Plastic Memories

Episode 8

Oh no, the worst character in the show has her own episode! And it's trying to be dramatic! And most shockingly of all...it's not that bad! At least not compared to last week's vast expanse of nothing. I'll take bottom of the barrel comedy interspersed with stuff happening over episode 7, thank you very much. Plastic Memories is still past the point of ever being a good show, but at least it can be one that doesn't consistently waste my time.

We're also back to episodes having themes. In this case, what are the consequences of Giftias being reused? As a result, humans keep running into the bodies of people they've known, imbued with new personalities and identities. Sometimes they have trouble letting go. Worst Character in the Show Eru Miru seems like one of these people. Her ex-girlfriend was a Giftia named Olivia. (Alright, the show never outright states that they were dating, but Eru is way too fixated on that girl's boobs for it to have been platonic.) Several years later, Olivia's body is inhabited by a person named Andie. When Eru runs into her, she begins reminiscing about her old flame and strikes up a friendship with Andie.

This episode is preoccupied with the question "Can Giftia bodies regain their previous inhabitants' memories after they've been erased?" Technology-wise, the answer is a solid no. When Giftias are retrieved, they strip out their interior hardware to replace it with the newest model. Still, hope springs eternal. Eru wants Olivia to show up in Andie, but she knows that won't happen, so she has to be careful about how she treats the girl. They have a good time, and Eru manages to keep her memories of Olivia separate from Andie. (Now if only Eru hadn't shoved her face into Andie's boobs the moment they met…) However, the most powerful scene is the episode's opening. Tsukasa and Isla retrieve a Giftia from an old woman who wants her Giftia's personality replaced. She's done this multiple times with the same body, treating each like the same person. It's a fascinating, terrible application for Giftias in society. I wish that Plastic Memories were more preoccupied with its high-concept science fiction premise than being a romcom, but at this point I'll take what I can get. Maybe a better show will come along to actually explore these ideas.

Even the romance was well done this week! Tsukasa and Isla tag along when Andie and Olivia go to a festival, and they have a moment. Isla's impending death has hung over their relationship like a dead fish, and it's finally become too much to bear. She has a panic attack and runs off in the middle of the festival. Tsukasa spends the rest of the evening looking for her, eventually finding her watching the ocean alone. Tsukasa confesses his love to her, stating that he wants to be with her forever. Implicitly, he wants them to savor the time they have left together. Isla, however, just panics and clams up. It's smart to make this about Isla's feelings rather than Tsukasa's – she's the one who's dying, after all. It looks like the rest of the series will be about overcoming her reticence toward being with Tsukasa when they have so little time left. It turns out that after all of the mistakes Plastic Memories has made in getting them together, I still have some affection for these two crazy kids. I just hope that they don't have Isla's memories return post-retrieval due to the POWER OF LOVE. That'd be the nail in the coffin.

Grade: B+

Plastic Memories is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.