Sleepy Impressions: Plastic Memories
Plastic Memories is a little uncommon in that it actually started out as an anime. It didn't get a manga, visual novel, light novel, or video game before becoming anime. It just popped up suddenly as an anime with no background.
It takes place in the future when a company named SAI Corp develops realistic androids. These androids can only retain their memories for a little over 9 years, and then they begin to malfunction. In order to prevent harm from the androids breaking, SAI Terminal Service must delete all of these memories. However, 9 years is a long time, and the user can easily become attached to such human-like personalities.
I was a bit late watching this. I had already heard lots of people talking about it, and it got me a bit excited for what I was in store to see. Well, it wasn't a disappointment. I was really surprised that this story hadn't been previously written as something like a visual novel. It seems like there was a lot of thought put into the setting.
I can already guess what will become of the story from the foreshadowing in this episode, and if I'm right, I'm really excited to see how it will unfold. At first, I thought it was going to be like a newer version of Chobits, with a human main character falling in love with an android, but after finishing the episode, I see that there's a lot more to it than that.
This is a sad story. I haven't seen any romance yet, though love was decared at the very beginning of the episode. In any case, I shed tears during the very first episode! That rarely happens for me. Usually you have to spend a long time building characters up for it to get that sad. I have a feeling this anime is going to pull a move like that, too.
Anyway, the artwork was beautiful. The characters are interesting; even the non-human characters have intriguing personalities. The main character is a bit bland, but that's pretty common. And, of course, the plot is really nice for people who like sad stories.
Overall, I'd say this was a good watch.
First Impressions: Above Average
