English Dub Review: Akiba’s Trip Episode 6 “Your Memory is Full”

The closest thing to something melodramatic in this obnoxious series.

Spoilers Below

The opening starts when Tomatsu’s laptop crashing on him with the infamous “blue screen of death” and this is ironically from an automatic update on his PC so decides to cut his losses and get a new computer. We then cut to a PC store called “MofMap” which has a bizarre gimmick that consists of having their all-female staff dress like sheep/ram-type animals including the lady in charge with pink hair dressed as a sheep-hearder with animal horns providing store-built PC’s, which is almost rare due to smartphones dominating the market.

Of course, this is where Tomatsu enters the story as he’s in that very same store to seek out a full-on replacement for his now messed up laptop. Tomatsu meets up with Kage from Episode 3 who encourages him to build his own PC from the ground up but understandably, Tomatsu is quite inexperienced in that field.

Kage offers his help since he’s quite new to all of this in general, and they come across a bargain bin with some decently priced PC hardware after Kage witnesses a frugal PC scavanger named “Jackal the Parts Hunter” who likes to hide specific parts he desires so nobody else will snatch them up until he gets the money for them and waits for a sale for a price reduction.

Kage decides to follow Jackal in an effort to make their quest to build a PC much easier thanks to Kage’s price-hunting tactics, they were able to get these parts under budget. We then cut to Tomatsu’s place with his newly build PC which at first all seems good but hilariously he forgot to get an operating system so it’s all black screen with white text, so Raitu offers to let him use an operating system she developed.

Raitu gives him a CD Rom saying it’s an “AI-Driven Autonomous OS” called “LAtux”. Tomatsu puts it in and what appears before him on the screen is an interactive pigtailed girl on the screen. Tomatsu is at first uncomfortable talking to this operating system but Raitu suggests giving it a name to help him feel less awkward and Tomatsu dubs her “Pyuko”. We then cut to the rest of his all-female team where they’re eating burgers and Nikawa is suprised how much interaction he’s having with this AI on his PC.

Mayonaka is annoyed by Tomatsu’s fawning of this compuer AI to the point that she’s slipping the possibility of actually liking him but changes the subject demanding that Tomatsu go patrolling for “Bugged Ones” with her. When Mayonaka gives him a hateful look, Tomatsu decides to do it but to not look so scary which I think admonished her attitude abit and laments out loud to himself that he wishes he could take Pyuko with her.

As they go out patrolling, Tomatsu starts developing infatuated visions of Pyuko everywhere they go but when he comes back, Raitu suprises him with a newly upgraded model of Pyuko which looks like a bulky robot with claw-hands with robotic legs complete with substantial upgrades such as Data Storage, Behavior Routine, and longer battery life that prioritizes over everything.

Everyone seems happy except for Mayonaka secretly who wonders what the fuck he sees in this machine and her frustrations only elevate further when he goes patrolling with Pyuko over Mayonaka. This leads to a harmless montage of Tomatsu educating Pyuko of the city they’re in, However he’s unintentionally drawing attention to himself and Pyuko to the point that she’s becoming self-conscious. In a cafe across from them, Mayonaka & Arisa are spying with Mayonaka actually being jealous at the two while denying that they’re strictly splitting up.

We cut to the next day when Pyuko beats Tomatsu in a game of chinese checkers 108 times and abruptly Arisa warns everyone that the City of Akihabara is under attack. We see a news broadcast to verify her claims which has that news-guy from the previous episodes further confirming that it’s a “MofMap” brand of PC that’s going all Transformers at this point.

They decide to go to the MofMap building to put a stop to this invasion since it’s their only lead only to find it closed with Pyuko tagging along with them and with Pyuko’s help, she turns her claw hand into a lock-pick to help them gain access. The MofMap boss introduces herself as “Laurie” who’s revealed to be the mastermind of this Killer PC invasion much to Arisa’s annoyance at her “clinging to a false youth”.

Laurie reveals that she’s not only a “Bugged One” but her master plan is to take over Akiba with her robots disguised as PCs and tricking people into buying them which out of dumb luck, Tomatsu managed to not do thanks to Kage. Laurie sends out her employees after them who are dressed like Sheep from earlier but they are easy to undress & dispatch while Pyuko hides since she’s not designed for combat.

Tomatsu quickly undresses Laurie who comedically reveals that her outfit was meant to hide a cartoonish amount of weight and before she blows up into purple smoke & nothingness, she activates some sort of failsafe which gathers all the robot PC’s to the location of “Chuo Dori” as reported by Professor Raitu. They go to investigate and noticibly in the sky, the robots gather and fuse into one giant PC robot with a programmed AI of Laurie’s consciousness that would activate incase she would die and plans to destroy the city for not getting what she wants.

The giant Laurie-Bot ties Arisa up in a suggestive “Shibari-Style” wrapping which renders her powerless as she’s being slammed into the concrete repeatedly before throwing her in a billboard sign nude.  Mayonaka instantly loses due to its projectile attacks before getting stepped on and near nude before Tomatsu notices it’s power source being a random plug on the wall.

However, another failsafe is activated stating that, “in order to protect private information and delete porn, it will put itself into self-destruct mode saying that anything within a “five-kilometer radius” will be blown up with it.

The PC Robot counts down to 100 and Hearing from Tomatsu that most of Akiba will be destroyed if they don’t do something, Pyuko decides to use “Maxiumum Output” which turns her cooling fans into a jetpack to fly the detonating robot away into outer space before it can do any real harm.

Tomatsu is understandably heartbroken that this AI he spent the most time with bravely sacrifices herself Iron Giant style. We then cut to Raitu expressing concern for Tomatsu’s well being because he didn’t comeback home after Pyuko’s sacrifice and asks if he’s going to be ok but Tomatsu wonders why Pyuko prioritize her long-term data storage?

Raitu said that’s exactly what she did but the city itself became a “database” and by extension Tomatsu who loves the town but the best wisdom Raitu can give to help Tomatsu comprehend this loss is the predictable-yet honest words: “As long as you remember them, they’re never really gone” speech and to always cherish those memories.

The episodes ending tries to tug at your heartstrings with a small montage of his adventures with Pyuko throughout the episode and to hit the point home that this is supposed to be a bittersweet moment, the credits play a slow-paced song in an attempt to fit the episode’s mood and after the credits we’re treated with a small scene of Tomatsu about to go on Patrol with Mayonaka and Tomatsu smiling to himself after seeing a small vision of Pyuko waving “bye” in his head.

Overview

Tamotsu and his friends’ role in this episode made me face palm. They were facing off against some booth babes in “sheep costumes? Poor Arisa though, I think she got stripped hard this episode. Seems that Tamotsu is really going to miss Pyuko. I kinda doubt she’ll return any time in the future.

This episode thankfully downplayed the sex jokes and it’s unfunny violence against men schtick and was thankfully balanced with small comedic moments. Including a scene where the PC robot’s “self-destruction to delete porn” speech actually made me laugh. If there were any major flaws, the episode falls victim to the predictable & annoying cliche of the female protagonist expressing jealousy or attraction only when the leading male character is with someone else.