Steins;Gate 0

There comes a time when fans of a franchise should ask themselves if an established franchise deserves a sequel or not. Let’s face it. Steins;Gate made an impact back in 2011 when it became one of the critically acclaimed adaptations that year. Visuals novels aren’t easy to adapt and in fact, most recent series really proved themselves to be a catastrophe in that territory. Steins;Gate is one of those properties that didn’t really need a sequel although fans have been asking for years. And it’s a bit painful for me to say….but Steins;Gate 0 didn’t truly live up to the name it made for itself.

As ... a true sequel to Steins;Gate, this series is the canonical anime that once again shows us the world of time travel, hypothetical theories, and scientific creativity. It’s essentially a sci-fi adventure that brings back our lovable character cast while also introducing some new ones who really makes their own impact in the story. Rintarou Okabe returns in the Alpha World line without Makise Kurisu after events of the first season. What we see from Okabe’s point of view is how he deals with living in a world without her. It’s a constant everyday struggle as the man is filled with despair. However, an AI (known as the Amaedus) once again reminds Okabe of the memories he tried to bury.

Much of the season takes place in Japan and in the Alpha World line. Fans who have seen the first season will quickly realize that Kurisu is gone but Mayuri remains along with the rest of her friends. Okabe also meets Maho Hiyajou, a researcher from Viktor Chondria University. As an assistant, she works under Professor Leskinen and is the one who introduces Okabe to the Amaedus. What is the Amaedus? It’s designed and developed by Makise Kurisu herself alongside Leskinen and Maho. The program is built based on her likeness that is able to make use of human memory and converts it into digital data. As such, the AI greatly resembles Kurisu not just in her behavior but also personality and mannerism. Obviously, this reminds Okabe of the real Kurisu who no longer exists in his timeline. Steins;Gate 0 features Okabe dealing with his own personal demons, guilt, and trying to overcome his past in order to save the future. The first season capitalized on its sci-fi elements such as time travel and conspiracies. Unfortunately for this sequel, it felt like the show took a step backwards and really didn’t manage take a step forward.

At first, the show took on the approach that I felt familiar with and really embraced in. There’s a bit of dark drama and comedy that takes a realistic approach at human behavior. It’s what I thought the original season did so well when it managed to make every character distinctive from each other. For Steins;Gate 0, there’s not much change for any of the main cast at all. Okabe’s constant self-loathing gets tiresome after watching it so many times. Ok, he feels guilty about what he had to do to save someone but the season overemphasizes on this direction. To me, it felt like the show constantly needs to remind us why Okabe is like this and it’s repetitive storytelling. In the meantime, we do get some fresh faces such as Maho and Leskinen. Both characters are intelligent although contrast greatly with each other’s personalities. Maho seems similar to Makise Kurisu with her tsundere personality and there’s often a recurring joke about others mistaking her as a child. She develops an important relationship with Okabe although I didn’t feel the impact of it as much as I had hoped for; at least compared to Kurisu anyway. On the other hand, Leskinen introduces himself as a lighthearted guy who often jokes with others while demonstrating a degree of intellect. The show also does a fair job at disguising his true intentions but we don’t find out about it until fairly later on. His relationship with Okabe and others often contrasts the mood of the show especially in early episodes. In later episodes, the series gets darker and darker as startling revelations are discovered that once again deals with time travel. It’s a core idea of the franchise after all.

Now I have not played the visual novel for this sequel so this was more of fresh experience to me. The season feels rather moody even with characters like Mayuri and Faris with their roles. Others such as Suzuha also become much more important as they take their own initiative to protect what’s at stake. Still, coming in this as an anime only viewer, I felt the story is a thriller at best and dry storyteller at worst. To me, this franchise really explored everything it needed to and didn’t even need a new season to prove that. The dialogues and character interactions are interesting to listen to but doesn’t truly make this season worthwhile in the end. As a huge fan of the franchise, Steins;Gate 0 feels like it took way too much of its previous ideas and didn't make an upgrade.

White Fox is still in charge of this project and they bought out their talent once again.Thankfully, they earned my trust as the studio proved itself capable of recreating character emotions. That’s important as every character needed to express themselves as credible as they can be. This especially applies to Okabe as we see him drown in despair. Character interactions are captured wisely by the studio’s directive synergy to make them memorable. The design of the characters didn’t evolve much although it’s clear that Okabe has abandoned his lab coat for a more casual wear with his dark shirt to reflect his change in character. Others such as Maho may evoke some lighthearted laughter when certain characters makes jokes about her short height and appearance. The Amaedus is designed in the likeliness of Makise Kurisu so in terms of physical appearance, they look identical.

As a series with sci-fi themes, it’s only fitting that Steins;Gate 0 gets decorated with some colorful soundtrack. Indeed, the sequel combines thrilling theatrics with some emotional OST and melancholy. The OP song “Fatima” by Itou Kanako highlights a bit of character journey for the cast and how they feel in this season. There are several different ED themes too that makes clever usage of its sci-fi elements. On most parts, I think character voices also did a stellar job. Okabe’s personal values are often expressed by his dialogues that are important for his evolving personality. Others such as Maho, Mayuri, and Suzuha made me appreciate their character roles more when they really say what’s on their mind.

At 23 episodes, Steins;Gate 0 became a 2-cour show that could of done a better job at making itself more distinctive. Instead, it tried to rely far too much on its previous established concepts while forging a story that seems too similar to the previous. However, I will say that this sequel will be a treat for diehard fans of the franchise. The episodes in the first half bought back the mood of the original show like yesterday. Even in some of the later episodes, it still has a bit of taste of sci-fi thrilling style of storytelling. The new characters may also be worthwhile for your time if you accept them for who they are. So give it a shot if you want. It may not be perfect but it’s still freaking Steins;Gate.

This spin-off set in an alternate timeline is really bad and uninteresting.
It seems like a shameless cash grab to exploit the popularity of its far superior predecessor.
I have watched only 7 episodes and it may get better later on but I have lost interest in the show by now. Although the original Steins Gate was also really slow to start but this spin-off is just plain boring. Only time we are mildly interested is when it is referencing the previous show.

The biggest flaw of this spin-off is the character of Okabe Rintaru. He was a boisterous, obnoxious mad scientist in the original. But now ... he is just an empty shell. YES we get he is sad and all. But all his responses to others are
"Well...."
"Aaagh...."
"No...."
"Its nothing"

HE IS LIKE AN MC OF A BADLY WRITTEN HENTAI WHO GETS CUCKED REPEATEDLY

It would have been fine for 1-2 episodes but it really gets on your nerves overtime.

All the great things of the original have been stripped off from this. Only things left are Otaku pandering
-Tuturuuu Girl
-Lolis
-Cat girls
-Traps
-AND LOTS OF DEPRESSION

A better direction for the show could have been to continue the original story of Kurisu and Okabe because that was most interesting aspect of the original according to me. Sure it would have been a departure from the original genre. But could have been great like Clannad: After Story.

As of now its just a disappointment.

Let me preempt this by saying two things: 1) This is my first review and 2) Steins;Gate (dub) is my favorite anime of all time.

At 14 episodes into the Steins;Gate 0 dub, I have to say, I am disheartened. So disheartened that I felt compelled to write a review so that strangers on the internet could empathize and console me.

The original Steins;Gate stands out to me for several reasons. For one, the dub is exceptional, as it is not a literal word-for-word translation but a localized and natural sounding one. The voice actors have great chemistry and the dialogue flows in a ... believable way. Additionally, the main premise of the show (time travel) is compelling, well thought out, and believable within confines of the show's universe. There are no Deus Ex Machina moments, just about everything that happens seems like a logical next step. Lastly, and most importantly, the characters are unique and interesting. And, for the most part, they behave as you would expect real people to when thrust into the extreme circumstances that they deal with.

Steins;Gate 0, as of episode 14, has failed where the original succeeded.

Starting with the dub, it feels stiff and forced. Much of the dialogue is far too wordy (especially Daru), and even with John Michael Tatum reprising the role of Okabe, the chemistry just seems to have evaporated. Even worse, the story can't seem to find a direction to take. Are they trying to stop World War 3? Or wait, no they are looking for Kagari. Just kidding, they are developing an AI that acts like Kurisu. Nope, they're just trying to time travel again. Ahh no, that's it, Okabe is going to college in America! Oh, and we can throw in some Moeka/Ferris fan service while we're at it!

Which brings me to the most important point: There are far, farrrr, to many characters that feel completely irrelevant, who seem to have their roles tacked in just because they were in season 1 or something similar. Moeka, the private detective but everything else about her is exactly the same as the original show? Or Ferris but now her outfit is even more ridiculous and she says more cat-related lines? Mayuri, but she decided to stop being cute and instead turn the annoying factor up to 11. And how about Amane, Kurushima, and Nakase? 3 additional characters that serve literally no purpose whatsoever except to get a couple blushes out of Daru.

In addition, the main characters (new and old) feel watered down and one dimensional. Suzuha does karate and is worried about Kagari. Okabe hates time travel and is always sad. Hiyajou has some creepy obsession with Kurisu and Mozart...

If you haven't caught on yet, so far I have found the show to be underwhelming. While it started off great and has several good points (art, character design, animation), my excitement for more Steins;Gate has steadily dwindled since the first few episodes. I'm sure that there will be some incredible twist to tie all of the disjointed pieces together in the end, but currently I am struggling to find a reason why I should care. I find the idea of a world line where Okabe failed to save Kurisu extremely compelling, but in the words of Bilbo Baggins, the story to me "feel[s] thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread." There are so many competing things going on, that I can't seem to find which is supposed to be the most important.

Steins gate is my second favorite anime of all time and 1st in the thriller genre. I recommend it to everyone as it has one of the best well-written storylines in terms of logic, best character development, emotional elements, everything was good in the original series.


And then here comes Steins gate 0 and it throws everything into a garbage, all my expectations were shattered. Here is why steins gate 0 went wrong:


To be honest Steins gate 0 is nothing but a patchwork of the original series, that is this series is meant to cover up all the loopholes left behind in the main series which ... are actually 2 things:
1) Kurisu comes back from Airport and tries to tell Okabe something but it gets cut off as Okabe already presses the time leap button.
2) The Gap between the 2 time travels in episode 23 in the original series.

So the driving plot is very minor for steins gate 0. But even then we can expect a good story out of it, but the writer tried to focus on many unwanted kinds of stuff and ended up messing everything.


1) From the beginning of the series we see Okabe depressed and it lasts until episode 20, so there goes our main character down the hill.

2) Next, there are so many new characters that it was hard for the writer to try to convey the feeling of everyone properly in this less amount of time. As the result, we find for most of the series the feelings of characters being unreal. To be honest only episode 16 ending felt more realistic and emotional.

3) This story whose main motive was to cover up the loose ends ended up creating a major paradox, for Eg The story behind Mayuri's song 'Hoshi no Kanaderu Uta' is actually Mayuri learning from Mayuri which doesn't make any sense.

4) The main focus of this series was cosplaying, partying, being depressed and throw an element of surprise at end of every episode which turns out to be nothing in next episode, you would be so much teased that you won't be feeling excited about the new episode anymore.

5) There is one motherly sentiment story in the middle just to make people cry thrown randomly so that people would not get pissed off with Okabe's depression.


And suddenly after passing the time uselessly till episode 19, the writer comes to senses that with only 5 episodes left, it again turns back to the thriller mode which the steins gate is famous for and somehow manages to inspire the Okabe who wouldn't even want to use time machine until then and conclude the series with some stupid explanation without any proper driving motive.

With all this bullshit this show turns out to be an utter failure, to be honest, its better to go watch the last 3 episodes of steins gate 0 and know what really happened throughout the whole series. The last episode is the only episode which brings back the nostalgic memories of the original series, so don't miss that one...

Now coming to the soundtracks, it turned out to be another disappointment, the opening and ending songs were ok and listenable, but the Ost's are dumb.

Art is good, there are some really stupid fight scenes which makes you laugh.

So there by the famous steins gate goes down the hill.

I always had the feeling, why the other game adapted anime series weren't as popular as Steins gate, but after watching steins gate 0, I completely understood the reason. i.e. they beat around the bush and move the plot forward!!!!

With this, I'll end my review, El Psy Kangarooo :P

P.S: I didn't mention about Amadeus, Maho etc because they are all such a drag and aren't worth it.

I really wanted to like you Steins;Gate 0, but I just can't.

MY BIASES: I have seen the original series twice, and I enjoyed it both times. The original show, though marred by unnecessary characters and weird plot contrivances, is excellent overall (I rate it 9/10).

***There are some minor spoilers ahead (such as love interests)

STORY (6/10): The main story is fine -- time traveling is real, messing with the past can lead to messy results, causation can be a real pain in the butt, failing to save someone dozens of times can lead to trauma, and wallowing in guilt can lead to crushing isolation.

The ... pacing and focus of this show have been horrendous. We are treated to a bunch of slice-of-life episodes where nothing really happens for vast stretches of time, and then 3 minutes of something "shocking" happens toward the end; I felt like I was watching poorly done episodes of Card Captor Sakura.

Even so, that kind of structure could work if handled competently (like the original series). I'm of the minority who believes that the first half of Steins;Gate 1 is superior to the second half; in that series, deceptively mundane things were happening, but they were used to flesh out the characters of the story, and they were punctuated with subtle hints of something sinister lurking in the background that would gradually culminate in a terrible reckoning. With Steins;Gate 0, for those of us who have seen the original series, we are already familiar with the majority of the characters, so it's very tiresome to listen to Daru's perverse utterances and Faris's speech tic (for whatever reason, she says it a lot more now. Why?!).

I understand that the majority of the mundane events serve to show how isolated Okabe is and how his anxieties and guilt are eating him up, but this series's incessant hammering of this point for 18 episodes is too much.

When the series does pick up, we get essentially recycled plot from the original series.

CHARACTERS (4/10):

Okabe (8/10): I have no complaints about Okabe's character; it's logical, consistent, and sympathetic. I understand his anxieties and struggles because of how much the show has hammered the point. I miss his mad-doh scientist shtick, but people do grow out of things.

Maho Hiyajo (7/10): Short girl scientist chan is fine. I'm not sure why she likes Okabe, but her dynamics with him range from amusing to charming. I was initially worried that the show would fall into the Full Metal Alchemist type of humor with Maho (criminal repetition of a bad joke), but it fortunately doesn't (not too much, anyway). Yes, she's short, but she's a bit more complicated than that because she has actual desires, fears, and feelings. And her character actually progresses (unlike the majority of other characters).

villains (2/10): Wow, are they underwhelming. One particular villain finally gets revealed, and what does he do? Classic villain monologue, except it's grating on the ears; I recalled the hilarious epiphany had by the villain in The Incredibles. Way too convenient for Okabe and the audience; it's poorly-delivered info dump.

old characters (Daru, Suzuha, Faris, etc.) (3/10): They are the same as they were in the first series. Unfortunately, they simply act out their old tired roles. Daru still makes perverted utterances, Faris still says "nya," etc. I wish the series would have cut down on the number of characters. The series has tried to compensate for its static old characters by having them fill up different roles to explain plot contrivances (eg Shining Finger becomes a private investigator, Daru breaks into laptops as a side job)

new characters (2/10): Oh brother. I already thought the original series had too many characters, but this one, oh brother. Bleach syndrome? The problem with these new characters is that they are so forgettable, pointless, and unnecessary. Kagari Shiina is the only one whose existence is justifiable (because of plot). Even so, she has been bland and is merely a vehicle for the plot, so far.

ART and SOUND (7/10): The animation and art are fine. The opening track is nostalgic. It's a little bit too energetic for the overall tone of the series, but it's fine; listen to it once, and skip it for all other episodes. The ending track is a real killer; it creates a somber and slightly sinister tone that better matches the series than does the opening; listen to it after each episode to recalibrate what the series's message and tone. The Engrish is a tad grating, though. The other sounds are unobtrusive but appropriate; no complaints.

FANSERVICE (3/10):

Throwbacks (9/10): If you haven't seen the original series in a while, you will likely appreciate all the throw-backs to the original; they are subtle, even clever at times. If you haven't seen the original series, the throwbacks fit in without making you feel left out.

Fanservice (2/10): There are slumber parties, boob fondling, disproportionate amount of stacked girls, and boob enhancements. Why Steins;Gate 0, why?!

HYPOTHESIS: The makers of this show decided to try to branch out by appealing to old fans, fans of moe/slice of life, and fans of drama. This attempt has backfired because the show attempts to do each of the three separately. As such, the show's a mess.

MY ENJOYMENT(5/10)

The pacing and focus and tired/boring characters of this show have obliterated the little enjoyment I've had so far. I suspect that my nostalgia is the main saving grace of this show.

At around episode 17, things pick up and get serious, and all the slice-of-life elements are gone! However, the seriousness ain't all that great. Like the the original series, bullets mysteriously miss important characters and escaping from trained, professional killers is remarkably easy for Okabe.

Later, we get this strange time-travelling to the future event, just so Okabe can see how bad things are, and then we time-travel back to the past. And then one of the villains gets foiled: all within two episodes. Wow, that's some terrific pacing.

At this point, I don't think this show can recover.

[edit] Yup, it didn't recover in the end.

While I was almost positive that it couldn't live up to my expectations, I feel as though this show was very poorly done. No amazing plot twists I couldn't see coming, Kagari, whose entire character was annoyance in the way she was portrayed, and the lack of Kurisu add together to make me disappointed. The score would be higher if I think they couldn't have done a better job, but they absolutely could've. I understand that some things should be left unchanged from the VN, but if it's to the point that I didn't enjoy the sequel (or whatever you want to call it) of ... my favorite show, something isn't right. I hope the organization doesn't kill me for this....

El Psy Congroo

Originally, I’d written a review upwards of 2000 words. A rant basically. I have tried to get my feelings on this ‘0’ in as little a word count as possible and it still is long. Heavy spoilers in the review. And a suggestion: Don’t watch. Erase SG0’s existence from your memory.

So if you were like me when you first heard of this, or maybe you read the synopsis somewhere, and thought that they’d cover the dystopic setting of SG’s future and got all excited, well, the staff of this anime basically slapped you in your face and said ‘F*** you’. With a grin. If you ... haven’t figured it out yet, I’m absolutely pissed that they ruined the sequel of Steins; Gate in the way they did. The dystopia does makes a cameo around episode 20, 21, and that’s it. Those two were some of the two better eps of this absolutely horrendous abomination.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not angry they didn’t show the Dystopia as much. I couldn’t care less. No, I’m taking issue with how they ruined nearly all the characters, had no sense of storytelling with whiplash-inducing narrative shifts and a poorly written plot. See, the LN plot might have been great, idgaf. The anime didn’t manage to convey the plot in any way that can even be considered average.
Near the start, around episode 12 or 13, the show basically completely throws away all the plot points it developed before. Now see, until this point, the show was good. I had hopes. The original was fine till that point. Then shit happened and as we all know that shit hit the roof. I thought same could be the case here. But no. At that time, one generous person enlightened me that they were basically adapting all the routes from the game. They had just gone from the Suzuha route to the Kagari route. Or whatever. Point is there was ‘0’ continuity. I should have realized at that point to hold no hopes in the capability of the show’s creative team.

A minor aside: on the point of Kagari. I call her Kagabitc*. Remember Orihime from Bleach? Replace ‘Kurosaki-kun’ with ‘Mama’. That’s all she is. And true to my Orihime comparison, she served more to boil my blood than to contribute anything meaningful. And the show spends, what, 6, 7 episodes on her. Threw the entire pacing off. Then there wasn’t even any form of proper payoff and eps 16-19 happened. Uh, I’ve never seen worse action and worse character deaths in anime and just generally, that entire part was shit. Story and animation. At one point, the show tries to become matrix all of a sudden with cringe worthy results (and stilted animation to boot). ‘0’ was convinced Kagari is important. I considered her trash. That’s about as much valuable word count I’d like to waste on her.

Now, I could go on and on about all the things that infuriate me about this shitshow. But I’ll save you the rant. I’ll focus on two instances of my disappointment towards the end of the show.
In episode 20, there is a powerful scene when Rukako dies in the Dystopia, and Daru says it’s a relief. Okabe looks at him (thank god he just looks and not scream his lungs off) but the expressions they all have, their cold acceptance of reality just causes him to tear up and scream not at them but at seemingly their fate. Or the sky. Who knows. Point is this was a really strong scene. It conveyed emotions more vividly than words ever could. It gave me hope, anticipation that at least the rest of the last arc of the anime would be just as well written, that there wouldn’t be pointless dialogue about feelings that could have been better enunciated through expressions and actions. You get where I’m going right? In the fucking next scene itself, it throws away all it has built up in terms of emotion by spelling basically everything out that the earlier scene managed to convey. And just for good measure, it has even more monologues. Hey, I’m not saying monologues are bad. The first series had a lot of them. But most of them were wrapped under Norse mythos (remember those fun lines? There’s almost ‘0’ such cool stuff in this season), Kyouma’s antics or something else so they didn’t exactly feel like an exposition dump. You had to think, for a vastly better part than is required here, what the characters meant and feel. ‘0’ assumes you are an idiot. Basically.

Ep 21 saw Kyouma finally return (yeah, ep 21. That’s how long it takes Okabe to be awesome again. Till then he’s just an angsty crybaby). And that episode was great. Still I distinctly remember even with Kyouma’s return the show managed to nonetheless trip over itself. Then the abomination of episode 22 happened.

In a nutshell, he cries over killing an AI (remember the AI Kurisu I mentioned?). Like really? A program. And brah you’re crying over that? What? And to make it worse, the only way the show seemed to think to make us believe this shit possible was to compare this episode with a similar one back in the OG, ep 23 I believe, when real Kurisu dies. Seriously? Back then, Okabe didn’t know that ‘Steins;Gate’ existed. The reality before him was either Kurisu or Mayushi. That’s what made it powerful. But now at the time of this ep he does know. By attempting to draw parallels in hopes of evoking similar feelings of strong emotion, a pretty underhanded move, they quite conveniently ignored the existence of SG world line where Kurisu is alive. They have to reach that place, that is what the entire narrative before that point had been leading up to. Mayushi has to go to the past, convince past Okabe to save Kurisu. So to enable Mayushi to do that, Amadeus has to die (I say ‘die’, but really it shouldn’t be considered anything that dramatic). To spell it out, what would have happened if Amadeus was erased? Kurisu would live. An AI based on a human for the actual human… Is choosing one or the other really such a hard choice. Was SG0 trying to tell me that Okabe had fallen in love with the fucking AI as well? Huh? To further compound the issue, there is a second at the end of the parallelism when AI Amadeus’ lips are focused upon, with fucking lipstick on. If you try to tell me that they weren’t trying to remind you of the kiss, the single best kiss probably in all of romance anime, from the OG, then I’d call you a fool. And oh, do they let the horse die then? No, even when sending a d mail (called d-rine for plot convenience… its explained, but it still kinda is ok?) they have to play this stupid issue up that somehow erasing Amadeus should hold any sort of emotional impact. It’s an AI for fucks sake. And the poor direction, the overblown melodrama, definitely didn’t help.

I hope I managed to get across my feelings of intense disappointment with this season. If you’re a fan of OG Steins Gate, then I can only tell you not to watch this. Let the cat die, it’s not worth saving. I will say this though, the last half of the last episode is something really special, reminiscent of the epicness of the original. Gave me chills throughout. The first half was still bad though lol. Thanks for reading this really long and rant-y ‘review’.

Hoo boy. Where to start.

The other day I decided to sit down and watch Steins;Gate after seeing how highly rated it was on MAL. Being the contrarian I am, I went expecting it to be over-hyped and had praise lauded upon it due to mindless fanservice, or something of the like. After completing it, I came to understand why it's so beloved, and it's now rated as one of the highest rated of what I have personally seen. Of course, knowing there was a sequel, I simply had to check it out. The plot synopsis did leave me a bit hesitant about what to expect, ... but I went ahead and hopped in just to see what it was like.

And boy, was that a mistake.


Story - 5

Where to begin? This series is... a mess. Plain and simple. It feels incredibly disjointed and scatterbrained in so many areas. The reason for this? As you likely already know, Steins;Gate 0 started off as a visual novel, same as its predecessor. This meant there were a variety of differences in the story based on choices made throughout, and effectively gave several different endings. The same was the case of the original. The main difference between these two stories? Steins;Gate as a story felt cohesive and made, generally, about as much sense as one could ask of a story of its kind. They took several elements from various routes and implemented them into a single, well put together narrative.

Steins;Gate 0, on the other hand, decides to show us what would happen if they took the exact opposite approach. Much like the original, it was decided to intertwine various pieces of several moments in the different plots. The main problem here is that, instead of trying to tie it all together in a way that makes sense and adds to the overall story, they constantly sprinkle in little details or events, or little hints of something that could be a potential dramatic reveal later, and the good majority of them just end up as loose ends that are dropped and never revisited.

This aside, the story is slow going and ping pongs all over the place. There's so, SO many moments where it seems like they're amping up for a central conflict and something big is about to happen before it all comes crashing right back down to status quo and the characters go back to doing basically nothing for the next few episodes. The big conflict doesn't even come into play until the LAST 5 EPISODES OF THE SERIES, leaving the majority as this poorly paced slipshod of a show that doesn't seem to know what to do with itself. Easily the worst aspect overall. The amount of confusing and contrived elements are overpowering and make this show so difficult to chew through it's almost painful.

Art - 6

Normally, I would've likely rated this series higher. However, coming directly from the original the serious downgrade in animation quality is seriously notable and a constant distraction. It's hard to excuse, and although I wouldn't go so far as to call it ugly, it just doesn't do the show justice. The character designs are also... a questionable change in some places.

Sound - 7

Nothing particularly notable here. The music, once again, has taken a hit compared to the original, but it's not bad necessarily. The sound design is functional and everything is as it should be, at least to my untrained ears.

Character - 5

Don't misunderstand me. I understand the reason for the characters behaving the way they do, considering the altered developments in the plot. That's understandable and I know why these changes were made, in most cases. What I do not understand is how the essence of these characters were seemingly totally lost in the overall translation, circumstance aside. Rintaro is understandable and acts about as expected, albeit seemingly had everything except his depressed and desperate traits flushed away for no real reasons exactly. However, the supporting cast behaves so drastically different than what could be expected from what was established prior it's almost unbelievable.

Aside from returning characters, none of the new cast are appealing or memorable, with the exception being the notably dull and horrendously executed Kagari. They really do fulfill the role of being background characters and barely even that. By the end the stakes honestly feel minimal because it doesn't feel like you're genuinely watching the cast you cared about so much anymore.

Enjoyment - 5

Having come directly from the original, it's hard to even compare the two. Steins;Gate 0 is such a total mess narratively that it's difficult to keep up with, and the pacing is absolutely abysmal. Nothing makes sense and is ever really paid off, the characterization is inconsistent and nonsensical, and the overall package is just frustrating to slog through. There are moments when the comedy does well enough I suppose, and there can be charm here or there, but that feels more due to the fact of being echoes of what came before and not much more.

Overall - 5

This series was hard to sit through coming directly off the original. I can honestly say it's hard to recommend to anybody but die-hard fans of the original that are morbidly curious to see the follow up, but even then I'd personally say don't bother and just enjoy Steins;Gate for what it is. This show is a waste of time to do much of anything except see how not to follow up something as great as the first, or sit and laugh at how incompetent it is.

Recently completed this anime, I've been meaning to watch for a long time. Steins;Gate is my favourite anime of all time. That's why I was very hesitant in wanting to watch this anime. I knew that it would pale in comparison to the original and I was right. But that doesn't mean that it isn't a good anime.

The general criticism seems to be that this anime is feeding off the popularity and nostalgia of the original anime and I have to say that I absolutely agree with that. This being true, as a standalone anime it's still not that bad. I mean, sure, it isn't ... as much of a science / thriller as the original and mostly involves Okabe sobbing in a corner, but you gotta admit that towards the end the anime does get quite interesting.

The new characters are frankly a bad addition to the show. But at least we get most of our favourite characters back (even though some of them are a little broken). Still, I think this anime is a good addition to the original show because it builds on the already existing anime and makes it even better. But definitely don't watch this show is you're expecting anything close to what the original show had. 6.5 / 10.

[No spoilers review]

Wow I can't believe it, they dun goofed. After almost perfectly adapting the original into an anime I had high hopes they'd be able to do it again... but no. The Steins;Gate 0 VN had a few plot holes, sure, but nothing that really ruined the experience. I was hoping the the anime would fix those plot holes of even find ways to avoid them all together somehow. But they instead created even more by following the source material only half the time and doing whatever the #@$% they felt like the other half of the time. By doing this they have numerous ... instances of starting a subplot that ties in with the main story but just dropping it without any resolution. The original anime and VN gets a 10/10 from me and the S;G 0 VN gets a 9/10 from me, but the S;G 0 anime is kind of awful and get a very generous 6/10. I hate to be that guy, but just read the VN instead.

In conclusion: This anime contains has many plot holes, dropped subplots, and inconsistencies. Just read the VN

Before I write anything about the show itself I really have to warn anyone who did enjoy the original and the movie: Do not watch this abomination. YOU WILL RUIN YOUR EXPIERENCE OF THE ORIGINAL.

There is a reason why the Steins Gate: 0 visual novel is constantly(every few months) for free over different plattforms.

It's nothing more than a badly written fanfic about Mayuri Shiina. A character so one sided nigh every hentai chic has more backstory and is more likeable than her.
And even if you don't like her you get like 12+ episodes hammered into you that you need to like her because ... she is sooooo kawai and totally needed for the plot(not). -.-




If you're in because you loved the original story, - you only get more of the most annoying helpless sister type, harem(in a non harem show) clichee character there is to be.

It's so bad you constantly need to pause the show just to tell yourself: It'll get better. Sad thing is it doesn't get better.

Episode 8 has kinda the climax of the season and afterwards it gets worse and worse with every episode.

If I would rate this without any knowledge about the original it would be a 3-4. The only reason I rate it at a 5 is because of a total amount of ~10 minutes over the whole 23 episodes which does actually explain a few plot holes and are not wasted with this boring excuse for a character called Mayuri.

You know exactly what will happen at all time like 2 min into the episode and sometimes even 4-5 episodes in advande.

Overall it's just not worth your time. If you watch the original+movie again it will be way better spent.

Okay so, warning:
1- English is not my first language so forgive my errors!
2- This review is spoiler-free and it's mainly for those who've already seen the prequel to this anime because I won't be too detailed on facts you should already know about the main series.

Also, I'm an hardcore S;0 fan and I was hyped as heck for this serie, it's my third favorite anime and I gave it a 10 but still... well, what I think about this sequel is on this review so let's move on...

Story 5/10

There's a lot to be said about this. I am really, really disappointed about this ... sequel's story. Let's go straight to the points that I don't like: the plot was just a big mess, there are many facts that hadn't been explained too well and were hard to follow, there are countless plotholes (that mainly focus on characters but that's for the next section), the, let's say, "mastermind" behind all of this was really predicatable and I can say that the only episodes which I actually enjoyed were episodes 1-2-3-4-21-22. Honestly, the episodes in the middle are full of pointless details and feel like fillers. Some twists about the characters were good but other ones didn't make sense, the pacing was awful and again, it really was hard for me to accept this because I LOVED the plot for the first serie but this one... a disappointment. I liked the overall atmosphere and the twists that happened at the end but the experience of the whole season was difficult to digest and overall boring.

Characters: 7/10

So, I'll structure it like this: firstly, I'll give a rating of the characters in the previous season and then those of this one.
Okabe 10/10- S;G0 10/10
Daru 7/10 - S;G0 8/10
Mayuri 7/10 - S;G0 4/10
Kurisu 9/10
Suzuha 8/10 - S;G0 7/10
Maho 8/10
Supporting Ch. 8/10 - S;G0 5/10

I will talk just about the main characters and the supporting characters in general.

Okabe. Okabe is my favorite character of Steins; Gate and there's nothing to say about him if not: he's one of the best written character I've ever met in an anime. In both seasons Okabe shines in his development, his personality and charme even if in this one he radically changes. He's constantly moving, he's pure emotion and he's always fighting between giving up and keep fightning, life and death, changing the past or staying in the present... he's one engaging character that is the main reason why I could still watch S;G0. Seeing his development throughout the Steins;Gate serie is probably the best experience you can get from S;G0.

Daru. Daru is our fellow friendly otaku friend that is also a super hacker and Okarin's best friend. Their relationship feels full of support and understanding each and every time you watch them interact. Daru as a character is essential in S;G and he gets a little more spotlight in S;G0. A very good spotlight.

Mayuri. Let's be blunt. If I didn't like this season as much as the first one it's because of her. I liked her in the first season. She had this friendly,wholesome relationship with Okabe and was such a sweetheart. Her screentime was enough for her character and she was overall likeable, not counting the too-too-roos. IN THIS SEASON instead... there are... things about her character that I didn't appreciate. She got way too much screentime and she became sickingly recurrent. Also, the decision she makes are dumb, she changes completely and becomes whiny and selfish. I like her caring and sweet side but in S;G0 it was overshadowed by her other side of personality that I didn't find appealing at all. She ruined some scenes for me.

Supporting characters. S;G0 liked to add minor characters and give ZERO sense to most of them. The previous supporting characters were well developed and with likeable personalities. Some of them stayed but some others were added but didn't make sense, their backstories, their interruptions to the main story, their personality and role had NO REASON TO EXIST at all.

Artsyle, Vas and Animation: 8/10

I've always liked the art style, vas and animation but S;G0 had some awkward scenes where the animation didn't do its best and was quite lacking, especially in fight scenes, it ruined the mood. The VAs though did an AMAZING job and the expressions really matched it, so thumbs up for this.

Sound: 8/10

I'm pricky about anime soundtrack and the S;G OST has always been great for me but this one OST is basically a copy of that. There are some remixes and original songs, also the OPs and EDs are very good, but they didn't bother adding more original tracks in S;G style.

Enjoyment: 6/10

See above for details.
Overall, I was disappointed but it was still S;G to me and I liked watching the representation of this idea of "the world line in which he failed" but... yeah, the way they put up the story was... see above lol

Overall: 6.5/10 but it's 6

As a fan of Steins Gate I wanted to share my thoughts on this serie to see if some others agreed with me on saying that the original is way better and that this season was surprisingly not as good as it looked like. Also, I really cared about this sequel and I decided basically 6 months ago that I would review it so... yeah, here it is. My long ass review.
Now then, I'm gonna go prepare on my corner for the unpopular opinions to crush me lol jk if you wanna discuss, here to talk!

Favorite character: Okabe Rintaro
Favorite episode: 21/23
Favorite song: Fatima - Kanako Itou

Steins;Gate 0 was an unneeded sequel to Steins;Gate. The plot is so easily forgettable and the actions of each character were predictable. They also didn't explain discrepancies in the plot. However, this season was much more emotional to watch MC try to live with his choices and tugged on my heartstrings a little. Though it felt like another pointless time-traveling loop to prevent another huge event. Pointless deaths to poke viewers' hearts then reset the timeline as nothing happened. Even in the end, the side characters weren't given any proper ending, and MC getting his girl. I finished both seasons in an attempt to understand ... the high rating but I was let down.

I feel a bit bad for Steins Gate 0 because it had to live up to the popularity and expectations created by Steins Gate. For a fair portion of Zero, it seemed to have gotten the same flair. It even integrated more cliche-y anime scenes with relatively good effect, particularly developing emotional scenes through characters crying or confessing their love.

But in reality, there were too many issues and inconsistencies that I overlooked for most of the season because it was the SEQUEL TO STEINS GATE. Some of the seemingly important characters ended up being fillers whose backstories meant almost nothing. It might have just ... been me, but Hououin Kyouma's return was so... anticlimactic. I almost didn't want him to return if it was like that.

If Steins Gate 0 were the first season to a new anime, I think it would have done pretty well. I mean... the reviews are still generally positive, but for those who placed enormous expectations on the second season because of Steins Gate the original, the second season may be a bit more disappointing.

For 22 out of the 23 episodes I watched, I thought I was watching a completely different series.

While some may say the first half of the og SG was boring, dull, and too SOL, I loved it more than the gripping narrative of the second half, the characters were so lovable that I could just watch them mess around forever. The lab members and their daily conversations and sometimes sneak peeks at their inventions made them such endearing characters that I was sure that I will forever love these characters.

Well, I was proven wrong, SG0 single handily destroyed that impression. Okarin became a wojak, an ... empty shell of just showing one emotion in his existence. Mayushii was just there to love Okarin. Daru went from an otaku creep that sometimes does amazing shit to a dad, at least he's a dad that won't turn his daughter into a dog. Despite all this, I liked Christina role, her being an empty AI is a huge difference from the old tsundere girl that goes on 4chan all day, makes Okarin miss her, and makes me miss her. Other LabMems were not only uninteresting and unappealing, they just didn't feel like they were there when they were in a scene. And Mr.Braun, being one of my favorite things about the second half of the original, was just kinda there to move the plot when he was needed in SG0.

All the previous were just character comparisons, I'm not going to compare the story of the original to this one since I honestly couldn't find a plot for the majority of SG0 despite it seemed to be pretty plot driven, and I'm not a good writer.

Now let's talk about the new characters, Maho, Kagari and the professor (others can be excluded though I did kinda like that one episode where Daru go on a date). Maho is pretty cute but inferior to Christina in every way and the show is fine with her just having that status quo, the professor is a plot tool, and so was Kagari, this is kinda it to the new characters.

Scores

Art 3, sometimes it looks good, but majority of the time it's pretty ugly to look at, there weren't really any interesting shots to cover the poor art, and the animation is downright awful at times, but steins gate was never about le epic sakuga fights.

Sound 7, music was good as always, but were repeated a lot, I clearly remember one episode where the same track was played back to back within a couple minutes.

Character 2, 1 extra point cuz of my nostalgia

Enjoyment is same as my overall, 5

Steins;Gate is quite something. I cannot recall how many times I've watched it and re watched. Again and again. I love the series to bit, it brings me to tears each and every time I watch it. And so, I find Steins;Gate 0 to be a disappointment of monumental terms. Truly, to take something so great that it transcends an entire genre and becomes something else, and it to turn it into another mish-mash lousy sequel is soul crushing. That's not to say that Steins;Gate 0 is a bad anime - far to the contrary, it is excellent at ... times, but to be quite frank it should never have happened. It leaves me with a bitter taste. If they had written the middle few episodes better, or if it had just straight up ended on episode 13 it would perhaps fit better but in the current form, I unfortunately find the sequel/prequel/side story that is "0" to be a disgrace to the series. Watch it at your own risk.

To cut to the chase, I will just state my score: 6/10. I normally don't give 6/10 to anime unless I drop it mid-way, but I couldn't drop this one because it was Steins;Gate(OMG). Even though throughout the whole length of 24 episodes I was put into a cliffhanger only once (as far I can remember), my curiosity got the better of me.

So why is it so low? The sound production and animation is so poorly done compared to season 1 and some other animes. Did they change their producer? (yes, the staff is different this time around) In this anime, they need to learn ... from Shaft with their Bakemonogatari series. More instantaneous cutscenes of the sky, a long shot of Mayuri standing by the rails. Something has to feel more magical. It's not just the art. the music needs better and more magical OSTs. That bassy electro sound with a slight horror feel with a catchy tune is missing. The OST has to make things more intense. Overall, the animation and background sound effects were not top-tier.

The animation feels like it was poorly prepared, and was created as if it was meeting a deadline, lacking inspiration.

In short, it feels like this anime was low on budget.

Now the plot. No twist midway in the anime. It's just one stagnant plot curve that slowly (very slowly!) goes up and ends there. The whole anime is like a filler to explain what happened between episode 23 and 24 of season 1. The problem is it shouldn't be like a filler. It should be its own stand-alone product that doesn't require season 1's sentiments and feelings - you know what I mean? It's 24 episodes of explaining. It's as if the anime is explaining to me, not entertaining me.

In short, the plot was mediocre.

I don't want to bash on Steins; Gate too much so some compliments:
It seems that this season did well in trying to incorporate all the routes from the game into the anime. This season has a happy ending and complements well for episode 23 and 24. Finally, I guess I finished the season with more love for the characters than I had before.

Steins;Gate 0 was a great idea, as the episode 23 alternate ending was great. However, it suffers from being way too long and depressing, which ends up making it very boring. However, there is some excitement, and it is worth a watch if you need to feel like you know the complete story of Steins;Gate, and you can do some stuff during the boring parts.

Story - 5
This anime definitely would have been better if it was 12 episodes instead. The first few episodes set the scene and help you understand how Okabe is feeling and where everyone else is at right then. The last ... few episodes are super exciting and feel like the old Steins;Gate, with comedy and fun time traveling that makes you have to watch the next episode right away. Everything in the middle... sure, it kinda had to happen for us to get to the great ending, but it was just way too drawn out. It felt like a chore watching this anime in the middle section. I can only take so much depression from Okabe with no actual fun time machine stuff happening or actual decisions being made.

Art - 4
I am not picky with art, and I gave the art for Steins;Gate a 8. However, the art here is just plain bad sometimes. Some of the fighting scenes on the rooftop like they belong as frames in a comic book. It just could have been much more enjoyable to watch.

Sound - 5
I didn't like the opening or the ending. However, I did really like the song that Mayuri sings that the red haired girl recognizes.

Characters - 5
I think the writers made a big mistake making Okabe SO depressed. Part of the reason I loved Steins;Gate was how fun Okabe was and his mad-scientist persona. I understand that in this timeline he would be very depressed, but we just went too long without literally anything funny from Okabe so I got bored. Even some flashbacks to him being fun would have helped. It felt like he didn't just get depressed, but also lost every ounce of personality he had.

Mayuri is pretty good. At the start they don't really do much with her and she doesn't even do her cute Tutturu's much, and the absence of them made the anime 10x more depressing. However I do like what they did with her in the end, it just made me love her more and appreciate her love for her friends.

I don't like the random red head girl that showed up. She has no personality except "I don't remember anything" and "MOMMMYYYY". Now I get that there is reasoning for this, but it felt kind of lame.

The rest of the side characters are pretty normal and still likeable.

Enjoyment - 5
The ending was very enjoyable, but that was about it. I would say as a whole the story is an enjoyable one to try to understand, but it wasn't fun to watch it be drawn out way to long.

Overall - 5
It is shocking how worse Steins;Gate got in Steins;Gate 0, but it is understandable when you realize that Steins;Gate 0 took away a lot of what people loved in Steins;Gate, which was fun time travel, funny characters, and either happiness (first half os Steins;Gate) or excitement for what will happen next (second half of Steins;Gate).

Eeeeehhhhhhh... So this anime is a thing apparently? I mean, I know it was based off of a visual novel and maybe that was good but the anime itself is... well... just read...

So Steins;gate 0 has a few things I like. The story is kind of interesting, the characters are pretty likeable, and I like AI Kurisu. Aside from that there's not much.

There's quite a bit I disliked about the anime. The story is executed atrociously, so many different storylines are happening simultaneously left and right that I'm not even sure what the main plot is half the time. Supposedly it's about trying to reach ... "Stein's Gate", but they don't really build on that. It also feels like they took Steins;gate and said "How can we make it everything it's not?". While the original Steins;gate was mostly drama and sci-fi with a side of comedy and romance, Steins;gate 0 is mostly slice of life and action with a side of comedy (only now it's not good) and fan-service. And it just doesn't work y'know? in terms of animation the characters don't move naturally. The voice acting isn't as on point as it is in the previous season. You can tell that the voice actor for Okarin is really struggling to understand the character he's playing. And that brings me to one of my biggest problems. The man himself, Okarin. It basically comes down to him being annoying and selfish. He advances the plot in a negative way and he's very hard to empathize with as a protagonist. His rebirth in the last few episodes comes waaaaaaaaaay too late, and it just feels off. I don't really get his character in this season and it's really confusing overall.

As a whole there was just a lot of disappointment surrounding this part of Steins;gate. I mean is it worth the watch? Yes, but only because of its predecessor. If you don't watch it you're not missing much, but you might as well. Honestly it doesn't matter too much either way. Now time to go rewatch Steins;gate from the beginning WITH THE HOPEFULLY GOOD ENDING this time lol.

El Psy Congroo
-Kallocarina

(Contains mild spoilers for Steins;Gate(2011) )


****************************************





The entire reason this show exists is to provide context for one scene in the original Steins;Gate show.
...
One scene.

That's it. That's the whole premise of the show. It takes 23 episodes for Steins;Gate 0 to achieve this and in my opinion, that is just too goddamn long.

The show meanders on episode after episode bringing in plot elements and characters that are irrelevant to the story and expanding on them in the most boring ways possible.



The most insulting part is that the main crux of the show,i.e, showing us how Okabe came up with the plan to save Kirisu, is shunted off to the side in order make space for an incredibly boring and borderline irritating story-line where we instead find out why exactly Mayuri told Okabe to go back( Even though what she did in the original is much more consistent with her character). The plan to save Kirisu and to enter Steins;Gate isn't even developed in this show, being hastily bolted onto the final 10 minutes, like the writers finally remembered the reason this show existed in the first place.

The new characters aren't very interesting or well developed, the villains aren't even worth mentioning and the show goes on for far too long for the amount of things it needs to do.

Not to say that the series isn't mildly entertaining, but if you watch this after Steins;Gate, you'll quickly realize that this show has nowhere near the quality that the original displayed.

All in all, this a mediocre addition to the series, mildly entertaining at its best and downright boring at its worst. Everyone keeps saying how essential this is to 'watch order' for the Steins;Gate series but honestly ? Just watching the original in its entirety would be just as, if not more satisfying solely due to the fact that you didn't have to watch this show.