What’s the show? Steins;Gate 0, Episode 15.
And what’s this episode about? Probably about as close as Steins;Gate will get to being out and out romantic comedy–that said it’s still depressing as heck and contains character deaths (albeit in the future) as well as a general sense of forboding permeating the episode.
Right. So who’s the lucky couple? Daru and Yuki–though it’s not without its complications, you know seeing as this is a romantic comedy episode it has to have it’s elements of ‘will they/won’t they’ tension! The plan to get Daru and Yuki closer almost backfires when Maho–fresh from the United States–decides to give Daru an experimental procedure to make him more of a ladies man. It’s pure hijinx and kind of starkly unrealistic (which is saying something since this is a science-fiction show) but the suave and put-together Daru isn’t the guy Yuki is interested in, she wants the nervous, geeky, pervert! Luckily it doesn’t take a genius for the others to realise that and they end up more or less together by the end of the episode. Much to Suzuha’s delight(?) as she just wants to see them happy.
What’s with the bracketed question mark after “delight”? Well she makes a very serious face as she walks past the frame at the very end of the episode and I’m not sure what to make of that–maybe we’re led to believe she saw Kagiri on the rooftop–or maybe Suzuha’s just got that resting ‘knowledge about imminent WW3 stress’ face.
But that’s not all that happens in the episode, is it? Of course not, Okabe has been meeting with the increasingly suspoicious Professor Leskinen and by doing so has repeatedly blown off oportunities to meet with Mayuri–who clearly has something important she needs to talk about with Okabe but he’s too busy/oblivious to realise. He should know by now that nothing good can come from ignoring a friend, especially Mayuri. These scenes are giving me ~serious~ chills that something super bad is about to befall someone soon.
And what’s this about future character deaths? Well we get something of a flashforward (or is it a flashback because it happened in a characters past–she just happens to be from the future) either way we see how Yuki dies, protecting Suzuha from a mini-gun drone that’s surveying the war torn streets. It’s unexpectedly sad, not the least because we don’t really know Yuki all that well. Moreso I suppose it’s just sad for Suzuha knowing that the stakes for her just aren’t stopping WW3 but stopping her mother’s death before her very eyes.
Serious business, so how do you feel about the episode on the whole? The whole Daru x Yuki romance sublot was okay, but nothing special, it kind of felt tonally out of place at times but honestly my biggest problem with it was I don’t really care about Daru as a character.
Huh? How’s that? Isn’t he just like you? A perverted otaku with a ‘thing’ for loli’s? Okay first of all, I don’t have a thing for loli’s, I appreciate a good loli like one would appreciate a fine wine. Secondly and most importantly I may say sexual/perverted things about my 2D waifus on occasion but Daru straight-up says creepy things to actual girls/women in his life. I’m not here to write a deconstruction or take-down of his character, generally speaking I can deal with it in the context of this show but don’t compare me to someone who creeps on actual girls/women.
Yikes. Sorry, didn’t realise that was a sore point for you. It’s not, it’s fine. So back on topic, this is probably among the weaker episodes–I can’t say for sure how important the Daru x Yuki stuff will be to the end-game so that kind of felt like filler (but then again this show does have a lot of episodes to fill, so I’m not adverse to character development) but I can say with some certainty the stuff with Okabe, Leskinen and Mayuri while subtle and almost minimalistic is probably of significance. Let’s see where this goes!
Previous Steins;Gate 0 Reviews:
Episode 1 Review
Episode 2 Review
Episode 3 Review
Episode 4 Review
Episode 5 Review
Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
Episode 8 Review
Episode 9 Review
Episode 10 Review
Episode 11 Review
Episode 12 Review
Episode 13 Review
Defying the Protagonist – Episode 14 Review
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Anime QandA 
I feel like we’re always at odds with our impressions lately as I actually quite enjoyed this episode and this more comprehensive look at Daru’s character. I really liked a few of the moments between Daru and Suzuha and I also like how it seems Suzuha has made some kind of decision after finally getting to see her ‘parents’ together. While Steins;Gate 0 as a whole is still a bit of a miss for me, there are episodes like this one where the characters click and I just really enjoy it.
Still, I can totally understand that if Daru is a character you don’t care about the prominent amount of screen time this week would definitely not make for great viewing.
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I do often feel like we seldom share a similar opinion, oh well!
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It makes things interesting at least and I do like that your posts sometimes make me think about an aspect of a show I hadn’t considered.
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