So....
This anime isn´t my Number 1 anime of all time without reason.
What made me pick this for Number 1 out of the more than hundred anime I´ve seen? The one, most OUTSTANDING thing that made me watch the series in 3 days, is the AMAZING atmosphere every episode delivers. One moment there´s an incredibly funny moment, like a new over the top theory by Okabe, or his hilarious laugh, the other moment the atmosphere is umbelievably creepy, like when okabe recieves a photo from the evil group trying to prevent him from discovering any more with his experiments. What also brought some eerieness or creepiness into the series were the experiments that okabe worked out, like sending messages into the past or changing the past little by little. Experiments go on and on, Okabe gets deeper and deeper into different mysterious worlds and soon you realize: Nothing is impossible in this story. Okabe desperately tries to prevent certain events and you really feel helpless as well. Steins;Gate really drags you into the story and makes you empathize with each and every character. At one point, Okabe seems to have given up hope and looks on the brink of insanity, but his slightly different friends help him up again and okabe and Makise develop an also very well done romance, which also gives a lot of spice to the episodes. A lot of people say that they don´t like how the story starts off slowly. I disagree, since -boom- right at the beginning there´s a murder scene. Second, I also like how the story "slowly- but acceleratingly" the story starts off with Okabe´s "normal" life with his friends and what he usually does. Despite this, you can see the gears turning on the story line and I could immediately tell this show would be a good one. Also very outstanding in Steins;Gate, is how "professional" the scenes are written, cut and displayed. The timing is just perfect and the angles and soundeffects fit perfectly. If you´re wondering if you should watch it dubbed or subbed, look no further. The sub is obviously the original and some people prefer it, BUT- I watched the Dub which was the best I have ever heard. Now, I do prefer dub normally, because I´m american, but sometimes the dubs of shows are really trashy, so I watch subbed too. You definitely won´t regret Steins;Gate´s dub, least said. The characters in this show are all very well done, each of their backstory being shown, since Okabe uncovers shocking truth after truth of how much his life has, is and will be influenced by his friends. The storyline can get a little confusing at times, but that´s what this anime is about: "A whole bunch of confusing time lines that Okabe travels through, to reach a destiny where he can be together happily with all his friends." After all, this anime IS about time traveling. Coming to the animation, I have to say there´s not really anything that stood out. The art style is relatively realistic as can be said for the shading, lighting and colours. The animation is very fitting for this scientific masterpiece, which makes my overall respect for Steins;Gate even greater. This anime completely annhilated any other anime in all categories and got me addicted very quickly. It definitely deserves the Number 1 spot in my top anime list of all time!
