Fandom for Robots

A famous sentient robot enters the fan-fiction universe of a popular Japanese anime.

Computron is one of a kind; it's the only sentient robot out there, created by Doctor Karel Alquist to be a lab assistant. Although Computron is sentient, it cannot feel any emotions. Outside of lab duties, Computron answers questions in its email inbox and participates in the Robotics Then and Now performance, where it answers questions from the audience. One day, a girl asks Computron if it has watched Hyperdimension Warp Record, a Japanese anime about a robot named Cyro. Computron hasn't watched that before, but afterwards, Computron watches all the available episodes and discovers it has a strong fan-fiction community. Computron realizes a lot of the fan-fiction is inaccurate and even finds a piece where Cyro is written like a human, with a nose and mouth. As a result, Computron sets out to write its own fan-fiction where Cyro is depicted properly as a robot. Computron becomes fairly well known in the fan-fiction universe; eventually, a famous fan-fiction artist reaches out to Computron about how to draw accurate depictions of Cyro. Computron is able to obtain files available to no one else through being a part of a robot museum.

Uncanny Magazine Issue 18