I wish there was a separate category for manga/manhwa/other visual novels because we have so many things to consider with them compared to a trad novel. There's art, composition, how good it flows, etc. I usually rate them based on pure ✨ vibes ✨ but I won't use that one in this manga review.

I think 3 ⭐s is fair, as I didn't actually love it, nor hate it.

🌷The art is REALLY gorgeous. Nostalgic. It reminds me a lot of Plunderer, and I love that manga to bits and pieces. I love any manga or visual novel that has an art style similar to oldies!

🥀 The story isn't as great, as it all went over my head. I'm not big on robotics but it's definitely not beginner-friendly

🌷 The female MC, Aki, is really the star of this manga. If not for her, I wouldn't have finished the manga. Her optimism and "never give up!" attitude basically keeps the story going, because if it's up to the MMC...

🥀 Nothing will happen. The MMC is insufferable and my mind refuses to recall his name. He basically serves as the "inner monologue" narrator most of the time which makes thing grim.

🌷 The fight at the end was epic though. It isn't worth slogging 300+ pages but we at least got that great art style and composition.

Thank you Netgalley and Author for a copy of the first volume of this manga.

I don't know why, but I just couldn't immerse myself in this story. So I just give this book 3 stars.

Well, while I read this ...The emotions that were supposed to be there or already built up tended to escape me, leaving me with a persistent sense of boredom and a wondering 'Why is it like this? How come?', etc. The characterization of the leads felt forced, lacking a natural touch, and, at times, felt cringey.

However, I must admit that the book has really wonderful illustrations. The mangaka's drawing is superb! The plot was solid, even with its slow pace, and I appreciate this book's intriguing technology concept. Wow! I hope our technology catches up with theirs asap.

This was a bit difficult to get a hang of (it's a spin-off, maybe?), the characters and the world, and I struggled a lot with it. The story was fine once it got going if a bit slow, and the illustrations were beautiful.

I understand that the manga was originally published in 2012 and that they think that in 2019 we were going to be so advanced is tremendous! ha ha ha! Then came the pandemic and as a society we have not grown much, but technologically we have... although not as much as they show here... (I think).

I liked this manga, it is longer than what I am used to and yet it was a light, bearable read and I love those types of stories where we get to know the characters little by little and see how they link together to achieve the same goal together. aim. I love those stories. And even more so when we really get into their lives.

However, I didn't end up connecting with the story as much as I thought I would. I liked it, it was interesting but I couldn't connect as much.

Thank you Udon Entertainment for the digital copy I read on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Robotics; Notes starts out kind of slow. It took about 20% for me to get into it, but once I did, I sped through the remainder. A high school robotics club with 2 members and no budget attempting to win a national tournament is the underdog manga story we all love. I'm very curious to find out what's going on with the sister.

I really tried to get into this manga. But I hard a hard time. The same happened when I first tried watching Steins;Gate. So maybe I'll understand it better after I try again...

The story follows Aki and Kai, the only two members of a Robotics Club at their high school. Aki is super optimistic, and her only goal is to finish building a life size robot left behind by her older sister and founder of the club. Kai is mostly there because Aki has been his friend since they were children, he's more into an online robot fighting game where he's trying to get to the top 1 in the leaderboard, and will only agree to do anything being asked from him if you can beat him in a fighting match.

Having played the original Visual Novel in japanese I can say that the translation is great, at least I have a feeling of consuming the same story. It has character profile pages in between chapters and I always love when they have them. Only weird thing is that some of the onomatopoeia aren't translated, so you see a "Buzz" next to japanese characters.

The art is nice and doesn't go over the top, which is what puts me off from reading certain manga, it conveys the scenes really well.

Overall a great localization of a science adventure story. Can't wait for the next volumes.

Enthusiasm, determination, and robotic fun create an entertaining tale with characters to cheer for.

The Chuo Tanegashima High School Robotics Research Club (and yes, that is a mouthful) has long seen its glory days and has dwindled down to a membership of two. Aki and Kai are childhood friends, and since it was Aki's sister who brought the club to its peek, they aren't about to abandon the club completely. Aki is determined to make the club shine again and complete her sister's left project, a gigantic robot, before they graduate in a few months. Kai stays at her side but would rather spend his entire free time playing his favorite video games and letting everything sputter silently to an end when they graduate. Aki really needs his help as well as that of others, but everyone and everything seem to ignore her. But she's not about to give up.

This manga stems from another tale, which I didn't realize when picking it up. Not that it really matters, nor did I look into this to learn more. While it's clear that there is more to this world when reading through these first chapters (just impressions and hints), this story does carry itself from beginning to end. The school setting opens things up, giving readers a chance to get to know Aki and Kai before things really get going. This did create a slower read than I expected, but it wasn't boring, either. Just more emotion and character time than I anticipated. Especially Aki wins over and drives the atmosphere with her contagious and unstoppable enthusiasm—it'd be fun to have a friend like her. It's hard not to root for her every step of the way. Her attitude contrasts sharply with Kai, so much so that I really wasn't sure how they remained the friends they are, but it gives variety and promises enough future character arc to win over. Plus, it builds the platform for the humor, which adds wonderful spark.

The illustrations bring over the scenes nicely . They support the humor with the right flair, while still bringing across the mecha aspects well. There are character summaries tossed in, every now and then, which added background and details to each one as well as a short list and definition of terms, which readers may not have run across before. Even sight fans will, however, know these already.

The second half of the book picks up speed as the robotic end gets a bit more underway as does the contest and such. There are a few secrets which surprise, but it's the character interactions, hopes, dreams, and working together which drive this tale forward. It's full of positive vibes (mostly thanks to Aki) and propels into the rest of the series well. I received a complimentary copy through Netgalley and enjoyed the adventure and characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was waiting for something less boring to be honest and way more interesting and exciting to follow but this was so disappointing and for a manga,I found great difficulty finishing it.

This was a fun, fast-paced manga. The writer had a very good sense of humor and used it in the right places. I would recommend this to those who love science and science fiction.

50 pages in and I have NEVER been so lost. I absolutely confused and gave zero clue what is going on. If there is robot technology why is it never shown? Why are they all just standing in a field? What is this plot that keeps jumping around!???!

Did not work for me. And someone who loves Stein's Gate I was really intrigued to jump into this one since it took place in the same universe. But the tone, overall storyline, and characters are so flat in comparison and there's no real mystery like with Stein Gates. Overall a very big miss for me.

A whimsical story, filled with creativity, moxy, and fun. The characters have a genuineness that makes me life, the plot is a fun take on tropes, without being a complete copy of other such stories. I had a great time reading this, and recommend this as a way to spend a day, enjoying the plot, the characters, and the flow of it.

All thoughts are my own & I want to thank Netgalley for an advanced copy of this manga

I went into this nothing excepting much because I like.to be presently surprised by stories, I have to say I was highly enjoying the story and where it was going & seeing how strong willed the female character was in standing up for what she believes in and is so passion for until the end also seeing a loving friendship there throughout the story was lovely to see as well. Both main characters have their own addictions .... the female is addicted to keeping the Robotics club open. Where the male character is addicted to a certain game and becoming number one & you see how these addictions rule over everything in life and their character that in their own way makes them both every stubborn and determined.

If you want a story about strong main characters in what they want and also showing determination with postoperative belief to hold on to a dream and a memory then this series is for you.

I often wonder if there is a better way of reviewing graphic novels. Some like, for this book, 4 stars artwork, 4 stars story, 5 stars lettering etc. While reading through the book, there were parts that were hard to understand, but the fact that this book was both graphic novel and video games was not the problem. I enjoyed the artwork and story line but I won't be buying the next volume.

Thank you for this ARC.

Robotics;Notes was actually quite good for a scifi manga. This version is an omnibus that contains volumes 1-2. The whole series is six books long. Kaito and Akiho are friends and in robotics club due to Akiho's big sister, who was into robotics and now works in the field too. The two friends want to continue her work, enter a robotics competition and eventually build the big robot that awaits in the hangar. But, they need the money for that. So, a good and interesting plot that actually takes time to move and evolve, which is great. Akiho is super annoying though as she has a sister complex and she's whiny too. Kaito too is somehow stuck in the past and the sister is nowhere to be seen. This is such a shounen series, which annoys me, but it's still quite good. Such a contradiction.

The art is OK, but nothing amazing and the manga is from 2012, so the art style is somewhat lacking due to its age. Interesting that this has been translated and published in English now. But, there aren't enough short scifi series, so it's good that this is finally available.

tl;dr
A lot of information is packed into the beginning, but the piece shines, largely due to a very likable female protagonist.

Thoughts
Robotics;Notes is based on a visual novel, and that means there's going to be a LOT of stuff packed in, in an attempt to merge enough information from all the different playthroughs of the game. The manga manages this pretty well, although the front end is fairly information-dense, largely by necessity. There's the robotics club. There's the Anemome Incident. There's the online game Kill Ballad. There's Aki's absent sister. There's the mysterious "popular anime" that aired ten years ago (random coincidence: the Robotics;Notes anime aired about ten years ago). There's a strange girl who stands on rooftops. There's a lot to cover. Thankfully Aki's enthusiasm is catching, and it's easy to keep turning pages to cheer for her success. She's the core of this manga, moving the story forward by sheer force of will. Kaito acts as a decent snarky foil, content to spend most of his days playing online games, but willing to rise to an ambitious challenge, given the right motivation. Other characters all look fun, given their brief introductions, and I look forward to getting to know them better in future installments. Art is nice, very closely matching the style of the games, with a couple fun panels and some cool looking robots.

Robotics;Notes is part of the science adventure series alongside Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head, but I'd classify this one as probably less dramatic than the other two. Then again, with an opening scene like that, who knows where we might go?

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Udon Entertainment for this ARC.

This is Volume 1.

I started off a little confused but then realised its related to a different series. The art was pretty good and the story was progressing slowly but nicely. I liked the notes and explanations of different terms, which was helpful.

In this manga we follow the robotics club at Chuo Tanegashima High School, which only has two members, passionate Aki and uninterested Kai. Aki wants the school to up the robotics club's budget so that they can complete a rebuild of a huge robot that her sister started but the school won't give them anymore money. Aki comes up with a plan to win a robotics competition where they fight robots. With Kai as the pilot they may stand a chance against groups with a larger budget and better robots. Will they be able to win and keep the robotics club alive?

This was a really great manga but this first volume was pretty long. I felt like it could have easily been split into two volumes. That being said, I did really like the story and all of the characters. I will most likely be checking out the second volume because now I have to know if they are going to rebuild the giant robot.

Thank you to NetGalley, 5pb, and Keiji Asakawa for the opportunity to read this manga in exchange for an honest review.

At nearly 400 pages, Robotics;Notes volumes one feels like a two-in-one (maybe it is?). The manga is based on a visual novel and features two high school students in a robotics club. Aki wants to follow in her sister's footsteps and win a robotics challenge, but she also wants to build an actual mech-suit (like a Gundam). The story of making their way to a first competition is enjoyable and wholesome, though more about how the robots work would be very interesting.

There seems to be a larger cast of characters to make their way into the story as the story progresses into further volumes, and the promise of seeing high school students realistically build a giant mech suit is fun and promising. An enjoyable read for manga lovers and mech enthusiasts.