Steins;Gate 0

Steins Gate 0 is a story about Okabe losing Kurisutina and falling into depression because now his harem is incomplete. Not awesome. With the power of epic deus ex machina writing stuff, person close to Kurisutina puls a random personality capturing device out of her butt and a trip towards harem restoration begins. Awesome.

The writing is a mess. A total clash of random ideas. The amount of different plot elements from asspullery science-save-us-all devices to reading steiner super powers inserted inside slice of life harem settings about.... depression, is absurd. It mainly reminds me of the chaos that Code Geass R2 was. Inb4 who was ... riding the time machine? Predicting it.

When it comes to the build-up, last time White Fox did an impressive job by fooling people into thinking that the show isn't good. Steins Gate generating mean score close to 7.00 during its first episodes. With Steins Gate 0, they did the opposite by fooling people into thinking that this series is good. Advanced trolling. gg I guess.

Surely an anime with generic and weak story can be still good if a) the characters are amazing b) the overall execution as a whole is truly unique and impressive.

Okabe became depressed so he would look the exact same as during Mayushii rescue arc. Tutturuus are starting to feel old. Suzuha is still a whine with fabulous hair. Nyan nyan terrible excuse for a fanservice animal girl. I am still not sure if Rukako has a dick or not, but hey token traps for men of culture, amirite? Maho is just a midget with long hair. At least she doesn't have to claim she is ACHUAYLLY 700 years-old vampire in 7 yo girls body. My morals thank thee. Kurisutina is there only to insert one of each archetype into the harem mix. Daru still speaks like he is mentally handicapped... Some people call this series a masterpiece for its characters, by the way... They are just really dull and boring. Even the girls in 'White Album' had more characteristics.

When it comes to the overall execution, basically this is just a parody series which doens't recognize itself as one. Even 'Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu' was more self-aware. Okabe's traumas are handled super poorly and in a manner much worse than in 'Mahou Shoujo Site' which is another "dark" series from current season. Whenever Moeka appears and the 3 seconds long dramatic tension BGM starts playing while Okabe looks like he will get a panic attack, I bury myself in double facepalm. And whenever our characters speak of building a new machine it mainly reminds me of 'Galilei Donna' where 6 years-old kid "build" a huge, advanced airship in a day. Steins Gate is exactly as convincing for that matter. I have yet to meet a person who gets fooled by the thriller side of this show. Super cheap shit-is-getting-real running scenes which end with comedic reliefs... It's almost nauseating. And when they threw that amnesia/memory loss cliche I had no choice but to pause the stream for 5 minutes and think if the writing can even go more ridiculous than this. It's not really even funny, just sad.

The songs are inferior to the 2011 anime. I must have listened Hacking the Gate for something like 2036 years. This time there is no note-worthy songs outside the OP and ED. Especially the supposedly emotional piano songs used in supposedly emotional scenes are just awful. Practically all the rest is elevator music... if there even is any. There almost never is any music playing or if it plays, it plays super quiet and doesn't typically even sound like music. Mainly remind me of the PS3 menu sounds. The voice acting is identical. Of course there are some awkward engrish and wapanese scenes this time which could as well not be there. The art is the same, nothing to complain about that one. At least one thing which I don't have to get annoyed by...

Based to the first 6 episodes, this has the potential to be the worst anime I have seen since 'Guilty Crown' back in 2011-2012. There is almost nothing the series has done correctly (so far).

“Theories are nothing more than words, accept what you’ve seen.” — Okabe (Steins;Gate)


Reflecting on one’s past experiences can elicit a host of undesirable thoughts/anxieties that permeate to the surface, causing emotional stress and a feeling of helplessness. The upshot being: the simple act of thinking about said events will not alter the final outcome, making the exercise an unquestionably fruitless one. But in the case of Okabe (where time-travel and reading “steiner” are quite accessible), the ability to improve upon the past is well within the realm of possibilities, allowing for the veritable “happy ending” to occur. This inevitability zaps away a ... considerable amount of the intrigue for the viewer, especially when a ham-fisted love story is thrown into the fold, making the events to come, seem exceptionally contrived. If anything was surprising about the original Steins;Gate, it was the sweeping praise it received by the anime community. But I suppose an epic theme song combined with a bunch of sexy “LAYDEE’s” (channeling my inner Bill Burr) and “the most realistic time-traveling series I have ever seen” — said everyone on MAL; literally, everyone — will make an anime series quite popular these days, so why not turn back the clock and relive that success one more time.

But before the anime staff can immerse itself into the meat of the story, we desperately need a sexy Christmas party with a few new characters……And, and, we need Okabe to communicate with a virtual Kurisu, because virtual girlfriends are a rising trend in Japan, so appealing to that growing sector will certainly increase viewership. Also, let’s throw in a handful of Ruka being a dude who looks like a girl jokes, because redundancy in comedy always kills.

But redundancy is only half of the story, because for all the “misdirection” and “flabbergast-ery” the show is ceaselessly dull, imparting a loud and clear message to the viewer: Steins;Gate 0 has no identity. Is it a harem? How about an amnesia story? Are we still doing that time-traveling thing? Is Amadeus a social commentary on the proliferation of blue balled young men? Is it a modern day reinterpretation of the rivalry between Mozart and Salieri? Is it a slice-of-life retelling of Back to the Future, with Daru starring in the role of George McFly? How about a Japanese, female-driven John Wick story with Suzuha as the main lead?

No! To all of the above.

The anime staff had one goal in mind, and one goal only: to flaunt Okabe’s chic new black suit. And I must admit, as a fellow man, it looks stunning!

But enough tickling your tits for one afternoon, because the criticism about the show’s identity is an entirely valid one. The deviation from the themes that made the original Steins;Gate mildly interesting, abated the enjoyment of the viewer, giving the show a banal texture that did not bestow anything of actual substance. Okabe was reduced to an impassive, aggrieved individual who became disturbed at the end of several episodes to feign genuine interest. Kurisu was relegated to an inactive participant due to her amnesic circumstances, and was used as a means to trigger significant events in the series. Suzuha preached about the imminence of World War III like she’s one of those homeless domesday clairvoyants. Maho was the Salieri to Kurisu’s Mozart, in the sense that she was an untalented tsundere, despite her best attempts. And, well, everyone else was….um, present? They certainly were there, but they felt more like cogs in a machine, with little to no freedom to act on their own accord.

Having a deficient cast of character’s is one issue, but having a story that felt like it was blended together by multiple writers with no communication with one another, is just inexcusable. The show felt reminiscent of Mirai Nikki, where “shocking” events would occur, but the cohesion of said events never felt homogeneous. Also, there were a considerable amount of “fluff” episodes, where nothing of actual importance took place. The lull between critical events became excruciating at times, and even when a pivotal moment would happen, it felt over-the-top, cliched, and generally out of place. Furthermore, the staff’s eagerness to exhibit their female characters in erotic situations ad nauseam, highlights how the show was never meant to be taken as a serious intellectual endeavor; but rather, a fun project to elicit some laughter, and intermittent moments of heart-pounding drama. Sadly, though, it wasn’t particularly entertaining, and it failed to engage the viewer time and time again.

The final few episodes ratcheted up the intensity to the point of becoming Hollywood-level ridiculous. There was a protracted exposition by the evil scientist, where he explained his “master plan” to the last detail (yet another old scientist who ends up being the bad guy). Unbelievable action sequences, not in the sense they were breathtaking, but just plain unrealistic. And the return of the “sleeping” protagonist to his status of Hououin Kyouma, because the fans need to be hyped up for that “epic” finale. Speaking of “hype,” that is the optimal word for describing this series, as it built itself up on sheer optimism and excitement from the anime community; yet, for all of its grand ambitions, it was nothing more than a used car salesman convincing you that it was better than it really was.

But as Okabe said, “accept what you’ve seen,” and if it wan’t overtly obvious, we have seen a bad show.

Well, what a train-wreck. 18 episodes in and everything is dull, predictable and badly animated.

This episode contains big reveals which anyone saw coming from at least 5 episodes before, and some from episode 1 itself. The plot is absolutely predictable, the characters cannot connect 2 dots even if they were drawn in a piece of paper, and there is absolutely no tension.
The villains are obvious, their actions are obvious, how they get to know what they know is obvious, what they did was obvious. Characters die but come back to life just long enough to be convenient for the plot. How can they expect to ... call this a thriller when there is nothing thrilling at all? Solid 3.

Art is passable but the animation, especially during action scenes, is horrendous, to the point of breaking suspension of disbelief. People can dodge bullets shot from 10 soldiers surrounding them, missiles fly sideways, explosions break pass through items, etc. About a 4.

Music and sound effects are passable, but there are no memorable songs like in the first season. Honestly I give it a 4 because nothing is terribly bad either.

Oh... characters... where to even start... Feiris, Rukako and most of them show absolutely no character growth or even influence in the stort. Maho has a cute design but aside from that she's just a scientist with an inferiority complex, still shallow. Okabe is stuck in a depression that seems to flare up only when the plot needs it the most, with no tangible consequences after that. Suzuha and Daru get a lot of screen time, with cute father-daughter moments. Suzuha is my favourite character and she keep being my best girl of the series. Some growth and conflict are presented, being the second best character of this season. Daru is the only character I really see as being explored a little more, showing growth. The villains, as I said before, are obvious and chliché in many ways, not even worth a lengthy discussion. All in all, I give it a 4.

The series is just a mess of shallow characters, weak music, bad animation and appaling, predictable, story. I cannot enjoy this travesty of a thriller.
Overall, 3.

The development team behind the original Steins;Gate aimed for a rate of 99% science and 1% fantasy.

I’m not sure what the anime staff for Steins;Gate 0 were going for, but if I were to guess, it would be 84% rule of cool, 15% fantasy and 2% science.
If you paid attention, you probably noticed that those numbers do not add up. That’s on purpose, because Steins;Gate 0 doesn’t really care about making sense or not, and whether you notice those things and let them bug you is entirely up to you.

The amateurish team behind the series had to adapt a non-linear Visual Novel ... that had many routes, each with its own plot points and own character development. As a result, the history was divided into arcs, while still having the main story going on, but not focusing entirely in any of them. If it sounds a bit messy, it’s because it is.

The show has many plot points that may or may not begin a story arc, and the viewer is never too sure to what he should be focusing on. For once, you might think Amadeus and AI is the main theme of the series, only for it to be forgotten for a while to focus on conspiracies and information warfare, which is then put aside so they can tell a story about amnesia. Then everything comes together near the end in a very messy way.
Along with the awkward pacing and dubious writing, it becomes just too confusing for the viewer to keep track of everything that is going on.
My biggest issue with it are the many dropped plot points, but there's so much going on that most people will just forget about them.

It doesn’t help that the soundtrack for this series is basically just the game tracks that play whenever the sound director felt like. By itself, the soundtrack is amazing, but its usage here is boring and uncreative. As a matter of comparison, the original series hardly had a game song come up, and most of the episode’s duration were dead silent, with only background noise going on. This created an amazing atmosphere for the series.
It is the complete opposite here though. In almost every scene there is a track playing in the background. It’s not trying to create an atmosphere or anything like that.

As for the directing, it is mediocre and very amateurish, as expected of the staff for this show. By itself, that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but when it tries to do something “different” it comes out jerky and very distracting, along with the poor animation that really becomes an issue on action scenes. It’s hard to enjoy and take them serious when everything moves like a malfunctioning robot. They even try to do some clever tricks to hide the bad animation, like zooming in a shot to simulate movement, or do shaky camera, but the result is straight up laughable.

With all that said, the show does have some good moments. The first half is watchable, actually improving some stuff from the source material, and episode 8 was amazing for me. The character interactions are great and heart-warming, but can get a little too fan service-ish.
As the story progresses, more is introduced and it becomes hard to follow. Maybe even the staff was having a hard time following it, since the show straight up forget some plot points or never really go anywhere with them. It gets exceptionally hard to watch towards the end, as it has some of the wackiest and inconsistent directing I’ve seen in a anime, with visuals that make no sense and are only trying to be cool. It also have some plot holes, which is ambiguous given the nature of the series, but I still believe that there are some plot holes here and there even considering that.

As for how the plot progresses, its conveniences goes as far as changing a character personality or making them act in a way that they never would just so that the story can flow, almost as if the staff couldn’t think of a better way to do it. Sometimes I felt like there were no “rules” and anything could happen.

It also tries to do drama, and I think it did a good job the first time, with a good build up and an excellent setting, but maybe it got too confident because of it, and the other times are not as good. However, it gets to a point where it desperately attempts to make you cry. It’s so blatantly obvious and pathetic that you can’t get sad. In fact, you might even laugh. The poor animation and awkward directing just make it worst.

For most people, this show will be disappointing. That’s expected, as the original set the bar so high. Steins;Gate 0 tries to reach that bar, but the lack of a competent staff like the original and all its flaws makes it impossible to do so. This end up being just a 23-episode long fan service series.

At the end, if you’re able to ignore, excuse, or simply don’t notice those things, you might enjoy Steins;Gate 0.

(And with that said (and If you read until here), excuse my grammar errors and poor writing. This is my first (and possibly last) review.

Review in brief:

Steins;Gate 0 is a rough showing in a beloved series that goes from cringey to alright to bad at the drop of a hat for its entire duration with few exceptions. It’s not without its moments, but they’re so few and far between that it bears a serious question: “Is this story worth being told?” Unless depression, memes, and a handful of clichés can hold your interest across most of the anime an honest “yes” will be hard to give.

**This review assumes that you’ve watched the original Steins;Gate. Inevitable comparisons will be made, but the focus will only be on Steins;Gate 0 ... and what is necessary to explain it.**

Review in full:

Welcome to the beta attractor field, where resident sad scientist Okabe Rintaro makes a half-hearted go at preventing inevitable calamity by talking to an AI, helping an amnesiac, and generally being depressed in his all-black clothes. The viewer is expected to already know how this story begins and ends; it’s the story of how Okabe gets over his failures, refuses to let the world become a dystopia/perpetual war-zone, and forges the plan to reach Steins Gate. That said, as far as Steins;Gate 0 is concerned, the story itself is almost entirely the first of those three parts, i.e. the story of how Okabe gets PTSD from remembering Moeka’s existence for a while and rarely breaks out of his defeatism & submission to fate. Perhaps it could work if Okabe had the time to wallow in depression, but as-is it just sees him mope and complain while the world crumbles around him rather than develop him in any way the original Steins;Gate hadn't already. As such, Okabe’s depression is not well-handled and isn’t an entertaining story either unless depression is your guilty pleasure.

Now the Steins;Gate series is no stranger to initially slow plots, but there are key differences here. The original’s slow start was acceptable and even enjoyable for many because it was a slowly unfolding tale about some weirdos messing around with alternate timelines using a machine built with a cell phone, a microwave that turned bananas into green jelly, mental instability, and the landlord’s 42” CRT TV (without permission). It was a plot that invited silliness while working with many mysterious & genuinely intriguing facets until things got serious in a sudden twist that was subtly hinted at, but surely wouldn’t happen in such a silly slice-of-life.

Steins;Gate 0 doesn’t have this start (or middle) at all. The audience already knows there’s time travel involved, so we get an AI that merely serves as a plot device and side character instead of working as the dynamic element time travel was and is in the series. Instead of building odd gadgets, Okabe and his friends reflect on how useless they feel while not finishing odd gadgets. Okabe is so depressed that it rubs off on Mayuri in certain ways, leaving a heavily flanderized Faris, barely-existent Nae, Prof. Alexis “Meme-Machine” Leskinen, and sometimes Daru to “spice things up” with randomness, memes, references to Steins;Gate, old Steins;Gate memes, Daru’s gentleman pervert antics, a K-On! reference, and sometimes even an actual joke. Some may find said humor decent enough for what it is, but those who need more than references and random memery to laugh could easily find it unable to balance the anime’s overarching aura of depression.

The slow part of the anime drags on until roughly episode 18, leaving much less room for the thriller aspect Steins;Gate 0 clearly wants to replicate. Even so the “heavy” parts of the story miss their mark more often than they hit. A blatantly-flagged carbon copy of one of the original Steins;Gate’s events serves as a total mockery, soldiers often have such bad accuracy and combat awareness that they make storm troopers look like SEAL Team 6, the villain reveal can be seen from a mile away and plays out like a bad fan fiction, and plenty more that is too spoilery to bring up. It’s not helped by the regular use of “action scenes”, effectively slide-shows in most cases interspersed with awkward breaks for dramatic dialogue mid-fight.

These are interlaced with numerous plot contrivances & inconsistencies, enough to make the attentive viewer start to consider if this is actually a side story in an alternate universe with different rules. Time travel itself bends its consistency, with events that ought to result in paradox yet don’t, plus the explanation as to why the Time Leap Machine was limited to two days (because beyond that point the user’s mental state would be too different, resulting in likely damage) is ignored at times.

It’s not all bad news though, as there are still a handful of standout serious moments to be had. One unexpected twist brings developments that add to the overall story and blunts the anime’s initial angst to a degree. Getting to see just how other characters cope (or struggle to cope) with Kurisu’s death, Okabe’s resulting depression, and other similar & related events shows us sides of characters like Daru & Mayuri that hadn’t been touched upon much prior. Finally, there is a point where the show somewhat refreshes itself, and though it may be too little too late for those truly expecting a thriller, it results in some memorable moments that hold some small amount of merit, all things considered.

Such moments of merit are likely enough to remind a viewer who was otherwise put-off by other parts of the anime why they decided to watch it in the first place, or perhaps even the Steins;Gate series as a whole. More forgiving (or forgetful) fans could very well remember the anime based on these moments, which will likely be mentioned many times over to defend the anime and show that there are indeed clear & valid reasons to rate it highly. Unfortunately, someone watching with their brain turned on runs a high risk of having their rose-tinted glasses broken early on (if they had them to begin with). Steins;Gate 0 relies heavily on nostalgia to deliver its impact and stick a fair portion of its humor, leading to a glaring issue for many ~ that it does little to stand on its own two feet. Large portions of it effectively work as fanservice, and someone expecting an anime that is good standalone won’t have much to point to in the end.

Such is the conclusion I have come to in regards to Steins;Gate 0, though there are other aspects of the anime to mention for the sake of completeness.

As previously mentioned there are issues involving the visual quality. The amount of animation is minimized to a point where even someone such as myself who doesn’t view animation as a highly important quality in an anime (if it helps tell the story it’s usually good enough for me) was left wanting more of it. The picture quality itself is simply average, as the stylistic flare the original Steins;Gate had is not present here, and most frames are merely standard for the purpose of animating dialogue accompanied with basic motion ~90% of the time. Character (re)designs come with two "quirks". First you have Okabe's all-black attire, because clearly we aren't smart enough to tell that he's depressed. Second, it turns out that the B in beta attractor field stands for “breast expansion” as the returning female cast grew by one or two cup sizes. Less focus on plot, more focus on plot, sounds like a normal day in anime land.

The audio quality fares better, partially thanks to returning elements such as certain talented seiyuu and some of Steins;Gate’s noteworthy soundtrack. The new songs are distinguishable from each other, fitting for their usage, fit the reused compositions, and make use of a passable leitmotif. The OP & standard EDs don’t hold up as well, though the special EDs are a nice touch. Voicework is a mixed bag, with some voices done very well despite the circumstances within the show (including the voices for Mayuri, Daru, & Maho considering the varied emotions they experience). At the same time Amadeus (Kurisu) always sounds like she’s been awake for two days straight and Okabe’s actor was clearly enthused to be voicing him again, so much so that it’s noticeable at times and in ways where “enthused” isn’t how Okabe is portrayed (and can be overbearing in scenes where he is).

Speaking of portrayals, Steins;Gate 0 has some highlights and some issues with how it handles characterization. It features a sizable cast, sizable enough to where it can’t put enough attention into all of the cast to give everyone a clear purpose. Faris is there because why not, Ruka is there so that Okabe feels more stressed in two scenes and for the obligatory “but he’s a guy” joke, Mayuri’s three cosplaying friends only exist because one develops a plot hook that is mentioned twice and left unused & forgotten, and another is Daru’s future wife (who also develops a plot hook that gets abandoned). There’s also the unfortunate case of Kagari, whose subplot is split into three chunks, always coming in just when something else seems to actually be starting up, and never wraps up all of its loose ends, rendering her as little more than an annoyingly used plot device that totally looks just like Kurisu if you ignore her ridiculous bust.

Some characters turn out quite well though. Mayuri & Daru are given plenty of serious moments to develop and/or flesh out, which better establishes why they are crucial to Okabe and his journeys. They end up taking responsibilities Okabe shrugs off in his depression, filling larger roles as lab members than simply “super hacker” and “perceptive tuturuu-chan”. As for new characters, Maho could easily be accused of being a fill-in Kurisu, but she has her own character and while she could have used more attention the developments involving her tend to be better rather than worse, and Prof. Leskinen makes an effective foil for her when he’s not busy being Meme Man.

That leaves Okabe himself. For all of his depressive moping in the story, he does slowly develop his way through in chunks, and the Okabe that formed the plan to deceive the world is made known. However, this development simply mirrors the last stage of his development in the original Steins;Gate across 23 episodes instead of the 2-3 it originally took. It’s nice to see where he ends up, but mostly only because the anime dragged its feet every step of the way there. It’s not entirely bad by the end, but a rewatch of Steins;Gate will do the same thing in a much better way.

Verdict:

Steins;Gate 0 is an unfortunate case of producers going for the cheap method of low cost & appealing to nostalgia to make a profit, as evidenced by the stunted production values, repeated use of old memes, and dry plot that overstays its welcome. It’s only on brief occasions that this anime partially digs itself out of that quagmire, much like Okabe with his depression. It does have moments of merit deep down, but it's buried under so much junk that I can't quite say it's enough to make the experience worthwhile. It takes a certain kind of person to forgive the multitude of flaws in Steins;Gate 0, someone I couldn't reasonably expect anyone to be.

first review ever because i absolutely loved the VN

all I can say is that I'm pretty sure the director is a big fan of the series but actually understands neither the story nor the characters

music is pretty great because most of it is from the VN but the use of it is pretty questionable

I feel my soul leaving me a little more with every new episode. why did they randomly choose to turn it into a shitty slice of life with anime-original content for one episode as things are beginning to pick up? who thought it was a good idea to mash together elements ... from fairly self-contained visual novel routes? top 10 questions science can't answer

Update: Final thoughts:

There was an INCREDIBLE amount of potential here. The last episode showed us how things could have gone if they'd followed the script. Unfortunately they pretty much failed to justify mashing all of the routes together (there was enough space to animate everything in the proper order, so why?) and added some extra ridiculousness (a certain scene that I don't want to spoil was REALLY AMAZING in the VN but just alright here) on top of that that disappointed me to no end, so I'm just left here feeling empty.

I suppose it could have been worse - non VN readers will still prolly see it as pretty decent, and the underlying idea is still damn amazing. But personally, I'm really sad.

Why even bother making a sequel if it isn't at least faithful to the origianl series? This show feels like poorly written fanfic at best, a money grab at worst. I won't write an essay here, because you can watch a few episodes for yourself and realize everything is just completely off. The opening that represents nothing in the show; the tone which has turned into edgy PTSD and not actual nuanced PTSD with multiple layers; the characters that are suddenly all generic; the story that never actually becomes relevant because the entire show has no consequences or tension; random rule 34 moments; ChatGPT kurisu ... isn't actually relevant, interesting or even remotely well emulated.

People who like this show are blinded by their love for Steins;Gate or have no taste.

Without having read the visual novel, it is evident they tried to fit too much stuff from the many routes in a 23 episode anime, leading to a mess and many things left unexplained, especially towards the end where they realised they didn't have many episodes left and that they had to wrap it up quickly. I assume this is also the reason that it has so many blatant plot holes.

The action scenes were stupid (looking at you Kagari...), the cliffhangers were unnecessary and insulting to the viewer, what little comedy there was didn't even manage to get a grin out ... of me most of the time, as it was either in the midst of serious scenes or had very little effort put into it.

The drama scenes ranged from ok to OMG LOOK HOW SAD/DRAMATIC THIS IS!!! OH NO THE MUSIC IS SO SAD/DRAMATIC YOU SHOULD BE CLENCHING YOUR BUTTOCKS/CRYING WATERFALLS!!1!!!!. Also, most monologues/philosophical ramblings were pretentious at best. Overall not very mature and insulting to my intelligence.

Most of the new characters had a little if not zero impact to the story and very little screen time. The one who received the most attention was Maho who remained pretty static throughout the show and I found myself not liking her for various reasons (trying not to spoil too much).Okabe later in the show had a turning moment that i felt was illogical/ happened way to quickly for plot's sake and for saving time. Because they tried to adapt too much from the novel, the characters suffered greatly in my opinion.

More importantly, all the events we saw in this season could have been entirely ignored, since they don't amount to much as far as getting us to the point where HOUOUIN KYOUMA sends the message to his past self in the original Steins;gate. It was more like a side story than what I actually expected out of this anime, leading to further disappointment regarding the absolutely horrible ending.

The original Steins;gate had a few plot related things you could nitpick but the overall execution was excellent. Comedy was funny and drama was drama.It also wisely chose to omit various routes and details, instead of failling to fit them in 23 episodes like Steins;gate 0. Time travel is near impossible to write a good story with, but Steins;gate treaded carefully, whereas Steins;gate 0 was a mess and definitely not worth your time.
Maybe the visual novel is better \_(ツ)_/.


TL;DR
Entire subplots left hanging, zero explanations, numerous plot holes, mediocre character and the ending makes zero sense. Rewatch Steins;gate and ignore this one.

Disappointed. with Miner spoilers (you REALLY should not care about spoilers!)

the first couple of episodes were so good and i was really thinking:
is it possible? is it possible to finally see a sequel that doesn’t sucks
and then it happened! it immediately take a huge turn and transformed into a fanservice with no actual meaning type of anime and some of the parts that made sense a little were boring af. they really tried to make you feel like a ww3 is about to happen but it was extremely boring and unbelievable they tried to make it interesting with a plot twist but that was ... just too unnecessary and kinda stupid.

the story is full of cheezy moments which doesn’t make slightest of sense
they tried to be creative and create a bond between people from future and people in the present but it turn out really bad and made you feel like it is totally forced
for example
--
1)Kagari and Mayushi get along the moment they spend time together and turn into bff.

2)Suzuha and yuki amane (her future mother) get along and cry together while hugging! after the first time they go shopping together!
it doesn’t make any sense (unless we assume they suffer from borderline personality disorder!).

3)Kagari looking like Makise so when Okabe first meet her calls her Kurisu which was totally unnecessary
--
and in the case of Mayushi and Kagari since they were both unaware of that fact! it was even more nonsensical
long story short: Lazy writing


Characters:

Moeka:
she had no real role in this anime, the only moment she shined was when Faris was playing with her boobs for 8 minutes!
a lot of useless characters are introduced as well for example Nakase, i bet you don’t even know who she is, yet an entire episode was devoted to her, giving command to others to clean! was that supposed to make characters relatable or cute and make the relationships between characters more natural?
*coughing with blood DIDN’T…WORKED

Kurisu:
Kurisu herself wasn’t that interesting as she was in the first Steins;gate
she is just there to make okabe feel bad, she doesn’t serve any real purpose, in one episode okabe kinda time travels and meet her again and the next day the first thing they do is kissing each other! EVEN THOUGH IT IS A TOTALLY DIFFERET WORLDLINE!!
in the show people like Hiyajou often are refering to her as god which didn’t make any fucking sense at all.

Daru and Maho Hiyajou:
they are totally irrational in this anime, in the last couple of episodes Okabe constantly is warning them that what they are doing is wrong and it would be catastrophic and every time Daru punched him in the face for being a rationalist! and in the end their plan failed and they hit Okabe again! Suzuha was an irrational and annoying character as well, that fucking psycho shot at Okabe! multiple times, it was really stupid, i am unable to describe how dumb that moment was! both because she shot and because we knew she wouldn’t actually harm him and the whole thing is a desperate attempt to create tension.

and of course the Most absurd character in history of any anime ever!
Kagari:
Mommy, Mommy,i Love my Mommy also i’m brainwashed!
yeah that’s about it, that’s the deepest you’ll get! i really couldn’t care about her in fact i would appreciate it if she would suffer a little more.
she also has a superspeed ability somehow, which makes her able to take down 20 trained soldiers at the same time! which is totally bullshit

another bad writing was in the episode where they tried to give Daru some sort of creepy meditation technique to get more confident around Yuki and he then, on the top of the roof, in the lamest way possible, purpose to her and she runs away because obviously it is too much creepy shit going on there and the next couple of hours he gets another date with her! over the phone!

overall this is an insult to the first anime, i’m not a huge fan of the first anime but i did like it but this one is a total crap, people are giving it 10 and 9 just because they love the main character, this anime doesn NOT worth 8.9 please bring down

(TLDR at the bottom, thanks for reading.)

Steins Gate 0 is pure steins gate fanfiction that everyone thought was a good idea, it lives off the premise that we already like these character so it exploits that to not actually be a good show because just having the characters on the screen makes money.

The main difference in steins gate 0 is it takes place in a timeline where Okabe has given up, this should already be setting off alarms because that means most of the show is spent waiting for Okabe to actually decide to progress the plot. So steins gate 0's first 16 episodes is ... just characters pissing around while the writers try to figure out as many contrived ways that they can force the whole cast into one scene. This is why I called it fanfiction. Some things do happen in these early episodes but they are ultimately dropped at just serve as misdirects to pad for time. The lab gets raided a few times and the show subtle suggests that one of the new characters, Yuki, might be involved in this raid. By showing different parts of her body bandaged corresponding to where one of the raiders was kicked, they further lean into this to get the viewer to suspect that something was going on. But the show just days it wasn't Yuki and all the characters just ignore this and the show carries on. This happens multiple times.

These episodes were the show is just killing time isn't even enjoyable to watch as every character has had their personality stripped out and is replaced with a cardboard cutout of themselves. All the female characters are now just cardboard cutouts with massive tits that the writers force into some of the most contrived sexual situations in anime just to pad for time. And while I'm on about characters lets address the elephant in the room, the Amadeus system, since Makise Kurisu is one of the most people characters she had to be in the new series but this takes place in a timeline where Kurisu isn't alive so the writers come up with a half-assed workaround which is the ai Amadeus, nevermind that this takes place in 2011 so technology like this shouldn't be possible, this allows the show to pretend Kurisu is back while not actually committing to anything. This issue with this is no one wants this half-assed version of Kurisu. Kurisu fans aren't satisfied because their favourite character isn't really back and people who want an actual story aren't satisfied at this obvious attempt to pretend to have Kurisu while also sticking to the beta timeline. There is also Kagari which is another cynical attempt at bringing Kurisu back but she is as flat and uninteresting as the rest of the cast and I don't care.

The 16 episodes leading up to the final arc all vary in quality from barely passable to frustratingly bad and since most of them are inconsequential I'll skip to the final arc and not nitpick the minute detail's of every single detail and skip to the final arc.

Near the end of the series Okabe decided to time leap into the future to progress the plot, he awakes in a bombed-out building and learns that he has been in a coma for eleven years how he is still alive since the only thing watching over him is Amadeus, a computer program is never explained. How was Okabe fed? How is he able to move after being stationary for 11? How has he not been harmed as he is in an open building in a post-apocalyptic future? Moving on, he finds out that everyone else has been moping around waiting for Okabe to wake up while Feris and Rukako have now been turned into super soldiers. Steins Gate 0 takes itself pretty seriously but I can't take it seriously when Rukako cuts down some armed soldiers with a katana (this isn't the worst scene as there is one scene where Kagari karate chops two dudes heads off). So then Okabe explains his plan to make 3000 consecutive time loops to get back to the point where he can change what's happened. While this is kind of cool on paper in the show it just comes off as unimpressive. He then gets back to the normal time and does somethings and changes the course of time. The end.

TLDR: The first 16 episodes are just boring characters messing around and the rest are boring characters enacting a boring plot.

Steins;Gate 0 is pure trash. Nothing happens for 17 episodes, Kagari is just there to look like Kurisu and attempt to make us feel sad, Amadeus is just there to look like Kurisu and attempt to make us feel sad, Maho is just there to talk about Kurisu and attempt to make us feel sad, the fight scenes were animated like shit, and the betrayal/deceit of that special someone is painfully obvious from the start. How the fuck are people saying it's as good as the 2011 anime adaptation? Steins;Gate 2011 is closer to a masterpiece than most anime out there. Steins;Gate 0 is no ... more than a poorly written fanfiction.

The sound and the last 5 episodes save this from being failed. Regardless, it's not worth your time.

Why?!

Why make an additional season to one of the most beloved anime if you don't have something special to offer? I know this season adapts a visual novel and most people say it does a good job putting it in anime format. I haven't read the visual novel but if this is true then I guess my criticism can also be applied to the vn.

Compared to the original, Steins;Gate 0 is boring, uninteresting, lacks a strong direction and ultimately feels soulless. It's so overstretched in its runtime that you spend 16 god damned episodes watching a borderline slice of life with eventual tidbits of plot ... points sprinkled in just to keep you awake that eventually feel like they come out of nowhere just to keep the overall plot on life support and artificially push it forward.

Now I want to make it clear that this season has some good things about it. It really picks up the pace in the last episodes and the reveal (even if it's extremely goofy and not particularly well done) does try to bring the plot points together. The conclusion is nice. The characters from the previous season aren't ruined. In fact, Zero adds a little bit more nuance to them even if it's done at a surface level. I liked what they did with Okabe, with him deciding to give up while being haunted by the ghosts of his past mistakes and the world around him constantly trying to reopen his wounds. I liked that Hashida is more assertive and gets in fights with Okabe more. I liked that Mayuri takes matter in her own hands.

But when it comes with the events that are regarded as well-done, when you really think about them, most of them are already done (often better) in the original show. Okabe going back in time over and over, him falling in despair only to find support in the friends surrounding him, him having to make tough choices, all of them are already done in Steins;Gate. There's an episode where Okabe randomly gets transported to a previous worldline only to have to make the exact same tough choice he had to make in the original show. So really, what does Steins;Gate 0 has to offer that's new?

Well, Kurisu isn't here because she's dead. But we can't have Steins;Gate without the best girl, so what are we going to do? Well, it turns out Kurisu had her mind scanned before Steins;Gate so her memories could be given to an AI. So now Okabe has a little Kurisu AI gf (yes, I'm not joking).

There are 3-4 important characters that are introduced. All of them as bland and uninteresting as they could get without being straight-up horrible. These characters alongside the original ones very often get into emotional scenes. Seriously, there's so much crying, screaming and fainting which is often done in the most dull and uninteresting anime-esque way possible that it becomes annoying. Oh, and these characters love to party, they throw a party every couple of episodes. No alcohol of course.

The animation is bad. Frankly, the animation wasn't good even in the original show, but Steins;Gate didn't have big action sequences, it was mostly talking so there really wasn't a need for big budget animation. Steins;Gate 0 HAS action sequences and they are some of the worst scenes this medium can ever produce. They're laughably bad.

Seeing the high score Steins;Gate 0 has on MAL really shows that anime viewers will simply eat up whatever boring cash-grab there's being produced as long as it has their beloved characters in it.

I am very disappointed.
SO disappointed.
My disappointment is immeasurable and my whole day is ruined.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Steins;Gate, but I really can't see how Zero can be related to this masterpiece.

Lets just sum up whats bad about this one;
Plot holes. There are SO many Plot Holes and irrational scenes, I didn't manage to keep up counting with them it's ridiculous
How can you fuck up this bad?
The scenes where they 1v20 an full ELITE army squad, the complete absurd edgy notes of the characters, the helicopter attacking them, then in the next cut they just go home as if nothing happened, other armys from ... different countries just INVADING japan as if it was nothing with a whole damn apache helicopter and military vehicles, without ANYONE Noticing it, having epic spraydowns on a rooftop in the middle of tokyo, yet no one seems to care and the list goes on....

This is crazy I wish I could just erase this season out of my head, because this has just ruined the whole view I had on Steins;Gate

DONT watch this if you like Steins;Gates

Uh...What can i say....As much as I enjoyed 1st season, this is a total mess and I got no idea where all the praise for this disaster comes from.

Art and audio are ok and...thats about it. I wont even go into the story, cause no matter how interesting plot one may come with, with retarded characters that cant add 1+1 and seem mentally challanged. it will always be ruined. I've waited till ep 18 to be surprised about main villain and whatnot, but main characters are making huge mysteries about 2 things (Kagari and Professor), which are obvious from the 1st scene they appear. Its ... no fun when you already know of what will happen at the start of the series. And when i thought shounen protagonists are idiots, Rintaro beats em all. I never met anyone as dumb in my life, let alone engineers / scientists.

Story 1/10
Characters 1/10
Art 9/10
Sound 9/10
Enjoyment 3/10
Overall 3/10

Okay so this is my first time writing a review on MAL but i just felt the need to share my thoughts about this with the rest of y'all. I can't even put into words how disappointed I am with this season of Steins Gate. As a huge fan i had high expectations for this alternative story, and although at first i was like ''why but it ended with a good closure'' i was still curious and decided to check it out because i believed they would make it fun and interesting no matter what the story is about. I had fun watching the first ... 8 episodes, the 8th episode was the best in my opinion because they made it look like it's a final closure with Makise and Okabe being the tragic hopeless character, they made it look like Okabe could finally move on and he'll surely progress to coming back to his old self and continue searching for Steins Gate or idk just do something with his life, focus on doing what has to be done. Instead, the story continues in the same way, Okabe being the main lead of a melodrama with his tragic character, everyone suddenly being in love with him, basically the anime turned into a harem with a huge dose of pathetic outbursts. There were so many unnecessary characters and stories. First, it was Hiyajo with her inferiority complex, Makise wannabe, a girl who appeared out of nowhere, tried hard to be made into an interesting character but failed and eventually turned into an Okabe's harem part, her overly annoying American professor with that cringe style of talking and just overall unnecessary and predictable, then Amadeus that looked like something that will become very important for the plot but instead served as a Makise replacement but in a shape of a virtual girlfriend, then Kagari who appeared out of nowhere looking the same as Makise, another unnecessary replacement for Makise, ''friends'' who are suddenly lab partners without any deep, real connection between the characters, feeling awkward when you see them mixed together in those forced scenes. They made all those random parties for them to grow on us, but they failed. Parties were random and unnecessary and were just an oppurtunity for them to sexualize young girls and make those random disgusting scenes. Another thing that fascinates me is the character of Kagari who was a character that had no purpose in the anime, like i already said basically a character made to look like Makise so we wouldn't feel like she's missing in the series. Her tragic story wasn't that heartbreaking since they included her randomly and basically we never knew anything about her in the first place for us to connect to her and feel sorry enough. Also, the thing that was so disappointing was the ''plot twist'' because it was everything but a plot twist since i believe most of us figured it out immediately in the beginning. Honestly this whole season turned out to be pointless in so many ways. What was it actually about?? What is the point of him going back and using that damn microwave for the last 5 episodes when the whole season was built on his ''NO I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU EVEN SAY THE WORDS TIME LEAP''. Basically he let Makise die and gave up on her and finding the Steins Gate but now he suddenly cares so much about a random Kagari, overly annoying Mayuri whose character turned into a harem material, and everyone else who was completely useless and he decides to time leap just to find Steins Gate and save them... um what even???? I mean i don't even know where to start and how to properly connect all parts of this anime into a solid review because it was so messy itself and all parts of it were chaotic tbvh. I'm just utterly disappointed and i honestly can't believe i endured through this mess for 23 episodes. I guess i did it because i'm a fan and i would feel bad if i just dropped it.. I wouldn't recommend it, especially to fans like me because this will probably just disappoint you. On the other hand, it will make you appreciate the first season and the movie even more because those were just masterpieces. To conclude, i'm giving this a 3 and even though i feel kinda bad for doing it i just have to because it doesn't deserve any better. I gave a 10 to original Steins Gate and the movie Deja Vu so.. i guess that speaks for itself.

[Contains Some Spoilers]

After finishing the final episode of Steins;Gate 0 today, I took a moment to think about my experience with the show and come to a final conclusion. On one hand it had some of my favorite moments of the franchise. On the other hand, most of these moments were surrounded in so much crap that none of them felt earned or worth the effort.

Progression of Plot:

Many people describe the beginning of the original Steins;Gate as “Boring but necessary.” I would describe the beginning of Steins;Gate 0 as “Boring AND unnecessary.” In the early episodes of Steins;Gate 0, we barely have any interesting character ... development, a complete lack of any progression to make up for that, and we have to slowly watch as Okabe mopes for what feels like forever. Every time it feels like he is about to make some progress or get better, he falls back into the rut again as if nothing ever happened. Some of the best episodes at the time were the ones that shook everything up randomly, namely the Kurisu world-line episode thing. However, these episodes were only good for the fact that they shook things up, but when looking back on them, these episodes were completely unnecessary, made little to no sense, and contributed close to nothing to the story and characters.

After we have half the show dedicated to Okabe being depressed, Kaguri existing, and Amadeus… also existing, we suddenly have everything dropped into a blender and spat back out again as a pale mush. Suddenly events start to happen for some reason, and the obvious bad guy suddenly is revealed to be the bad guy. We have episodes that end in a certain way, just for the next episode to go off the rails in a completely other direction. We end up having episodes where Okabe is in the future for some reason, Okabe has suddenly fixed everything, and random time jumps. The show explains WHY these events happen, but the way in which it occurs is so erratic and short-lived, that I find myself not caring when Rukkako dies or it is revealed that Okabe has been in a coma for 20+ years. A lot of these ideas are cool and interesting, but the show is so unable to focus on any of them, that all the ideas crumble into dust and mean nothing to me.

No matter how bizarre Steins;Gate original got, I could almost always follow it. When events happened, they made sense to me, and the show did nothing that struck me as odd or questionable. But watching Steins:Gate 0, I constantly find myself thinking things like; Why does Kaguri’s arm cut off heads with little to no effort? What reason did half the cast have in still being around when they contributed nothing? Why is Faris’s hair still styled and coloured the same way after the apocalypse has gone down? Why does Rukkako use a sword during the apocalypse? Why has no organization developed a time machine yet in the future?

Many of my questions come out as nitpicks, but the fact that I am willing to nitpick this show while watching it, just shows how little I was engaged. The show didn’t convince me to ignore its flaws, it ran with them flopping out, acting like they were good things.

Characters:

Most of the characters contributed nothing to the plot and didn’t need to be here. Kaguri is the worst example of this, and the series would have been better off without her muddying up the waters even more. Okabe bounced up and down from depressed to not so many times I got dizzy. No one really developed except for him, but most of his development was so awkward that I didn’t honestly care.

Additionally, the show treats the characters from the previous series like utter garbage. Mayuri's character is changed fundamentally and does actions that are incongruous to how she was portrayed in Steins;Gate. An obvious example being the odd implication that she would be complicit in Okabe's giving up at the end of episode 23 B of S;G.

Most of the new characters were either bland or just mediocre. Daru's wife and her friends were all unnecessary feeling and didn't contriubute anything. They all felt as though they were some remnants of a side story in the visual novel that were left in despite having no role. Kaguri is annoying and has a largely inconsistent character. The most interesting new character is Maho, but after a while her overblown metaphor of Salieri and Mozart is so overstated it goes from interesting to comical right back around to irritating.

Visuals and Sound:

The show looked so gray and muted its almost funny. Because of this, every time a scene had any colour in it, it felt awkward and strange. What happened to all of the colour and dynamic compositions from the previous series. It's almost hard to believe this was the same Director. There's a difference between setting a tone and making the show just feel like brown mush. The bland visuals were made even more weird because of the awkward bits of fanservice that happened randomly for no reason, another aspect that the original sereis managed to mostly avoid.

In reference to sound, Steins;Gate had an amazing score that really helped support the events that were happening. It even had great sound design to compliment the harsh visuals (Think cicadas and Bright white light). Steins;Gate 0 on the other hand had a drab colour scheme with music that was barely of any note. A few outstanding tracks were scattered here and there, but these were usually remnants of pieces from the original show. Most of 0’s original pieces of music were unnoteworthy.

Conclusion:

This show could have been so much better if it compressed some of the early material down and focused more on the development of Okabe into the future. Back when I first watched Steins:Gate original, the video Okabe received at the end of the series was so fascinating to me. I wondered so much about the story behind this other Okabe. But when I finally watched the tape being made in the last episode of 0, I found myself feeling empty and severely underwhelmed.

Steins;Gate 0 suffered from too much ambition, and a horrible spacing of time. So much of the series could have been improved with more focus put on Okabe’s development as a person into the future. Instead we got a boring start leading up to a second half that had too many ideas. I came into this show expecting so much but found myself being disappointed at every turn.

I can not understand how fans of the original series enjoy this show. Nothing about what made the original good was carried over. The plot is a load of nonsense, the characters are only the same in name, the sound design is dreadful, the cinematography and shot composition is bland and forgettable...

This is one of the worst sequels in anime history, and deserves to be mentioned alongside other massively disappointing sequels like Metroid Other M and Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts. A dreadful experience I can't comprehend the existence of. Avoids a 1 out of 10 because it isn't completely unwatchable, just mostly.

Don't watch this.

I find it irritable to say the least to read so many good reviews of this, which are obviously just borrowing fame from the first series. I honestly wonder how much can something we enjoyed make us turn a blind eye to every fault it produces afterwards, and why should it, since this is a different series from the first!

So what did we enjoy in the first series? Hououin Kyoma's persona, the romance with Kurisu, the d-mails to the past, and the perplexed, nuanced and dexterous story-telling. Now forget EVERYTHING, because this series has absolutely none of the things we loved in ... the first, and not any redeeming qualities by itself whatsoever.

Kyouma is dead because Okabe is depressed (which would have been a nice idea if handled correctly - and it was most certainly not), the romance is being ridiculed by adding Mahou and trying to persuade us that she has feelings for Okabe by shoving it down our throats, and the Kurisu AI is the main one at fault for that, the time-travelling is saved for the end and it's absolutely ridiculous, and the story-tellling is just horrendous. Almost all of the previous faults could have been forgiven if each and every episode (aside from the episode Okabe and real Kurisu meet again briefly) wasn't such a chore to watch! It was boring, the storyline with Kagari made absolutely no sense, the bad guy was cartoonish and too obvious from the get go, all the episodes were really badly structured, so none of the angst the series repetitively screamed that you should feel, managed to elicit any kind of emotional reaction from the viewer.

Like all of the above shouldn't be considered enough, this thing is barely moving. This gets even worse when they tried to add in action scenes. It was pretty sad seeing Suzuha trying to move and do things while the budget wouldn't let her. The sound, well, it was there I guess. OP was ok.

If this didn't have the name "Stein's Gate" on it and its fame to carry it, it would have been lost in the depths of our conscience the next day it finished airing. Seeing it rank so high, I can't help but feel of how unfair this is to much better series that don't get the recognition they deserve. The first Stein's Gate is worthy of being one of the most beloved anime series to recent date. This thing here, has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Bottom line: Don't watch. Especially if you liked the first series, it will leave a really bad aftertaste. It was never needed in the first place, but it didn't manage to add a single good thing in the franchise. Just rewatch and enjoy the first series if you need a reconnection.

I went in completely blind for watching the sequel. I read none of the comments and I watched this way past when it aired so I have little bias. Also as background, Steins;Gate is one of my favorite shows, to me it's a 10/10. The concept of text messages to change the past was interesting and unique and so were the personalities of the lab members. It made the shock of when Kyouma had to constantly go back to the different worlds have some weight to it. This sequel is a humungous let down. Some people say that the second seasons of Code Geass and ... Death weren't good or as good as the first seasons but this second season of Steins:Gate makes those second seasons look like masterpieces.

This second season is convoluted, repetitive and melodramtic, with many of the emotional scenes lacking any weight at all. Also it took until about episode 18 till the show kind of revealed it's big suprise but it really didn't add anything to the previous season or this season. All it did was setup another more convulted storyline that they can't resolve. They also treated Rintaro horribly in this season as a character. He goes through trauma from his previous experiences time travelling and the empathy they show him isn't very long lasting or too supportive. I guess it's supposed to be a tough love type thing but they just can't leave him alone and just always want him to time travel or try to mess around with that stuff. And when he calls them out on it, he gets punched. But when the tables are turned, they start acting the same way.
Also after episode 18, they just straight up don't explain details and just hope that some music montages or whatever will distract you from the fact they don't explain how any of the stuff that's happening is happening. The whole show is too convulted, has no emotional depth, is full of plotholes, is repetetive, and they completely butcher the characters. It's so bad it makes me re-consider my opinion on the first season. For me this is the worst sequel I've ever see of anything in my life because of how much worse it is than the first. By the end, it literally resolves nothing. 3/10 absolutely terrible.

I initially watched Steins;Gate 0 back in 2018. I am a massive fan of the original and recall myself being very disappointed by Steins;Gate 0. I was 17 years old at the time and figured I'd give the show a rewatch now that I'm 5 years older. Unfortunately everything I thought about the show back then holds true to this day, and I do not recommend this show to anyone. Especially not to big fans of the original Steins;Gate like I am.

The main issue with Steins;Gate 0 is not what it doesn't have, because it does actually have a lot going on (too much in ... fact). It's the way in the plot is paced and presented to the viewers that's the issue. Not only are major events very easily swept under the rug, but there are times when the anime just drops a bombshell on the viewer only for that aspect not to be explored ever again. Mysteries are left completely unanswered and the characters just decide that they do not care. This adds to the disjointed nature of Steins;Gate 0.

Over the course of its (23 episodes of) runtime Steins;Gate 0 tackles several routes from the VN and it results in a structure that's very peculiar. There will be 3 mundane, or even boring episodes followed by a pretty strong episode where something actually happens. The issue is that after that strong episode, the plotline will be considered finished even though there are still lots of questions left for the viewers. It's a jarring experience and it feels like the show will actively step on the brakes whenever it's too close to getting interesting. The original Steins;Gate did not have this issue. Once it got going, it kept going all the way until the last episodes. Sure, not every episode was equally interesting, but there was not a moment where Steins;Gate slammed the brakes like this show does.

This perfectly leads into my second point, which is that Steins;Gate 0 is poorly directed. I don't know how this came to be, but the presentation of Steins;Gate 0 is completely flat compared to the original. Shots are static and backgrounds are very safely drawn. The result is that there's nothing interesting to look at. The original Steins;Gate definitely did not nail the art all the way through but it was willing to take risks in camera angles, artstyle and general presentation. I'm sure everyone recalls the famous scene in episode 8 of Steins;Gate where Okabe runs home and the colour scheme turns completely monochromatic with every piece of the foreground having thick outlines. You're not going to find anything along those lines here. The closest we get to creative direction is when the animators are looking for a new way to sexualise the show's female cast.

The quality of the art is inconsistent at best and horrendous at worst. In general Steins;Gate 0 lacks in between frames which makes animations appear choppy and stiff. This issue comes to light particularly during action sequences, where not only we have physically impossible situations happen like heads being chopped off with someone's bare hands, but these action sequences are genuinely so poorly animated that it's hard to enjoy them even if you let logic go out of the window.

Another thing that Steins;Gate 0 gets wrong is plausability. The original Steins;Gate is not realistic, because time travel is unrealistic. There is no theoretical explanation for time travel so it's the show's responsibility to lay out the ground rules for the universe a show is set in and make these rules plausible for the audience. The issue with Steins;Gate 0 is that the scope of what they're expecting me to believe is very different. Steins;Gate 0 will have any skeptical viewer go "well that's awfully convenient" more often than they'd like. There are so many strange phenomena that are just force fed to the audience with no real foundation and a critical viewer is just supposed to accept them. The very concept of Amadeus is a great example. It's an AI that's indistinguishable from a human, but the show completely quashes any concerns a viewer might have like "what it's like for her" or "is this ethical?" by straight up telling the viewers not to think about it and just accept it as it is. The show has several instances of completely impossible things suddenly being possible within the narrative that it's hard not to raise an eyebrow or two as you're watching.

In terms of the cast, it should be no surprise that Steins;Gate 0 is a major downgrade compared to the original. However, Okabe's character in Steins;Gate 0 is actually quite good. I find his demeanor very understandable for someone like him and there's nothing I'd change about his personality. Maho Hiyajo, while lacking the charm of someone like Kurisu and being unable to fill that void, is not offensively poorly written. I think giving Okabe a character to talk to who also knew Kurisu was a good decision and she's a welcome addition to the story even if a little bland. My problems are with the rest of the cast. It feels like everyone (and I mean everyone) other than Okabe was intentionally made to be less interesting. Meanwhile they padded the cast with useless characters who serve no purpose. Yuki, Nakase and Kaede have nothing going for them. Their sole purpose in the dialogue is to fill up the dialogue and nothing else. Nakase has a subplot surrounding her, but it only spans for half an episode and serves absolutely no purpose in the narrative. Mayuri and Hashida also got pretty significant downgrades. Mayuri does nothing over the course of the show and any interesting features she had in the original were stripped from her. She was bubbly, cheerful and yet emotionally intelligent in the original and in Steins;Gate 0 she's treated as filler. Hashida was always a nerd, but in this story he's straight up a pedophile even making creepy comments about Nae, a literal child.

With all of that being said, Steins;Gate 0 does actually have some highs. I think the show has a couple of very strong episodes that even fare well against the high bar set by the original. My problem is that those strong episodes are surrounded by dirt. While not perfect, the concluding episodes of the season are definitely passable and if the entire season had maintained that standard of quality I think I could have considered this a worthy sequel the original. However, as it stands Steins;Gate 0 feels like a hollow shell compared to the original and it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth to write about it.