much better story than the romance one. That simple story of a young man who comes to understand the incredible power of empathy and kindness, and how it can make a tragic day more bearable for those involved.
Isle, on the other hand, takes an almost opposite journey. When we first meet her, she behaves like you’d expect from a robot. She speaks in a monotone, using computer speak at every chance, and has almost no personality. Very quickly, though, we learn that this is all an act she is putting on. She knows her time is running out, and rather than deal with the emotions she is feeling, she is trying to behave like a machine, that feels nothing.
Explore Plastic Memories Gifs
The romance side of her arc is accepting that while she is a machine, she is also human, and that it’s okay to feel. It’s okay to be happy, to be sad, to laugh, and to cry. It’s even okay to be angry at a cruel fate that would end her life for no reason other than programming errors that can’t be fixed. As she slowly opens up to Tsukasa, and falls in love with him, she sheds her robotic false persona and we finally meet the real Isle, a warm, generous, kind, and beautiful soul.
The greater part of her story, though, like with Tsukasa, lies in her job. Before Isle joined the Terminal Service, it was just a job for everyone who worked there. They didn’t think of the needs, or the feelings, of the people involved. Isle changed how Terminal Service operated by offering both the humans and the Giftia the kindness and empathy they needed, and in her actions, inspired others to do the same. While their overhead is higher than corporate would like, they can’t argue the massive change this has had on public perception, or on the sale of new models, so they allow Terminal Services to do as they please, for the most part.
On that side, it’s the story of how simple kindness changed the lives of many people. Not just her co-workers, but everyone who her co-workers lives touched after that. The strain of doing the job eventually got to much for Isle and she retired from the field before Tsukasa meets her for the first time, but everyone else continued on doing the job the way Isle showed them, by her actions, her kindness, and her willingness to go the extra mile to make this difficult process less painful.
Anime :: Fandoms :: Plastic Memories :: Anime Gif
The rest of the cast is pretty good. Michiru, one of the human workers in Terminal Services, comes across as the standard bitchy character, but quickly develops a backstory that allows you to empathize with her personality quirks. Her Gifia partner, Zack, makes everything better with his snide comments and sarcastic observations on everything. Every anime would be better with Zack offering his snarky insights into the plot.
Kazuki, one of the head honchos at Terminal Service, starts as the typical scary lady, but also quickly develops a backstory and character arc that allows us to see her in a very different light as a
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