Mar 22, 2024
TLDR: Interesting story idea, poorly written and bad execution. 6/10.
Style and Animation: Ok, nothing astounding. Character styling and world backgrounds were decent. For the animations, nothing too intricate, but there's probably a lot more moving still frames than one would noticed if they weren't distracted by the story.
Sounds and Voices: Decent soundtracks, they fit the series, but weren't overbearing that you would feel like it's out of place. Voices were fine, you could tell who was who and the voices felt appropriately chosen.
Character growth and Likeability: Could have been better. Male and female leads receive most of the series focus and end up being more
...
fleshed out at the end. The rest of the cast felt lacking ending up as more tropey and simplified. It's not that you can't feel for them nor like them, but they can sometimes feel more like props to the story instead of being an actual person. Personally, i dislike the majority of the cast, they don't feel believable, fleshed out enough and/or have unappealing personalities.
Male lead is cringey and has chuunibyou syndrome or believes in conspiracy theories. Not really likable early on, but ends up growing as a person and being slightly more tolerable. Female lead's actions early on can be questionable and makes you wonder why they would act this way if not simply to drive the story forward. They do grow as character, but it feels tropey, like a typical tsundere personality, making it hard to believe they're a realistic character.
Uniqueness and Worldbuilding: Interesting take on time travel, but the show makes it hard to believe some of the story elements shown, often forcing the audience to hand-wave common sense or logic. No point asking how or why, just let the story and emotions of it pull you in. Story settings in fantasy or futuristic worlds often allows the audience to believe in it more, whereas modern fiction can be a hit or miss because you end up being more critical of the reality of it. This issue isn't solely unique to Steins Gate.
Story and Pacing: As a whole, it's a fine story, but depending on the viewer the pacing of the show can feel a bit slow. The first half of the show is about setting up the story elements and introducing the cast. While appreciative that the author(s) took the time to introduce and give backstories to cast, if you don't relate or find any of the characters likable, the first half of the show really feel like a slog to go through.
I've known of about the series when it was released back in 2011 and even had friends back then recommending the show, but i wasn't interested in it. Now in 2024, i've gone through many anime series, mangas and light novels. After watching the first episode, it didn't really made me want to keep watching it, but decided to give the show a few more episodes to see. At around episode 8, i was really considering on dropping the show because it wasn't that good. Only after digging around and finding someone pointing out that the show shifts half-way in did it incentivized me to keep going. I also watched related materials to Steins Gate(specials, 0, movie, ona,) and it doesn't get any better if not worse. Maybe you'll have a few good moments, but most of the time watching it was barely enjoyable.
Nostalgia or first time animes often blur viewers perception of the quality of the show. I like the story idea of Steins Gate, but it really wasn't that good of a show. It might have been a great series in 2011, but there has been great releases throughout the years as of 2024 with believable and grounded cast. Steins Gate is just an Ok anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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