Platonic Chain

No other reviews? Okay, I'll write one then. Platonic Chain is essentially a look at the many different possibilities about how personal information (Such as video records of EVERYWHERE you've been for the last few years, voice recordings, personality profiles, and more) could be used if it was accessible to the public, though this series is a light one, and the uses it shows are all relatively harmless. It really is an interesting idea, and there are some really creative, even amusing uses on display, though I won't spoil them. Unfortunately, the series does have a number of drawbacks. The first thing you'll notice is the animation, which is anime-styled CGI. I'm not a fan of CGI anyway, but this stuff is clearly showing it's age. Now, short episodes aren't necessarily a bad thing, however, when the OP and ED take half the 6 minute episode time, you start to wonder what they're thinking. After all, most full, 24-minute animes don't even give either the OP or ED 2 minutes, but a tiny 6-minute show does? Madness. The main characters are easy enough to fit into stereotypes, which is probably a good thing, considering the shortness of each episode, and the series overall. Also, the characters do seem appropriate for the situations they're put into, which is good. The animation moves them, but fails to bring them to any sort of life, and you'll probably be reading emotions from the voices and gestures, rather than expressions. I can't really say anything about the sound. Nothing stood out, except the opening theme, which was far too dull for my taste. One looped beat, does not a decent theme song make, so to speak. In conclusion, if you're just looking for an anime to enjoy, I personally recommend you take out a ten-foot pole, and ensure you're at the opposite end to this series (There WERE times I laughed, but it's really not enough to recommend this series), if, on the other hand, you can stand a little mediocrity in other areas, to check out an interesting, possibly unique, idea, I'd say give this series a chance. Review ends. Well, the review might not be too informative, but it's better than nothing, eh?

Story-wise, the authors seem to definitely be thinking and haven't written too much stupid or cliche stories; after some good early episodes, the remaining 14 episodes were mediocre. Downside: all the episodes are extremely ugly animated, and short.

Platonic Chain is fascinating for several reasons. At its core, the story is about the mundane lives of several teen girls in Shibuya in a "slightly more advanced" version of the early 2000s. The whole story has a sense of oddness to it, since it has all of the makes of a tech-based dystopian horror, and yet the young characters go about their daily lives in stride. While the Platonic Chain tech in the show is new to the girls as well, they adapt to it quickly and incorporate it into their lives in a way that is very deeply human and very accurate to how we interact with new technology today. As a watcher in 2024, I was struck by the horror of how everything in the show (made in 2002 mind you) and all of its dystopian elements are just...life in 2024. The most horrifying aspects of the show (and the parts that characters react the most to) are just...ever present in life now. The farther we get from 2002, the more accurate Platonic Chain is at depicting real life than it is at depicting.a dystopian future, because we already live in it. It's mundane for the characters in Platonic Chain, much like how constant surveillance is mundane for us too. The rough early 2000s 3D animation is charming. It reminds me of older Playstation video games and all of their poorly-rendered glory. Character designs reflect how much care was put into designing characters that feel fully-fleshed out and can communicate aspects of character personality to viewers within the short minutes we have with them. A lot of love clerly went into rendering the main characters, and I think that's precious. It's a fantastic blast from the past visually and will make anyone with nostalgia for the y2k era smile. Each episode of Platonic Chain is mostly eaten up by the OP and ED. The ED is always a live-action music video of a late 90s or early 2000s girl group song with cuts of the main characters interspersed. Seeing Baby VOX in an anime is a bit of trip for me, haha. I can see how it may annoy some viewers, but I found it contributed to the charming nature of the show. I LOVE watching early 2000s girl group music videos, so perhaps that's why I loved it so much...

I only mark this as mixed feelings because I recognize some will not appreciate it. But there is a specific audience that should enjoy this. Don't compare this anime to any other modern anime, because it's just comparing apples to oranges. This is a historical artifact and should be enjoyed as such. A lot of people will complain about the CGI art style, but given the hindsight of 20 years - it's awesome. I think it's perfect for this anime; lifeless, creepy CGI animation was this thing that was everywhere for a very short amount of time until everyone finally realized it was totally ugly and then it was really only relegated to those straight to dvd children's movies that were rip offs of disney IP. So I think it shows us exactly where this show was coming from in history, it situates you perfectly in the early 2000s. It reminds me of watching code lyoko as a kid. A time when I had no idea how terrible and cruel technology would become. Platonic Chain is the writer's personal prediction for where technology could have gone in the future. The website "PlaChe" is like an all seeing eye, that invades the privacy of everyone using security cameras that are seemingly everywhere in shibuya. Using facial recognition technology, it can attempt to find your long lost lover or your estranged father for you. Each short episode is generally about a specific feature of PlaChe and how the main characters (cute Shibuya middle schoolers) use it. It's very entertaining to compare the technology of PlaChe to what is truly possible today, in 2023. You have this ability to basically stalk people and find their exact location, using security camera footage mainly. Information they did not give up willingly. Today, if you wanted to find someone, you would likely just find them using information they willingly put online. It would be harder to find someone's exact location, but for those who incessantly document their lives on social media, it's certainly possible. I don't have an exact thesis about this show yet, I'm not saying it's some type of groundbreaking commentary on technology and society. It's mainly just interesting to reflect on this time before everything went so wrong.

Ok, i will keep it simple. I like Platonic Chain, i really do. Its no masterpiece, but the characters are solid, their body expressions are also good. The story until ep 15 its pretty good, just normal girls doing normal stuff while (for us) exploring the ends of this new website. For them is no different from us just googling some information. And thats what they do, showing how this made up tecnology takes place. After ep 15, things get just kinda..eh. It seems like intros to really cool and interesting plots, but ofc with 4min op-endg theme you cant really tap into it. So it just hangs there, unsolved, unexplored. I think the manga may be actually better on this matter, but couldn't for the life of me find it online. Overall, its a cool anime, something fresh to watch while doing something else (if u like me needs to consume at least 3 types of media to prevent thinking). I also like how the anime really represents the early 2000's era. Personally speaking i grew up on it and miss it dearly. The PS2 CGI vibes also help with this, its like a big ol hug on a nostalgic little heart. Story: 3/10 Art: 7/10 Sound: 5/10 Character: 8/10 Enjoyment: 9/10 Overall: 6/10 I like it. Its not inherently bad, but its not godlike good. Its just something to watch and move on, think about it from time to time even knowing you will probably never watch it a second time. And that's that.

This is a very weird anime looking back on it now If you want a full blast of just Y2K right in your face, this is your show. The graphics are definitely dated and you'll get a lot of your tells on the emotions of the characters off their VA rather than their animation but I thought it was charming that they looked like characters from a Nintendo DS game. These are 3 minute shorts so they don't get to do much but even then, I thought they had a lot of intriguing ideas that could've been longer arcs in a different anime. Episodes 16, 18, and 19 in particular have a lot of meat on the bone to be developed into either characters in a different show or even full on shows themselves. It's kind of surreal seeing this all-knowing powerful supercomputer being used by teen girls (and boys) for just... everyday mundane life and romance but, in a way, it's more fitting for how life has progressed from 2002 than if they treated it like a psychological thriller or something. I've heard that this feels more like an advertisement for the Platonic Chain app if it ever actually existed more than anything and that does ring true to me. Combined with the Y2K girly pop EDs and it feels like a meta way to advertise the inevitable march of technological progress. In a way, it's more horrifying than whatever something more fearmongering could cook up. We accept having our data harvested and put out there for anyone to see in exchange for daily conveniences. Platonic Chain ended up being one of the most accurate sci-fi anime ever made without even trying. We only really get 3 recurring characters, Hitomi, Rica, and Kanae. I think, even with a combined run time of, like, an hour or two, you get a really good feeling for who these characters are. This doesn't tell a complete story per se, it's glimpses into the lives of 3 teenage girls using Platonic Chain. I think surreal is the best word for this anime. The dated early 3D CG animation (which I think makes this show worth watching alone, from a technological curiosity standpoint), the almost universal acceptance of this technology which should be absolutely horrifying but is accurately treated as just this neat little trinket to play with, the at times ridiculously 2000s designs and fashion (to say nothing of the flip phones), characters will just come and go and never appear again even if they have nominally important roles in the story or are otherwise focal points of an episode. It's a surreal anime and one that provides a good look into the time it was made. For what it is, it's a very intriguing anime and I'd very much recommend it.

It's extremely hard to judge Platonic Chain. It provides one of the most dystopian premises of all time, and yet it centers itself around the general mundanities of teenage life in Shibuya, with the same kind of tone you would have in most other slice of life comedies. It has a very unique sense of humour that sometimes lands and sometimes doesn't, but either way you will have fun. Each episode is technically 6 minutes long, but the actual episode content is only 3 minutes once you subtract the opening and ending. Within those 3 minutes is batshit insanity. If you know how much I hate CGI animation, you might wonder why I like this anime so much. I hate Berserk 2016, I'm not the biggest fan of Dorohedoro, so why this? I love that this looks like a forgotten Dreamcast game. I love the soundtrack so much. The various openings and endings are all in my playlists. The fact that this takes place in Shibuya and makes actual reference to things and events in Shibuya's landscape and history is also a plus. It gets kind of dull after a while, but this is definitely worth the watch if you wanna see some truly inspired shit. Doing research on this anime is hell. Trying to find out things about it as a non-Japanese speaker is truly a challenge. If you find anything new, let me know.

"Digital data is absolute! It will all last forever, even after you die! It will all come up if you do a search on Yamada Kenichi! It's all spelled out accurately right there!" Platonic Chain has a MAL rating of under 6: a rating so low you know it HAS to be bad, considering reviewers tend to rate things above average and review sites operate on more of a four point scale than a ten point one. For once, the MAL score lies. Platonic Chain's low score can be chalked up to two things: length and animation. For starters, shorts tend to get lower ratings because there is less content there to dig into. They bore. However, Platonic Chain has so MUCH to dig into. People are biased against short runtime, but if you meet Platonic Chain at its level and engage with the shorts, you'll find they utilize their short runtime perfectly, because Platonic Chain is a slice of life, and truly, slices are smaller than the whole. Secondly, people watch anime for the animation. Not only does Platonic Chain use 3D (which anime fans are already biased against), but that 3D is ROUGH. Platonic Chain was made in 2002, and you know what 3D animation looked like then. However, 3D was very much the perfect choice, and I think the roughness makes it all the better. Platonic Chain is a time capsule that could only have been made in the 2000s. It is about the Y2K rapid advance of technology and the anxieties about what that could mean. So yes, of course the rapidly advancing technology of 3D animation was a perfect choice, and just one look at it tells you exactly when it was made. And for as rough as it is, I don't actually think it's bad to look at. Even if I didn't find low-quality art and animation charming, I actually think the 3D here looks pretty good for its time, all things considered, and is nice to look at. Platonic Chain is an eerie watch in 2026. It feels corny to say a fictional story predicted the future, but Platonic Chain exists in the same vein that Serial Experiments Lain does where you realize people were right to be cautious about what the internet might be used for. Platonic Chain exists in a world where technology in 2002 was slightly more advanced than in our own world. And it's not a grand, epic story about a great cyberpunk threat. It's a slice of life. It captures moments from the day-to-day lives of young people, growing alongside the technology, and how they use this self-imposed surveillance state to their own advantage for the little things, like seeing every route your crush has walked or publicly shaming someone you don't like out of existence. It's a mundane psychological horror. We now have a nebulous, intangible force connecting everyone in the entire world looming over us that everyone can access. It sees everything all the time. Now that it exists, there is no getting rid of it. And life will continue to go on. How? How will life go on now that everything we do can be seen and accessed by everyone around us? Everything filmed and uploaded against our will? And what are the little things we will use it for? It only feels like a slightly exaggerated version of what actually ended up happening. Do not be fooled by the MAL score. Platonic Chain is absolutely worth a watch.