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This was a meticulously crafted mess.
I don't know where to begin and where to end. This experience felt endless and forever and I would'nt even rate it if my gut didn't spit out the words "yea..., this was quiet good, I think". Emphasis on "I think". Because I thought alot while watching this. And honestly, most of the time, I don't even know what exactly I thought about. I thought about death, life, goals, the attainable and unattainable, about beauty and ugliness, relationships and alienation. Sometimes there were just long "uhhhh"'s and other usual word salad.

The "Tips for New Writers" underneath this box I'm stuffing ... my words into says I should avoid the overuse of pronouns like "I, me, you".
But in this case that's pretty hard. Because I think watching this is a very individual process. Well, everything is, but this even more so.

So, watch it and see what you might come up with. Maybe nothing, maybe something, maybe a lot.
Dive into these worlds, see where your inner compass will take you.

This was very promising. A subversive yet beautiful artstyle, interesting characters lead by a adorably likeable protagonist, a Reigen-esque mentor figure, one incredibly tragic and scary antagonist cursed by immortality, a wonderful soundtrack with an incredible second OP. (Seriously, Hadaka no Yuusha is a banger). So many things that should make me love this.

But I don't. I can't because to me it failed massively in delivering it's messages in an actual meaningful and satisfying manner.

Spoiler Warning!

Boji overcoming the curse, finding his strength which was robbed from him, not needing the strength he should've inherited from his father was solved/undercut by... uncovering other genetically inherited strenghts ... disguised as a training montage.

The theme of forgiveness is handled in the most ridiculous way possible.
To forgive a traitorous, overly ambitious brother, Daida, and especially the woman, Miranjo, who drove said brother to turn out like this and killed so many including the former queen Shiina, the mother of our little hero (who was actually there when it happend, right underneath her magled body, standing in her blood up to his tiny knees), well, that kind of forgiveness takes a lot to deserve. But it was handed out like it was nothing, simply because of a sympathetic backstory, leading to an ending where the brother and the villian behind it all get to be king and queen of the kingdom they nearly doomed.

Speaking of anatagonist, there is also the father, King Bosse, who died, came back with the help of Miranjo by taking Daidas body because... uh... he and Miranjo wanted to be left alone together? But then proceeded to stay within the kingdom and not be alone because...well, you see, while Miranjo helped to free dangerous criminals from another kingdom to have them kill the current queen Hilling and prince/our hero Boji, in order to rid Bosse of his responsiblities as King, he pretend to be imprisoned? So, Bosse was in on it! Meaning he was evil too! Until he wasn't and healed everyone who was injured after fighting the terryfying and immortal Ouken who Miranjo also freed. But then he served as the final boss for Boji anyway because, you know, that's how it should be. Boji wins, spectacualry so, and Bosse finally gets to enjoy the peaceful afterlife after giving his kingdom, everyone in it and the viewers a major headache regarding his motivations.

Another thing that took a weird turn was the world building which I initially liked.
This show tried to flip quite a few fantasy tropes around. Including the "evil races" one by portraying the shadow clan Kage hails from as a wrongly blamed and persecuted people and the gigantes/orcs as just another side of a senseless and gruesome war.

But then they introduce the Gyakuza who play a major role in the tragic past of Miranjo, and in turn in making her the monster she became. They are inherently evil/deceitful "due to their culture". For example, torturing the children of their benefactors after stabbing them in the back is totally okay with them. Some even theorize they serve as an analogy to Koreans, which would make this much worse. But I can't be to sure that that's actually the case. But hey, not that it matters. They probably won't be a problem anymore in future episodes because their crimes are answered by an attemepted genocide carried out by Bosse as an act of revenge.

This sucks. I wanted to like this show so badly. And maybe it will take a turn for the better but I don't even know if I can bring myself to watch a season two. I became numb to the tears that were shed way too often and I was tired out by the many mistakes that were made in telling this story.

-Spoilers ahead-
(for the original series and for the upcoming S;G0)


"Steins Gate: Episode 23 (β), Open the Missing Link" is the alternate ending to the original series.

Or is it? Well, kinda. But this episode is also the prequel-episode to Steins;Gate Zero which is technically a prequel to the original series.
Wich means that this episode and Zero is a(n important) part of the original storyline. Confusing, right? After all, this story is about time travel. So it has to be a bit confusing.

In this worldline Okabe refuses to attempt a second try to safe Kurisu.
And this leads to the events in the upcoming 0-series. The ... Okabe we see in this worldline is the 33 year old Okabe who sends the video-message from the future to the one we see in the original series.

So do I recommend to watch this? Yes.
Especially if you want to watch Steins;Gate Zero.

My overall rating is mainly based on the rating of the original series.
I should mention that the first 14 minutes are the exact same as in the original episode.