- John Titor (Steins;Gate)
At the time of this writing Steins;Gate is at a well deserving #2 of all animes rated on MAL. It will forever and ever remain as one the greatest animes I have had the pleasure of watching. It had sci-fi, mystery, thriller, comedy and romance meshed in such a way to make one amazingly well-written, well-presented, and thrilling story. This anime had me thinking for months and I am writing this (belatedly late) review in the hope of convincing some of you to pick up this gem of an anime.
As you all have probably heard Steins;Gate is an anime about time travel, a fiendishly difficult concept to make work in any sci-fi media and it would be no surprise if Steins;Gate failed just because of this subject material. However Steins;Gate is a refreshing departure from other media of the genre by being not only exceedingly well researched but deftly managing a complicated non-linear plot with a focussed desired ending.
One of the main concerns that many people have with watching the anime was the slow and confusing beginning. I would like to address this first. First of all, I as well as many others was very confused with the first couple of episodes. By episode 6 however, I was hooked, and we got hints as the episodes went on that there was some underlying truth to the madness that was episode 1. Having watched the ending I have done a 180 and laud it as one of the best openings to an anime I have ever seen. Pay attention, rewatch the 1st episode if you have to and hopefully by the ending you will come to see what I mean.
By far, Steins;Gate greatest strength lay in its exceptionally well-written plot. Not only did it go into detail about the science behind the time machine, but it managed to incorporate in real world events such as the Y2K problem, John Titor, CERN, the Butterfly effect and many other recognisable real world phenomena. Steins;Gate makes use of a variety of scientific disciplines from Physics to Neuroscience to Game Theory in an astounding effort to create a believable theory behind the time machines. While there are inconsistencies and small things that were explained better in the VN, the science fiction is good enough to throw aside any doubts and just enjoy the damn anime!
I found the opening “Hacking to the Gate,” annoying at first as it did little to alleviate the confusion from the first episodes. By the second half I found it addictive and it easily became one of my favourite openings. The soundtrack was another highlight of the show. The producers did an amazing job of combining the lighting, soundtrack and animation to convey some of the more emotion and exhilarating parts of the anime. The art was clean and right where we would expect a top tier class anime to be. It is so good that there is little to be said about it to be honest.
There were a few semi-weak points of the anime: the confusing start for first time viewers for one. I can agree that the first episode did a poor job of introducing new viewers to the show. After episode 5 or so pieces of the storyline start to fit together. All of this sets up nicely for the fast-paced thriller 2nd half where Steins;Gate secured it’s spot as one of the top animes. Another semi-weak point was the characters. While Steins;Gate featured a wide and varied cast there were characters I found were sidelined/useless and made little impact to the story. The female characters tended to be focussed on one at a time and were absent during the many other episodes. However, they did provide refreshing light hearted comedy during the first half which is more slice of life while the second half dealt with the mystery and thriller.
For me a show can become unwatchable if the protagonist is horrible. Luckily Steins;Gate gifts us with a most original and enjoyable male protagonist Okabe Rintar... I mean HOOUIN KYOUMA! Although his delusional personality allowed him to expertly show us how NOT to use a time machine he showed a more serious side he would require both sides in his journey through time. Okabe Rintar… Hoouin Kyouma was a perfect protagonist in an anime depicting a human crusade through time as he rebels against god and fate.
Overall the anime was amazing, the art, the animation, the sound, the characters, everything was well done. Everything was meshed together very well, even the weak points viewed from a different light were arguably Steins;Gate’s strengths. The interaction between the characters was good fun for the first 12 episodes. But by far what took the cake was the superb story. If I managed to convince someone to watch Steins;Gate and bask in the radiance of this gem with this review, this would have been completely worth it.
“And I was the one who named the target ___________ Steins;Gate. You [would] know why I named it that.”
