Robotics;Notes - Episode 7

Although Aki's symptoms of Elephant Mouse syndrome are nothing more than a passing worry on this occasion, the Robotics Club has suffered a massive blow thanks to Subaru's family troubles, and his Dad's insistence on him giving up on his robot-building ways has seen him stop coming to school full stop.

With any thoughts of entering the Robo-One World Cup fading fast, Kai finds himself somewhat removed from the stress of preparing for that tournament, which instead allows him to ponder his discoveries of recent weeks a little further... that is, when he isn't being called upon by Furugoori to help her track down cheats in Kill-Ballad.

Then again, Furugoori also has some interesting information to share when she isn't freezing Kai with icy cold air conditioning, as she dangles some tantalising information before him - namely, the reason why the final episode of the Gunvarrel anime was never aired; a story into which she seems to be personally involved herself.  Meanwhile, Aki is making great strides in getting the club's grand plan, the GunPro-1, off the ground - the only remaining question is whether she can bring Subaru back on board to take on an important role within its creation.  This may be easier than it seems, but it's beginning to feel like the club has attracted some unwanted attention somewhere down the line...

After an unevening opening half to this latest instalment, Robotics;Notes suddenly feels as though the pieces of its puzzle are coming together - I'd almost forgotten about the whole Gunvarrel anime thing until it was reintroduced this episode, but it seems like a juicy plot point all by itself, and when you throw in conspiracy theories surrounding the death of the sun and lethal solar storms there are some grandiose concepts at the heart of the series.  With its final scene suggesting a real turning point in what is to come, this feels like make or break time for the first half of the series at least.