As a Sci-Fi fan, particularly a time travel buff, Its my opinion that Steins: Gate might be the best, smartest and most realistic representation of time travel that I have ever come across.
Steins: Gate is my first deep dive in to Anime. I was forced to watch it by a friend of mine who knew that I had a deep love for time travel stories and boy am I thankful. After I finished the series I had two strong thoughts; 1, "I need to watch that again, immediately!" and 2 "Is this what ALL animes are like? Have I been missing out on some amazing stories because I was scared away by the title of "Anime?"
Okay, fair is fair, let's talk about everyones issue with Steins: Gate. If I didn't have a friend forcing me to sit down and watch the episodes, I am not sure I would have gotten through it and that is my fault. It is slow, it is confusing, it will not spoon feed you anything. Almost all of the negative reviews that I read said "I didn't finish the first episode", "I only watched the first 5, and nothing happened." And if I had only watch 5 episodes, I might say the same thing. I would be VERY wrong but I felt the same way. Let me promise you reviewers that didn't like it, you did not understand what you were seeing. If you finished the full 2 seasons and still disliked it, there is no need to read more, we just have a difference of opinion.
This show pulls no punches and its amazing. I have never seen a story more unwilling to force exposition, anywhere. You are thrown into these unique peoples lives with no understanding of who they are. Not only are you expected to understand an extremely complex story line but the relationships between the characters grow and change and are revealed when the time is right, not when it is easiest to understand. The writers of the show made this for people that understand the difference between a multiverse and a universe. Not only do you know what Schrodinger's Cat is but you can explain what it means to be in a Superposition. It is heavy with sound theoretical concepts.
Even with the more Character related stuff, they do not give and inch. "What the hell is this guy always doing with his phone?!? It's stupid." Until it's time for the story to give you that information naturally, in order to make it the most impactful, you are left scratching your head. They needed time to lay the ground work for some of the best reveals and twists I have seen in time travel lore.
I did turn around and watch this show again, right away. The 2nd viewing as at least as good. It's more funny the 2nd time. Once you understand it, it is delightful. If you don't have the patients to give this show the time that it needs to unravel, sad for you.
The voice acting is amazing. I can't talk enough about the writing. The dub was rewritten for english speaking audiences and it is wonderful. J. Michael Tatum, who also plays Okabe Rintaro helped with the translations. There are jokes that would only be funny to english speaking audiences. There is poetry in so many lines, "Consider; can the universe be justifiably called infinite? Doubtful. It may not have a discernible end, but it had a beginning, and its component parts definitely have a limited cosmological shelf-life. Splitting hairs or not, if history tells us anything, it's that scientists often make very poor poets." Really read that line, try to understand what he is saying. That one line speaks about the whole show, it speaks about all entertainment at once, it speaks about each of our own, personal, mortal coil.
This is why you must finish this show. You MUST push though. If you can find the time to finish this story, I really think you will not be disappointed. And I don't even talk about the end!!! Oh the end is such a great, never before been done, way to answer the question of a paradox. Love it. please watch it, please MAKE your friends watch it.
Steins: Gate is my first deep dive in to Anime. I was forced to watch it by a friend of mine who knew that I had a deep love for time travel stories and boy am I thankful. After I finished the series I had two strong thoughts; 1, "I need to watch that again, immediately!" and 2 "Is this what ALL animes are like? Have I been missing out on some amazing stories because I was scared away by the title of "Anime?"
Okay, fair is fair, let's talk about everyones issue with Steins: Gate. If I didn't have a friend forcing me to sit down and watch the episodes, I am not sure I would have gotten through it and that is my fault. It is slow, it is confusing, it will not spoon feed you anything. Almost all of the negative reviews that I read said "I didn't finish the first episode", "I only watched the first 5, and nothing happened." And if I had only watch 5 episodes, I might say the same thing. I would be VERY wrong but I felt the same way. Let me promise you reviewers that didn't like it, you did not understand what you were seeing. If you finished the full 2 seasons and still disliked it, there is no need to read more, we just have a difference of opinion.
This show pulls no punches and its amazing. I have never seen a story more unwilling to force exposition, anywhere. You are thrown into these unique peoples lives with no understanding of who they are. Not only are you expected to understand an extremely complex story line but the relationships between the characters grow and change and are revealed when the time is right, not when it is easiest to understand. The writers of the show made this for people that understand the difference between a multiverse and a universe. Not only do you know what Schrodinger's Cat is but you can explain what it means to be in a Superposition. It is heavy with sound theoretical concepts.
Even with the more Character related stuff, they do not give and inch. "What the hell is this guy always doing with his phone?!? It's stupid." Until it's time for the story to give you that information naturally, in order to make it the most impactful, you are left scratching your head. They needed time to lay the ground work for some of the best reveals and twists I have seen in time travel lore.
I did turn around and watch this show again, right away. The 2nd viewing as at least as good. It's more funny the 2nd time. Once you understand it, it is delightful. If you don't have the patients to give this show the time that it needs to unravel, sad for you.
The voice acting is amazing. I can't talk enough about the writing. The dub was rewritten for english speaking audiences and it is wonderful. J. Michael Tatum, who also plays Okabe Rintaro helped with the translations. There are jokes that would only be funny to english speaking audiences. There is poetry in so many lines, "Consider; can the universe be justifiably called infinite? Doubtful. It may not have a discernible end, but it had a beginning, and its component parts definitely have a limited cosmological shelf-life. Splitting hairs or not, if history tells us anything, it's that scientists often make very poor poets." Really read that line, try to understand what he is saying. That one line speaks about the whole show, it speaks about all entertainment at once, it speaks about each of our own, personal, mortal coil.
This is why you must finish this show. You MUST push though. If you can find the time to finish this story, I really think you will not be disappointed. And I don't even talk about the end!!! Oh the end is such a great, never before been done, way to answer the question of a paradox. Love it. please watch it, please MAKE your friends watch it.