(L+CR) Plastic Memories

[Marcus H.]

Honda handled the thing about a potentially lethal problem in their products better than those who created these Giftias.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...cord/25016685/

[mangatron]

Well, at least one thing is for sure, I love those lethal legs

[Mubyoshi]

I like my android anime like Eve no Jikan and Chobits etc., but this one is getting to be a bit stupid.

[Haruyasha]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

Honda handled the thing about a potentially lethal problem in their products better than those who created these Giftias.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...cord/25016685/

People don't exactly have sentimental attachments to cars... and the article... terrible, I really hope that Takada company doesn't exist anymore.

[rladls2121]

I rewatched the episode.

Is it right to think Giftias as humans and wrong to treat them as tools?
I guess that is the question.
But then again it is just too out of place.
Even though memories with them is real, but the heart too?
This is like treating a tool as more than just a tool like it obviously should?
As for the people who don't, still have to treat Giftas as human because other does?
Michiru, she thinks of her father as her father, not Giftia.
And dislikes R Security because what they did and how they treated Giftias as mere objects.
I mean just dislikes them for being that way, i'm not sure if she thinks that is wrong though.
Even though she refused to let her Giftias to be retrieved.
I don't know why, but I'm really curious how this upcoming episodes carries on.

Limiters, limiters, and limiters.
Why?
I'm thinking if there are Gifitas turned into Wanderers even way before the expire date.
To simply put, some people might take advantage of this kind of features and might throw the whole country into chaos by releasing all Wanderers all over while the culpit takes what he/she wants during the confusion and flee.

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by zeando

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

Well, who knows what will happens in the future?

They (and us) may involved in a traffic accident, attacked by stranger, etc.
Giftia having super-strength would help if those worst case scenario happens.

As for super-strength on normal usage, I can see Giftia helping its owner carrying stuff when the owner decided on moving to new resident.

[Draco Spirit]

Thing with the Giftia, is there very clearly self aware. Can you really call something a tool when it could have a good debate with you about the nature of reality? Gifitia don't just have logic, they have feeling and deep thought going off in there heads.

[abc0716]

http://www.afachan.asia/2015/05/plas...s-in-singapore

I only went the first 2 places (nearby Hong Lim Complex & Chinatown MRT station) they mentioned before, but still somehow found this is quite a fun article to read.

[Draco Spirit]

Makes me wonder if someone in the art side of the company enjoyed a trip there.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Draco Spirit

Thing with the Giftia, is there very clearly self aware. Can you really call something a tool when it could have a good debate with you about the nature of reality? Gifitia don't just have logic, they have feeling and deep thought going off in there heads.

Yeah, but if humans had a best-use-by date, after which they became PCPed-up berserkers, not retrieving them before that happens would be completely irresponsible.

[Arya]

Originally Posted by Esclair

Spoiler for space:

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.

I quite agree on your whole post. And I completely missed that particular reference, probably due to NGE predominant ones


And about that, yeah, now I can easily see those interviews you are speaking of ...

Spoiler for interviews:

Michiru: Come in. Sit down.
Giftia: Care if I talk? I'm kind of nervous when I take tests.
Michiru: Just please don't move.
[...]
Michiru: Describe in single words, only the good things that come in to your mind about... your mother.
Giftia: My mother?
Michiru: Yeah.
Giftia: Let me tell you about my mother...

I also now got why Giftias have limited lifespan, that's because

Spoiler for explanation:

Michiru: The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very very brightly, Marcia. Look at you. You're gourgeous. You're quite a prize!
Marcia: I've done questionable things.
Michiru: Also extraordinary things. Revel in your time!
Marcia: Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let us in heaven for. [Marcia and Michiru kiss each other and start stripping while in the background Love Songs' saxophone kicks in]

[Esclair]

Originally Posted by Arya

I quite agree on your whole post. And I completely missed that particular reference, probably due to NGE predominant ones


And about that, yeah, now I can easily see those interviews you are speaking of ...

Spoiler for interviews:

Michiru: Come in. Sit down.
Giftia: Care if I talk? I'm kind of nervous when I take tests.
Michiru: Just please don't move.
[...]
Michiru: Describe in single words, only the good things that come in to your mind about... your mother.
Giftia: My mother?
Michiru: Yeah.
Giftia: Let me tell you about my mother...

I also now got why Giftias have limited lifespan, that's because

Spoiler for explanation:

Michiru: The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very very brightly, Marcia. Look at you. You're gourgeous. You're quite a prize!
Marcia: I've done questionable things.
Michiru: Also extraordinary things. Revel in your time!
Marcia: Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let us in heaven for. [Marcia and Michiru kiss each other and start stripping while in the background Love Songs' saxophone kicks in]

Those would have been some nice homages.

[MartianMage]

Watched the latest episode... all I have to say is that the current story is incredibly contrived. <_<

[Mangonel]

Originally Posted by the one above all

Was not expecting that tragic turn on events. I knew the Black market guys would cause trouble but I was not things to go like that.

I do not know what was up with that last scene though.

Its a grid with names and white or red magnetic dots next to the names. In the zoom in Zack and Tsukasa are shown with white dots and Isla has no dot. Before it zooms in someone has a red dot with what I'm assuming is a description of what they're up to. My guess is white dot = in office and red dot = out and about with no dot = absent/on leave. Lack of a white dot could also mean shes off duty again.

The scene where Tsukasa shoots was very cliffhanger-y as to whether or not he hits Isla with the eraser-gun. I suspect Isla is injured emotionally/physically and hopefully we'll finally get some proper exposition on her past next ep.

Edit: To all those complaining about the plot being 'contrived' its a work of fiction so some contrivances are necessary to make for an interesting story. Random goings-on with no purpose are slice of life, this is not that genre. The only things that sticks out is Souta's presence and the eraser gun having to fire a visible/tangible projectile (the latter is easily forgiven this is a visual medium and using a shut-down remote is not visually interesting). The rest has been foreshadowed to some degree at least one episode in advance. Black market guys/Giftia-shelf life/Isla-Michiru-Kazuki having some unfortunate history/Tsukasa being soft. If the pacing is making things feel contrived thats just the nature of the anime beast.

[Esclair]

Originally Posted by Mangonel

Edit: To all those complaining about the plot being 'contrived' its a work of fiction so some contrivances are necessary to make for an interesting story. Random goings-on with no purpose are slice of life, this is not that genre. The only things that sticks out is Souta's presence and the eraser gun having to fire a visible/tangible projectile (the latter is easily forgiven this is a visual medium and using a shut-down remote is not visually interesting). The rest has been foreshadowed to some degree at least one episode in advance. Black market guys/Giftia-shelf life/Isla-Michiru-Kazuki having some unfortunate history/Tsukasa being soft. If the pacing is making things feel contrived thats just the nature of the anime beast.

Contrivances don't make an interesting story. Contrivances detract from an interesting story. If a story needs contrivances to set up plot points the payoff would need to be significant for the audience to keep up their of suspension of belief. For a lot of people, episode 5's payoff was not.

A contrivance that did work was the initial setup of the 10 year limit. It was pretty ridiculous and not really grounded in anything but most people accepted it in return for a potentially good allegory about dealing with the loss of loved ones.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Mangonel

To all those complaining about the plot being 'contrived' its a work of fiction so some contrivances are necessary to make for an interesting story.

Not at all. You don't need any contrivance to make an interesting story. Contrivances are usually a result of lazy writing: not putting enough thought into your setting, not doing a proper research of the topics and themes you writing about, that kinda thing.

[HandofFate]

And even if a work of fiction does want to throw some contrivances into it, they're usually much better at masking it.

[Marcus H.]

I was personally expecting the story to be Key levels of drama from the initial concept and the choice of studio. (From Gekkan Shoujo and D-Frag, I expect Dogakobo to have some kind of preference over bright palettes.) Instead, we get this shit about berserking robots. Can't they just dwell over a simpler concept?

[Psyco Diver]

I like the fact their finally trying to inject some back story but I dunno, this series just isn't getting me. Its a shame it looks good animation and sound wise, the story is good on paper which is why I started watching it but I dunno maybe I expected to much?

[mergele]

So far I'd recommend to watch the first two episodes and then stop. It began really strong, but whenever they try to put in some backstory and fill the world it makes it worse.
The things I could remember spontaneously that made no sense to me in the last episode:

Spoiler for Things that made no sense in the last episode:

So these black market retrievers are retrieving Giftias shortly before their expireing date and then can't deal with a Wanderer?
A private security company, carrying real guns in public and sealing off an entire district? Ok, if you are going for the corporate controled future maybe, but still odd.
You want to retrieve Marcia before the RSec guys can because why again? They will kill her. You will... turn her off? Diffrence?
Why is Tho.. Sho.. the male main character so shocked about a gun that kills Giftias, he's been perfectly fine with Isla killing some of them and stood right beside her!
Since we are talking about that gun: It shoots something and it destroys Giftias like a virus, so I assume via software, but it fires a projectile so ...... WHAT THE FUCK? EMP fine. Electric bolt for overcharging them also fine. Some signal to activate self-destruct alright. But this is bolluks.
To the flashback: She said she would retrieve the dad and he turned into a wanderer like 10 secs later, there wasn't a Terminal Service Giftia around by that time, so what exactly would she have done diffrent? Btw. her goal was to kill him in the first place anyway, so whats the point?
And back to that sealed off area, how the heck did the kid get in?
Then in the end when MC wanted Marcia to grab his hand. Again with what goal? Her memorys would still keep vanishing, she may decide to take your hand now, but next second she might forget why she made that decision and break your arm. And how far was the next of these retrieval cars? Even if it was right outside the building it would be a long way there, especially since Isla couldn't walk on her own.

Sorry for the unorganized structure.
I have no fundamental problem with fiction, unexplained rule sets and coincidences, but all of these were really really bad.