Reviews for Robotics;Notes (5.25)

This is the third adaptation of a visual novel made by Nitroplus, after Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate. And no, despite all three VNs taking place in the same setting, they have absolutely no connection to each other, besides a few Easter eggs with no relevance to the plot. You don’t need to watch the earlier shows in order to better understand what is going on. In fact, they are so distinctive in their plots and characters, that each one leaves you with an equally different feeling.
- C;H is enraging you for wasting so many good concepts in a messy plot full of stereotypes and cop-out battles.
- S;G is exciting you for having so many lively characters and an interesting blend of mystery and science fiction.
- R;N is making you … feel nothing. Really. There is nothing in it.

The show is animated by Production I.G. a studio which does wonders when it comes to science fiction but has otherwise a very hard time to make characters who don’t act like robots. And indeed, the production values are ok, but there is simply nothing special about them in terms of aesthetics. It’s just a typical looking school, with typical looking people, doing silly stuff. Almost like a K-On clone.

The cast is also fairly generic and uninteresting, you basically get a gamer who is bored with his life, being surrounded by cute girls and doing silly things just to win in an amateur giant robot tournament. And he is constantly motivated by an aloof energetic girl. It is all very basic and the much recent to it Hyouka blows it out of the water with its similar main duo.

The earlier two adaptations had very eccentric characters and a story that was full of superpowers, mystery, murder, mysticism, weird science fiction and otaku culture. Well, R;N has some of the last part and nothing of the rest. Seriously, it’s school life comedy about a few teenagers making a robot and taking part in a school tournament. NOTHING MORE! It occasionally tries to be mysterious by having all sorts of weird stuff going on, such as some sort of psychological syndrome, or a ghost girl only videogame screens can see, or the sun being speculated of blowing up and NASA is an evil organization. But they never try to do anything much with those, other than trying to keep you awake from the otherwise totally boring plot. I had ten times more fun watching Plawress Sanshiro and that is an almost 30 year old show.

I understand what the scriptwriter was trying to do here. The show is basically a tribute to mecha shows and tries to present them from a more humorous and realistic perspective. Even as such though, it just doesn’t have any particular hook for the average viewer to be interested in it. The objective of the story is very weak and the two protagonists are not likable at all. They are just a bored gamer and stupid girls; you want to slap them instead of rooting for them. Also, there have been much older mecha parodies, such as Nadesico and DaiGuard which did a much better job for having far more interesting stories and characters.

Furthermore, since the series is based on a visual novel, you will be constantly getting a lot of stuff that many be very appealing to the average gamer, but completely ridiculous for everybody else. Episode 14 is an easy example of that; the gamer literally saved the world from a robotic invasion, while playing videogames in a dark room like a NEET and while next to him he had a half naked creepy girl who wants to do all sorts of deviant things with him. And even if it sounds awesome as an event, even that was presented in a most dull way. The show fails even in pandering its target audience! In episode 16 you practically have the gamer witnessing a death of a dear person and by the next episode he acts like it wasn’t important at all and he is back to playing games and building robots.

Thus R;N is a waste of time that will only appeal to some for its nostalgic take on a subject that others already did 10 times better, 30 years ago, and with just a fraction of this show’s budget. Not recommended.

What starts as a fairly childish wish to build a giant robot grows into a thick, mysterious plot that has a group of high schoolers saving the world. Robotics;Notes is similar to its predecessors in many ways. You have a small group of relatively unknown people saving the world, a plot that includes secret underground organizations trying to create some sort of dystopia, and sporadic deaths to remind you that this is not supposed to be a light-hearted show. Despite the similarities, this third piece presents itself in a somewhat lighter mood. Rather than taking place in the chaos of cities, the majority of the show takes place in a serene island. Don't be deceived though, this serenity belies the true darkness seen in Chaos; Head and Steins;Gate.

After having watched Steins;Gate, I had probably ridiculously high expectations for this show. And despite some drastic scenery and setting changes, this work still has some of the great essence of the former work. No doubt, it is not as much of a thriller and does it deliver the outstanding character development. However, it still stands its ground as a solid work.

Animation:
The quality of animation was fairly good overall. The series utilizes a much brighter color palette than in previous works and so comes across as a slightly more upbeat. The series has some very nice, serene backgrounds and some pretty cool ideas for future tablet applications. The colorization quickly changes a the darker, more serious palette in places where a more serious tonality is needed. I thought this was very well done. Characters are distinguishable and well drawn overall. Facial expressions are not as moe as KyoAni and not as expressive as PA Works but they still come across as believable. If anything, my major annoyance with this show was the overuse of CGI, especially when mechs are involved.

There is a fair amount of action in this show. Not as crazy as in Chaos;Head but probably comparable to Steins;Gate with a slight emphasis in the later episodes when giant mechs become a reality. There is some blood but not really any gore. As for fan service, there are a few scenes where characters get "close". Thankfully, they stayed away from a lot of the cheesy harem-based ecchi that was in Chaos;Head.

Sound:
The songs in this show are average. The rock based OPs fit with the series, though I think the second one has a slightly better melody. The lighter EDs are, overall, the better of the voiced musical pieces of this series. More interesting is the BGM of this show. Unlike the previous adaptions, the BGM has a upbeat tonality that matches the happier animation style. Completely appropriate and fitting for Senomiya's personality.

Speaking of Senomiya, Yoshino Nanjou does a great job giving her an almost unbelievably upbeat personality. She is really the standout in this cast despite Kugimiya taking on a supporting role as Airi. The other VAs give a fair performance overall.

Story:
This is a pretty hard category to tackle. There's a bunch of interesting subplots within Robotic;Notes. The show starts off as a light slice of life where the Robotics Club is fighting for survival by entering a robotic battle competition. However, the mood quickly shifts as mysterious elements start showing up on the protagonist's tablet. He starts getting weird reports from a guy named Kimijima Kou who claims that the sun is about to explode. Should Kaito trust this unknown source?

Robotic;Notes is a pretty dynamic show that shifts between being a slice of life and a thriller. Though some parts may come across as childish and perhaps a tad boring, other parts are dark and philosophical. Unfortunately, the show is much of the former early on, which may put off a lot of viewers. However, those who stick it through will find themselves heading up to a pretty dramatic climax, one which finally links all subplots together and will decide the fate of humanity! I found the overall execution fairly good as you're constantly guessing at the severity of the situation.

Robotic;Notes borrows a lot of concepts from other works. In particular, I feel like they borrowed significantly from the Accel World/Sword Art Online series in addition to throwing in some Easter eggs for those who had watched Steins;Gate.

Yes, there are definitely some plot holes here. Magnetic monopoles randomly dropping from the sky just sounds like too good of a coincidence given the hypothetical nature of monopoles. Yes, even more so than successfully creating a time machine or microwaves generating gel bananas. However, if you're able to overlook these, the series does a pretty decent job of explaining how everything fits together.

Character:
Given the drawing style, the characters feel much younger than their counterparts in Steins;Gate (even though technically they are older than their equivalents in S;G). Akiko is an upbeat girl who dreams about catching up to her genius sister and Kaito is your boring protagonist who seems to only care about a mech fighter game based off the hit mech anime that perhaps inspried Akiko to build a giant mech in the first place. While an attempt is made to introduce other supporting characters, it is by no means as thorough or as well presented as was in S;G. This is probably the greatest difference between these two series as the level of development just wasn't as good.

There is some development between the primary characters but overall this is more plot-driven than S;G. The antagonists in this show are just a tad too similar to those in SAO, and likewise don't come across as believable in general. Unfortunate given how central they are in the latter epiosdes.

Value:
While a bit childish in theme compared to previous works, R;N ends up as a fun thriller with some decent development and action. It is not the same caliber as Steins;Gate, but really few series are. There are portions of the show that are fittingly reminiscent of its predecessors and others that were an interesting new direction. The series was overall an entertaining watch with an above average conclusion. A good mix for those who want a balance between realism and a mech anime.