Robotics;Notes part 2 review

Robotics;Notes part 2 review

0 comments 📅19 October 2014, 21:38

robotics_notes_13

It was already made pretty clear from my review of Robotics;Notes part 1 that I was less than impressed with how the series set itself up. Just as a miniature recap to provide some context, I found the story to be a spider web of many different storylines that were hard to keep track of and understand. There were already plenty of unanswered questions and I feared that the plot holes would grow larger and larger. Despite my many disappointments, I couldn’t deny the fluffy charm of the series, particularly when it came to the variety of characters. Although they were a little cliché in their very strict character ‘types’. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the second half of Robotics;Notes did not make any mega improvements. It was a noticeable step up from the first half, but not enough to change my cynical but frank opinion.

robot1The main addition that got on my nerves was the typical introduction of a needless and downright annoying love triangle. Though many would disagree for the fact that they really can be quite fun, if done the right way. If the anime is your cheesy shoujo romance story then by all means, have a love hexagon for all I care, I’ll be cheering for it. However, there’s a time and a place and within this series, which was already a complicated mish-mash of storylines, a love triangle just was not needed… or wanted. As with most triangle scenarios, it was predictable, cringe worthy and poorly developed. In its defence, there were the odd few cute moments and I suppose it didn’t help that I’m not particularly fond of any of the characters in the first place, let alone the awkward forcing of them into a romantic situation, which I firmly believe went against all of the characteristics of each member involved.

The next main thing is more of a continuation from my previous review and comments I seem to have made again and again… but I’ll continue anyway. PLOT HOLES. This anime is absolutely full to the brim of plot holes, unanswered questions and things that just downright make zero sense. It tried to feed too many genres and failed miserably. I can assume that a lot of people would go into this anime expecting a sci-fi and mecha based masterpiece, following in the footsteps of its legendary predecessor; Steins;Gate. However all I can say by the end of it is that I was left with a sting of sore disappointment. I also heavily contemplated the amount of time I had wasted watching this series, despite each episode only being the standard 20 odd minutes. That being said, I believe that had the anime been condensed into a short 12/13 episodes with a much stronger focal point and better development, it really could have been something special. The timing was just completely off. The parts that I would consider interesting and important were almost skimmed over with no later explanation, and the parts which drove me insane with boredom seemed to be strung out forever. If you’re not the type to hold onto the little details or ‘that one thing that was mentioned that one time’ then the unanswered questions might not be that much of an issue, it’d probably be a much more fun and easygoing series to watch. But when it’s noticed once, it’ll be noticed a hundred times after… and it just ruined it for me.

In the end, Robotics;Notes did pick up its pace a bit and it did wrap up prettyrobot2 neatly despite the disaster that lead to that point. But it was just too little too late. To put it into a more specific frame, the last five or six episodes were the ones that actually had some kind of impact. Not too great when you consider the length as a whole. The visuals and animation carried this show. They were the only appealing aspects that made it bearable to get through in the end. I’m afraid my opinion could be quite biased due to the fact that I expected such high standards after Steins;Gate. I expected bigger and better because of the bar that was already set. Although it does leave me wanting to play/read the visual novel, just to see how the source material deals with all the plot holes and whatnot. Maybe it’ll fill them in! But in the end, when it comes to anime, if you’re looking for a mecha series with a bit of a twist and a different storyline then don’t waste your time with this, go watch Gargantia or something. Find an anime that does the genre justice.

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