Story:
The story follows our main character, Rintaro Okabe or as he likes to be called, Hooin Kyoma! A self-proclaimed mad scientist who is in charge of his very own laboratory. The Future Gadget Laboratory! A lab that is pretty much just him and two of his friends in a shitty little apartment. Yup. So Okabe along with his friends conduct many experiments. The one they seem to be working on the most is a microwave that they set up to do something or what not. Is pretty much just turns bananas into jello so nothing really ground breaking there. That is until Okabe figures out that he may have just made the discovery of a lifetime. IN messing around with this microwave he ends up discovering that he and his friends have actually made the world's very first time machine! So the rest of the show follows Okabe and his whole crew messing around with the time machine and trying to perfect it. Now if your saying that this sounds like a slice-of-life anime then you're completely right, to an extend. Steins;Gate does have a very heavy focus on a slice-of-life feel to it except that time travel is involved as well. But do not be fooled as the show does loose this feeling to it half way through the show and then takes on a very big and epic time traveling story. Really the slice-of-life in the first half always hit me as a way to develop the cast of characters that this show has. In which case that is good because Steins;Gate does have a pretty big cast. But is the second half any good? Well actually I'd say that this half is the high point of the show. This is where the show's writing really starts to shine. This is also where everything gets really dramatic and crazy as all hell. I am a sucker for crazy over the top stories and I am please to say that Steins;Gate handled it's story very well by taking it's time and fleshing out very peace of character development as well as plot development that is important to the overall story. But what makes this story even better is that is is also a romance. Yup, a romance. As you can guess the visual novel had a couple of female characters that you can romance so the show also has the romantic aspect to it as well. My god this was a really good romance. The love interest to Okabe is one of his fellow lab members Kurisu Makise, an actual scientist who ends up joining Okabe's little band of misfits. I'll go into their characters later but I'll say that they are handled really well in the story. The romance comes off as heart warming and pretty damn cute to boot. To ends this I'll just say that the story is top notch and I love it! Both as a romantic story and a time traveling story.
Animation:
So on the technical side of things this show does a damn fine job. Characters designs look really good and are really true to original designs from the original novel. The designs are very simple but pleasing to the eyes. But along with the unique designs comes the very strange art style of the show. The art style is very plane and a lot of the colors are very washed out. Now some may feel that this a negative but I would have to disagree and say that the art style does do a great job in two departments. One, it does make the show seem a little more realistic with the environments. Places and back drops that don't have an array colors in reality don't have any in the show as well which for me was able to immerse me into the show even more. Two, when a scene need to emphasizes a dramatic moment the animation will sometimes loose it's shit and it's glorious. These scenes show off that White Fox is very good at delivering very important scenes through a visual mean which is very good seeing as how this is an animated show. It also shows that White Fox is wise when using it's budget, unlike other studios I know. So I am very happy to say that animation here is a very good strength to the show's overall quality.
Music:
Music here is badass. Now music is on the very same boat with the animation. The music will be very simple and sometimes non-existent. It's only when the scene calls for a big dramatic peace of music does the show's soundtrack shine and oh my does it shine. The music is just perfect at setting up the atmosphere, tone, and feeling in a certain scene or even in a character's emotional status at the time. I completely just immerses you into the character's position and their thoughts as the scene is going on and it's just so fucking good! So music here is damn good and I loved it to death.
Characters:
You know with a plot this crazy you'd think that it would be easy to over look a character or two. Or hell just not really develop greatly so you can have more time getting the time traveling side of the story fleshed out. But I am very happy to say that this isn't the case at all. Every main and side character gets some screen time and gets fully developed with in the story. You really do get attached to all of these characters and they come off as real people. While some of them do have a certain character trait that we see in anime all the time they still come as human because of all the time you spend with these characters. Okabe is by far one of my favorite characters in anime. He is not only a very likable character but he goes through so much growth through out the show and it's not only great to see but at points it's also heart breaking to witness. He is by every account not the same person we see in the beginning of the show to the end of the show. He comes off as someone who has grow from what has happened to him and he's not the only one too. Kurisu is another character that gets a lot of development as the show goes along and she stands as one of my favorite female characters in anime. But what makes these characters so damn good is the interaction between on another. Kurisu and Okabe have hands down some of the best on screen chemistry in an anime. They play off each other so well that by the time it comes to to romantic aspect of the show it's completely believable that these characters have fallen in love with each other. But that's not to say that these characters are the only ones to work well of each other as the whole cast do interact with one another and do in fact work well together. All of the characters are handled with some much care that in the end it was great to see most of them have a completed character arc that ends with their personas fully fleshed out.
Nitpicks:
Now as good as this show is I will say that I do have two little complaints about it. One being that towards the end it kind of feels like most of the female cast is in love with Okabe, it's kinda silly really. Now it's understandable seeing as how you could romance multiple different characters in the visual novel. So the show does shows this a bit in the later half and it comes off as a bit silly. Also, without giving any spoilers, a character is introduced at the end of the show and is apparently the main cause of all the characters problems in the show. Now while I didn't mind the show having a pseudo villain at the end t was just a bit weird seeing how this character kinda did nothing through out the entire show. They were kinda non-existent really so it was just a little bit weird in the end but that's all that bothered me really.
Overall:
So in conclusion I will say that Steins;Gate is a really good show that you should watch. It would be a crime if you don't because this is one the the many anime that show off just how good anime can be at showing off story telling in an animated medium. It's a fantastic piece of story telling and you really should miss it.
Arcane Reviews gives Steins;Gate a 9.5 out of 10.
You can watch "Steins;Gate" on:
Funimation (Dub and Sub)
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