Spring Anime 2015 Review: Should You Watch 'Plastic Memories'?

By Nathalie Medina Published 06/09/15 EDT

Spring anime season 2015 is almost over, and one anime we haven’t covered yet is Plastic Memories, from creator Naotaka Hayashi, the man behind Steins;Gate. Unfortunately, Plastic Memories wastes an intriguing and high-concept sci-fi premise on trope after trope. From the characters to the main thrust of the plot, Plastic Memories stands out as particularly and egregiously unmemorable, in large part due to the very interesting routes it could have gone, but didn’t.

Most new shows of the spring anime 2015 season are now well past the halfway mark. We’ve covered stand-outs like Ore Monogatari and The Heroic Legend of Arslan; we’ve covered the unexpectedly charming Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon and Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches; we’ve even given Food Wars an extended chance to make a good impression (you’re on notice, but my fingers are crossed, Food Wars).

This is why now, at episode 10, we can safely determine that Plastic Memories will not suddenly turn around, dive into its intriguing sci-fi roots, and suddenly give us an anime worth watching. Plastic Memories, for better or for worse, has chosen its route, and that route is A Walk To Remember but with robots. Here’s why Plastic Memories misses its mark.

The concept of a “Giftia” is leveraged for shallow emotional affect rather than explored for more profound emotional impact, or even basic worldbuilding sense.

A “Giftia” is a robot with a soul. Giftias have personalities and memories; they’re robots that can learn, live, and love just like humans can. The catch: after about nine years of service, Giftias break down rapidly. There’s only about a week of time between the beginning of their senescence and a dangerous and brutal end. Giftias who are not properly retrieved before their timer runs out and their personality dissolves become violent, empty machines with immense destructive power. Giftias fill the role of beloved child, foster caregiver, lover, parent, sibling -- any role that a human could do, Giftias can also do.

Here’s a list of questions Plastic Memories does not answer about Giftias:

When and why did they become prevalent?
What is the market competition?
Is the 9-year timer a bug or a feature?
Were Giftias intentionally designed to break down in that abrupt and brutal way?
What were the intentions behind the design of Giftias?
Are there ongoing efforts to develop Giftia back-ups? If not, why not?
Are there Giftia rights movements?
Are Giftias legal chattel?
Are Giftias programmed to be docile and not question their lot?
Can Giftias commit crimes? Are they legally responsible for crimes they commit, or are their owners held responsible?
Are Giftias sold to just anyone? (We see a Giftia sold to a mob boss. Was that a second-hand Giftia?)
What kind of masochist brings a sentient creature into their life that is not expected, but guaranteed to die in 9 years?
What market need do Giftias fill?

This list took me five minutes to compose off the top of my head. They're not deep questions. It blows my mind to think that Plastic Memories had such a rich potential for a world and just ignored it in favor of tired Evangelion references and the most unfunny comedy sequences this side of Larry the Cable Guy’s whole routine.

All the characters are weak.

Misato Kisaragi, uhhh, I mean, Kazuki Kuwanomi. She drinks a lot and functions as the plot requires her to, not as internal consistency might dictate. She loves Isla when she needs to in order to present a romantic roadblock, and the same goes for her protecting Isla, ignoring Isla, or outright splitting Isla and her partner up. Why does she do any of the things she do? It’s ten episodes in and we still don’t know.
Ryoji Kaji, uhh, I mean, Yasutaka Hanada. He is a slacker? Cool!
Rei Ayanami, uhh, I mean, Isla. She never smiles. She speaks in a monotone. She is a robot. But Rei Ayanami can actually pilot robots, whereas Isla conveniently can’t do anything, because she’s dyyyyiiiiiiing. We’re told she implemented Terminal Service No. 1’s humane approach to Giftia retrieval without ever seeing her show a shred of skill at the job, or at literally anything besides fetching tea.
Asuka Langley, uhh, I mean, Michiru Kinushima. She’s so tsundere! She’s into Tsukasa but like, she can’t let him know, so she’s mean to him all the time, but there’s a tragedy in her past that he doesn’t know about. Tsun tsun!
Tsukasa Mizukagi, the main character, doesn’t riff off of anyone from Evangelion, because he’s so one-note that there’s no one from Evangelion for him to be a homage to.

The unbelievably tired plot Plastic Memories has chosen to plod through isn’t given even a scrap of life by interesting characters or a twist in premise.

Replace being a robot with leukemia or cancer or consumption or tuberculosis or whatever, and you could set the main plot of Plastic Memories in any place or time period with literally anyone. You could replace the main characters with a mop and a broom and not lose an iota of the incredibly basic plot. Isla and Tsukasa are so unbelievably generic that any comedic scenes with them flop because there’s no unique and novel idiosyncrasies to take advantage of and generate real humor with.

Like, you’re going to take a premise that raises a lot of really interesting questions, completely ignore all of those questions and do an incredibly lame rom-com instead? Of all choices Plastic Memories could have made, that’s the barrel it chose to scrape? Literally why?

Plastic Memories is unquestionably at its strongest when exploring the ways in which Giftias interact with people and society. The different retrieval scenes, showcasing the different ways humanity has made use of the Giftias, are sincerely affecting. The underground Giftia retrieval market is a really juicy world tidbit. The breakdown of Giftias and how those left behind cope with their choices and the aftermath is absolutely worth exploring.

But instead, Plastic Memories is wasting all of its time on lame rom-com shenanigans, and the way its pacing is set up, it’ll end with Isla’s retrieval without exploring its aftermath at all, when its aftermath is by far the most interesting thing Isla will have contributed on-screen to the story.