LogFAQs > #968741771

79. Steins;Gate
https://myanimelist.net/anime/9253/Steins_Gate
Spring 2011 (24 episodes)
My Score: 7/10, MAL Score: 9.08/10
Best Character: Makise Kurisu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd7BILZcYAY

Premise: Okabe Rintarou thinks of himself as a mad scientist, but his latest invention does more than even he imagined. After accidentally sending a text message into the past, the future hangs in the balance.

The Good: Steins;Gate is a sci-fi drama about an eccentric scientist who accidentally discovers time travel. Im a huge fan of time travel in all its forms, and this anime explores a lot of neat things with it. Okabe and his friends are unwittingly at the center of a pivotal moment in history. How it all plays out will have huge ramifications on the future. Theres a shady organization thats after them, a supposed time traveler posting online, and their own efforts to test the limits of their D-mail machine, and its all interesting. Okabe is an okay protagonist, but my favorites were Kurisu (as Ill cover below) and Mayuri, who only just missed my top 100 characters.

The Bad: I first read the Steins;Gate visual novel years ago, and I think it was a lot better than the anime. Dont get me wrong, the anime is good, but it doesnt have the alternate endings and it cant replicate the VNs pacing. Otherwise, while I like Okabe overall, hes still the biggest problem in Steins;Gate. I would like this so much more if he were a little bit smarter. Hell send a D-mail into the past to test something, then everyone starts acting funny about the thing he was specifically trying to test and it still takes him a stupidly long time to realize that, hey, maybe the timeline has changed. That was the thing you were testing, Okabe! It gets annoying at times.

Overall: Steins;Gate is an excellent time travel story. I preferred the visual novel, and both versions run into some problems where Okabe is being an idiot, but those flaws are minor in comparison to its strengths. The plot is intelligent, and the twists make sense. The cast is all great too, even Okabe whenever he isnt being dumb. Mayuri and Kurisu are both top-tier, but only one of them made it into my top 100 characters.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/4/0/AABz_zAADyE0.png

CHARACTER: Makise Kurisu (Steins;Gate)
https://myanimelist.net/character/34470/Kurisu_Makise
Voiced by: Imai Asami
TOP 100 RANK: 59th

SPOILERS FOR STEINS;GATE

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_VDWZkBYbo

The video is a bit long, but it covers lots of reasons to like Kurisu. I wont bother repeating all the times she was supportive or hilarious in her frequent playful conflicts with Okabe. For so much of Steins;Gate, the viewer is focused on how to save Mayuri. Shes the one we see die over and over, and the one Okabe agonizes over how to save. With all that trauma and chaos across the world-lines, its easy to forget the first big change they made from the initial timeline. Kurisu was stabbed in that first timeline, and now it appears Okabe will need to return to it. Effectively, he needs to make a choice about which of the girls to save.

Mayuri is his childhood best friend, and he cant stand the trauma of losing her again, but over the course of the story hes also fallen in love with Kurisu for all the reasons stated in that video. She often seemed annoyed by him, but she liked Okabe a lot more than she let on. And now, the moment theyve both realized it, she has to die. Steins;Gate does such a good job making the viewer care about both characters that Mayuri vs Kurisu is a legitimately agonizing choice for us as well as Okabe. Luckily, Kurisu helps make the choice easier. She encourages Okabe to go back to how things were, and thats what he ultimately does. I really like that about Kurisu. It takes a lot of strength to take a leap into the unknown that might end in your death, but shes mature enough to know it has to be done so she strives to make it as easy on Okabe as possible.

Its heartbreaking watching Kurisu die and that heartbreak is what makes the actual ending so satisfying. Another Okabe from that timelines future, one who went through these events yet could never accept them, has found a way to save her. I love the creative use of time travel here, where Okabe changes the whole situation without changing what his past self saw of it. He uses his own blood to make it look like an unconscious Kurisu was stabbed, which preserves the events of the timeline. Then things can move forward towards a brighter future, one without SERN and one where both Mayuri and Kurisu survive. And then it ends with the two of them finding each other again, as if their love transcended time itself. Im a sucker for that kind of stuff, so the ending of Steins;Gate was amazing.