「夢が終わっちゃったら、寂しい」 (Yume ga Owacchattara, Sabishii)
“It’s Sad When a Dream Ends”

I’m beginning to notice a trend when I watch Robotics;Notes. There’s always two parts to the episode – the first being our new members of the club and the second being the unraveling mystery behind Airi and Kimijima Kou. Although I prefer the latter to the former, I’m beginning to enjoy the club activities a little more now that each character has a bit more life and background. This mainly goes to Subaru and his father.

It must be hard having family members who don’t support when you’re doing and what you dream of achieving. From my perspective – I see nothing wrong with having a good hobby… and Subaru makes great use of his. He learns mechanics and programming (not really since he still requires Furugoori Kona’s help) and I don’t see why that wouldn’t make a promising future. Clearly his father prefers Subaru’s hobbies be fishing though. Subaru reminds me of Tsuritama’s Natsuki who was actually a fisherman. Maybe it’s their attitude and overall appearance. Anyway, I think we’ll see a lot more development and teen rebellion from Subaru. There’s no way that he could just walk away from the club, so it’s simply about how he turns his father around. Or if he just sneaks out the back door out. I don’t know how strict Japanese parents are about their children’s future potential, but I guess it’s more about the legacy they leave behind. Go figure – I don’t have kids and this might change when I do – but shouldn’t parents be happy if their child was talented at something that they’re passionate about? They should be encouraging it!

Moving along… we also see a quick glimpse at the mystery behind the Kimijima Kou reports and of course, Irei Mizuka. She’s always amazes me because she happens to know so much about everyone in Kai/Aki’s life – making Kai eat those dangerously odd looking buns for secrets. A reader mentioned that perhaps Kimijima Kou was Mizuka’s lover… or perhaps he was Misa’s? One way or another, Mizuka also happens to know about Airi which was the real kicker. If Airi is just an AI and very limited people can see her, how do so many people know about her? Interestingly enough though, it seems like Misa spent a great deal of time talking to Airi. I think that just makes it more obvious that Kou and Misa spent a lot of time together. I’m trying to connect all the dots, but it makes it a lot harder with Kou is dead. That wasn’t a surprise at all – why else would he leave these reports and Airi around to “reach” people? It’s like Kai really is the destined one to solve all these mysteries. All those gadgets that Kou left around his basement seem to be old devices used for communication. This was probably the only way for him to get his reports distributed without being traced.

Each episode of Robotics;Notes seems to be taking us deeper into each character and it’s actually progressing very well at a good pace. I hate anime that drag or give too little time for the audience to digest the information. They reveal just enough to keep me interested (with Kou’s reports) but at the same time, bringing in Juuna and Kona into the picture very subtly. Our team is now assembled! But where does that leave us with Aki’s elephant-mouse syndrome? I’m still not sure how that’s going to tie into the big picture.

Full-length images: 15, 24, 25, 26, 29, 36.

47 Comments

  1. I find the father a bit unrealistic. Sure there are abusive parents out there but it’s pretty rare for them to punch their kids in front of people. That sort of behavior gets them landed in prison.

    Scruffy
    1. As other people mentioned, the kids’ reaction is also kind of weird – they don’t try to defend their friend from an angry man punching him in the face out of the blue, but they are quick to protect the robot later…

      j4c06
      1. I think this part is just badly written, an exaggerated cliché for such an uninteresting thing.
        It felt like they threw us Subaru’s background at the face for the sake of throwing one without putting much thought into it.

        Hopefully they won’t expand too much on this.

        Algent
      2. @D-LaN In france too being a Fisherman is like a Farmer, it’s a family thing, so I get what type of background they wanted to show us. But for me the violence overwrote the tension and destroyed the moment.

        Algent
  2. I am convinced that there is a deeper reason behind the father’s rage. We haven’t seen Subaru’s mom around. What if she was killed by a malfunctioning machine? This would explain the dad’s hatred of robots.

    Son Gohan
  3. Dammit. From his BURNING RED COAT OF PASSION I thought Subaru’s dad was a mecha fan, and that he was angry about his kid not being interested in robots. Didn’t think it would be the opposite. But yeah that wouldn’t have explained why Subaru was hiding it from his dad in the first place. That also explains the fact that Subaru’s not actually doing the Mister Pleiades thing just to fool around.
    Yeah, seems like Misa sure liked Airi. Kou’s murder may be the thing that made her become the cold woman she seems to be now.
    Also, I think Irei knows way more stuff than she told Kai.

    1. In Japan morals and respecting your elders is above anything else.

      In any other county the guy would have been immediately pinned down to the ground and accused of being inadequate. In Japan, you stand, shut up, and watch.

      Edios
    2. Oh man, I got beaten a lot when I was a kid.
      You know them Asian parents, lol.
      Not just Japan. I hate getting hit by the hangar. My dad is damn scary when he is mad, he would chase me to my room and bang the door real hard. He is capable of breaking doors because he broke one before. Scared the shit outta me.

      It must be nice to have a childhood where you parents doesn’t beat you up. Not in Asia, nearly all my friends are same. Bad test marks? Beaten up. Can’t even write Chinese properly? Beaten up. Didn’t get an award? Beaten up. Screaming like a dumbass while playing Xbox? Beaten up lol. Got a boyfriend/girlfriend? Oh you’re so dead.

      Extremist
  4. I think I was too harsh on Frau. Either that, or she just really grew on me this episode. As for the father, I thought the same as Rockmanshii. Currently, I’m supporting Son Gohan’s theory, since it would make sense. And as for why the kids didn’t defend their friend, well, they were in shock. And then Subaru told them not to interfere. Kai’s the sort of person who would respect that wish, but Aki is much more emotion driven. She wanted to protect the robot because its destruction would destroy Subaru’s dreams, and to her, that would be too sad. Although Kai didn’t take any action this episode, i could see him confronting Subaru and his father for Aki’s sake.

    CTT
  5. Father is not a good person.
    Closed fist on the face of a child wearing glasses in front of his peers?
    Sorry, I don’t care what his back story is, I think the writers
    wanted us to see that he’s walking crap.

    mac65
    1. Yeah. Regardless of whether or not there’s a legitimate reason behind his hatred of Subaru’s hobby(robotics killed his wife, etc.), he punched his son, and keeps demanding that he be a fisherman instead of having hobbies or dreams of his own. As Scruffy said, abuse is abuse. He’s irredeemable, and the funny thing is, we barely even know the guy.

      Anonymous
  6. Now if I’m back commenting on the publication of Robotics; Notes.
    Good chapter, I hope to continue development for this track. Juuna and Kona were the laughter of the chapter, especially Kona, is something rare, but I like it.
    I wish know how the notes of Kimijima Kou and the “Gunvarrel” of robotics club will meet in the plot, the curiosity kill me, it’s great XD
    Another great publication Cherrie-sama, very good work 🙂

    Shadow74
  7. Kai ceratinly stumbled into a mystery he probably didn’t want to hear. I’m not surprised he wanted forget about it, hearing a murder tends to scare people. It seems to cast is finally together, I esepcially like Frau she’s hilarious.

    Subaru’s dad is ridiculous though. “Son HOW DARE you take a HOBBY that would increase your chances to land a College Degree in MIT. No, you need to be a fisherman!”. Honestly I’m not really interested in this subplot, it feels too derivative.

    fragb85
  8. a dad who punches his own kid in front of his friends giving him shame that he may take till he grow up, and the kid who tell his friend to shut up while defending him, a girl-hikikomori-pervert. what more nonsense will this series have for us. :S

    ryuuzaki
  9. This episode does reminds me abt tsuritama..
    Words can’t describe how pissed I am towards the father attitude…. You can’t just do that to your child… Even moreso in the public in front of his friends… They need to call the authority, seriously. (Though Edios have a good point, but still…) Srsly, the dad doesn’t want his child to be sucessfull in his life??

    Also why the downvotes??

    Oh you, Frau (I’m still calling her tht) gotta love/hate your Daru-like goonspeak. And teleconferencing for club activity = win. I’d want to try that too. And looks like Junna have quite the imaginative mind XD

    I assume Kou, Misaki and Mizuka are friends and they created Airi together? And then Kou discover the conspiracy and got himself killed tht causes Misaki to work with the “Comittee”? Mizuka “accident” could also be related?

    D-LaN
  10. They should make an iPhone/iPad augmented reality app where you can hunt for a mysterious Anime girl… Yeah, maybe in a few years, after AR has finished it’s experimental teen phase.

    Anomalous
  11. Well, it seems that we got a little more insight into a couple of things in this episode but as usual, that leaves room for more questions. Maybe something else happened in Subaru and his father’s past that has also strained their relationship; could be a mom or robot-related thing. As for Frau, I’d say she’s starting to grow on me and her sense of humor just makes me laugh at the things she says. Someone mentioned earlier that perhaps Kai is the one destined to unravel these mysteries and I’m starting to get that impression too. Apparently Misa talked to Airi quite a bit and things seem mysterious regarding the deceased Kou Kimijima.

    With Steins;Gate we had SERN and now we’re looking at NASA but going into the strange things that are happening as Kai gets deeper into this, it seems to me that maybe the machine mentioned that interferes with wavelengths may have had something to do with the accident that happened years ago (just a thought). In terms of plot progression, the story is moving along at a decent pace but I can’t help but wonder when that one thing that changes everything might happen.

    And it looks like we left off on a serious note; Aki looks like she’s having a heart attack or certainly something related to the “Elephant-Mouse Syndrome” :/ I find it continually interesting that Irei Mizuka tends to know the details of what’s going on and judging by the look of things, it seems like she was either close to Kou Kimijima or both she and Misa were (can’t tell what Misa’s problem is in the last episodes >> but oh wells)

    Kay
  12. Subaru reminds me of Tsuritama’s Natsuki who was actually a fisherman. Maybe it’s their attitude and overall appearance.

    And don’t forget that both series take place on Enoshima.

    The thing that interested me the most this episode is the cassette player with Toryanse, which is most probably another connection to Chaos;Head. It seems like R;N cares about its predecessors a lot more than Steins;Gate did.

    SingerOfW
  13. I was loving this episode until that piece of shit father showed up.Who the fuck wants to be a fisherman, I would’ve fought back, no matter how dirty I’d have to fight.

    I don’t like this stereotypical “Kids should be seen, not heard” bullshit that most anime like to portray.

    Magoiichi

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