Robo-G 2012

Kobayashi Hiroki, Gaku Hamada, Nagai Shinya, Jyunya Kawashima, and Ota Koji, Chan Kawai, are three engineers in Kimura Electric Company’s Robot Development Division tasked with a high-stakes mission: build a cutting-edge, bipedal robot named New Shiokaze within three months to boost the company’s profile. The clock is ticking, and every milestone feels like a test of their skill, teamwork, and nerve. But just one week before the grand Robot Expo, disaster strikes. A catastrophic malfunction cripples both the computer systems and the hardware, reducing the entire project to rubble and leaving the trio staring at the possibility of job loss and a company that might never trust them with another project again.

In a desperate bid to salvage the situation, they hatch a risky, almost fantastical plan. Instead of presenting a fully functional machine, they decide to hide a human inside the exterior of New Shiokaze and present a convincing display at the expo. They stage a faux audition to recruit actors to perform inside the costume, risking exposure, but the stakes are too high to abandon ship. After a series of twists, misdirections, and near misses, they settle on Shigemitsu Suzuki, Mickey Curtis, an elderly retiree who lives a quiet life and seems an unlikely hero. Suzuki agrees, perhaps seeking a distraction in his waning years, and steps into the role of New Shiokaze, ready to perform at the expo as if the robot truly were a marvel of modern engineering.

At the expo, Suzuki’s New Shiokaze is nothing short of dramatic. The robot—acting through Suzuki—sails past expectations and saves Sasaki Yoko, Yuriko Yoshitaka, a passionate female robotics-geek college student whose enthusiasm mirrors the kind of curiosity that built modern machines. Yoko’s rescue captures the imagination of the nation, and suddenly New Shiokaze becomes a nationwide phenomenon, a symbol of innovation and possibility. Demands to perform pour in from across the country, and the trio finds themselves caught in a web of celebrity, pressure, and fear: if they confess the truth, the whole project could collapse; if they don’t, they become complicit in a deception that could ruin them all. They decide to tell Suzuki the truth and ask him to continue playing the role, hoping to ride the crest of this unexpected fame without tearing apart the fragile trust they’ve built.

Suzuki’s reaction is a fierce counterpunch. He shuts the door on their pleas for continued deception and demands extraordinary treatment in exchange for his continued participation—luxurious hotel stays, gourmet meals, and a lifestyle far beyond what their budget can support. The power imbalance is palpable, and the three young engineers find themselves bound by the very person who should be their ally. To cope with the strain and his back problems, a pragmatic—not to say reckless—measure is taken: powerful neodymium magnets are attached to Suzuki’s lower back to help with his lumbago, a makeshift fix that speaks volumes about how far the team is willing to go to keep the illusion alive.

As the public romance with New Shiokaze grows, Sasaki Yoko continues to chase the dream that started with the expo’s success. Her admiration for the project motivates her to request a guest lecture at her university’s robotics research club, hoping to learn from the creators and perhaps contribute to the real, behind-the-scenes work. The three engineers accept the invitation, initially driven by the money the appearance provides, but they are soon confronted with a different reality. The students’ depth, discipline, and genuine curiosity begin to rekindle their own passion for science and invention. What began as a cover story begins to feel like a calling, and the trio finds themselves reassessing the value of authentic innovation over easy fame.

Meanwhile, the dynamic shifts on the personal front. Yoko’s relentless interest in New Shiokaze—now a symbol of possibility for her—drives her to seek a place at Kimura Electric. When she visits with hopes of joining the team, Ota Koji, [Chan Kawai], fiercely protective of the secret behind New Shiokaze, bluntly tells her that she isn’t suited for robotics and hints that bringing someone new into the inner circle could reveal the truth. It’s a painful moment for Yoko, but it also ignites a resolve within her to prove that her passion and intellect belong in the realm of robotics.

Yet the stakes rise even higher as news arrives from abroad: a researcher claims that New Shiokaze is fake. The president of Kimura Electric organizes a high-profile press conference to address the accusation and restore confidence in the company’s vision. Itami Yayoi, [Tomoko Tabata], a local cable TV reporter, becomes a pivotal figure in illustrating the potential tension between truth and spectacle, and she approaches Suzuki with the assertion that the public deserves to know what lies at the core of New Shiokaze’s mystery. Itami’s presence adds a layer of scrutiny that the engineers had not anticipated, and the pressure to protect the facade mounts.

The climactic moment arrives at the press conference. Yoko receives a blueprint—carefully entrusted by Kobayashi and the others—that seems to prove the sincerity of the team’s effort. She rushes to the venue to defend the project and confront the mounting questions. In the hullabaloo, Itami attempts to pry open New Shiokaze’s head to photograph a behind-the-scenes image, while the robot persona—Suzuki in disguise—looks to slip away from the fray. The scene is chaotic, with reporters capturing every second as the “hero” teeters on the edge of collapse. Then tragedy strikes: New Shiokaze plunges from the window, and the crowd gasps. In a twist that could belong to a different kind of story, the fallen “robot” is revealed to be a meticulously crafted dummy; Suzuki himself has disappeared into the crowd—hidden inside the costume all along—leaving behind only a single photograph of New Shiokaze with his grandchildren and four magnets at his waist, a stark memento of what was real and what was performed.

A year and a half passes. Yoko has joined the team, expanding the Robot Development Department to four members, and they push forward with New Shiokaze 2. The plan is ambitious, and the team is determined, but fate tests them once more when a test run ends in a dramatic failure—the next iteration of their dream falls from a window and is badly damaged. Facing yet another setback, they turn to Suzuki, who has remained in retirement, calm and inscrutable as ever. He greets their plea with a quiet smile, sensing that the spark of something new is still alive, just waiting to be fanned back into flame. In that moment, it becomes clear that the journey—from deception to genuine invention, from fear to collaboration—has only just begun, and Suzuki’s quiet endorsement hints at a future where the line between illusion and reality might finally blur into something innovative, honest, and transformative.

• The core arc tracks a team of engineers under pressure, a public-relations storm surrounding their secret project, a dramatic turn where a “robot” is revealed to be a costume, and a late-inning pivot toward real collaboration and genuine invention. Through it all, the story remains grounded in character: the bold, youthfully ambitious Kobayashi, Nagai, and Ota; the pragmatic, sometimes harsh Suzuki who proves to be the hinge on which the entire enterprise turns; the tenacious Sasaki Yoko who refuses to let the dream die; and the determined Itami and Yoko’s evolving relationship with the world of robotics. What begins as a desperate ruse to save a job evolves into a deeper inquiry about what it means to build something that lasts—whether a machine, a story, or a future—and whether the people behind the machine can redefine what it means to be a creator in a modern world.