If you were like (huhuhuhu) when Homura kept on going back in time, you should see how Okarin does it.
Where to begin, where to begin. . .
For starters, I’d like to talk about the plot. It’s Steins;Gate’s biggest appeal. You get some sort of slow introduction to the world of time travel, feeling a sense of “oh shit something bad’s gonna happen” as you go on, and when it hits you, it’s like BAMM! Its multi-layered, plots-between-plots and all. Some scenes that didn’t make sense the first time, gives you the goosebumps when you rewatch it now. Now the turning point of the series is episode 12. It suddenly turns from “oh shit something’s gonna happen” vibe to “OMG WHAT THE HELL’S GONNA HAPPEN NEXT. WHY CAN’T TUESDAY COME ANY FASTER. ARRRRGGHHHH”. The “save Mayuri” plot had its up and downs but again, awesome plot. They completely re-engineered the first half of the series in the second half. After a while though, when you somehow feel safe of the plot, you suddenly feel like “wait oh-shit how the hell are they gonna reengineer that?”. I’m talkin’bout Moeka and Kurisu. Moeka’s reengineer arc was absolute horror, it still gives me goosebumps when I think about it. Kurisu’s, you justdon’t know what the hell’s gonna happen. Then we get a “confession followed by kiss” scene just so we can cry when she’s gone. Then more PLOT with Suzuha coming back. The “save Kurisu” 2 episode arc is an absolute breakthrough to watch.
So plot aside (lolwut), where does Steins;Gate stand? Still pretty high I see. The characters are an absolute fun. From Okabe going “Mad Scientisttto” to Kurisu going all tsundere, to Mayushiii being all nice and genki, to Daru being annoying Daru. . . sometimes you’d wish they make an SoL out of this. Production-wise, its kinda obvious to see that Steins;Gate doesn’t have the biggest budget, but how that limited budget was used is another topic. They really know how to balance the animation, nothing technically looks bad at all. It helps that most episodes have a grimdark feel, but there’s really some strong direction in that area. OST is pretty good, a lot of BG music are memorable aspecially the sad moment ones.
Okay I feel stupid already writing about this, so I guess its time to grade this. . .
Execution: 38/40 (Some of the best direction I have ever seen.)
Engagement: 28/30 (When your mindset is “WHEN THE HELL WILL TUESDAY COME?!?!!?!?, I think its pretty engaging)
Characters: 20/20 (Some of the most fun and dynamic I’ve ever seen)
Production Values: 8/10 (Not exactly high-class material, but its used very wisely)
Rating: 94/100 (Rec. List material)
Traveler on Revenge 