Steins;Gate (2011–2015) User Reviews

Slow Paced First-Half, But Turns Into Breathtakingly Beautiful Story

[serbian_007 · 10/10 · 23 December 2014]

This is an amazing anime no doubt. Outstanding story and unbelievably unique characters that will stay with you forever. Unbelievably strong character development and plot structure. This is one of those anime's that you could easily re-watch the early episodes and every time you do you will end up connecting more dots - "oh, so that's why that happened! I get it now!", you will think to yourself.

The first 11 episodes are slow paced but for a reason. Don't give up watching because the early episodes are necessary to set the context for the outstanding story that follows. If you stick with this anime past the midpoint, you will not regret it. Episode 12 is where the action starts and from there the action doesn't stop until the end.

Okarin, the main character, is amazing in the English Dub. You will laugh with him, cry with him, and feel with him throughout his journey. Some characters seem annoying at first, but they grow on you too, so be patient. Honestly, everything about this anime is unique; the characters are unique, the plot is unique, the writing is unique; it's unlike anything I've ever seen before and that is what makes it so wonderful.

One of the best anime's I have ever seen.

If you are looking for a compelling story and strong character development, look no further.

10/10.

Underrated

[achusanjeev · 10/10 · 19 August 2017]

People who voted 1/10 or 2/10 are people who watched one or two episodes and stopped. This anime is really really good. They kept the story simplified , short and the characters are awesome. I really enjoyed the anime and it gave a lot of inspiration for my life. The protagonist's character is one of the best ever.

Amazing

[ecimir · 10/10 · 28 January 2012]

After Death Note and Code Geass, I finally found another show worth calling amazing.

Starts slow and immature. But soon plot develops great as well as the characters and their relations. Amazing and very realistic characters. Great plot. Great sound and animation. Very emotional. I was skeptic when heard that this show was about time travel but it exceeded all my expectations. It's amazing and must watch show. Consider that I gave 10 starts for this show and I am very hard to get impressed. 9 of 10 movies or series I watch I'll probably consider boring, stupid or simply bad but this one is simply amazing.

Simply Brilliant

[irtelam · 10/10 · 14 September 2011]

Steins Gate managed to get a top spot in my anime collection.Why?Because it is simply brilliant.I have to give a special thanks to writer and director of this series since I hardly wait every week for a new episode.

Well enough flattering and let me give suggestions why you should watch this series.Firstly the plot is awesome.I haven't seen any 'time-travel' topic like in this anime.With every passing episode,you left with wanting to see and learn more.Characters fits the show perfectly.Their relation with each other and their progress through the series is worth watching. Voice actors did their job very well.And I love the combination of comedy-drama-action trio.They pulled it so good.

All in all,it's a worth watching series and highly recommend for anyone who wants to see something different in an anime,you won't regret it.

Absolutely Mind-blowing. Amazing.

[bharatnair15 · 10/10 · 10 June 2012]

I don't have words to express my love for this Anime. Simply put, one of the best Animes to ever appear. I actually feel blessed to be able to watch this.

The show starts off slowly but steadily. Each episode makes you yearn for more and more. About halfway through the series, the show takes a turn from its simple and slow style to a massively emotional and intellectual one. With near perfect pacing, amazing writing and direction, deep and involved characters and spectacular voices, this show is one you will remember for a long, long, long time. I would have given 15/10 stars if possible. El Psy Congroo.

A must watch

[raulflober · 10/10 · 11 September 2013]

Im not that of a crazy anime fan or such, i just like amazing stories. Well, you got one of the finest here.

At first the show starts slow and kind of childish, but as soon the story develops, it transforms into a quite deep and emotional one.The pacing of the story, the way they play with time in both storytelling and the plot itself is just superb.This show got all packed just right: drama, romance, sci-fi, action and comedy. The music is good. The animation is quite nice and i agree that the voice acting is outstanding, specially with the "Mad Scientist", he will become in one of your favorite characters ever, i can tell you, he is incredibly well developed. And for that matter, all the other characters are very well made too, you will feel emotionally connected to them. The premise of the show has some deep philosophical meanings: If time travel would be possible, Could a man escape his fate? What would a man do with almost divine abilities? What does the time really mean? At the end of the show, i was left thinking about the immanence of our existence and many other mindf*cking stuff.

If you want a really, really outstanding show, you don't have to look to another place.

The best anime ever ... in this world line anyway

[A_Different_Drummer · 10/10 · 11 July 2014]

Discovered anime late in life and was pretty much gobsmacked not only by the quality (usually high) but the variations. As with any other production most usually do one thing better than another, some have better art, some better scripts, some better voice actors, etc. And then we have Steins Gate, pretty much a 1-of, where every aspect is well perfect. (Yes, I know, a very controversial statement. I have seen anime fans say the same thing in chat groups, only to elicit responses of contempt, suggesting perhaps their parents never married). But folks this is I think as good as it gets. Superb art. Super voice actors (in Japanese of course, but after a while it doesn't matter). Characters so real you think you know them. And a story unlike any other. No crazy wars, no crazy magic, no crazy fantasy world, just a young man with delusions of being a mad scientist, with his own Scooby gang, who actually invents a time machine (sort of) and then has to stand by while his world comes apart. This series is nothing less than extraordinary.

And oh yeah I almost forgot. In an entertainment universe of a million love stories (with my favorites being, in no special order, HERE COMES MR. JORDAN, LADYHAWKE, and the Buffy TV series) the love angle in this is nothing short of spectacular. Especially for animee.

Near Perfection

[Ore-Sama · 10/10 · 27 March 2014]

First off, I will say that the comments the series starts off slow are misleading. True, it takes awhile to get to the main point, but "Steins;Gate" never fails to engage on any level, and in fact engages on all levels beautifully. Humor? Gut busting. Intensity? Oh yes. Drama? Undoubtedly. Starting out as the misadventures of a self proclaimed mad scientist who may have stumbled upon a means of time travel, this series can shift gears in the blink of an eye, without any sense of whiplash, because it can do every tone so strongly. It's rare to see such a mishmash of genres pull off all of it's genres. You have a sic-fi thriller with elements of Haruhi Suzumiya esque club based slice of life dramedy, with elements of political thriller to boot. I don't want to say any more. This one should simply be experienced with as little foreknowledge as possible.

Probably the best anime ever in terms of story

[aamirbilvani · 10/10 · 9 January 2015]

I've seen many anime series and I've never written a review before, but after watching this show i felt I just had to.

When starting this series, I was initially confused as to what was going on, and even until almost midway, I was failing to see the point of the show, as nothing really exciting was happening (in my opinion). But in hindsight, this was necessary for character and story development, as around the midpoint, the show just exploded and from then on I was glued to screen. It might not have the best animation or the best music, but in terms of story and character, there is nothing like it (not even the mighty Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood compares, although it comes close).

This story and it characters will stay with me for a long time, and I highly encourage everyone to watch the series to its conclusion. You will not be disappointed.

One of the best take on time travel I have ever seen.

[Spartan_1_1_7 · 9/10 · 7 February 2014]

WOW, now this was an amazing anime. Its been a long while since I was this interested in an anime and enjoyed it this much.

The characters in this anime are just AWESOME. They are so well made and you just get to love them immediately. The main protagonist is a great one. I immediately liked him and he just kept on getting better and better. Loved his dialogues and character. I self proclaimed evil mad scientist who is a actually a good guy. You get to feel for and love every main character, and even some of the side characters. Their meetings, bafoonery etc etc, its just fun to watch.

The writing and dialogue in this anime is another thing I really liked, its just awesome. The anime might seem slow paced to many because it is basically dialogue and interactions for the first few episodes but not for me. It was so enjoyable that it didn't even seemed a tad bit boring or slow paced.

Story is also a great one. It is not everyday you get to see a take on time travelling in this way, which is very personal and emotional. You get to see and feel that messing with time, even a tad bit is no joke and shouldn't be taken lightly. It can have great consequences. Even when the plot thickens and gets big, the anime never lets go of its personal touch and feeling instead of pursuing grandeur scenes. The anime is really humorous too at times. But it doesn't get way too much that a person starts cringing or groaning, which is the case with many animes. In fact, the humour in it is one of the best displayed I have seen in an anime which is not specifically a Comedy anime. It doesn't get childish or too animeish etc. It just stays right. I had a pretty good laughs at some scenes while in others a smile was always present on my face.

Animation is really good, well defined and detail and pretty to look at. Soundtrack is also really good. Sets the mood in emotional scenes and is rightly appropriate for funny scenes.

I do wish that the anime was a little longer so that they could have shown some background of some of the main characters.

Overall, I would say, a really great anime and of the best take on time travelling I have ever seen. 9.25/10

Utterly fascinating

[cherold · 9/10 · 1 March 2014]

I just binge-watched the whole series in a few days. It has one of the most compelling story arcs of any anime I've seen. The early episodes are interesting but not exceptionally so, with an unstable protagonist, a schlub, and some idiot cosplay girl. But it's amusing, and various characters are added. The time travel story starts slowly, but this is necessary, and the series becomes incredibly compelling as the results of small time shifts create big problems.

At times I got a little lost in the story, but the series does generally catch you up again, and while I would need to see some sort of elaborate diagram to see if this all holds together, in my mind it seems to.

The series is swimming in time paradox issues, and at times I think it's closer in spirit to fantasy than to sci fi, especially since there seems to be a rather unscientific concept of fate, but it's incredibly absorbing throughout, and the characters become surprising likable and nuanced as the series progresses.

Took me by Storm,Intriguing,And Romantic

[eddiehodges · 21 April 2017]

Too-Ta-Roo! This anime is number one on my list of top anime's next to Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin This anime was introduced to me through a picture of Makise drinking a Dr pepper and I asked is," that was from an anime?" Sure enough it was so i looked it up and saw that it was about time travel,wow actually getting deja vu about this, Anyways I started watching And I got intrigued more and got farther into the series soon enough [4 Hours later] I got to the ending parts They were so sad but romantic. I surly recommend this anime to everyone and give it a shot!

El-Psy-Congroo

Makes promises it can't keep

[rebeccagruber · 6/10 · 24 August 2015]

Sometimes you come across items that everyone hail to the sky and you just look at it and wonder if it's the Emperors New Clothes. Steins;Gate is such an anime for me.

It spends the first half establishing what seems to be a thriller sci-fi, unfortunately not sophisticated enough in the sci-fi department to be truly interesting (some elements are simply not explained but just taken at face value) but still promising of possible future plot twists that will make up for it.

Too bad then that the second half turns into a classic "confront yourself and your choices" kind of anime, unfortunately without having used the first half to establish the characters enough for us to care about their choices and the consequences of the same.

This anime doesn't know what it wants to be and spreads itself too thin over a plot that ends up not satisfying in any department. It should've either taken the thriller-concept and run with it, or worked harder with the character build-up and consequence-concept. As it is we simply know too little about the characters to understand their motivations and some even come off as badly written plot devices because they literally have no other character traits than what the story requires of them.

I truly, honestly do not understand the hype about this anime and would strongly recommend you watch Kanon 2006 instead if you want to see an anime with good character build up, plot twists that make you care and a story that gives you all the feels.

Never trust a weeb.

[wolfgangvonposakilla · 4/10 · 14 April 2023]

Wherever you look, this anime gets praised to high heavens and is considered a staple of the 'Greatest of all time'-anime canon the community has conceded on.

I strongly disagree but I perfectly understand why: it's pure weeb 'haute couture'.

More than a decade ago I tried to get through this series. Back when I was quite the weeb teenager myself. Even then I couldn't stand it and gave up after only a handful of episodes. Now as a 30-something adult I've completed the series and boy, what a struggle that was, took me weeks.

I wont beat around the bush and write whole paragraphs going into detail about the intricacies of the story, the characters and the developments. That's unnecessary when the main issues are painfully obvious and in your face.

The characters are obnoxious. All of them. They're all anime stereotypes - but worse - it's done deliberately in a meta-comedy style where the series is kind of trying to make fun of anime clichés and itself. Which gives the creators the perfect excuse to make the characters - you've guessed - it into anime stereotypes. Main character Okarin for example pretends to play a mad evil scientist complete with sardonic laugh. However, the few male characters there are (this is low-key a harem anime) are nowhere near the levels of hair-pulling cringe you'll get from the female cast. They're all designed as high pitched or shy soft-spoken kawaii waifus to have weebs drool over them. Central to the plot is Mayuri, a dimwitted infantile girl. She's a hollow shell of a character and really just there as a plot device. Together with the rest of the characters they go through experiences ripped straight from a high school romance anime.

Next: the story. It's dull, a slow meandering build-up that consumes half the series' episodes to finally hit you with a unearned out of the blue plot twist midway the series. The plot twist was supposed to shock the audience but it rather gave me relief. One of the annoying characters dies off and it finally seemed like we would get some momentum and that the story would turn away from silly anime vignettes towards something more serious. I was wrong on both accounts.

After said big event, the anime turns into a time-travel cliché: you know where the hero keeps looping through time to fix a grave error, but time itself as if it's a 'magical sentient entity', keeps course-correcting so the event is inevitable anyway.

"time is a river, you can't change it's course by trowing in a pebble" - type of nonsense. Ever heard of the butterfly-effect?

This is a good Segway into the pseudo-science. The series doesn't even make the slightest effort into suspending you're disbelief. Influencing time as to make it follow a preferred course is as simple as sending a text-message. Sometimes there's side effects when it fits the plot, other times there aren't when it doesn't. It's all very arbitrary. This anime has 'Magical time-travel'- rules. Not the plausible ones.

I can muster the suspension of disbelief necessary to believe that a bunch of teenager accidentally discover how to send small amounts of digital data back in time. But not when they "invent" a device to send back a person's full personality and memory-set. Not when said device is an eff-ing pair of headphones, that they hobbled together in an afternoon, with some spare parts bought from the hardware store around the corner.

A group of teenagers having more knowledge than the entire body of the scientific world combined. Able to make a device - that can read and digitize you entire cerebral being and send it back in time - out of a pair of headphones. Get out'a here!

Now back to the story. The more serious tone and urgency of the second half doesn't prevent the anime from indulging in weeb culture and delivering fan service. There's an entire episode, pretty late into the series, dedicated to Okarin going on a date. So don't expect much of a focused streamlined ending. It's a bunch more contrived plot twists, convoluted storylines, deus ex machinas with some anime fluff sprinkled throughout and then it's over.

Apparently this is one of those anime franchise where there's a complicated watch order. You need to stop halfway through episode 23, watch a special, then all of Steins Gate 0 and then it's supposed to be better and make more sense.

Yeah you can eff right off with your watch order. Steins gate 0 came out 7 years later mind you. It's up to the producers of a series to envision things the right way and release them in a proper order from the start. It's why I always watch things in order of release and not in inner-series chronology. If that makes it suck, not my fault or problem. There's already more then enough prequels, spin-offs, midquels and expanded universe bullcrap in the entertainment industry as it is. Keep it simple and make something great, then you won't need to fluff it up over the coming decade.

In conclusion. The reason why steins gate was so well received by the anime community is because it's an artificially flavored buffet that caters perfectly to their taste: a healthy dose of harem casting, high school romance and waifu-baiting, a sprinkle of yaoi (boy-love) and gender-confusion and everything royally doused in a thick sauce of self-referencing anime culture.

I like anime as a medium. I think it's cool Japanese producers don't reduce animation to something either exclusively for kids, or comedy when it's made for adults. In Japan they'll use the medium of animation for whatever they please: Drama, action, sci-fi, horror, political thriller, ... And I have definitely enjoyed anime in the past, some of it is amongst my favorite fiction ever ghost in the shell, jin-roh, samurai champloo, ... . But I despise weeb culture. And unless you're a weeb yourself you shouldn't take any recommendations on what anime to watch next from a weeb. It's bound to be cringe. And on that note I'll circle back around and finish how I started:

Never trust a weeb.

Beautifully intelligent masterpiece

[joyconboyz · 10/10 · 18 August 2021]

The characters in this series are just so amazing, the dynamic and development between the cast in such a short series is on a whole other level.

Some say the first half is slow and while that's true in a way, I don't think the second half would be as good without it. It gives you time to really get to know the characters and once you do, that makes the second half even more compelling.

After watching this I had initially put off watching the movie as well as Steins;Gate 0 but I finally watched both and they're just as amazing as the original show!

After watching this I would HIGHLY recommend watching the movie and Steins;Gate 0 they're not required but well worth watching.

El. Psy. Congroo.

It's so coooool

[randomguy94 · 10/10 · 19 July 2013]

Wow, what a fantastic series. This anime will definitely leave a massive impression on you if you give it the time and chance. I almost gave up straight after the first episode due to not being able to follow what was happening, but in retrospect this is necessary to allow a brilliantly constructed story to unfold to a climactic and satisfying conclusion. At first some of the characters can seem fairly annoying when looked at individually, but their personalities and chemistry makes the group cohesive and vibrant. This is the first sci-fi anime I've seen and the time travel concepts and the physical laws imposed are thought through in great depth. I love how they relate to modern physics at some points to add depth and realism to the plot. All in all... Great looking anime, quality soundtrack and voice acting, and amazingly written story.

A great sci-fi anime series

[Tweekums · 10/10 · 24 September 2011]

This is one of my favourite anime series of recent years; it features a good story, a great cast of characters as well as moments of both comedy and tragedy. The story follows Rintaro Okabe a self-styled mad scientist who has invented a time machine from a microwave and a mobile phone… he can't transport people but figures out how to send text messages back in time, which can cause time to change; each time it changes only he can remember the previous time line. Itaru "Daru" Hashida a computer hacker and Kurisu Makise a girl who died in the opening moments of the first episode but came back to life after one of his experiments assist him along with his old friend Mayuri Shiina. In the early episodes he sets about using the machine to improve the lives of his various friends but becomes aware that he has come to the attention of SERN and they want to stop his actions. One day they find him and in a shocking moment one of his close friends is killed. He repeatedly tries to change the past to save her but whatever he does she dies. If he is to save her he must undo everything he has done… and ultimately that will mean Kurisu will die again; will he be able to make that sacrifice or will he find a way to save her?

As stated before I really enjoyed this; I was quickly pulled into the story and eagerly looked forward to seeing each new episode. Rintaro was a great lead character as he was both funny and sympathetic and the rest of the group were fun to watch too. I had thought it was a comedy until the 'tragic moment' when I was genuinely shocked! The animation style is more realistic than many anime series and a more subdued colour palette gives it a distinctive feel. I strongly recommend this series to fans of anime and science fiction alike and hope that it gets a DVD release here one day.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

An Intriguing & Exceptional Anime

[mridulsunny · 9/10 · 28 May 2013]

Well i think i probably haven't added anything to what the other have wrote but actually here are some of my thoughts about the anime

This anime contains almost everything needed, it has a good and captivating story-line. It stays on the story-line in every show and has its good combination of sci-fi, romance, comedy and mystery. the proportions of these factors are chosen in an expert way which makes this anime keep you watching it till the end while keep you guessing from time to time.

I felt like it had a little slow start but i'd say it doesn't affect the richness of the series.

This anime is actually one of my favorite one. and i hope to see if they make a second one. but chances seem pretty slim.

Oh and a personal request please if any of you know some good anime specially in Sci-fi and mystery a reply would be very much appreciated

My First Anime

[DanielFoed · 10/10 · 11 May 2019]

As a Sci-Fi fan, particularly a time travel buff, Its my opinion that Steins: Gate might be the best, smartest and most realistic representation of time travel that I have ever come across.

Steins: Gate is my first deep dive in to Anime. I was forced to watch it by a friend of mine who knew that I had a deep love for time travel stories and boy am I thankful. After I finished the series I had two strong thoughts; 1, "I need to watch that again, immediately!" and 2 "Is this what ALL animes are like? Have I been missing out on some amazing stories because I was scared away by the title of "Anime?"

Okay, fair is fair, let's talk about everyones issue with Steins: Gate. If I didn't have a friend forcing me to sit down and watch the episodes, I am not sure I would have gotten through it and that is my fault. It is slow, it is confusing, it will not spoon feed you anything. Almost all of the negative reviews that I read said "I didn't finish the first episode", "I only watched the first 5, and nothing happened." And if I had only watch 5 episodes, I might say the same thing. I would be VERY wrong but I felt the same way. Let me promise you reviewers that didn't like it, you did not understand what you were seeing. If you finished the full 2 seasons and still disliked it, there is no need to read more, we just have a difference of opinion.

This show pulls no punches and its amazing. I have never seen a story more unwilling to force exposition, anywhere. You are thrown into these unique peoples lives with no understanding of who they are. Not only are you expected to understand an extremely complex story line but the relationships between the characters grow and change and are revealed when the time is right, not when it is easiest to understand. The writers of the show made this for people that understand the difference between a multiverse and a universe. Not only do you know what Schrodinger's Cat is but you can explain what it means to be in a Superposition. It is heavy with sound theoretical concepts.

Even with the more Character related stuff, they do not give and inch. "What the hell is this guy always doing with his phone?!? It's stupid." Until it's time for the story to give you that information naturally, in order to make it the most impactful, you are left scratching your head. They needed time to lay the ground work for some of the best reveals and twists I have seen in time travel lore.

I did turn around and watch this show again, right away. The 2nd viewing as at least as good. It's more funny the 2nd time. Once you understand it, it is delightful. If you don't have the patients to give this show the time that it needs to unravel, sad for you.

The voice acting is amazing. I can't talk enough about the writing. The dub was rewritten for english speaking audiences and it is wonderful. J. Michael Tatum, who also plays Okabe Rintaro helped with the translations. There are jokes that would only be funny to english speaking audiences. There is poetry in so many lines, "Consider; can the universe be justifiably called infinite? Doubtful. It may not have a discernible end, but it had a beginning, and its component parts definitely have a limited cosmological shelf-life. Splitting hairs or not, if history tells us anything, it's that scientists often make very poor poets." Really read that line, try to understand what he is saying. That one line speaks about the whole show, it speaks about all entertainment at once, it speaks about each of our own, personal, mortal coil.

This is why you must finish this show. You MUST push though. If you can find the time to finish this story, I really think you will not be disappointed. And I don't even talk about the end!!! Oh the end is such a great, never before been done, way to answer the question of a paradox. Love it. please watch it, please MAKE your friends watch it.

One of the Best Anime Ever Created !!!

[the-fearless-america · 10/10 · 20 November 2021]

SG is a story about a mad scientist and a time machine. The story is great, original, creative, twisting, and romantic. It will possess viewers with thrill, affection, curiousity, and bewilderment.

This is one of the best anime ever created. Seldomly I give my applause at the ending of anime series, but one of them is Steins Gate.

Awesome anime, one of the best in recent years

[felixmai-576-368806 · 10/10 · 29 April 2013]

First of all let me warn you though : the first say 1.5 episodes are a bit slow, but then it is taking up speed FAST, so be patient till it does.

SPOILER :

It is also a bit confusing how reality changes a few times in the first 1.5 episodes ^^ But as soon as they did teleport the banana everybody should be on board for the ride ^^ Well, that is the latest point at which you start loving it, usually you will start even earlier.

END SPOILER

But once you are getting a feel of the land, so to speak, it get's really awesome ! You just need a bit to get into it at first, once you are in, it is one hell of a ride (at least the episodes I have seen so far). What else can I say about it without any spoilers ? It definitely belongs in the top 5 Anime series of the last 5 years. I gave it full 10 stars, and I do that extremely seldom ! Just don't be discouraged cause in the beginning you get the feeling it is all confusing and no fun. Give it 2 episodes,by then you should start loving at, 2.5-3 at the most. I know I had to start it 3 times (3rd time was the charm, I guess), and was discouraged the first 2 times, but then I read one good review after the other, and people there also said it is a slow starter, that I should give it a little time to warm up to it, and BOY am I happy I listened to them and gave it a 3rd chance !!!

Just have fun with a wild&crazy ride

The best time travel story, ever!!!

[peterfmodel · 10/10 · 23 August 2018]

If you read the description on the DVD you could be excused for believing this was a very lite and trashy story. The trueth could not be more different, this story is astounding. Some claim the first half is too slow, but this is required in order to get you to boind with the characters. When the stakes are raised you can't help but sit on the edge of your seat hoping for a miracle. Keep your tishues ready because this has some amazingly sad moments. Excellent music and suitable for children and non-science fiction viewers. I am really hangtingt out for the next instalment, Steins Gate 0.

Could've Been Great

[starcraftbw88 · 7/10 · 27 May 2014]

The problem with pulling off a good time travel series or movie is that they have to establish their own rules and then not break them, otherwise turning the plot into a bit of a contrived mess. Steins;Gate almost avoids this, but unfortunately, I felt it fell a bit short in that respect - I don't want to ruin anything so I won't discuss it further, but it was a decent effort. The voice acting is good, the story is alright, I don't have any complaints about the pacing, and the series was definitely funny when it wanted to be - perhaps its strongest point. It does the drama-comedy mixture well, not going to far in one direction at a time.

I loved the protagonist, he was a really likable character, and amazingly voiced. Most of them were, but I didn't enjoy Mayushi as much as the series wanted me too; just not my cup of tea. I'm not a fan of over-the-top cutesy characters just for the sake of being over-the-top cutesy characters. It just felt a bit lazy and forced here. I mean, maybe if they made her younger, as I don't think the age disparity between her and Okabe would really affect their sister-brother relationship. I mean, she was cute, but also came off as having some kind of medical condition at times.

It also bothered me that the other characters were as young, but at a completely different level of maturity, I'm not sure what making them all of high school-aged accomplished, they're never shown going to school. One of them, who is 17, even owns a cafe. Maybe it's a cultural thing, maybe in Japan people of that age are REALLY independent and do things like rent out a place as a pseudo lab, give lectures to doctors thrice their senior, wear their jacket halfway on, and open cafes. But for me, it was a lot of these small things that just pull me out of the story a bit.

With that said the story was intriguing and clever at times. It definitely kept me watching until the end, although I felt the series lasted two episodes too long, I was still okay with the final conclusion; it wasn't bad by any means, nor was the series. I'll say it was good, but it could've been great.

Product might contain disappointments

[gay_chromy · 5/10 · 19 May 2016]

I am somehow reluctant/selective when it comes to anime and series in general, but in the past year I have seen great stuff like the Death Note,Samurai chanpurû and Fullmetal Alchemist. I was amazed. So, I decided to try out the rest of the top rated anime as listed here in IMDb. Well.. to my disappointment, Steins;Gate was nowhere near the previous titles, and nowhere near what would justify its' 8.8 score. Just went through the 25 episodes of Steins;Gate in the past month. I was patient during the first few episodes, knowing that some series need time to develop their characters etc. Unfortunately, Steins;Gate never got to the point of being truly interesting. It ended nearly as un-interestingly as it begun. Seriously, in certain episodes the plot was so slow and repetitive, I felt like going through some weird Japanese torture.

CHARACTERS: kind of acting goofy all the time with superficial relationships that are not grounded by the story. They all seem to be always available to do.. pretty much nothing. No true interaction between them. PLOT: Nowhere near epic. Mostly surrounding relations between characters, and even this is really primitive. Do not expect any scientific basis or argumentation or whatever. A phone, a microwave and a TV would do the trick. DESIGN/STYLE: Do not expect anything really jaw dropping. Slow and repetitive. No cool music, no cool sequences, no real action.

ALL IN ALL: If you don't mind watching a group of random characters experiment sending SMS to themselves via a microwave oven for 25 episodes, this is your thing! If you expect another great Japanese anime, keep on looking!

The best anime I have ever had the pleasure to watch

[cfassih · 10/10 · 2 January 2015]

I logged into the account I never use to write my very first review on IMDb because THIS IS DESERVED of it. Steins;gate is a sci-fi, maybe even on the noir side, epic, that will have you crying, laughing, cringing (in a good way), and laughing again. If you like anime, and you have not seen Steins;gate, this is the thing you should go watch. Steins;gate the series. I have not played through the visual novel, read the manga, or seen the movie. I just know how spell bounding the anime was.

Some say it starts off slow, but it actually does kick off to a relatively good pace in the first episode. It just seems slow compared to what lies beyond it, which was very fast paced for me (and I loved it). The English voice actors did a beautiful, beautiful job. The character depth and progression had me hooked very early, and up until the end it was such an emotional journey to be on indeed. The music was just heartwarming and also sad (in a good way).

the main character, mad scientist whatever his name is, is a goofy little guy with a love for gadgets and trinkets, and math and physics. In a turn of events he gets himself caught in some kind of time paradox, in which the world goes to ruin, mostly because of the accidental invention of a time machine. Without knowing yet what lies at stake, he rounds up more friends to share in the glory of being able to harness the power of time itself BUT soon enough everything falls apart, and he has to like, y'know fix it, and now I've said enough.

This is THE anime epic I had waited to see, and I'm so glad I did. If you haven't seen it, go watch it now!