Steins;Gate

シュタインズ・ゲート

Adapted from the visual novel of the same name

Prequel to Steins;Gate Fuka Ryouki no Deja vu

Genre: Science fiction, Mystery, Romance, Adventure,

Psychological, Thriller, Drama

Episodes: 24 + 1 OVA

V.A.S.E.C. Ratings:

Visuals: 87/100

Audio: 75/100

Story: 95/100

Entertainment: 90/100

Characters: 92/100

Review: 

Just to air this out before we get into the review, I LOVED this show. I even cosplayed as the main character on 2 separate occasions during ACG events! Okay, moving on to the review.

This anime at its core is about time travelling, this is extremely rare in any anime because things can get confusing the moment characters start to travel back and forth through time. However, Steins;Gate pulls of this story about time travelling perfectly. They managed to explain the whole "mumbo jumbo" about time travelling in a very quick and effective manner. Since time travelling is not a concept everyone can grasp, the anime introduces the elements of time travelling slowly throughout the anime, so viewers can sit back and relax without the fear of being overwhelmed by tons of theories and science stuff about time travelling. The story was also very tight, without any major plot holes, despite how complex it was.

As for the characters, the character designs are simple and clean, as expected from huke (the person who designed Black Rock Shooter). His art style is quite special, especially the characters' eyes. As for character development-wise, main characters are well-developed throughout the anime. On the other hand, the side characters are rather forgettable despite having back stories. I think this is a problem because of how this anime is adapted from a visual novel and they do not have enough episodes to develop its huge cast of characters. 

Speaking of episodes, the slow start of the anime is one of its biggest flaws. It takes it almost 10 episodes before it gets into the juicy bits of the story. Besides that, Steins;Gate seems to heavily rely on Okabe as a main character to make things entertaining. The humor revolves around him, the romance revolves around him, basically everything in the anime revolves around Okabe. While this can be typical for main characters, it also means that if you happen to dislike Okabe's character, you might not enjoy the anime. 

As for the technical side, the animation of the anime is decent, but there isn't really a lot of "eye candy" scene as the anime puts its emphasis on its story telling instead of action and the such. The music of the anime isn't too spectacular .... I hardly remember any memorable piece from this anime beside the awesome opening sequence. So, the anime might not be as effective during its emotional moments. 

Still, Steins;Gate is perhaps the best time travelling anime out there with its exciting cast of characters, and the deep story telling. I highly recommend this anime for anyone wanting to catch a break from the "action-filled anime" while hoping for some deep story telling. It has a little something for everyone as well, there's comedy, humor, love and sci-fi in this anime.