But I watched Steins;Gate, a Time Travel Drama/Thriller based off a Graphic Novel. And at first, for about 3 episodes, I thought it was great, what with it's Well-voice acted characters (in both Japanese and English), and its real world references, AND some great dialogue. But as the shows went on, It became less about Time-Travel, and more about giving really lame 1 episode arcs to female characters who basically constituted a harem show, and by episode 11, I was feeling a bit let down. The characters were good, but the story was going nowhere. And then something happens. Something crazy. And it all goes to hell.
I usually wouldn't say that much about story in a review, but I feel it's important so that people don't decide to drop the show. Just give it time, and the payoff is immense.
But the shows best point is by far it's characters, though there aren't many, considering it's a 24 episode show, with only about 10 named characters. But because of this, each one contributes in huge ways to the plot, and you grow really attached to each. You have the Main character Okabe Rintarou, a young physicist with the biggest God complex I have ever seen. But he's oddly lovable, and oozes charisma, and as the series progresses, he evolves into a good guy, maybe even a great one.
Other notable ones include: Makise, a physicist who is trying to also discover time travel, and is one of the most down to earth characters in anime; Daru, the hacker who is basically the only person with any actual skill; And Mayuri, Okabe's Little sister/Best friend/ Girl friend who actually contributes very little but is really cute.
However, the shows biggest problem also lies with its characters, with three of them only existing to pad out the harem elements of the show, which actually really goes against the serious tone of the show. Im not saying they weren't needed, they just need to be girls, and they DEFINITELY didn't need to have Semi-Relationships with Okabe. It just feels shoehorned, and brings the show down a bit.
That said, I really love this show. It has a brilliant opening and ending, though the actual show features very little music, which suites the them, quite bland and bleak. But this point is made most by the Art, which has very little color, using lots of whites and grey's, and a really odd filter is sometimes applied which makes the show feel surreal. It's odd, but not wrong.
And with all my plot niggles, the second half is seriously incredible. I have never seen desperation portrayed so well in an anime, nor have I seen time-travel done so well in anything ever. With that in mind, I give steins;gate a 9/10!
