The story's protagonist has about as much trouble picking a name as this show has picking a genre. Okabe "Hououin Kyouma, Okarin" Rintarou is a supposed mad scientist who operates in a quaint apartment, which he so endearingly calls a lab. Mayuri Shiina, his personal sidekick, mindless husk, and jailbait also works with him, along with his fat hacker, otaku, and token pervert, Itaru Hashida. They call it a lab, the viewer can call it purgatory, because the next eleven episodes consist of listening to these characters babble about noodles, bananas, anime, and internet memes.
Anyway, sometime after the mind-numbing dialogue, maid cafe replete with cat ears, perverted jokes, and other hijinks, they invent a way to send text messages through time and change the present. Finally, what follows is the science-fiction thriller that was teased by the first episode! Still, though, since this is time travel we're talking about here, you basically know what to expect from the story: something that is relatively pointless as a whole, because time travel means that no development is permanent. True, while the pace certainly recovers and redeems Steins;Gate from its slog of a first half, its characters and setting do not.
Okabe, Mayuri, Itaru, and later Kurisu, a blatant tsundere, are the most transparent characters you can find in anime, not just because they're generic, but because they exist solely to milk the audience. Okabe is the least offensive of them, but for over half the show he doesn't act like a human. He is a walking, talking weird-machine, alive only to bring a contrasting spirit to the otherwise extremely monotonous cast of characters. 50% of all dialogue scenes can be summarized in three steps: Okabe says something whimsical, Kirisu protests him, then Itaru puts him down sarcastically. More distracting than this obvious formula is that Okabe is really only there because anime fans tend to view themselves as eccentric and awkward geniuses, themselves. Hence, every time Okabe gives a villainous laugh or says something extraordinary it's because absolutely nothing else is interesting about the scene, not as a result of an emotion or thought like a real human being.
Speaking of humans, why didn't one write a personality for Mayuri? Oh, because she's only there to be cute for the audience and to be harassed by Itaru, who's the most unforgivable sin of Steins;Gate and the sole reason the dialogue scenes are so unbearable. The writers must have gone down the checklist of demographics and saw they were missing a character who spouted memes, so they threw in a fat guy who just happens to be tech-savvy. Not only that, but Itaru's a pervert, as well. How convenient to have so many comedic cliches in one character! Unfortunately, fat, try-hard, obsessed virgins are extremely difficult to like, and comedy doesn't work when you've already heard the punch-lines, kind of like how tsunderes don't work when that's their only trait. Kurisu, who's a red-headed mate for Okabe, plays hard to get for the entire show until she decides not to anymore. Anime fans enjoy when an elusive, intriguing mate succumbs to their geeky charms, right? Her eyes are as empty as her character.
Did I say empty eyes? Well, that's the trademarked art style of this here masterpiece. Since the characters are empty, anyway, the artist apparently decided to give everyone in the show empty, soul-less features. Naturally, this extends to the colors of the show, which have all received the Harry-Potter treatment. That is, every last bit of color and energy has been siphoned from the show to make it more stylish. Everything is a pale blue or bright white, which gives Steins;Gate a presence of light and darkness, which admittedly works well when paired with the unique, doll-like appearance of many of the characters, but also makes things pretty drab to look at, too.
So, are you a nerd who wants to live vicariously through characters who do nothing but try to ingratiate themselves to you? Perhaps you're thinking time travel is cool, but you'd really like it in the form of a slice-of-life anime? Maybe you're tired of characters who have reasons for what they do, instead of just doing things because they seems wacky? Or maybe you want characters to talk nerdy to you because your anime club's been extra stinky and pretty full of hormones lately? Well, Steins;Gate might be for you. After all, it's certainly trying to be!
