STORY: 2.5/10
From my perspective, Plastic Memories had devastatingly atrocious writing. It had multiple pointless conventions which were supposed to build emotion, and these sections have failed miserably. First of all, I don't quite get the build up. It felt like it was lacking, but nevertheless it still contained multiple points of experience for the cast. The pacing in the first half was mediocre, and then when found out about Isla's lifespan, it slowed down to the speed of a dying snail. I figured they were trying to show that Isla had only a short amount of time left, but instead the time she spent with Tsukasa seemed to drag on forever. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who expected Isla's sad truth the moment she appeared. The only thing that held on was the interesting story which played out in a futuristic setting. I wavered over the wonderful idea of how AI's acted very much like humans.
ANIMATION & ART: 7.5/10
Despite it's downfalls in the story, the animation was surprisingly clean, and the visuals were stunning. The designs and style were nothing special, but I found the art to be quite an eyeful. Advanced technology seems difficult to draw/animate, and there was enough variation in the character designs to differentiate them. I understand that it is incredibly complicated to animate, so it is impossible for me to rate this any lower.
CHARACTERS: 2.5/10
I really DESPISE how shallow the characters can be. For instance, that tsundere girl is acting all 'cold' one moment, and the next she's crying her eyes out. If you simply think about it, it may not be such a big deal. However, I couldn't stand the transition between these two emotions. It felt extremely wrong to a great extent. I can't properly put it into words, but these characters just feel so....... shallow. It's as if they do not have their own personality that they can stick to. They were written to feel sad about the current situation, or to look kind just for the sake of creating emotion. But in the end, these goals were not reached. I cringed. A lot. Not to mention the awful character development, which was barely even there. Even in the final moments of the very last episode, nothing has changed at all. The characters have only changed so little, the relationships between them remain unfazed, and everything about them just feels so empty. To sum it up, the characters are pure garbage, made only to suit the writer's desires to create an emotional story that ended up flopping. Yikes.
SOUND: 7.5/10
Let's talk about voice acting. It's just the usual voices, nothing unique. None of their words resonated within me as they were said so bluntly. I found the MC's voice to be tremendously irritating. Moving on, I shall share with you my thoughts on the music. More than half of the time, I skipped the OP. It was very offbeat, and the pitches were strangely out of place. Not the least bit catchy at all. I would only listen to the first 5 seconds of it. That's all I can bear. The chorus sounded like the horrid noise of a dying whale.
ENJOYMENT: 2.5/10
Absolutely boring. I almost fell asleep at every second of it. No exciting moments, no interesting twists. Everything was expected, and felt exceedingly artificial. A monotonous story, dull characters... Could this get any worse? I thought. Of course it did. Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing a negative review about it.
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