Affinity for Anime

Initial impression – really just…eh

Autumn 2012 to winter 2013 (22 episodes) (more info)

The first episode of Robotics;Notes reeks of Tari Tari.  Does this sound familiar?  Unpopular club is in a pinch because of a stuffy vice principle and a charismatic student who wants to accomplish something big has to rally support to save the day—which includes finding new members, proving the club’s value at a small venue before being allowed to attempt the bigger challenge later and acquiring funding for their big project, which is already on a tight schedule.  Yeah, this is already feeling too close to the disappointing Tari Tari with the focus of mecha substituted for music.

The only character that even approaches likeability so far is female protagonist Akiho Senomiya with her go-getter attitude, overflowing optimism and willingness to literally get dirty.  Her male support in the form of Kaito Yashio is a die-hard gamer with so little interest in what’s going on I find it hard to believe he’d even join this club in the first place.  As much as this anime has been hyped and advertised over the past year or so, I was hoping for something much better.  It’s not bad at least, but if Robotics;Notes can’t differentiate itself in some way really soon, I’m not going to have any regrets about dropping it early.