And here we really see the advantage of adapting a medium that has already finished: it’s so much easier to plan in a great conclusion. This episode really impressed me by how it did exactly what it needed to close this thing off. I do have one question about the plot, though. Did I miss this somewhere by not paying attention?
When Okabe traveled back in time with his time machine, shouldn’t he have seen his version of the previous episode together with him? I mean, I was really looking forward to seeing Okabe stop not just Kurisu’s father, but also his own blunder of killing Kurisu last episode. He didn’t use any D-Mails to undo that, right?
Either way though: the rest of this episode rocked. The metal Upa thing took a while to hit home, but again I have to praise this series for putting so many huge consequences on such a tiny little thing. The finale was over the top, but it was wonderfully animated. This series has definitely found a unique style of animation, and even though it only had the budget to show this once every three or four episodes, it really made huge additions to this series. This episode was also where that came together wonderfully.
Oh and yeah: a movie just got announced. This episode closed off nicely, while still leaving a number of key questions unanswered. There are things like Suzuha’s mother, but the biggest is probably: why didn’t Kurisu start to work for Cern? In fact, that whole subplot is still pretty unexplored, because she only became like that in the Mayuri-death-timelines: where she met Okabe. Something happened there that killed Okabe and Daru, caused such an unlikely scenario to happen. I hope that the movie is going to focus on that.
Overall, the past Spring had four shows that stood head and shoulders above the others: Ano Hana, Tiger & Bunny, Hyouge Mono and this one. Overall, I think that I do like Anohana better. As for second place though, that’s really going to be a tough one: Tiger & Bunny had much better characters, while at the same time it had a less impressive plot, and the settings of both all were incredibly well constructed, while Hyouge Mono has better acting, while its plot will entirely depend on what it has planned for its final 13 episodes. All in all though, it was one heck of a ride, and definitely set a standard for the other endings this season.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
i think steins;gate did everything right, just to sad that its over now, i will miss all the chars.
but your comment about the movie did make me really happy =P
It was all the choice of Steins;Gate.
El Psy Congroo.
I was wondering about him meeting multiple selves too but I think that the timeline after Okarin’s failed attempt was slightly different (divergance factor of .0003??), so they are not returning to the exact same timeline point? Anyway .. it was still wonderful, if a little cheesy, especially shining finger. I’m not sure if that was necessary.
Actually, i thougth about the same thing – how is it possible that he didnt meet himself from episode 23… Thats huge plot hole for me, i could forgive that he always had a chance to time leap to the past to save Mayuri, but i will have hard time to accept this.
to the people questioning about the time loop plothole:
I think the worldline diverged when he took the metal upa 😛
Episode 23 Okarin and episode 24 Okarin could not coexist in the same world line from the moment where Okarin took the Metal Oopa from the vending machine because it would have created a paradox where Okarin would have killed Kurisu and not returned to the past to fix it because the plans were already destroyed so then he would have no purpose to go to the past and Okarin from the present in the past would in effect…jweiofjeiojfioejf garah. TIMETRAVEL IS IMPOSSIBLE AND THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY THAT IW WOULD MAKE SENSE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE SO LETS JUST TAKE THIS AS IT IS, WHICH IS ONE OF THE MOST BELIEVABLE TIME TRAVEL SHOWS THAT HAS EVER EXISTED.
Why didn’t he see an Okarin stabbing Kurisu?
Because we still are following the reference frame of that Okarin. We have been following the same Okarin throughout the series.
In episode 23, Okarin travelled back in time, stabbed Kurisu, went back to the SAME EXACT future and saw the video mail, went back in time again to redo things, and went back to the future, which has changed (thus why Suzuha disappears too, i guess) because of his actions in the past.
Suzuha specifically says in the VN that the world line that they’re going two in the second trip back is slightly different than the one they went to the first time, so they won’t have to worry about creating a time paradox.
Kurisu worked for SERN in the Mayuri timeline only because she was caught then blackmailed to help their research. If she didn’t they’d kill her mother. Okabe and Daru escape as they have less strings attached, but Kurisu gets stuck. Either way, Okabe and Daru die somewhere along the way as terrorists, and SERN kills Kurisu off as soon as she finishes her work on the time machine.
She doesn’t become involved with SERN in the beta world line because well, she’s dead.
OMG people were you even watching the series I was watching? The Dmail works by transporting memories/data back to the past – not the whole person! It’s virtually impossible to meet yourself if you’ve used the Dmail or the time leap machine.
Anyway, an excellent finale, and that film announcement made me exclaim tutturu~, wonder what it would be like? a compliation? a filler in between episodes? a rightful sequel? or a fanservice fest that will make hardcore fans reaaaaally happy? We’ll see.
On the question of bests: I can’t say about Hyouge Mono because of the lack of subs, but I would easily place Steins;Gate above Ano Hana (although, I’ll admit the extra 12 episodes gives Steins;Gate an unfair advantage in laying out its tremendous plot without rushing the world and character building). Tiger and Bunny was fun, but the plot really didn’t compare, and it never had the emotional punch (IMO) that either of the other shows achieved.
AKI they are talking about the time machine of Suzuha
For the question of why there were 2 Okabe’s instead of 3, the time machine C204 has the ability to erase past time travel attempts so that paradoxes won’t be created.
http://naomi.thewafflehouse.net/sg/wiki/index.php?title=Time_Machine#Time_Machine_C204
can anyone tell me if i understood this ending correctly? So by fooling himself that kurisu is dead, his past self will send the d-mail thus going back to the alpha line going to the trouble of saving mayuri then ending up going back to the beta line where kurisu is now alive???
I haven’t seen the VN so I’m not sure if this is canon, but by my understanding of time travel SG combines the multi-verse interpretation of time travel with the closed-time-loop interpretation.
Because Okarin saw the death of Kurisu, that event had to have happened in some worldline in the past. That particular worldline is special because of OK’s reading steiner – it was his origin worldline and subject to paradoxes – he could not change his past in that worldline, or else the events during the anime would not have occurred – a paradox. The only way to alter that past is through a closed-time-loop, where Okarin can go back in time but not change any of his past experiences, thus the need to trick his past self.
Try this:
Suzuha creates a paradox.
If Okabe is unable to change his past, lest the events in episodes 1-23 don’t occcur, then how is Suzuha able to? By changing the world (via Okabe), her past is changing …she’ll never have to do stuff in episodes 1-23, but those events are necessary for current Kurisu to survive.
Any flaws in that logic? Even if it does make sense, I am willing to overlook it. Absolutely marvelous series. Probably my favorite of the season.
@psychohistory I think your confusing Suzuha alpha and Suzuha beta here, the suzuha in the end episodes is a different suzuha that didn’t do the events from episode 1-23 therefore there is no paradox here since the events from 1-23 took place in the beta world line while the events from 23-24 take place in the alpha world line.
here is a link that might help explain a few things:
http://ibm5100.net/steinswiki/2011/08/30/attractor-field-theory-world-lines-explained/
Suzuha’s time machine has a function where it shifts the worldline by some minuscule amount so that the worldline they arrive in is very much similar, though separate, from the previous worldline.