Steins;Gate (24 Episodes Single Season + 1 Ova + 4 Ona's 1 Movie + ) 8.51 out of ten stars
Now You may be juggling around with this anime because it involves time travel.. I absolutely understand how the premise of it can be off putting, since many have tried yet failed to make a well fleshed out story with time travel mechanics that we're easy enough to understand and at least had something resembling continuity - Without a ridiculous amount of unmotivated expository dialogue. Though, right off the bat, I'll tell you that I had & would recommend this Steins;Gate in a heartbeat. Despite being third of the first three anime productions White Fox has produced, it's an awfully impressive and engaging watch, as despite not being perfect in terms of animation and art direction, Steins;Gate certainly excels in area's where it counts the most - Such as the Dub.
To my knowledge no one else asides from White Fox themselves has made an anime including time travel since and better. If your looking for the best crop of the bunch, this is it...
To my knowledge no one else asides from White Fox themselves has made an anime including time travel since and better. If your looking for the best crop of the bunch, this is it...
Plot & Narrative Aspects
The heart of what is at Steins; Gate's core is a story about mystery and doubles down as something also resembling a thriller, as well as a romance. Steins; Gate is Okabe's journey to save his friends as he and other "Future Gadget" lab members are caught within the terrible repercussions of their time travel experiments - Toying and altering time when the Future Gadget lab gets a bit too curious. Though before that, Okabe accidentally discovers time travel, with a makeshift gadget consisting of a microwave and cellphone. Slowly but surely, from there on does the world of time travel slowly draws in anyone and everyone who's around their small makeshift lab in Akihabara where they continue to experiment with the discovery. Sprawling into a conspiracy concerning the dangerous technology known as time travel pulling in anyone and everyone involved. In the mean time though, when Okabe accidentally time travels to the past, beforehand he witnesses a girl murdered in cold blood. Later on, after unknowingly time travelling to the past, he once again meets the red head who we come to know as Makise Kurisu. There first series of meetings is pretty hilarious, as Kurisu does a great job sadistically obliterating Okabe in a seminar involving time travel - Which later turned into an open discussion due to Okabe's provocations and general antics - more on that later though. We also get to know other main characters such as Okabe's buddies, people such as Mayuuri Shiina and Itaru Hashida or "Daru" for short. We also get to know more about Makise Kurisu as they and others slowly investigate their curiosity to discover and perfect the accidental anomaly that created the time travel phenomenon. 
Before I go any further you need to be warned - Steins; Gate is a rather hard story to review without revealing some details. Steins; Gate is heavily plot dependant, in fact characters congregate to each other largely because of the main plot device - that being time travel. In Steins; Gate there is a lot less goofing around or drama for extended periods of time, particularly because something always needs to happen and move the plot forward, in that sense Steins; Gate is a very progressive story, and that's what it does best. However, for the first half of the season, progression is somewhat steady, and you do indeed have more slice of life moments, not necessarily always motivated or driven by important events in the plot. Though unlike Kyo Ani, the 5pb and Nitro+ of Steins; Gate don't really rely too much upon the day to day drama and antics, although there still is still a moderate amount none the less. In fact, I think Kyo Ani has become a master at touching upon pleasure and seeking enjoyment from the smaller things in life, as opposed to world ending conspiracies and epic battles.
Don't get me wrong though, Steins;Gate gate still does have it's fair share of general drama - Though it's almost always motivated and dependant on reasons having to do with moving the plot forward, it's almost always plot driven - in other words it usually always has to do with time travel. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as Steins; Gate's utilizes these opportunities very well, showing off a character's potential to become more interesting. Many people like story's that are heavily event and plot driven, in addition to being linear in terms of story telling - I like it too at times, though issues can arise, though it's generally not a bad way to go about things. It's just that, if you take anything from this, please don't expect every story to be heavily plot driven or to have a dense over arching narrative, because I think you'll come across very damp and disappointed when trying to watch and find new anime to enjoy.
As a reviewer, I want to try to reveal and find new ways to enjoy anime, films or even music. I think in life, if you try to better learn and understand the world, instead of assuming and expecting, you'll find far more enjoyment and pleasure. In all likelyhood you'll probably build better relationships and friendships along the way as well. Assumptions and expectations can be incredibly rewarding when they are met or perhaps even appeased, though when they aren't (which is 90% of the time), they can be incredibly damming and disappointing and often times can serve as an artifice, blinding a person from the beauty that the world has to offer beneath more surface level expectations and such.
Back to what I was saying though. You see Okabe and the members of the "Future Gadget" lab are slowly pulled into a conspiracy involving time travel and a corporation housing most of the worlds technology dubbed "SERN". Okabe's and members of the "Future Gadget" lab's curiosity into investigating time travel, puts many of their members at risk, which unravels into a life or death scenario. With the use of time travel, Okabe endlessly loops back to the past to prevent the deaths of Future gadget lab members. Later on in the story, we learn of Okabe's special ability to retain his memories from multiple world lines, while other characters simply can't, forgetting anything that may or may not have transpired in a world line. So when he travels back in time, Okabe is always disrupting the status quo of the given situation he's in, alerting characters such as Mayuri, as well as Kurisu, often times confusing and mistaking world lines and memories for the the current world line he's actually in.
Despite not having Okabe's special ability, Kurisu always is at his side, loaning a hand, and inspiring the hope that he needs. Okabe is the only one who can remember these developments in their relationship, as he is the only one who is capable of remembering his time in different world lines as he leaps back and forth through time, which is awfully touching and at the same time very sad. Okabe continues to try to leap back in time reset and fix time as it once was, to once again be in a safe world line, where no one's life is at risk, eventually finding himself in another impossible situation. I think I'll leave it at that, as revealing anymore would spoil way to much. There's also some odd plot inconstancies that I will cover in the future that confused me, though for the sake of this review I won't, to keep the spoilers to a minumum. Being a time travel story, Steins;Gate was bound to have some plot problems, so I'm going to take them in moderation instead of getting to worked up about it. However, these inconsistencies within the plot or rather perhaps inadequate explanation of events will weaken my impression of the series as a whole, as some events as well as characters in my mind were way too convenient and unconvincing.
Despite the issues, Steins:Gate is still a great anime. It's this firm progression of emotional suspense
and build build up, with risk and transient highs and lows. It's these tender relationships that are able to transcend world lines, space, distance and time - I feel that is what that really sold this anime to me. Where to a degree all of the characters seem to have a vague set of distorted recollection of events that have transpired in other world lines. Which is interesting because while Okabe remembers events in their entirety, other cast members only have their gut instincts and vague memories of what may or may not have transpired in other world lines.
A lot of it creates misunderstandings between Okabe and others which in that, they grow to trust Okabe, as Okabe seemingly is privy to knowledge that characters have otherwise yet to tell him about that end up being true. Whether it's entirely personal or embarrassing, this of course makes for some interesting drama. Though the authors of Steins;Gate as well as the directing staff do a decent job in constructing a mystery like narrative. While I do feel that they did a decent job of knowing when to omit esential details and when to include them, I still feel that some revelations within the story and plot were seemingly predictable and somewhat obvious - Though all in all, I still do feel that the story has indeed largely made up for that fact with great thrills and emotional suspense, as well as a good beginning, middle and end.
and build build up, with risk and transient highs and lows. It's these tender relationships that are able to transcend world lines, space, distance and time - I feel that is what that really sold this anime to me. Where to a degree all of the characters seem to have a vague set of distorted recollection of events that have transpired in other world lines. Which is interesting because while Okabe remembers events in their entirety, other cast members only have their gut instincts and vague memories of what may or may not have transpired in other world lines.
A lot of it creates misunderstandings between Okabe and others which in that, they grow to trust Okabe, as Okabe seemingly is privy to knowledge that characters have otherwise yet to tell him about that end up being true. Whether it's entirely personal or embarrassing, this of course makes for some interesting drama. Though the authors of Steins;Gate as well as the directing staff do a decent job in constructing a mystery like narrative. While I do feel that they did a decent job of knowing when to omit esential details and when to include them, I still feel that some revelations within the story and plot were seemingly predictable and somewhat obvious - Though all in all, I still do feel that the story has indeed largely made up for that fact with great thrills and emotional suspense, as well as a good beginning, middle and end.
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