Plastic Memories is a 13 episode anime that’s an original story. It takes place in the future where androids now exist that has artificial souls inside them and are indistinguishable from normal humans. It follows Tsukasa, who had just started work at the Terminal Service section of the company that produces and sells these androids. The twist here is that all androids have a limited lifespan of just a bit over nine years before their personalities and memories break down. Tsukasa’s job is to collect these androids about to terminate from their owners.
Tsukasa’s partner, Isla, is also an android. Isla is already experienced in this role but has the appearance of a young girl. The first episode sets up the tone, as just from the nature of their role, it’s always a sad and heartbreaking moment tearing away an android from their owner / family when they had built a relationship from all these many years. You can probably tell where the story is going to go, where Tsukasa will probably fall in love with Isla and their ending can only be a sad one.
Before it falls into the romance angle, the first half of the season is slow paced and shows off the responsibilities of the Terminal Service unit. Basically, Tsukasa and Isla are going around, trying to convince the owners to sign a paper to give up on their androids because they’ll go crazy and out of control otherwise. The results of which could be devastating so it begs the question on why the company didn’t build in safeguards in the first place to prevent the massive flaw if it is guaranteed to happen, given that they’re all machines and software anyway.
Otherwise, it tries to tug at your heartstrings with its various stories of how the android is now part of the family, and they do not want to part with them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite succeed given the short setup times. Along the way, we find out more about Isla and her background. Despite first impressions, she has a personality where she retreats into her shell, and it takes a lot of effort from Tsukasa’s part to find out why. While it isn’t too boring, there are scenes where it drags on for a bit too long and so feels like not enough is happening as a result.
The relationship between Tsukasa and Isla isn’t quite there. We see Tsukasa pretty much immediately fall for Isla, but this can feel superficial like with a lot of other “love at first sight” scenarios. When Isla eventually reciprocates the feeling, it just feels contrived and forced. It’s as if that this anime is a tragic romance, therefore they must fall in love kind of deal. As a result, the pair lacks chemistry and charm, which also means you don’t really care as much about them as the writer would have wanted you to.
Despite her cute appearance, Isla can be an annoying and frustrating character to watch. Yes, she is an “ice queen” that Tsukasa has to defrost, but she doesn’t give him much to work off. Her closed off demeanour means it’s hard to sympathise and understand her, so you never quite warm up to the character. You’ll develop a sense of apathy, going through the motions of watching but not really invested in it at all. Her constant clumsiness, meant to endear her to the viewer, comes off as pointless, especially since as an android, there’s little excuse for such accidents.
The limited lifespan of an android is akin to death, the only difference is that they die faster than humans. There’s not much special in the way the anime approaches this topic, so you can swap the androids for a normal human (or someone with terminal illness etc) and nothing would have been lost. While it is used as an excuse for some side events, it never truly explores this concept of limited time in this specific context.
Towards the end, you will wonder when are they going to start really immersing the viewer into Tsukasa and Isla’s predicament. The answer is that they never do, at least not on a deeper level. As it is, the last episode is where it somewhat shines through and shows its potential at reflecting what someone would do when they know it is their last day. The feeling of having fun the last day but also knowing that it’ll end all too quickly, it is an indescribable feeling. At least the anime does not try and sugar-coat things to achieve an idealistic ending, although it’s not as sad as it could be.
Overall Plastic Memories squanders the potential of its concept. It could have gone hard with a sad and touching story by getting the viewer to truly invest in the relationship between a human and an android with a short limited lifespan. Instead, it spends a bit too much time on the worldbuilding and then rushes through the romance portion so that it we never become too emotionally attached. It’s not a bad anime, but there leaves a lot to be desired and it never hits you hard.
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