Category: Steins;Gate

Oh god. Not the cliff-hangers again?! The end of this episode promises many frustrating weeks of waiting what’s going to happen next. Seriously, the end of this episode made me really hungry to see what happens next.

I loved this episode. It was pretty much nothing but Okarin experimenting with making simple changes to the past, some of which failed and some of which succeeded. The ones that did succeed kept taking things a bit further, though, all in ways that seem pretty strange at first. Why did a simple message to change cell phones prevent that cell phone woman to join Okarin? Or did she change something else and just didn’t show it to people? Also, the idea of using pagers to send messages seventeen years back into the past, on something as vague changing genders.

Also, eight episodes in, and I have to say that I really like the cast. Sure, they have their annoying moments,but they’re very well balanced together, filling in for each others’ flaws. I’m usually not into characters doing random things unless I find the characters interesting, and that’s exactly the case here: even when they’re just shopping for bread, I’m interesting in what these characters are doing. This episode in particular just kept juggling its characters around, showing a bit of all of them.

There’s one thing that just keeps catching my attention though, and that especially stands out while making screenshots: this is one series that doesn’t care about consistency in its drawings. In fact, the entire season is full of distorted faces. Especially in the post-quake era it just shows how difficult it is to consistently make the faces of your characters expressive and believable. The shows that do this the best out of this spring season are Hyouge Mono and Ano Hana, by the way.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

This episode reminded me of why this show originally caught my attention: the atmosphere. It’s what ties the story, dialogue, characters and visuals all together here. And looking back, it’s this that was missing from the previous episodes. My guess is that it had to do with the silly dialogue not blending in with the story: it was well written, but disrupted the mood. And admittedly, it started to get repetitive.

this episode though knew exactly when it needed to be laid back and when it needed to be serious. The repetition of the dialogue didn’t even matter here: as soon as Rintarou started to send that message about the lottery to the past, this episode had a tight atmosphere that never went away. Beyond that I also liked that this episode cleverly used the time that Rintarou waiting for John Tytor by sending in calls from the other characters, and how that little chat with the part timer downstairs about brainwashing lead to her getting in trouble with her boss. Now those are well timed and very nicely blended into the script, as opposed to the “let’s now devote X minutes to building up and goofing off so that we can focus Y minutes on something serious”.

On top of that, I also really like it when a series only reveals parts of a characters actions, yet leaves enough hints to give us viewers a clue of what he’s been doing. We never got to see Rintarou’s reaction to the message he received about the Lotto, at the same time he probably got pretty excited about it, so much that he delayed his other plans for about half a day.Because of this they were only at the stage of trying to think of what to send back in the new timeline.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

I like this show a lot, but its characters do take turns in annoying me. Last time it was Mayuri, this episode it was Hashida. I never really liked watching anime about anime otaku, and this series unfortunately did not change that. I don’t mind this guy when he’s useful, but this episode didn’t have any role for him, so he just kept making bad sex jokes and kept reminding me why I’m glad that I am not an otaku myself…

In any case, watching this series shows how different a good visual novel adaptation can be from other anime. The big difference is that Visual novels come out all at once, compared to mangas, light novels and anime, who have to sell themselves with their first installment. The result is that this show can take its time in building up. Of course I’m going to rant if it turns out that the creators took too much time for these first episodes, but that’s something for later.

In any case, the previous episode was meant to leak out what Cern has been doing. This was probably meant to leak out what the lead characters have been doing. It perhaps wasn’t the most interesting episode, though I like Shining finger’s quirks for now, especially in combination with Hououin. This show may not have the best chemistry between character of the season (that award is reserved for Tiger & Bunny), nor the most likable eccentric main character (that one goes to Hyouge Mono), but the dialogue remains well written. Now it’s up to the rest of the series to actually make use of it.

The thing that intrigues me the most about this episode was that dream. Was it simple foreshadowing, or more than that?
Rating: * (Good)

In this episode: the clear hint that the main characters aren’t what they seem. Makise Kurisu apparently did something to Suzyha Amane but this was somewhere in the future so she didn’t actually do that yet. In other words this episode was foreshadowing things that are about to happen. The interesting thing is that we were promised an dimensional time conspiracy thriller, and here this series is going “screw that for now, first I want to set everything up correctly!”

Now, the people of Cern are a bunch of idiots for storing reports that could cause a public outrage… on an unencrypted mail server. I mean, all you need is one hacker who is crazy enough to try and break into a world famous organization (which, let’s face it, is very likely to happen), and you’re screwed. It’s a good thing that Okarin is such a proud idiot that he refuses to let anyone else in on his discoveries. At the same time though, the way in which this show keeps talking about them but never shows who they actually are is definitely good for the mystery in this show.

Mayuri meanwhile… got on my nerves in this episode. It’s both that her voice actress is very monotonously ditzy, as well as how she hasn’t really been useful, has she? Amongst Makise and Okarin’s banter, and the knowledge of the other characters, she feels out of place. All she has is this sad past and all, but so far the plot would be exactly the same if she was simply removed. I hope that the creators are building her up for something other than just a damsel in distress.
Rating: * (Good)

Unlike a lot of other series, Steins;Gate has this great combination between plot development and random goofing off. Here you have characters doing the laundry at one time, but you’ll never know when they’ll start talking about the plot again. It’s also a very good thing that the dialogue is really well written here: Hououin is getting more enjoyable with every passing episode.

On top of that, I love also these neat little details that this series keeps throwing in. Take for example that apron that the electronics store owns, which says “I Heart CRT”. A quick look into Wikipedia learned that that CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube”, or the thing that non plasma TVs used in order to display their images. They’re these neat details that seem random at first, yet somehow strangely fitting once you think about it. The laundry for example seems random at first, but 1) it shows that the lead characters are humans as well because their clothes get dirty, and 2) it gives Christina an excuse to bump into them again.

Overall, What really sets Steins;Gate apart from Chaos;Head at this point is its characterization: in Steins;Gate they feel alive and dynamic. In Chaos;Head, they were just plot devices. It perhaps doesn’t have the most exciting or heartwarming start, but I really consider it as one of the four most solid series of the season. (The other three are Anohana, Hyouge Mono and Tiger & Bunny for those who are curious).

My one point of criticism: the creators had better have a good reason for Mayuri’s dead [whatever]. Death in a series can be a powerful thing, but don’t go killing off people for the sake of giving your characters a sad back-story.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Hacking in anime is plugging in your PC, randomly typing stuff, doing some magic mumbo jumbo and being able to completely overtake other systems, even when these are completely unconnected from the outside. Because of that I’m really glad to see that we finally have a show who at least somewhat understands the concepts of SQL Injection. Hacking into CERN (not SERN!) is indeed stretching it a bit, but hey, this show is more grounded in reality than the vast majority of other series.

In any case it’s great to see a series so heavily based on dialogue again. And I don’t mean the crappy kind of dialogue like with Oretsuba, but it’s really quite interesting and well researched and I really like how it’s already gotten pretty in-depth into its subject with only 3 episodes. It’s been a while since we’ve seen series with dialogue as complex as Steins;Gate and Hyouge Mono and it’s great to see creators attempting these kinds of series again.

On a side-note: that girl with that hat just keeps reminding me of Kobato, even considering that they’ve got the same voice actress. I just keep having to remind myself that their characters are completely different whenever she opens her mouth. I wouldn’t call this a flaw, though it’s still a bit unnerving. Instead the most annoying parts of this show are whenever the characters start talking about perverts and fanservice. It just feels out of place and detracts from the interesting stuff.

It’s also interesting how this show is well researched, but at the same time takes its liberties here and there in the small details. For example, the original John Titor claimed that he needed an IBM 5100 (not IBN 5100) in order to use it as a reference to fix various legacy bugs in some computer programs, hinting at the 2038 problem (similar to the Y2K problem, this will happen when the Unix Time runs out of possible values). As a computer scientist I have to laugh at how little sense that makes. In Steins;Gate however, this reason was changed by making the computer language BASIC (one of the first programming languages ever that found widespread use) younger than that PC, meaning that its software talks to its hardware in a completely different way; not based on really complicated standards to give it widespread appeal. I still have no idea how that could have helped him, but I’m impressed nonetheless.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Stein’s Gate has the most subtle build-up of the season, and yet at the same time it has its moments that are completely un-subtle. The colours are all washed out, there is no complex background music but instead it consists out of simple sounds, and yet it has a very hammy lead character that combines together surprisingly well. The atmosphere is really tight when it needs to, and the lead character provides some nice silliness to lighten the mood from this atmosphere.

Now, that cross-dresser was a bit too much, and I’m also not sure where that maid cafe suddenly came from (seriously, are there actually cafes in Japan in which the waitresses aren’t dressed as maids? This episode overall was not as impressive as the first one, but it still had a lot to like about it. The dialogue in particular is nicely down to earth and interesting: it’s well written for both the subtle and silly parts, making sure that it doesn’t destroy the mood of the serious parts.

Also, the mysterious John Titor is definitely an interesting addition to this series: a time traveller who appeared ten years ago, and in the meantime erased his own existence. This series has definitely chosen interesting subject material with time travel, and that gel banana also shows that it’s really planning to make use of it.

The big question for this series right now is: why is Hououin special? Why did he not forget about time resetting itself?
Rating: * (Good)