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The entire reason this show exists is to provide context for one scene in the original Steins;Gate show.
One scene.
That's it. That's the whole premise of the show. It takes 23 episodes for Steins;Gate 0 to achieve this and in my opinion, that is just too goddamn long.
The show meanders on episode after episode bringing in plot elements and characters that are irrelevant to the story and expanding on them in the most boring ways possible.
The most insulting part is that the main crux of the show,i.e, showing us how Okabe came up with the plan to save Kirisu, is shunted off to the side in order make space for an incredibly boring and borderline irritating story-line where we instead find out why exactly Mayuri told Okabe to go back( Even though what she did in the original is much more consistent with her character). The plan to save Kirisu and to enter Steins;Gate isn't even developed in this show, being hastily bolted onto the final 10 minutes, like the writers finally remembered the reason this show existed in the first place.
The new characters aren't very interesting or well developed, the villains aren't even worth mentioning and the show goes on for far too long for the amount of things it needs to do.
Not to say that the series isn't mildly entertaining, but if you watch this after Steins;Gate, you'll quickly realize that this show has nowhere near the quality that the original displayed.
All in all, this a mediocre addition to the series, mildly entertaining at its best and downright boring at its worst. Everyone keeps saying how essential this is to 'watch order' for the Steins;Gate series but honestly ? Just watching the original in its entirety would be just as, if not more satisfying solely due to the fact that you didn't have to watch this show.
