Steins;Gate 0 – 4 [Solitude of the Mournful Flow -A Stray Sheep-]

Welcome to week four of Steins;Gate 0, now with more time travel! This week we have dystopian futures, new characters and the first hints of darker tidings. Lets jump in!

Now, I don’t know what it is about the 4th episode of anime, but just like Megalo Box this is Steins;Gate’s first stumble. The world line jumps/flash forwards/back had issues this week. Not only was it occasionally difficult to tell just when we switched, but they came at odd times. The opening world line jumps for instance somehow turned into a dream sequence and then we popped back to the rooftop of last week. It was difficult to follow and, at least for now, doesn’t add much or make sense. PTSD alone would have worked better there. The reason time travel worked in the original Steins;Gate was we followed Okabe through it chronologically, so everything still fit and had an order to it. Here however, perhaps because of route format, the world line jumps simply feel out of place. I hope this is a one-off problem.

Negative points aside, lets get into the good stuff. Steins;Gate continues to play up Okabe’s PTSD well I think. We already know he isn’t doing well, yet his first reaction after potentially jumping worldlines is to go check on Mayurii. The man remembers what he went through. What I also find interesting about Okabe this week  has to do with Mayurii’s daughter, who I will get to later. When he is grilling Daru about it, there is a moment where Okabe freaks about who the father is. I don’t think its any sort of stretch to say, he was worried he might have a daughter. And he did not look happy about it. Im curious as to why, and where this daughter character will lead him. But if Shiina Kagari’s appearance is anything to go by, Okabe isn’t going to handle her well.

Onto my two favorite (living) scientists, Maho and Leskinen. Maho was, for lack of a better word, cute this week. She clearly knows Okabe is lying to her, and clearly knows his relationship to Kurisu was deeper than he is letting on. If the teasing from Amadeus is anything to go on, she also appears to be jealous. She likes him, she knows he liked Kurisu/now Amadeus and is jealous he apparently knew Kurisu better than she did. I am looking forward to her growth over the season, because so far the socially inept genius routine she has is working for me. Next up we have Leskinen and he is… he is getting creepy. The man is a joy, but putting Amadeus with a grieving Okabe to see if they fall for each other again? Its dark… and I like it. I predict lots of conflict with him.

Now back to our newest character, Shiina Kagari. Oh boy. Im not sure how I feel about Kagari. On one hand, we don’t need her. She is another superfluous character, this time from the future/past. She doesn’t need to exist for this story and really only exists for variety’s sake, since she was never mentioned in the original. On the other hand, she looks suspiciously like Kurisu for a war orphan and oh boy is that gonna mess with Okabe. There was the weirdness with her pulling the gun on Suzuha, meaning she might have some brainwashing or something going on. But right now all I care about is how much her presence will affect Maho and Okabe. There will be some major flashbacks and possible obsession from Okabe and I can’t wait. Let the suffering continue!

The last thing I want to mention is some of the things apparently left out from the VN. You see apparently there was more to the Christmas party. All of Mayurii’s cosplay friends apparently got lingerie with the hope that Okabe would get one, who they could then push to give it to Mayurii. Its cute, woulda been a funny scene and puts Okabe’s later comedic scene into context. It’s a shame it was cut, because I think it would have worked well. As it is, the cut from serious conversation/Christmas party to lingerie gag just didn’t work for me.

So all-in-all, another good episode. Steins;Gate seems to be stumbling a bit with incorporating its different routes, but that’s not unexpected. I was prepared for a certain degree of awkwardness in compacting all of the routes into a single cohesive story. If this is the worst we are in for, I think Steins;Gate 0 has a promising future ahead of it. A dark, suffering filled future. And I can’t wait.

Make sure to tell me what you thought of this week! Trust me, I read every comment. See you next week!