Will Robotics;Notes stand on the shoulders of its predecessors, or just in their shadow?
The episode started with an obvious shout-out to Steins;Gate and ended with an obvious shout-out to Chaos;Head, which begs the question--how much will Robotics;Notes be able to do its own thing? At the moment, the premise is simple enough--a few years ago, THE BEST MECHA ANIME EVAR aired, with the exception of the final episode, and everyone around the world also bought into the hype, creating international interest in robotics technology. Our heroes are in a robotics club that is trying to build the character from the show, and thanks to the opening scene, we already know that they'll probably succeed.
It's not a bad premise, but it doesn't light a fire under me either, since I'm not too big on mecha anime in the first place. However, building giant robots is always cool, so I'm willing to give this a shot. I'm just not sure how much of this show will ape the plot progression and and random bits of its predecessors. That cybernetics company looks like a great successor for SERN. Our lead character is another "weird to society but totally relatable to otaku watching this show" kind of guy, but he lacks a lot of personality. More on that later. We also already have our characters' drink of choice, Skal, which according to Google is some kind of milk soda, I think? That sounds really bizarre. Anyway, I wonder how these points would come across if I'd never seen Steins;Gate or Chaos;Head. Maybe they stand out so much because they're starting to become formulaic to me?
And aside from that, nothing really happens in this episode. The technology is really interesting, but the episode can't carry itself on that alone. And the sole personality trait of our perspective character is that he's obsessed with a video game. Note that I called him the "perspective character," not the "main character," because he does nothing to move the plot in the entire episode. I understand that he's a product of the visual novel template and that the genre needs a character who's role the audience can assume to play the game, but I think that the main character so far is Akiho. She's the one that's driven to complete the robot and takes steps to that end.
Overall, this is a slow start since the episode doesn't accomplish a lot besides reference what came before it with a promise of more of the same. That said, there's a good opportunity here to subvert expectations and completely break away from what the other shows have done. Otherwise, it looks like Robotics;Notes will have to rely on the strength of its own narrative if it wants the same success as Steins;Gate, and I wish it good luck. It does have an earnestness to it that comes out through Akiho, and tapping that may be this show's path to standing on its own.
Images from Funimation.com.
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