(Yellow isn’t everyone’s favourite colour, but it’s a better fit for subtitles for those of us whose vision isn’t 20/20.) There is no English dub in Anime Limited’s Limited Edition – and I found the subtitles (white) difficult to read as they’re often set against a pale background. Sora Amamiya (Touka in Tokyo Ghoul) delivers a convincing portrayal of Isla, persuading us that she is not quite human and Yasuaki Takumi makes a likable, earnest Tsukasa, with Chinatsu Akasaki suitably volatile as tsundere redhead Chiharu. With another six episodes to go, it remains to be seen if Naotaka Hayashi and the creative team are able to supply satisfactory and believable answers within the parameters they’ve set up – or will the story remain a romantic drama playing at dressing up in the trappings of science fiction? We’ve been here before in anime, of course, especially with Chi and the other Persocoms in CLAMP’s Chobits (2000) which asks: can an android with artificial intelligence develop a will of its own? By the end of Episode 7, many questions have been raised about Giftias, what happens to them and their personalities/memories beyond their expiration date, not to mention the legal implications of their being party to their owners’ personal information (data breach!). Frequently switching straight to harem-style fan service hi-jinks after an emotional farewell scene might be director Yoshiyuki Fujiwara’s solution to diffusing dramatic tension but it often feels awkward and forced. Add in a tsundere red-haired female colleague who has secretly taken a liking to the newest recruit but can only express her feelings by constantly finding fault with him. Yet strip away the science fictional outer trappings from Plastic Memories and you find some familiar (and rather over-used) elements: ordinary but likable young man gets first job, is obliged to share lodgings with his female co-worker who just happens to be cute and pretty but also klutzy and unworldly. Given that the ‘original creator’ of this anime is by Naotaka Hayashi ( Steins Gate) we can be forgiven for expecting a storyline that challenges the viewer and asks some deep and disturbing questions about AI and humanity. Logic demands that we should at least understand that Souta is not being left to fend for himself at such a young age by the terminal service department – but no, all we see is a distraught child about to be separated from his only remaining ‘parent’, putting a totally different spin on the story. When Tsukasa and Isla are sent to bring back Marcia, to all intents and purposes the sole caretaker of an orphaned little boy called Souta, we are never told who is going to look after the child when Marcia is removed as the Giftia’s appointed time for retrieval approaches. The retrieval dealt with in Episodes 4 and 5 is a case in point. It’s one thing to drip-feed story-relevant facts as needed as the narrative progresses (and avoid clunky info-dumps), it’s another to withhold them and only reveal them when the plot can’t advance any further without hitting a wall. He also learns of the importance of recovering the Giftias before their expiry time is up – and what can go wrong if they evade retrieval.īy immersing the audience (and the somewhat oblivious Tsukasa) into the world of the Giftias straight away, Plastic Memories is not playing entirely fair with our expectations. He learns (the hard way) of the difficulties of his new job, of Isla’s original human partner and a disastrous mission that went wrong, leading to their break-up and Isla being put onto tea-making duties at the office, and that there are Black Market crooks out there trying to get their hands on the Giftias by pretending to be the official retrieval service. Tsukasa is eager to learn but is treated like the rookie he is by the team – and is overcome with embarrassment when he finds himself obliged to share accommodation with his Giftia partner (he’s only eighteen, after all). Tsukasa is partnered with reserved, lilac-haired Giftia Isla, and off they go on their first retrieval mission together. When young Tsukasa Mizugaki joins the SAI Corporation, he finds himself assigned to the terminal service department and joins the team working to recover the Giftias who are reaching their expiration date. Unfortunately, their lifespan is only 81,920 hours (roughly ‘nine years and four months’). In the not-too distant future, androids with personalities called ‘Giftias’ have become part of everyday life, acting as care-givers and companions. “…a story of meetings and partings.” (Naotaka Hayashi)
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