Let this first sentence be a warning that there will be
SPOILERS in this post. It's a last episode review, containing thoughts about what I think of the way they directed the ending. So let's get started shall we?
 |
| Damn You Tsukasa! |
The last 3 episodes pretty much showed us the memories Tsukasa and Isla are making together, and how they're having the most fun before the retrieval. Episode 11 and 12's endings showed us that they love each other truly, and feel pain for having to succumb to fate and be separated when the time comes.
First thing to say about the last episode: KINSHIP BATH SCENE? TSUKASA YOU LUCKY ****** nah just kidding (yahright) anything to see the two be happy. Kazuki dismisses Isla and Tsukasa on the morning of their last day of work as to make their most out of their remaining time; so not surprisingly, they go to the amusement park.
They have fun during the day, while the audience enjoys the last pieces of moe-ness and kawaii Isla has to offer. There was a certain scene I like where as the sun starts to set and Isla set off to see something Tsukasa notices how his shadow is alone and realized that's how it would stay when Isla leaves. This puts an air of drama on the viewers just before they begin the last half of the episode.
And the last half is when their final scene together comes.
With the amusement park closing and Isla's deadline looming before them, Isla invites Tsukasa to ride the Ferris Wheel last. The scene was very very quiet and peaceful: only Tsukasa and Isla's voices and a hum of the Ferris Wheel's movement can be heard. Tsukasa was visibly sad since the "alone shadow" scene, and for the first few minutes Isla talks about her thoughts about Tsukasa's future, like probably still working for Terminal Service, it being shut down to cut costs, and ending in this:
Tsukasa cringes, and Isla apologizes to Tsukasa. She then invites Tsukasa to do a simple game; she tells Tsukasa something she loves about him, Tsukasa tells what she loves about her, and they do it alternating until Isla says, " The way you hold back your tears despite your pain, and try so hard to smile" and "the way that smile is so wonderful" where she drops the bomb.
...
"Tsukasa, I had a good life."
...
"Hey, Tsukasa, I was so very happy"
"And now it's almost time for this dream to end."
...
"This is where I want it to end. Before the Ferris wheel goes all the way round"
Tsukasa starts to shed tears. Isla notes that this is the first time she's seen him cry, making even us viewers realize the pain Tsukasa's holding every second until they part ways. Isla wipes away his tears. She thanks Tsukasa for crying for her. Signifying that he loves her truly from the bottom of his heart, and that it pains him so much to see her leave. She pinches Tsukasa's cheeks and turn his lips into a smile. The smile of the person she has always cherished. She smiles back. Tsukasa, having felt how Isla was really happy to have lived this life, smiled too.
The Giftia Retrieval Process starts.
I love how the retrieval involves a ring that both the Retriever and the Giftia wears. The anime displayed it since episode 1 when Isla and Tsukasa first retrieve a Giftia, and it's been forever a set up for Tsukasa and Isla's final scene to look like a marriage. A wedding may be the happiest moment for a couple, but for them it's the saddest; nonetheless marriage symbolizes a love eternal, everlasting.
They hold hands and share a first and final kiss.
Kazuki was waiting outside to receive them, grieving the only word to describe her, as Tsukasa carries Isla towards her. She tells him that Isla looks so peaceful, and that he did a good job. Tsukasa, although trying hard to remain smiling, breaks down in tears. A letter she leaves to everyone thanks them for being such wonderful, kindhearted people she had made memories with.
I'm not really a fan of dying heroines anime, but some of those anime just turn out to be so good: Angel Beats and AnoHana to mention. Others, not so good: Guilty Crown, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, RosarioxVampire. I think it's in the way you handle the heroine's ending and a set epilogue to see how the hero ends up after losing his loved one. In this case, Plastic Memories ends with an epilogue where after 8/9 months of training, he comes back to work at Terminal Service. He is introduced to a new partner who appear to have the legs of someone short, and the hands smaller than Tsukasa's, implying that it could be Isla's Giftia model. The epilogue lets you, the viewer, decide on what the ending should be: If you think Tsukasa and Isla being reunited although already with lost memories would make them both happier, then its Isla. But if you think Tsukasa would only get hurt every single work day if his partner is a reformatted Isla with no recollection of him, then it's another character, someone who's not Isla, so he can move on and be happy with only his memories of her.
Overall, the anime played the series perfectly: reading some opinions of other bloggers here and there, some people said that the other Giftias weren't given a story and development and would therefore eliminate the need for them to be Giftias. I say making a Giftia-producing company that doesn't use Giftias to aid employees doesn't seem sensible, so it's just about the setting. Another opinion would be that Plastic Memories is almost a pure Romance story where it focuses on the emotions of the 2 main characters: any character development between the side characters would not only deviate the story from its genre, but would also make the anime unnecessarily lengthy and confusing. The anime already gave Michiru enough side story related to the plot to justify Tsukasa not running away with Isla.
After watching some shonen-action anime for quite sometime now, I just realized I do like the Romance genre most. And if you do too or even if you're not, Plastic Memories is still a must watch.
It's well directed, perfectly balanced drama and romantic sides make it such a good anime.
Comments are very much appreciated :)
Goodbye, Isla, and I hope one day you'll be reunited with Tsukasa :)
A very important factor in Action genre anime is, of course, the Action. Well animated fight scenes can instantly draw people to like an anime (unlike fight scenes where shounen MCs just hack and slash through monsters), and the first fight scene shown in the pilot episode KICKED ASS. The camera angles were so dynamic it felt like you were standing in the middle of the fight, amidst the beautiful chaos, I hope the anime continues to provide such thrilling action to the rest of the series.
