steins gate – Anime QandA

Steins;Gate 0 – Full Season QandA Rundown

What’s the important information? Steins;Gate 0 is a Spring/Summer 2018 science fiction anime that aired 23 episodes from April to September. It is based off the visual novel of the same name which is a sequel to the first Steins;Gate anime and visual novel.

What’s it about? In a divergent timeline from the original Steins;Gate series, Rintaro Okabe fails to save the life of his love interest Kurisu and is presented with a world in which World War 3 will occur from the major global powers fighting over time machines. Several months have passed and Okabe is learning to live life again when he meets two former colleagues of Kurisu’s, Hiyajo Maho and Alexis Leskinen who have been working on an AI project called Amadeus—based on the compiled memories of Kurisu just months before her death.

Why did you watch it? The original Steins;Gate anime is one of my Top 10 anime of all time and any chance to have more experiences with the cast and setting that I loved so much was something I was eager to have! There’s no mistaking that it was my number 1 most anticipated show of Spring 2018!

Did you enjoy the show? I reviewed each of the 23 episodes weekly on the site (links can be found below) and almost immediately I was enraptured by the more personal, more contemplative version of Steins;Gate and specifically our protagonist Okabe. Everything was darker, more subdued, more meditative and I loved it so much for it, it wasn’t ~trying~ to recapture something from the past, it was its own show and all the better for it.

What was your favourite episode? I said it during the reviews and I’ll stick by it, Episode 22, struck a perfect balance and showed Akihabara—a city I have great fondness—for in such a reverent way. It also put to rest the long lingering mourning that Okabe had for Kurisu by getting rid of the AI Amadeus, but doing so in an appropriately emotional way for everyone concerned.

What were your most favourite things about the show? That this was its own show and not a lazy cash-in or fan-service laden rehash. With the exception of a few late-game moments Steins;Gate 0 is it’s own unique beast. I love that the series shows the effect of grief so thoroughly and doesn’t brush off the lasting impact losing someone (repeatedly) has on a person’s mind, body and soul.

What were your least favourite things about the show? I don’t know… while there were individual episodes that I nitpicked a lot in hindsight nothing really seemed especially egregious. If I were forced to choose, I’d say some characters were perhaps underutilised given we were introduced to new characters and had all the old ones return so content was perhaps stretched thin so that everyone had something to do—even if it was seemingly inconsequential.

Who was your favourite character? Maho! Maho is best girl, better than Kurisu, better than Mayuri. What’s that? You didn’t ask me who was ‘best girl’ but ‘best character’? I’m sorry, I don’t see the difference!

Thoughts on the OP (opening) and ED (ending) and the soundtrack in general? It’s a hard act to follow, having an OP that compares to the brilliance of the original Steins;Gate’s “Hacking To The Gate” by Kanako Ito. And kudos to the lady she comes close—arguably the lyrical content of Steins;Gate 0’s OP “Fatima” is better it’s just not quite as catchy as the original. The first ED, “LAST GAME” by Zwei is great, evoking almost a late 90’s James Bond credit aesthetic that I totally dig! While the second ED “World-Line” by Asami Imai is pretty much trash.

What’s something unique about this show? It’s hard to imagine something that is ostensibly alt-fiction of a different timeline to not only be so compelling but also almost supersede the original in terms of narrative satisfaction and yet here we are. My love for the original series perhaps makes me a little biased but I can’t help but be enraptured by this more mature approach to the series.

What other anime are most like it for the sake of comparison? For once this is an easy question to answer, put simply if you like Steins;Gate you should find something to like about this series unless all your after is more of the same as the original in which case just go watch the original again.

Who would you recommend it to? Firstly, watching the original Steins;Gate is absolutely a pre-requisite, you’ll be lost otherwise. So if you’ve watched the original and want a darker-alternate ending that not only compliments the original but expands the universe and narrative substantially then this is the show for you!

Sum up the season in one sentence: ‘The past is the past, let’s focus on the present and make the most of it.’

Final score? 95 out of 100.

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
When Daru Met Yuki – Episode 15 Review
Truth Is A Mirror – Episode 16 Review
A Life Sentence – Episode 17 Review
Blowing Up The Gate – Episode 18 Review
The Definition Of Insanity – Episode 19 Review
Living On Sorrowed Time – Episode 20 Review
Making Up For Lost Time – Episode 21 Review
A Night To Remember – Episode 22 Review
A Means To An End – Episode 23 Review

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A Means To An End – ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 23 (Finale) Review

A Means To An End – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 23

What’s the show? Steins;Gate 0, Episode 23.

So here we are—the season finale of the show that some months ago you said was “even better than the original Steins;Gate”, do you remember that? I can’t even remember what I said last week let alone ~months~ ago, cut me some slack, will ya?!

Well since you mention last week, here’s something you said then that’s worth repeating, and I quote: “Calling it now, this was my favourite episode of the season and no matter how good next week’s finale is nothing will be able to beat this one!” End quote. Listen, I say a lot of things in the heat of the moment and I’ve been known to engage in hyperbole on occasion…

Uh-huh, so regretting those words now, is this finale better than the previous episode? Actually you know what, no, it’s not, it’s ~as good~ as last week, that is to say it’s almost perfect—just in a different way than last week’s near-perfection.

Okay, so what’s so good about it? While last week was moody and contemplative, a fitting penultimate episode and almost like a eulogy—this week brings the high-energy and big drama and raised stakes. It’s also pretty damn complicated, which for this show is certainly saying something, I’m not saying I was ever confused at any point in this show but this is certainly not an episode you’d want to be distracted with other things while watching.

That’s a nervous look if ever I’ve seen one, not that I blame her!

So what happens in the episode? You know what, I’m not going to go into a full beat-by-beat analysis of everything that happened in the episode. What I will do is highlight a couple of things I felt this episode did exceptionally well and was utterly delighted with. If you want a full synopsis of the episode I’m sure you can find it elsewhere!

Well that’s a smart idea, turn away half the people reading this to other sites, but whatever you’re the boss… I loved that Okabe didn’t rob Mayuri and Suzuha of their importance in the narrative and Mayuri’s newfound confidence in her ‘role’ in Okabe’s life. They got to do what they intended to do and did a fine job of it too—the scene where Steins;Gate 0 Mayuri is talking to original Steins;Gate Mayuri over the phone was exceptional and emotional in all the right ways. Likewise their resignation to whatever fate was about to befall them as they slipped through history with the time machine being out of fuel was kind of beautiful.

Mayuri brought her A-game to this finale!

Wait, so Mayuri and Suzuha are lost in time? Come now… this is still Okabe’s story, he’s not going to let things end like that! Back in future time 2025 Okabe’s about to cheat his destiny by changing the “prophecy” that he dies that year by using the time machine to leave (and therefore technically not existing anymore) and with it he intends to track down Mayuri and Suzuha. And I’ll be honest, I don’t actually know if any of what Okabe was saying about being able to track them down made sense from a series technical continuity standpoint. I don’t remember the original Steins;Gate all that well, I loved it, it’s one of my top 10 anime of all time, but I’ve still only ever seen it once. Regardless of it though, I believed he would find them and as the time machine disappeared and the end credits started to roll I had a vague doubt about whether the show was going to leave things ~ambiguous~.

I like this younger version of Kagiri! Shame we didn’t see more of her!

And does it? Of course not! The post-credit scene not only gives Okabe his “big-win” that he’s been searching for all this time but ends the series on a monumental high!

Well the show might not have left things ambiguous but this review certainly contains more mystery that it oughta. Listen, I may have talked up this show plenty throughout the season but I’m definitely no expert on the series—if you want expert reviews go to people like Irina who’ve actually played the Visual Novels this series is based on, they’re far more qualified to talk about the rich detail of this series! As for me, I can just tell you what I thought about the episode as a series finale, it was fantastic, I loved every minute of it and I’m more than satisfied with this conclusion!

I guess he deserves to look that smug all things considered…

Previous Steins;Gate 0 Reviews:

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A Night To Remember – ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 22 Review

A Night To Remember – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 22

What’s the show? Steins;Gate 0, Episode 22.

So what happens in th— Calling it now, this was my favourite episode of the season and no matter how good next week’s finale is nothing will be able to beat this one!

—Not even making people read a little bit of the review to find out your opinion on the episode, huh? Sorry, I got excited—but I’m not the only one who has problems containing their excitement when reviewing things!

Eh, whatever man, it’s your site. So what happens in this episode that’s got you so sold on this episode’s overall quality as legendary status? Well it starts off a bit uneven but by the time we get to Okabe showing Amadeus [Kurisu] around Akihabara I’d absolutely fallen in love with the episode.

I love this shot and I’m not even sure why exactly!

Ah… the tried and true ‘Akihabara Fan-Service’ technique, hmm? What ever do you mean?

Whenever any show even ~mentions~ the place—let alone shows it—you’re all over it, praising it like it’s the best thing since sliced bread! Fine, I’ll admit I’m a slut for Akiba but you know what, regardless of the reverent way this show presents Akihabara and the attention to detail, this was also a meditative, emotional and touching send-off to a character who’s kind of been overlooked for more than half the season. And letting us see Akiba through Amadeus [Kurisu’s] eyes was the perfect way—at least for me—to have us connect with a character who by all logic we shouldn’t have a connection with.

Night time has rarely looked better in this show than this episode.

Why shouldn’t we have a connection with her? Because she’s an AI, she may be based on someone we used to know, or rather someone Okabe used to love, but she’s not that person. And getting that stark reminder, while simultaneously reinforcing how real the illusion can feel and how genuine the emotions seem brought me back to the way this show was in the first 9 or so episodes when I was calling it “one of the best shows ever” and “better than the original”.

Oh yeah, I remember that, you sure did make a big deal about this show back then—feels like a lifetime ago… What’s more I think the way they decided to scale back the Hyouin Kyouma bits and allow Okabe to still be fragile and contemplative as well as occasionally manic made this episode a lot more believable. Had that other persona returned fully and without respite it would have made the show something it’s not.

Anything else you wanted to add? I don’t often talk about the production values of an episode and even more rarely do I speak of them when they’re good (after all we only usually comment when things are bad) but I was blown away at how gorgeous Akiba looked during the last half of the episode—they really committed to making those scenes look as good as they needed to look to sell Amadeus [Kurisu’s] sacrifice. Also that last scene where Amadeus [Kurisu] gives that pep talk to Maho and then she smiled that one last smile was gorgeously heartbreaking.

So you said you didn’t think next week’s finale could possibly beat this episode in terms of overall quality, are you predicting a lacklustre final episode then? I honestly have no idea where and how this show is going to end—and for once I love being completely at the mercy of this shows genius imagination. If they manage to pull it off and deliver a satisfying, emotional and intelligent ending then there’s very little in the way of me proclaiming this better than the original Steins;Gate and that’s not something I say lightly!

Previous Steins;Gate 0 Reviews:

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Making Up For Lost Time – ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 21 Review

Making Up For Lost Time – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 21

What’s the show? Steins;Gate 0, Episode 21.

So last week you kinda hammered the episode for having the audacity to do time travel in a time travel anime… have you come to your senses now? Listen, you know it wasn’t ~just~ the time travel that bothered me—it was the fact that it felt like we’d gone to the future just for the sake of some edgy drama in the form of Ruka dying and seeing Okabe old and (more) distressed. Also the fact that it was more-or-less just so Okabe could confirm, “yep the future sucks, better go fix that” which I felt was a slap in the face to Suzuha who’d been saying as much for the whole damn season, it was like he didn’t even listen to her!

So you’re still on that high horse, huh? What about this episode then? It’s great and legitimises the previous episode completely and I’m going to retire from reviewing now because I’m obviously an idiot who has no idea what I’m talking about.

DJ Oldkabe about to drop a phat beat at da club.

Come on now, don’t be like that, you’re allowed to have gaping lapses in judgement from time to time. If only I was binge-watching this, I could have saved making such a fool of myself!

Nobody cares, also you’d find a way to make a fool of yourself in a different way anyway… That’s true.

So what’s so good about this episode then? It’s an ~extremely~ satisfying 25 minutes of television, not only does it give time-travel a meaningful place in the narrative it also finds a dynamic and possibly damaging way to do it that puts Okabe’s mind under unimaginable strain but in a completely different way than him repeatedly seeing Mayuri’s death from the original Steins;Gate series. There’s never a dull moment, never a wasted fame and it more or less culminates in something I didn’t even realise I was missing—the return of Houoin Kyouma, Okabe’s mad scientist alter-ego.

The poses are absolutely necessary. Why even ask?

Oh yeah? I seem to recall you saying a few episodes ago that you “didn’t miss him” and would be happier if he didn’t return. Why do you suddenly have such a good memory—tch! Yes, I said that too but that’s because at that stage in the narrative it felt unearned, like all the people who were saying they wanted him back at like Episode 2 kinda made me retroactively resent him. I was more than happy with ‘depressed Okabe’ I didn’t need the obnoxious mad-scientist. That was then and this is now and we’ve more than earned his return and it is particularly joyous—almost cathartic to have that ridiculous man back in our lives. Although for how long remains another matter…

If you don’t accept me at my Okabe you don’t deserve me at my Kyouma.

What do you mean by that? Well despite all the pieces seemingly falling into place with Okabe’s return to the past things—of course—don’t go to plan as once again the time-machine with Mayuri and Suzuha is blown up by an attack helicopter as its transitioning to the past. Although the episode ends ~somewhat~ ambiguously, so maybe they made it this time and the anime is just cliff hanger baiting us.

So, sounds like you had a pretty positive experience with the episode? Some final thoughts? I don’t often like to compare things to other things—especially when the other thing is something very specific and not at-all anime related. But this episode’s central plot, with Okabe having to “time-leap” 3000 times to make it back the 25 years to get to his starting point reminded me fondly of my favourite episode of Doctor Who—‘Heaven Sent’, which aired in 2015. I won’t explain the plot of the aforementioned as it’s complicated and best worth discovering on your own but it too is about the kind of mental sacrifices that come with facing insurmountable difficulties with only one—very tough solution. I really loved this episode, even if that cliff hanger ending suggests the true ending is going to be harder fought still.

Previous Steins;Gate 0 Reviews:

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Living On Sorrowed Time – ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 20 Review

Living On Sorrowed Time – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 20

What’s the show? Steins;Gate 0, Episode 20.

So what’s the episode about? You know, I was pretty content with my viewing experience after this episode ended, thinking—“yeah, lots happened, that was great!” But the more I thought about it the more doubt kept creeping into my mind…

Doubt about what? Whether that episode was completely meaningless.

Okay, you’re going to need to actually tell us what it was about, you know? So Okabe awakens in a hospital-like bed, old, frail and confused. He ventures outside to find the once vibrant and alive Akiba in war-torn ruins—quickly he realises he’s in the future and after being rescued by Suzuha is informed by a more svelte-looking Daru that the year is 2036 and everything is awful.

This version of Daru reminds me of someone but I can’t figure out who, any help from my readers?

Well that’s certainly a change in scenery! You’re telling me! I don’t think I was quite prepared emotionally for seeing my favourite place in the world—Akihabara, all destroyed like that. Seeing those familiar sights and landmarks that I hold such fondness for kinda was upsetting, but in a good way, like it made for evocative viewing and ~immediately~ cemented me in Okabe’s mindset.

Just when you thought Okabe couldn’t look any more distraught!

So it’s a war-torn future, who’s still alive from our main cast? Well Mayuri’s dead because she died in the time machine explosion from the previous episode. Obviously Suzuha is here since she was born in this world, fathered by Daru his running the show in Okabe’s absence. Faris and Ruka are still going strong, fighting the good-fight, Ruka looked amazingly cool in combat fatigues and that long flowing black-hair but well, that’s sadly shortlived…

Oh? Yeah, the show decides that Ruka has to die and in Okabe’s arms no-less, and I guess it was supposed to be a sweet moment but to me it felt intentionally manipulative.

So that’s the first strike you have against the episode. What next? Maho’s still alive too—looking exactly the same much like Faris didn’t look a day older despite it being 25 years later and a literal world war breaking out in the meantime. And that’s another thing that kind of rang hollow about this, Maho and Faris haven’t physically changed at all whereas all the men are wearing the passing of time on their faces. It’s almost like the show was too afraid to make the waifu’s less appealing by giving them age lines or anything to symbolise that life has been hard this past quarter of a decade!

And that’d be the second strike. You mentioned that you had some feeling that this episode was “completely meaningless”, where does that come in? So it comes after talking things through with Maho—in what’s probably the best scene of the episode—she’s seriously such a stable core to this series, but does so very much from the sidelines. Okabe mentions that “Suzuha warned me the future was bad but I didn’t believe it until I saw it for myself” or some crap and then says he intends to travel back once more and find ‘Steins Gate’ and fix things. And the more I thought about it the more I wondered, how self-centred do you have to be to not put stock in what Suzuha was saying, like did Okabe just think she was over-exaggerating how bad World War 3 was going to be? Like that really rubbed me the wrong way, that Okabe couldn’t just believe her and he had to see it for himself! I don’t know if that’s a character flaw or the flaw of the writer thinking the viewer wouldn’t take to heart the importance of avoiding World War 3 without having their analogue, in the form of Okabe, experience it first hand.

Just as legal loli as always–even as a 46 year old!

Okay. So it’s pointless because he’s going to change the bad future? No, it’s pointless because Okabe/the writer thought we needed to see all this and it’s going to all go away. I know that’s ~kinda~ the point of time-travel narratives that things will change and therefore events that have happened won’t happen. But usually there’s something important a character will learn from having experienced a bad ‘timeline’ but he already knew everything that was going to happen from Suzuha! There was nothing new learned from this episode existing, other than Ruka turning into a total badass in the future and even then that’s undercut with a death for the sake of drama.

So if young/normal aged Okabe reminds me of Matt Smith does that make old Okabe Peter Capaldi?

Right, so not a fan of this episode? Eh, it’s fine—in a binge watch it’ll be less egregious, it’s just having to have waited a week for an episode that doesn’t add anything more to the narrative just felt a bit galling. But it was still entertaining, and sometimes that’s enough, isn’t it?

Previous Steins;Gate 0 Reviews:

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The Definition Of Insanity – ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 19 Review

The Definition Of Insanity – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 19

What’s the show? Steins;Gate 0, Episode 19.

So what happens in this episode? This is the most Steins;Gate-ish Steins;Gate 0 has felt since the start—and I’m not quite sure how I feel about this…

Does this go back to your annoyance about the show not being about Okabe’s grief and choosing to move the narrative forward? No, I’ve come to terms with the fact that the show needed a time-travel narrative, in this a show ostensibly about time-travel. Where my apprehension comes from is the idea that the conclusion to this series will somehow negate everything that’s come before in Steins;Gate 0 and end us up back at the point where the original Steins;Gate ended. I would absolutely not be happy with that eventuality.

There’s kinda no point obsessing over that now though, shouldn’t you just enjoy the show you’re given and stop trying to think ten-steps ahead? I’m a writer, that’s what writers do. But you’re right, agonising over what may or may not be is a real good way to miss the joy that’s right in front of you—or rather the crippling misery of Okabe having to go through his time travel shenanigans god-knows how many times in order to stop Mayuri and Suzuha being blown up by Professor Leskinen’s goons from DURPA. Oh and stopping World War 3, that’s probably important too.

Hopefully the Professor here gets his comeuppance.

Right. So they invent the time machine then? Yes, with Daru and Maho’s direct help and the help of Faris, Ruka and Moeka indirectly they manage to get the time-leap device operational and Okabe jumps back 48~ hours to before the incident on the Radio Building. But despite Okabe’s best efforts and arriving before all the bad stuff went down it still pretty much happens again, with the time machine (with Mayuri and Suzuha in it) being blown up by the attack helicopters. This leads Okabe to wonder if the time machine being destroyed is a fix point in time, but he’s not about to stop now—and so begins the agony of him repeatedly travelling back to try and save the girls and the world.

When the beat is straight up *electric*.

So how many times does he try this episode? Well the episode ends with him doing it for only a second-time. But there’s something interesting that happens after the ending credits that makes me curious…

What’s that? Well, the normal time-date read-out thing appears on the screen as it does to signify a change in time but the screen cracks. I very much doubt this was just a stylistic addition, it’s got to mean something sinister… maybe it means Okabe’s not going to be able to travel back any more? Maybe time is fixed in place? Maybe another thing entirely, either way I don’t want to say it’s the most interesting thing that happened in the episode because that’s a bit harsh, but it’s something that shows the most ~promise~ for something different happening other than Okabe just brute forcing a solution through repeated attempts at changing an outcome.

Will you be annoyed if it turns out to be nothing? Why would you even bring that up? Uh, yeah I guess so. I can’t say I’d be terribly interested in watching a 2 or 3 or however many episodes of Okabe trying to fix the problem with the same outcome more-or-less happening each time. It worked well in the original Steins;Gate but here, well you know what they say the definition of insanity is…

Anything else you wanted to add about the episode? I loved that we spent some time getting Maho to a point where she’s content with her position in life, albeit intellectually speaking—and that she has a bit more confidence in said intellect. Now all we gotta do is get her and Okabe paired up and everything will be just fine!

You can’t say they don’t make a good couple!

You’re still shipping the two of them even though Mayuri confessed her love for him last episode? What can I say, I loves me some legal loli (in anime).

You’re absolutely terrible. Teehee!

Previous Steins;Gate 0 Reviews:

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Blowing Up The Gate – ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 18 Review

Blowing Up The Gate – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 18

What’s the show? Steins;Gate 0, Episode 18.

You were pretty harsh on the show last week, have things improved this week? I was dreading writing this review if I’m honest…

Oh, that bad, huh? No, it’s just I hate admitting when I’m wrong—or rather I hate admitting when I jumped the proverbial gun too early. So, uh, last week’s review was pretty bad—

—As opposed to all your other reviews? Yeah, yeah very funny. But I’m serious, I was never really happy with my knee-jerk response to the episode, I hate knee-jerk responses to anything but due to the nature of this reviewing process where I write a review only hours~ after watching the episode I didn’t give it the time it deserved to truly sit with me and process it all.

This look is like permanently etched onto the poor guys face now.

So how long did you need to come to your actual conclusion about last week’s episode? Oh about thirty-seconds after finishing this week’s episode.

Ah, so one of the needing to see the whole picture to make sense of the pieces kind of deal? Kind of but not really, see here’s the thing practically every show I’m watching this anime season delivers more or less a complete ‘episodic’ experience from start to finish, the story might be stretched out over multiple episodes but at the end of any given episode I’m never left ‘wanting’ I’m always ‘satisfied.’ Last week though Steins;Gate 0 pulled the rug out from under me and I was left flailing and in my wild gnashing of teeth and swinging of arms I lashed out at the only target I could deep responsible—that being the show itself.

And where was your blame correctly laid? I should have been blaming myself for not having the patience to see where this show was going and I could very well blame the whole ‘weekly viewing’ experience itself. In a binge-watch there would have been no issues with last episode because I’d be able to follow it up with this week’s episode straight away and get more or less all the resolution and answers and gearing up for a dramatic end-game that was missing from the previous one.

Fair enough, so what happened in this episode that made up for what you felt was left unsaid in the previous one? Everything and a lot—big spoilers from here on out obviously. So Mayuri isn’t actually dead like we all thought last episode, she just got grazed on the side of the head (lots of people being grazed with bullets in this show). Kagiri saves the day with her sick fighting skills but gets a couple of dozen bullets for her troubles but at least mother and adoptive daughter are reunited. Professor Leskinen shows his true colours and reveals himself to be the mastermind behind everything bad that happened last-week and kinda everything bad that’s happened to Kagiri in the past, present and future. Suzuha beats the crap out of Leskinen but for some reason Daru stops her from killing her even though she straight up murdered a bunch of henchmen a few minutes earlier?! Attack helicopters converge on the Radio Kaikan Building; everyone somehow avoids the minigun fire, Mayuri and Suzuha escape in the time machine to go back and try and fix anything but a missile is fired at them and we’re left not quite knowing whether they made it back in time or were blown up by the explosion.

Someone explain the relevance of this? Unless we’re not supposed to know yet, in which case cool.

Whoa, action-packed episode, huh? Indeed, and while I do have a few qualms about the credibility of Okabe, Maho and Daru’s escape from the rooftop (just how much plot armour are they wearing) and while I think leaving Leskinen alive is just a cheap narrative device to have him reappear later “dramatically” on it was an intense half hour of anime! Plus it’s topped off with an emotional message sent from Mayuri to Okabe, explaining her reason for going back in time and confessing her love for him!

Well that does indeed seem like a lot of stuff, what’s your main takeaway from the episode though? I think the thing that stands out to me the most is how much Okabe’s hand is forced to get back into the business of time-travel shenanigans, like even if I’d criticised the show last week for robbing the protagonist of purpose in his narrative this episode puts him back in the drivers seat but also makes the very important addendum that he isn’t doing this alone this time. Unlike the first Steins;Gate where Okabe had to suffer time and time again trying to save Mayuri and Kurisu and experiencing the heartbreak alone Mayuri’s message clearly tells him that he doesn’t have to do this alone. He has co-drivers; he has Daru and Maho and Faris and Ruka and Suzuha and Mayuri (in whatever world-line they ended up in).

Well I suppose I’m glad you’re not complaining anymore, even if your review for the previous episode is going to kind of stick out like an anomaly compared to all the others. Nah, that happened on a different world-line, this is the new reality, back to all praise all the time.

Sure, sure. So anything else you wanted to add? I’m glad Maho’s not evil like her boss (at least not so far…) also that song that played over Okabe reading Mayuri’s message was absolutely gorgeous—here’s hoping they use that as the ED from here on out! Other than that I’m just happy Steins;Gate 0 is back to being the high quality I’ve come to expect from it and I can’t wait to see what they all get up to next week as this convoluted story continues!

Previous Steins;Gate 0 Reviews:

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A Life Sentence – ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 17 Review

A Life Sentence – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 17

What’s the show? Steins;Gate 0, Episode 17.

So how was this week’s episode of the show you love to endlessly rave about? Well I had to watch it twice.

Oh? That good huh? Actually—the opposite in fact. After the episode had ended I felt so completely and utterly apathetic toward it that I wondered whether this was even the same Steins;Gate 0 I had been watching all this time. Then I had to think, was it something wrong with me? Did my mood affect my opinion on the episode? No, I was in a great mood going in. Was I distracted by something? No, I was as focused as ever. So what was it, what had changed so much that I couldn’t even muster a single positive word about the episode?

And did watching the episode again give you a clearer answer? It’s the fear. The fear of the unknown—for the first time this whole season I don’t know what’s going to happen, I feel like the show is taking steps in unexpected directions, being unpredictable and illogical. While the idea that Okabe isn’t the protagonist and isn’t playing centre-stage to the central narrative has been brought up by several reviewers in recent episodes this is the fruition of that very concept—the rug is being pulled out from Okabe, the other characters are calling the shots and Okabe is just left to watch it unfold helplessly. And that helplessness translates to the viewer—and to me, harder than I expected.

I mean I still feel sorry for her, I’m not a complete monster…

But isn’t “unpredictability” a good thing? Especially to make a compelling narrative? The previous 16 episodes, or maybe less than the previous 16 but the first half for sure felt like this was Okabe’s story of grief and loss and trying to find solace in a world he doesn’t understand anymore. It was dark and contemplative and mature and most importantly it wasn’t a carbon-copy of the original Steins;Gate. But now with Okabe no longer in control of his own story, the story he worked so hard to attain for himself it feels almost like a betrayal to the original protagonist and in a way a betrayal to the audience since he is our analogue. I mean, he’s the smartest guy in the room, why shouldn’t everyone listen and do what he says… even if what he wants to do is just move-on with his life and let all the time-travel shenanigans float away into the wind.

He’s in a dark place… heh, see what I did there?

Again, not sure that’d make for the most compelling narrative experience… just sayin’… And you know what, you’re absolutely right. The high-stakes drama, all of it is coerced out of the people around Okabe—without them there would be no forward plot development and that’s something I’m going to have to reconcile, lest I find myself expecting this show to be something it’s not. I need to trust in the narrative process of a series I love and respect and not get hung up on notions of what I ~think~ this show should be, like so many others were early on in the series when it wasn’t the ‘Hououin Kyouma Show 2.0’.

So has your second viewing of the episode made you appreciate it any more? Not really if I’m being honest. The best compliment I can give it is that it was dramatic—even if that drama came from a place I didn’t personally like. Spoilers, obviously, but how many times are we going to go back to drink from the ‘Mayuri dies pointlessly well’?

So where does that leave you and your opinions on the show going forward? I just hope it’s all worth it—in my opinion the worst thing this show can do would be to erase the previous 16 episodes worth of material by travelling back to a point where it never happened. But then again, these are the risks when you watch a show that’s pretty explicitly going to be about some form of time-altering shenanigans sooner or later… I’m just hoping at the end of all this we get a “realistic” ending and not some forced happy ending. We had a happy ending already it was called the end of Steins;Gate and it was hard fought and well-earned now we need an ending that reflects this series not the previous one.

Previous Steins;Gate 0 Reviews:

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Truth Is A Mirror – ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 16 Review

Truth Is A Mirror – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Steins;Gate 0’ Episode 16

What’s the show? Steins;Gate 0, Episode 16.

Another week, another episode of Steins;Gate 0, how is this one? In a couple of words: very shouty. Which I won’t go as far as say that’s a change of pace for this show but it certainly felt a lot ‘angrier’ and ‘confrontational’ than what’s come before.

Is that a good thing? Well it certainly helps convey a measure of urgency and importance to what’s being said—but you know what, even with all the high drama that came from Okabe discovering Daru and Maho’s plans to rebuild the time-leap machine and Okabe appropriately losing his shit about it and the usually level-headed Daru clocking Okabe and everything with Maho and Okabe on the roof—that still wasn’t the most dramatic and impactful stuff in the episode.

Oh, and what’s that? At the end of the episode Okabe finds Mayuri sitting in a park they used to visit a lot when they were younger—and she basically tells him that she can’t deal with seeing him looking so broken up all the time over having lost Kurisu. It’s honestly the most heart-breaking and powerful scene perhaps the entire series—but it works so well not just because of how natural and understated the performances are but because it’s in stark contrast to the almost ‘soap-opera’ style outbursts that came earlier in the episode. It’s impossible not to feel utterly devastated for Mayuri who—despite loving Okabe—knows that not only is he in love with someone else, but her existence is the reason he’ll never be truly happy.

Ouch. That’s gotta be a bitter pill to swallow? Indeed, and even if Okabe would never say that, never admit that and never want that—even if he’d made a measure of peace with having chosen Mayuri to live over Kurisu, it’s something he’ll never be able to erase from his face.

But what about Maho and Daru, can’t they fix this, isn’t that the point of them trying to build a new ‘time leap machine’? This is Steins;Gate 0 Okabe—not original series Okabe, he’s been through too much and is too broken and burnt to even imagine a better future. And ~maybe~ there’s a way of fixing things, maybe all the answers are just within reach but he can’t see that right now, he can’t even entertain the idea because of how hard he had to fight just to get himself into this state of comfortably numb.

So it’s a jam-packed episode full of high emotion? I wouldn’t say jam-packed, it never felt like they were trying to fit too much into a single episode but rather that they were trying to get the narrative to a point that facilitated whatever will constitute the final arc of this series—and we’re getting damn close now!

“THERE’S ALWAYS MONEY IN THE BANANA STAND”

Anything else to add? While it could be argued that Okabe is being difficult to the point of simply elongating the narrative I think it’s important to ascertain his state of mind at all times, something that can be difficult to the outsider and something I think the final scene of this episode did a ways to explaining. Yes it was still very much a scene about Mayuri’s feelings, but sometimes it isn’t until someone else tells you how far you’ve fallen, how dark you’ve grown and how much you’ve changed can you really admit to the problems in yourself. Hopefully having his oldest and closest friend be so honest with him will allow him to put aside his trepidations and emotional baggage and either get some real closure or get some work done into fixing this world of his—if that is indeed even possible.

I’m sure I included this image for a good reason…

Previous Steins;Gate 0 Reviews:

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