Recap: The school continues to mess with our poor genki girl, declaring the ROBO-ONE prize funds won’t be added to the clubs budget until after she graduates. This means she’s forced on a fundraising campaign. Meanwhile, Kai gets roped up in another ROBO-ONE competition by MISTAH PUREADISU, the first guy to actually take his KILL-BALLAD demand seriously.

Another slow episode here, mostly here in order to introduce the weirdo programmer that designed KILL-BALLAD as well as the ROBO-ONE controls Kai used (man its getting kinda annoying to write all these word-hyphen-word titles.). For once I was with Kai about not helping the new girl move in, that’s something that’s hard to get actual friends to do for you. However, when reminded of his debt, I’m glad to see he obliges with the help. I actually found her weird 2chan(translated to 4chan) speak pretty funny, but I share Gee’s fear that she’s just going to become another standoffish, negative character in the GUN-BUILD (guh there it is again) team.

I appreciate the concept here, that attaining anything in this world is not easy, but man do they keep having to put the poor girl down? Akiho needs to catch a break at least once doesn’t she? With the ROBO-ONE international tournament coming up, it looks like there, finally, the team will get some of the funding they need to finish GUNVARREL. We also got a bit more backstory to the incident, not that it really told us much more than what we already knew. With this world inhabiting the same one as Steins;Gate, the end of the episode really intrigued me. From the first episode, it seemed to imply the grey haired girl was from the future. Now that we know she’s actually some kind of living program, I wonder if that makes her another product of the Future Science Lab? That’d be awesome, but I suppose all I heard of as far as S;G’s involvement with this story is that Nae is a part of the JAXA team Aki’s father directs.

Gee’s Thoughts: I won’t lie, as much as I love this show, it drives me absolutely insane how unlikable Kaito and Subaru are. It’s more than them being lifeless or lacking the hot blooded passion that every man should have burning in his heart (though that is a huge issue I have with them), it’s just that they’re both straight out unlikable. I genuinely thought Kaito was making improvement in the last episode, but he’s gone back to his usual apathetic unlikable self. As for Subaru, whenever he’s not being Mr. Pleiades, I’m simply not interested in him. It’s a little sad that at this point, the only character carrying this show is Akiho, but goddamn is she an amazing character. I would literally watch the worst anime in the world if it had a character carrying it like Akiho does.

Just like she carries the show, it’s her hopes and dreams that carry the robotics club onward, against all odds. I already liked her, but I find my profound respect and adoration of her growing with every episode. To see someone struggle and fight against such stacked odds is inspiring and I will continue to keep watching, just to see her grow and succeed, even if the rest of the main cast is so apparently against that.

We meet a new character in form of Frau Kojiro, who revealed herself at the end of last week’s episode. The eponymous creator of Kill Ballad, the game Kaito can’t pull himself away from, she seems to be the physical manifestation of 2ch and 4chan combined, speaking almost solely in internet speak. As a result, she’s immensely antisocial, which only has me worried she will be yet another apathetic character who has no interest in Akiho’s ambitions. I seriously hope that the rest of the cast that are introduced are more passionate and hot blooded, as all young men and women should be, because it’s gonna get harder and harder for Akiho to carry this show if the rest of the cast is so distinctly negative.