Steins;Gate 0

Hello Once Again,
Writing this review is a risk as i know the more i type, the angrier i will make some people but please allow me my opinion and feel free to counter-argue politely.

I preferred Steins:Gate 0.

There i said it.

Let me start off by saying Steins:Gate was not at all bad, in fact it was just as amazing and i loved it. Each character is so well developed and has traits that makes you love each one of them individually, a trait that few other anime's often can develop, normally its a few main characters but no, Steins: Gate has a large pool of amazing characters each with a story and are relevant in the entire plot. I loved Steins: Gate, i wont lie it wasn't until episode 6 i got into it, the first few episodes had me confused and it just wasn't catching on to me. But by episode 6 it all began to piece together and i begun enjoying it a lot more, hell even the opening caught on and now i adore that opening. For more of my view on Steins;Gate read that review, which i will make AFTER this one.

So, Steins: Gate 0. It's not considered bad by any means in the community but its not as well received as its predecessor. I'm not 100% sure on the reasons why but each to their own i guess. To me Steins: Gate 0 was a great continuation that always left me wanting more. Our beloved Rintarou was heartbroken over the loss of Kurisu and thus is essentially a compeltly new character, he is depressed, sad and don't get any of those silly laughs or sayings. While for some this may be sad, i felt it was such a great character arc, beforehand we'd seen Okarin in moments of pain but he'd never actually lost, he always had a way out but now in Steins: Gate 0, he's completely broken and out of options and finally, all the pain and anguish roots in him, all that loss and suffering that should have broken him weeks ago, sets in.

New characters such as Maho Hiyajo and Professor Leskinen were great new characters that kept the show going, while in some aspects you could see Maho as a rip-off Kurisu, it did fill that void without her and there were some traits that separated the two and generally kept her as a lovable character that i'm sad won't be shown in the Steins: Gate world line. Kagari was a surprise that remained a mystery that slowly unraveled, and while her general character wasn't interesting to me, there were good plot points around her such as her relation to Mayuri and the scene where Moeka and Okarin discovered where she had been living sent chills down my spine, i almost missed that scene too. Whoops. Sadly, on my first watch through i missed the episode with Kurisu's return, while it didn't impact on my enjoyment or understanding of the series, it is a point that should be noted. Steins: Gate 0 followed on well as a sequel in my opinion, developing characters we already new and bringing new ones into the mix. Mayuri, Suzuha and Okarin all greatly developed over the series which i loved to see and learn.

The depressing tone of the series, felt right. Had it remained upbeat and comedic i feel the series would have been disrespecting Kurisu's death. This tone had to be adopted to show the struggles Okarin went through, needed to go through to reach Steins; Gate. Maybe i was in the right mindset but the tone never put me off and you still get lovable interactions between characters, but now there are also more serious tones mixed in which i felt was well needed to better understand characters and their relationships,

The lack of time-travel didn't bother me too much either, while it may be the point of the show, sticking to one world line meant we could see much more development overall of the story and characters, and also was a nice break from the confusion that its predecessor caused at times.

All of this leads up to one of my greatest anime moments ever, all the pain and depression and character changes leads to Okarin going to the future, a place we spend little time but still finally shows us as the viewers what Suzuha has been trying to avoid and we finally realise that we have been sheltered and ignoring how despicable this future is, it was always discussed but never taken seriously until we finally see it ourselves with Okarin. This finally kicks in for Okarin too and thus my favourite moment and episode of maybe any anime? Maybe? Episode 21:

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I mean, its the best right. We have been waiting an entire Season for our Okarin to come back and he does so in absolute style and every goddamn time i watch this i smile from ear to ear, its just perfect. That's not even the end of its amazingness but i wont flood you with videos. This is what solidified Steins; Gate 0 as the better one for me, the build up was much stronger and the result was better. While i was happy with the end of Steins; Gate it didn't have my hyped like this. But again, i still adored it, please don't misunderstand that fact.

One last thing is the ending, where Okarin finds and Saves Mayuri and Suzuha. This creates a lot of speculation as to how this is possible and what happens next, in my head canon, i honestly don't know. A part of me says they converge back into the Steins; Gate world line, another says they live happily in another time. Basically, any happy thing is canon to me. This goes for Episode 25 and PARTS of the Movie, not the entire thing because it complicated things but the happy parts are 100% canon to me

Finally, I've mentioned characters a lot but not specified much other than Okarin. Mayuri carries both of the shows, she is the most lovable person ever and every seen she's in makes you happier. Steins; Gate 0 opens her character up more to see actual sadness and pain in this character i loved and that was great as it showed she was more than just the silly girl at the lab. Daru was much smarter this time around it felt, or at least he had the time to show it and his and Suzuha's relationship was great to watch blossom. Suzuha had major points throughout and getting to actually learn her story and see her in full action was badass and i loved it. Rukako is always a funny character as well as Faris, and both of them in the war chapters were insane to see and actually had me sad for Ruka's death. Maho was an enjoyable character as i said before and Amadeus actually did fill parts of the Kurisu shaped hole in the series, while not fully our Kurisu she did meet some needs and made for both funny and serious moments.

Well thats about if i believe, Steins: Gate as a whole is an incredible series and to think i doubted it in my first few episodes is now despicable to me, its a perfect show that as without a doubt going into my GOD TIER anime level. Thank you all for reading and i leave you with just this:

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