Steins;Gate

[shinta|hikari]

UTW-Mazui_SteinsGate_-_01

There is a description in ANN, but that contained spoilers so I chose not to include it here. I think it is better if a lot is left to mystery for better enjoyment of this kind of show.

This is based on the visual novel developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus, who also teamed up for Chaos Head, so for those who have seen that, you will have an idea of what to expect. For those who haven't, it is basically going to be one weird, confusing, and mysterious roller coaster ride. The art is much better compared to Chaos Head though.

[RyougaZell]

You forgot to mention its and SD from a webcast... is it watchable at least?

[shinta|hikari]

Well, I watched it, but if you are picky then you can wait.

[Buffalobiian]

Confusing as hell.

Watching.

Horriblesubs - Episode 01
UTW-Mazui - Episode 01

[RyougaZell]

I need to watch another episode... the first one didn't convince me.

[masamuneehs]

going to give this one a try... hope it's not another chaos:head.... confusion is great atmosphere, and can add a nice dimension to a story. but if when the dust settles it's just been another standard harem adventure masked by confusion, well...

[KitKat]

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed by Chaos:head. However, I'll stick with this one if only because shinta has been promoting it so enthusiastically. The first episode wasn't anything spectacular, but I love how the girl's role in the lab is to sew cosplay costumes. If only my research lab would hire me to knit....

[Kraco]

If only my research lab would hire me to knit....

You wouldn't like eating the gel bananas, which is the second part of the job description.

I dropped Chaos Head halfway through, so I certainly hope this will be different. At least this first episode was very confusing, largely because the main character seems to have gel bananas also inside his head to make him so hard to follow. However, I do hope this trend continues consistently, keeping this show different.

Kana Hanazawa being in the VA cast is one extra thing making me want to try to stick to the show.

[Ryllharu]

The premise behind the series interested me, but this show makes for a horrible first impression. The presentation was awful. I got bored the first time I tried to watch it and didn't even get to the OP. I finally made an effort this time, but nothing really improved in the latter half.

The lead is obnoxious and the "hacker" is almost as bad. Nothing about Kurisu stood out aside from her red hair, and the only character I liked was Mayuri (and not just because of Hanazawa Kana, but because she actually seemed to have a personality).

I'd say more...but not a whole hell of lot actually happened in those 23 minutes.

This has two episodes to turn it around, or I won't even hesitate to drop it.

[Kraco]

You do realise the main character is lacking a few gears to have a complete clockwork, right? You can call a crazy person obnoxious, but insanity has various forms. And it takes an "almost as bad" a person to keep company to a lunatic, explaining the hacker. Of course from a viewer's pov if you can't stand them, you should just drop the series. But it's not the show's fault.

[Ryllharu]

Yes, I realize he is filled to the brim with paranoia, but that does not somehow excuse the show. Someone wrote his character and this scenario.

The bigger issue is the presentation. It tries to create mystery through incoherence. That's amateur-hour stuff. The viewer has only a vague idea of what is going on because the main character babbles random garbage.

The hacker is almost as bad because his voice is annoying, and doesn't seem to have much personality either. That one is at least excusable because he had relatively little dialogue. He did come off as a fairly realistic character, but I fail to see how he is "explained" as a balance point to Okabe. That's airhead Mayuri's job, and possibly Kurisu (who is intelligent without being paranoid-schizo).

[Kraco]

I don't think they foremost tried to create mystery through incoherence. My take was they tried to make the audience confused - just like the main character seems to be permanently confused in his paranoia. I don't actually care that much for depictions of madness so don't think I'd be loving this shows after the first ep, but I consider this somewhat successful at what it tried to do.

[shinta|hikari]

I like this kind of delivery. It makes the story less straightforward, and keeps the audience guessing. In an age where we got generic crap plots left and right, I would prefer a mysterious generic crap plot (if it is indeed generic crap, which might be far from the truth).

I also like the fact that they didn't do the usual 1st episode appeal intro in most anime nowadays, where each girl tries to show off her moe characteristics for a certain period of time, without any relevance to the story. I think it is much too early to judge the characters as boring after just meeting them. You just might find facets that are really interesting as we get to know them better during story progression.

The only thing I didn't like in this show is the VA for the protagonist. Why is Takuto's voice so popular nowadays? I blame Durarara for it. At least he does not sound as prissy in this role.

[RyougaZell]

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed by Chaos:head. However, I'll stick with this one if only because shinta has been promoting it so enthusiastically. The first episode wasn't anything spectacular, but I love how the girl's role in the lab is to sew cosplay costumes. If only my research lab would hire me to knit....

If this ends like Chaos:head, I'll drop it immediately. After all, I dropped Chaos:head after one episode. Episode 2 will probably define if I watch this or not.

[shinta|hikari]

I can't vouch for the content, since I only looked forward to this because of the character design for Kurisu, but here is a vague review on the game story that might help people decide whether to drop this or not.

Contains mild SPOILERS:

The story was really well thought out and it did a great job of tying the loose ends together for a grand ending. The amount of facts poured into this game is amazing, and how the story progressed seemed to be all perfectly calculated. The emotions of characters were really well written, and the voices were very well done to accompany it. However, there were few negative things that I personally disliked which really did not make this a great game for me. First, I really hated most of the characters including the protagonist. The protagonist acted too childish for me for most of the story and there was too many 2ch/eroge talk, and a lot of the characters were too unrealistic. I also hated how things were so convenient for the protag in the middle of the story (although there’s a reason for it revealed later). Now, the biggest disappointment for me was that there was pretty much no excitement. Almost everything that happened was foreseeable since the events occur like a backtrack of the first half, and there are so many hints dropped that you know what happens next (for example, would you expect something to succeed the first time when you’re told that you have two chances?). It felt like watching a horror movie where you knew how the person running away will survive, so there was no feeling of excitement or suspense.

Here is a summary of that:

Recommended for: People who like time loop stuff, people who like drama, people who love a complete ending where everything comes together.
Not recommended for: People who enjoy surprise turns in the story, people who want ero, and people who expect exciting fights from Nitro+

Aside from the fact that there are no twists (I LOVE twists), this seems to be perfect for me.

[Buffalobiian]

I guess it's no Higurashi if there are no twists then.

[animus]

Me = ?_?

[Buffalobiian]

HorribleSubs - Episode 02

[shinta|hikari]

I can't quite place what kind of character our tensai shoujo is. She does not seem like a dere type at all, since she was fairly nice and congenial even on the first meeting. She seems almost too normal for someone of her intellect. I love how cruel she can get though. She spent the entire lecture poking fun at him, while managing to teach properly.

LOL@trap.

So far, all that has happened are character introductions. I expect things to move forward next episode, with Kurisu seeing Okarin's green banana and all.

[Inazuma]

This is great, somehow heading towards "The girl who leaped through time" in a much weireder way.
So far so good,