Recap: Aki is driven in making a robot that can win the funding she needs. Kaito is somewhat given some character, shown as sort of a replacement figure after presumably the untimely death of Aki’s sister in a tragic accident. Doesn’t stop him from continuing to be a dick to the poor genki girl.

Look Robotics;Notes, I’m trying, but you’re still not giving me a whole lot of reasons to like this douchebag of a protagonist you’ve given us. If you want me to like someone, have them be able to do a small task without pulling out his “beat me at video games” line. It’s not like she was asking him to kill a man, she just wanted him to get something. I had a discussion with Life about this, I’m not asking for him to comply with all of her demands, but he doesn’t have to be so jerkish about them.

Not much really happened this episode. It seems to be a bit of a character builder as we get to meet more of the players. It’s obvious from the OP and the intro sequence, but glasses guy and shy karate girl are obviously part of team GUN-BUILD. It’s obvious how glasses dude is going to get roped into the plot as the disenfranchised veteran, but I don’t see what the karate girl’s connection is other than her relation to the Doc. Speaking of the old geezer, he was another highlight of this episode, with some pretty funny lines and the tried but true rough exterior-softy personality a lot of mentor figures tend of have.

As much as I complain, it does seem like they’re going to give us Kaito’s character development piece by piece, most likely culminating in the revelation behind the mysterious accident which causes Aki to have a completely ridiculous and fictitious illness. For now, I really enjoy this show, and the robot building is endlessly entertaining, mostly due to Aki’s absolutely infectious energy. With most of the tournament prep out of the way, I hope we get to see some legit tiny adorable robot fighting come next week.

Gee’s Thoughts: Another pretty slow episode, but with Robotics;Notes, it doesn’t really feel that bad and a show like this is clearly going to ramp up as times goes on. Once again, Akiho carries the show with her infectiously spirited personality. Every scene with her (which there are thankfully many of) is a joy to watch. She’s that perfect balance between energetic and spirited, but not annoyingly so like so many schoolgirls in anime. We meet a few other characters, and while so far they’re all infinitely more likable than Kaito (though that isn’t saying much), it’ll take some time to get to know them. On the bright side, they’re all archetypes I like; The martial arts girl, The cool older lady that runs the shop, The cranky old man who secretly wants to see the plucky youngsters succeed, etc. Is R;N doing things by the numbers? Not having watched Steins;Gate or Chaos;Head, I wouldn’t know. If it is, it’s going about it in a manner that’s enjoyable enough for me to not mind.

Even Kaito himself gets a little better this episode as we discover that despite being an apathetic jerk most of the time, he does in fact care about Akiho, if in his own roundabout asocial way. Still doesn’t prevent him from being the worst character in the show, but definitely a step up from the first episode. Regardless, R;N continues to be one of my favorites of the season.

Also, the OP is the shit. Every time I hear it, I just wanna jump out of a window and like, build robots or punch buildings and shit.