Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「ここからは、俺たちのゲームだ」 (Kokokara wa Oretachi no Geemu da)
“This is Our Game Now”
Oh where oh where do I start to discuss the finale of Robotics;Notes? Was it up to my expectations (or rather lack of expectations)? To be frank, the ending was even more anticlimactic than I imagined (really?!) and the closure to the story came even faster than I thought possible. I feel like I’ve been really critical of Robotics;Notes for the past 3-4 episodes and that’s only because I’ve been expecting such great things for the final stretch… but its honestly been quite a letdown.
The final battle scene was a little bit slow for my taste. I understand that the whole scene was meant to reunite Kai, Aki and Misa. It’s meant to be the big showdown between Misa, Kai and Kou and it’s supposed to tie everything together. In the end, I almost felt none of that. I saw a giant modified GunPro-1 and the SUMERAGI going head on, in a slow motion battle for 20 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of a failed rocket launch and 5 minutes of the aftermath. Not only that, but I still have a ton of questions that are left in my head that make me think – well why couldn’t they do this or that or where was that 5 episodes ago? For half a year I’ve been anxiously awaiting the confrontation between Misa, Kou, Aki and Kai and unfortunately, those final minutes just didn’t do justice for a grand finale and there was far more that could’ve been explained and said.
I actually have a laundry list of questions left for this show, but my biggest complaint is how quickly the solution comes around; it’s all too perfect for my taste. I can accept things at face value – like the monopoles falling from the sky and Kou’s brainwashing abilities (he’s probably really charismatic for all I know!) and even Kona’s (still) missing mother. However, I just cannot accept the fact that Kou can be so easily destroyed. I know that he’s not “dead” since he’s a piece of data that is still floating in some virtual space, but to simply “delete” him away makes me just want to say, “Well I could’ve thought of that!“. Sawada (who hasn’t been seen in 3 episodes) could’ve even made an appearance to say so but everything was communicated to Frau and almost too simply. I always thought there’d be more epic way of saving Misa from her own demise and perhaps “locking Kou” in a file that can’t be accessed.
I always assumed that the ending would tie the big picture together and unfortunately, that is never fully realized in this finale. There are a ton of characters in this series with multiple personalities coming together and I actually would’ve appreciated seeing how it all made a difference. What is Junna’s role in this series again? Why does it matter that Subaru’s father hates robots? And where did Frau’s mother go? I’ve always imagined that somehow, all these things would tie together to give our Robotics Club a reason to build this GunPro robot together. Perhaps Aki was the glue that they needed to accomplish a mission that helped them overcome their individual issues. As cheesy as it was, I still didn’t feel the individual characters each contributing to the bigger picture. In the end, they all seemed to just blend together and become a mob of people that charged out to stop a rocket launch (and conveniently had the help of JAXA). When they confronted Misa, just what exactly happened there? How does this repair their sisterhood bond? How does Aki reach her sister now, but not when she was destroying robots at the convention?
Anyway, there are a ton of things I can nitpick the show on but when it comes down to it, the finale has come and gone. It is what it is and whether there are satisfied or unsatisfied viewers, at least there was an ending. Seemingly, all problems are solved and the world isn’t going to end. The epilogue doesn’t give very much indication where the world is headed now, but from what I can see, it seems like the kids are just going to keep doing what they love – build robots.
Full-length images: All about robots!
Epilogue:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Final Impressions:
When I started blogging Robotics;Notes, I had no intentions of watching it for a Steins;Gate sequel. I enjoyed Steins;Gate, but I never judged Robotics;Notes based on its predecessor. I think that’s why I thoroughly enjoyed the buildup in the beginning and I liked the cast for what they had to offer. They were different but each of them had their own quirks and with each episode, the audience learns more and more about this looming plot to destroy the world. As the plot thickened and there were more concepts and realities that surfaced, Robotics;Notes became less of a story about high school students, but more of a story about how their existence ties in with Kimijima Kou and all these other outliers in the story. Many times I was left wondering how it all makes sense and I tried to fill in the gaps on my own as the story progressed.
Not to worry though, halfway through the series you start to learn more about each of the Robotic Club members. My favorite episodes focused on Frau and Airi but Junna’s was emotional too. Then the final arc comes along… and it literally comes like a speeding train right at you. “The secret plan” is revealed and unfortunately, I also think that’s when the series started falling apart. What I loved most about Robotics;Notes was the interaction between characters and how I thought that this was an entire mystery that would be solved in the end. However, what actually ends up happening falls short of my expectations because of the show’s lack of attention to detail. Rather than giving me the interconnected stories and why each person is the way that they are, I think the show focused too much on what was actually happening and that took away from a lot of the earlier buildup.
As a whole, I think Robotics;Notes has a great story and I can tell that there’s a lot of potential there for a well told mystery. I felt that sense of urgency from Kimijima Kou’s reports and the first half of the anime set a whole new bar for the show. Whether or not the ending met the high expectations is debatable. Personally I still think it’s worth the watch and it’s a fun ride while it lasted, but please – word of caution – do not watch it expecting it to be something else. It is what it is – students building a giant robot to save the world.
Terrible finale.
The only enjoyable part was the “Gunvarrel Anhk Striker!!”…
I think my feelings towards this series can be summed up as:
“Came in because of S;G, left glad that it had so little to do with S;G (because how terrible it ended up being)”
So I guess all those people complaining about wasting 10 episodes in the beginning turned out to be right in the end, as this ending felt rushed as hell. Having such a great show end like . . .this. . . it is the beyond sad for any fan.
The Visual Novel had the exact same ending, so I’m not surprised, anyways… this adaptation was far from great.
I actually really liked the beginning, however the last five orso episodes more or less came across as a “Let’s get everyone back for a scene to create a feel-good ending… YAY!” I actually imagine the anime staff pulling an Aki-moment off here and that’s why the ending ended up rather lame (just like poor SUPER GunPro-1’s name).
I stopped watching around episode 14 because it was moving a little too slow. Steins gate had slow moments but the story was so compelling. judging by the ending, I’ll probably finish the show soon. thanks for blogging
The beginning of the show was great with Aki building her robot, but the scenes with Kai really annoyed me. Him getting more and more screentime pulled the anime down even more even though the Kimijima Reports were quite interesting. But sadly the last 5 or so episodes when they put both storylines together were nothing more than garbage. It didnt make sense and the realism totally flew out of the window. Not to mention that Misa beeing a totally worthless loser was quite a downer too. Well except for Aki you could just forget every character in this show, Aki was more or less the one carrying this show and she clearly deserved a better show than this was. Cant give it more than a 6/10 because of the horrible last few eps.
And what was up with Kais confession? The whole time the series makes us think he is in love with Misa and then it throws us that curveball? And Aki even accepts it? That sorry excuse of a person? She deserved much much better.
I thought there was one more episode left…
WHAT THE HELL MAN?!
I don’t remember how I felt about Chaos:Head,but Stein’s;Gate wrapped up nicely.
What kinda epilogue is that?! Who were those astronauts?! WHAT HAPPENED TO EVERYONE ELSE?!
(*)*@#)$*!%@)(*#%!%)
reminds of mass effect 3 ending doesn’t it.
shit is going down, characters struggle… abrupt derp end with no explanation. i would say petition it but they wouldn’t give two shits.
I wanted to grit my teeth with this comparison, but it made me laugh more that anything so it’s all good. But ME3’s ending was a total trainwreck, while this is just a 5-car pile-up 🙂
Kai wanted to become an astronaut but it was omitted from the Anime so it’s most likely Kai
That would’ve made a lot of sense… if they actually hinted that he wanted to be an astronaut. I guess they did infer that he loved rockets and space though.
In the drama cd it’s revealed that because of his medical condition, Kai could never become an
astronaut. The whole final scene was Hanada’s shit, he didn’t do any research before writing
the scripts I see.
Indeed, and guess who’s on the shoulder of Gunvarrel…
Bit late perhaps but Kai did mention that he wanted to be an astronaut once while talking to A.I Airi, think it was in the episode where he was trying to clear the flags for the second report
Actually i liked Chaos;Heads but I didn’t finish Steins;Gate( I stalled, never regained interest and had a huge pile on my anime list) I watched the 1st episode of this anime but it was just not my cup of tea.
I wonder what if all the anime adaptations are on a separate World Line?
Yeah…
I also wanted there to be more of a connection between the characters and was displeased that they got thrown aside in favor of singlemindedly focusing on Aki and Misa. The final plotline was also a mess. Disappointing. Pleiades and Frau were very enjoyable characters but I’m annoyed that they’re wasted on mediocrity.
They could’ve definitely expanded more into both their families… guess they ran out of time. That’s a whole other issue though – pacing >_<
Steins;Gate had those slow moments because it needed them for the story. Every little event going on plays in some way later. I didn’t watch this show, but I’m sad to heat that the finale was a letdown, and if it seemed like the first parts kind of went too slowly, they could’ve really pushed this finale into the last 5 episodes instead of one!
You wrote everything I was thinking Cherrie. I was really hooked but the ending just didn’t reel me in.
Can someone explain to me what was Kimijima Kou’s goal really was? Rushed ending? I think 2 more episodes would’ve done it. :/
his goal was to complete the experiment.
because…the experiment must be completed!
…yea…
His goal was one-minded because he was a computer program created for one purpose and one purpose only… To complete the experiment. The program doesn’t need to know why it does what it does, it just has to do it. This is coming from a computer programmer, lol
Yeah, that’s about right. It seems this anime fell apart right at the end, which is disappointing because everything else was fantastic.
So a bunch of armed guards were taken out by a girl and a group of old men at the Jaxa centre. Airi somehow knows just how Kamijou’s experimental interfaces work to obtain a slow mo box. Everyone leaves it up to their imaginations or AR to see what the robot is suppose to be. Misa’s supervisor just conveniently gives them some sweet tech despite the fact their robot was scrapped at the robotics expo. What irks me the most, they took the shell of a hunk of junk and turned it into a fighting robot in one night….
Adding to that, the report 0 from Misaki was completely forgotten, we still have no idea what happened between Kimijima Kou and Misaki in the past and Kai who collapsed from the strain of just one Noah-triggered heart attack, kept fighting after taking so many of them and even continued for quite a while after the fight instead of at least collapsing right after winning and being saved from the robot.
@HakumeiJin
The Report No.0 detailed how Misaki hid the reports and setup the flags on Tanegashima under
Kimijima’s instruction a decade ago. The report is the beginning of all things, and she deleted
it to show herself the determination to end this mess, be it good or bad.
The past of Kimijima and Misaki is concluded in the prelude novel “Senomiya Misaki’s Unpublished
Notes”.
I never went into this expecting it to be of the level of Steins;Gate either, but I’m dissapointed either way. Dissapointed because all the build-up led to a terrible finale, dissapointed because so many characters felt useless and dissapointed that some many interesting ideas were simply used once and then tossed away – this show is a mess.
It just doesn’t tie together very well. It had promise, sure, but I can’t even begin to count the amount of loose ends, contrived plot elements and deus ex machina’s this show has. I mean, if you’re making a story, make things have a point! Use your time well! Explain how everything has a role in the grander picture of things! Because in this show, you could excise entire characters and still not miss a thing (hello, Junna). The robot-building parts and the conspiracy stuff feel disjointed, and the show takes a long, looong time to finally get going. And then it all amounts to this pitiful excuse for a battle to save the world? The villains just look like complete pushovers, and the protagonists like something you’d find on a particularly cliché’d kids show!
It just…ugh. I could nitpick this show to death if I wanted to, but I don’t care enough about it to do just that, I just want to put it out of my mind at this point. The trope ‘They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot’ very much applies here. It had some good episodes, at least one memorable character (Frau!) and some of the build-up was interesting, but it just leaves me empty at the end of it. Ugh. I need a freaking drink.
Everything after Kai released the reports over the internet was a slow tumble downhill. Honestly pretty disappointed. The suspense and buildup were fantastic and then…
The last few episodes of this show was just too surreal, if you can say that about an anime that involves robots. But rather than go down the “did this shit really happen” route, I’ll just point out where exactly they fucked up:
MIZUKA’S DEATH.
Not only was it completely unnecessary, it turned the plot on it’s head way before the ridiculous plot twists. Call it a steam-roll effect if you will, but they just had so much BS happening at that time & right after, that they fell behind on trying to give it any meaning. It was like trying to listen in on 3 different conversations at once.
It’s not a trainwreck by any means, but it just feels undone.
Why tell a story if you’re just going to half-ass it at the end?!
I can’t believe I even had hopes for a decent ending.
Too much justice for me.
Wow I was really enjoying the first half of the show but with all that happened the second half and that ending I just can help but fell terrible disappointment on where the show went. I don’t even know if I can even recommend the show for anything now. Kinda felt I wasted my time.
Oh well if I didn’t take risks I woulda missed stiens gate so sometimes it’s worth trying. Time to see what other anime finales are.
I honestly don’t think the flaws of the series started with the finale. I think the fundamental problem lies in the pacing and focus of the whole anime. It spent too little time developing the plot. It tries to be a slice of life celebration of robots but also tries to shoehorn a conspiracy together. It never really worked out and some of the filler scenes just took tension away and slowed down the plot. It’s as if there was a switch that flipped between these two modes without actually blending well. By the time the series was on it’s last few episodes, we’re left with so many plot holes and little to no reason as to why things led to the way they are at the end.
There are a lot of scenes that just bogged down the pacing and took way too much time. For example, did we really need to see all these scenes of Kai setting flags? Is the scene where he’s staring at a cave wall, building a wall of rocks, or learning to surf important enough that you need to see every step he needs to take to get them? Why are we switching to the Robotics Club building robots to inspiring music again when something major in the conspiracy happened? It needed those times to flesh out the characters and important events such as elaborating more about what happened in the SS Anemone incident and the importance of Kai and Aki’s ‘powers’ which ended up being just a convenient gimmick in the end (Aki’s condition was never mentioned again). As the blog post stated, Frau’s mother is still missing and we also never knew why Subaru’s dad was so venomous about robots. Nae just seemed there just for being a cameo and knocking down bad guys and Junna’s reason for being in the club is not clear.
The pacing was so off and slow that when important events happen (Kona’s attempted suicide and Mizuka’s death), they seem so sudden and forced as if it’s trying to get us to watch the next episode. When these events happened, it failed to roll with the momentum and instead slowed down again. I wish it could have been a more smoother transition. They could have fleshed out Mizuka as a character in particular. Her relation to Kai needs to be developed more. Don’t even want to delve into Misaki and Kimijima Kou :\.
In the end, the conspiracy part now just feels tacked on instead of being engaging or exciting because it took so long to develop. It attempted to tie all the loose ends in the last few episodes but it ended up being more of a mess. Somehow the fate of 5 billion people were on the line but for some reason I felt no tension because the conspiracy part was handled poorly. Steins;Gate was all about saving one person and it managed to make it feel like the stakes were much higher and gloomier then it is in Robotics;Notes.
I don’t hate the series as much as this rant made me seem but the best way I could put it is that the series was mediocre. The characters were quirky and likeable but I do agree with the post in that they needed to have more of a defining role in building the robot. I do sincerely appreciate how much passion the series tries to instill into us about robots but the whole journey felt really messy. (Thanks to anyone for reading this long post)
“Somehow the fate of 5 billion people were on the line but for some reason I felt no tension because the conspiracy part was handled poorly. Steins;Gate was all about saving one person and it managed to make it feel like the stakes were much higher and gloomier then it is in Robotics;Notes.”
Couldn’t agree more. Very well put.
Indeed. It sums up the show right there.
Poor execution was this show’s undoing, really.
Love the breakdown. You can’t even call it nitpicking – mainly because there’s no way to nitpick with this show. They didn’t even try small details in this show, so they couldn’t mess them up. They just missed the boat, or maybe there was no boat to begin with.
I believe you took the words right out of my mouth. The plot is so full of holes and the pacing so plodding-then-rushed that even Chaos;HEAD looks better in comparison. In fact, I’ll go one further – anyone who raises this show up as an example of sterling characterization (including one particular writer here on his own blog) is at best mistaken.
Let’s start with the side characters. Junna was, honestly, a generic moeblob – and her ‘character episode’ wasn’t about her at all, but about Doc. If you gender-flipped Subaru he wouldn’t be out of place in any generic rom-com, and his character got absolutely no closure on… anything. You still don’t know what’s up with his father, he still seems doomed to be a fisherman – heck, you don’t even know whether he’ll recover properly or not. And, ultimately, both of the above characters had basically no plot relevance except to be exposition and robot construction staff which were frankly rendered irrelevant once Doc was on board.
The antagonists are no better. Kimijima was, to all intents and purposes in this anime, a Saturday morning cartoon villain, replete with pointless Evil Overlord speeches, proclamations of doom, and constantly letting the protagonists get away. (Caveat: I’m to understand that the VN actually does elaborate a bit more on his motivations, but none of that showed up in the anime.) Misaki’s motivations, while eventually clearly spelled out, were not just poorly thought-out (let’s give my loved ones a 16% chance of survival!), but also generic in the extreme, lifted directly from generations of sentai and super robot shows – and, like said generations of sentai and super robot shows, with any inconsistent characterization handwaved away by ‘oh, electronic brainwashing’.
And yes, even Kai suffers from inconsistent characterization. His second-half incarnation is actually somewhat more consistent – a young kid who just wants his loved ones back, driven more by emotion than logic no matter his exterior. That much is fine. It’s his first-half incarnation that makes him flip from a slightly apathetic but caring individual (which wouldn’t be that inconsistent with the later half) to, basically, whatever the plot calls for him to be at any given point in time. Kai talking to Subaru is different from Kai talking to Junna is different from Kai talking to Frau. For all the side-character arcs, Kai was basically a plot convenience.
At the end of it, like I’ve commented before, this seems to have been an exercise in marrying super robot tropes into a realistic setting – and, in failing to make either a smooth transition or establish a proper middle ground, instead just feels like a poorly narrated mess driven to a sunshine-end by a legion of plot contrivances. And character-wise, nearly every character is ultimately forgettable, except for Frau and, surprisingly, Aki – surprisingly for me, because her character was always the most personally irritating for me, and yet by the end she arguably experienced the most actual character growth and consistency. (Although I suppose it’s less difficult to be consistent when your entire first half actions consist of ‘build robot!’ and ‘moon over absent sister’.)
…and, in writing this, I managed to completely forget about Airi. Which basically summarizes how little relevance and characterization she had, and how little feeling she managed to evoke.
Good insight and follow-up. I did not dive too much into the flaws of character development but you did a great job of providing some extra commentary on how shallow and inconsistent some of it is. I agree with you on Frau, she was definitely one of the more memorable ones. I’ll try to fill in more on her.
She had a good reason to be in the club. Her episode in particular illuminated her reason for being in it and seeing the success of the robot. She takes great pride in her Kill-Ballad as it’s a way to preserve memories of her mother. Her love for her mother translated into her love for Gunvarrel. She doesn’t know if her mother is even alive and the only thing she can do at the moment is keep her legacy going. A great moment was when she cried tears of joy when Kai said he liked her game.
I am disappointed that the scope of Frau’s development seemed to be limited to just that episode though. I wanted small scenes with Frau throughout the series that hinted that she still loved Kai or maybe even showing her feelings for the Robotics Club from time to time (maybe her getting emotional when Gunvarrel was getting built?). I wanted signs that showed she changed after that episode or that she was the same Frau from then. She seemed to revert to being just comic-relief and her side plot in finding her mother was forgotten altogether.
All in all, this adaptation was a mess. There are some loose ends even in the VN, but it
has way more characterization.
If you ask me, Junna and Subaru are the Feiris and Ruka of R;N. They might be the weaker
cast, but still got time to develop further in their own arcs, whereas it’s boom and gone
in the anime.
Oh Misaki ad Airi. They were just the puppet dolls for Kimijima to control. You couldn’t
possibly attach to them. In the VN, there are a great deal of times you actually get into
the head of Misaki, with all those psychological monologues. At one point she even
questions herself if she’s Kimijima fitted with Misaki’s memory. When Aki finally recovered
from her coma after the SS Anemone Incident, Misaki said she will die for seeing Aki’s
smile again. She isolated herself from the ones she loved so that she can’t hurt them. In
those ten years, she was fighting a losing battle against Kimijima, alone. But fate is so
cruel that she intertwines with Kai and Aki again. All she wants is that they can kill her
to end this nightmare once and for all. As we all know she got her happy ending in the hands
of Kai, which she most deserved.
Airi has her moments too. She is always the kind little cutie. Even in a grim situation,
she still trusts Kimijima with her whole heart. But then her world breaks apart when that
bastard reveals that he had brutally killed her parents and tries to control her with that
weakness. Thankfully, Geji-nee betrays Kimijima and saves Airi. Before Geji-nee got erased,
Airi finally understands that Geji-nee isn’t a mere program, but her half-self that watches
over her and experiences the world while she was asleep. Now the two halves who got
separated for so long become one again. Emotions, memories and pain rush through Airi’s
mind. Her parent dead. She trusted Kimijima, but it’s all a lie. She can’t take it anymore
and breaks down in Kai’s arms, while it’s still raining. What a bittersweet scene. It might
be painful, but now Airi is finally free of Kimijima’s evil and can start her life anew.
The Kimijima in the anime is just a cardboard villain compared to his original.
Curse Hanada!
Thank you all again for taking the time to read or reply to my post. I really like posting in the RC community because a lot of you always have something interesting to say. 🙂
Yeah! Now I finally know why Airi’s parents never showed up (like when she was put to sleep or when woke up). Too bad anime left out so much stuff.
I really wanted to like this show considering Steins;Gate is one of my all-time favorites. It did have some good parts and likable characters (Frau especially), but I have to say that I kept waiting for that moment this show would pull me in, and it never really happened.
It never quite felt like something huge was at stake even though the show was trying to tell us that this villain is going to destroy the world. It was difficult to empathize with the main characters during the final few episodes. Romance between Kai and Aki felt poorly developed and everything seemed to fall into place together too conveniently.
Again, I don’t think this was a bad show overall and people’s expectations were probably too high because of this series’ predecessors, but it doesn’t change that I was still disappointed and thought the ending was particularly unsatisfying.
Hopefully they will get a more satisfactory conclusion when it inevitably get a shot at Super Robot Wars.
Chiyomaru said no SRW for R;N.
I- I have no words.
I, uh, was kind of looking forward to somebody dying. It could have been Misaki, but I wanted it to be Kai. What was the point of him being in pain if absolutely nothing bad happened to him? The show raised a death flag with a confession very few people thought was necessary, and then it didn’t follow through on it. For me, it was more of a frustrating finale than a satisfying one
I never thought anyone was going to die… not after the past few episodes. It just seemed more like a PG rated show than an adult show after all the kids banned together to help complete a robot to save the world! It would’ve left more of an actual impact if Misa passed though >_>
we got a crap ending for a crap series. ok.jpg
What anime has 22 episodes as a full run anyway?!
All noitamina shows are 22 episodes… >_> if they’re over one cour.
Hence why most of them end up being INCREDIBLY RUSHED.
60 hrs worth of story packed into 22 episodes. Just great.
The last few episodes of this show reminded me a lot of the movie Summer Wars where another close knit community pulls together to defeat some virtual Big Bad. Also the seemingly miraculous instruments the protagonists obtained rather rapidly allowing them to win. Just another example of a story with a great lead up but then stumbles at the end. In fact most mystery stories fall apart once every plot point has been illuminated. Just look at the American TV show Lost as the perfect example and the creators of that had a whole two 13 episode seasons to stick the landing and they face planted instead (at least IMO)
Pretty mediocre finale. ):
I never got my answers to Monopoles & the SS Anemone syndrome seemed like it was just there for the sake of beating Kou. Was pretty shocked at the lack of repercussions too.
Still somewhat enjoyable but this was really rushed.
A little too many loose ends and plotholes for my liking, but still solid series. 4/5 stars from me. Maybe we became too spoiled by Steins;Gate!
The AR Missile was just horribly executed…
Every damn person there had a pokecom on them, they could have installed and rebooted any one of them to launch the program at kimijima kou and they decide the one pokecom they’ll reboot and install it on is the one controlling their robot?
Are you f’ing me?
Ahhh! I really wanted Misa to be bad. Everything ended too fast and too happy. At this point, misaki’s dead really looks unnecessary . What enjoyed until the end was Frau character..she was really funny!
Sadly it fell short of my expectations
My honest feelings – this is nowhere near Steins;Gate. I’m glad I dropped it at around episode 10. Well, being compared to a masterpiece like Steins;Gate definitely hurt this series and probably not even justifiable.
it just lacked umph after all the buildup
I never really felt any sense of urgency coming from this series. It never really gave a “holy crap the whole world could end if we don’t do something” vibe. I liked most of the characters in the series, but it felt like a whole bunch of them…well…really didn’t do anything in the end? As also mentioned in the write up – there were way too many loopholes for my liking. Things like where the hell the Monopoles came from, what happened to Frau’s mother, how the heck do the missiles detonate without actually hitting anything, and what exactly was the experiment that Kou conducted on the ship that caused Kai and Aki those “powers”? Also I was wondering why that gadget triggered Kai’s seizure but not Aki’s…
So many questions but so few answered. Overall, I think the first half of the series raised the bar way too high, and the second half fell way short of reaching it. I also had the same feeling with the other 2-cour show in Psycho Pass, where everything after Makishima’s capture felt flat. Disappointed in these two shows final run…
At least Psycho-Pass left you feeling intellectually satisfied, if not viscerally so. This show constantly felt like it was insulting my intelligence.
I mean, really, plot-wise this show’s many asspulls – because, frankly, they were – managed to be less explained than even SAO’s. And when you feel like you rely more on deus ex machina than the show with an actual deus ex machina…. well.
Wow.
Thought I was going to see a bunch of apologist statements thrown about when I clicked on this review. But nope, these comments are nothing but the cold hard facts.
The show tried; it failed. No excuses.
One thing I hate about anime is that, the author tend to leave all sorts of questions at the end just for the sake of chances to get at least some OVA or something. That’s about ending, and when it comes to beginning, they tend to do it like their anime will be going to be a long show. Thus, the story will be drag for a lot of episodes or even fillers before the real stories comes in. To sum it up, too much introduction, too little explanation and unsatisfying conclusions.
You think only anime does that?
El psy con- wait… wrong series….
This final episode is fucked up big time. It’s wayyyyy more intense and emotional in the VN.
– There’s are no Frau’s stupid comments to ruin the atomsphere.
– When Nae’s squad arrives at the control tower, they find that all the commandos have been
suicided. They also find Aki’s father. Yes, Misaki didn’t release her father earlier like
the anime.
– Sawada has previously told Kai that they will find a way to eliminate Kimijima. In Daru’s
last entry on the Twipo, he said he’ll do anything for the sake of his wife and daughter.
Like the DG297, the virus AR missile is also a product of Daru. When Kai is battling the
KAMINAGI, Sawada personally comunicates with Kai and transfers the virus to him.
– When Misa-nee regains control due to her pride and charges Kai, he intentionally gets hit by
Misaki(how brave!) so he can use his slow-mo to strike her in blank point. But when time
flows again, Misaki releases the blade in the last moment and jumps backward. As the KAMINAGI
jumps further away, Kai suddenly remembers Doc has said that he can launch the pile bunker,
but it’s a one-shot attack and won’t be able to fight after that. Without any hesitation, he
urges Aki to use the Noah AGAIN, in great pain he shouts “GUNVARREL ANKH STRIKERRR!” and
launches the pile bunker – it directly hits the hatch of KAMINAGI in the midair. As the
KAMINAGI falls, Kai comments that as its monitor is built into the hatch, Misaki has to open
it if she wants to continue the fight, in turn exposing Kimijima to their virus. And so he
does. Kai uses his slow-mo a final time to capture Kimijima’s flashing ghost and fires the AR
missile. While still in slowtime, a completely silent world, Kai is sure that he saw Misa-nee
smiled and said “Thank you”. The missile hits Kimijima, the virus spreads across the Iruo
network and eats him away quickly. Misaki faints, with a piano BGM(that BGM in the anime
sucks), the shattering Kimijima appears to give his final warning.
– Aki doesn’t have her stupid, out of place speech to Misa-nee in the VN.
– The look and tone of Kimijima are more sinister in the VN. His face is so twisted that you
can’t possibly tell whether he’s smiling or crying most of the time, whereas in the anime,
he’s just your average bishounen. They even omitted the fact that he killed Airi’s parent
for his own amusement and a way to control Airi in ep 21. A true mad scientist like Norose.
– They dare to make that shit in the final scene without revealing Kai’s dream in the previous
episodes. And the fact that he won’t be able to become an astronaut due to his medical
condition.
I hate Hanada ever more. Chiyomaru should never let Hanada handling the adaptations ever again.
Well…there is probably nothing left I can say now…
I personally recommend lots of people who didn’t touch the VN before the anime series start to avoid the VN in favor of the upcoming animation (I thought Production I.G could be able to handle this subject pretty well)…I ‘m so wrong!!!
@name
Hey don’t blame Production I.G. It’s ALWAYS Hanada. Shit now the S;G movie is ruined.
So Kai wasn’t one of the astronauts?
@sealouse
Yes. Unless Kai somehow got cured magically.
after the rocket took off I could hear the collective sigh of disappointment and confusion of my brothers and sisters, echo throughout this world line. Must text the Microwave! Let’s start over before Mizuka’s death please!… please? I really liked this one till it lost itself.
Eh, I don’t find the ending is tht bad but not tht good either, overall an OK/passable ending. Though judging by @Kansokusha comment the anime derped a bit….. Why u no in englidh R;N VN T_T
Now I’m curious abt the Occultic;Nine LN & the manga of the prequel LN….
They were trying too hard with the robot thing. I’m pretty sure the JSDF or whatever could have arrived and destroyed the launch facility/SUMERAGI in the time it took them to build that fucking robot. >_>
Looks like it was a good decision to skip this series.
I watched the first episode with this bad feeling in my gut throughout the episode, so I decided to put this on hold. I guess my guy was right this time around.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_7B33zxdX3k/UU8On3gMxvI/AAAAAAAAJY0/ux-hhHU1M-k/s1600/Evangelion+Robotics+notes.png
no more, i think this would be better than what happened xD
this ending sucks :/
reminds me Guilty crown last year(super-hyped, in this case because of steins;gate, to after all expectations it had become really bad)
good luck at the next try, 5pb.
Have mercy, People!!!!!!!!!
The ending wasn’t that bad IMO!!!
In all honesty, the ending wasn’t like TERRIBLE! It wasn’t to the point that you’d want to bash your head against something >_> I think it’s only “so bad” because people were expecting more. And the anime did set itself up for a really epic ending if it was properly showcased.
NoSicko, I hear you. It wasn’t that bad if you take it by itself. I wasn’t left with a bad taste in my mouth, though I was really disappointed with several plot holes in the episode. However, as Cherrie said, it set itself up for a great ending but it failed to capitalize on this opportunity. I think the writers got lost in the sea of loose plot threads and couldn’t figure out a way to tie them all together in the amount of episodes they had. I am thinking about creating a tool that will allow you to start plot threads while you are watching a show so you can seen when they are resolved and how many separate plot threads are going at one time. This show has inspired me to create this, but don’t expect anything too soon 😛
It wasn’t that bad or maybe I just didn’t expect a lot. A light-hearted anime with snippets of dark elements added into it, in my opinion it was the direct opposite of Steins;Gate.
The overall concept was promising and their aim to make it as realistic as possible is the best part of it. It had its rough moments and yes a lot of plot holes were left behind but its not that bothersome unless you really are into nitpicking.
If it had gone a bit darker in theme maybe it could have fared better, but it is what it is and the ending fitted right in.
What really makes this show disappointing to me when comparing it to Steins;Gate is that S;G at least explained their time travelling theories like divergence ratios or attractor field convergence etc. whether we understood them or not the explanations were there. R;N however did nothing of the sort.
How did they use the monopole magnets to make monopole motors? Where did they even come from in the first place? What part of the robot did they actually build themselves? If this was a show about students building robots why can’t I see them doing the actual building of the robot? The only ones I saw doing actual work on the robot were Subaru and Frau and they’re not even the main characters of the show. There’s so much they failed to show throughout the series which they expect the viewer to get immediately.
“Oh, these are where the parts came from and the robot will then magically build itself in the next episode” Bu|| $hi+! There’s more to building robots than just acquiring the parts. How can you expect viewers to appreciate building robots to save the earth if you can’t even show the main characters putting their time and effort in building a robot?! It’s not good enough for Aki to say “I love robots”. They should have shown her working late at night trying to fix the robot putting her passion into the actual building rather than just saying “I love robots” and expect the viewers to think she sacrificed a lot for the robot.
For a show which has the title Robotics;Notes the only thing they mentioned about robots was that it needs a good motor and that it’s very expensive.
my my good things i have been dropped this things after episode 20
R:N seriously went downhill as much almost fall to Guilty crown downhole
I can’t really hate R;N but the ending was really a very big downer, i had higher expectations of it, all i can say is that it lacked IMPACT .. compared to Psycho Pass and Zetsuen no Tempest (where everything comes together wonderfully) Robotics;Notes failed to do that.
Examples, where did the Monopoles come from !!? (they are a blatant deus-ex-machina in every sense of the word .. god that comes down from the sky to solve everything, i thought they will be explained later .. but nothing at all), then there is the goal of Kou and what really motivate him .. we never got any reason for all the chaos he caused .. “I just want my plan to succeeded” doesn’t sound like a a good motive to kill 5 billion people.
Also .. who are the committee of 300 .. were they a lie by Kou or were they the good guys (like the girl from JAXA and the guy who worked with Misa) !!? nothing explained again .. what about Kona’s mother, was she killed, how !!? .. who killed her ? .. is she still alive ? .. where is she if she is alive ? .. etc etc
There are just so many of sub-plots and threads that are just created, hyped then left hanging in the air and never resolved or explained .. that damages the overall series value and enjoyment pretty badly (despite it having a lot of excellent moments and a great start).
It seemed the series creators had the same mindset as Aki, explanations and consistency don’t matter as long as you have guts, strong emotions and scream your cheesy ideals from the top of your lungs .. sorry .. if you want to see how this is done right .. check Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure .. which despite the bizarreness and over-the-top emotional acting of the characters it remains consistent and explains things whenever possible without leavening behind tons of unresolved matters.
And by the way, i haven’t seen S;G yet only watched 2 or 3 episodes when it first aired and probably decided to continue watching it later (it was admittedly very slow at its beginnings).. and i’m saying that becasue i wanted to point out that my opinion of R;N isn’t based on comparing it with S;G and having high expectations becasue of that, but the series itself (R;N) set us up for a lot of expectations, it created lots of seemingly interesting plot threads with the hope of tying them all somehow in an epic finale .. but failed to do that .. hence the very big disappointment.
For a finale this was bad. It was too rushed after the final fight. This should of been a longer episode or should of had one more episode as a finale centered around what happened after the final fight.
Ah… look at all the hate…
Well, for what it’s worth, I liked following the main story of Aki and how she continued to persevere despite the constant setbacks.
Meh, maybe it was because I never had any expectations to begin with, but I felt it was a suitably enjoyable series about the classic and idealistic good versus evil trope that was so well-loved in the 80s Super Robot shows, all while set in a rather realistic setting. Perhaps it is precisely because of this realistic setting that I never felt that the finale had to be epic in the first place (with actual Super Robots or an amazing fight). But still, the emotions were there and I did feel myself rooting for the characters whom we have been following since the very first episode – which is more than I can say for many other shows.
I like it 🙂
I feel the emotion.
The mystery is solved.
Though the antagonist (Committee of 300) of the Science Adventure series remains hidden.
Never played the VN so I can’t compare.
Look here for an insight on how the Science Adventure series links up:
http://steins-gate.wikia.com/wiki/Committee_of_300
Seeing the school cheering on and helping with the robot reminds me of Raijin-oh.
A super realistic version.
SUMERAGI looks like something out of Code Geass.
N-IV a relic of Chaos;Head?
Gonna miss Kona’s otaku antics.
Mizuka’s death scene has the most impact to me.
Nae turn out to take after Suzuha (bike rider and martial arts), though I’m not sure what is the history of Nae in this World Line.
Wonder if there will be other World Line versions of Robotics;Notes?
Or what happens in The Steins Gate is unique to this World Line?
Slowly some kind of multiverse is building up around the Steins;Gate world.
Wonders whats next in the Science Adventure series.
They are made of impressive leather which is waterproof and anti-damaging