First Impressions – Robotics;Notes
Kaito-“Best anime series ever.” Akiho-“I agree!”
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If there was ever a fall series I was most excited for it would easily be Robotic;Notes and of course if you know me I really love anything that involves giant robots or advanced machines in general… So, were you as excited as I was for this series? I know most fans out there were just curious about this series because of Stiens;Gate and ChaoS;HEAd! You can also listen to me and Jrow talk about this series week by week with our new mini talk for Robotic;Notes. |
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I don’t want to overgeneralize, but I’ve noticed that most of the hubbub over Robotics;Notes is because it’s related to the illustrious Steins;Gate. It’s nice to conveniently forget about the ugly cousin, Chaos;Head and just pray on hands and knees that R;B is more like S;G. Trust me, I’m among the many hoping that Robotics;Notes follows in the great footsteps of the mad scientist HOUOUIN KYOUMA! …but with robots. |
Super special Production
Anime series inside an anime!? Whoa is your mind blown yet?
Akiho is ready for some some epic transformation scenes.
I think just about everyone watching anime right now knows they can always expect the highest level in animation quality from Production I.G. because they always do such amazing work, but how will they handle all the giant robot related artwork?! Thankfully they have a very large backlog of sci-fi/mecha themed anime ranging from Guilty Crown, Break Blade, Ghost in the shell, Evangelion, Patlabor, Rinne no Lagrange and of course their other science fiction anime this season Psycho-Pass. So, our robots are set up but what about the human characters? Robotic;notes uses designs by Chikashi Kubota who also worked random episodes of FMA, Naruto Shippuden, Gunbuster 2, Guilty Crown and The IDOLM@STER! That last show on this short list is good enough reason to watch.
Time to move right along to the cast of voice actors with the main cast of Yoshino Nanjo (Akiho), Ryohei Kimura (Kaito), Rie Kugimiya (Airi), Sora Tokui (Junna) and finally Yoshimasa Hosoya (Subaru). There are a few actors new to me in this series, but there are a few that you can instantly recognize after hearing them in the first episode. The last thing to mention from the production department is the great music provided by Yuuki Hayashi, Asami Tachibana and Takeshi Abo! Most of their work was on Steins;Gate, IDOLM@STER, FMA: Brotherhood, Sket Dance, Gundam 00 and recently with Kuroko’s Basketball. I can’t say stuff about music without the fantastic OP and adorable looking ED for this series (which I can’t find on Youtube), but I think this one is the best…
Hacking into the Characters
Akiho-“The future and beyond for the robotics club looks really intense!”
Kaito-“If you beat me at this game I promise to do some actual work.” Teacher-“……”
Kai – Unlike Okarin who was bursting with personality right from the get-go of Steins;Gate, Kai is more on the bland side. Maybe there’s a fountain of emotions bubbling beneath the surface and he’s just waiting to bowl us over with his charm, but for now he has the presence of a cardboard cut-out. He’s lazy and completely disinterested in interacting with people if he doesn’t have to. Even towards Aki, his feelings seem to be “not totally dislike” at best and she’s his best friend. Kai doesn’t appear anxious or shy, he just straight-up doesn’t like people or wasting energy. Instead of doing either of these things, he obsessively plays Kill-Ballad. His impressive ability in robot combat must help him later on in the story when he gets saddled with piloting robots. At least then he’ll do something! How they’ll convince him to stop playing for two seconds to do it is beyond me though. Maybe the creator of Kill-Ballade will permaban Kai for “cheating” and spark his interest in real life robotics.
Aki – Before I actually talk about Aki as a human being with feelings and dreams and ambitions (and all that crap), can I just gush about how adorable she is? :3 It’s so hard to find the sweet spot in the spectrum of “energetic” and “migraine-instigating hyperactivity.” Aki hits the sweet spot and manages to be upbeat without being annoying. She’s cute, positive and a good counterbalance to Kai’s indifference. Apparently those who are depressed (or pessimistic thinkers) have a more accurate view of reality while optimists are prone to all sorts of biases and distortions that aren’t actually true. We assume projects take less time, attribute our failures to external factors (I failed because the prof was mean!) instead of internal ones (I failed because I got wicked drunk and didn’t study…) and generally assume all hard work will pay off somehow even though that’s not the case. Aki is a self-proclaimed optimist, which explains why her idea of how long it will take to build a robot is so skewed. She someone thinks she can single-handedly build a robot, obtain an astronomical budget, and suddenly make a competition robot within an impossibly short period of time. She has no reasonable goals, yet she’s absolutely sure she can complete them. That somehow, her hard work will pay off in exactly the way she wants it to. Well, it doesn’t work like that unless you’re in an anime. Wait… Shit.
Whoa right off the bat we get some really great character interaction between Kaito Yashio and Akiho Senomiya even though it appeared as if Kaito was having fun messing with Akiho while he used his new tablet app to add kitty ears and dress her up as a maid and it does appear that both of them have shared interest in the not so popular robotics club. I think I was thrilled to discover that Kaito was actually a fun character to watch! I mean usually we get stuck with the boring male lead that either hates school, hardly has any friends or they tend to be very antisocial with EVERYONE around them. However, we don’t really know much about him right now so I can’t say for sure what he goes through on a daily basis at school or home besides challenging everyone to a video game duel with robots!
So besides that character I really think that Akiho is wonderful to watch and she easily steals the entire show for me! After watching her I started to think that she reminds me of a crazy combination of both Marika from Mouretsu Pirates, Madoka from Rinne no Lagrange and Nyaruko-san from Haiyore Nyaruko-san in terms of personality and being quite hyper and very upbeat character who has a general excitement for all things robotic? Oh and for the working fans out there you can’t deny that Akiho looks a lot like Popura, but I really want to know why she has a love of robots in the first place, like what sparked her interest into that subject? I am just going to just assume it was because of the anime series she mentioned in the episode? So what did you enjoy about these two characters so far or are you getting tired of having all these super positive main characters? I know a handful of people that really found Madoka and Marika’s personalities to be quite annoying…
Robots are so cool yo!
Exoskeleton helping people with everyday life~
Did anyone else notice that Mizua Irei was wearing a prosthetic on her legs and back?
From giant Gundams to small androids like Nano robots come in just about every size in the world of anime, but what kind of machine is the robotics club trying to build? I would say their special project leans more towards the giant size variety thanks to a certain anime and video game series! So what kinds of machines do you enjoy? Do you like the smaller ones like Nano or do you prefer something that you actually ride in to kick ass? I just really want to see what the robotics club ends up creating in the end!
After watching this episode I thought about sharing a bit about my real life and how it relates towards robots, most of the readers here already know that I use a mechanical wheelchair to get around, but of course if you did not know that and you are feeling curious you can read this old post! Anyway while my power chair might not be some super advanced thing, I still think it qualifies as a “robot” just in terms of having several mechanical parts and electronics inside. In the world of Robotic;Notes there was a short news scene that showed off some artificial arms and legs which got me thinking about a few news stories about people creating some exoskeleton type suits for both military use and medical which allows people to walk or carry something really heavy. I know the technology for a perfect suit is still in development right now but it always gives me hope for the future!
Extra robots
Kai-“Angry catgirl maids? When can I see this series…” Ahiko-“On of these days I will break that tablet.”
Robotic;notes x Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann! MAKE IT HAPPEN!
Kaito-“Wow you really need to work on your people skills teach…”
I love some cold Skal after a long day of making giant freaking robots.
To be honest, not a whole lot happened. It was a very simple opening episode that went at its own, steady pace. It was good, but not terribly exciting, and there wasn’t really any one hook that had me saying “bring on episode 2!” Even the creepy girl at the end of the episode didn’t do much for me other than baffle me. Robotics;Note will most likely be one of those slow burn shows that takes its time with everything. This isn’t a show about giant robots fighting each other as pilots scream dramatic things at each other from the cockpits. This is a more human approach where some regular teenagers scrounge around for parts and cobble together a robot the best they can, while making new friends along the way. It’s framed in more of a “ah, isn’t it nice to be young?” sort of way since completing the robot will be their big accomplishment before graduating and moving on with their lives to a job, college, university or what have you. The theme reminds me a bit of Little Buster…if Kyousuke had spontaneously decided to make a robot instead of form a baseball team. Robotics;Note is off to an unassuming start, but it has a lot of promise. It may slowly unfold into something great – or at least decent – in time. As more club members roll in, things should get interesting. Episode one wasn’t too hot, but the theme of building robots in high school is too unique to ignore.
Whoa I think I officially found my new favorite anime series for the fall season! I think I was won over thanks to the characters I mean both of them have such great personalities and they also have some fun chemistry together. I just loved watching Akiho to most because she was so enthusiastic about the club and everything robotic which helps her become a fan favorite of mine and I really adore those kinds of super positive characters because they always remind me of myself in terms of having fun with their everyday lives! So what else got me interested besides the characters? I would say the setting caught my attention and Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head are set in modern-ish worlds without having lots of super advanced technology to play with; however Robotic;notes is more of a science fiction series rather than giant robot series allowing just about anyone to get into it without the requirement of being a hardcore mecha fan.
Soooo what in the world happened at the end of this first episode?! We had the sudden appearance of a strange girl which has me asking all kinds of questions! Just who is she and what does she want? I think she might be from another school or she has a special interest in the robotics club or for a really far off guess, maybe she is an alien or a time travel character? Just kidding! I don’t think that would happen in this series or would they go for such a thing? Anyway I just can’t wait to see what happens next for Robotic;Notes!
Preview
Who or what is this mysterious girl?!
More adventures in robotics next week!
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Sweet… But not as exciting as I expected… Maybe because is the first episode.
Really, both characters have me interested, but I’m guessing there will be around three episodes for the plot to really start .-. It bothers me…
Still, I can’t ignore an anime series based from the same series of Steins;Gate \o/
Ah, and for the girl, I would bet that she can be a time-traveling girl. Why? Because the world where Robotics;Notes happens is the same of Steins;Gate, where there were time-travel machines for real, even though it came from the future.
And DAMN, why they didn’t even give a hint for the girl with mechanical parts O.O’ I wouldn’t have seen it if I didn’t read it!
Oh, it was just me who was concerned about Robotics;Notes not being made by the same studios of Steins;Gate? I think that the character design for Steins;Gate was more… charming.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
The charac design of the original material is different in the 1st place.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
My comment seems to be swallow monster fav right now lol. Help?
Also, since the VN OP lyrics frequently mention things related to space alien is more likely lol.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Rescued again. ^^
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
YAY ALIENS! Reminds me of Rinne no Lagrange then with all those moe alien girls showing up!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah first episodes generally serve as “introduction” to either the world or characters! I hope the 2nd talks a bit more about the robots and stuff like that.
YES! Both characters so far are a lot of fun together! I must have more!
True she could be a time traveler, but just because it is in the same “universe” as Steins doesn’t necessarily mean it HAS to be a time traveler…then again maybe she is? Either way I hope it is at least interesting or adds some mystery elements to Robotics;Notes.
LOLOL Yeah I missed that part with my first watch but I quickly hit pause and was like WAIT A minute! That girl is wearing something on her legs and back…and it fit my point I think nicely xD
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The opener was interesting enough, if not great or spectacular. It was a lot of talking between the two main characters, and a lot of background information. Interesting enough stuff, but some promise of more. There are definitely some cliches in there, like the guy who won’t work on the project, you know he’s going to come around and be all important in it, and the strict vice-principal is going to end up being a huge supporter. The trick for the show is going to be putting it together without being super cheesy (and a genki character like Aki doesn’t particularly help in that department).
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah not the most exciting first episode I can agree there and our two main characters did spend 90% of the time chatting away, but like you said it shows some promise.
OH Yes! I was thinking that about Kaito like alright here we go another “conserves energy” character? Oh boy how original! Wooooooo! Just kidding and I fully expect him to jump into action when he discovers something worth his energy.
But but but…I loves the geeky mecha girl <3 <3 hnngggg
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 304 comments
I liked it, but it wasn’t particularly exciting. It seems like this will be an anime that takes it’s time to build up. I hope that something actually happens soon. I’m pretty interested in why the last episode of that show wasn’t aired.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Could have been better agreed! I think the creators just wanted to get the character intros out of the way so they can focus on the robotics club getting built up again.
Yep! I can’t wait to see what happens next and I have my fingers crossed for twenty-two episodes instead of eleven! If she they have plenty of room to expand and give us some epic story.
POWUH: 600-699 and Wingman with 655 comments
one thing, i want that app on my phone period
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
ME TOO! WE NEED IT <3
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
3DS Project Mirai say hi.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Interesting. I’m new to a show like this because I’ve missed Chaos;Head completely and have come to regret not watching Steins;Gate when I had the chance because of all the positive talk. So there’s no leaving this one to chance for me even if there are no expectations. I think I’ll like this along with Psycho-Pass.
The OP is pretty cool. The intro almost sounded like the intro for Trust Company’s song “Downfall” but slower. I can’t for it to be officially released.
Gah, just like Guilty Crown, Accel World, Index, Railgun and Sword Art Online, I’m jealous of the technology these kids have in their hands. The interesting thing in this series is the tech is more in the realm of possibility because of the timeline. It’s close to us and it’s plausible thanks to the tech we have now unlike shows like SAO right now since that timeline is all the way to 2024 which is like exactly 12 years from now.
Kaito is the ideal posterboy for most otakus. His mentality is as real as you can get for this generation. He’s like Hyouka’s Houtarou but a lot more glued into his game and won’t do stuff unless you start twisting his arm (figuratively) to get him to move. He’s dull at this moment but there’s opportunity for growth here so it’s currently tolerable.
And speaking of Hyouka, just like Eru Chitanda, Akiho is hopelessly optimistic to the point she’s almost ditzy. It’s good for a laugh and she definitely brightens up the mood because of Kaito’s dreary atmosphere that’s radiating around him. You just learn to love characters like her despite her sometimes annoying traits.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Hmm, I was discussing this with some other folks, and to me, most of the technology they have in their hands is stuff we have now. Every iPad and iPhone can do face-time chats, smartphones can play fighting games, etc. I didn’t really see anything on their handhelds that wasn’t almost the same as what we could do. People just *don’t* particularly like to use video calls. And sure, those devices need wifi for that, but Robotics;Notes is supposedly set in 2019, so that’s not a lot of advancement in 6 years. For instance, if LTE meets its delivery schedule to the 4G spec, we’d easily have enough throughput available for that kind of video without wifi.
The robot is a little different, although that could probably be made now as well. We’ll see if they actually get some tech that would require a breakthrough (like, say, AW or SAO) later in the show, but so far I haven’t seen anything more than what we have now.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
They better not make any helmets that attach to your BRAIN in order to play or pilot their giant robot or I will face palm the ENTIRE time LOL
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ooooh well that is cool too BlackBriar! I watched both Chaos and Steins and I don’t think you HAVE to see those to understand Robotics;Notes…I mean if there is a connection you might be confused, but it shouldn’t make or break the series for you.
OP was good! It gets really good at the “Boku-tachi-wa” part that is where everything kicks in! I am listening to Downfall as I type this message and ahahah yeah it does sound a bit the same huh? Nice choice.
I know! Anime tech always makes me jealous…I want EVERYTHING! LOL Funny how you mention SAO timeline because I thought of the same thing even Accel World is closer to Robotic;Notes timeline.
Kaito’s motivation levels are at zero right now, but Akiho has to find something to get him going! I hope Kaito discovers something about his video game that sets him on fire to BUILD A GIANT ROBOT and yes he echos Houtarou so much right now.
Akiho = BEST FEMALE CHARACTER SO FAR oh god…she is going to be a tough fighter in the Sai-Moe next year along with Rikka from Chuuyboi xD
POWUH: iLurker with 3 comments
slow start, like steins;gate
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Hahah yep and hopefully things pick up soonish!
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Still think the VN OP > Anime OP
(Ps I linked the subtitled full song rather than the OP is due to potential spoilers. (maybe?)
Also, why do I feel like I am the only non-basher who is annoyed at Akiho genkiness!?? D: Everytime I saw her activate her genki mode I fell like shaking some sense into her literally and yell: “Earth to Akiho!!” Other than her moments though, I am fine with her. Just don’t go genki and unreasonabe on me lol. And I feel her pain for unable to see the last episode of her fav show lol.
Well on Kai though… At least he does not annoyed me the way Takumi did lol. He giving me Keima/Houtarou vibes. (Such a anti-social dude.) It a miracle tht he and Akiho are childhood friends. Show ▼
Totally did not realise shop lady has a prosthetic. Nice catch. Also Mitchie facial expression is slowly reaching Kirito expression at fishing episode standard lol.
On the story though…. Assuming the manga adaptation is faithfull to the VN, the anime is clearly speeding up things. So far in the manga I didn’t even know Mitchie have a crush on Shop Lady. And I like the fact tht you guys didn’t even mention Subaru who personality set to “being the biggest dick” lol.
I foresaw Skal is the next Dr Pepper lol. Wht drink they spoofing this time??
Also, as of now IIRC there 5 manga adaptation of this including the main series adaptation. Its another milk fest 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I have to check out that VN OP sometime thanks!
Ahahah well no problem there I know some people don’t like the ultra happy go luck characters THAT much because they can come off as super annoying, but I end up loving them a ton and I suppose they always remind me a bit of myself in terms of “excited-ness” if that makes sense Lol…
Yeah Kai is a interesting dude so far I can’t wait to see him spring into action and help build the giant robo <3
Yeah! I didn't catch it the first time until I had to take screencaps and was like WAIT A MINUTE! What was that on her leg? Ahhh! Interesting she has a prosthetic! I wonder if we will discover the why she does? I assume an accident with the robot?
Yeah I know nothing about the story so I am enjoying it for the robots and cool characters much like Sword Art Online! I haven't even checked out the LN for that but I plan on doing so AFTER the series ends.
AHAHAHA YES! Skal is the Dr Pepper of Robotics!
Ooooh fun xD
POWUH: iLurker with 6 comments
Nice podcast, and nice post.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Thanks! I hope you stick around for more xD
POWUH: 400-499 with 489 comments
tehehehehe seeing the main guy always playing videogames reminds me of Keima Katsuragi from The World only God knows
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 23 comments
Felt like i was rick rolled. I was expecting the actual robot with all the sparklez and super attacks that were in all the commercials and what do i get when i actually see the anime. NO ROBOT EXCEPT FOR A HUGE BULKY TIN CAN AND NO SUPER ROBOT!!! WHAT A KICK IN THE NUTS!!