Robotics;Notes – 13

Ah, and some more of the different storylines are starting to connect more closely. This episode reaffirmed that the bad guys in this series were basically trying to annihilate the entire world, but this episode showed that the final episode of Gunvarrel contained quite a number of big hints that these plans were in the works. So yeah, Frau’s mother knew what was going on, and tried to stop it, using the same kind of subtle messages that that dead guy whose name I forgot has been showing. My guess is that he knew what happened to Gunvarrel, and tried to be even more secretive, hence why these hints were even more obscure.

The solar storm thing by the way is something that really shows that this is from the same creators of Steins;Gate: the world won’t be destroyed because some giant thingy of doom will explode, no: it put some extensive background into why this will happen with the magnetic storms. It found quite a clever way to put these in by not fully having the characters explain what would happen, but to show a file containing the details. This will be something that you need to pause your browser for in order to fully understand, but I find it a very nice addition there.

Also things just got real here. The solar storms happened at the end of this episode. What I didn’t expect was that at this stage, this series would ask even more questions: which bugger managed to hack into Frau’s twitter account? It probably has to do with the cheater subplot, which will probably get a lot clearer in the next few weeks. I actually like that a lot: the series has managed to balance all of its different subplots quite well. Probably the only one who doesn’t really fit is Subaru: what’s his point in this series? He hasn’t really done anything major, other than help a bit with the robot building.

Oh, and I just realized: the solar storms and the robot building are of course linked to each other because it’s the solar storms that will make all robots go out of control. Next question: why is the main robot of this series special here?

Al for the characters, Frau went through a lot here, even to suicide attempts, although it seems that she was stopped just in time. We also finally got to see her younger version, which always is a great way to flesh out a character. It’s clear that the second half of this season will be a lot heavier in terms of drama, and yeah: with Frau the creators again did a very good job.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

7 thoughts on “Robotics;Notes – 13

  1. The bad guys aren’t trying to destroy the world or humanity altogether .. this has been explained before in one of the Kimijima reports .. they want to hide in nuclear-bunker like shelters then use the artificially induced solar flares to significantly reduce the population and cripple all world governments .. they they come out and the take over the world which is going to be much easier when it’s in such crippled state and with a hugely reduced population.

    And no, the solar flares have nothing to do with the robots going out of control, the one who hacked them (who was pretending to be Frau) did that .. it’s separate from the effect of solar flares (which i suppose ruin all sorts of electromagnetic communications and outright burn/fry things if they get stronger or maybe kill people with the radiation caused from the energetic protons which is deadly to humans).

    As for Frau’s mother, i think she was very closely related to Kimijima Kou (the guy who made the reports), in fact after the secret page on her website i’m starting to think maybe he is Frau’s father or even her mother as she is using a male alias of a dead person to confuse the bad guys to buy herself some time to warn everyone … don’t forget that she was last seen on the island and that this was the reason why Frau came to that place.

    And i suppose the main robot of the series is specially becasue it is controlled by a pilot from the inside (meaning it’s protected from all sorts of outside influence be it the effects of solar flares or hacking) like the robots in super-robot anime .. that’s what makes it different from all the remote controlled or AI based robots which will all be affected one way of the other by the solar flares disabling them if they were remotely controlled (which didn’t make them go berserk this episode, they got hacked).

    Want to get a hint .. watch the first ep again .. they already gave a big hint at how things will progress by showing us a flash-forward that happens near the end of the series (kinda like Psycho Pass did).

  2. I still don’t get Robotics;Notes. Why would the bad guys want to destroy the entire world? How are they gonna stop them in just 9 episodes, unless there is some time skip? Plus the science in this is a lot weaker than in Steins;Gate.
    In S;G other than the fact they used a CRT TV + a microwave + a phone to build a time machine, there is nothing you can easily debunk and nothing implausible. Plus the motives of the villains make sense.(I shouldn’t compare them but it’s unavoidable, they are in the same universe and even share a character).
    In R;N we have robots that are just a little bit more advanced than what we have today, but they want to make us believe solar storms will cause robopocalypses and annihilate humanity. And presumable the main characters will stop this somehow, maybe by using their giant robot.
    This is what a robot apocalypse would probably look like: http://what-if.xkcd.com/5/

    I would understand if this was maybe 10 more years further into the future and had really advanced robots on which society depended on, but not like this.
    I am tempted to say the monopole is actually the most believable part of this series.
    I like this show but it simply doesn’t have anything that really amazes me and makes me admire it.

  3. If you didn’t sound earnest in your comment i would have thought you trolling or joking .. come on .. i don’t even know where to start.

    First the bad guys don’t want to to destroy the entire world, it has been explained in the series and re-explained countless times by viewers who are paying attention .. the committee of 300 are going to use the solar flares to wipe out a large portion of humanity and cripple all governments and tech .. all while they are hiding away from the effects of the solar flares in underground bunkers with all the tech they have .. then when all is said and done they come out and use an army of robots they built (mass produced humanoid robots like in I.Robot –> http://randomc.net/image/Robotics%20Notes/Robotics%20Notes%20-%2011%20-%20Large%2027.jpg .. they were shown in ep11) to control what’s left of humanity (probably few millions), enslave and rule over them.

    And the solar flares don’t make robots go out of control .. the person who stole Frau’s identity is the one who hacked them, he is probably working with the committee of 300.

    Also, Solar flares can cause the following:-

    1-Disrupt all electromagnetic communications.
    2-kill people and animals with radiation which is how they will reduce the population (normally the ozone layer protects us from it, but not against intense cases like Solar flares).
    3-Out right burn the surface of the earth if the Solar flare is too intense (which will cause serious damage to people and governments alike).

    Solar flares by themselves don’t hack robots or create robopocalypses .. people do .. which are in our case the Committee of 300 … their motives actually make sense and their plan for world domination actually has some merit to it.

    Also .. how could any person consider bogus science like the microwave time-machine from S;G to be superior to the science in R;N, that time-machine does not need debunking becasue it’s utter crap .. we just accept it as it is with suspension of disbelief, scientifically it makes no sense whatsoever .. and time travel is merely science fiction till now .. on the other hand R;N has tons of realistic scientific ideas .. Solar Flares themselves are very real and can be quite dangerous in the future, Augmented Reality is becoming more and more common everyday (wouldn’t be surprised if ‘Pokecoms’ and AR tagging became common in few years), the main theme which is Robotics is being treated with a very high degree of realism so far .. from the hobbyist robots to the giant robot they built (which failed miserably to even move .. as one would expect), then there is the Monopole .. which while hypothetical is still a real scientific idea .. R;N is 300% far more believable than S;G .. i don’t see how can anyone see it the other way around !!!!

    1. Yes R;N is super realistic with its super moe-kawaii AI and MISSSSTERRR PLEDIASSSS! /sarcasm

      I’m fairly sure that R;N is just as ridiculous as S;G, however what sets them apart is that R;N doesn’t have the same atmosphere as S;G. The build up and S;G masterfully weaved in and out of tension, for every highpoint there was an equal low point to set it off. I’m just not nearly as engrossed in R;N.

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