Steins;Gate 0

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR!

Watch the first 22 episodes of Steins;Gate then watch all Steins; Gate 0, and only then watch the rest of the first anime. Thank me later!

This series is set after the events depicted in Steins;Gate... but in a reality where Okabe failed to save Kurisu. He gives up his 'mad scientist' persona and stops investigating time travel. Then one day he meets Maho Hiyajo and Alexis Leskinen, acquaintances of Kurisu who have been working in the field of artificial intelligence; the system's personality is based on Kurisu's personality and memories. They ask him to help with the system's development. Gradually he is brought back into the field of time travel and it isn't long before tragedies start again and he must work again to save his friends, and the world.

Having really enjoyed the first series I was keen to watch this; I was not disappointed. Given how the story starts it isn't surprising that it has less comedy moments than the early part of the last series. The story was gripping from its opening to its conclusion. All the old characters are back, even if Kurisu is now a computer AI, although their relationships have subtly changed due to various events. These changes feel perfectly in tune with what has happened. Overall I'd say that is a must see for fans of the original series but if you've yet to see that series check it out first or this will be rather confusing.

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

Steins;Gate was an amazing anime that was full of twists and turns and a very heartwrenching story on sacrifice and moving on. Steins Gate 0 is more of that, but worse in many ways.

Most of the plot twists were really predictable especially since the anime beats you in the head with its 'hints' and assumes you wouldn't get it, but I knew where a lot of plot points were going just a few episodes in. A lot of the episodes feel disconnected and some of them are just repeating the exact same points: Okabe is depressed, Mayuri wants him to be happy, the other guys want to try and fix the timeline. It's the same few cliches done for a long time. The action scenes are also horrible, but thankfully they don't take much screen time.

That said, steins;gate 0 *is* a good sequel to the first, but keep your expectations low. Some scenes were really powerful, and in the end it feels like it wraps up the series in a fairly satisfying way. I'd give this a 6.5/10.

Steins;Gate was one of the best anime ever produced, his unique take on time travel and it's memorable characters gave me one of the best experiences I ever had watching a show. On the other hand, Steins;Gate 0 end up been another brilliant series but for different reasons. I first gotta talk about the character development in this show which was incredible. Okabe Rintarou which was a very loud, over the top but unique character in the original series is now a very depressed person who is suffering for the decisions that he made. His Hououin Kyouma personality is gone, so our dear mad scientist is now a sad scientist. I am sure many people will dislike this new version of Okabe but you need to understand that this was the most logical result. After everything that happened, it wouldn't make any sense to have our over the top mad scientist throught this entire show. Steins Gate 0 takes the Okabe Rintarou character and manages to give it more deep and make him even more relatable to the point that it makes the ending of the original Steins Gate even better because now we know why Okabe was able to make all the decisions that he made to reach the Steins Gate worldline. However, Okabe is not the only character that gets more deep, one of the strongest points of Steins Gate 0 is that it takes some characters that didn't get enough screen time in the first series and give them some proper character development, Mayuri and Daru are able to shine more in this show, especially Mayuri who I think gets the best character development out of all characters in this show(yes even better than Okabe). We also get some new characters like Maho, Kagari and Amadeus that get some proper development too. When it comes to the narrative of this show, this is a very character driven anime, the time travel is still very important but the character development was definitely the most important aspect of this anime. The anime still deliver in giving us some very epic scenes involving time travel it also deliver in giving us those heartbreaking scenes that make the original show so emotional. Steins Gate 0 might be a different take of the Steins Gate story but still has some elements that made the first anime so great. However this series does have some issues, and it has to do with the direction.The original Steins Gate was very well directed, most of the episodes of Steins Gate 0 are very well directed too , but there were some episode that had some problems, espeacially during action scenes (those who watched episode 18 know what I am referring to). Now, those action scenes weren't the most important scenes of this anime because this is more a sci-fi drama than a action/shounen anime, and the most important scenes of this anime had a great direction, so it didn't affect my enjoyment of the show that much. The animation and art wasn't that special, just like the original show. The soundtrack was as great as the original show, the opening "Fatima" was great but still couldn't top the iconic opening of the original Steins Gate. Overall, this anime was not able to top the first show but it was still able to deliver another incredible story with fantastic character development.

The final third of the show rivals the original series, perhaps even surpassing it at some points. It was phenomenal imo. If the show had such quality throughout, I'd give it a 10/10, but two things that bugged me: (1) the fanservice is worse than in the original. We did not need a closeup of Moeka getting her boobs tickled come on, it's disrespectful to the characters and the audience. Plus, the short girl had her boobs exposed to other characters too often in ways that never enhanced the plot (eg. The muscles relaxing scene, towel dangling in lab shower, etc). (2) The pacing midway through is not great in my opinion, the show doesn't have the same thru-line the original did (originally it was developing time travel and stopping CERN), but the midpoint of SG0 jumped from side plot to side plot, and while several of these came together in the end, it was disengaging for me during the mid-section for that reason. Perhaps part of the problem is due to me watching the show in chronological order (SG0 between ep22 and 23 of the original) and so the sudden slow and frankly often uneventful pacing of the first half really stuck out when placed in the middle of the original shows climax.

However, the ending was incredibly satisfying, I had a massive grin on my face just seeing it, and I think it's well worth watching for that alone. An excellent show overall, but those two problems did detract from my viewing experience somewhat and I wish I'd finished the original before starting it as to not mess with the flow of tension.