Steins Gate: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] [DVD]

Self styled 'mad scientist' and geek Rintaro Okabe/'Hooin Kyoma' stumbles across the murder of scientific starlet Makise Kurisu during a lecture on time travel. Following a strange temporal 'event', Okabe sees her alive and is desperate to figure out how this is possible, enlisting her in the 'Future Gadget Laboratory' (his little club) and working on his microwave time machine.One of the finest anime I have ever watched, 'Stein;s Gate' is the antithesis of your typical goofy fanservice fest, offering a smart and often touching take on the power and side effects of time travel. The foundation is absurd for sure, and the show's sense of humour has no problem mining that, but when we get to the members using the technology to alter their lives and in the process, change the world around them, the show pulls no punches. This is amplified by the fact that we have a strong and likeable lot of characters that make up Okabe's entourage: the eccentric lead, the smart but somewhat high nosed Kurisu, the loveably sweet Miyuri, tech and online geek Daru, the silent and reserved Moeka, the timid & transgendered Lukako, the excitable waitress Faris and the high spirited tomboy Suzuha. They all compliment each other well and as the series progresses, you really get behind them and why they want these changes, some of which do tug hard at the heartstrings.However, it is Okabe's story that is the most grueling, as 'Stein;s Gate also acts as a more fantastical coming of age story as he remembers every change in the timeline, and how he must step up for his friends, as well as solving Kurisu's murder. He goes from petty manchild to a far more mature adult by the end and it can be very harrowing. How'd have thunk this could come from the inventor of a microwave & phone based time machine?And the rest is no slack: the animation is subdued but full of nuance and detail, refreshing for a sci-fi show, the music is often sombre but never overpowering or melodramatic, and the voice cast are tremendous, with J. Michael Tatum on the English front giving a career best performance as Okabe. Frankly, I have practically no genuine complaints or issues to speak of, save for maybe the last episode being little more than perfunctory sugaring of an already satisfying ending, but even then, it still has enough laughs to get by. Honestly, I cannot sing the praises of this show enough: drop whatever you are doing, and go see this show. It is criminally underrated, and of the best animated television series to come out in the last decade.

The story follows the self proclaimed "mad scientist" Okabe Rintarō, who calls himself Hououin Kyouma, and the "Future Gadget Laboratory." He, along with his friend Daru and hostage Shiina Mayuri, create a phone-operated microwave that can send e-mails into the past. This, of coarse, interests the scientific prodigy Makise Kurisu (who then becomes a member of the Future Gadget Laboratory). Firstly, I must say that the pacing of the first half of the series is a little slow, but it does pick up around episode 9. From that point on, the show continued to get better. Now, I'm not saying the first half was bad, no, just slow. It still was very enjoyable. All of the characters were interesting and they all had good interactions with each other. I loved the story. I loved the characters. I loved the themes and issues. You see, Steins;Gate isn't just a show with time travel, it's a show ABOUT time travel. Obviously, writing a story that is about time travel is very, very difficult (which is why most people would rather just write a story that happens to have time travel, since that's far easier). However, Steins;Gate does a very good job. I'm not a scientist, so I cannot say how accurate this show's depiction of time travel is, but I can say that after hours of research it does seem close enough. Okabe Rintarō is a very enjoyable main character. Overall, I would highly recommend this series to any fan of sci-fi.

There is not much anime (and to be frank other mediums) that can boast of having created a logical time-traveling story without paradoxes seen at a first glance. As you already guest it, Steins;Gate does it, and does it surprisingly well, also including some up-to-date (that is 2011, when the series aired) anime culture references and very believable pseudoscience. Some may think the story's overrated, the truly interesting stuff begins to unfold only in the middle of the show, after sometimes painfully long slice of life episodes in the first half, but I tend to disagree with that - the first half uses its time quite efficiently by establishing the characters. By the way, the cast is not a small one, but I hardly could think of omitting anyone without a visible loss in the quality of the story.The video quality is good. At first the animation may seem somehow blurred and bland, but that's just a style they chose, and in the end it works well. Subtitles may be placed a little too high compared to other DVDs, but it's not a serious problem.Overall, I'm very satisfied about this product and can easily recommend it to anyone.