Saturday, September 15, 2012

Revisited Anime: Steins;Gate / シュタインズ・ゲート

September 15, 2012
Posted by DarrenW & MedusaS

*This anime is being reviewed again because of the revised score-structure.

Originally Posted On: September 15, 2011 (Woah... That's scary. We did not expect the dates to be the same)
By DarrenW & MedusaS 
  
El Psy Congroo!

Today me and MedusaS will be re-reviewing the final impressions for Steins;Gate! シュタインズ・ゲート
   

The famous sentence always mentioned. I'm going to talk about a new anime here, called "Steins;Gate". From the popular XBOX 360 and PC game by 5pb & Nitroplus, this new anime is sure to get viewers as well!
  
The world, is made up of an infinite number of world-lines, where there are differences in each one of them, of which through different actions and decisions, they divide.


Guy or Girl? Find OUT!!
Life in Akihabara (Otaku Heaven) starts off with Rintarō Okabe, the protagonist of Steins;Gate (Of course, he invented the name Steins;Gate), who claims to be a mad scientist (trust me, he really acts like one) and goes under the alias the MAD SCIENTIST Kyōma Hōōin!!. The female characters is Makise Kurisu, a neuroscience researcher and Mayuri Shiina, Rinataro's childhood friend. Also in the anime is Hashida Itaru, a "super hacker" in both hardware and software.

Things actually, don't go off to a good start. Honestly, i found the first episode very unappealing. (Probably explains why UTW Subs dropped the subs for the anime after the first episode only...).  The way it first ran about would probably deter anybody, due to the mad scientist/irrational thinking part.

   

HOWEVER, slowly, piece by piece, episode by episode, summing up to episode 24, IT FINALLY comes to light, the significane of episode 1. Makes you go OHHHHH! Thats how it happened.


Furthermore, don't be fooled! Normally high-plot animes are always like that, confusing. But after episode 1, it gets really good.

The main plot is about time-travel. Set in the summer of 2010, the story sets on the discovery of a microwave time machine, where the protagonist travels back and forth in time to alter what has happened in the future.

Okabe suddenly finds a girl, Makise Kurisu dead, murdered in a pool of blood, when he attends a conference regarding time travel in (the building u see above). He sends a text mesage to Daru saying the murder, and suddenly he realises... She is ALIVE.

The group suddenly realize that their microwave is actually able to send text messages INTO THE PAST (Called D-Mail) when a phone somehow interferes with the microwave when it runs. Whatever they send back into the past will have an adverse effect on the present! It becomes fun and they send message after message, to benefit everyone. 

A Cell-Phone changes, a boy becomes a girl, Akihabara's otaku vanishes (nooooooo!), and a dead person becomes alive. But there is to be a profound effect from the D-Mails! Mayuri suddenly dies, a mysterious organisation starts chasing everyone down, a time-traveller appears & the world is going to plunge into World War III! WHAT IS GOING ON? What will Okabe do now? Can he save the world from whatever chaos and make it to Steins;Gate ?!


DarrenW

Plot deserves a 10. Just peeling the story, part by part, was simply awe-strucking. As a novelist, the technique used was simply beautiful, where the ending becomes the start, and slowly you learn what lead up to the introduction. I also recommend you watch it twice to get an understanding of what's going on, unless you have super-god attention span. HAHA

Theme wise, this anime really illustrates time-travel, somehow they managed to fit in ECCHI, MOE and Romance. This anime is one of the most creative I have ever seen. Not only its presentation style, the different moods it managed to set, the different way it develops against all those conventional animes.

As a sci-fi anime, it definitely puts the theme of time travel back up again, right next to "Back To The Future". (It's really that good.) Personally I wasn't expecting anything great after watching episode 1, but after watching it bit by bit, it all starts to make sense, and the various factors put together, made to produce one amazing anime. Not a single episode after that was boring and I, for the first time, re-watched it twice.

MedusaS

Although I didn't watch the anime 3 times like DarrenW, I realised I had super-god attention span. haha

The anime certainly deserves a huge amount of credit, for the fact that I have never seen anything quite like it before. Sure, there were time travel animes, animes based on akihabara, but none on a scale quite like this.

Steins;Gate definitely makes it number one on MY LIST, for it was a truly mezmerizing anime to watch. You could feel the amount of work that has been put into it. Furthermore, what's Sci-Fi without explanations and theories? This anime certainly has that done to an amazing degree.

I also have to commend the music, Hacking to the Gate by Kanako Itou and Tokitsukasadoru Juuni no Meiyaku by Sakakibara Yui became my all time favourite OP & ED since I started watching anime.

COLLABORATIVE SCORE:


Steins;Gate was subbed by Commie, UTW, Steins;Sub and Doki.
Actually, after episode 8, Steins;Sub QUIT subbing the show! Haha. Honestly, just go to Commie to get the subs.

Divergence Meter
It has currently JUST ENDED. Steins;Gate has 24 episodes, premiering from April 6 to September 9 and will contain a Special, or OVA. It has also been announced that it has been "GREEN LIT", which means A STEINS;GATE MOVIE IS ON ITS WAY!

    
PS: Next review is on romance!
   
See you in the future!
DarrenW
MedusaS
Re-fitted & Edited by FayeA

5 comments:

  1. @ MedusaS...Wait, what? It has been over a long time ago. Where were you this whole time?

    Also, I highly disagree to compare this series with To-Aru Majutsu no Index II. It's not even close at all. If ever, To-Aru Majutsu no Index II is very cheesy in comparison (even though I also like that series).

    @ DarrenW: This series is not even close to the "echii genre". Just go watch an actual echii anime... -_-

    Besides that, cool review I guess...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm sorry to hear that. We decided to revisit certain animes on the basis that we are reformatting the score structure and re-fitting old reviews to match the new design specs. The old reviews we made since the blog started fell short of expectations because it had insufficient content.

    Unfortunately, some old content might have made its way on this new review. So I do apologize if I may have made some errors in judgement.

    DarrenW

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, so the post dating is wrong then since you guys are refitting things. Mentioning re-posted somewhere would be a nice thing so your readers won't be confused.

      I apologize if I sounded like a bully or anything (which I wasn't trying to attempt to). I also think I read this review before and the content currently seems odd with things mixed up. ^^;

      Delete
    2. Oh oops, you guys did mention re-reviewing. -_-

      Delete
    3. Haha,

      Thanks for the tip. We just want our readers not to be misinformed Our reviewing style was quite unprofessional in the past, and since people are still reading it, its a problem.

      Its quite all right. We acted too quickly to post, so we missed out some important past. Hey! You helped us make the review better!

      DarrenW

      Delete