Steins;Gate 0 – 2 [Epigraph of the Closed Curve -Closed Epigraph-]

7 years. It has been almost 7 years since the original season of Steins;Gate. Since Okabe overcame received a mysterious video message, which prompted him to finally save the day. Back then it was a rather clever, if thin, plot device to get a happy ending. Steins;Gate 0 is the story of this video message. The story of the Okabe who failed, who doesn’t get a happy ending. And I could not be more excited.

Lets jump in!

To start off, we need to recognize that Steins;Gate was never a beautiful anime. It was never the cutting edge, like Ufotable’s Fate/Zero nor did it have the surreal style of the Monogatari series. Steins;Gate always looked good, but I think what contributed to that more than anything else, was its Direction. Steins;Gate, and now Steins;Gate 0, makes the most of what it has. Interesting angles, CGI for the computer AI, or fun facial expressions. It gets the most out of its scenes and I love it. White Fox isn’t confined to the Visual Novel, they know they are free to do what they want. Thats how we got the PTSD scene from the first episode, so I have heard, and that was one of the best shots. This and the ED makes me excited for whats to come.

Onto specifics! Depressed Okabe is done so very well and Miyano Mamoru is doing a great job as his VA. Everything about him is muted and sad, yet we still get glimpses of the old Hououin Kyouma. The best scene of the episode, that demonstrates this better than anything else, is his meeting with Amadeus. We watch as he relives his grief, how he can’t believe he is seeing her again. He gets so caught up he even slips back into his old self, yelling “Christina”. Even his voice flipped, becoming energetic once more. It was a tearful callback that hits harder when no one there even recognizes the name, badgering him for what it means. What I am trying to say is, I love this portrayal of Okabe. He is clearly trying to become something he is not and I can’t look away.

Next up we have our new meme machine and a strong contender for Best Girl, Dr.Leskinen and Maho. While Crunchyroll may have robbed us of “Tu-tu-roo”, they did give us “Lihntahlo” and for that I can forgive them. Dr.Leskinen’s Engrish is great, because they fully commit to it. It’s not even bad English, its better than Okabe’s, its just heavily accented and fun to hear. The man is an eccentric, reminding me alot of Hououin Kyouma before Okabe buried him. As for Maho, with Amadeus standing in for Best Girl Kurisu, she makes an admirable showing. Her relationship with Amadeus is cute and teasing, making it clear they really were co-workers. Her time spent with Okabe, debating Kurisu’s theory, and how quickly she picked up that Okabe knew her was interesting. I look forward to seeing more of her and am sad to say, Mayuri your great, but you just got knocked down to 3rd place.

As far as story goes, we already know what the end condition is. We know how 0 has to end to enable the original Steins;Gate ending. We know Okabe makes it through and succeeds. The only real question is, who else makes it to the end? Because in theory, only Okabe needs to survive to the end to make that video file. Everyone is, in theory, expendable. Combine that with the inevitable time travel shenanigans and there is a 100% forecast of suffering in Steins;Gate 0’s future. The true test of its story however will be the first fork, how it handles the many different routes of a Visual Novel. Having not played the VN, saving myself for this, I have no idea where those forks are. If Steins;Gate 0 does a good job, I should  never find out.

So all in all, Steins;Gate 0 is great. If you liked the original Steins;Gate, you will love 0. If you never saw the original however, your going to be missing a lot. This is very clearly for fans of the original. There are some light flashbacks in the first episode, giving you a basic idea of whats going on. But without having seen the original you miss out on a lot of characterization for these characters. You miss out on who Makise Kurisu is and why Okabe is the way he is. If you have enjoyed Steins;Gate 0 so far and haven’t seen the original, I highly recommend you finish that then come back. You can find the entire thing subbed on YouTube. Binge it, and if your still interested, come back and enjoy the darkest timeline that is Steins;Gate 0.

See you next week!