JUST A WARNING- this post will talk about a topic I realize is sensitive to many- Alzheimer’s Disease.  I try to remain academic about it all, but if you think it may be distasteful, feel free to skip the post.
If you guys have read my post on five of the most emotional anime out there, you’ll know a little bit about the world of Plastic Memories.  If you’d like to take a gander at that list, there’ll be a link right here, but if you’d just like a refresher on the whole thing, then here you go.  Plastic Memories takes place in a futuristic world which is for the most part, peaceful.  Technology has advanced to the point where one company, SAI Corp, has been able to create Giftia, androids that supposedly have “a synthetic soul.”  They have verbal tics, distinguishable personalities, the ability to learn, and perhaps most significantly, the ability to feel, but there’s a catch.  After 81,920 hours, or about nine years and four months, they suffer from “personality disintegration, memory loss and outbreaks of violence,” resulting in the need for Terminal Service, a group that retrieves old Giftia from their owners, and wipes their memories.

With such a system, numerous questions arise as a result, confronted throughout the story, and several very real comparisons can be made to real life.  The three symptoms talked about in Plastic Memories reminded me of a very real diagnosis- Alzheimer’s Disease.  With some research, some interesting parallels were revealed, putting the approach of the Terminal Service into perspective, and revealing a rather .  It was all extremely interesting, and I’d like to share what I’ve found.

There will be some relatively big spoilers for Plastic Memories, but it won’t be drastic enough to take away from a blind watcher of the series.  If you happen to read this without watching the anime, trust me, it’s a great, thought-provoking, and emotional series that simple plot details won’t do justice.  Give it a shot!    With all that out of the way, let’s get to it!

Continue reading “Plastic Memories: Giftia Lifespans and Alzheimer’s Disease” →