TL;DR at the bottom if you don't feel like reading the ramblings of a deranged visual novel fan! :)I am a big fan of the Science Adventure Series and a few years ago, I played through most of the visual novels in the series including the 3rd main title, Robotics;Notes. While I enjoyed the game, I definitely felt that it was comparably quite a bit weaker than both Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head for a multitude of reasons. For this reason and with the abundance of bad and neutral reviews I saw for this adaptation, I purposely put off watching it, throwing it on my planning list. A little over 2 years later, this was now the only main series SciAdv adaptation I haven't seen so I decided to finally watch it. To my delight, against all my expectations, Robotics;Notes surprised me with an overall very enjoyable experience, enough so that I binge watched the entire second half of this show in one afternoon. While this adaptation is far from perfect, here is why Robotics;Notes doesn't deserve the flack it gets and why you should give it a watch.
Summary
As stated above, Robotics;Notes is the 3rd entry to Nitroplus and Mages SciAdv series, and while not required, I would highly recommend first playing Chaos;Head (don’t watch the anime, it's terrible) as well as playing or watching Steins;Gate beforehand. Chaos;Head particularly is recommended as a lot of plot points make an appearance in Robotics;Notes.
Taking place approximately 10 years after Steins;Gate in 2019, Robotics;Notes follows Yashio Kaito (Kai), a member of the Central Tanegashima High School robotics club. Led by his childhood best friend Senomiya Akiho, the group works on building a life size robot, a project started by Akiho’s now famous sister years previously who was spurred on by a popular and infamous mecha anime series called Gunvarrel. As the group works to gain more club members to complete their life sized robot, while experimenting with AR tech, Kai discovers the 1st of a series of strange reports detailing a complex conspiracy involving the end of the world.
The Story
Overall as an adaptation, aside from a few moments, Robotics;Notes tends to be very faithful to the visual novel. While this is usually a good thing, I thought the source material of this adaptation as the most “meh” of the main SciAdv titles and its problems carries over to this adaptation. This anime suffers from a very strange issue regarding its multiple plot lines. The beginning of the show, the first 6 episodes or so, move very slowly without much purpose. Unlike the other SciAdv shows, there isn't an obvious threat or danger. Because of this, Robotics;Notes for a while feel almost like a slice of life with sci-fi elements when it follows the whole club navigating issues in their robotics club. Eventually, a second plot line focusing on Kai and the strange reports begins to run alongside the first and it's a lot more in line with what I've come to expect from a SciAdv property. Plenty of crazy sci-fi stuff takes place and sudden revelations that cause big stirs for Kai and the rest of the cast. Then, it will just cut back to the club plotline and it's almost like it forgets all of the serious happenings just shown. It creates this very bizarre disconnect that makes the show feel like it's unfocused; almost like they had two ideas for a show and just crammed them together.
With all that being said, I like both plot lines. The overall club plotline tends to be a lot more light hearted than the other SciAdv entries which I dont think is necessarily a bad thing. The happenings of the club, while a little generic from time to time tend to be plenty fun and interesting. Towards the end, the plotlines do converge to create what I thought to be a very satisfying ending. Like Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes has a very high stakes and exciting ending that kept me firmly invested. While the first 6 episodes of the show move slowly, there definitely is payoff for the time it spent. Aside from the bizarre disconnect between its plots first halves, I think the vibe of the show, which many take issue with for Robotics;Notes, is a bit overblown. It's just a bit different from the other entries in that way and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.
The thing I disliked most about this show was that it struggles from time to time to explain how the crazy stuff in this show actually happens. One of the best parts of Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate is that they pitch these crazy sci-fi concepts to you in a way that is rooted to actual science (atleast real-sounding science). I think it allows the show to become that much more immersive and believable. Robotics;Notes does this successfully most of the time, but from time to time, there are moments where crazy stuff just starts happening seemingly out of nowhere and they just don't elaborate any further. Alongside the highly detailed explanations found in the same show, it makes these moments stick out very badly and endure in my mind as primary examples of where the plot of this show really show their weakness compared to the series previous entries. When all is said and done though, where it counts, I think it tends to do a decent enough job in preserving this aspect of the SciAdv series I enjoy so much.
Characters
The characters of Robotics;Notes tend to be very solid and enjoyable with a few being somewhat forgettable, a trend which isn't exactly new for the series. With that being said, most have a little something to offer at least. Here's a brief overview of the show’s “club members” if you care.
Yashio Kaito - I think of the first three SciAdv entries, Kai is the weakest of the three protagonists but that certainly doesn't mean he is bad. Kai begins the show as a very prickly loner. His disinterest and noninvolvement in club activities is one of the reasons why I think the first part of the show is as slow as it is. Of course, through his findings with the reports and key moments in the story, he has a slightly basic but overall satisfying character arc which is always nice to see.
Senomiya Akiho - The club leader and the character that carries most of the slow beginning. Aki is extremely passionate about robotics and although she can be a little over the top, she is a lot of fun. Additionally, when the going gets crazy in the second half, she is definitely one of the most interesting characters that had my attention.
Hidaka Subaru - A somewhat lackluster underclassmen. Being the overly serious character, he has his moments but is overall pretty forgettable in the show's second half.
Furugoori Kona - Frau is who I would consider to be the fan favorite character of this show. Most of the time, she is basically the female version of Steins;Gate’s Daru. When her involvement in key events in the second half of the show happen though, she really shines quite a bit.
Daitoku Juuna - Like Subaru, Juuna is very forgettable. Besides a 1 or 2 episode stretch in the middle, she’s just there to be cute.
Yukifune Airi - An AI girl who exists in virtual space discovered by Kai. Without elaborating much, her involvement in key moments make her out to be a surprisingly deep and interesting character.
Side characters tend to be pretty solid for being side characters. This visual novel and the show as a result is set up to where each of the character arcs are written into the main story, unlike the other SciAdv which have character specific endings in addition to a true ending. Because of this, this adaptation is mostly a “fully complete” adaptation of the visual novel and you get just about all the character content found in the original game. So if you're one of those people like myself who like getting the absolute full experience, rest assured that this adaptation gives each of its characters their own time to shine just like in the visual novel, a luxury which isn't really found in many one off visual novel adaptations. While some characters remain somewhat shallow and underdeveloped, I consider the more important characters to be pretty well fleshed out and perfectly capable of leading the story in a meaningful way.
Production
For this adaptation, Robotics;Notes was entrusted to Production I.G., a studio that I feel tends to have a pretty good track record. Overall, the animation quality itself tends to be pretty sharp and crisp, being noticeably more colorful than the other SciAdv shows. The visual novel is almost entirely in 3D (which was a little weird) but this interpretation of the visual novel's art style works pretty well and left me quite satisfied.
Like the other SciAdv shows, the soundtrack originates directly from the game. I think the OSTs of these games are consistently very good. While Robotics;Notes OST isn't quite as good as Steins;Gate (which is one of my all time favorites), it still has quite a few great songs that really work with the scenes they play in. Likewise, both OPs and EDs are quite catchy and work nicely to match the vibe of the show.
_TL;DR - Looking at Robotics;Notes, I think the show has its issues, but all together as a whole package, remains a consistently enjoyable entry to the Science Adventure series. While the show struggles from time to time with slow pacing in its first half and questionable explanations in its second half, the show doesn't fail to hit similar highs like the entries before it where they count. As an added bonus, it does do while remaining faithful to the visual novel source material. While some characters are simplistic and somewhat underdeveloped, the characters who carry the plot in it's important moments have quite a bit to offer in making the overall themes and crazy events that take place hit that much harder. Through these, Robotics:Notes is able to mostly overcome its shortcomings and is able to succeed in being a worthy entry to this series I enjoy so much!
While it might not rise to the highs of Steins;Gate, it certainly doesn't hit the lows of the Chaos;Head adaptation. As such, despite its occasional weak points, Robotics;Notes lands right in the middle as being perfectly solid and entertaining. While it might not “wow” you, it's a show that will certainly not leave you disappointed in the slightest._
