Watched the first episode since a number of EPers seem to be interested in it.
I'm guessing the rest of the show will be a bit different from the first episode, mainly because I can't see the same formula being repeated every episode. It might follow a structure similar to Shigofumi - a bunch of stories whilst the main underlying plot develops, but I suspect the stories will span multiple episodes.
The length of 9 years is somewhat curious. It's long enough to grow quite fond of something, as well as largely ignore the impending expiration, but perhaps not long enough to push it into the realms of "lifelong friend". It's also long enough for technology to significantly change... but let's ignore that for now.
There's definitely some metaphorical connection between "retrieval" and the concept of death, but tweaked in some ways:
- known lifespan is quite exact
- life degradation seems minimal; with a typical living being, you notice the effects of aging. Whilst it's said that the bots most likely experienced some memory issues, there seems to be minimal signs of aging. It's probably easier to accept someone who died of old age, as opposed to a perfectly healthy person dying in a car crash
- though the way Isla acts may be suggestive of development of faults?
- someone comes and, essentially, kills the bot, as opposed to the bot dying on its own, or through any fault of its own
- the owner must explicitly allow the "killing" - i.e. makes them feel like they actually have a responsibility for the death of their bot
Could potentially be more devastating than the death of a friend, in a way.
It's interesting that they clearly went to a lot of effort to emulate human behaviour - down to a similar digestive system which requires toilet trips. More common predictions don't emulate less desirable aspects of humans (such as bothersome emotions), but I suppose, they're often shown as clearly different to humans. Plastic Memories tries hard to blur the line between bot and human (bots are basically humans the lifespan caveat).
Unfortunately, having a computer background makes one wonder about the technicalities, like...
- why can't the data just be backed up?
- couldn't they just have an in-built timer which causes the bot to fail at the predestined time?
- seems a lot easier than this whole retrieval process...
- hey, I'm sure Intel would be really happy if they could just make your CPU just die after X years of use. Aww, your CPU died? Here's a shiny new one for $300, and will last you another 3 years!
- speaking of business, what would happen if the company went bankrupt?
- or wouldn't just sticking a clause in the EULA be so much more convenient?
- I suppose this could be a large company, considering that they seem to have a monopoly on robot production, and they evidently had the capability to mass produce them. In which case, a small team (whose budget is constantly being cut) of retrievers are probably cheaper than legal costs of enforcing a contract?
I also suppose speculating on this point is rather pointless and leads no where, and is just making banter out of an unimportant detail, but I like the look of my own writing.
Of course, it's entirely possible that these aren't digital at all - more like artificial beings, , which could explain a number of limitations.
As for personal enjoyment, it could go either way at this stage. The 'it feels somewhat too contrived' feeling at the moment is a bit disturbing, but if they can make me ignore it, it could get interesting.
![[Image: 23r5unc.jpg]](http://i59.tinypic.com/23r5unc.jpg)
