Steins;Gate

[Ryllharu]

I tried. I really did. The second episode failed to excite me, so I was at least going to give it the service of finishing the episode. But it so utterly failed to fundamentally engage me or even get me interested that I just paused halfway, skimmed the rest, and deleted the series.

Yes, some of the characters were interesting during the second episode. Okarin wasn't as much of a paranoid psychotic asshole as I thought he was (actually pretty nice overall). However, the delivery and presentation of this series is just completely disappointing. I like this kind of material, but this series sadly just isn't very good.

It simply doesn't live up to the hype it was getting from blogs, forums, and other sites.

Recommended for: People who like time loop stuff, people who like drama, people who love a complete ending where everything comes together.

I respectfully disagree, because I too like those things, and this series is doing rather poorly at the first two (can't speak to the third). I would certainly hesitate to recommend this to anyone.

[Xelbair]

I also dropped it - after first ep. It was just stupid, it tried hard to be 'artistic' and have some 'deeper' meaning but failed hard. Chaos;Head at least was interesting as start.

[Ryllharu]

it tried hard to be 'artistic' and have some 'deeper' meaning but failed hard.

A lot of the hype seemed to be surrounding the art. I can't say whether or not that makes up for where the series fails in delivery in the game game version, but I didn't really get the feeling it was trying to be artsy the same way that a series like ef - a tale of memories (or melodies) was artsy.

Unique visual styles are pretty hard to pull off successfully, Gankutsuou does it, ef as mentioned above does it, and a few other shaft series do (though some of those have fallen flat). They're obviously quite a bit more expensive than the more streamlined and generic design many adaptations adopt.

[Xelbair]

Ef had nice feel to its art - it flowed naturally and was a great fit for the series, but art style seems to be forced in Steins - like some kind of pseudo-metaphysical lyrics.

[David75]

I don't care about the art.
That second ep started to make a little sense.
Makise is incredibly proficient at nowadays advanced 11 dimensions universe mathematical models.

"... We can conclude that, in a string theory based universe, time travel is impossible"
Nice irony, to the point of being an inside joke.

Let's see what ep 3 will look like

[KitKat]

Well, despite the negative opinions here, I'm still interested in this show. Enough to keep watching at least. I can start to see where the story is going, and I'd like to see how it unfolds.

[shinta|hikari]

I'm actually surprised that Makise showed up in their lab. I thought she was going to be out of the loop, and merely played the part of a victim, rather than an active member of the team.

I'm trying to piece together what has been happening so far, but it gets pretty confusing. If we assume that Kurisu is the one who is maintaining a linear path in the timeline, the 1st meeting, meaning when Okarin first meets Kurisu on the hallway and she took his phone, was after the 2nd meeting, which was when he started touching her cheek. In Kurisu's POV (which seems to be more reliable than Okarin's since he is the one jumping around the timeline), we have 3 relevant events so far that are arranged in the following order:

Cheek touching -> Phone Taking -> Kurisu's death

In this case, Kurisu's appearance in the lab has to happen somewhere in between the "Cheek touching" and her death. The question is, did Kurisu's appearance in the lab happen before or after the "Phone Taking"? I cannot really say for certain, but since Kurisu dragged Okarin outside and took his phone, it is probable that she was familiar enough to do that and have had more interaction than just the string theory (Kurisu's) lecture. However, she acted like she didn't know much about him in the "Phone taking", so that might not be the case.

Or did the Phone Taking scene actually happen before the string theory lecture itself? Kurisu did mention that they met and Okarin was about to say something to her (which was what happened in the Cheek Touching scene). In that case, the timeline would look like this:

Cheek Touching -> Phone Taking -> String Theory Lecture -> Lab Appearance -> Kurisu's Death

If that is the case, this is a lot more confusing than I thought, since the switching in the timelines do not have any obvious breaks. I really thought that the Cheek Touching directly connects to the String Theory Lecture with nothing in between. But then again, it was Kurisu who dragged him out of the old guy's lecture, so if the Dragging out and the Phone Taking are parts of a single event, this theory is incorrect.

Things that are probably relevant:
Okarin himself (from another time) was the one who shouted when he heard a scream in the stairway. It was definitely his voice.
The person wearing a cap (IIRC) in the rooftop.

[Buffalobiian]

HorribleSubs - Episode 03

[David75]

That ep was watchable.
Sern beign the center of all evil is a far stretch, but we're in a paranoïd's head after all.

[David75]

So, am I the last one watching this?

I like it so far, it's not over the top, but there a little bit of mistery. Also, Shining Finger reminds me of captain harlock girls, gives a nice touch of nostalgia (yes, I'm that old...)

Parttimer is most of the mistery, at least for now.

[Kraco]

Nah, I'm watching this from Steins;Sub and in fact I'm actually liking this a lot. One of the better shows of the season.

[shinta|hikari]

I guess I did recently change my sig, but for the longest time I have been trying to advertise this show by using Christinaaaaa in my sig image.

I am watching this in CrunchyRoll.

The most recent development is awesome. So Okabe is going to be a/the messiah? I wonder how this plot line will play out.

Christinaaaaa can be so cute. It's just strange how she hangs around a psycho like Okabe. In fact, it is strange that so many girls hang around a psycho like Okabe. I wonder if there is anything to that.

Why is Shining Finger so obsessed with the IBN? Is she part of SERN? I'm getting really bad vibes from her.

Is Part Timer from the future? The scene where she tried to check Okabe's eyes for a chip is indicative of something like that, and also her relationship with Christinaaaa.

This show is going to be 24 episodes, so it is only natural that the pace is going to be slow, particularly since it is a plot driven mystery. I hope people give this a chance. It also has tons of anime/eroge/etc. references for the geeks who enjoy that (like me).

[Buffalobiian]

The feedback seems to be pretty positive, so I'll play catchup soon.

[shinta|hikari]

Have you caught up yet? Things are getting really interesting.


Latest episode content:


So it has been confirmed that Okabe has the ability to retain his memory even in different world lines. It is a strange ability, since it doesn't add to the new Okabe in the new timeline, but overwrites him. Doesn't this mean that he "kills" an Okabe each time he jumps lines? The Okabe that everyone else in that world knows is completely gone, after all.

I wonder if each time they change the past, a new parallel universe is created. If that is not the case, Okabe has destroyed and created several universes already for the sake of his experiments.

I think Part-Timer is John Titor. Her reaction when Okabe said that he distrusted Titor's story seemed personal, as if she herself was being doubted. Add to that all her actions that point to her being a time traveler and it makes for a solid possibility.

I'm pretty sure the trap is still a trap. If he had turned into a girl, Okabe would have made her a sex slave of some sort already. Okabe is already very much attracted to him. The only reason he hasn't given in yet is because he is male. I loved The Zombie's reaction to the revelation of the trap. I would need to support myself on a wall as well if that happened to me. I mean, he was cute enough to make Cel-7 stare. Really dangerous.

[David75]

Rurako is a very well presented/written/portrayed/animated and voiced side character. it's clear to me that changing his gender to female would render him tasteless, useless, not interesting... at least in his current role.

Gender indications in anime are hard to read. Nose line?, shoulder line? finger size ratios? At least Kyouma seems to be sure Rurako is still male only by watching his breast.

Prior to that ep, we never heard about his mother. Telling her to eat vegies could improve her health for example, and have impact on her life after that, changing something like great health problem or the day she dies. For some reason, I believed that his mother was dead, so the message could have changed that... it's just that I do not think we had any info on that person.

[Kraco]

So it has been confirmed that Okabe has the ability to retain his memory even in different world lines. It is a strange ability, since it doesn't add to the new Okabe in the new timeline, but overwrites him. Doesn't this mean that he "kills" an Okabe each time he jumps lines? The Okabe that everyone else in that world knows is completely gone, after all.

I wonder if each time they change the past, a new parallel universe is created. If that is not the case, Okabe has destroyed and created several universes already for the sake of his experiments.

I'm under the impression a new one is created, so he doesn't actually replace ("kill") any existing Okabes, because the newly created parallel timeline is created with his Reading Steiner included, so he was in from the beginning of the branching.

It'll be interesting to see what exactly changed this time. Assuming they ever find out.

I think Part-Timer is John Titor.

They have certainly suggested she's a time traveller (or just crazy), but I wouldn't yet say she's Titor. In my opinion it'd be more relevant to know why she hates Assistant. Is it because Christinaaaaa possibly defects to CERN?

This show really has interesting characters. The story wouldn't work half as well if Okabe wasn't a Mad Scientist.

[shinta|hikari]

I'm under the impression a new one is created, so he doesn't actually replace ("kill") any existing Okabes, because the newly created parallel timeline is created with his Reading Steiner included, so he was in from the beginning of the branching.

I understand your point, but it does not change the fact that the Okabe with the memories that coincide with everyone else in the new timeline is gone. Imagine if he and Celeb 17 were already lovers in the new universe, and all of a sudden he forgets all that due to the overwrite. The Okabe that Girl Genius knows and loves is already gone. I am talking more about the result rather than the nature of the overwrite when I refer to it as "killing."

[Kraco]

Right, I get your point now. Although so far it remains to be seen if such a case would or could ever happen, to really turn relevant. The few times we have now seen the shifts haven't really presented overly much new to Okabe personally, so nobody expected anything from him out of his Reading Steiner's field of vision. Maybe if something more personal, and further back in time, were to happen, he would face more serious consequences than the momentary feeling of weirdness and loss of sense of time. He might see some sort of flashes of the past that would help him synchronize.

[RyougaZell]

So I've decided to give this show another chance seeing episodes in group, to see if I can get caught this time. Can someone suggest a group to see this? For the record, SteinsSub is dead and I hate HorribleSubs.

[Kraco]

I switched to HorribleSubs after SteinsSub died. No choice, really. The only theoretic alternative would have been Commie, but better dead than red, so it's no real choice.

Episode 09 - HorribleSubs
Episode 10 - HorribleSubs

We are getting some bigger changes as episodes go by. What happened to Akiba was pretty funny. Unless Hououin decides to change things back, but I somehow doubt that. Although you never know since he's a mad scientist. I guess Feyris will feature less from now on. Not that she would have been such a big character to begin with. Hard to say about part-time soldier. The hints she's from the future are huge but she might be just another wacko. Trying to change her fate by sending mails to the past if she's from the future is an ironic concept escaping Okabe for now. Back when she told Okabe she tries to find her dad at a certain place I thought she would be Okabe's own daughter.

Christina and Hououin growing a closer relationship is good development.