Doctor Perseus Reviews: "Steins;Gate" · 11:03pm Feb 13th, 2014
Stories about time travel are difficult to pull off. Now, I'm not saying it's hard to write a story where a character travels through time. That's easy. But usually, in those stories, the time travel isn't the main focus of the plot but rather an introduction to it. A means to provide the bigger conflict to the characters. Doctor Who falls into this category a great deal of the time. Think about it, my fellow Whovians. How much of an average Doctor Who episode is truly dedicated to the actual passage through time? Not much, when you think about it. Sure, the time travel's there but, as I said, it's used mainly as a pathway for the Doctor and his companions to travel to the next destination and, in turn, conflict. Steins;Gate is one of those rare gems where the main conflict stems directly from time travel and studies the actual act of traveling through time. For those of you who are already familiar with this series, this is going to be a review based exclusively on the anime, not the game nor the manga. And for those of you who are hearing about this series for the first time, you can relax for this is going to be a spoiler free review as I don't want to spoil any of the major plot points in this series to anyone who has yet to check it out. This is also going to be structured a bit differently from my past reviews as, here, I will be talking about specific aspects of the show in different segments. Anyway, let's get started with...
The Plot:
Steins;Gate tells the story of one Okabe Rintaro, a first-year student at Tokyo Denki University who runs a small laboratory, which he has named the "Future Gadget Laboratory", in his apartment. At the beginning of the series, he only has two fellow lab members/close friends working in his lab with him. One day, after a seminar about time travel, Okabe comes across the body of a stabbed woman. On his way home, he sends a text message to his fellow lab member/friend Daru detailing what he found. However, at the same time, Daru has his cell phone attached to one of their newest inventions: the Phone Microwave. The Phone Microwave sends Okabe's text to Daru one week into the past and thus begins Okabe's thrilling and terrifying journey into a world of time travel, jumping world lines, conspiracies, love, death, betrayal, and, of course, some very well-executed wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.
The story is executed extremely well and has many twists and turns to keep the viewer on their toes. The pacing, for the most part, is very fluent and moves at a smooth and exciting pace. The series starts off a bit slow in the first few episodes in order to properly introduce the characters, show a few time travel experiments, and develop the characters. The anime is twenty-four episodes long, excluding an additional OVA and the sequel film Steins;Gate: Fuka Ryōiki no Déjà vu. The first nine episodes are the slow, character-driven build up but the remaining fifteen are an exciting, emotional roller coaster that more than act as satisfying pay-offs to the plot threads introduced in the earlier episodes.
The Characters:
Now that I've given a brief summary of the main plot, let's talk about the characters and there's certainly a lot to like about them!
Okabe Rintaro/Hooin Kyoma
Okabe is the main character of the series and he's certainly an eccentric one. He's an 18-year-old, self-proclaimed "mad scientist" who often acts under an exaggerated alternate persona, during which he identifies himself as Hooin Kyoma. However, underneath his eccentric, stubborn flair is a young man who cares deeply for his friends and will do anything to keep them safe. Due to a gift he was born with, which he dubs his "Reading Steiner", Okabe is able to keep his memories of every timeline despite whatever change in history comes about. He goes through much physical and psychological turmoil throughout the course of the series, especially in the second half. In the end, he always tries to do what he thinks is best for those he cares for.
Makise Kurisu
Kurisu is an 18-year-old American neuroscience researcher whom Okabe finds murdered in the first episode but ends up alive once again due to Okabe unintentionally altering history with his text. At first, she believes time machines to be impossible but is soon proven wrong by Okabe's Phone Microwave. She becomes the fourth member of Okabe's lab. She's very headstrong and often butts heads with Okabe, especially when he's acting under his Kyoma persona. Over time, she grows closer to Okabe and her fellow lab members and proves to be incredibly helpful in times of need. She's often jokingly labeled as the tsundre of the group by Okabe and Daru, which doesn't go over very well for her. And, I won't spoil it, but her relationship with Okabe reaches a very satisfying conclusion towards the end of the series.
Shiina "Mayushii" Mayuri
Mayrui is Okabe's 16-year-old childhood friend and the second lab member. She's an innocent, friendly girl who is open and kind to everyone she meets. She often talks in third person (Trixie would be proud) and refers to herself as Mayushii (a combination of her first and last names). She even has her own catchphrase: Too-Too-Roo! While a bit of an airhead, she always means well and is able to get the basic concept of the time travel being performed in the lab. Okabe is highly protective of her and will go to incredible lengths to keep her safe.
Hashida "Daru" Itaru
Daru is the 19-year-old third member of Future Gadget Laboratory and "super hacker". He's a master of electronics, is able to hack almost anything, is a big fan of online games and hentai dating simulators, and often likes to make perverted jokes and comments. He's well-versed in much of the otaku culture and is often the source of much of the comedic lines in the series, along with Okabe.
Kiryu Moeka
Moeka is a quiet, shy 20-year-old who often prefers to communicate with others via texting on her cell phone, even when the other person in question is standing right in front of her. Underneath her shy, quiet exterior is a broken, overly-dependent woman who will do anything to seek the affection of those who provide her with any sort of purpose. If there's any cliche this show pushes forward it's that it's the quiet ones you've got to look out for...
Urushibara Ruka
Ruka is a 17-year-old boy with an incredibly feminine voice, body, and wardrobe. He/She changes gender throughout the course of the series due to his/her initial displeasure with being a boy with such feminine mannerisms. He/She has a huge crush on deeply respects Okabe and is the only person who normally calls him by his full, first name. He/She is considered as a pupil by Okabe.
Nyannyan Faris/Akiha Rumiho
Faris is a 17-year-old owner of a maid cafe where Mayuri also works. She has a huge connection to the anime culture of the city of Akihabara, which is the result of a tragic accident in her past.
Amane Suzuha
Suzuha is an 18-year-old who takes up a part-time job at the bike shop located directly beneath Okabe's apartment. At the beginning of the series, she has hidden antagonistic feelings towards Kurisu and has more knowledge about time travel than what she initially lets on. She also has a strong link to one of the other main characters that not even she's aware of for a time...
And those are the main characters. Each of them is a joy to watch on screen and they all have great chemistry amongst each other. It's their entertaining interactions, fun personalities, and witty dialogue that helps make the slow beginning to the series enjoyable.
The Time Travel:
For this last segment, I want to delve a bit into the concept of time travel presented in this show without going into any major spoilers. The way time travel works in this series is a combination of the Butterfly Effect and the theories of John Titor. The Butterfly Effect, for those who don't know, basically describes how one, small change in a timeline can have drastic changes further down the road. An example of this would be if you went back in time to when you parents were teenagers and picked up a hair pin that your mother dropped to take it with you back to the future. However, that hair pin was meant to act as the means for your parents to initially meet with your father finding it and returning it to your mother. As a result, moving that hair pin has prevented you from ever existing. The theories of John Titor, on the other hand, explain that there are several world lines running parallel to each other. When a change in time happens, we all simply move to the next world line and our memories are altered to fit with the events of the new world line.
There are three main methods of time travel seen in this series: messaging, mental, and physical. Messaging is the one seen the most. At the very beginning, the Phone Microwave can only send texts into the past, which alter the future and thus move everything over to another world line. Eventually, Kurisu and Daru manage to build a time leap machine out of the Phone Microwave, which brings us to the next method of time travel: mental. The time leap machine transfers the memories of the present user into the past version of the user. Physical time travel isn't seen as much during the series as it is much more difficult to pull off. Without a proper machine, the person being sent through time is squeezed down to atomic levels and reduced to a green, gelatin corpse. A real, basic time machine makes an appearance at a point in the series but going further into that would be spoiler territory.
One of the best things about this series is how it makes the complicated process of time travel sound simplistic and understandable. When the characters explain the workings behind the Phone Microwave or the time leap machine it's not like listening to the Doctor or the characters from Star Trek going into a long, sciency talk. You're able to understand what they're talking about and grasp the concept along with them.
Conclusion:
Overall, Steins;Gate is a fantastic time travel story. It may have a slow start but it has a collection of great characters, fun twists and turns, great emotional moments, excitement, and plenty of timey-wimey goodness to keep any science fiction fan entertained. If you're at all interested in the concept of time travel then I highly urge you to check this series out now. You can actually watch the full series for free on FUNimation's Youtube channel right now. I personally recommend the subbed version because, even though you won't be able to understand what they're saying without the subtitles, the Japanese voice cast is a joy to listen to and they give these characters that much more depth with their lively, energetic performances. You can check out the first episode here:
Dude you just became one of my favorite anime reviewers
I'll admit that beyond old school Pokemon and Avatar: The Last Airbender, I'm not much of an anime person. This though sounds slightly interesting to me, but borderline ridiculous. I don't think I will be checking it out anytime soon.
Did you hear about this from Doctor Who TV, Doctor Perseus?
1832143
I actually first heard about it via this review of the series by GRArkada.
I've been planning on checking it out for quite some time but it was immediately after reading the article about it on DWTV that I decided to check the series out.
And I'm happy I did.
1832185 -Oh, okay. Thanks! I'm Clara Prefect over there, by the way.