Platonic Chain

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...

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.

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?