First Look: Steins;Gate
Title: Steins;Gate Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Summary: Steins;Gate is set in the summer of 2010, approximately one year after the events that took place in Chaos;Head, in Akihabara. Steins;Gate is about a group of friends who have customized their microwave into a device that can send text messages to the past. As they perform different experiments, an organization named SERN who has been doing their own research on time travel tracks them down and now the characters have to find a way to avoid being captured by them.
First Look: Yes. That’s all I need to say… What you guys want more? Fine. I guess I’ll start Operation Praise the Heck Out of Steins;Gate (name subject to change).
Finally a true sci-fi. World lines, SERN, and IBM 5100 are some of the few geeky words you catch in the first few episodes. There are of course a lot more real world references that get any sci-fi nerd (such as myself) excited. Throwing you right into a mind boggling mystery of time travel and world line jumping Steins;Gate takes you into the world of a mad scientist Rintarou “Kyouma Hououin” Okabe. Or at least he classifies himself as a mad scientist. He actually just seems like a fanatic more than anything. This conspiracy theorist and airhead some how finds himself in a different world line than he started in. The events that took place leads him to believe that the Organization is after him, searching for answers and quite possibly his life. Normally characters who are a bit on the crazy side don’t have a lasting appeal on me. For some reason Hououin catches my attention. Maybe its his mad scientist laugh, or complete disregard of others’ sanity, but something makes me consider him a great protagonist. The best way to describe him is a childish hero. His intentions are good, and he always has the world’s best interest in mind… he’s just bad at the follow through. Hououin’s bickering with his assistant “Christina” are always entertaining, but completely slow down the research process. As an audience member I have no qualms with such events because it always gets me going. Even though the story is complex and has a lot of real world theories/organizations cited, the series is quite comedic. I think the relief from all the stress of human experiments is well deserved. I don’t think I would enjoy the anime as much if it were completely serious because much of the time the series seems too full of itself. The story becomes far too complex, and too much information is crammed into one episode for the audience to handle. Steins;Gate is thankfully having a 20+ episode season which allows them to really explain in detail what’s going. While still having fun of course.
The art style for Steins;Gate is also very good. I’m not a huge fan of the character designers but the back drops and settings are beautiful. They seemed to have put in a lot of effort with the characters’ surroundings. The characters don’t look bad, and they also come with quite a bit of detail, but for some reason they don’t fit in the world. It is difficult to explain, but the general models seem off for some reason. That isn’t to say Mayuri and Kurisu aren’t cute 
. Mayuri is another amazing character, partially for more stress relief. I’ve become a huge fan of Kana Hanazawa (the voice actress of Nessa from Fractale and Kanade from Angel Beats!). Her voice just seems to bring out the best of people. Mixed with the loving personality of Mayuri it’s a win-win situation. Back to the art style, the attention to detail is must for the series and the art matches well. Using great blur and lighting effects sets an ominous/mysterious setting.
Final statements: I’m keeping it on watch and I suggest you do as well! Most anime catch my attention on the first episode and start to lose it by now, but Steins;Gate is keeping solid. It is only getting better and better. I can see this being one of the best anime this season and you’ll be missing out if you skip it! Hope it keeps up.