I have some mixed feelings about this season, in a way I don't feel for the previous ones. It struggles in ways that previous seasons haven't, but doesn't really offer an equal compromise. At it's heart, it is still Date A Live, but something feels missing.

There are mild spoilers but anything seriously specific is kept under spoiler tag.

Art

With regards to art, as long as you are a fan of the new style, I'd say the art is excellent. Characters are consistently on model with clean line art coughcoughseason3coughcough and generally every frame looks good.

I think what feels the most different is the colors and the lighting, a lot of shots are kind of simulating the effect of lighting on a camera lens but it makes the shot a bit more gray or washed out. I thought about this for a while and compared a lot of shots but it's really tough to say, there are a lot of shots where the color is as vibrant as previous seasons.

This season introduces the use of 3D CG for characters. If you stop the playback, you can tell they really did work hard on these models, they look basically as close as you can get to their 2D counterparts. But that doesn't mean you can't tell the difference when you see them and it's jarring in most shots. More on that in animation.

EDIT: Hello it is I, veritasnoai from the future. This comparison shot from season 5 demonstrates the problem perfectly.

There are two big changes here, line art and compositing. With the line art, Geek Toys is using a style that is more "modern" (the first anime I saw using this style was The Quintessential Quintuplets S2 but there are a few others as well). I'm personally not a huge fan of it, I prefer the rounder and more innocent depiction of the characters the original style has. This has some room for individual opinion so I'm giving it a very tentative pass.

What absolutely cannot receive a pass is this color grading. The image is incredibly washed out, to a point where it's actually harder to look at with the eyes. Look at this luminance histogram for both of these images

Above: A1C Luminance Below: Geek Toys Luminance

This is a bright scene, but A1C has a far more varied luminance across the image where as Geek Toys tends greatly towards bright. Which is even more apparent on the values graph.

Above: A1C Luminance Below: Geek Toys Luminance

As I suspected, most of the colors in Geek Toys' image are clipping in color space which is part of why it's so hard to look at. Whoever is doing compositing at Geek Toys has really poor taste or no idea what they are doing.

Animation

It feels like to me like we traded art and animation with season 3. Whereas season 3 had decent animation but iffy art, season 4 has decent art but iffy animation. A show like this does have a lot of standing around and talking, so I'm really talking about the fight scenes, which is when the show has a chance to visually show off. The fight scenes just don't feel very dynamic, they are usually very short (like the end of the Nia arc, which has a lot of standing around for a fight scene), and the longer ones are broken up by the character CGI, which is some of the worst I've seen in a while.

Episode 8 is probably the best example. You'll have fantastic, expressive shots like this

But the rest of the fight looks like this

The close combat looks like two action figures duking it out And has ridiculous posing like this, which makes no attempt to convey the same sense of weightlessness the 2D art does Mukuro dominates Tohka with the classic yet effective A-pose I think what sort of ends up happening is that the action feels broken up by the CG, rather than continued by it, and what would have been an otherwise engaging fight scene becomes an awkward spot-the-CG-model game. I do want to point out that because these models are pretty high quality, there are indeed shots where I think they are acceptable. In shots with many clones of a character or distant shots, I think the 3D models actually help retain more detail than what would have been there if it was drawn, and at a distance it is more difficult to spot them.

Story

DAL is one of those things that sounds like a disaster on paper but somehow comes together in execution. There's an amount of variety, from the romcom moments in scenes between Shido and other spirits, the general slice-of-life antics that come out as the ensemble cast plays off each other, the unique and fun designs of each spirit and their powers, and the fight scenes. Date A Live works because of all of this coming together and that mix is important. I think the root cause of the problem is the ambitious attempt to include 3 separate arcs in 12 episodes. Seasons 2 did 3 arcs, and Season 3 did 2 (not counting the final arc that was shoved into one episode) - it became necessary to slow down a bit because of how many characters were now in the cast. I can understand why they didn't do 2 arcs, Mukuro is a fun character but her arc would not be a terribly exciting send-off for the season. Unfortunately, this came at a real cost to the pacing. In order to get through all of the plot of the arcs, screen time for most of the returning cast is reduced. From what I understand from the LN readers, a lot of few short slice-of-life scenes are cut down. For example, apparently the sister of Ellen Mathers was supposed to have a more memorable introduction. But she isn't important right now, so she is skipped for time. This also subdues the development of the overarching plot. DEM's rise to power feels quite sudden, they feel like they largely fight the same, now with a pseudo-spirit instead of robots, but are suddenly too much for the spirits to handle. The first two arcs suffer the most from this, they rarely take a moment to breathe, and only for a short, reduced while when they do. Even though episode 5 "Fairy Tale" was an entire episode just devoted to the established cast, it still felt a bit rushed as it tried to get through each character's moment. With all this, I really felt like the soul of the show was missing in the first half. In the second half with third arc though, things starts to straighten out a bit. The pacing slows down, the slice-of-life antics become more frequent and longer, and the show feels more focused. The third arc also starts a bit of a mystery as the timeline we see starts to have these disconnected pieces and begins to investigate the central bits of lore left by earlier seasons. It is paid off nicely in the last episode, with a welcomed and quite serious increase in stakes.

Music

The OP just isn't the same kind of banger without Sweet ARMS but it's alright. I think what really made previous OPs so great was the involvement of the series' main composer, Gou Sakabe, just killing it with the orchestral arrangement. In general, Sakabe is an excellent composer and DAL continues to have a great score. There wasn't anything as uniquely memorable as S3's AHIH or S1's Seirei but the few new pieces here and there sound excellent.

Conclusion

I think something important to remember is that this season was supposed to air in Fall 2021, and was delayed two seasons to Spring 2022. A clear reason was never given, but it is troubling to see that even with extra time, this was the result. Given that this season already ends on a cliff hanger, it might have been possible to move the last episode into season 5, and end on what was originally 11. This could have given an episode's worth of time to the earlier arcs, and maybe that would have made the difference in the pacing. If you have already enjoyed DAL through season 3, then it's likely you will enjoy this season too. But the pacing and CG are two unavoidable issues that might be difficult to swallow for some.

Minor spoilers although I don't think this show is necessarily hiding how it plans to end, it is very much about the journey.

Animation

The show was animated by Doga Koba, which is a generally respected studio, or at least it was in 2015. I'm not one to usually catch these things but there were a few noticeable animation errors here and there. The action scenes weren't outstanding but they were fine. Background art was good. This show had a slightly below average amount of talking heads for a slice-of-life.

Story

If a story is a three-legged tripod between setting, plot, and characters, Plastic Memories is more of a duopod or something. The amount of meaningful exposition and setting given is nearly zero, just enough to fulfill a little bit of explanation and aesthetic goals. How long have people been living with giftias? Why do they have such a short and precise lifespan? Is the company even trying to improve that? If a giftia is an android, why can't one just be copied into a new body? It makes for unclear and confusing stakes and it feels like this giant hole of "because the writer said so" in the story. The stakes become a bit more solid during one of the middle arcs when a giftia exceeds her expiration but it still feels ungrounded. Perhaps it could be argued that it leaves the truth of the ending up in the air until it finally happens but I think it's pretty clear what's going to happen from maybe even the first few scenes of the show.

Part of the reason for this I think is that this isn't really a show about androids or AI or even anything metahuman. Gifitias are simply an excuse for having characters with short, determined lifespans and also fills a little bit of an aesthetic goal. They are mentally and physically (most of the time) identical to humans and they are treated exactly like humans, with the exception of termination. I think it's maybe a bit odd to introduce this situation with potential for a lot of complexity and not really delve into it but again, that's not what the story is interested in and I can concede that.

Plot and characters fair better in this one. The show is mostly character driven so plot only comes in for a few situations and the final conflict of the story. I think Tsukasa and Isla are fine characters but it would have been nice to see more sides of them to round them out. I think we see more change with Isla as she warms up to Tsukasa but I wish we saw more with Tsukasa, especially how his character changed after the end. Other characters have a tendency to be a bit more troupe-y but for the most part are executed well enough with a few memorable moments, such as Constance's moments of wisdom or the crazy playboy senpai.

What really pulls Plastic Memories together is its ending. It doesn't waver in its commitment and the final few episodes are a heart-wrenching build up to a sweet but painful ending. A happy ending would have been some nice fan service but I think this show is memorable for its brave commitment to its main idea of "If my lifespan was predetermined, how would I handle that?"

I don't know if there is enough here to stretch for 24 episodes but a few more would have maybe allowed for better exposition and improve the pacing and development of Tsukasa and Isla's relationship.

Sound

I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the soundtrack on the my first watch-through so I'll have to come back after another and flesh out my thoughts here. The opening song is especially good, almost never skipped it. The incidental music seems well-placed and thought out and gives a lot of moments silence which is important for a show like this. Overall, it's functional but not very memorable.

Conclusion

Plastic Memories frames its story under a thought-provoking question and then sets off to demonstrate what it means. It has some clear flaws but I think the way it pulls it together for the end will leave an impression on most of the audience.

I came upon this manga through the anime, which I came upon through Anilist's recommendations. There aren't too many reviews for the manga and having not written a review before, I wanted to give a shot writing one. This review contains what I consider minor spoilers for character introductions and story arc focuses but the real spoilers are hidden.

Story

The story follows protaganist Makabe Masamune and Adagaki Aki as they enter a strange romantic relationship. The twist here is that they were friends when they were children and Makabe was insulted by Aki for confessing his feelings for her. Makabe then trains for eight years to go from being an obese child to a handsome teenager, changes his family name, and transfers to her school to get her to fall in love with him and then dump her spectacularly, all for sweet, sweet revenge.

The beginning of the story capitalizes on the absurdity of this well. Aki has turned down every man who has approached her and is quite wary of this new Masamue. Masamune, who has never dated before and hates Aki, forces himself to try many different approaches to get close to her, many of them ridiculous but he somehow succeeds a bit in the end. It's a great dynamic and leads to many cute and hilarious moments. It's likely what hooked most people when they read or watched it.

After the beginning, Masamune-kun begins to show a couple flaws in it's writing. It introduces a number of characters who, despite large introductions, become more glorified plot tool than real dimensional character (some more or less than others). It's awkward that so much time is spent on these characters when they don't really develop that much and leave as soon as their usefulness is fulfilled. These characters often don't play a direct part in the climaxes of the arcs they are involved in either, it's just feels strange. Additionally, the manga introduces two love triangles and while the first does have interesting moments, the second feels like it's missing some tension. All of this feels wasteful, especially when it pulls attention away from the interactions between Masamune and Aki, which was what was so fun about the manga in the first place. I would consider the ending of the manga agreeable but there is a very sudden aspect to it. It's not the worst but the last few chapters are definitely some of the weakest unfortunately.

EDIT: Realized after there is another series called "After School" which provides a few chapters of epilogue after the main manga. It softens the blow a bit and has some nice moments but it isn't enough to redeem the ending of the main series.

All that being said, it was an enjoyable read. Even if we see less scenes with interaction between Masamune and Aki, the focus is still tightly on their relationship. Combined with the good pacing (except for the end), it feels structurally very solid and that supports it through some of the weaker moments.

Here are some extra thoughts that contains spoilers:
The scene between Neko and Masamune in the hospital after he rejects her is a great moment that I feel should have been given more depth. Neko, like Masamune, has used a false love to try to acquire some other goal. It almost gives a good moment of hesitation for Masamune and for him to mull over his revenge plot and consider whether it is worth it or foolish, but stops short of a serious reflection.

The french otaku girl has a very big introduction for a character who doesn't last more than a few chapters. Gasou also kind of fizzles out a bit over time. Even though they are both part of the cause for their arcs' climaxes, it's feels weird that they aren't involved directly in them. Why introduce and set expectations for these characters when they never really see development or resolution that feels enough? Neko has a bit of this problem too although not as much, her romantic feelings for Masamune come back occasionally to add tension, it's especially cheap at the end.

Speaking of which, that final ending with the fake outs is almost insulting. It's such a cheap way to try and shoehorn in some extra tension since by this point we all know what's going to happen, the whole point of the story was Masamune and Aki getting together, going another direction would have required a lot more work towards that prior to the end. I would have liked some time spent on them after the start of their real relationship, it would have smoothed out a bit of the rushed weirdness at the end and just let the story do what it was doing best.

Art

I'm maybe not the best judge of manga art but the art here is quite good. The characters look great and are always on model, the background art is coherent and gives a good sense of the space they are in. Panel composition is mostly pretty functional but there are a few special moments that takes some liberty. I'm a bit too inexperienced to have an idea of what could be done better so I can't give much more critique than that.

Final Thoughts

If you enjoyed the anime and you want to see how it was supposed to end, reading the manga is probably worth it. If you're just looking for a romcom manga, this might be worth it even without the perfect end. My bar might just be lower since I mostly watch anime but it's hard to find a romcom anime that ends this well, even if there was still something left to be desired.