Robotics;Notes - Episode 22 (Completed)

The GunPro-1 is ready to roll, and roll it does, meaning that it's time for the big face-off between Aki, Kai and company and Misa as controlled by Kimijima Kou.

While Misa might have the technological advantage in many ways, that isn't to say that the group of rebels facing off against her are stuck in the stone age - they're more than capable of using AR technology to baffle and render Misa's missile attacks largely useless, while their use of monopoles in the GunPro-1 gives them a chance of something resembling a level playing field.  Throw in Kai's "special weapon" in the form of his ailment and the means to trigger it at will, and things less predictable than you might first think.

Thus, this final episode sees things to and fro; Kai takes the upper hand against Misa, only to find the spectre of Kimijima Kou (who has also locked out any chance of preventing that all-important rocket launch) in a less forgiving mood.  With the emergence of an application that can "kill" Kimijima however, at last an end is in sight to this conflict, if they can only succeed in making use of it to win the day and prevent the launch.  No prizes for guesses how that ends up in this final episode.

Even when it came down to its grand finale, there was something missing from Robotics;Notes - never mind the gaping holes in both plot and logic, some nicely realised and pleasingly robust action wasn't enough to paper over the substantial cracks in the series as a whole.  While Steins;Gate did a wonderful job of building up a rapport with its characters and the cast as a whole during its quiet first half, Robotics;Notes failed to do this in similar circumstances, and then made things worse by continuing to plod along in a meandering way even when push came to shove.  As a lesson in mediocrity, this series certainly did the job, but given the hype in the wake of Steins;Gate's success it ended up being easily the biggest disappointment of the last six months.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 21

Aki finally has the team she needs to build her dream robot, but boy are the stakes higher than she could ever have imagined as Robotics;Notes hits its penultimate episode.

With news organisations and the like beginning to twig that the whole "solar flare" story is some kind of scam or something of the sort, it's clear that Misaki and Kimijima are going to have to push on with their plans before their true intentions come to light, in turn piling the pressure on for Aki, JAXA et al to complete their robot.  Meanwhile, there are other important issues at hand, with Kai finding out the rather painful truth about the N IV device while Kimijima and Sister Centipede look set to ratchet up that pain even further until the latter defects at a pivotal moment.

Although their robot is now effectively complete, Kai's testing of the N IV has left him hospitalised, begging the question - who is going to pilot the machine with the required skill to best Misaki and make full use of the systems set up to defeat her and Kimijima?  Of course, it's too early to write Kai off, as he offers himself up to the task despite his current state of health - a piece of showmanship that earns him little respect from Aki, even though she knows that there is no other option.

Having complained about the slow pacing of this series on numerous occasions, it feels a little odd to now complain of it going in completely the opposite direction for the first half of this week's episode, where so much happened that there was no time to feel or fully comprehend the impact of any of it, leaving us with a bit of a mess.  Thankfully, the soft centre of this installment's second half at least restores some faith in the series as we go into its climax - the final scenes with Aki and Kai, and even the comic relief as they're joined by the other Robotics Club members, worked really well in bringing a personal angle to a challenge which threatens the world.  If only there had been more similarly successful moments, then I might have found myself caring a whole lot more about what happens in next week's episode.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 20

Despite all of their recent adventures, I very much doubt that "being held at gunpoint by a little girl" figured Aki and Kai's expectations, but that's exactly where we find ourselves as this week's Robotics;Notes opens.

Thanks to this and a face-to-face encounter with the AR avatar of Kou Kimijima, we get to learn the truth behind Misaki's behaviour - how she saved Aki and Kai amongst others during the SS Anemone incident by killing the living, breathing Kimijima, only to find herself haunted by his virtual presence to the point where he effectively turned her into his slave.  Even in the face of all of this information (oh, and that gun being pointed at her), Aki still refuses to have her enthusiasm for justice dimmed as she swears that she'll do whatever it takes for her sister and beyond - a stirring monologue made all the more pertinent by the fact that the whole thing was streamed across the Internet.

It's thanks to that bit of surreptitious streaming that the entire Robotics Club team are quickly reassembled
in the hangar that houses GunPro-1, and what begins as a milling of friendly faces (joined ultimately by Kai and Aki in spectacular fashion) soon begins to morph into a coherent plan to use the GunPro-1 to foil Kimijima's plans to launch a black hole bomb and eradicate humanity.  Can they really do that using a clunky old robot?  Well, that's the point of the show's finale, so let's hope so shall we?

Although this is very much Robotics;Notes in top gear as it blends friendships, robotics, conspiracy and the like into its mix, there's something that's still not particularly satisfying about the whole thing, largely revolving around the fact that a lot of the major points of its narrative don't make much sense - it feels rather like a "join the dots" picture where all of the dots connect up soundly enough, but the picture you reveal once you've done so is a jumbled mess.  Perhaps it's because I've struggled to become fully invested in its characters or scenario, but there are too many logical or character-based holes in what I'm seeing (particularly surrounding Misaki) to work for me - maybe I can put that to one side and at least enjoy what should be a rip-roaring finale, but it seems guaranteed that the show as a whole is going to be no classic in my book.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 19

Just as Aki looks set to get her big chance to catch up with big sister Misaki, so said sister seems to be in the middle of something nefarious while pursued by a gun-toting, suited man.  This, however, is only the beginning of the insanity.

Before there's so much as time to draw breath Misaki has escaped her gun-wielding foe, hopped aboard the robot she was supposed to be demonstrating at the Expo and almost literally laid waste to the entire exhibition centre as well as all of the robots within it, GunPro-2 included.  With news of an unprecedented and massive solar flare also breaking around the world and the appearance of an obelisk-cum-space elevator that seems to hark back to Gunvarrel's final episode in Tokyo, it almost seems too crazy to be believed.

Perhaps that's because what everyone is seeing is too crazy to be real, with Misaki's pursuer suggesting that the entire thing is an AR-esque work of subterfuge (or which Kai and Aki's childhood ferry incident was a precursor) used to cover up an even greater crime... a crime about to be committed by Misaki, who is believed to be in league with none other than Kimijima Kou.  Exactly what Kou's real plan is and how it can be stopped remain to be seen, but things are looking decidedly more dangerous for our group of robot-building buddies, that's for sure.

After so many weeks of complaints about this show's inability to deliver, all of a sudden we find ourselves staring in the face of an entire series worth of plot points in a single episode.  If anything, this week's instalment goes to the other extreme of providing us with entirely too much content, making it difficult to sift through and keep track of what's going on to create more confusion than I suspect the series was actually aiming for.  On the positive side however, I'm more than a little happy to see the show lay a bunch of its cards on the table, and there are some interesting points worthy of further exploration regarding the human response to what is presented in front of them, be it with their own eyes or via another medium like the Internet.  Messy it might be in places, but the scene is set, so this could finally be Robotics;Notes time to shine.  I've only made such a proclamation around a dozen times with this series now, right?

Robotics;Notes - Episode 18

After the heart-rending difficulties caused by recent events, Aki has proved determined to continue the GunPro-2 project no matter what, and come this week's episode the project has not only come to fruition, but it's sent our two remaining Robotics Club members to Tokyo to show it off to the wider world.

Before that however, there's the problem of a shared room with only one bed for Kai and Aki, and more importantly both individuals are trying to come to terms with recent events - for Aki, she is still worried by the lack of contact from her sister, while Kai is haunted by the wide spread across the Internet of the Kimijima reports, although not as much as he's haunted by Mizuka's death.

Still, all of this has to be put to one side once the Expo begins and GunPro-2 is unveiled - a debut which proves to be a hugely tricky one given the negative publicity currently surrounding Gunvarrel and how anime series ties into current events and public nervousness around robots.  There are still some moments of triumph for the duo as they allow the GunPro-2 and its AR interface to strut its stuff, but there are few real plaudits for their work so when a chance to speak to her sister greets Aki, she's keen to take it up... a decision that looks set to launch them into a whole new world of trouble for both siblings.

Once again, having seemingly found an interesting path this week's Robotics;Notesloses its way somewhat - sure, the completion of GunPro-2 and its exhibition is an important milestone in the show and its narrative, but it's presented in a way that feels rushed and doesn't really add anything to either the story or the development of its characters.  This again means that it's left to the big cliffhanger to drag us back to the show for next week - it certainly is a compelling cliffhanger too, but how many of those have we had now that have failed to live up to their expectations?  You'd probably need an AI to successfully calculate the answer to that.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 17

After so much meandering story-telling, last week's Robotics;Notes certainly shook things up in a major way, meaning that this seventeenth instalment can content itself with picking up the pieces of its aftermath.

Needless to say, everything has changed for our main cast of characters, as the death of Mizuka reverberates around Kai and Aki in particular, whereas the injuries suffered by Subaru as a result of the accident with GunPro-2 has far wider implications, that being the disbanding of the Robotics Club and JAXA pulling their support and funding from their Expo dream.  For once, even Aki seems to have lost the vigour to fight in the face of adversity, meekly accepting the club's fate as she does.

As for Kai, he continues to struggle with what he should do about the final Kimijima report - a situation not helped by the appearance of further people who seem to know about both Kou Kimijima and Kai's past, while Misaki also continues to have a part to play in her decision.  Indeed, it's Misaki that is also responsible (albeit indirectly) for bringing Aki out of her slump, as she once again discovers her determination to catch up to her sister, which means completing the GunPro-2 no matter what.  But will anyone want to assist her after everything that has happened?

Now that the series has finally kicked up a gear or two thanks to last week's episode, this latest instalment was inevitably some of the better far we've seen from this show so far - there was no shortage of emotion to lean on and this was mostly pulled off in a satisfying manner, even if its left us where we started about fifteen episodes ago to some degree.  Having done justice to what is set out to over the past couple of weeks, hopefully the series now has the legs to bring us home to a decent finale rather than wallowing in mediocrity again for a few weeks before doing anything interesting.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 16

It's been rather easy to forget that this series is supposed to feature robotics at times, but as we hit episode sixteen of Robotics;Notes our attention at last returns almost fully to the robotics club's work on GunPro-2.

Indeed, as we revisit this particular project we find it more or less complete and awaiting its first activation test - with monopoles raining from the sky of late and a nifty remote power provision "cannon" which uses lasers to charge the robot's batteries, it's a massive step up from GunPro-1, and once you add a little AR magic to it the result is a truly impressive one.

With their first activation test competed, necessity requires the club to take a bit of a breather, but even when the group is set to reconvene for further testing it seems that some of the club's members still have thoughts elsewhere.  This is most notably true in Kai's case, as he searches out the final Kimijima report unaware that other forces are becoming ever-more insistent that his efforts be brought to a halt.  Things are about to take a major turn for the worse however, as a blustery day threatens to be a lethal one while testing the GunPro-2, while an attempt from Misaki to put a halt to Kai's activities has an equally terrible outcome.

To sum up my reaction to this week's episode is simple - it basically amounts to "at last, something is actually happening!"  Admittedly, there's still a lot of explaining left for the series to do even at this juncture, but we're finally at a point where the conspiracies and danger threatening the world has come home to roost on the doorstep of the robotics club.  Everything is now in place for the series to finally pick up the pace and run with everything that it's constructed throughout the series so far - but how many times have I said this now?  Surely this must be the moment where Robotics;Notes moves into top gear, without fail.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 15

Even though the robot uprising in Tokyo was prevented before it went too far, things aren't still looking too healthy in the world of technology in the wake of the latest solar flare to hit the Earth - at the centre of all these issues is the Iru-O system, which is glitching all over the place and having more long periods of downtime for maintenance than PSN.

Whether its related to these glitches or not, AR avatar Airi is also playing up and acting strangely as she incessantly talks of the wather and jumps around excitedly in the anticipation of snow that will never arrive.  With news of another round of Iru-O maintenance which might cause all of the system's data to be deleted, such an occurrence could also mean an end for Airi - although for Kai's part, he's more worried about unlocking the final Kimijima reports before his tool to do so disappears.

Ultimately however, Airi and Kai's drive to nab these reports intertwine somewhat - having unlocked the sixth report thanks to a spot of surfing, it's revealed that there are no flags to unlock the final report, leaving the only question to be resolved that of where the report can be found.  With Airi adamant that she wants to go "home", Kai makes a shocking discovery in the building where he first discovered her, which brings us a view of Airi's back story as a living, breathing girl with a terrible illness, put into suspended animation by Kimijima until she can be cured.

While there can be no doubt that "stuff happened" once again in this week's episode of Robotics;Notes, it remains hard to really get excited about any of it - the revelations regarding Airi were interesting enough but wasted by Kai's reaction to them (just calling the police is the sensible thing to do, but not the good anime story-telling thing to do) and the rest of the episode was trying to get us to care about Airi in a way that did little for me, possibly because it's a minor twist on something we've seen umpteen times before.  But hey, maybe we can get back to focusing on robots and the possible fate of mankind properly sometime soon?

Robotics;Notes - Episode 14

Chaos has suddenly descended on the world of Robotics;Notes come the end of last week's episode, with a blackout and robots rampaging in Tokyo, and Kona attempting suicide as her emotions run away with her back in Tanegashima.

Clearly, the pressure is on for Furugoori, as she appears to have been framed for the currently occurring rise of the robots (hey, someone should make a video game based around that title) - with a little more digging, it seems as if the culprit is also closer to home than she might like, as whoever has hacked into the systems used to operate all of the domestic robots currently going berserk on the streets has also hooked control of their hack into Kill-Ballad.  Fortuitously, they've also set up a CPU player as the key to controlling the system; defeat it, and you can shut the system down.

Needless to say, there's only one person who can possibly defeat the computer at Kill-Ballad and win the day, and that's Kai - but can he really beat a CPU player who cheats whenever his health gets too low?  The only thing for it seems to be for Kai to make use of his "slow-motion mode", but given that he has no direct control over it activating that mode is a case of easier said than done.  As Kai works his socks off to win this all-important game with lives in Tokyo at stake, we delve a little deeper still into Kona's psyche and what drives her.

I joked last week about the number of false starts this series has had in terms of putting the pedal to the proverbial medal, and after finally feeling hyped up about things from the previous episode I was once again left feeling disappointed by what was served up to us this week.  Having built in so many mechanisms to generate tension by virtue of what was going on in Tokyo, this week's Robotics;Notes somehow managed to squander all of that possible tension entirely, feeling rather leisurely until the closing minutes when it finally got to down to business, however briefly.  The focus on Kona's state of mind and line of thought was a valuable addition to the show thus far, certainly, but it all came at the expense of a feeling that the robot revolution and solar flare that were crippling Tokyo were really of little to no import at all - the episode itself seemed more interested in Kill-Ballad than the dance of destruction going on in the capital, which lent a weirdly disconnected feeling between two scenarios that were intrinsically linked together.  The longer this goes on, the more I begin to suspect that this series is going to be closer in overall quality to Chaos;Head than Steins;Gate...

Robotics;Notes - Episode 13

Work is progressing slowly but... well, just slowly really, on the GunPro-2 - a situation not helped by only Aki really showing any interest in the entire endeavour.

Certainly, neither Kai nor Koujiro both have more important things on their mind - in Koujiro's case she's now putting plenty of effort into piecing together more information about the death of her mother and how the leaked minutes of the cancelled final episode of Gunvarrel might hold some clues as to her fate.

As for Kai, his head is still buried in the Kimijima reports - although the fourth report makes little sense to him, he still goes about unlocking the fifth despite scoffing at its talk of a robot rebellion precipitated by massive solar flares due to the impending death of the sun.  Perhaps he's scoffed at such claims a little prematurely however, as it seems that in this world truth can be just as strange as perceived fiction - but is Frau Koujiro responsible for what's going on?

It seems like I've said "this seems to be the point where Robotics;Notes gets good" too many times already, so I'm rather wary of crying wolf at this juncture.  However, surely this is the pivotal point where the series clicks into overdrive - its final minutes were pretty much what we've been waiting throughout the whole series thus far for, so hopefully it can pick this up and run with it without being overly distracted by the show's other (read: far less interesting) elements.  It may be too late to save Robotics;Notes as a whole, but there's still plenty of time to ensure that its second half impresses.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 12

Robotics;Notes returns from its New Year's break with a very specific focus, as we delve into the back story of Jun.

Although Kai is unperturbed (and indeed emboldened) in his efforts to unlock more Kimijima reports despite the warning of Aki's sister, Misaki, that he should stay well away from said reports.  Luckily for him, one of the flags for getting his hands on the fourth Kimijima report also ties directly into Jun's current concerns, as it's revealed that her robotics shop owner grandfather "Doc" is in hospital and seriously ill - what's more, he refuses to see his granddaughter as their tumultuous relationship continues.

With Jun also deciding to hand in her resignation with the Robotics Club, it's up to Kai to get to the bottom of things, revealing the exact reason for her hatred of robots after a childhood accident which also put her at odds with Doc, largely out of the latter's feelings of guilt and responsibility for the accident above all else.  Determined to resolve all of the issues at hand, Kai enlists Aki to reactivate the robots that were so loved by the community in his past, while also hoping to cure Jun of her childhood fear - a double-whammy which might just bring grandfather and granddaughter closer together into the bargain.

It was certainly about time we dug into Jun's back story at least a little, but at the same time this focus on one character also serves as a reminder of how slow the main thrust of Robotics;Notes story has been - we still aren't all that much closer to getting to the heart of what is going on in this world, and revelations that were talked up as recently as the previous episode are almost entirely ignored here.  I'm all for careful preparation and groundwork to give a series a strong foundation to launch from when things really kick into life, but it's now starting to feel as if Robotics;Notes is taking too long to reach that point in its progression.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 11

The GunPro-2 has been given the green light by the powers that be, but for Kai and Koujiro still have other fish to fry, with the latter in particular showing more than a passing interest in the Kimijima reports no matter how crazy their contents might sound.

Thus, the duo set out to unlock the third Kimijima report, which involves more long-winded and boring AR and geo-tagging related tasks before it can be unlocked.  While Kai is waiting to complete one particularly laborious task to unlock one of the required "flags", he finds himself beating the world's number one Kill-Ballad player - quite an achievement, but nothing compared to someone managed to infiltrate Koujiro's monitor system to look for cheats with a virus, which sees her deciding to send her Tokyo contacts to check up on this particular player.

From here, strange things soon begin to build up one after another - the completion of the required flags allows Kai to unlocked the third Kimijima report, revealing more about a conspiratorial plan to use the sun to destroy the planet, before rumours of a leak of that feted final episode of Gunvarrel leaking online turns into a reality, with the footage from that episode showing that the series took a leaf out of End of Evangelion's book for its finale in depicting... well, a plan to use the sun to destroy the planet.  With the top three Kill-Ballad players all revealed to have died several months previously despite their continued online presence, and with calls to Kai from all around (including Aki's sister) to stop looking into Kou Kimijima and his theory, something decidedly malicious appears to be afoot.

At last, it feels like the disparate elements of Robotics;Notes are on collision course in quite spectacular fashion, while still retaining plenty of mystery as to what's going on.  Although it isn't quite the same moment of jaw-dropping shock that brought us to the halfway point of Steins;Gate, it does feel like a moment where the series has "arrived" after perhaps being less direct than it could have been up to this point.  Tense times are likely to be afoot as we move into the second half of the series, and they couldn't have come at a better time.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 10

The first activation test of the GunPro-1 had hardly been a resounding success, so what next for Aki's dream of completing this robot?  Judging by some analysis that Subaru has thrown together, it seems as if she may have to finally accept that finishing this robot simply isn't a viable proposition.

Before that however, Kai again seems to be the centre of some unusual goings on - just as Sister Centipede is relating news of a new experiment carried out on her part, so something rather unique falls from the sky right next to him.  The item in question is (according to our AR-produced friend) a "monopole", that being a magnet with only a single pole - something that simply doesn't exist in the known world.  Whether or not Airi is correct in her analysis of the object, the promise of more similar items falling from the sky keeps Kai (joined by Subaru and Aki) waiting fruitlessly for just such an occurrence before giving up on the idea come the evening.

Indeed, the whole monopole thing seems to be quickly forgotten as attention returns to the future of the Robotics Club and what to do with their current project - an issue which demands a difficult choice of club president Aki.  As they return to JAXA to discuss things, Subaru makes a convincing case for abandoning the idea of creating a fully working GunPro-1, while others in the group offer up a decent way to get the best of both worlds by using AR to "cover up" what otherwise looks likely to be an ugly robot design.  Torn between completing GunPro-1 and reaching the Expo, Aki has to concede that working on what she dubs as "GunPro-2" is the only sensible way forward - assuming that other issues don't get in there way of course.

So, Robotics;Notes continues its slow and steady progress - its lack of any real focus on either the robotics or the conspiratorial side of the story makes it difficult to enthuse about this episode as a whole too much while it hedges its bets, and even ten episodes in it feels like we've barely scratched the surface of some of this stuff.  Perhaps next week's episode will be the one that turns it all around a la Steins;Gate?  It feels as though the show certainly needs an injection of something at this juncture, even if I'm not sure exactly what that something is.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 9

It's festival time as we reach episode nine of Robotics;Notes - and perfect timing it is too, on the eve of the final assembly of GunPro-1 and the final realisation of Aki's (and her sister's) dream.

Not that all of the members of the club are present at the festival - having been sent to collect Kuojiro to bring her along, Kai is instead dragged into another session of hunting down cheaters in Kill-Ballad amongst other things, while he also begins to at least start sharing some of his recent discoveries on the island with her given its possible ties with the death of her own mother and the mysteries surrounding it.

Aki also has to suffer without her full crew as the upper and lower halves of the GunPro-1 are finally merged, leaving them with a completed robot to play with at long last - come the next day, it's time for the machine's first activation test which, thanks to some comprehensive marketing from their sponsors, brings out quite a crowd.  Surely they will be nothing but awed by this behemoth activating and walking for the first time?  Err, not quite.... while the original design of the GunPro-1 was perhaps something quite spectacular for its time, almost a decade later its glacial movement and clunky internals do nothing but bore the crowd, before the robot breaks down entirely when its diesel generator gives up the ghost.  It's a tragic end to Aki's ambitions, especially given that her sister isn't responding to any of her photos showing the GunPro-1 in action, and it leaves some rather large questions as to where she and the rest of the robotics club go from here.

In some ways, this week's Robotics;Notes was a bit of a slow-burner - the first half of the episode didn't really take us anywhere significant and simply reinforced what has gone before. Thankfully, things picked up in the second half to deliver us the bitter-sweet construction and activation of the GunPro-1, which actually worked pretty well and at least went some way to suggesting that the show has done a half-decent job of fleshing out its characters to the point where we actually care about them and their endeavours.  Once again, we're left in the dark as to where the series goes from here, but it certainly has no shortage of directions to make full use of.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 8

Kidnapped and whisked away by men in black, it seems as if the Robotics Club has gotten itself in some rather major trouble...

...or not, as it turns out, as the group are simply dragged off to JAXA, where they're introduced to Nae Tennouji, an employee of the space agency who seems willing to offer the group exactly what they're looking for - assistance and funding in building a giant robot.  Although all of this seems too good to be true (and the presence of Aki's father blatantly suggests that strings are being pulled), nobody is going to look that kind of gift horse in the mouth... unless you're Aki, who refuses based on the requirement that the group starts work on building a new robot rather than finishing off the GunPro-1.

With that project back to square one, Kai returns to his unusual AI companion and the conspiracy that seems to be at her fingertips (not that AI have fingertips, but you know what I mean...) via the Kimijima reports - indeed, it seems that the means to unlock the second report is at his grasp, provided he can clear a few "flags".  While some of these requirements are easy, others are a little more difficult or time-consuming, and on Kai's part his decision to open up the protective shell of the radar tower at the centre of it all just before a typhoon hits is a stupid and almost deadly one.  Still, ultimately Kai wins the day, pushing us a little deeper into a world of illuminati and conspiracy theories.

Having felt like we were about to plunge headlong into the real meat of the series after last week's cliffhanger, I can't help but feel some sense of anti-climax here as we quickly shifted back to a slower-moving pace in terms of both the Robotics Club's efforts and Kai's investigations.  This episode also felt a little as if some of its more important moments were almost glosser over while less critical stuff was given more time to sink in - not to the extend of making things confusing, but just enough to feel a little dissatisfied at the end result.  Of course, if Steins;Gate is anything to go by we're still a little way off reaching the peak of the show, and its growing conspiracy and use of technology continues to be plenty interesting enough for the most part.

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.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 6

Kai has certainly stumbled across some intriguing stuff as of last week's episode of Robotics;Notes, but was is going to do with the elements he's uncovered from here?

The answer - do a little more digging, as he quizzes AI Airi some more, finding out that she is in some way lined to Aki's sister Misaki, which in trun is the reason that Airi knows all about Kai amongst other things.  The more important question seems to be what exactly lies within the abandoned building where Airi "lives", and with a little more investigation the source of the strange signals Kai has picked up becomes apparent - a bunch of equipment that is, ostensibly, simply firing signals out into space.  The whys and whereforths of this revelation are yet to be revealed....

Away from all of this, things seem to be looking up for the Robotics Club - despite her misgivings, Daitoku pays the club a visit and soon turns into a regular guest/member of the group, while Subaru is finally making some headway with the incredibly awkward to deal with Furugoori in terms of persuading her to program the Kill-Ballad control system to work with his M45 robot.  With Kona now officially a member (albeit a "remote worker" as she still refuses to leave her home) and sponsorship secured, the future is bright... at least, until Subaru's father turns up and throws a massive wrench into the proverbial works as some family drama comes home to roost.

It's that dramatic aspect of Robotics;Notes which is perhaps the worst thing about this week's episode - it arrives apropos of nothing into this instalment, and feels decidedly clichéd in its construction to resemble the kind of stuff we've seen in anime a million times before.  On the plus side, we've scratched a little deeper into the surface of the mystery that Kai has been looking into, and the character roster is being fleshed out nicely (although I still can't decide if Furugoori is hilarious or incredibly irritating... possibly both), so there's certainly no shortage of stuff to keep my interest provided the show can pull its disparate elements together as it progresses.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 5

As Aki continues her PR assault in the hope of sponsorship, Kai has other matters on his mind after his decidedly strange experience at the tail-end of the previous episode.

Thus, while the robotics club leader finds herself meeting some journalists interested in covering the club's adventures at Robo-One (at least, until Subaru shows up and becomes the new focus of their attention), Kai is looking into urban legends and the like which might explain his experience - to this end, he invites Daitoku along to point out some of the myths in the hope of tracking down the phenomenon which occurred to him.

This hunt in turn leads to some wider discussion of the world of Robotics;Notes - we already know a little about the trigger of Aki and Kai's illness, but it seems that other things are afoot with the climate and the like of the planet which are yet to be explained by scientists and the powers that be.  It's against this backdrop that Kai finally stumbles across and recreates his prior experience, and as he tracks it down further he finds what he's looking for - an errant AI which seems to know who he is, and imparts some very important information upon him.  Are solar flares and the impending death of the sun the cause of the world's meteorological mysteries, and is NASA spearheading a cover-up to avoid this information becoming publicly known?

It seems that we're now getting to the heart of Robotics;Notes conspiratorial story, via an episode that was slightly slow-going until it picked up markedly in its final third.  It's still hard to really fathom how the various threads of the overall story are going to come together, but then again that's half the fun, and for now the show is continuing to be pretty accomplished with enough moments of outright fun and entertainment (plus some reasonably smart use of its technological aspects) to be worth watching.  Besides, how can an anime which references the infamous UVB-76 possibly be bad?

Robotics;Notes - Episode 4

After their thrilling efforts at Robo-One, and success in terms of ensuring that their club survives the threat of being disbanded, it's time to start looking for funding and resources to complete said club's grander robotics project.

With this in mind, Aki clearly decides that it's not what you know but who you know that's important, leading her to the doorstep of JAXA and... her father, the president of one of the Japanese space administration's branches.  With plenty of emotional blackmail stacked up, she looks all set to succeed before other issues intervene and ruin her plan.

As Aki spends the episode alternating between finding other ways to earn the money she and the club needs and trying to persuade Kai and new (not to mention reluctant) recruit Subaru to do anything productive, we're also filled in on some other aspects of the show's world, with oddball transfer student Frau Koujiro moving into an impressively sized place of her own while established contact with Kai, and Subaru turning his attentions to the forthcoming Robo-One World Cup in which he looks to Kai's skills to assist him.  As for Kai himself, we pick up some more information about the disease which afflicts both himself and Aki, before a mysterious signal arriving at Kai's tablet bring the episode to a slightly ominous close.

After a thoroughly enjoyable episode last week, this latest instalment of Robotics;Notes was a more sedate affair which concerned itself with setting certain elements of its premise up and filling in some of the gaps in its narrative above all else - something which was undoubtedly necessary but isn't all that thrilling to watch after the slick entertainment that directly preceded it.  That said, the additional building blocks put into place within the series framework seem promising enough to be worth putting up with a less memorable episode for provided that the show executes well on them all.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 3

With a working robot and an innovative control system created to use those of video game Kill-Ballad, it's off to the Robo-One tournament we go for this week's Robotics;Notes.

No sooner does our dynamic duo (plus their teacher) arrive in Tokyo than we hit our first obstacle - their lack of budget means they have nowhere to stay, and thus nowhere to sleep.  Still, Aki and Kai endure and come the next morning they're ready for their first match-up bright and early... a match against a former finalist of this tournament, no less.  Thanks largely to Kai's abilities and his familiarity with their robot's control system, he breezes through this first match while making a fool of his opponent, and before we know it robot after robot is being crushed by Kaito's ruthless abilities and tactics.

With interest in the Tanegashima High School robotics club growing, and some seemingly high-powered onlookers watching over the whole thing (including Aki's sister, no less), it's time for the grand final against the flamboyant Mister Pleiades.... someone who looks decidedly familiar to Kai once you strip away the mask and the dumb outfit.  Although the final of Robo-One ends in defeat for the robotics club, it isn't completely without merit - not only does Kai put in a spirited display, but he also shows some rather unique abilities in the heat of battle that seem to be closely related to Aki's own medical condition, and more importantly this meeting with Mister Pleiades makes for a perfect opportunity for a little blackmail to ensure that the club isn't terminated by the school's headmistress.

Despite not focusing on the actual robot fighting side of things quite as much as I might have expected or enjoyed, this was another fun episode that still took enough time to give you a feel for the Robo-One and draw you sufficiently into the tournament to be engaged in its big finish.  This is all largely secondary however to the fact that the elements that seem likely to make up this series in the long-term are starting to come to the fore, between Aki's sister and her role in things and the arrival of a seemingly celebrity stranger on the island at the end of the episode.  In short, things are starting to warm up nicely for Robotics;Notes, and although it might not be quite as instantly enjoyable as Steins;Gate it's still doing a pretty good job of things thus far.