Plastic Memories

[pfarber]

Holly shit Japan, another solid Sci-Fi anime!!!

Giftias (play on the word gifts) are androids given to people to help them cope with a loss or tragedy. These are lifelike androids but have a small OS issues, after 9000 hours (roughly about 9 years) they 'break' and must be retrieved. This means that every bond that the person forms with the Giftia has to come to an end about 9 years later. So yeah.. there are some really good stories about how well people either cope with the 'retrieval' or fight it. Pretty good stuff.

On the plot side, Tsukasa Mizugaki is trying to get close to his Giftia partner Isla who has had some sort of a troubled past. Not sure what, but she has not fully recovered and does not trust people. Plus as an older model she realizes that her memories will be wiped as she is also 'retrieved' in the near future.

Its a 2015 series so every week a new episode comes out... I'm watching it on Crunchyroll. Good series, well animated, good plot. The only problem I see is that somehow Asuka (Michiru Kinushima) made it into the series... complete with her EVA ears. Come on Japan.. think of some new characters!

[pfarber]

On episode 7 (via Crunchyroll) and its only getting better! They had to talk out a Giftia that turned into a wanderer and it was an amazing episode. Plus #7 put a lot of backstory into the characters.

Watch this. Do it. Do it now!

[pfarber]

Episode 13 finally got subbed and I while the finale was good and gave the story a proper ending it really took the easy way out.

I'll admit that Isla took her impending 'shutdown' as one would expect an android to... business like and methodical. Proper goodbyes are said and the last day is spent doing things they liked.

I'll admit the the ferris wheel ride was a very good twist, especially when Isla said that she would never be getting off.. and seeing Tsukasa carrying her limp body really put the feels on.

I did notice that there were a lot of animation shortcuts in the final show... LOTS of stills and just talk... almost like the budget was up and they had to cut corners to make the ending look as it should.

All in all a good series, although I think the story really peaked between Ep 11 and 12... 13 was really just Isla getting turned off.

Make sure to watch after the credits.