So less than 24 hours after finishing Steins;Gate I feel obliged to write a review for it (and no I didn't do any time leaps or send any D-Mails to give myself more thinking time).
Before I begin, I'll be honest with you. I tried as much as I could to find something wrong with this anime while reviewing it. Why? Because a disturbing trend has emerged where new, decent-but-not-superb shows in recent seasons are ranking easily into MAL's top 30 (and Steins;Gate appeared to be one of them). And personally I don't think that's a good thing.
Anyway...prejudices aside, Steins;Gate did prove me wrong. To an extent. Nevertheless, I would like to firmly disagree with the countless Steins;Gate fanboys out there that this is MAL top 3 material, because I would not classify this as a masterpiece.
Story (8/10) - In a nutshell, Okabe and his friends/amateur-like lab members build a somewhat unconvincing case of a time leap machine and are getting chased by SERN.Between most of the 24 episodes, the plot seems reasonably well connected, as we progress between different world lines, where things change little by little until one of Okabe's closest friends, Mayuri, ends up being fated to die. But while this sad fate provides numerous tearjerking moments for fans as we see Mayuri getting killed over and over again, it does become very repetitive.
However, that isn't my main issue with the plot of Steins;Gate. The main problem is that some loose ends weren't tied up properly. Especially that of SERN's involvement and the role of Mr Braun. Perhaps the weakest part of the story over the whole 24 episodes was Mr Braun's involvement with the Rounders. If he knew about Okabe's time machine for so long, why didn't he act immediately as a Rounder instead of sending "threatening" images to Okabe's phone. Why did he give the lab members the message from Suzuha Hashida at all? His role doesn't make sense at all.
And this leads to an even broader problem: is it really that convincing for SERN (the unseen antagonists) to only use Braun's team to stop Okabe? Assuming that they were the ones who stopped the trains in preparation for the attack on the lab, I was expecting them to pull a greater show of force in later episodes. Which didn't happen.
Episodes 23 & 24 are also too contrived for an anime that covered deeper themes for the first 22 episodes. If Steins;Gate had ended with Episode 22, Makise would have performed the ultimate sacrifice for the whole world, and I wouldn't have been disappointed. But the fact that Amane comes back just so that Okabe's selfish desires to keep everyone alive was fulfilled just didn't make it as enjoyable for me. No offence guys, but it reeked of typical shounen after that.
Art (8/10) - There's not too much to talk about here. Against other anime aired in 2011, the graphics are pretty stock-standard (obviously much easier on the eyes than something from the '90s). Okabe's reactions to his time leap moments were particularly memorable, as they did suggest some feeling of disorientation. Character art was ordinary (though thankfully no unrealistic body proportions....I'm looking at you HotD), but I still don't feel that the appearances of Mayuri, Ruka and Feyris blended in correctly with the underlying themes that Steins;Gate was trying to convey. The blood in Makise's stab scene didn't look particularly realistic/gruesome so I didn't relate to Okabe's worsening of his own injury in the last episode.
Sound (8/10) - Yes, there were times when the sound did enhance the element of suspense, and this was most evident when Okabe received those .jpgs on his phone. But considering I watched Kara no Kyoukai 5: Mujun Rasen recently, I can't say that SG's sound was nearly as impressive. The OP by Kanako Itou and ED by Yui Sakakibara are at best a decent fit for Steins;Gate...I wouldn't consider them outstanding.
Character (9/10) - Okabe's character development is by far the most interesting in Steins;Gate. From something of a clown in the early episodes, he does engage in personal growth, especially when he had to ensure that all the D-Mails were undone one by one. He joked less about the Organisation during episodes 15-20 and ironically became more distant to Mayuri even though he was endlessly trying to save her. His multidimensional character was quite well done, if we remember that shounen protagonists usually tend to be blatant idiots who remain blatant idiots (ie Natsu from Fairy Tail) or are pitiful weaklings who remain pitiful weaklings (Shinji from NGE and almost every damn male protagonist I've come across in shounen romance manga).
Other characters' development, however, were abandoned as a result. Mayuri pretty much stayed innocent yet internally mournful of her grandma's death etc etc, while Amane, Ruka, Moeka and Feyris didn't get enough quality screentime to ensure they became anything more than one-dimensional characters.
The biggest issue I have though is with Makise Kurisu's character. Believe what you want to believe Kurisu-chan fanboys, but she isn't really a tsundere. I don't find her attempts to act cold and hostile to anything near natural, as for 90% of the time she is majorly provoked by Okabe's insults. I'm sure that if you replaced her with any other sensible, intelligent female character from another anime, they too would have acted the same way towards Okabe after taking only so much of his Hououin Kyouma crap. Hence, she's not a tsundere (please search Rie Kugimiya's roles, the names Senjougahara and Asuka Langley Soryu for more information). I also truly think that her gradually developing 'romance' with Okabe is a bit forced, and that it would have suited the plot more if they had remained as friends rather than sharing that kiss (plus that chance meeting in Akibahara was so cliched).
Enjoyment (9/10) - It was good while it lasted. I don't see why else I would watch 21 episodes of Steins;Gate in one day. But then again, that's just me. It wasn't until I started thinking about what actually happened that cracks started to appear.
Overall (9/10) - Like I said before, SG isn't a masterpiece. But I wouldn't have given it such a high score already if I wasn't impressed by what it did and tried to do as an anime from 2011. The time travel theme hasn't been covered so much in anime that it's been done to death like the lousy-ordinary-kid-becoming-the-best-in-the-world-at- storyline.
So while it certainly isn't in the top 3 anime of all time by my standards (maybe not even in the top 10), I can safely say that it ranked in the top 3 of the season in which it aired. Only time will tell as to whether this becomes a well-acknowledged sci-fi classic like Cowboy Bebop or GitS, but until then (probably 3-5 years down the track) it's too early to decide.
For the furious Steins;Gate-is-God fanboys who are already raging at me from their keyboards, I will say that on a more exact scale this anime would fall between 8.5-8.8 out of 10, and that if this was the first anime I ever watched, I would most certainly have given it a 10 (like I did with Code Geass which btw is superior to SG).
