Steins;Gate 0 – 5 [Solitude of the Astigmatism -Entangled Sheep-]

Another week another new character added to Steins;Gate 0’s roster. This time we have a new scientist lady, more lovable “English” and answers to already obvious mysteries. Lets dive in!

So right off the bat there are some small things to mention. Like how Moeka clearly suspects Daru for his time travel work, or the clear connection she still has with Mr.Braun. She wouldn’t be introduced so early, nor would the camera frame her and Braun the way it does, if she wasn’t going to be trouble in the future. Viewers who have not seen the original Steins;Gate may be confused, so let me once again recommend you just binge the original and come back to S;G 0 once your done. We also have Judy Reyes, another new character. Based on how she was introduced, I am convinced she is a villain of some kind. Her intro started with a creepy stalker sequence and panicked phone call to Okabe. If nothing else I need her to be evil because we have to many lovable good guys already.

Now onto the real meat of this episode, Shiina Kagari. It was pretty obvious from last week that she was Luka’s guest at the shrine, so this isn’t a surprise at all. What is a surprise, and not a good one, is that Kagari has amnesia. How she survived 12 years alone in the past with amnesia and no government records, I have no idea. Really the amnesia is just a weak plotpoint used for some shock value. Luckily Steins;Gate 0 seems to know this and decided to both introduce and resolve her amnesia in the same 6 minute scene. Its not over by a longshot, but atleast we won’t have 10 episodes of characters wondering around asking “Wheres Kagari?” when shes right infront of them. Means we can get to the interesting stuff faster.

Now aside from her amnesia the only other interesting bit about her, since she has basically 0 character at this point, is her appearance. Obviously, she looks like Kurisu. Sadly, this didn’t mess with Okabe as much as I was expecting. We still have plenty of time in the season for some good old fashioned suffering with Okabe. But until she gets some kind of personality, some reason to be in this story aside from shock value, how she affects Okabe is the only thing that really matters. It sucks to say but I simply don’t see the need for her character. We already had Amadeus to fill this role, so what purpose can Kagari really serve that another character couldn’t? Im rambling at this point, but you get the picture. Kagari is, seemingly, a pointless character.

Moving away from my annoyance with Kagari, we have perhaps my favorite light-hearted scene in the series so far, with Maho and Okabe. I love the “English”, I loved that Okabe’s social ineptitude and no skill in English made him say “yes”. It was just cute fun and I am sure the Maho/Okabe shippers out there were having a field day with it. Really now that I think about it every scene with Maho/Okabe/Leskinen, in any combination, have been atleast good. They have great chemistry together, Leskinen is weird like Okabe, and Maho connects with him via their time with Kurisu. Okabe also clearly care enough for her to go full “Mayurii World Line” mode and charge out into the street with a bat for her. Its nice to see that his PTSD is still around. But yeah, this was my favorite segment of this episode.

So all in all, a good showing from Steins;Gate 0 this week. Kagari wasn’t bad, they resolved the amnesia very quickly. I simply don’t see the point of her presence right now in the story. She seems superfluous. We started to get a taste of the underlying villains this week, with Maho being stalked. Could be some simple social anxieties, but knowing Steins;Gate I wouldn’t bet on it. Well not completely at any rate. It was at this point that D-Mail started getting introduced in the original, so hopefully that means the ball will truly start rolling for Steins;Gate 0 as well. It can’t coast forever on the novelty of its character interactions, something needs to give Okabe the “push”. Heres hoping it comes soon.