Top 3 Bishoujos of Fall 2012

Yeah, I'm doing a bit of catch-up after missing the whole of fall 2012.

3. Mizutani Shizuku (Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun)

With a shortage of potential candidates, Shizuku became the last pick for the season. I would actually prefer Hex from Jormungand for being such a compelling villain, but she's non-existent on the net. Oh well.

But Shizuku's no lightweight, despite her size. Not only she has a tremendous amount of grit for a shoujo heroine, she actually managed to tame the biggest asshole on the block. And... made him fall in love with her. That beats your average loli tsundere any day.

2. Takanashi Rikka (Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!)

I would be mad if I left Rikka out won't I? Characters often got dumbed down by unrealistic moé attributes and actions, but Rikka had the perfect excuse to act like a complete moron all the time. Seriously, being the original (labeled) Chuunibyou, I don't think it's ever possible to to find someone that oozes more moé than her anymore (not even Tamako). No, it's not possible to watch this and not get a moé overload. She's literally more than the entire K-ON brigade combined.

1. Furugoori Kona, aka Frau Bow (Robotic;Notes)

But even Rikka couldn't beat Kona-chan in terms of uniqueness. Despite the waste Robotic;Notes turned out to be, Kona-chan turns out to be, hands down, the most unique character I've seen so far. Eccentric, genius, hilarious, and she completely broke the norms of bishoujo appeal. She's worlds apart from the lead Aki who had literally zero sex appeal, even without a cute face or any chest to speak of.

Series Review: Robotic;Notes (5/10)

Instant Summary: The Robotics Club uncovers and stops a plot to destroy the world.

Right... so this is not a mecha anime. I was honestly expecting a Gundam-style battle right up till the end, but no. Despite being all high-tech and stuff, the "robots" are the same chunky, dumb and awkwardly moving pieces of metal you see every now and then on the 9 o'clock news. This is a show meant for robotics enthusiasts.

So, Production I.G. on a noitaminA slot, it ought to be good right? Not even remotely. In fact, it smells like the shit they cooked up exactly one year ago. Well, it wasn't that bad, but aside from the excellent production quality we expected from the studio, there's nothing positive I can say about Robotic;Notes. Except for Furugoori Kona, which may be one of the most interesting characters I've seen yet.

You won't have guessed it, but Robotic;Notes turns out to belong to the mystery genre. It started out like a ambitious high-school club anime or a romance drama, but the core of Robotic;Notes is actually mystery.

The problem is that the tiny bits of clues give us almost NO IDEA what the actual "mystery" is all about. The mystery that was supposed to be the core of the story. And if it affected the character in no way right until the very end, why are we supposed to give a fuck about it? Midway through the series, I honestly believed that the writer gave up and tried to do the ambitious high-school club/romance drama instead. It was the point where I thought that they really didn't have a clue or care anymore.

But no matter what, an anime will always pull through with good characters. Not Robotic;Notes. I've never seen a lead character that's quite as passive as Kaito. Aki has near non-existant sex appeal. Furugoori's potential is under-utilized outside of her episode. The other two club members didn't even need to exist. Misaki has the answers too all the questions in the anime, but is completely useless other than being a cheap villain.

I have a lot more things I could complain about, but I've already showed you a recipe for failure. I waited 5 months for an idea of what's going on, but the answer is a shockingly simple, mind-numbing and disappointing twist. The last couple of episodes were good and it ended well, but it certainly isn't worth pushing through 20 episodes. Hell, it isn't even worth 10. Take everything good about this title and boil it down, I'd give you 5 episodes tops. This is such a waste of time.

Plot/Concept: Such a mess.
Story Style: Such boring characters.
Audio/Visual: Great
Value: 5