Easily the best thing to come from Steins;Gate, Braunian Motion of Love and Hate is a short but sweet glimpse into the best character writing this subseries has to offer.
Despite my rather lukewarm opinion of the source material, this manga had me on the edge of my seat. A short read that expands upon the world of Steins;Gate in unexpectedly interesting ways, with twists that have fascinating implications that fans of the IP should absolutely not miss out on the chance to think about. It features an intriguing glance into the character of Mr. Braun on a level that even the visual novel could not match the depth of, let alone the anime, which changes some plot points and thus ends up inconsistent with this manga. Even so, an anime-only has every reason in the world to read this manga, as it will provide an interesting glance into facets of the story that they missed out on, and potentially get them interested in the visual novel and its cousins. After reading this manga my excitement for the future of SciADV has increased even further than it already had, and Mr. Braun has been solidified as my favorite Steins; character.
The art is sublime and perfectly captures the tone and aesthetic of the visual novel, which even the anime failed to do. During its key moments it absolutely stands out in the visuals department in ways that create a similar effect to seeing a CG in a visual novel.
Spoiler, click to view
The dialogue is very engaging, and Suzuha in particular is just as fun and not subtle as ever. Seeing her being just as much of a goofball in her old age as she was at 18 was food for the soul.
I love content like this that expands upon a source in fascinating ways. Even if it is smaller in scope than its original, it is consistently higher quality and provides a genuinely interesting look into the world that very few people bother to see. If you like Steins;Gate, or even SciADV as a whole, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not reading this manga.
SciADV reading order:
Chaos;Head Noah -> Steins;Gate -> Robotics;Notes Elite -> Chaos;Child -> Steins;Gate 0 -> Anonymous;Code
Read the visual novels, do not watch the anime adaptations of anything that doesn't have Steins; in the name. Both the VN and anime of S;G0 are canon.ummmmm, this is the section of the review where I try to fill the character count. How am I supposed to write more about a manga that takes 2 hours to read? I feel like the word count of this review would easily trump that of the manga... well, um, I guess I can rant about how much I love SciADV. Despite the negative reviews of Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0 on my profile, I truly do adore this franchise and want to see it succeed, so I'd encourage anyone who liked the anime to give the visual novels a shot. At least, I would, if Noah were out in readable English, which it will be in late october, almost definitely. If you want to see more of what made Steins;Gate so special ~~or if you want to see stories similar to Steins;Gate but far superior~~ I'd encourage you to shoot me a message so I can properly shill the series to you in a context that makes more sense than this review of a side manga, lmao. Although I would imagine most people reading this are already into the visual novels anyway...
