Plastic Memories

Eighteen-year-old Tsukasa Mizugaki has failed his college entrance exams, but after pulling some strings, he manages to land a job at the Sion Artificial Intelligence Corporation. SAI Corp is responsible for the creation of "Giftias"—highly advanced androids which are almost indiscernible from normal humans. However, unlike humans, Giftias have a maximum lifespan of 81,920 hours, or around nine years and four months. Terminal Service One, the station Tsukasa was assigned to, is responsible for collecting Giftias that have met their expiration date, before they lose their memories and become hostile.

Promptly after joining Terminal Service One, Tsukasa is partnered with a beautiful Giftia named Isla. She is a Terminal Service veteran and considered the best in Giftia retrievals, contrary to her petite figure and placid nature. Time is fleeting though, and Tsukasa must come to terms with his feelings for Isla before her time is up. No matter how much someone desires it, nothing lasts forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Episode Videos

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Adaptation:

Plastic Memories: Say to Good-bye, Plastic Memories: Heartfelt Thanks

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Isla

Main

Amamiya, Sora
Japanese

Mizugaki, Tsukasa

Main

Takumi, Yasuaki
Japanese

Kinushima, Michiru

Supporting

Akasaki, Chinatsu
Japanese

Zack

Supporting

Yahagi, Sayuri
Japanese

Miru, Eru

Supporting

Uesaka, Sumire
Japanese

Hanada, Yasutaka

Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou
Japanese

Kuwanomi, Kazuki

Supporting

Toyoguchi, Megumi
Japanese

Sherry

Supporting

Terakawa, Aimi
Japanese

Constance

Supporting

Hino, Satoshi
Japanese

Nina

Supporting

Kuno, Misaki
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Oowada, Tomoyuki

Producer

Toba, Yousuke

Producer

Kananiwa, Kozue

Producer

Kamata, Hajime

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Ring of Fortune" by Eri Sasaki (佐々木恵梨) (eps 2-7, 9-13)

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Ending Theme

	1: "again & again" by Melody Chubak (eps 1)
	2: "Asayake no Starmine (朝焼けのスターマイン)" by Asami Imai (eps 2-7, 9-13)
	3: "Ring of Fortune" by Eri Sasaki (eps 8)

Reviews

Jun 27, 2015

HaXXspetten

Recommended

When I first started watching Plastic Memories back in April I was immediately very impressed by it because the first episode was simply amazing. It forecasted an original anime with beautiful artwork, an ambient atmosphere, likeable characters and a lot of tragic drama. At the time, I really thought that it would become the next hidden gem, and the biggest surprise of the season.

As it turned out however, Plastic Memories instead ended up being one of the most misleading anime I've seen in quite some time. Unlike what the opening seemed to imply, in reality the show is mostly a cute and light-hearted slice of ... life comedy with quite a lot of romance in it. Now this doesn't mean the anime turned out poorly in the end, quite the opposite in fact, but it never reached the level that I thought it would have reached in the beginning.

The story takes place in a future world where humanoid androids are a common part of human society. The androids, named "Giftias", are fully equipped with human emotions, and help their respective human owners however possible. But the Giftias have very limited lifespans, and thus they need to be taken out of commission before too long. Enter Tsukasa, an 18-year-old boy whom is offered a position at the SAI Corporation; a group responsible for retrieving Giftias who are approaching the ends of their lifespans, and eventually scrap them. Right next to him, we have his fellow co-worker: the incredibly cute and loveable Isla, who is actually a Giftia herself despite her position. The two of them form a team by order of their boss, and they consequently start working together, socializing together, and of course fall in love with each other.

This is how Plastic Memories suddenly becomes something totally different from what it originally promised to be. Despite the premise, the anime is in fact not about the retrieval of various Giftias, nor is it about the SAI Corporation itself or any of the other people working there. Plastic Memories is about Tsukasa, and it is about Isla. That is all. And honestly, that's totally fine in and of itself because they make up one of the cutest couples I've seen in ages, and watching their awkward romance is surprisingly enjoyable no matter how much you see of it. But for a lot of people, this was nothing more than wasted potential because the cool and interesting premise of the story itself is heavily neglected in the process. For everyone who wanted to see a melancholic story about the tragedy of having to say goodbye to your loved ones and how they deal with it... you're probably going to be left disappointed, because Plastic Memories doesn't actually focus very much on that at all other than right at the very beginning. The only character the show ever really emphasizes this point for is Isla herself as her lifespan is of course also very limited due to being a Giftia, but for everyone else... not very much.

However if you can get past the fact that the show is more or less in disguise and try to see it for what it actually is (in other words a romantic slice of life story), then suddenly Plastic Memories is a very enjoyable anime again. Why? Because it actually has *proper romantic development*. Quite a lot of it in fact. This is not the kind of show which ends with a confession in the final episode and nothing more; no, there are actually things happening from very early on in a romantic sense, which is something that is unfortunately very rare in today's anime. Especially seeing Plastic Memories airing in the same season as Nisekoi was pretty amusing to me; they're like night and day in comparison as far romantic progression goes.

Overall, Plastic Memories is an anime which you will probably be given a very different impression of depending on your expectations on it. Is it a good anime? Yes, but it's a completely different anime from what you're most likely anticipating when you start watching it. That doesn't make it a bad show per se, but it feels a bit like false marketing. It's up to each and every viewer to do their best at adapting to what the anime has to offer.

If you're looking for a deeply touching and emotional melodrama like Clannad: After Story or Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, then sorry to say but you're looking in the wrong place. But for a cute yet beautiful story about young love, it's hard to find a better example than Plastic Memories.

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Gift

Jun 28, 2015

MangakaNotlora

Mixed Feelings

Often times, anime becomes an effective outlet for limitless fictional worlds, ones that reach out far beyond the norm to accurately portray the original vision of the worlds' creators. Often times, these worlds suffer from being too complicated, too busy and too cluttered with the many ideas that have no place in a twelve or thirteen episode run. Often times, these twelve or thirteen episodes are the cause to many, many headaches of mine.
And yet, Plastic Memories has me missing those headaches, the ones spawned from such an expansive world, because this is something Plastic Memories has failed to explore.

While the anime provides an interesting ... base concept and characters that are lovable on perhaps a surface level, it leaves much to be desired in that there are many existential questions left unexplored as they are deemed out of place in Plastic Memories' established rom-com genre.

Much like Chobits, Plastic Memories has the appeal of human/robot couple, but unlike Chobits, the pairing has almost nothing at stake.
During our thirteen episodes, we witness the awkward romance of Tsukasa and his robotic love interest, Isla, and throughout their narrative, nothing is pitted against them besides Isla's expiration date--an interesting aspect of the story that rarely comes up, replaced instead by a heap of filler episodes. In fact, besides this expiration date, the world of Plastic Memories has little to no conflict in it.
It's frustrating to watch, because there is a towering amount of set-up for a touching narrative on loss and acceptance, and that is never fully explored! There is set-up for some sort of commentary on humanity, and that isn't even touched on!
I find it a crime for a show to contain the same romantic dynamic of Chobits and fly so far from the meager philosophical commentary that Chobits provides. I find it a crime for a world to contain robots heavily integrated in society and not explore that aspect at all.

To continue down the path of minuscule fictional exploration, the characters in Plastic Memories are incredibly underdeveloped.
The show is more concerned with providing the cliches present in every rom-com than it is with differentiating itself from the other members of the genre. We know very little about Tsukasa, Isla and the many side characters, in favor of simple misunderstandings and the cookie-cutter tsundere yelling about something that hardly matters.
We are told things about Tsukasa and are expected to simply accept these aspects of his character, without so much as a flashback to back it up, making it very hard to sympathize with him. In fact, we get more background for the tsundere, Michiru, who receives more attention in terms of fleshing out the character than Isla, who is supposed to be the focus of the show.
As a result, the cast is very one note and forgettable, often tragically struggling to make the viewers care.

Unfortunately, I don't care.

When I was first introduced to the series, I was prepared to be emotionally torn to pieces by Isla's death looming over her; I was prepared for each new episode to be more painful than the last, for the tragedy of the series to be dragged out until the very last episode when mortality came to claim its eventual prize.
I was prepared, and instead I got romantic filler. Episode after episode features Tsukasa getting embarrassed about something new, with maybe a minute or two of screen time dedicated to the actual plot. Three episodes before the finale is a filler, and as a result, everything afterwards seems rushed and out of place.
The whole tone of the show can't decide whether it wants to be depressing or silly, and while I have seen other series where both are juggled successfully, Plastic Memories is not one of them.

To conclude, as a romantic comedy, Plastic Memories has all the essentials to carry it through from episode one to episode thirteen.
As a new, memorable and touching story, as a tragedy about a girl with so little time left, it has nothing.

Similar to a sandwich missing everything except the bread, Plastic Memories leaves me unsatisfied.

Open

Gift

Jul 5, 2015

ZephSilver

Not Recommended

Human/technology integration has always been a fascinating topic to me. Just thinking of humanity's next leap towards further development being aided by biomechanical intervention could cause even the cynical-minded to wax philosophical. It's a topic that's inspired countless debate and discussion for many; redefining the idea of what it means to be human with the continuously blurred line between man and machine. And what better way to view this delicate balancing act than by seeing it unfold through the guise of a romance. It's an interesting "what if" scenario, that, to those who share my fascination with the subject, could find many interesting facets on ...

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Gift

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Mizugaki, Tsukasa

Kinushima, Michiru

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