This post shouldn't exist. On so many levels it should not have been possible.
I think it's fair to say that I quite like Stein's;Gate as a franchise. For reasons explained in my VN post, I identify with Okabe more strongly than possibly any other protagonist. When he gets into high stress situations I can feel my heart speeding up. Phantom sympathy pain shoots through my right eye when he's hit by a migraine. We share a connection. As such I was always ambivalent about the release of Stein's;Gate 0. A strong you can never go home again foreboding feeling gripped me. I really wasn't sure I would be watching it at all.
I knew for a fact I wouldn't keep up with it as it aired. I wanted the option to watch it at my own pace. Besides I was watching 3 shows last season and had vowed to watch fewer this time around, and I was already back up to 3…. Definitely I wouldn't be doing episode reviews. I simply don't have the **time**.
Full disclosure, I have played Stein's;Gate 0 and that will most likely influence my experience. It already has. I thought the intro was so cramped. There seemed to be a big rush to get all that information out in an artless deluge of exposition (let's face it, Steins;Gate has a pretty momentous build up). And despite that, I have a feeling that viewers who are not already familiar with the franchise will be a bit lost and a lot disinterested.
I was glad to see my old friends though. My beloved proud pervert Daru whose voice sounded odd to me and who was way too soft on Okabe. My sweet little Mayuri whose fanservice winter coat was distracting. Suzuah bringing with her usual bag of nightmares, Faris whose character development had been sadly undone. At least my fragile Ruka seemed to have kept some of his hard-earned confidence but maybe a bit too much.
And then we had the man himself. Someone I knew like the back of my hand. A guy who might as well be a bit of me. The embodiment of my fears and hopes in chuuni form. A man who was now nothing but a shadow of his former self. Okabe is broken and haunted. He is playing yet another role, the normie, because he's given up and lost.
Okabe is desperately missing someone he has never met, burden by a deep nostalgia for events that never happened, longing for a past that doesn't exist. He has almost disappeared, but not quite yet. New players are stepping up to shake him out of his complacency. Kirusu's ghost is taking shape. If not hope, at least Okabe may still feel curiosity.
I've seen Steins;Gate, the first anime, and I've played the VN (though I never found the Mayuri route; my best guess is it's a very early branch). I put off watching zero for a while, mostly because I was worried it'd be a pointless cash-in. But they seem to know what they're doing, and switching focus from the time-travel track to the mind track is actually an interesting angle. Needn't have worried. It's as engaging as ever. I egerly await next week.
I am looking forward to watching this, once it finishes airing. As someone who has also played the VN I know this show won't be sunshine and rainbows.
Wow… you definitely seem to feel stronger towards this Steins;Gate than me. I know the feeling of not wanting to watch a new iteration of a beloved franchise; for me it's Eva. Good post and I quite like the style and solemn tone!
I'm pretty sure I have unreasonably strong feelings towards Steins;Gate in general…Thanks I really enjoyed writing it ven if in retrospect it's not of much use as a review. I just got over excited cause I'm a child!
I'm so glad you decided to review this, even if it is just one episode (I know it won't be) and I'm so glad you posted it this way (stream of consciousness) and I'm so glad we're here (who ever thought it would be Steins;Gate 0 in anime form) and whoever thought… (and whoever thought) it would be this good (it would be this good).
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