I watched what I thought was Steins;Gate but turns out I have no idea what I had watched because it most definitely was not Steins;Gate. I only realised this was the case after a Fan Art Friday feature. So, I had to watch it and I wish I had the realisation ages ago!
- Genre: Thriller, Sci-Fi,
- Type: Series
- Episodes: 24
- Duration to watch: +/- 8 Hours
- Age restriction: PG 13
- Release date: April 2011
- Animation Studio: White Fox
- Does it have a manga: Yes
ABOUT:
Rintarou Okabe is a self-proclaimed mad scientist. He spends his days creating “future gadgets” with fellow lab members, Mayuri Shiina and Hashida Itaru. Their more recent future gadget is the Phone Microwave, which has the odd ability to morph bananas into piles of green glomps and sending emails back in time. Soon the trio are joined as more people join the ‘lab’. With each email sent, the world changes and nobody notices or remembers except for Okabe.
What will Okabe do once the consequences of the emails become more than what they can handle?
My Thoughts:
I usually have very little patience for time travel plots thanks to my unique view on them. However, Steins;Gate managed to pull off time travel in a way I don’t hate and so that it makes sense.
The first few episodes are a tad on the slow side while getting you used to the idea of time travel and introducing the characters. Once past those initial episodes, it is a rollercoaster of emotions and happenings. The story goes from 0 to 100 in the space of 5 minutes.
The characters are fleshed out quite well. Each with their own unique and full backstory. By the time I reached the end of the anime I realised, nothing happens in the season as ’empty filler’. Each action has a purpose or is connected in some way somewhere. No moment in the anime is a waste. The time was carefully used to piece together the entirety of the show.
Favourite Character: Rintaro Okabe
I tend to have a soft spot for ‘crazy’ characters but that is not the reason I like Okabe. In fact his craziness I found mildly annoying. The reason he is my fave is his determination to save his friends and how he feels for his friends. Watching how he subtly changes each episode was interesting. While from episode to episode the change was not that drastic, but compare the first to one of the last episodes and you can see just how much watching a person die, again and again, and again and having everything he does to save her proved futile.
The character that had the saddest past change: Faris NyanNyan
No character really irritated me or upset me. So I decided to do a different character highlight. In my plight to keep this post as spoiler free as I can, I won’t go into too much detail. Faris I found had the biggest impact on ‘their’ world and I wish she could resend her text and have her life the way it had been. Her text got to me more emotionally than the others.
Would I recommend this anime? I would recommend this as a classic anime. The beginning may be slow and there may be a lot of ‘science’ talk but it is easy to follow and interesting to watch. The characters are interesting and even though days and conversations are repeated, it is not overly done. That and there is always a difference in some way.
What did you think of Steins;Gate?
Steins;Gate is one of my favourite shows! It’s definitely the characters that make it for me, I love how different all their relationships are, and how this plays out in the story!