STEINS; GATE’S UGLY TRUTH!

Potential Spoilers, I won’t spoil the plot I’ll just discuss how the time machine works.

“Entrenched in a world of my own creation, I must face the consequences of my actions,” it’s a personal mantra I tell myself in order to take some responsibility of my own actions (it’s evolved since I’ve been growing because before I realized I’m…well alive it was more of my mom telling me “you are responsible for your actions”., looking back on it she was so right) And no show, I think, captures this as beautifully, as ugly and as truthfully as Steins; Gate.

Now Steins; Gate is a story of a mad scientist who invents time travel to save his world from annihilation, and that is some BS because they invent time travel by accident, or did they?

I’m di**ing around with you because that’s what the show did to me. But let me be general and honest in my synopsis of the show. Set in 2010 Akihabra, We follow the self proclaimed “mad scientist” Rinkaro “Okarin” Okabe and his friends in their apartment after accidentally finding out that time travel is possible (Using cellphones and a microwave, I forget that there is a microwave involved in this) but not in the endgame or back to the future sense.

It is possible by sending your past self a text message, D-mail as they call it, in order to influence or change their decision in the past affecting the future. (like say i wrote a test and I picked B instead of D, I can send a D-mail to my past self to pick D instead of B) sometimes it can have a heavy effect on events in time. Splintering off into diverging timelines. But how can the group be successful when the organization SERN (based on CERN) is after them.

It’s like 24-25 with the ova in total but I binged it in 4 days. I got so sucked into it I couldn’t turn away and I wanted more by the end. So, before I praise the snot out of this,We gotta talk about the negatives.

Negatives: the first two-four episodes are not as well paced as they can be (to the people who have watched it I know but hear me out). It’s starts off more like average sitcom but the characters push the story and plot forward.

As progressive as it is it does fall prey to some of your average anime tropes, not all the way through and some our twisted on their head. And this one is more on a personal level though I shouldn’t take it as seriously as this is fictional but still.

They tackle an LGBTQ topic, but the resolution feels…off (Narratively and thematically speaking it is done really well, but for said character I am mixed( just also to be double clear I don’t fall in the LGBTQ camp as in I am neither gay, lesbian,etc.

I am a straight Black Male, but I know people who are that and…. I’m just giving you a heads up if you feel unconfortable. It’s a side plot so don’t think about it too much)). And most of these problems occur during the first quater.

Positives: The characters are fantastic. The pacing for the rest of the show is brisk yet mellow in a good way. The twist was something I did not see coming, when I saw it I shed a goddamn tear.

The dubbed performance of J Michael Tatum is fu**ing brilliant and the cast on a whole was great (I watched the ova subbed only to find there was a dub). The unique setting, okay the setting I fricken love.

As someone who comes from a hot country, the animators fricken captured that summer heat, by increasing the light in frames, cinematically speaking the camera captures more light and displays it in frame which is why the sun is so present even when it’s not in frame. Animators normally do that to establish how hot a place is but it’s abandoned as the scene progresses.

In this show when they are outside in the day it is everywhere even in the building, light pierces through the building…. it’s just something I noticed and I really enjoyed it, it gives this fuzzy haze of heat that I’ve never scene before much less in an anime.

The art styles are memorable, everyone has their unique look, the three who stand out the most to me are Okarin, “Kristina,” and Daru (especially Daru). The dialogue, in the dub and from what I saw and heard subbed, is really good.

It is emotional, referential especially due to the nature of the characters who makes said reference adds layers to the conflict.

And that is because this is not a shonen or a battle story (Which I admit I watch a lot of). It’s a sci-fi thriller, in the sense of suspense, anticipation and anxiety with sci-fi elements involved. It is a show that I do not want to discuss unless others have seen it.

This is why I love anime, the visual art style and unique perspectives of human interactions, cartoonish as some anime can be, is reflective of who we are and what we want as progress through a boundless limitless phase called time.

What a show! Bravo! Bravissimo! To all the people who worked on this masterpiece of an adaptation from the visual novel (I’ll buy it someday). This is most definitely a Better than sex from me 9.4/10.

And if the people who have watched steins gate are wondering about my opinion on Steins; Gate 0, in short, it’s a 8.5/10 full price not as good as the original but it has a better music score than the original, not Op original is way better ( I don’t like 0’s ops and I don’t really like any ending for both)

Check it out y’all!