Robotics;Notes

Based in the year 2019, Robotics;Notes follows the story of Kaito Yashio and Akiho Senomiya who are the sole members of the Central Tanegashima High School Robotics Club. Akiho is determined to live up to the expectations of her older sister by finishing the large-scale robot her sister started back before she graduated from the school after founding the original robotics club. While Akiho seeks funding to continue her project, Kaito spends his days hanging round the club hanger, not helping in the development of Akiho's robot, but playing a popular mech fighting game, Kill-Ballad, which is based on the fictional anime, Gunvarrel. The fictional show itself serves as inspiration for Akiho, going so far as to codename her project, Gunbird-1 - a robot from the anime.

While the robot looks very little like the real Gunbird-1, Akiho finds encouragement from the relucant Kaito's unexpected and heartfelt support, as well as that of her other friends who over time join the club to help finish the project in their own unique way. Her work is not without merit, which is soon recognised by the company behind the fictional lollies, Space Candy, run by a man who will come to coin the most catchy saying of the entire show: Impact! You only have to take notice of anime forums around the world to see that this word is on the tip of every robotics fan's tongue.

Robotics;Notes is the third anime to be adapted from the series of visual novels produced by 5pb Inc, and follows in the wake of the smash hit 2011 anime sensation, Steins;Gate. While not quite living up to the success of its predecessor, the anime has shown itself to be a much deeper story than previously expected. With its foreboding of apocalyptic disaster, we can surmise that what starts as a simple school robotics club might well be the only thing standing between the Earth and certain annihilation.

Robotics;Notes is full of humour and lovingly crafted golden moments which you would come to expect in what we thought was going to be a slice of life anime, but it has a serious side that is slowly creeping in from the background, directed by the artificial intelligence program, Airi, who reveals herself to Kaito, along with a secret NASA doesn't want the world to know. It doesn't seem surprising at all that an anime skirting around the possibility of a worldwide apocalypse would show its face in a year that is already full of doomsday, end of the world, predictions.

I have quite enjoyed the show so far, although I liked Steins;Gate better, but I am sure we are going to be in for a real treat as the story leaves behind character introductions and humour in favour of the real meat of the story. Read More →

Btooom!

This year has provided us with a reoccurring theme of online gaming based anime. First we had the superb Accel World, then it was the masterpiece which is Sword Art Online. Now comes Btooom!, but straight away I am put off by the strange name alone - named after the sound a grenade makes when it explodes, which is the whole premise of the story. Btooom is a first person shooter style online game where players can only uses grenades to kill their opponents. Unfortunate name aside, there is an interesting premise to the story that saw me watching the first few episodes, in the hopes that it might have a good plot.  Unfortunately, I'm not entirely convinced yet, but have kept giving the anime more chances to impress me. I'm still waiting.

The anime follows the story of Ryota Sakomoto, who is one of the top players in the world, but during the course of his rise to fame in the virtual world, his real life suffers. He lives at home, leeching of his mother who is constantly attempting to push him to get a job, and often finds himself lashing out violently in response to her pressure. As a consequence to his violent behaviour, he is unknowingly signed up to an experimental game that sees him kidnapped and sent to a deserted island, where the people stranded there are forced to play a very real version of the Btooom game, with fatal consequences.

Equipped with only a pouch full of grenades  he must kill other players to collect eight gemstone-like tokens, which will buy his freedom off the island. While alive, the gemstones act as a form of radar, capable of sending out sonar pulses that detect other players when they move, allowing players to track and use strategies to trap their opponents. Once dead, any remaining grenades the player had then belong to the victor, replenishing their supply, except every player has different types of grenades. Some explode on impact, while others have timers, even more work like mines, and explode when a player comes in contact with them. The nastiest form of grenade I have seen so far would be the poisonous gas type, that kill any player, or even wildlife, that is exposed to it.

My biggest complaint with the show so far would be the stupidity of the main character. He is supposed to be this elite player in the Btooom! world, yet when faced with a real life version of the game that works identically to the virtual game, he seems to forget everything about how to play and fumbles around for several episodes, trying to get a clue about what he is doing and going so far as to almost kill himself when he activates one of his timer mines, not understanding what it was, only at the last second throwing it away and discovering it was a grenade. It gets worse when, faced with his first enemy fight, he doesn't understand at all how a timer grenade works, even though he no doubt would have used them many times in the virtual game. This issue makes for a serious disbelief in the intelligence of his character and harms the story for me. Five episodes in, he is still learning things about the game and island that should have been obvious to an elite player of the game. I'm afraid the personality of the main protagonist leaves a lot to be desired.

Another failing point for me with the show would be the depraved sexual content. It's not sexy, its cruel, and disturbing. The main issue comes in the form of the secondary protagonist, Himiko, who so far has existed for the sole purpose of giving the writers an excuse to include distasteful sexual abuse. It starts with the reason why she is on the island. Back home, she invites three of her classmates to a friend's house party, where a famous rock band are visiting as guests. Come the night of their 'party' and she is running late, while the other girls have gone ahead of her. Upon arrival at the house, she finds her friends in the middle of being raped by the members of the band after they were drugged. When they attempt to do the same with her, she abandons her friends and runs away. The girls blame her for what happened, and as punishment, sign her up for the experimental game on the island. That's only the beginning though, and gets worse when a grotesquely obese player catches her, and proceeds to try rape her. My biggest problem with this situation is how helpless the writers make out Himiko to be, and not just here, but all her scenes except for possibly one. She pretty much just lets the rapist molest her, only stopping him when he is about to do the final deed by triggering one of her timer bombs. She would rather die that let somebody rape her, and hopefully take the rapist with her.

Unfortunately, it doesn't end there either. Fast forward to the next episode and you have her facing off against our main character, Ryota, who ends up knocking her unconscious. We are then treated to a very uncharacteristic change come over him, when he suddenly turns into a pervert and is about to remove her underwear and rape her himself when she starts to come around again. Comments he makes like 'but she smells good' just make it worse, and seriously, she wouldn't smell that good in the first place. They are on a stranded island, it would be hot, they would be sweaty and in desperate need of a change of clothes. If anything, they would all stink, bad.

It's pretty clear that she is supposed to be his romantic interest in the story, but so far, he is off to a very bad start in my opinion. Thankfully, he comes to his senses after that and decides to protect her instead, but from that point on she is a broken and troubled character, who can't trust any man, certainly not him. Although there is a positive spin the writers can put on this, which I can see is the angle they are taking, and that is to show the effects of rape in such difficult situations on the human psyche. In that respect I guess they are doing well, but the whole concept of women being raped just so 'something bad' can happen to them is a tired and cliché plot device that should really be left behind. As a writer myself, I can be sure that it is a plot element best avoided if you don't want to alienate a large portion of your potential audience.

Unfortunately for Btooom! the writers wanted to put their viewers through an even worse situation when they introduce the psychologically damaged Kosuke Kira and his paedophile father, who over the episode featuring him proceeds to abuse the boy through very distasteful methods. Once again, the writers use this as an opportunity to show the psychological effects such actions have on Kosuke, to the point of it turning him into a woman killer before arriving on the island. Because of the abuse, he is a sadist, which reflects in his personality on the island. Hopefully, future scenes involving Kosuke might not be so bad, after how the episode ended.

In the end, this show has several weaknesses that hinder its potential, and pushes an archaic impression of women's ability to defend themselves, falling back on the flawed concept that they need men to save them. It unfortunately makes for a frustrating story that has yet to show any true plot developments. The story might be brutal and sometimes painful to watch, but it has potential, there is no denying that, and when battles do happen, they are typically quite entertaining, which has been enough for me to survive watching it so far. But, if it keeps on going the way it is, this is an anime I will likely drop.

If you want to watch an anime based around an online game, you're better off watching Sword Art Online.

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Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse

In 1973 the aliens attacked. Nicknamed “BETA,” these monsters proved nigh on unbeatable, and soon most of Europe and Asia was uninhabitable. Humanoid robot weapons, known as Tactical Surface Fighters (TSFs) were developed to help combat the BETA, but it is not an easy battle. As a student, Yui Takamura finds herself in a deadly battle as an untried cadet, something which will have a terrible effect on the rest of her life. Nevertheless, she remains in the Imperial Royal Guards and years later as a lieutenant is in charge of an international group based in Alaska working on ways to combat the BETA. This brings her into contact with Yuuya Bridges, a Japanese American pilot with some issues of his own...

Muv-luv Alternative: Total Eclipse is one of those anime where you will either love it, or hate it. Based on a series of visual novels, the anime is a spin off that follows the story of a group of ace test pilots from all over the world who are assigned to help perfect the Tactical Surface Fighters (TSFs) needed to win the war against BETA. The shows roots in eroge are clear, although toned down to make it suitable for television - expect the BD volumes to be much more explicit. Saying that, like most other 2012 anime, we are treated to a fair share of fanservice, including swimsuits and skin tight flight suits. There are other anime out there that do worse though.

In the first episode we witness Yui Takamura's last days as a highschool student living in a world where even young girls are drafted into the army to fight in a losing war against alien invasion. The first two episodes throw us straight into the middle of the war and dose us with a good taste of action, but be aware of the bait and switch at the end of episode two; the real story does not start until episode three which is based several years after the events of the first two episodes.

From episode three onwards, the action takes a back seat in return for some serious character development. One of the most pleasing elements of the show is how deep into the characters minds and past they go - the main characters are definitely three-dimensional. I also have to give props to Kouda Kimi. Her song, Go to the Top, matches the anime and intro perfectly and is by far my favourite intro song for this season. It has that catchy style to it that just gets stuck in your head.

Not all is perfect and cheery with the anime though. Some characters, like Tarisa and Cui can get annoying at times while the love triangle romance between the protagonists suffers due to flaws in their characters personality and the show's attempts to tread into the territory of harem anime, which is unfortunate. The anime also suffers some clumsy animation and hideously designed flight suits, especially in the first two episodes, but thankfully, as the show continues on the animation appears to improve greatly.

Overall, the anime has a well thought out story that shows some strong depth, reflecting the prejudice and emotional trials of characters caught up in an unforgiving world. The consequences of the war and the characters actions make for some fantastic storytelling that proves the show has the ability to rise well above it's ero background. I would definitely recommend giving this show the proper attention it deserves.



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