Steins;Gate

Eccentric scientist Rintarou Okabe has a never-ending thirst for scientific exploration. Together with his ditzy but well-meaning friend Mayuri Shiina and his roommate Itaru Hashida, Okabe founds the Future Gadget Laboratory in the hopes of creating technological innovations that baffle the human psyche. Despite claims of grandeur, the only notable "gadget" the trio have created is a microwave that has the mystifying power to turn bananas into green goo.

However, when Okabe attends a conference on time travel, he experiences a series of strange events that lead him to believe that there is more to the "Phone Microwave" gadget than meets the eye. Apparently able to send text messages into the past using the microwave, Okabe dabbles further with the "time machine," attracting the ire and attention of the mysterious organization SERN.

Due to the novel discovery, Okabe and his friends find themselves in an ever-present danger. As he works to mitigate the damage his invention has caused to the timeline, Okabe fights a battle to not only save his loved ones but also to preserve his degrading sanity.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Okabe, Rintarou Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Makise, Kurisu Main

Imai, Asami Japanese

Shiina, Mayuri Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Hashida, Itaru Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Amane, Suzuha Supporting

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Urushibara, Ruka Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Akiha, Rumiho Supporting

Momoi, Haruko Japanese

Kiryuu, Moeka Supporting

Gotou, Saori Japanese

Tennouji, Yuugo Supporting

Terasoma, Masaki Japanese

Tennouji, Nae Supporting

Yamamoto, Ayano Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Iwasa, Gaku Producer

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Tanaka, Shinsaku Producer

Reviews

Feb 24, 2026

baxoik

Recommended

Had I not read the visual novel first, this could very well be a 10. However since I have read the visual novel, I’ll have to bump it down a couple points. I’ll start by saying that this show is very very good, and one that I can very easily recommend to just about anyone. That said, I feel it loses a lot of the magic of the visual novel. The vn has this dreamlike feel, due in part to its unique art style, which also helps the darker moments feel more impactful. All of this is lost in the anime. The anime also changes ... some story details, specifically towards the end, which I personally feel was done better in the vn, and even cuts out one specific part (albeit a mostly inconsequential one). All that said, the story is for the most part the same, and this is a very accurate adaptation of an amazing story. If you haven’t read the vn, I would highly recommend watching this, and even if you plan to read the vn, watching this first will only make the vn better, and I would even recommend it to people who have read the vn just because it’s a fun way to experience this great story in a new medium. In conclusion, this anime is great and one that I think everyone should experience in some form.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 13, 2026

Valencapo2

Mixed Feelings

ENGLISH:
I would consider this anime a slight disappointment. Obviously, I started watching it because of its acclaimed status as a “must-watch.” It's been in my backlog for over 10 years. As soon as I finished this anime, I started reading some reviews to see what was the general in-depth opinion, and I'm honestly surprised by how many people are saying that this is a masterpiece. However, I noticed that in recent reviews, it's becoming more and more common to find people saying this anime is overrated. So I consider this series to be one of those cases where the year it came out played a ... huge role in its favor. As someone who started watching anime in 2010, Steins Gate CLEARLY has many characteristics, jokes, and personalities in its characters that scream “I'm an anime from the past decade.” In fact, it's been a decade and a half since its release. I can mentally put myself back in that era and remember how time travel plots were so appealing. I think this is a big reason why the anime is so highly regarded. Not to mention that it has extremely bland characters: the fat wanker and geek, the shy and quiet girl, the femboy, and finally, a tsundere. It's the star cast of any anime released between 2008 and 2013. The dynamics of a harem are subtly present, something that is also very typical of that era and definitely unnecessary. In short, what I mean is that if this anime had come out today, I don't think it would have been given the status it has today. Today's standards are higher than simply mentioning a few time paradoxes to sound clever while continuing to focus the series solely on friends and romance.

Contrary to the vast majority, I found the first 11 episodes of this series to be the best. In fact, I felt a slight disappointment when I read so many people saying that it is “boring and super slow.” The beginning of the anime presents its characters very well as what they are, a group of friends. At first, I found the protagonist unbearable because he is portrayed as stupid, but as the series progresses, it is indirectly revealed that he puts on this “show” on purpose to annoy his friends (in a good way) and most importantly, to cope the negative emotions that he faces along the way. He's a character who makes fun of himself in a very particular way, by saying “I'm completely sane and all my friends know it, which is why it's funny to pretend to be a mad scientist,” which I found very original :)

However, I can't say the same about any of the other characters. Some have their moments when you grow fond of them, but the vast majority have problematics that I found very bland. They are “serious problems" on paper, but they were addressed in such a rushed manner that they seemed very forced. Perhaps some of you will understand this reference, but it's like the flashbacks they do in Demon Slayer with every single character... It's all too sudden and forced. I can feel a little compassion, but I'm definitely not going to grow fond of a character in 12 minutes of flashbacks.

There are three cons about this series that ruined it for me, which is why I give it a final score of 6. The first is that time travel is the focus of the series for what felt like 10 seconds. Time travel is presented as a main plot point, but it ends up being just a narrative device for the protagonist to realize that his obsession with time travel is greater than his affection for his friends and his love for the girl he likes. The moment he realizes this, he tries to go back because he understands that he values these two things more than simply traveling through time. In other words, this anime is just another run-of-the-mill “appreciate what you have” story with a dash of time travel. I was expecting a more psychological or “intellectual” anime, but all I got was a romance anime. The second con (and the biggest one for me) is that the first half of the series is doing one thing and the second half of the series is UNDOING that same thing. Are you kidding me? What kind of plot is that? Obviously, they looked for a justification to undo everything, but I didn't feel it was good enough to justify 10 episodes of rewatching the same thing but in reverse. Finally, there are many flashbacks in the series that suggest something super mysterious is going to happen, or something completely different from the universe we are seeing, but in the end nothing remotely similar happens and it leaves you with the feeling that the series ended with something “pending.”

The pro of the series is that despite such flaws, at no point did I find it boring. In fact, there were many moments when I automatically wanted to watch the next episode to find out what happens, but every time this happened, I never got an answer in the next episode that satisfied me. I think the writer is too good at building suspense but quite bad at resolving that suspense in a way that is rewarding for the viewer. The anime is fine, and if you're in the mood for a different kind of romance, one that's not overly sweet or a “romcom,” then I would genuinely recommend Steins Gate. For any other situation, I honestly wouldn't tell anyone to watch it.


SPANISH:
Consideraría este anime una leve decepción. Obviamente empecé a verlo por el aclamado status que tiene como "anime imperdible". Lo tengo en el backlog hace mas de 10 años. Apenas terminé este anime comencé a leer algunas reviews para ver lo que me encontraba y la verdad me sorprende la cantidad de gente diciendo que esto es una obra maestra. Sin embargo, pude notar que en las reseñas recientes, es cada vez mas común encontrarse con gente diciendo que este anime esta sobrevalorado. Por lo que considero que esta serie es uno de esos casos en los que el año en el que salieron les jugó enormemente a favor. Como alguien que empezó a ver anime en 2010, Steins Gate CLARAMENTE denota muchísimas características, chistes, y personalidades en sus personajes que gritan "soy un anime de la década pasada". De hecho, ya se cumplió una década y media desde su lanzamiento. Soy capaz de ponerme mentalmente en esa época de nuevo y recordar como las tramas de viajes en el tiempo eran demasiado seductoras. Creo que esto es un gran motivo por el cual se habla tan bien del anime. Ni hablar de que tiene personajes extremadamente blandos; el gordo pajero y friki, la chica tímida y callada, el femboy y por ultimo, una tsundere. Es el elenco estrella de cualquier anime salido entre 2008 y 2013. La dinámica de un harem está sutilmente presente, algo que también es muy de esa época y definitivamente innecesario. En resumen lo que quiero decir es que si este anime hubiera salido hoy en día, considero que no le darían el status que tiene hoy. Los estándares de hoy son mas altos que simplemente mencionar un poco de paradojas temporales para sonar elegante mientras continuas enfocando la serie únicamente en amigos y un romance.

A contrario de la gran mayoría, los primeros 11 capitulos de esta serie me parecieron los mejores. De hecho, sentí una leve decepción cuando leí a tanta gente decir que es "aburridisimo y super lento". El principio del anime presenta muy bien a sus personajes como lo que son, un grupo de amigos. El protagonista al principio me parecía insoportable porque se lo muestra como alguien estúpido, pero con el avance de la serie te revelan de manera indirecta que el hace este "show" a propósito para molestar a sus amigos (de buena manera) y para enfrentar las emociones negativas que le surgen en el camino. Es un personaje que se burla de si mismo de una manera muy particular, como diciendo "estoy completamente cuerdo y todos mis amigos lo saben, por eso es gracioso hacerme el cientifico loco", lo cual me pareció muy original :)

Sin embargo, no puedo decir lo mismo de ningún otro personaje. Algunos tienen sus momentos en los que te encariñas con ellos, pero la gran mayoría presentan problematicas que me parecieron muy insulsas. Son problemas "serios" en papel, pero los abordaron de una manera muy rapida que los hizo ver muy forzados. Quizas algunos puedan entender esta referencia, pero es como los flashbacks que hacen en Demon Slayer con caaada personaje...Es demasiado repentino y forzado todo, puedo sentir un poco de compasión, pero definitivamente no voy a encariñarme con un personaje en 10minutos de flashbacks.

Hay 3 contras de esta serie que la arruinaron para mi, y por eso le doy un 6 como nota final. El primero es que los viajes en el tiempo son el foco de la serie durante lo que se sintió como 10 segundos. El viaje en el tiempo se presenta como un punto principal a desarrollar en la trama, pero termina siendo solo un recurso narrativo para que el protagonista se de cuenta de que su obsesión con viajar en el tiempo es mas grande que su cariño por sus amigos y el amor por la chica que le gusta. En el momento que él se da cuenta de esto, intenta volver atrás porque entiende que valora mas estas dos cosas antes que simplemente viajar en el tiempo. En otras palabras, este anime es otro "valora lo que tenés" mas del montón con una pizca de viajes temporales. Esperaba un anime mas psicológico o """intelectual""", pero solo obtuve un anime de romance. El segundo contra (y el mas grande para mi) es que la primera mitad de la serie es haciendo una cosa y la segunda mitad de la serie es DESHACIENDO esa misma cosa, me estas cargando? que clase de trama es esa... obviamente buscaron una justificación para deshacer todo, pero no sentí que fuera lo suficientemente buena como para justificar 10 capitulos básicamente iguales entre sí. Por ultimo, se muestran muchos flashbacks en la serie dando a colacion que va a suceder algo super misterioso, o completamente distinto al universo que estamos viendo, pero al final no pasa nada ni remotamente parecido y te deja con una sensación de que la serie terminó con algo "pendiente".

El pro de la serie es que a pesar de semejantes fallas, en ningún momento me pareció aburrida. Es más, tuve muchos momentos de querer ver automaticamente el siguiente capitulo para saber que sucede, pero cada vez que pasó esto nunca tuve una respuesta en el siguiente capitulo que lograra satisfacerme. Creo que el escritor es demasiado bueno armando suspenso pero es bastante malo resolviendo ese suspenso de una manera que también sea gratificante para el espectador. El anime esta bien y si estas con ganas de ver un romance diferente, que no sea meloso y ni tampoco "romcom", entonces realmente te recomendaría Steins Gate. Para cualquier otra situación, la verdad que no le diría a nadie que lo mire.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 16, 2026

berganda

Not Recommended

Funny

Steins Gate is considered a masterpiece by some fans, but I don't see it. It's not even a hidden gem that will present itself with some polish.

Bad Early Episodes
Many times, fans will say "the first 11-12 episodes are bad, but it gets better!" If a show requires you to slog through so many episodes to become good, it isn't a good show; It's a bad show with some good parts. Having a few early episodes be slow or boring is fine. This can be attributed to character building, world building, or building suspense. Once you're past 5 episodes, that's when it's no longer that.


Characters
They ... are simply unlikeable. Everyone is annoying and is essentially insane. They are so "quirky" to the extreme. Most of what they do does not make sense. Yes, this is a fictional world with fictional people, but you have to use real emotions and real interactions.

This is the type of show that some weebs base their whole personality on and go out into the real world, giving anime fans a bad name.

Pacing
The pacing constantly changes. One moment, they info dump so much and then blow past it within seconds, but next they stay on scenes that do nothing to progress any development of peoples, interactions, or stories. Every scene has to make sense. Otherwise, it's just filler.

Seriousness
They start off by being so quirky and funny (mostly cringe). Nothing seems to be taken seriously, and when you're interested in the deeper explanations of the gibberish they are saying, they just blow past it. Then in later episodes, they take themselves way too serious getting into deep levels of science. It's almost like they panicked that no one knew what the heck was going and decided to switch strategies and info dump, info dump, info dump. It's such a drastic change that isn't necessary. At this point, your curiosity for the deeper meanings of anything has been ignored for so long, that you simply don't care.

Complicated Plot
I imagine young kids watching this and telling others that only "intellectuals" like themselves can understand the deeper meanings and complicated plot. The truth is, it's very basic and just over complicates things so that it can pass as being deep.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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