Steins;Gate – 23



OMG! WTF!

Right from the start I knew that this would be the point that I had been looking forward to the most: the explanation of what the heck happened during that first episode. And yeah. It pretty much was my favourite episode of Steins;Gate yet. But for the love of God, that plot twist in which Christina’s killer is revealed was awesome!

This episode really was amazing. Everything came together wonderfully. The twists that the plot took here were brilliant, and I even loved the characters. Okarin’s future self’s message was awesome in how well his past version understood what he had to do.

I really thought that Moeka, FB and CERN were the central villains: that they too were somehow involved with the third world war somehow. Instead though, they are just vital for Mayuri’s death, and they only come in action when they actually intercept that D-Mail. They probably participated in the arms race for building the time machine, but without Kurisu they actually didn’t get the upper hand.

And holy crap this thing only has 24 episodes. It’ll be over next week! Okabe is going to have to save Kurisu in one single episode. It actually is possible if the creators play their cards right. I’ve said many times before that an ending can make a huge difference on how I view a series, and out of all the series that are going to end this season, this one has the best papers for it. The most important thing: do not rush too much!

Also, who put the OP through a blender?
Rating: *** (Awesome)

20 thoughts on “Steins;Gate – 23

  1. Jesus, I was so scared of the last 2 episodes, scared that they would let me down. Thank God they did not, this was one hell of an episode and I can’t wait for the final one. Steins;Gate has become one of my all time favs, too.

  2. I really liked all the subtle implications for the characters in this series of timelines instead of the beta lines we were previously in. For example Suzuha has met Okarin in future instead of having only heard of him and she already knows who her father is. It even seems like in her time Daru is also still alive. Even things like the time machine being able to travel in two directions is a small, but significant thing. This show has always done the little things right.

  3. Why is this show so good?

    Seriously, it just keeps getting exponentially better – it started very slow, kept building up slowly as well and now each next episode is like 2x better than the previous one.

    Let’s hope the final episode can continue this trend and end it with a bang!

  4. Yeah, the episode was amazing. I mean it’s so hard to create a show about traveling through time without completely getting tangled up in the process, Steins;Gate is doing so awesomely. I also love the little details. Is it just me or is the new Suzuha wearing her hair differently too?

  5. I had to pause the episode to write this when I saw it: OMG, SHE’S PUTTING ON THE HAT!!! IT’S SUZUHA WE SEE GIVING A SIGNAL IN EP. 1!!!
    I’ve seen the whole episode now. In fact, like many of you (presumably), I proceeded to re-watch the first episode, which I suspect contains the contents of ep. 22 from a different perspective. This has been a fascinating and fantastic series. By the way, I chuckled when I heard Daru exclaim, “Suzu~!” That was a nice wink from the writer(s). Also, does Okarin have a sister? Suzuha was calling him “uncle,” after all…

  6. Yes .. simply YES. This show has been wonderfully planned. I have a nasty suspicion that Okabe has to fail one more time otherwise he cannot become himself in the future. Also, if he does succeed he is going to have a memory of a relationship with Christina that she does not have. She fell in love with him because she saw him striving to save his friend and that is not going to happen in this world line 🙁

    Anyway .. hurry up next week!!

  7. @Wolf. I’m sure she’s calling him uncle because Daru and Okarin are close friends in the future as they worked together to develop the time machine. It happens in western culture as well. I had an ‘uncle’ who was simply a close family friend.

  8. The OP was actually just the second stanza of the usual OP theme “Hacking to the Gate”.

    But yeah, This show is just damn good. damn damn damn…good.

  9. hahaha wow. this whole time i thought that she was trying to kill christina but in this time line she was trying to save her. what a twist on my part. i guess the world lines can be substantially different. after rewatching ep1 and hearing that yell i had a suspicion that okabe killed christina by accident. i am eagerly awaiting the final episode. i guess okabe truly is the greatest mad scientist.

  10. The Ending was Sky Clad no Kansokusha (Sky Clad Observer).

    I’m in the same boat with everyone. This is now in my top five all time anime. Every single episode beats out the last one. This might be because of the variety of the episodes focus. It could be action, mystery, character development or slice of life. Even though the team behind this and the studio were just above average – everything just falls beautifully. Again, all praise and applause should point to the VN. 🙂

  11. I think this is the first episode that actually ended on a positive, high energy note. 🙂 Can’t wait for the conclusion. This is the series to beat this year.

  12. The uncle thing is actually a mis-translation: youths in japanese have a tendency to call adults “oji-san” and “oba-san”, which also happen to mean “uncle” and “aunt”, but in this context they simply mean a much less formal form of “mister”. It’s one of the most often made mistakes I notice from subbers.

  13. It was a very good episode but I must say one thing. Kurisu’s father was far too stereotypical. I mean the writer just had to make him as villainous as possible. He could have give him some redeeming quality by showing him shocked at his daughters death. But nooo….he just picked up the notes and walked away laughing evilly.

  14. Yeah, at this point, I may just be too biased against this series, but after so much praise, I was hoping this was the episode that would convince me this series rocks… Unfortunately, it wasn’t. The twist in which the killer of Chris is revealed smelled like cheese to me.
    I mean, there are series like Birdy which I was truly biased against after the horrible first season, but after watching the second season, I understood the praise behind it, and loved the awesome storyline and characters. Steins;Gate failed to impress me. I can’t really point out what it was missing, but it didn’t push any of the right buttons, even in this episode…

  15. First time posting here and all, even though I’ve been following this blog for at least 3 years now.

    Anyways, as most of the people here already said, this is definitely going to be in my list of top animes.

    And about the Uncle and Aunt thing, well, I assume Japan is similar to how it was like from where I come from. In my place (South East Asia), we call other adults uncles and aunts (‘auntie’), even if we’re not related. It’s more like, a more respectful way of addressing them. And in Chinese culture, we have different names for addressing adults who are our relatives. So we only call people uncles and aunts when they aren’t our relatives.

    Just wanting to point that out.

  16. I was right! It was her dad! Although I thought that he was going to be the killer, and I suppose he wasn’t truly, but he did have a big hand in it. Every character is important in animes… I didn’t expect him to be the guy Okabe saw presenting, though, that was great. That whole turn of events was great, I really enjoyed this episode. Less than usual, though, the end of the episode was too much over emotional-ness, but it’s warranted.

    I would ask what happened in the world where Kurisu lives with her plans that she showed to her dad, but I suppose we’re going to find out in the next episode. I really, really hope they do a good job.

  17. I thought the scene where the killer is revealed was a little lame, like @Perrin4869 said. But the whole future-self thing was just awesome. Really really cool! Although it doesn’t make a lot sense that failing was what drove him to create the time machine, because he needed the time machine in order to fail. Damn time loops!

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