Series Review: Robotic;Notes (5/10)

Instant Summary: The Robotics Club uncovers and stops a plot to destroy the world.

Right... so this is not a mecha anime. I was honestly expecting a Gundam-style battle right up till the end, but no. Despite being all high-tech and stuff, the "robots" are the same chunky, dumb and awkwardly moving pieces of metal you see every now and then on the 9 o'clock news. This is a show meant for robotics enthusiasts.

So, Production I.G. on a noitaminA slot, it ought to be good right? Not even remotely. In fact, it smells like the shit they cooked up exactly one year ago. Well, it wasn't that bad, but aside from the excellent production quality we expected from the studio, there's nothing positive I can say about Robotic;Notes. Except for Furugoori Kona, which may be one of the most interesting characters I've seen yet.

You won't have guessed it, but Robotic;Notes turns out to belong to the mystery genre. It started out like a ambitious high-school club anime or a romance drama, but the core of Robotic;Notes is actually mystery.

The problem is that the tiny bits of clues give us almost NO IDEA what the actual "mystery" is all about. The mystery that was supposed to be the core of the story. And if it affected the character in no way right until the very end, why are we supposed to give a fuck about it? Midway through the series, I honestly believed that the writer gave up and tried to do the ambitious high-school club/romance drama instead. It was the point where I thought that they really didn't have a clue or care anymore.

But no matter what, an anime will always pull through with good characters. Not Robotic;Notes. I've never seen a lead character that's quite as passive as Kaito. Aki has near non-existant sex appeal. Furugoori's potential is under-utilized outside of her episode. The other two club members didn't even need to exist. Misaki has the answers too all the questions in the anime, but is completely useless other than being a cheap villain.

I have a lot more things I could complain about, but I've already showed you a recipe for failure. I waited 5 months for an idea of what's going on, but the answer is a shockingly simple, mind-numbing and disappointing twist. The last couple of episodes were good and it ended well, but it certainly isn't worth pushing through 20 episodes. Hell, it isn't even worth 10. Take everything good about this title and boil it down, I'd give you 5 episodes tops. This is such a waste of time.

Plot/Concept: Such a mess.
Story Style: Such boring characters.
Audio/Visual: Great
Value: 5