Steins;Gate

Hacking to the Gate.

(This review contains no spoilers. Ish)

This is Steins;Gate, the highly acclaimed anime adaptation of the highly acclaimed visual novel game. Steins;Gate premise is based around the possibility of time travel, and specifically the ability of sending messages to the past to alter the future (the plot itself heavily revolves around the real-life John Titor conspiracy theory / Internet meme from the early 2000s). Yet, Steins;Gate differentiates itself by choosing to put the focus on the mental consequences that this has over the different characters, as they grapple with the intended and unintended consequences of their actions, rather than the actions themselves (though obviously the famous butterfly effect is explored quite a bit) or the morality of such actions. Every time the past is altered, the circumstances are slightly different in a way that puts a new challenge to the characters.

And speaking of the characters, Steins;Gate aforementioned approach would definitely not work if the characters themselves weren't well-written, but they are. Our protagonist, Okabe Rintarou (Japanese order), is a conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed mad scientist, that leads an unofficial "Future Gadgets Laboratory" dedicated to the building of amusingly useless devices. His fellow lab members are a growing group of weirdoes, nerds, outcasts and geniouses, most with impactful backgrounds, credible motivations and realistic and well-constructed personalities. Some, especially Mayuri (Okabe's childhood friend and kind-hearted resident cloudcuckoolander) and Moeka, are questionably sane. All of them experience significant and well-executed (yet not totally unpredictable) character development, and in the rare cases where they don't it is justifiable. Also, I should probably note here that the Japanese voice acting is much better than the English dub.

Despite the beginning being (intentionally) confusing, the signs of Steins;Gate being a great anime are already there from the beginning. Right from the get-go, Steins;Gate excels at two things: atmosphere and exposition.
Steins;Gate has an interesting and refreshing take on atmosphere. Its color palette is washed out, mostly consisting on bright white and different shades of grey and brown. This is intensified by the permanent harsh, blown to hell lighting, which persists in every single (daytime) outdoor setting. Whenever Okabe seems to lose grasp on reality, the edges of the screen fade out into white nothingness. Besides the catchy opening and ending themes, there isn't much music during the first half or so of the series. It is replaced by eerie ambient sounds that still manage to sound realistic, and are sometimes unsettingly dissonant with what's going on on the screen. Animation is pretty good, though it worsens at some points towards the end.
Steins;Gate also handles exposition in a very natural way, through conversations that don't feel just too forced, which is helped by the realistic way the characters behave (and, where they fall into anime tropes, it is intentional to the point of the characters themselves openly joking about it). The only conversation you could make a case for it being forced is a 1984 reference, and regardless it helps introduce the characters well, and still without being out of place in the world that Steins;Gate builds.

Ultimately, once the stakes are ramped up and as characters are developed, increasingly dark, dramatic, tense and emotionally impactful scenes occur, executed almost flawlessly thanks to the ambitious, thick atmosphere that is everywhere in this anime. And it all comes down to a conclusion that is pretty convincing (and very anime), resolves all major plot points, and gives the beginning episodes enormous rewatch potential.

As for the bad aspects... well, there aren't many. But, as noted above, the animation does worsen at some points towards the end, though it does eventually recover and for the most part is pretty good. Okabe's antics at the beginning can get annoying at times, as is his inability to spit out important information to his friends and fellow labmembs, though in his defense he doesn't get a maddeningly extreme case of this. And when Steins;Gate takes a more lighthearted tone, some of the jokes are funny, but many simply revolve around Okabe being an unintentional perv. Standard fare for anime, but not my cup of tea.

Veredict: 9/10. Steins;Gate's acclaim is well-deserved, as it succesfully presents a compelling story in a remarkably well-executed manner, all while showcasing a good amount of creativity and uniqueness.