So i've been watching the Steins Gate: 0 on VRV. And as much as the name suggest it is a prequel, it is actually a sequel to an alternate ending of Steins Gate.

The anime isn't complete but i felt i had to give my thoughts about it now considering how vastly different it is from the original. There is going to be spoilers for original Steins Gate, so if you havent watched it, please do so. Or play the game.

Quick summary review of the original Steins Gate:
Story follows a college student named Rintaro Okabe who he dubs himself as Houiin Kyoma (i spelled it the way its pronounced, not the way its intended to be spelled), a mad scientist and a little child like by renting an apartment and calling it Future Gadget Laboratory. His two friends are Daru and Mayuri who are also lab members. Mayuri also calls him Okarin.

When attending a lecture, he meets a young famous scientis, Makise Kurisu and witnessed her death which him to accidentally time travel when he informed Daru by text while Daru's phone was attached to the phonewave (Phone operated Mircrowave) attached.

This leads to a series of events where Makise Kurisu survives instead of dying and helps Okarin and his friends on developing a time-travel method by sending text messages into the past using the Phonewave. The timeline gets altered timeline where inevitably an organization known as SERN attempts to hunt them down and Okarin's childhood lovable friend, Mayuri. In order to save her life he has to find a way to undo all of his previous actions when they sent text messages to the past by sending new ones. Which lead to final decision of allowing Kurisu to die.

However the game ends with future-Okarin giving a message to present-Okarin on instructions on how to preserve both Makise and Mayuri's life.


As ridiculous as it sounds, the anime executed it very well. The visual novel goes far deeper into the pseudo science. Its almost hard to keep up with what they are saying in the video game.  I also paraphrased a lot and there is much more involved then what i mentioned.

The biggest strength in the anime is how interesting the characters are. Not one character bore me or made me feel disinterested. It takes a slow but progressive pace, not one episode is wasted and explores either characters or time travel. The video game also made a huge effort to explain otaku-culture. I'm not sure why, but considering the game was originally released in 2009 and otaku-culture wasn't as big as it is now, i can see sort of see why.

Steins Gate 0 however takes place in a timeline where the final decision was to allow Makisu Kurisu to die. Okarin is now dedicated to his studies in college and has become successful however he is still scarred by Kurisu's death.

The biggest mistake this series does is make Okabe (who was once a lovable and energetic main character) into a boring normal and overly depressed character. I'm at the latest chapter and so far he does absolutely nothing to move the story forward. All the other characters around him seem to be doing a better job at progressing the story.

The story still tries to paint him as the main protagonist, but doesn't really do a good job. He is incredibly sluggish and sometimes there are moments where he should be more cautious but isn't.

In addition to all of this, there is a forced romance with this new character that used to be Makise's old friend. A few character push for this romance and it doesn't feel appropriate considering that Okarin eventually had feelings for Makise and the feelings were returned.

SO far, i dont know what this story is trying to do. The first anime had a set of themes that were clear. The second title doesn't know what it wants to be. Its just a continuation and feels like a what-if situation.

My thoughts may change after the anime ends. I have also not played Steins Gate: 0 so there are other details i may be missing.

I've theorized in the past that Steins Gate: 0 is using the alternate timeline of the future Okarin. Which would explain Steins Gate: 0's name. I did however wanted to leave that theory out in case that it was a major spoiler.

There are many moments in the anime that felt convenient that i feel are the use of actual time travel. I just have no enjoyed the pacing.

I've not played Steins Gate: 0 and I'm sure you're right that the anime is handling it better than the game. The reasons why i like the original over 0 is that it was a breath of fresh air. It was just experimenting with ideas that seemed interesting and worth looking into. The way time-travel was handled was very entertaining.

I understand that visual novels push possible romances. I always enjoyed Steins gate for always fully establishing a concrete single romances even though there were others who liked Okarin. So it bothers me in the anime that they are faithful to this.

I'll wait and see until it ends, I'm sure it'll change my mind about it. The reason why i wrote this review however is because i didn't want to forget the negative feelings the anime currently has given. It could also be that i finished Steins Gate in a single viewing while i have to wait for Thursday for a new episode. So when the episode doesn't live upto my expectations, i feel a little cheated.

But i dont think that's wrong in this case because i haven't understood what is actually going on, or what themes its trying to push for. too many side-stories are intertwined and difficult to really pick and choose. These characters also have this horrible trope of "not sharing their information with each other until its too late".

I haven't watched the beta episode since it wasn't available on VRV. I was able to follow along after a couple of episodes though. I'll rewatch it after its completed. The latest episode was decent and pushing toward a direction (even though at this point the direction is still unclear).

i prefer watching it in the English dub (with a few exceptions such as Mayuri being my favorite in the Japanese dub).