Visual Novel / Robotics;Notes

Justice Always Prevails.

"The science itself may prove cynical. However, one mustn’t forget that there is a scientific element in all things. The important truth is this: I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."

The year is 2019. The setting is Tanegashima high school.

Robotics;Notes follows Kaito Yashio, an avid fan of Fighting Games who is ranked fifth worldwide in the popular fighting game known as Kill-Ballad. Along with Akiho Senomiya, he is a member of his school's Robotics Club. The club's purpose is to complete a working copy of the Humongous Mecha Gunvarrel, the titular character of a wildly popular Show Within a Show anime, started by Akiho's sister, Misaki. However, keeping the robotics club afloat is not easy. Kaito and Akiho are the only members and Akiho makes extraordinary budget demands to the school. Thus, the vice-principal offers them a condition: they must win the Robo-One tournament to obtain the desired budget.

Amidst their efforts to create a working Humongous Mecha for an upcoming expo, Kaito comes across Subaru Hidaka, a younger high school student who has his own fascination in mecha; Frau Koujiro, the Hikikomori genius programmer of Kill Ballad; Junna Daitoku, the granddaughter of the local robotic parts shop who's ironically nervous around robots; Nae Tennouji the young engineer of JAXA who provides funds for the club; and a human-like AI named Airi, who leads him to the mysterious Kimijima Reports that detail how and why a world-altering disaster may be on its way...

The Sequel to Steins;Gate and third entry in the Science Adventure Series, the game was released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2012. In typical visual novel fashion, the story features branching paths and Multiple Endings depending on the player's choices. Steins;Gate's Phone Trigger system is replaced by the Phonedroid Trigger, which activates Kaito's tablet computer, allowing the player to utilize its applications.

Unlike previous Science Adventure entries which were stand alone stories, Robotics;Notes is very much a "culmination title", where there are MANY direct connections between its story and Chaos;Head + Steins;Gate. Several characters return both in the main story and otherwise (they are name dropped/sometimes talked to in Twipo if the latter), the science and several very important plot points from Chaos;Head are crucial to understanding the conspiracy behind Robotics;Notes, there are oodles of references to the events and key phrases that are heavily referenced from previous entries, and this game very much advances the overarching plot of the battle against the Committee of 300 that the entire series follows. This game should ideally be played only after the previous two Science Adventures, especially Chaos;Head in particular, or else you will likely be very lost on the late game story and fail to understand what is going on as you lack the proper context, and several plot points will feel like they come out of nowhere and are Deus Ex Machinas when in reality they are not.

An animated adaptation by Production I.G began airing on Fuji Tv's noitaminA slot on October 2012, which can be seen on Funimation. Five manga have also been produced.

Frau Koujiro also appears in Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds, a spin-off Beat 'em Up to the Fighting Game Phantom Breaker as the second special guest character via DLC, (The first one being Kurisu).

Chaos;Child, the mainline entry follow up to Robotics;Notes and thematic sequel to Chaos;Head, was released on the Xbox One in December 2014.

Meanwhile, a direct sequel to this entry, Robotics;Notes DaSH was announced in mid-2017 with Hashida Itaru/DaSH as the protagonist. It was released for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on February 2019.

Spike Chunsoft announced in July 2019 that both titles will get an official release in the west for PlayStation 4, Switch and Steam around 2020.

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Robotics;Notes contains examples of:

#-C

• 100% Completion: The game track how much of the story you've seen, how many CGs you've unlocked and whether or not you responded in the proper ways to initiate special conversations with Sister Centipede so you can gain access to the tweeps of Takumi, Daru and Kurisu.
• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects:
  • The Anime was animated by Production I.G after all. But special mention goes to the door of Akiho's room opening and closing in episode 5.
  • The replica Gunvarrel in episode 21, which becomes hand-drawn the following episode.
• Achilles' Power Cord: The GunPro-2 uses a laser power link precisely to avert it tripping at its own cable, inside an expo room packed with people. When it's installed on GunPro-1 for the final battle, the laser is mounted on a truck with a large reel of cable connecting it to the power grid. A near-miss flips the truck and severs the cable, leaving GunPro-1 with five minutes of battery power to deal with Misaki's mech.
• Action Girl: Nae is revealed to be this, when she busts in and beats down the Committee "Priests" who are trying to kidnap Frau in Phase 11.
  • Misaki ends up also being this when she leads an assault on JAXA with Committee "Priests" and secures it in order to set things in place for the black hole bomb to ravage the world.
• Adaptation Distillation: The anime adapts the original visual novel, which is a 50 hour story, into a 24 episode anime. Needless to say, it is forced to rush a lot of the second half of the story in order to fit the narrative into this time window, such as cutting out half of Frau and Junna's chapters.
• Alternate Reality Game: In-universe. The things that Kaito has to do in order to unlock the Reports, and the Reports' contents, are very much like a real-life ARG. And it seems like the spread-out reports work this way too, with twipo users asking if someone "unlocked" the next Report yet.
• A Day in the Limelight: Most of the main characters in the cast get at least one of these.
  • Junna gets one in Phase 6, which explores her past in great detail, explaining how she gained a fear of robots, as one of her grandfather's robots fell on her and crushed her as a child. It also focuses on the regret her grandfather experienced as a result of the accident.
  • Frau gets hers in Phase 7, where she's forced to face most of the internet turning on her when the Committee gets someone to hack into her Twipo account and frame her for most of the robots in Tokyo suddenly going rogue and attacking people. Kai and Frau investigate further into the disappearance of her mother, and we also learn that said event is why Frau became a shut-in and worked so hard to create Kill-Ballad in the first place.
  • Airi gets one in Phase 8, which reveals that she's actually an AI clone of the real Airi, who was a friend to Kou Kimijima and placed into frozen stasis to try and prevent her from succumbing to a terminal illness before a cure could be found.
• The Alleged Car: Well, it's technically a mecha, but evoked in Phase 4, when the Robotics Club attempts to move Gunbuild 1 for the first time. Though expectations from the audience is high, it ultimately barely takes a few steps forward after over 10 minutes before the engine breaks down.
• And I Must Scream: Misaki's fate of being mindhacked by Kimijima Kou, who to her seems like a ghost that is inside her head, controlling her actions and compelling her to do what she doesn't want to in helping the Committee's plot to kill most of humanity including her family, and she's been forced to deal with this for nearly 10 full years without the help of any of her family or friends because she's scared she'll hurt them if she doesn't comply with Kimijima's control of her.
• Augmented Reality: GunPro-2 uses AR to overlay an image of Gunvarrel over the robot.
• Artistic License – Physics: In reality, Monopoles are not giant black beans which can be ground up and harnessed as an energy source that can be used for mechs.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The fatal flaw of building GunPro-1.
• Based on a Great Big Lie: Based on the Committee of 300 conspiracy that a secret organization controls all the world's politics, economy and owns a secret military. The Committee is also known by other names such as the "Hidden Hand" or "The Olympians."
• Big Bad: The Committee of 300 and Kou Kimijima
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Nae ends being surprisingly badass, singlehandedly taking out 4 trained terrorists on her own in order to save Frau from being abducted.
  • Tarou, Sumio's parrot comes in to stop a mind-hacked Airi from shooting Kai and company in Phase 11. Seriously.
    No boing-chan! No boing-chan!
• Blackmail: How Kaito makes Subaru Hidaka (aka Mr. Pleiades) joining their club and stops it from being disbanded.
• Bland-Name Product: MewTube, Taboo! and Twipo. Also PhoneDroid Pad for iPad. @channel for 2channel.
• Blood from the Mouth: Happens to Mizuka in Phase 9. After hearing the Kagome Kagome ringtone and answering the call, her augmented legs suddenly malfunctions and forces her to walk towards the cliff. Kai tries to stop her, but after forcefully knocking her down, the legs simply stand her back up at an alarmingly fast speed that cracks her spine. Due to the speed and torque in which it did, she spits up blood.
  • Junna also has this in Phase 6, when it's shown that as a child she was nearly crushed to death by Robots falling on top of her.
• Book Ends: The story starts and ends with Kai piloting Gunvarrel for the sake of a climactic final battle to save the world.
• Boring, but Practical: Subaru's argument on why aesthetics have to be sacrificed in order to build a functional giant robot.
• Brain Uploading: Kimijima Kou did this to become immortal and keep his mans going in motion even after his death.
• Breather Episode: Phase 8, which doubles as A Day in the Limelight for Airi. Kaito learns more about her past, along with her constant wishing for snow on Christmas. This chapter precedes the tragic event that follows in the next Phase, where Subaru gets critically injured and Mizuka is Killed Off for Real.
• But Thou Must!: Most Kill-Ballad matches or twipo messages can be ignored at will, but there are certain points where Kai has to take some sort of action.
• Cat Girl: Need an augmented reality version of this trope? There's an app for that!
• Call-Back: This entry has very many call backs to both Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate.
  • The game starts with a flash-forward to the endgame of the story that harkens back to Chaos;Head's prologue as well as Steins;Gate's book ends.
  • It also starts with a worldline divergence number that confirms that this entry takes place in the Steins;Gate worldline.
  • Whose eyes are those eyes? gets mentioned by a mysterious girl in Phase 1.
  • A horny otaku who's a genius with computers? Where have I heard that before?
  • Kimijima surviving as a Virtual Ghost, and probably also {=AI!Airi's=} and Sister Centipede's digital memories surviving within the real Airi was thanks to a research on memory digitalization, from a certain someone from Viktor Chondria University.
• Calling Your Attacks
  (while in the tournament)
  Kaito: Could you please not shout out the attack names, Aki-chan?
  Akiho: Eh?! Special moves are meant to be yelled out!
  • Kai calls out his final attack, the Gunvarrel Ankh Striker when fighting in the climactic final battle against Misaki.
• Captain Ersatz: By far, Gunvarrel looks like a love letter to every Humongous Mecha show ever made, but it practically is Gundam. Yoshiyuki Tomino would be proud.
• Catchphrase: Aki's Gunvarrel quotes when she tries to psych herself and other people up, which include:
  "Storm and surge!"
  "Blast of spirit!"
  "Yoira-iki~!"
  • Honorable mention to Kai's "But you'll have to beat me in Kill-Ballad."
• The Cavalry: Everyone, even the school's uptight principal comes to the club's aid in episode 20.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Similar to Steins;Gate, shit hits the fan midway through the story, starting at around Phase 7 and hitting in full force in Phase 9 when the Committee start putting their plans into action by ruining Frau and Mizuka's lives.
• Char Clone: Mr. Pleiades.
• Character-Magnetic Team: Most of the cast wind up as club members once the Gunvarrel building gets into full swing.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Averted. In Phase 7, Kai keeps losing to an AI in Kill-Ballad that can perfectly fight him in game and rubberband AI its way to victory with lag and frame perfect inputs. The only way he's able to defeat it is by using his own cheat, Slo-mo, in order to match its frame perfect inputs and get the kill.
• Chekhov's Gun: Finkz seems like an innocuous Egyptian mascot of the hit series Gunvarrel. In reality he's just part of the subliminal propaganda that the Committee pumped out with Gunvarrel in order to brainwash people and deceive them from what their true intentions and plans are.
• Chick Magnet: Subverted. While you would think Kai might be the brown haired bland main character that all of the girls fall for given the cast ratio, this isn't the case in the slightest. Most of the girls don't show romantic interest in him, the only ones that do are Airi (though hers is more in a little sister/big brother sort of way) and Akiho. This entry is ironically the least harem and fanservice heavy among all of the Science Adventure stories.
• Chuunibyou: While there isn't a token Chuuni member among the Robotics Club, Subaru puts on this persona for his fans as his alter ego, Mr. Pleiades, Robo One Tournament competitior.
• Clones Are People, Too: Though AI Airi/Sister Centipede might just be made of data, the story makes it very clear she's as real of a person as anyone else, including the real Airi that she was based off of.
• Combat Pragmatist: Zig-zagged. Kai hates to cheat and prefers to rely on his own skill, but when push comes to shove and the fate of the world is on the line, he'll cheat if he really has to.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Several Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head characters reappear, such as Nae working for JAXA undercover in order to monitor the conspiracy and do what she can to stop it.
  • In Phase 1, a mysterious girl appears and says, "Whose eyes are those eyes?"
  • Phase 11 has lots of them and they're plot relevant ! Such as the Noah IV, one of the prototypes of the Noah II machine that was the crux of ''Chaos;Head's'' story.
  • According to the introduction, this takes place in the 1.048596% divergence.
  • In one of the spinoff mangas, Frau is apparently online friends with Kurisu.
  • Kai is also able to become online friends with DaSH , KuriGohanandKamehameha and Lightning-Fast Neidhardt. All which are the online handles of previous characters in the series.
  • Frau likes to say "What eroge is this?" and "But I refuse!" as well as talk about DQ Ns, Chuunibyous and the like, which are all otaku heavy terms and phrases that Takumi would often talk about in Chaos;Head.
• Conspiracy Thriller: The majority of the plot centers around the Committee's latest scheme to use Gunvarrel propaganda combined with solar storm misdirection to deceive the entire human population into immense confusion and fear as they launch their plan to send a black hole bomb into space which will kill most of humanity.
• Cool Code of Source: In Episode 3 of the anime, some C code that Doc apparently either wrote or viewed is shown. It seems related to joint control.
• Cool Old Guy: Doc, Junna's grandfather. He sells the club parts for their robots and plays loud heavy metal at his store.
• Crazy-Prepared: According to Episode 20, Kimijima planned the entire setup, scenario, and endgame that has occurred in every other episode. Everything was all according to plan.

D-H

• Dark and Troubled Past: Most of the main characters have one.
  • Kaito and Akiho were involved in a mysterious event where they mysteriously fainted, and were then afflicted with debilitating medical conditions that can affect their perception of time. These have been dubbed as "Elephant-Mouse Syndrome": Kaito perceives several seconds as a few minutes, while Akiho perceives five minutes as a few seconds.
  • Subaru has an abusive father who forbids him from getting involved with robotics and tries to force him to become a fisherman like him.
  • Frau lives with the stigma of being the daughter of an accused murderer. Her mother allegedly killed the entire production crew of the Gunvarrel anime and then disappeared (It was revealed in episode #14, that it was actually self-defense, the other crew-members were brainwashed and tried to kill her).
  • Jun was traumatized when one of the robots her grandfather built fell on top of her, resulting in her fear of robots and the belief that her grandfather hates her.
  • Airi used to be a real girl who was afflicted with a terminal illness, and began to lose hope that she would ever be cured. She is then put into stasis to preserve her body until a cure could be found.
• Darkest Hour: Phase 11. Misaki went on a rampage to destroy the Robo Expo, injuring many people and destroying most of the robots there. Suddenly a Solar Storm appears to be ravaging the planet and affecting people from many parts of the world, and the Grand Obelisk from Gunvarrel's final episode appears. Kai and Aki are forced to accept the reality that Misaki is working for the Committee and that Kai was used as part of Kimijima's plan to try and destroy the world, as a rocket with a Black Hole Bomb is about to be launched into orbit which will kill 5 billion people, the majority of humanity.
• Dead All Along: The top three Kill Ballad players have been dead for at least six months.
  • The real Kimijima did actually die in 2010, but he lives in as an AI.
• Defictionalization: In-Universe as well.
  • Akiho is determined enough to perform this for Gunvarrel.
  • The "Grand Obelisk", the elevator from the Gainax Ending of Gunvarrel, ends up near the location where the Robotics competition is held. It apparently is very hard to tell whether or not it is real or not, considering the size of the damn thing. It is revealed to be just an illusion created by Noah IV devices though.
• Despair Event Horizon: Doc in Phase 6, after he gets sick and ends up in the hospital. He seriously considers closing his shop, but is ultimately convinced to keep it open after seeing the Robotics club fixes up his old robots, and more importantly, Junna is slowly working to overcome her fear of them, particularly the one that fell on top of her. He then regains his usual cranky demeanor, along with a renewed hope to carry on his work.
  • Akiho faces this herself in Phase 12, when her sister goes on a rampage with a mech to destroy all of the robots at the Expo, including her own, and almost kills Akiho herself. She's forced to accept that her sister is on the wrong side and is actively working to kill most of humanity, and it cripples her emotionally for awhile before she's able to get over it.
• Determinator: Kai, after being forced to see that he was manipulated by Kimijima into allowing a situation to come to pass where the world could be destroyed without most people knowing, finding out that the person he idolzied (Misaki) is a traitor to the Committee who is trying to kill most of humanity, and that Kimijima is alive, vows to defeat Kimijima and stop his plan as payback for using him and his friends. He goes through hell and back to pilot a dangerous mech and constantly hits himself with Electromagnetic waves that damage his body immensely and cause him to be unable to breath in order to keep up with fighting Misaki, and manages to save the day.
• Didn't Think This Through: Turns out that getting knee-deep into classified information about shady conspiracies by reading every single report and following its instructions to the letter hoping that you and you friends won't get caught up in said conspiracies was a foolish plan, Kai.
• Died During Production: An in-universe example when Frau reveals that the reason why the final episode of Gunvarrel was never aired was because the entire production crew was murdered. However, this information was kept secret from the public.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: "Hidden Hand", if taken in context, may sound familiar to the "invisible hand".
• Driven to Suicide: Frau tries to kill herself in her bathtub when the entire internet turns on her after the Committee frames her for being responsible for a robot uprising that kills many people in Tokyo. Kai barely manages to save her in time before she can perish.
• Due to the Dead: Kai, Aki and Mitchie mourn Irei's death. Mitchie also performs a Libation for the Dead.
  • Misaki also pays her respects to Irei, even while being Kimijima's Meat Puppet.
• Dystopia: What the Committee of 300 wants to make, by killing off most of humanity and enslaving all of 1 billion survivors under a New World Order where they rule all of the planet, and where the rest of humanity is unaware that they are being enslaved, so they won't riot or rebel against it.
• Eat That: You can purchase information from Irei Store by clearing a challenge: eating a nikuman (a Japanese dough bun) with an unusual, typically infernally bad taste.
• Engrish: Gunvarrel, intentionally a corruption of the word "gunbarrel", which is the name for the in-series mecha animé and robot.
• Evil Only Has to Win Once: The Committee of 300's Projects Atum and Mars are just one of their hundreds of plans for world domination that are meant to result in over 5 billion people murdered and the remaining populace of 1 billion subjugated under their rule. Kai and co. managed to shut down both plans before they could successfully finish, but the battle against the Committee of 300 is far from over, as they're still out there.
• Fanservice: Surprisingly averted, most times when the game tries to make you think that a fanservice scene will happen (such as Kai hearing Akiho in the shower but not walking in on her in the shower), it baits you and doesn't go through with it.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Subaru's dad is very much against him trying to pursue a career in robotics and instead wants him to be a fisherman like himself. And after Gunbuild 2 accidentally falls on top of him, it gives his father more credibility as to why he shouldn't be working with robots.
• Fictional Video Game: Kill-Ballad, the Gunvarrel fighting game created by Frau that Kai is obsessed with and ranks as the 5th best player world wide in.
• First-Person Perspective: In the visual novel, we jump ship to many perspectives often, even for the side characters in the cast like Doc and Misaki. It's always their first person perspective rather than a third person perspective.
• Flash Forward: The story starts with Kai piloting the Gunvarrel mech about to face off with Misaki for the fate of the world, and the rest of the Robotics Club helping him prepare for this climactic final battle.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Akiho and her older sister, Misaki.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Phase 1
    Akiho: "So If I also defeat you (at Kill Ballad), I'll be your superior?"
    Kaito: "I guess, but I doubt you could ever win, even in a hundred games..."
  • Phase 3
    Kaito (to Junna): "The wind's strong around here. I would suggest sleeping on the runway, but this time of the season that could be fatal, so be careful."
  • Phase 2
    Misaki (young): ''You need to grow up to be a man with the "right stuff"!
  • Anytime Kai talks about the end of the school year not being the end of the world is funny when you realize how the world nearly ended with the end of the school year because of the Committee's latest scheme.
• Friendly Tickle Torture: Nae does this to Kaito in episode 13 when he jokes about her age.
• Gainax Ending: The supposed "ending" to Gunvarrel that was leaked online.
• Gamer Chick: Misaki herself plays Kill-Ballad according to Sawada, and she played a lot of fighting games in her youth as well.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In a very disappointing move, even if you choose to have Kai send the proper responses to Sister Centipede to have him befriend Takumi, Daru and Kurisu on Twipo, when Sawada brings them up in the main story Kai states that he doesn't know who any of them are. Crappy moves MAGES.
• Geek: Frau to a T, unhealthily shutting herself in her room and not attending class, with her only real friends being 2 A.I.s based on Gunvarrel characters.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: While Akiho didn't specifically request help beyond her club and a couple of adults who worked with her such as Doc, in Phase 12, most of the populace in Tanegashima arrive to help her and the Robotics Club rebuild Gunbuild 1 to stop Kou Kimijima from launching his weapon into space which would kill off most of humanity.
• Good Old Robot: Tanegamachine-san. It is later upgraded for the Robo-One tournament as Tanegamachine-san Advance.
• Government Conspiracy: The Committee of 300, an in-universe version of real-world conspiracy theories floating around on the net.
• Gratuitous English: "Too expensive!" though it's only heavily accented. Also Airi's password "Hidden Hand".
• Guide Dang It!: Good luck getting the True Ending without a walkthrough, thanks to the twipo trigger system. The choices aren't really intuitive, so the Committee of Zero fan translation group who provide patches for the Science Adventure titles provide a guide for not just all the endings but also all the achievements.
• He Knows Too Much: This happens to Frau in Phase 11 where the Committee try to detain and silence her because of her capabilities and knowledge in regards to their latest conspiracy plan, but thankfully Nae shows up at the last moment to rescue Frau.
• Harmful to Minors: Kai and Aki were part of an indiscriminate experiment where Kimijima attacked a ship full of people with Electromagnetic Waves that would have killed them had Misaki not intervened. This caused Kai and Aki (who were still children physically developing) to develop Elephant Mouse Syndrome as a result of their brains being irradiated by EM Waves.
• Heroic BSoD: Aki experiences this when she witnesses her sister destroy the Robot Expo, injure many people, destroy many robots and try to kill Aki herself, forcing her to realize that her sister is part of the Committee and is trying to kill humanity, which breaks her.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sister Centipede manages to save Kai, Nae and the real Airi from being killed by Kimijima's robot assault, but is deleted by him in the process, saying a tearful farewell to the real Airi in the process.
• How We Got Here: The story starts with the Robotics Club prepping Gunvarrel to be ready for combat, with Kai as the pilot ready for a climactic battle. The context is that Misaki has revealed herself as a traitor and the Committee is trying to launch a black hole bomb that will kill most of humanity if they aren't stopped, and Kai and co. are prepping to stop them.
• Human Popsicle: The real Airi is a girl with a terminal, incurable disease. Kimijima Kou put her into suspended animation until the world finds a cure for her condition.
• Humble Goal: Akiho just wants to finish a Humongous Mecha project started by her sister before graduating. However she also does this with partially the selfish goal of wanting it to help her and her older sister reconnect after she distanced herself from her.
• Humongous Mecha: The purpose of the Robotics Club is to build one based on the worldwide famous anime, [[Anime/Gundam Gunbam.]]

I-P

• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: The final battle is an even balance of this and Mecha vs Mecha fighting.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: With some help from Frau Koujiro, Aki and Kai were able to program their hobby robot to be controlled via video game controls from Kill Ballad for a tournament. This control system was later used to pilot the Robotics Club's giant robot for the final battle.
• The Illuminati: The Committee of 300 who have control of most of the influential corporations world wide and have incognito spies everywhere. Their goal this time around is to deceive the world with propaganda about solar storms and Gunvarrel and throw them into a mass panic so they're unable to stop them from launching a black hole bomb into the atmosphere that will clash with the sun's rays and induce a psuedo solar storm that will kill most of humanity.
• In-Series Nickname: Given to a few characters of the cast:
  • Kaito: Kai, UMISHO
  • Akiho: Aki, Little Senomiya
  • Furigoori: Koujirou Frau
  • Mitsuhiko: Mitchie
  • Tetsuhara: Doc
  • Misaki: Misa-nee
• Interrupted Suicide: When Kaito wants to talk to Frau Koujiro and she isn't answering her intercom, he takes a big stone to smash the glass front door and to break into her apartment, only to find her in her bathtub, holding a knife in her hand,. She was too scared to go through with it, but her lack of energy from not eating and the cold water bringing her body temperature too low caused her to be unable to move from the bathtub, and she nearly drowns before Kai rescues her.
• It's All My Fault: Misaki blames herself for much of what's happening because she got involved with Kimijima and killed him to save Aki and Kai, and his AI mindhacked her to possess her and cause her to go along with his plans to destroy the world with her being unable to stop him.
• Just Before the End: The characters point out how the Earth is currently experiencing abnormal weather, such as scorching hot winters in Russia and snowstorms in the American West Coast. Solar flares are also messing with electronics worldwide. Kimijima claims that this is because the Sun is about to cause a solar explosion on Earth, but it is later revealed claims of such were just elaborate, fake propaganda used by Kimijima to distract public attention from his true goal of sending a black hole bomb into space which would interact with the sun's odd patterns and create a psuedo solar storm that would wipe out most of humanity.
• Lap Pillow: Akiho and Kaito in Episode 8.
• Lethal Chef: Invoked with Irei's special nikuman. An abomination of spicy dough with passion fruit and cheese filling. See Eat That.
  Kaito: "It is truly one of the Devil's own inventions, from the pits of Hell itself".
• Like Brother and Sister: Kaito and Akiho.
  • Until Phase 12, where Kaito confesses his love to her and she reciprocates with a kiss.
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to the other three Science Adventure mainlines, this entry definitely has the lightest tone overall, with the first half of the story being mostly positive school life stuff about building robots and the Club getting together with some conspiracy intrigue. This is all turned on its head in the second half where the game goes out of its way to remind you this is a Science Adventure story, and we're treated to a lot of trauma, despair and sadness as the conspiracy begins to unfold and many people's lives are damaged in its wake.
• Limited Wardrobe: Justified and subverted! Most of the story takes place during the school year, which is why the Robotics Club members often wear their summer and winter school uniforms, but all of them have casual clothes they were when they're not attending class as well!
• Locked Out of the Loop: Akiho has no idea about the grand conspiracy unfolding throughout the events of the game because Kai intentionally refuses to tell her anything about his discoveries as he doesn't want her to worry. This comes to bite both of them in the butt later when Misaki's true colors are revealed and she nearly kills the both of them at the Robo Expo.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Even though Kaito and Akiho lose the hobby robot tournament and their bet with the vice principal, they point out that the winner, Subaru, is also a student in their school and blackmail him into saying he's part of the robotics club, so they still technically won.
  • Subaru uses this against Kai as well; when Kai uses his usual dodge of demanding that someone beat him in Kill-Ballad before he does anything, Subaru simply continues challenging him to consecutive fights until he won, since there's no limit to the number of rounds specified.
  • When Kai is given the conditions/flags to unlock the Kimijima reports, such as completing a lap in a certain amount of time at an out of business go kart track, he simply uploads a fake time as if he did race it, as there was no way he could realistically do it. In another, he's required to hit a bullseye at an archery target. However, the flag never specified how far away he has to be, so he shoots at it from a few feet away to ensure a bullseye. Another report requires him to put rocks on a shrine without them dropping off, and he tries with big rocks at first but fails. He later puts small pebbles on, and it still satisfies the flag since it technically never specified how big of a rock had to be placed on it.
  • Akiho asks Kai to get Frau to help with the programming on the mecha's motor in Phase 7. He tells her he needs to be defeated in Kill Ballad first before he'll do it. Since she's terrible at the game, she gets Nae to defeat him instead.
  • The only reason that Kai is able to stand a chance against Misaki is because of his Slo-mo, which he triggers consistently by sending Noah IV's electromagnetic waves into himself, which heavily damages him in the process.
• Love Confession: Kai and Aki admit their feelings to one another and kiss right before Kai sets off for the final battle to save the world.
• Meaningful Echo: Whenever Kai flashes back to his time with Misaki, he remembers how everytime there was a Rocket lift off she would shout, "Go, Hot Dog, Go!", which he echoes in the bad ending where he has given up on his dreams like Misaki has, right before the world is about to end from a Black Hole Bomb being detonated above the Earth.
  • Misaki mentions a few times in the story about Kai not having "The Right Stuff" to achieve his dream. In the true ending he says the same thing back to her as she struggles to break from Kimijima's control and avoid running away to stall for time for the missile to go off.
• Medium Blending: The anime uses three types of animation throughout: there's the standard anime style, the video game 3D style for Kill Ballad, and the 80s Anime style with touches of modernization for segments that have Gunvarrel. The blending comes in when the anime is able to render both game and the anime at the same time, which is rather tough to pull off but is performed spectacularly.
• Meido: One of the Pokecon's applications allows Kaito to see Akiho dressed in such a costume with cat ears.
• The Men in Black: At the end of Phase 3, some men in black suits along with a mysterious lady shows up and forces Akiho and the others to go with them. However, it's subverted when the lady introduces herself as Nae Tennouji, and that she works for JAXA and wants to help them build their mecha after seeing them at the Robo One Tournament, along with the interview Akiho gave earlier.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Kai invokes this when he says he doesn't give a damn about saving the lives of 5 billion people, and that this is really for his own self satisfaction of settling things with Misaki, his rival, after all this time. Though it's obvious he's also doing this for Akiho's sake as well, even if he refuses to admit it.
• Missing Mom: The entire reason that Frau came to Tanegashima was to find her mother, Kogoori Minami, the director of Gunvarrel, who disappeared before the final episode of Gunvarrel was aired 4 years prior.
• Multiple Endings: Subverted. Most of the girls have an "ending", but it's really just canon chapters within the narrative that get credits when you complete them due to the route structure, the story doesn't actually there, it only ends once you reach the ending of Phase 12.
• Mythology Gag: A couple to Steins;Gate:
  • When asked if it's possible to hack the IRUO system, Kona says that's it's just as hard as hacking SERN's database to steal classified information.
  • In episode 20, when Frau sees a plane landing in front of the club's hangar, she wonders if it's a handsome time traveler from the future.
• N.G.O. Superpower: The Committee of 300 in a nutshell, which is pretty easy to see when they managed to concoct a world changing conspiracy under the noses of the mass public, and had the funds and science neccessary to achieve this without batting an eye.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Phase 9, Kai downloads the seventh Kimijima Kou file, and decides to launch the executable file that came with it. This distributes the other 6 Kimijima Kou files to everyone on the planet using the IRUO system. It also puts Kimijima's Xanatos Gambit plan into action in which he planned to kill off five billion people on behalf of the Committee, through spreading mass misinformation about a solar storm to misdirect everyone from the true plan of killing most of humanity off with a black hole bomb.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Aki is a mecha geek, so is Subaru, Kai is a lazy gamer, Frau is a shut-in game programmer, yet most people consider all of them pretty beautiful/handsome.
• Nerds Are Virgins: As expected given her personality, Frau is a virgin. Though she desperately wants to see other people get laid due to being a Yaoi lover.
• Now or Never Kiss: Kai asks for one from Aki before he pilots the Super GunPro-1 into a potentially Suicide Mission. She accepts and kisses him back.
• Official Couple: Akiho is the main heroine and deuteragonist of the plot, and the story revolves around her relationship with Kaito, both romantically and otherwise.
• Once More, with Clarity: The entirety of the first scene in the game makes complete sense once you see it again at the climax of the story, Kai is preparing to pilot Gunvarrel and the Robotics Clubs are making last minute adjustments on it as he sets off to fight Misaki.
• Otaku: Frau. She's specifically a fujoshi that's heavily into Yaoi and Anime.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Averted with Kai who easily sees through Mr. Pleiades's disguise. Akiho and Mitchie on the other hand, play this trope straight. It's even lampshaded by Kai who calls the two of them legally blind for not being able to tell. (quote Kai's reaction here later)
• Poor Communication Kills: Kai refuses to tell Akiho about the conspiracy he's uncovering that's related to the dead colleague of her sister Misaki, and how Misaki and Mizuka both tell Kai to stop digging for the truth. Akiho probably would've been able to dissuade Kai from digging further if she'd known what was going on. But by the time the penultimate phase rolls around, Kai has unwittingly played into Kimijima's trap to spread misinformation to allow the Committee to execute their plan to kill most of humanity, and Misaki is forced to help as a result, leading to her nearly killing Kai and Aki at the expo.
• Powered Armour: Mizuka Irei, the owner of the Irei Shop, has a non-military variant: She uses an exoskeleton (it's not a full one, just for her legs) to move her legs (most likely connected to her nerves, since she doesn't seem to operate any controls while she walks) after an unspecified accident. Click here for an illustration.
  • Later, Mizuka is killed by someone hacking it and making her walk off a cliff.
  • Misaki is later seen wearing a full body version of the exoskeleton, which gives her insane strength and agility, as well as the ability to interface directly with electronics.
• The Power of Friendship: The Robotics Club all work as a perfect team in the final battle, helping to keep Kai's mech powered/create illusions to aid him, as well as help him use Electromagnetic Waves to trigger his Slo Mo to keep up with fighting against Misaki.
• Product Placement:
  • Aki only drinks Skal.
  • Aki, Kai and Mitchie go to Wc D's in Phase 1, an obvious parody of McDonald's, and Aki even says "I'm lovin' it..." in her sleep while they're there.
• Putting the Band Back Together: In the true ending, the club reunite in the wake of the incoming solar flare and illusionary robotic invasion that threatens to kill most of humanity, overcoming their previous struggles and trauma in order to unite one last time to finish Gunvarrel and stop the Committee before it's too late.

R-Z

• Real Robot: The hobby robots are pretty much fine tuned versions of the toy robots available now. Gunvarrel, being from a Show Within a Show , Is pure super robot- however the replica built by the club has a different design in order to actually be able to stand without falling apart.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Akiho and Kai respectively, Aki is the energetic go-getther while Kai is the calm and lazy friend that supports her from behind the scenes.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Again, Kai and Aki.
• Sequel Hook: Kou claimed, that the copy possessing Misaki is only one of many and that he'll be back.
• Shared Universe: Robotics;Notes shares setting with its two predecessors: Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head.
  • Phase 3 shows the return of Nae Tennouji from Steins;Gate
  • If you pick the proper Twipo responses to Sister Centipede, come Phase 7 you can see the tweeps of one of Kai's new online friends that she introduces him to. This person is none other than Lightning-Fast Neidhardt, also known as Nishijou Takumi.
    • Come Phases 8 and 9, if you follow the proper Twipo choices to the aforementioned person, you can also see the tweeps of DaSH and KuriGohanandKamehameha, who are Daru and Kurisu, respectively.
  • In Phase 7, one of the subliminal images found in the final episode of Gunvarrel, include several images. Some of them range from the Mayans, Nuclear Explosions, but the key point of interest here is the Shibuya 107 Building, which is referencing how all of these incidents/places were related to former and current Committee of 300 conspiracies.
  • In episode 14 of the anime, if you look closely enough, a poster of Seira can be seen in the background of Maguyan's room.
  • Phase 11 has a slew of continuity nods to Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head, such as Nae's codename being "S. Braun" in the same vein as her father. SERN is mentioned to have experimented with black holes to the point of creating black hole bombs for the Committee of 300 as well as being mentioned to have attempted to create time machines in the past. And lastly, a N IV device becomes the focal point of this part of the story, which with Chaos;Head context as well as references in the text by Sawada is pretty clearly supposed to be Noah IV, a prototype of Nozomi's Noah illusion technology that was made after Noah II's destruction. Though it can only show illusions in people's minds using Electromagnetic Waves as the CODE samples from the Shibuya Conspiracy were lost during the events of the Shibuya quake.
• Shout-Out:
  • Early on in the game, Misaki Senomiya shouts "Go, hot dog, go!" during the rocket launch. She also talks about Kai needing "The Right Stuff" here and there to achieve his dream, which he echoes back to her at the end of the game.
    • The repeated exchange of Kaito asking for a Space Candy also seems to be a reference to The Right Stuff. To quote the movie itself:^note Just like the Visual Novel, this exchange is repeated more than once.
    Chuck Yeager: Hey, Ridley, ya got any Beeman's?
    Jack Ridley: Yeah, I think I got me a stick.
    Chuck Yeager: Loan me some, will ya? I'll pay ya back later.
  • Aki constantly quotes Char Aznable whenever she puts her glasses on.
  • The epigraph in the Robotics;Notes logo contains an Engrishy rendition of Invictus final line:
    I am the captain of my soul.
  • When Frau joins the Robotics Club, Aki asks if she can call Kona Frau Bow.
  • Speaking of Frau, as an Otaku, she uses the same sorts of memes that Takumi and Daru do. She can be constantly seen stating "But I refuse!".
    • Daru on Twipo can be seen saying the "That's why we love you! That's why we admire you!" line to Takumi late in the game as another Jojo's reference.
  • In episode 8 of the anime, Aki takes the Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive stance, and Subaru calls it the "Gendo Pose" by name.
  • The game that Kaito plays during the storm has a logo that looks a lot like Street Fighter II.
  • In episode 10, the Starship Enterprise make a cameo.
  • In episode 11, when Kaito asks Kona to hack IRUO, she tells him that it's a hardcore thing to do, like hacking into SERN and stealing their data.
  • Phase 1 shows that Misaki's e-mail address is [e-mail].
  • The Giant Robot "Achillesimo" at the expo in animé episode #18 is shown bending steel rods and is named after the famous hero from Greek Mythology with the bad heel, Achilles. He even has a kinda-ancient-greek helmet.
  • One of the achievements in the game is called "UMISHO ga! Kimeta—!", a reference to this awesome moment in fighting games.
  • Late into the game, it's stated that GunPro-1's internal batteries can only power it for five minutes.
• Shipper on Deck: Frau constantly ships Kai and Subaru together because of her fetishes, though neither are enthused abouti t.
• Show Within a Show: The Gunvarrel anime, a standard Super Robot show about a boy called Dotou Genki and the Humongous Mecha he pilots, Gunvarrel.
• Smooch of Victory: Frau gives one to Kai.
• Spoiler Opening: The opening makes it clear who joins the Robotics Club.
• Square-Cube Law: Discussed in-universe as the reason why building GunPro-1 is so impractical, and why building GunPro-2 will be even harder from scratch. Relatively early on it becomes extremely clear that the sort of Humongous Mecha you see in fiction wouldn't really work. The first version has to make the limbs extremely thick, ruining the aesthetic, and even with that much extra strength added it's barely able to get its foot off the ground.
• Sudden Downer Ending: An in-universe one occurs when the final episode of the Gunvarrel anime is leaked. All the robots sacrifice themselves to power a giant cannon that fires into the sun, causing a solar storm that not only kills the main villain, but all of humanity as well. One of the protagonists sacrifices herself to save her partner, who is left to wander the ruined Earth alone. Akiho reacts poorly to this ending.
  • One of the bad endings in the visual novel is this. If Kai chooses to beat Aki at Kill Ballad at her lowest emotional moment in Phase 9, she rejects him and abandons him, which leads to them never finishing building Gunvarrel, and the Committee succeeds in launching the black hole bomb which proceeds to kill most of humanity.
• Techno Babble: Anytime Subaru talks about the complexities of building a functional walking giant mech.
• The Good Guys Always Win: Aki always talks about how heroes are destined to fight for as long as they live, and that justice will always prevail. And in typical Science Adventure fashion, the Robotics Club manage to stop the Committee's latest plan to kill most of humanity with their hopes and dreams culminating in Gunvarrel saving the day.
• Theme Song Power Up: Once Kai finally has an opening made for him in the decisive fight against Misaki, the original game's opening called The Augmented Place plays. Following this, he's able to use the special input built into Gunvarrel to release its special move, the Gunvarrel Ankh Striker uppercut, which caves in the chest of Misaki's mech, forcing her to concede defeat and leave her mech due to the damage.
• There Is Only One Bed: This happens in Phase 10 between Kai and Aki, though downplayed because the two have known each other for a long time and they decide it's not all that embarassing.
• Third Is 3D: Which is unusual for the visual novel genre. The majority of the game's dialogue is performed by 3D models instead of 2D sprites, though the C Gs are still rendered in 2D.
• Title Drop: Averted, though it's clear the Robotics Notes refer to the blueprints for building Gunvarrel that Misaki left to her sister, Akiho.
• Too Dumb to Live: Yeah Subaru, stand next to the giant robot when there's a powerful wind blowing!
  • Subverted in that Subaru still survives, but his legs are broken.
• Took a Level in Badass: Kai does this by the end of the game. After spending most of the game apathetic to life with no true dream and not caring about anything beyond gaming, he steps up to defend the world and all of his friends by piloting Gunvarrel and defeating Misaki to stop the Commmittee from killing most of humanity.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Aki loves Skal to death and drinks it all the time.
• True Companions: The Robotics Club members gradually become this to another over the course of the story as Aki and Kai go out of their way to help each other and the other club members throughout their struggles.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Thousands of Robots in Tokyo go berserk after someone hacks them. Totally unexpected!
• 20 Minutes into the Future: The game was released in 2012, portraying what 2019 might be like.
• Unwanted Harem: Averted. While the main cast set up consists of Kai and the four lead girls, and official art usually depicts Kai with them in a way reminiscent of a harem, most of them aren't actually after him romantically.
  • He ends up getting together Akiho in the true ending, who always held romantic feelings towards him.
• Unwitting Pawn: Kaito to Kou Kimijima. Then again, that's how Crazy-Prepared Kou Kimijima really was.
• Updated Re-release: Robotics;Notes Elite for the PS Vita, later ported to the Nintendo Switch and Steam. It changes some of the scenes to be better paced, as well as overhauls the entire climax of the story, showing the perspectives of each of the Robotics Club members during the final battle as they fight to help Kai in his struggle. The rerelease also uses snippets of footage from the anime at certain significant moments in the plot as well to enhance the story and impact.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: In-Universe, as the wildly popular Gunvarrel anime (the Humongous Mecha anime that Akiho wants to build) has had no official ending for several years, even though it had a running of 155 episodes. It's ended up being wildly rumored that the anime itself had an ending, but the general fanbase was sad to see it end on such a Cliffhanger.
• Virtual Ghost: Kou Kimijima's "ghost" can be seen with these smartphones in the series.
• Visual Novel: Described by the development team as "a Augmented Science ADV".
• Vomit Discretion Shot: When Frau Koujiro realizes that someone has taken over her Twitter account published a fake confession of her taking over robots and leaking the last Gunvarrel episode, she vomits.
• Wetware Body: Airi and Misaki are controlled by Kimijima's Virtual Ghost
• Wham Episode:
  • Phase 3 — Subaru's father shows up at the robotics club hangar and finds out that his son is still showing interest in the "toys" instead of taking over the family fishing business as he promised to two years earlier. He punches his son and slams Subaru's robot onto the ground. Though Akiho barely stops Subaru's father from stomping on it, Subaru tells her to dispose of it. The shock of watching Subaru being forced to abandon his dreams also triggers an "Elephant-Mouse Syndrome" attack on her as the episode ends.
  • Phase 7 — A solar flare fries Tokyo, Frau's online account is hacked and claims to be the one making robots attack people in the already devastated city. Then Kaito finds her in the bathtub with a knife in her hand and preventing her from killing herself.
  • Phase 9 — Irei is killed when her exoskeleton is hacked and forces her to walk off a cliff. Additionally, a strong gust of wind knocks Gunbuild 2 onto Subaru.
  • Phase 11 — Kimijima Report No. 7 turns out to be a trap that distributes the other six reports to every computer on Earth, guaranteeing a worldwide panic. Also a result of the accident, where Gunbuild 2 fell onto Subaru, the principal is forced to disband the robot research club, and Subaru's father wants him to have nothing to do with his former clubmates, even though he realizes it was entirely accidental.
  • Also Phase 11 — Senomiya Misaki moves to carry out Kou Kimijima's plan by shooting SERN-built black hole bombs into orbit and fiddling with the magnetic field of the earth, killing 5 billion people in the process. Sawada Toshiyuki tries to prevent this. Kimijima Kou uploads himself into the IROU network.
  • Phase 12 — Kaito confesses to Akiho, Akiho kisses him. The two of them prep for the final battle.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Subaru asks this of Akiho after she turns down JAXA's support to build a working mecha, because they wanted her to start from over scratch, while she wanted to continue working on Gunbuild 1. He was being reasonable given that the club's attempt at a robot was terrible due to not being able to get the parts that the blueprints required, but Akiho wanted it done for mostly sentimental reasons, to finish her sister's work in the club.
  • Junna experiences this from her grandfather after she accidentally causes one of his robots to fall on top of her, which also sets off her fear of robots.
  • Akiho essentially asks this of her sister throughout the show, with Kai calling her out never replying back to her as well. Turns out her sister was actually doing Kimijima's bidding after she killed him, lest he leak out the information that she murdered him. This Black Mail works fantastically on Misaki, as she attempts to prevent Kai and Akiho from finding it out, though she nearly loses her sanity in the process.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out the final fate of Frau's mother in the anime adaptation.
  • Subverted in the visual novel, as a Twipo comment chain reveals she was likely killed by a Committee buster squad shortly after escaping to Tanegashima, and the person who likely killed her was then murdered by a robot on the same day this information came to light.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Frau is the epitome of this, constantly shipping Subaru and Kai together, much to their dismay.
• Xanatos Gambit: The Kimijima Reports are actually lies written by Kimijima to manipulate readers into carrying out his true plans. He's not trying to prevent a catastrophic solar flare, he's trying to cause one.

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Storm and surge! Blast of spirit! Yoira-iki!