Robotics;Notes

[Ryllharu]

There's really only two possibilities if Misaki is getting shot at by the Exoskeleton guy.

a) She's working to complete Kimijima's master plan, whether that be good or evil.
b) She's working to stop Kimijima's master plan, whether that be good or evil.

It's really hard to figure out who the bad guys are here. I'm pretty sure the Exoskeleton guy is working for the Council of Ultra Evil. What isn't clear is what side Kimijima was on, and which side Misaki is on.

If she was asking about the rocket launch though...I would say that she is trying to stop the pending apocalypse.

Argrh! I'm so confused about who to hate!


But what I really enjoy about this series is the interludes of:
Akiho's Adventures in Building Robots While She Isn't Very Good at It.

Kai has been keeping her out of the whole conspiracy thing, so she gets to live her life, trying to fulfill her good-hearted dreams. In this episode, it finally paid off. Even if the general populace hates Gunvarrel, Ahiko got one little boy to love it again and tell her it was cool.

[shinta|hikari]

People are too easily swayed by media and rumours. Unfortunately, even 2d people share this flaw.

[MFauli]

Even if Misaki´s excuse is something along the lines of "I did it to keep you safe", I wish that bitch all the worst. If I was Kai, I´d have slapped that cunt countless times during this episodes. Especially when she repeated her "Aki is ordinary"-bullshit inside the car. Goddamn, Kai, grow some balls and torture this horrible person.

As for the robo expo, I kinda hoped that the spider robot would go loose and then the Gunvarrel would step in to fight it. Guess that was too much to hope for.

[Ryllharu]

Speaking of the giant spider robot...it is interesting to note that it was a fake. They had a girl on the outside pantomiming, claiming it was controlled by just a pair of hands, while Misaki was (presumably) inside, suited up, actually controlling it.

Maybe Kona's control system is quite a bit more advanced than we thought.

[Buffalobiian]

Speaking of the giant spider robot...it is interesting to note that it was a fake. They had a girl on the outside pantomiming, claiming it was controlled by just a pair of hands, while Misaki was (presumably) inside, suited up, actually controlling it.

Maybe Kona's control system is quite a bit more advanced than we thought.

Was that the case?

I thought Misaki was controlling the spider initially as well, but then the idea of using a fake concept robot seemed a bit risky, so I thought instead that she was perhaps involved with some other, more sinister, robotic project.

[Ryllharu]

Nice to be both partially correct and still horribly wrong. I greatly enjoy shows that do that.

Robotics;Notes - 19 [WhyNot]



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So Misa wasn't there, and she was controlling the giant spider remotely. She's working for the Council of Ultra Evil, working for Kimijima, and they're going to launch black hole generators (made by evil-CERN from Steins) to set off some simulated solar flare that will impact (and likely kill) 5 billion people. Meanwhile, they're been manipulating everything.

But the bigger news, to me, isn't that Kou has turned himself into an immortal ghost, it is that Kona is "Target B".

That either means Kona's mother is working for them, feigning being a victim the same way Kimijima was and they are "securing" Kona to keep her safe, or the Council of Ultra Evil is trying to lure her out using Kona as bait because they need whatever she took to complete their plan.

Going by how wrong I was this time (thinking that the Exoskeleton guy was evil...just as they planned ku ku ku), I think it is better for me not to guess definitively.

The major reason I like Robotics;Notes' conspiracy side so much is its plausibility. Barring a few magical technologies (radiation generators that produce illusions in reality that look as real as Iro-O, monopole engines, micro-black hole generators, etc.), most of the propaganda and manipulation tactics the Council of Ultra Evil is doing this time can be done today. They're really just scamming the news, blackmailing and extorting a few others, using a few false flag attacks to scare people, and then once they get the reaction they want...going about their nefarious business.

[Buffalobiian]

Well, now I get to see if this climax will be worth the previous 19 episodes. They were interesting and enjoyable at parts, but also hard to follow (not necessarily in an intellectual way) in their own right.

Just why would you black-out half the planet?

[Ryllharu]

It's an attack. They make it seem like a horrible tragedy has occurred, probably reduce the population substantially, and this will allow them to brainwash whoever is left alive (something they have tested multiple times) and assume control as an authoritarian oligarchy.

World domination.

I guess I kind of wonder exactly what happened on the SS Anemone that made Misaki believe that joining up was the correct thing to do. Was she brainwashed too, or did she have an epiphany and turn to evil?

Is S Braun supposed to be Nae? I'm guessing the codename "Braun" is supposed to refer to rocketry. Maybe "S" for "shoujo"?

I for one, am looking forward to a mecha fight between the secretly built JAXA Gunbuste Gunvarrel and the other ArachnidBot. Akiho cheering at the sidelines yelling out attacks with tears dripping down her face would be excellent.

[Buffalobiian]

Is S Braun supposed to be Nae? I'm guessing the codename "Braun" is supposed to refer to rocketry. Maybe "S" for "shoujo"?

S Braun is referring to Nae. You know, as in daughter of Mr Braun.

[Ryllharu]

I like my version better.

[Buffalobiian]

Whynot - Episode 20

[Shin-S] Robotics;Notes ED2 Single - Topology (FLAC) [Itou Kanako].zip
[Shin-S] Robotics;Notes ED2 Single - Topology [Itou Kanako].zip

[Archangel]

I guess that's why both the VN and the anime sold so poorly, the characters and the light hearted aspect of it all are fine but the more serious tones are flimsy as fuck.

Can't compare to S;G at all.

[shinta|hikari]

Do you mean S;G? Because you can't really compare Robotics;Notes to itself.

[Buffalobiian]

I'm certainly not feeling the despair of the situation, nor the "epicness" of how the the island banded together to help defeat the armed forces.

Topping the list is why Misaki felt threatened in the first case. Kimijima was running an experiment that could have killed a whole cruiser full of people. Letting the public know that shouldn't have any adverse effect on her.

The only "real" problem is that you can't kill Kimijima Kou's online persona.. so his harassment isn't going to stop.

[Ryllharu]

I think you're misunderstanding how he was torturing her.

Misaki is, or was, a good person (at least Akiho still thinks so). Kimijima was constantly mentally torturing her about being a murderer. He always making her feel guilty about the method used to save them, when there very likely had been a less violent way she could have stopped it. Then, it was when he started manifesting in front of other people and threatening to "haunt" Akiho and Kai while she continued to resist. That last part is what finally broke Misaki and made her submit. Over the next ten years, he continued to harass and torture her mentally. That's a huge amount of time to mentally condition a person. At some point, she basically got brainwashed, and believes in his cause.

This has conditioned Misaki into generally doing what he wants, and over time, allowed him to take her body over (as he did with real-Airi on a more rudimentary level). Kimijima implied that when Misaki mentally withdraws, he has full control over her. But unlike Airi, he currently has a backup with Misaki. The exoskeleton suit she's wearing now (probably one he "encouraged" her to wear during this operation) is something he can control directly through Iru-O, like Mizuka's legs. Now that they are doing things that Misaki might actively want to resist, he can just force her to do them. He also mentioned that the more she resists his control, she might actually damage her mental state, showing how pervasive his control and conditioning over her has become.

You could probably shut off all of Iru-O and reset all the data to a raw state. Or maybe Kona will make a virus that will chase him down and delete his data.

[MFauli]

As I said in my previous post, none of this excuses the big sister´s behavior towards Aki. Unless Kimikima told her to tell Aki exactly those words "you´re plain", she´s a bitch, fullstop.

As for the episode, I agree with Buff. Lack of epicness. It felt way too random how all the characters gathered there at the robot building. The producers never spent any significant development on all those characters to make me feel "whoah!". Unlike for example Durararara, where all came together extremely well.

Nice, but average anime, all in all. Waiting for Misaki-hentai. :>

[Buffalobiian]

I think you're misunderstanding how he was torturing her.

Misaki is, or was, a good person (at least Akiho still thinks so). Kimijima was constantly mentally torturing her about being a murderer. He always making her feel guilty about the method used to save them, when there very likely had been a less violent way she could have stopped it. Then, it was when he started manifesting in front of other people and threatening to "haunt" Akiho and Kai while she continued to resist. That last part is what finally broke Misaki and made her submit. Over the next ten years, he continued to harass and torture her mentally. That's a huge amount of time to mentally condition a person. At some point, she basically got brainwashed, and believes in his cause.

I was suggesting that it should never have gotten to that point. She should have let the police handle the aftermath since I would have seen her actions as excused anyway - unless she saw that as being futile because she believed he was immortal. (Understandable.. since someone you killed is kinda standing in front of you). Now that I think about it a bit more, perhaps she saw no way of proving Kimijima's existence to anyone since she doesn't actually know where he hides his data.

Perhaps I'm simply not as kind as Misaki. If someone gets killed for attempted murder, they had it coming.

The suit's control makes sense, no debate about that.

[MasterOfMoogles]

Was there ever any reason given for why this guy wants to kill 5 billion people?

[Buffalobiian]

Whynot - Episode 21

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@Moogles: World domination.

Contrary to the previous episode, this one was actually pretty good. Had the right feel and everything.

Should Airi be walking around? I thought she had a condition that kept her confined to an indoor bed, and since she woke up I do not recall her going through surgery that could fix it.

[MFauli]

i really hate how this series is being concluded during these final episodes. It was really enjoyable just watching the Robo club trying to build their robot. This world destroying-plot feels so extremely forced. It doesnt help that this last episode felt like a compilation of all anime clichees/tropes that exist.

I haven´t seen Steins;Gate, yet, but Chaos;Head did a way better job of telling a consistent, if crazy, story. Robotics;Notes feels as if the author decided to put in all the "epic" stuff in the last 3-4 episodes.