(L+CR) Plastic Memories

[rladls2121]

I thought at least those fake retrievers expected Giftias to go haywire, but.
I actually thought he put that into his advantage.

I rather dislike this kind of setting.
Giftias are not human and being still treated like any other fellow humans.
And in this episode, a family treated as a family like it should.
At the same time treated complete opposite.

But then this is beyond bad though.
There would be a case where Wanderers caused problems for lot of unrelated people, and then what?

Im not surprised if there are going to be some discrimination between Giftias and Humans in upcoming episode.

[Marcus H.]

I heard that the series went darker at this point. EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
They seriously don't have to do that. They officially killed their chances of getting high sales figures by trying to do that fun-to-grim progress of story like in Guilty Crown. Why, just why?
You know what's worse? Their manpower's primarily focused on this compared to Mikagura.

[dark998]

Well, that sure was an intense episode. Wanderer Gifitas are scary, like zombies with extra high speed and strength. And about the cliffhanger obviously Isla is fine and just under maintenance for the damage suffered during the battle. No reason for her to protect Marcia, if anything she ran to snatch Souta from her.

That's just wishful thinking, of course. If she was gone for good PM would get dropped on the spot.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Flower

Souta somehow turning up even though R Security had sealed the place off.

What do you mean? Kazuki got them all past the barrages.

[Key Board]

I don't think they're actually androids

I think they're something else that SAI corp found, and re-engineer/ re-purposed to become consumer products. I'm guessing SAI corp found an alien relic.

What happening here is their true self coming out and being very angry, and overwhelming their original programming

[Hypernova]

Now that the weather matches, time for the quote:
"All those… moments… will be lost in time, like... tears… in… rain. Time… to die…"

[Fizix]

Originally Posted by dark998

Well, that sure was an intense episode. Wanderer Gifitas are scary, like zombies with extra high speed and strength. And about the cliffhanger obviously Isla is fine and just under maintenance for the damage suffered during the battle. No reason for her to protect Marcia, if anything she ran to snatch Souta from her.

That's just wishful thinking, of course. If she was gone for good PM would get dropped on the spot.

Hmm... The diary... It might go 50 First Dates on our asses. But there is no Drew so I'd be dissappointed if it did.

Originally Posted by Key Board

I don't think they're actually androids

I think they're something else that SAI corp found, and re-engineer/ re-purposed to become consumer products. I'm guessing SAI corp found an alien relic.

What happening here is their true self coming out and being very angry, and overwhelming their original programming

That's an interesting thought, if you turn out to be right then its a very good call. I think something like that is possible now that you've said it.

[Dop]

So now we find out what happens when a Giftia is past its use-by date.
Although you do have to wonder why you'd build a household companion android with super-strength.

There's definitely something very 'off' about this whole technology, and the retrieval service is just a part of the cover-up trying to hide this from the public

[Fizix]

^ I'm taken by Key Boards comment. I've assumed Giftia to be at least mostly organic, at least close to humans. Some of the stuff we've seen shows them to be way closer to humans both emotionally and physically than I'd expect from an android.

I was already wondering just how close to humans they are and previously I assumed that they are essentially humans made in a lab with some kind of "architecture" built into them. It wouldn't surprise me if Key Boards has made a sharp prediction. It would actually answer a lot of the issues people are having with the show.

If so the question would be exactly what they are and why they are being used as they are.

[revive4563]

Actually I was watching this because author/scenario writer is Hayashi-san of Steins;Gate but...unfortunately the initial setting is terrible....
Android loses memory?...well, ok. And then, goes berserk? wait..wtf is that stupid technology? prolly this will become a dark history of Hayashi-san.
To begin with, heroine is not charming at all. Maybe this is biggest problem.

[HandofFate]

Everything including story events and characters is just so dialed in.
Other than kazuki, who seems to be the center of the actual character development stuff.

Can't even describe the traits of the MC if you asked me other than "useless newbie"

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by revive4563

Actually I was watching this because author/scenario writer is Hayashi-san of Steins;Gate but...unfortunately the initial setting is terrible....
Android loses memory?...well, ok. And then, goes berserk? wait..wtf is that stupid technology? prolly this will become a dark history of Hayashi-san.
To begin with, heroine is not charming at all. Maybe this is biggest problem.

Heroine's charm is subjective matters anyway ...

As for going berserk after memory loss, similar to dark 988 said, it reminds me of zombie in games and movies.
IMO, this case is similar; artificial soul expired but programs is still trying to fulfill orders hence the loss state followed by berserk because there's no artificial soul to control / translate the act properly.

I won't say the berserk state is completely a flaw.

Until now, we already saw how Giftia is kinda like technological achievement to provide a system that capable to express like human;
The berserk state happens after expiration is simply a trade-off for achieving that kind of technology, it wouldn't be a problem if all customers cooperate and retrieve their Giftia ASAP when it comes the expiration date. However with personal feelings involved after spending time with Giftia(s), surely it won't be an easy task.

Originally Posted by Dop

Although you do have to wonder why you'd build a household companion android with super-strength.

Why super-strength?

Well, if I bought an electronic device, I don't want the device easily broken.

[Wandering Soul]

Is it really neccesary for them to be able to lift cars and stuff though?

[Cloudedmind]

Originally Posted by the one above all

Is it really neccesary for them to be able to lift cars and stuff though?

Help save people in an emergency? Having them do manual labor that may be to strenuous or dangerous for a human, but still done better and faster by a humanoid type then a regular machine. Like Giftia working in coal mines or something.

So far we've only seen Giftia with individuals but I wouldn't be surprised if they also get employed in rescue and labor positions that would normally be very dangerous for a human to undertake.

[Spinell]

Originally Posted by the one above all

Is it really neccesary for them to be able to lift cars and stuff though?

Of course they need superstrength as much as they have no need for a GPS they can turn on and off themselves.

[Arya]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

What do you mean? Kazuki got them all past the barrages.

mmm, if I didn't miss any frames, no, he wasn't with them. And why he should have been taken along, an 8yo kid I mean. IIRC he was left at home (alone). So he got past the barrages, not before having located them first, all by himself. Very impressive for a kid
I agree that the episode wasn't bad, it was good, but these contrivances are a bit too much glaring, as much as a limping Isla and Tsukasa finding again Marcia before anyone else.
Considering Michiru's past similarities with the kid, I was expecting her to show up in the end. It would have made sense.

[zeando]

Originally Posted by Key Board

I don't think they're actually androids

I think they're something else that SAI corp found, and re-engineer/ re-purposed to become consumer products. I'm guessing SAI corp found an alien relic.

What happening here is their true self coming out and being very angry, and overwhelming their original programming

interesting speculation

Originally Posted by Cloudedmind

Help save people in an emergency? Having them do manual labor that may be to strenuous or dangerous for a human, but still done better and faster by a humanoid type then a regular machine. Like Giftia working in coal mines or something.

So far we've only seen Giftia with individuals but I wouldn't be surprised if they also get employed in rescue and labor positions that would normally be very dangerous for a human to undertake.

was guessing the same, but still, domestic giftias should not need the same force of labor ones

[ices]

I'll call it here first. What if the kid actually someone/something in disguise. Maybe it actually a giftia with shapesifting/disguise ability. Hence he could locate the place and intrude their pursuit.

[Esclair]

This writers of this show are way out of their leagues. They reference ideas put forth by shows like Blade Runner and other dystopia AI/Android sci-fi without really understanding the themes those shows explore. Basically, ie, they took the pop culture parts that look cool and incorporated into this show, without any of the depth.

I gave that a pass in episodes 1-4 because the show seemed to focus on being a comedy/drama centered around the themes of dealing with loved with inflicted with Alzheimer/terminal illness. In that regards the show is mainly an allegory so the believability of the setting is not as important. However, episode 5 pretty much relies on certain key aspects of the setting in order to bring forth conflict. Unfortunately by introducing new details the contrivances of the sci-fi becomes more apparent than ever.

Let's start with SAI Corp and the Giftia system. We know SAI corp rents out Giftias to serve as children, siblings, maybe even lovers. So far the story really hasn't told us explicitly why, but some inferences can be made that they're doing it for profit. However, how much profit can they be making by renting them out? Look at the people that own the Gifitias that we've seen so far. None of them seem like they're particularly rich. They look like they're in the middle class at most. How much money could SAI actually be charging them? The Giftias are pretty much military grade Androids. They'd make far more money by using them as PMCs or special operatives (Blade Runner seems to suggest this). Maybe a few would be going to the super rich as companions/childrens, but definitely not an everyday consumer product like the iphone.

Now, the argument could be made that Giftias are created for the social good. Ie, the government eats the cost in order to create companions to help people. However, nothing in the show suggests this. In fact, the opposite is shown in episode 4 where Section ONE is criticized for having high overhead because they do their things as opposed to every other section that just goes and yanks them. Everything that's shown about the SAI suggests they're doing this for a profit, the only people who might be doing something for the 'good' is shown to be Section One. It seems like the writers only put the bare minimum amount of thought in establishing the setting.

That brings us to Section ONE. Why does it even exist? They're severely under performing compared to every other section, and it doesn't seem like they follow the existing protocol at all. Until episode 5 the details of the situation wasn't as important. However, with the dangers of wanderers revealed in episode 5, it would be criminally negligent to allow Section One to continue to exist at all. You know why there haven't been many wanderer incidents? Because the other sections actually do their jobs to retrieve their Giftias. The previous wanderer incident was again, caused by the actions of Section One. It's shown that the CEO doesn't even care for his own son if he doesn't perform, so why is there an exception made for Section One when it entails so much risk? A few lines regarding what keeps Section One around at all would have been helpful to fill this plothole, but the writers can't even seem to manage that.

The writers seem to like to throw around buzzwords invoking other sci-fi on the topic. One of such is "human rights". It was brought up again this episode to make the protagonists look like they're on the moral side while making the r/security look bad. However, do the writers even know the implications of their own setting regarding this? I mean, if you break it down, Giftias are nothing more than pets or slaves. In the show they're created to fulfill the need of some client. They seem to automatically be a perfect fit and don't seem to have any notion of saying no. This really is no different than brainwashing. Do they even have their own will? Only Isla seems to be different. Not to mention they're bought and sold like commodities. Bringing up human rights as a talking point is a joke and makes me wonder if the writers even understand what they're writing about.

What's really frustrating is that just a slight reframing of the setting would make everything fit. I'd remove the 10 year limit on Giftias and tie their introduction as a government initiative to offset the declining population of Japan. The 'fake' human rights laws were fast tracked in order for Giftias to be publicly acceptable. The wandering syndrome should be a design flaw that plagues only a small percentage of Giftias, maybe something like 2%. However, the need for Giftias far outweighs the risk of a Wanderer going crazy, hence its considered an acceptable risk by the government. Of course that information is highly classified. I'd make it so that the wandering syndrome appears randomly, and can only be identified via routine checkups. The sections jobs would be changed to routine 'interviews' of Giftias that are out in the field to identify those that have the possibility of becoming wanderers and bringing them in for termination.

[HandofFate]

^Lots of text, but I agree.
They're trying to make some kind of commentary, but its all so lazy and dialed in, and with no ounce of creativity. So much that I can barely muster the effort to write how bad they're handling everything. So thanks for doing it for me.

The show could have gotten by with focusing on case studies each episode on a different pair and showing how different people take separation/loss. Since its taking back giftia, but you could also shape it in a way that "You never know how sudden someone you care about is taken away, so cherish who you have with the time you have with them" And even when they do decide to show this a bit, its all very generic problem/solutions and its wrapped up in 2-3minutes.

Instead, they're focusing on some corporate politics stuff. The main heroine is suppose to be on her last hours too..and we barely gotten any development on that other than "yea...she's on short time"

Should have struck with just a 1-2 episode OVA and call it done.