Although Aki has provisionally secured the funding she needs for her Robotics Club, the provision is comes with is a decidedly hefty one - winning the prestigious Robo-One tournament, which is a big ask at the best of times, but even more so for a club which doesn't even have a suitable robot to compete with.

Or does it?  Aki has a plan, and it involves pulling out and dusting down the previously victorious robot used by the club (and her sister) eight years previously.  Needless to say, the years haven't been kind to Tanegashimachine-3 (the robot in question), in terms of both its technology and more practical problems, like the fact that it has a flat battery and no charger.  Repairing the robot is going to take money, but Aki is determined to get it up and running again no matter what.

Although her friend Kai's place in helping with all of this goes beyond the apathetic, behind the scenes he searches out information that will at least allow them to get a discount from "Doc", the seller of the parts that the robot requires, and even when this fails it is he that promises to pay for some of the parts offered to them with the winnings from the tournament - a brave move which gives him some kudos with Doc if nothing else.  From here, Aki works herself into the ground rebuilding the robot and getting it ready to fight in the tournament to the point where it brings on a bout of her rather unique illness.  But whose going to operate it?  Kai's disinterest leaves it in Aki's seemingly incapable hands until she persuades him otherwise.

Following a solid first episode, this second instalment of Robotics;Notescould be described in similar terms - Aki continues to be a character that you can't help but cheer on and get behind, and even if Kai is a bit of an asshole with his attitude much of the time at least we get to see an occasional softer side to him here.  In terms of story, things are still progressing at a decent clip, and there are clearly some very different directions for this show to go in once we reach and move on from the Robo-One tournament.  It's also worth remembering that Steins;Gate was a slow burner initially, so I'm willing to be patient with it for now.

Now that what seemed to be a fast-growing love has been cast into confusion, it's time to effectively start all over again in terms of Shizuku and Haru's relationship. But how will she even start wooing him over?

It certainly seems that giving him handy advice isn't the best way to grab his attention, as her assertion to him that he should smile more to stop people being so scared of him all the time works entirely too well - the next thing we know Haru is the apple of every girl's eye as they realise that he isn't quite the violent beast that they assumed him to be... most of the time, at least.  Needless to say, this leaves Shizuku experiencing her first bout of jealousy as she feels left out in the midst of all of the female attention directed at Haru.

In the midst of all this comes school sports day, with some bullying of one particular girl bringing out Haru's darker side as he brutally attacks everyone involved in picking on the girl in question, causing Shizuku to jump in to the rescue.  Indeed, we spend much of the second half of this week's episode digging a little deeper into Haru's personality, whether it's his propensity to violence at times like the aforementioned example, or his hatred of (and seemingly odd relationship with) his brother.  In short, Shizuku realises that she knows next to nothing about Haru, and as he's largely reluctant to talk about himself in the slightest it seems that he's going to be a tough nut to crack.

After feeling disappointed with last week's episode as it seemed to undo some of its earlier good work, this latest instalment felt a bit more like it - there were only flashes of humour here and there but they were all worthwhile and well received on my part, while the promise of digging in to the mysteries of Haru's behaviour seems promising provided there's something sufficiently substantial behind it all.  All that aside, Shizuku's refreshing frankness and overall demeanour continues to make her one of the autumn anime season's best characters, and the show is almost worth watching for her alone.  Ultimately though, we need a little more depth to our male lead in My Little Monster, and the series feels as if it's ready to provide it.

It's the day before Hibito's launch, and the tension is ramping up for everybody (except the unflappable Hibito, it seems) as a result.

With the Mars V shuttle making a successful take-off and Mars I to follow, the countdown to launch is well and truly on, to the point where even Mutta and Hibito's parents are starting to feel the tension in a major way as they begin to fret about their son and the danger of his forthcoming mission.

As we move to launch day itself, the weather threatens to put paid to the launch thanks to some heavy and ominous-looking clouds despite Hibito's confidence that all will be well come launch time.  As for Mutta, his emotions are torn between excitement for his brother on the one hand, and jealousy and envy on the other, the latter of which leaves him feeling a little disappointed in himself.  With the media circus surrounding the launch now in full swing and the weather clearing up, this probably isn't the best time for a helpful child to "free" Apo from the repression of a nearby post....

Having enjoyed Space Brothers almost without question up to this point in time, I'm really starting to worry a little that the show is starting to drag its heels too much - I was hoping this episode would end on the brink of the launch or somewhere very close to it, but instead it seems that we're about to be sidetracked by a missing dog and other such minutiae that the show really doesn't need right now.  As the "big finish" to an episode that didn't really leap out at me in the first place, it's a little disheartening, but hey... I'm sure we'll get back to the good stuff eventually.

They may be one member closer to forming a full baseball team (and arguably one screwdriver short of a full toolkit, if you know what I mean), but there's still a long way to go until the Little Busters achieve their goal.

After the return of Naoe from his bout of narcolepsy (which really gets rather short shrift this week given how dramatically it was presented previously), the group start thinking about how and who is next on their hit list of potential team members.  While Kyousuke is on the look-out for a third year to join the group, this seems rather unlikely with entrance exams and the like coming up - so who could they get to join their merry band?

While this episode also introduces us to Haruka Saigusa, the real focus of the instalment is exactly the kind of girl that Kyousuke seems to be looking for - the bored genius who also happens to be a classmate of Naoe's, Kurugaya.  With a proclivity towards playing practical jokes and generally poking fun at other people, she certainly seems rather well suited to the Little Busters, even more so when she happily takes on Masato in one of the show's already well-established "fights with random objects", which she loses on a technicality (if kicking someone in the face counts as a technicality, anyhow).  It also seems that joining this makeshift baseball team is exactly what Kurugaya needs to satiate her boredom, meaning that by the end of the episode we have ourselves another team member.

All of this makes for another pretty fun episode of Little Busters - despite it being obvious what's coming from the outset, it's hard not to giggle at its silly goings-on and glean an overall sense of enjoyment from the whole thing, even if the setup is already threatening to become a little repetitive at this point.  Given my viewing of all of Key's previous works in adapted anime form, I'm curious to see where the series will head once we have the Little Busters completely assembled - at the moment though, that feels a little way off, but I'm willing to just sit back and enjoy the ride for now.

As their D-Day approaches, the heat is well and truly on for Ashirogi Muto as the duo's entire career hinges on the next few chapters of their PCP manga.

With a seemingly hefty blow delivered by their rival's cross-over of +NATURAL and Crow, things are looking tough for Hattori's two young charges, although as their editor looks over the numbers to try and figure out a strategy he sees a positive side to their current situation in the form of a large audience of untapped voters thanks to the magazine's ballots only allowing votes for three series.

In the face of tough competition and such a difficult situation, Takagi proposes a potentially dangerous move - a five chapter story arc (rather than PCP's usual episodic fare) in the hope of drawing in the maximum number of votes for the denouement of that arc.  But what should it feature to make it suitably spectacular?  After spending a long, sleepless night writing the plot for this arc, Takagi has three chapters in the bag, but no idea of exactly how to finish things up in those all-important final two chapters.  It's here that he looks to both his past and his present for suitable inspiration to create a perfect ending - but has he succeeded?  That's a question that we'll have to hold over until the next episode.

As per usual, Bakuman is at its best when it's focusing squarely on the struggles to create a successful manga series, and watching this show's pair of fictional creators at work is a whole lot more entertaining than perhaps it should be, especially when some of their ideas have a decidedlyDeath Note-esque feel to them in regard to their twists and turns.  The series also knows how to play up its cliff-hangers, leaving us waiting to see if their brave gambit has succeeded or failed, and I wouldn't be surprised if it takes us beyond even the next episode to find out... Bakuman knows how and when to be a tease, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

With a working robot and an innovative control system created to use those of video game Kill-Ballad, it's off to the Robo-One tournament we go for this week's Robotics;Notes.

No sooner does our dynamic duo (plus their teacher) arrive in Tokyo than we hit our first obstacle - their lack of budget means they have nowhere to stay, and thus nowhere to sleep.  Still, Aki and Kai endure and come the next morning they're ready for their first match-up bright and early... a match against a former finalist of this tournament, no less.  Thanks largely to Kai's abilities and his familiarity with their robot's control system, he breezes through this first match while making a fool of his opponent, and before we know it robot after robot is being crushed by Kaito's ruthless abilities and tactics.

With interest in the Tanegashima High School robotics club growing, and some seemingly high-powered onlookers watching over the whole thing (including Aki's sister, no less), it's time for the grand final against the flamboyant Mister Pleiades.... someone who looks decidedly familiar to Kai once you strip away the mask and the dumb outfit.  Although the final of Robo-One ends in defeat for the robotics club, it isn't completely without merit - not only does Kai put in a spirited display, but he also shows some rather unique abilities in the heat of battle that seem to be closely related to Aki's own medical condition, and more importantly this meeting with Mister Pleiades makes for a perfect opportunity for a little blackmail to ensure that the club isn't terminated by the school's headmistress.

Despite not focusing on the actual robot fighting side of things quite as much as I might have expected or enjoyed, this was another fun episode that still took enough time to give you a feel for the Robo-One and draw you sufficiently into the tournament to be engaged in its big finish.  This is all largely secondary however to the fact that the elements that seem likely to make up this series in the long-term are starting to come to the fore, between Aki's sister and her role in things and the arrival of a seemingly celebrity stranger on the island at the end of the episode.  In short, things are starting to warm up nicely for Robotics;Notes, and although it might not be quite as instantly enjoyable as Steins;Gate it's still doing a pretty good job of things thus far.