Steins;Gate – 04



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)

21 thoughts on “Steins;Gate – 04

  1. You had to look up CRT on the Wikipedia? Really? I always thought you were old enough to remember those, heh.

  2. umm no.
    Plasmas are a minority. Most TVs sold today are some kind of LCD(LED or CFL iluminated, backlit or sidelit, diferent technologies for the pannel itself).There are also behind screen projection displays(including laser prjection).

    So no, non-plasma doesn’t mean CRT. it means a whole bunch of technologies.

    Anyway, this show is slipping slightly into technobable. This episode they started using technical terms a bit more liberaly.

    Still a great series so far, however.

  3. Your claim to be a computer scientist and yet you didn’t know what CRT was? Really?
    Well i guess unless you’re a computer programmer then theres really no excuse as there are programmers who don’t understand the electrical and mechanical aspects of computers and electronics in general.

  4. The pasing is nice and the dialogs are interesting. As long as they don’t have a horrible rushed ending I’ll be happy with what I’m seeing now.

  5. I agree that this show does a good job at showing that the characters are all human. The random snarking, reaching for a book on code when hacking, lots of little things that somehow make the characters believable.
    Oh, ten bucks says that Okarin is the guy who told the man at the shrine ten years ago to hold onto the computer, either that or John Titor from another timeline OR they’re both the same person.

  6. CRTs are still considered the top grade for color reproduction and contrast ratio, for the most part. That is, until, OLED makes it was onto the market, if that ever happens.

  7. Crap. The one time I don’t proofread, and it bites back.

    Oh, and for the record, I got CRTs in my fifth year of high school. Which is, like eight years ago now. It’s got more to do with fuzzy memory really.

  8. I love time travel stuff so this is right up my alley

    And the characters are very likeable so far, they really go along with each other, despite the crazyness

    The only one I cant stand is that cat girl, always adding her nyan crap to everything she says

  9. I knew what CRT meant even while I’m from non-English-speaking country and we just call them kuvaputkinäyttö (picture-tube-screen) 😀 I only bought lcd two years ago and had crt-screen until then.

  10. I love this anime, the main protagonist voice reminds me of the red haired guy from starr driver. i loved that anime 2 im sure there the same voice actor.. or i may be mistaken.

  11. Did you guys really not see Mayuri standing in front of a grave holding her hand up? “Mayuri’s dead [whatever]” [whatever] here is a placeholder.

    Given what you know, in context, how would you interpret her own death as a sad back-story? She got better?

  12. Ah, that was unimaginative of me. She could be a ghost. Well in the event that Mayuri turns out to be a ghost, astral projection, robotic duplicate, clone, slider, shapeshifter, zombie, land god, mass hallucination, or any number of workable solutions, please accept my apologies for being perplexed by the above interpretations of that sentence.

  13. Yeah, I did not mean that Mayuri was dead. That [whatever] was just a placeholder because I have no idea whose grave she was standing next to. It could be her dead pet snake for all we know.

  14. I enjoyed this episode, and it seemed to make good on the earlier episode in which so many characters were introduced. Here they were put to work (or mostly, the part-timer still hasn’t done anything of import, which makes me suspicious that she is a member of The Organization).

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