Winter 2019 First Impressions – Pastel Memories

Akihabara is a mecca for otaku culture everywhere. But that culture is on the decline due to a mysterious affliction causing widespread memory loss. Izumi and her comrades hatch a plan to restore lost memories and return “Akiba” to its former glory. – HIDIVE

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 12

Source: Smartphone Game

Episode Summary: Izumi and her coworkers at the Rabbit Shed Shop cafe in Akihabara are some of the few remaining folks who remember what their area was like at the height of the fandom boom. After a strange fog descended on Akihabara one day, most of the manga magazines stopped publication and this created a domino effect where the many colorful book stores, video game arcades and maid cafes of Akihabara shut down for good. When they discover that a previous customer was looking for a particular favorite manga series, the cafe employees tear through their storage area to find a copy. Unfortunately, they only have multiple copies of volumes 2 and 5; not very useful if someone would like to read the entire series. After being joined by some of their compatriots, they all embark on a quest to find the missing volumes at the few remaining used book stores in Akihabara.

It takes some digging, but they manage to find most of them, except the all-important first volume. When everyone’s back at the cafe mulling over their options, another three employees appear out of the blue, having vanquished a memory virus threatening to destroy the very existence of a favorite piece of media from the past. When a new virus threatens the manga series they’re attempting to reassemble, Izumi herself offers to go and ensure that this treasured memory is not lost.

Impressions: If you’re here reading this review right now, it’s a safe bet that anime and anime fandom are things that mean a great deal to you. Fandom is something which can be expressed in various ways, whether it be through media consumption, online or in-person discussion, merchandise collection, or event attendance, to name a few. It’s something that we express in manners unique to us. But what if anime and the fandom subculture surrounding it were to suddenly disappear? I doubt that most of us would forget about the hobby instantly, but without constant reinforcement it’s likely many would give up and move on to something different.

In Pastel Memories, this dire, speculative situation has become a reality. Through magical means, the fandom component of the internationally-famous otaku mecca of Akihabara has all but disappeared, with more fading from existence by the day. The individuals in charge of trying to reverse the situation are faced with an uphill battle, as well as lack of information about a root cause.

This premise makes for some interesting though experiments (as well as some downright horrific nightmares), but the execution of it throughout this episode is a bit lacking. This opening episode reads, for the most part, like a typical slice-of-life series, with the characters engaging in a low-stakes fetch quest for the purpose of indulging a customer’s fandom memories. There’s some forgettable banter, a few mildly funny moments, and even a few burning questions that are there to ask if you’re looking hard enough (how has this cafe stayed open so long if they get 1 customer every couple of days?). It’s got about one half of something interesting going on, but because it continually fails to address or indulge what I think it’s attempting to comment on – fandom is important and we need it, here’s why – the episode mostly just feels like a lot of unimportant things happening in a sequence. All plot and no emotion.

The episode does take a turn just before the end, where we learn that the characters aren’t really just employees of the cafe, but have an ability to enter into a media franchise through some magical means to defend it from attack by a “virus,”and thus rescue it from being forever forgotten. I won’t say that I didn’t expect something abnormal to happen, because to be truthful this episode feels a lot like the opening episode of School Live! – profoundly tedious until its big reveal. While what we learn here isn’t nearly as shocking as a zombie apocalypse, it’s definitely more consequential than running a cafe that attracts no customers.

Consequential or not, though, this episode betrays its origins as a game in many ways, and this gives it a manufactured feel that never quite goes away. There are about a dozen cast members introduced throughout the episode, and they’re all streamlined down to the barest of bare personality traits and body types. They have a factory-formed quality that makes them pleasant but forgettable as individuals. The mechanics of their travel into fictional worlds has the potential to introduce a variety of interesting locales, but the only real taste we get of that can be found in the next episode preview. It’s an impression that’s difficult to encapsulate in words, but could be pictured pretty easily with a shrug.

I love the idea of exploring what makes fandom important and even essential for a lot of folks, but while this episode seems happy enough to suggest that as a theme, it holds back on demonstrating any viewpoint meaty enough to chew on. I think we’d all be sad if the source of our anime fandom suddenly dried up without notice. I think for many of us this fandom contributes a great deal to our sense of self. Unfortunately this episode talks around the surface of that point quite a bit without actually saying very much.

Pros: The episode may get us thinking about the importance of fandom to our lives, which is never a bad thing.

Cons: The production feels manufactured and shallow. There are too many characters with too few personality traits. The “twist” is unsatisfying.

Grade: C-