How can anyone dislike Steins;Gate?[MASSIVE SPOILERS]

nry said:
No-flaws does not necessarily derive in an impossibility to dislike.

Shoryu said:
Due to its origins of being a VN, Okabe's travels looks like as if we're watching him complete certain "arcs" with the female characters. It can sorta cheapen his 'selfless' deeds. In other words, while being a decent VN adaptation, it still carries the element of being a VN to a fault.

Personally, I would really prefer if S;G was less tainted by the inclusion of otaku pandering. "Oh no, Japan is without moe! THE HORROR!!" "Maid cafes, weee!" "2D grills are best, wooooo!" "Flat chests are soo superior!"
Also, the way Okabe checks Ruka is still awkward/cringey as fuck, like seriously?

Okabe's "Reading Steiner" ability has questionable origins. Why him only? Just because of a fever as a young kid? Guess what, nearly anyone gets sick with a fever at some point in their life, so whatever subpar explanation S;G tries to sell just falls flat on its face.

Last and final point, and I wouldn't had arrived to this point without discussing this with @Clebardman, but S;G is essentially about selfish escapism. Yeah sure, Okabe "suffers" seeing the threads of fate casually kill his friends, but how does this get solved by the end? Let's just jump into another World Line where he doesn't have to worry about that! Yeah, forget about the previous World Lines where his friends met a cruel end! Instead, let's just escape into some 'perfect' World Line where you can pretend nothing bad happen to your friends. For something magical as that "Reading Steiner" ability is, it's merely used for Okabe's sole benefit of finding his perfect VN route, and not so much fixing prior World Line's.
Reminds me of SAO's ending,

Shoryu said:

Last and final point, and I wouldn't had arrived to this point without discussing this with @Clebardman, but S;G is essentially about selfish escapism. Yeah sure, Okabe "suffers" seeing the threads of fate casually kill his friends, but how does this get solved by the end? Let's just jump into another World Line where he doesn't have to worry about that! Yeah, forget about the previous World Lines where his friends met a cruel end! Instead, let's just escape into some 'perfect' World Line where you can pretend nothing bad happen to your friends. For something magical as that "Reading Steiner" ability is, it's merely used for Okabe's sole benefit of finding his perfect VN route, and not so much fixing prior World Line's.
Reminds me of SAO's ending,

Takamura-sama said:

if you read S;G 0 you'll know that (minor spoiler about reading steiner)

Takamura-sama said:
Yeah you're right on this one. I came to this conclusion as well, but hey who cares about the other world lines.

Shoryu said:



Really looking forward to S;G 0 regardless.

It's not so much about 'caring' about the other World Lines, but more so, the way this anime paints Okabe, it's as if he's some saint and selfless hero, when in reality, he never really fixed anything. The message presented is very much a, "Hey, forget your problems, run away into that reality that brings the most comfort, and if it starts to feel like hell, just keep on escaping into a different one conveniently!" Time travel stories usually tell the tales where even if you had a magical device that could rewrite your mistakes, there's usually a cost, a cost that requires you to face your mistakes and learn from them. For S;G's case, Okabe really doesn't endure the trials of facing such issues once he realizes the magical ability of hopping from one reality to the next.

"Mad scientist messes with everyone's lives on a cosmic level in a bunch of World Lines, abandoning them all together, and selfishly finds that perfect World Line that works best to his benefit!"

Hence why some viewers may be turned off by S;G, which is far from perfect.

Deknijff said:
well you could argue since Steins Gate has infinite timelines nothing feels like it matters because hey its just something that happens regardless of what you do because even if you change the time line that outcome will still happen
so I can see why someone doesn't like the show

HoTTab1CH said:
Which is wrong, because in S;G time travel mechanic only 1 World Line is active in any moment. When WL is changed world is rebuilding itself.

Shoryu said:
Due to its origins of being a VN, Okabe's travels looks like as if we're watching him complete certain "arcs" with the female characters. It can sorta cheapen his 'selfless' deeds. In other words, while being a decent VN adaptation, it still carries the element of being a VN to a fault.

Personally, I would really prefer if S;G was less tainted by the inclusion of otaku pandering. "Oh no, Japan is without moe! THE HORROR!!" "Maid cafes, weee!" "2D grills are best, wooooo!" "Flat chests are soo superior!"
Also, the way Okabe checks Ruka is still awkward/cringey as fuck, like seriously?

Okabe's "Reading Steiner" ability has questionable origins. Why him only? Just because of a fever as a young kid? Guess what, nearly anyone gets sick with a fever at some point in their life, so whatever subpar explanation S;G tries to sell just falls flat on its face.

Last and final point, and I wouldn't had arrived to this point without discussing this with @Clebardman, but S;G is essentially about selfish escapism. Yeah sure, Okabe "suffers" seeing the threads of fate casually kill his friends, but how does this get solved by the end? Let's just jump into another World Line where he doesn't have to worry about that! Yeah, forget about the previous World Lines where his friends met a cruel end! Instead, let's just escape into some 'perfect' World Line where you can pretend nothing bad happen to your friends. For something magical as that "Reading Steiner" ability is, it's merely used for Okabe's sole benefit of finding his perfect VN route, and not so much fixing prior World Line's.
Reminds me of SAO's ending,

gabrielrroiz said:

to be fair lack of any sort of consequence is way too much of a factor in media for me to find it a crippling flaw and steins gate does better than must(fuck clannad)to make its ending scenario convincing

Shoryu said:


Just FYI, that was me playing devil's advocate mostly; it would be no secret that S;G is one of my favorites.

gabrielrroiz said:

well your negatives about the show are fairly accurate i just never found the show to be actually trying to explore what the other characters death and lost timelines meant but instead to make his ultimate choice and happy ending to appear more meaningfull and deserved

Deknijff said:
I don't remember that
could you link proof by any chance?

HoTTab1CH said:

Straight from VN terms description. http://i.imgur.com/EyJgTMn.png

Edit: Also this is mentioned in anime in second half of ep.3, but I can't find working ep.3 on youtube.

Takamura-sama said:


It's mentioned but not thoroughly explained. So easily forgettable.

El psy congroo

potplant said:
If Steins;Gate is lauded for what it did well: chuuni/subculture pandering

instead, it got lauded for things it did horribly, like 'sci-fi' when it's just pseudo-science-fi wannabe that hardly ventured outside of its target hit-zone. Oh, throw in a few techno-sounding words and bet on the target audience to feel good about themselves (giddit? you giddit? heehehehehehee) when the show is actually slapping the very face of the terms that its sprouting. Reminds me of kids parading new words that makes one look cool in grade school. Only works if nobody knows what those words actually meant...

Takamura-sama said:


Yeah you're right on this one. I came to this conclusion as well, but hey who cares about the other world lines.

TheBigGuy said:
So you're unable to grasp, that people have different opinions. Also, your standards seem to be quite low.

What I dislike about it:

1. How time travel is depicted respectively the time machine is created is just ridiculous and dumb. There's suspension of disbelief and there's that.

2. The MC's. Okabe is just annoying with his mad scientist act and Makise is awfully bland. The others aren't exactly worth mentioning.

Takamura-sama said:


how are my standards low?? And btw
Okabe's awesome how can you not find his chuunibyou character funny?

Aquamirror said:
Okabe's chuuny personality is a cover up of his true self. I wouldn't say Makise is bland. Sure, S;G's charactes might look cliched at first, but there is a lot of stuff going behind them that isn't directly mentioned in your face.

Saying the phonewave is dumb is a bit odd.. but I can get behind that opinion.

"No anime is flawless" so nobody is allowed to like any anime?
And calling people having low standarts for liking S;G, are you for real now?

TheBigGuy said:
Don't jump to conclusions. Of course he can like S;G. But saying, that it has no flaws is wrong.

I have never said that. I was talking about claiming, that S;G has no flaws.

TheBigGuy said:


Don't jump to conclusions. Of course he can like S;G. But saying, that it has no flaws is wrong.

I have never said that. I was talking about claiming, that S;G has no flaws.

Takamura-sama said:
I don't get it, I'm currently rewatching it. because I got hyped while reading 0.

And I just find no faults whatsoever in this anime. None. Everything is perfect, nothing is wrong.

For the haters/people who dislike it: Why do you dislike it? Could you give me an explanation? I don't get it.

orario_ said:
I only watched the first episode. The MC was so ridiculously retarded that I struggled to even finish the first episode.
I mean it's different when the MC is simply stupid (for example in Naruto), you just go with it... But in Steins Gate he's supposed to be some scientist...yet the stupidity is oozing out of him

LightBladeNova said:
I gave Steins;Gate a 9/10 myself, so I'm not exactly a rabid fanboy. Here are some of my problems (of course, this is all just my opinion):

The overall characterization of S;G's cast really isn't that great (I hear S;G 0 improves on this aspect though, by giving POV scenes for side characters and letting us see different sides to them, in new situations).

Okabe, Kurisu, and Suzuha (and maybe Mayuri) are probably the most interesting characters, but in my opinion, most of the others are somewhat lacking.

Both Rukako's and Faris's arcs lasted only one episode, and those subplots were pretty generic and uncompelling (Rukako liked Okabe and wanted a date, Faris didn't want to lose her father who I hardly cared about since he barely got any screen time, so there was no developed father-daughter relationship for me to invest in), and then the two heroines dropped out of the plot and no longer served any other purpose. So basically, they only exhibited any meaningful substance for just one episode each, and even then, it wasn't anything to write home about.

Moeka seemed interesting at first because of her antagonist affiliation with SERN and her mysterious aura, and she did get 2 episodes instead of just 1. However, we were only given small details about her backstory regarding SERN and FB, and they didn't have the potential impact they could have had because I hadn't spent a whole lot of time with her and because she was mostly quiet/emotionless throughout the show. The end of her arc made me sympathize with her, but she still never felt like a fully realized character.

Mayuri was pretty moe, and her childhood friend relationship with Okabe was quite sweet, and she did have some touching lines during the second half of the show (that scene at the grave with Okabe watching her was really good), but other than that, she didn't have a whole lot going for her; she was the damsel in distress most of the time, the plot's "goal". She was rather childish, an airhead, throughout most of the show she had no idea what was going on, and she didn't really contribute or help out much (the one time was when she deduced Daru was Suzuha's father). I mean, her death scenes with Okabe nearby were all really tragic and emotional, but I think she was kind of lacking as her own character; maybe she herself could've sent a D-Mail or something and changed the timeline so we could learn more about some of her own desires/backstory that didn't revolve around Okabe.

Daru was pretty cool, nice comic relief, and he contributed by fixing up that time machine, and he also had that cool plot twist relationship with Suzuha, but then after Suzuha's arc he quickly lost significance...

Mr. Braun was really just a cool little plot twist, not much more... and he and Nae didn't really get any closure, he just died...

Dr. Nakabachi was just a one-note asshole who appeared in episode 1 and reappeared in the last one as the final boss... We didn't really see any interactions between him and Kurisu, despite their father-daughter relationship, and he was likely working with SERN, but that didn't get any development either. Basically, he was a really lame character and antagonist, and his father-daughter relationship with Kurisu hardly had any meaning or importance.

Moreover, pretty much all of the characters above display cliche anime tropes, and they're not that subtle about it either. Exhibiting anime tropes isn't necessarily a big problem, but in S;G's case, it's a little too blatant at times, enough to feel like the tropes actually get in the way of some more mature characterization (Rukako, Faris, Moeka, Mayuri, Daru).

----------

Okabe... this guy pretty much carried the entire anime, since most of the other characters were just average to good. And he really was a pretty great protagonist. Furthermore, his chemistry with Kurisu was pretty nice, though Kurisu, despite being a very likable character, still came off as a little too... perfect, in my opinion. And while I enjoyed their chemistry, I still didn't buy into their romance all that much, because it was developed mainly just from Okabe's side, not from Kurisu's, since Okabe was the only one who retained memories across timelines. I didn't really get a solid development of feelings from Kurisu.

Suzuha was also a great character because her subplot had both developed, emotional depth and was "directly" related to the overarching time-travel/SERN plot (unlike Rukako's and Faris's, which felt more like standalone stories detached from the main plot).

----------

This criticism is more subjective, but one of my main problems with time travel stories is that usually only the protagonist remembers everything. Because of this, the end result, to me, just feels a little... hollow, I guess. The other characters all just lose their development - the emotions they felt during the conflicts, the meaningful dialogue/interactions they had, the events themselves that made up part of who they are - they're all just gone (they happen in different timelines, sure, but the end result is still that everything is undone). The characters may still subconsciously remember some stuff, but to me, it all still feels kinda hollow.

I still gave S;G a 9/10 though, mainly because of the complex psychological-thriller plot and the well-executed emotional moments, despite the average overall characterization. I tend to be fairly lenient with my ratings, anyway.

Takamura-sama said:
I read it and, well you're not wrong. But it didn't bother me in the slightest

Lefteris_feeedom said:
Well.. there are other problems too.
I personally found no things bad in it but dropped it anyway. For me it was the emotional impact. The thought of being trapped in his place made me feel , mostly wierd trapped and scared. Away form my reality. Forever lost. So I stopped watching because I personally felt unplesnt.

I know that that's how it is supposed to make you feel in a way. But I don't like that feeling so I dropped it

Shoryu said:
Due to its origins of being a VN, Okabe's travels looks like as if we're watching him complete certain "arcs" with the female characters. It can sorta cheapen his 'selfless' deeds. In other words, while being a decent VN adaptation, it still carries the element of being a VN to a fault.

Personally, I would really prefer if S;G was less tainted by the inclusion of otaku pandering. "Oh no, Japan is without moe! THE HORROR!!" "Maid cafes, weee!" "2D grills are best, wooooo!" "Flat chests are soo superior!"
Also, the way Okabe checks Ruka is still awkward/cringey as fuck, like seriously?

Okabe's "Reading Steiner" ability has questionable origins. Why him only? Just because of a fever as a young kid? Guess what, nearly anyone gets sick with a fever at some point in their life, so whatever subpar explanation S;G tries to sell just falls flat on its face.

Last and final point, and I wouldn't had arrived to this point without discussing this with @Clebardman, but S;G is essentially about selfish escapism. Yeah sure, Okabe "suffers" seeing the threads of fate casually kill his friends, but how does this get solved by the end? Let's just jump into another World Line where he doesn't have to worry about that! Yeah, forget about the previous World Lines where his friends met a cruel end! Instead, let's just escape into some 'perfect' World Line where you can pretend nothing bad happen to your friends. For something magical as that "Reading Steiner" ability is, it's merely used for Okabe's sole benefit of finding his perfect VN route, and not so much fixing prior World Line's.
Reminds me of SAO's ending,

k4fourteen said:
well someone not like to use their brain when watch anime

Robiiii said:
I was about to make fun of you cause of the bad english you have there but your anime taste is so good I simply cannot. So I'll leave it at that.