Let’s just take a good step back for a minute and give this anime a once over.

Here’s my review.

Week 11 of Plastic Memories and I’m not emotionally invested in this anime anymore. Yes I can now officially say that. What I wanted from this anime and what happened are polar opposites and at this point there is no more hope of them ever meeting again. I tried being positive while watching this week’s ep, I honestly did. I didn’t roll my eyes, spin in my seat and not pay attention to it, I watched from start to finish and tried to look for the good in it. But I can’t, not anymore.

The root of the problem for me lies in the very core of this anime. Isla is a robot (spoiler alert!!) and falling in love with a robot is… well it’s just not good, for many reasons actually. But this week it’s just cringy to watch at points and I wish they would’ve stuck with a plot and not deviated off and turned a promising feels anime into another romantic comedy/”drama” with a bunch of filler eps. Was this week’s ep a filler? Yes, very much so. We’re on ep 11 right now of a 13 ep anime, at this point in the game there isn’t time for fillers because the plot should be going full tilt. But there isn’t any plot so they’re only resort is to just have weekly filler eps until it ends. Is the “story” actually progressing? Not really. The big event of this ep was Isla and Tsukasa trying to cook a meal together that turned out being crap anyways. That’s not story, that never has been and that never will be.

Here’s the ep in one pic.

What I wanted from this anime was what they kept hinting at, giving us these details along the way then not following up on any of them. The Giftia, Wanderers, R. Security, Andie, SAI Corp as a whole, there is so much potential with Plastic Memories that it’s embarrassing as each week we’re pretty much watching a possible great story get totally wasted. “But wait, isn’t this slice of life stuff that you love, Nick?” True it could be if you look at it that way, but even so this isn’t a slice of life anime, this was suppose to be about a boy working with robots that rip apart memories. Yeah does that sound like what you signed up to watch? Well here we are in ep 11 and there hasn’t been much focus on that at all. We’ve been stuck with Tsukasa falling in love with a machine because it resembles a cute girl. Yeah when you spin it that way it doesn’t sound too fun.

And while on the topic of robots, just how much of a robot are the Giftia anyways? They eat, drink, bleed, use the washroom and pretty much don’t act like a robot at all. “But isn’t that the whole point?” You explain to me how they’re eating, drinking, bleeding and taking a piss and then I’ll back off from this point. I don’t even care about the whole memories thing that everyone is still hung up on. Yeah they’re probably not going to explain it at all but why are you still being salty over it? There are bigger issues with this anime than why can’t memories of a Giftia being saved/transferred into a new body. A key point I’m having trouble grasping is that you can’t build something with human emotions like the ability to love. You can’t put those emotions into a robot, so how exactly is Isla feeling love towards Tsukasa? Yeah this is anime and weirder shit has happened, but even if you turn off your brain to watch this anime, there are unavoidable questions that will pop up, this being one of them.

How?

I’ve reached the point where I can’t care about this anime anymore because it’s totally thrown that chance out the window and moved on. I’m actually not even sure why I’m still reviewing this one but I can’t see any reason why I should be back next week to review ep 12 and the following for ep 13. Maybe just to say that I completed it? To rant some more? I don’t know and I’ll leave that for another day to decide. Point being though is that Plastic Memories has lost everything it stood for and regardless of how sad it may be at the end, I’ve lost what emotional connection to this anime so at this point it’s now become just another 24 minutes of entertainment.

Calling it “entertainment” might even be pushing it too.

Was this a review? No. Why? Well that should be obvious by now. I’m disappointed with Plastic Memories and Doga Kobo as I really wanted something special from this anime. I put my faith in this studio that’s delivered some really great anime before and I was pretty sure this would be just as good if not better than their other shows, but no this turned into a huge letdown. Maybe I’m just becoming more and more cynical about anime these days, but whatever the case is Plastic Memories should’ve been something good as it had all the points of something special.

This actually worries me as the one and only anime I’m reviewing in the summer, Classroom☆Crisis, is yet another original anime and given the track record of original anime I’m starting to become very worried. While I’ve still got high hopes as it looks solid on paper, there is a little voice inside my head telling me not to get super excited for this as it might just let me down. I still hold true that ClariS doesn’t do music for anime that aren’t top tier. I mean they did songs for the Monogatari series, Madoka Magica and Oreimo, they’re a top group and I can’t seem them doing music for something that’s not a solid anime. But weird theories aside, I should probably end this now.

Are you still watching Plastic Memories? If so what are your thoughts on the latest ep and the anime as a whole? I’d love to hear some different opinions on this anime as some love it while others hate it.

Up next is the start of the thrilling final few eps of Knights of Sidonia: Battle for Planet Nine. Let me tell you, ep 10 was so awesome. The back half was absolutely pulse pounding. This might just have the strongest finish of all the spring anime. Be sure to stop by and check that review out. After that it’s back to the auditions in Hibike! Euphonium ep 11. Ooh what could possibly happen?

That’s it for me; bonus pic like always and my customary partings.

-Nick

Bonus Pic!

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