Plastic Memories Review

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

Geeks Under Grace

Plastic Memories is an anime series that aired in 2015 which was directed by Yoshiyuki Fujiwara and produced by the studio Doga Kobo. The futuristic series follows Tsukasa Mizugakia a student who failed his college exams leading him to work at SAI Corp.'s Terminal Service One. Mizugakia's job involves retrieving and working with Giftia. Giftia are sentient A.I.s that have a manufactured soul and act identical to how humans do. The only catch to these Giftias is their short lifespans of 9 years. When the 9 years are up a Giftia will lose all personality, memories and can even become violent and hostile. The main job of the Terminal Service employees and of Mizugakia is to retrieve and deactivate the Giftias and their memories before their timespan is up.

Animecorps

Running Against Time

Mizugakia spends time getting to know his other fellow coworkers each with distinct personalities and interests and becomes partners with a Giftia named Isla. From there the series follows not only the partnership of Mizugakia and Isla as they have to retrieve the other Giftias but also the growing feelings they have for each other as they both get accustomed to one another. There's a crucial factor halfway through the series in which Mizugakia realizes that Isla has about a month left to live before he too has to wipe her memories. From this halfway mark Plastic Memories really thrives and becomes more than the standard anime. It asks the burning question of how do you react if you knew when you're going to die? Do you isolate yourself and stop caring about anyone in the fear that you'll hurt your loved ones even more once your time is up? Or do you press on and keep living life to the fullest with the people you care about, making sure that there are happy memories made to recollect after you're gone?

Plastic Memories Wiki

Positives and Negatives

Plastic Memories has a lot of positives with the relationship between Mizugakia and Isla feeling natural and earned. It never feels like anything about their progressing affection for each other is rushed and the series also does a great job at fleshing Isla out as a character, giving her hobbies like making tea and having a herb garden she attends to make her a relatable and compelling character. The core concept of trying to spend time with your loved ones even when you know your time is coming to an end is a beautiful one and it's the strongest element of the series. With that said there are several problems with Plastic Memories the biggest of which is explaining the Giftia's lifespan and personality shutdown. It's never clear or explained once why this nine-year time limit is implanted on the Giftia's or why they suddenly go berserk and lose all of their memories along with the process. It does create a sad premise that Plastic Memories bases its story around but you can't help but feel like Giftia's shouldn't be so widespread if they're just going to have to be shut down in such a short period of time. Having these Giftia side effects not only will cause emotional distress for the Giftia's owner but also makes Giftias themselves dangerous to be operational in the first place.

Anime UK News

Bye...

Another great aspect of the series is the understanding of the situation Isla is facing. Isla and Mizugakia both see the emotional impact it has on the people they meet on the job when a Giftia has to be shut down. Mizugakia and Isla both react really well to this hard situation with the first half of the series being about their job shutting down the Giftias and the second half focusing on their relationship together as they know there isn't much time left. A big complaint the series faces is of the coworkers being one-dimensional and having no depth but they have a charm and likability to them even if they're simple and not as characterized as they could be. Really Plastic Memories is a slice-of-life story about Mizugakia and Isla and it works. Their awkward moments even in the less impressive episodes are still enjoyable and seeing them grow as a couple is adorable. Even though there's melancholy there are also a lot of sweet and really happy moments right down to the beautiful final episode.

Random Curiosity

Plastic Memories

Plastic Memories is a great anime. It knows what it is and it's a wonderful story about young love and learning to never take time with your loved ones for granted. It's not trying to have the most complicated subject matter or incredible world-building and it doesn't need to. There's a lot of charm if you give the series a chance and it too will help you appreciate the beauty and importance of memories.