Steins;Gate

Plot and Storyline
It's a very refreshing take on the time travel genre and it starts off with some strange occurrences happening to the main character, Okabe Rintarou or Hououin Kyouma as he likes to call himself. Once we're introduced to the main cast, we learn about how time travel works slowly and they start experimenting with it, leading to major changes to the world. There's also a hidden threat in the form of SERN, which the main cast decided to hack in order to find their involvement with time travel which they're apparently using to turn the world into a dystopia and they eventually take action against the main cast which leads to one of the most tension-filled scenes in all of anime.

Characters
Each character in the story is extremely well-developed and we explore them further as the story goes on to the point where we feel sympathetic to them. They're all fun in their own way and every single one of them influences the story by either working as a plot device or showing the change between a worldline.
That said, I do have my favourites that I'll talk about in more detail,

• Okabe Rintarou: He's an 18 year old who is still in his chuunibyou phase who refuses to act normal no matter the circumstances and it's way too funny; I'm not sure if I'm laughing at his jokes or at him but no need to talk about the details. When we first meet him, he acts like a jerk but as we go on, we learn that this is just a mask to hide how he really is and only a few characters really understand him like Mayuri or Kurisu later on in the show. He cares deeply about his friends to the point where he tries again and again trying to save them all despite the improbable odds. He's truly deserving of his main character status.

• Makise Kurisu: She's an 18 year old who's recognized as a genius by her peers and probably the smartest person in the entire show but that's not all there is to her, she's also a closet @channeler who refuses to admit it even when there's blatant proof. She also doesn't have that many friends because of people being jealous of her which is why she truly enjoys the time she spends with everyone in the Future Gadget Lab.

• Daru: He's a 19 year old self proclaimed SUPER HACKER and I award him with the most funniest person in the show award. Though I said self proclaimed in the last sentence, he is capable of hacking into the mainframes of top secret organizations with ease. He's also a hardcore otaku who won't give 3D girls a chance because he has his 2D waifus with him. At first he seems like a lazy dude who doesn't really care about other people in general, he turns out to be one of the most caring people in the entire lab.

• John Titor: He's the mysterious person who appears online claiming to be from the future to stop SERN and tells us all about time travel and Okabe's innate ability to remember his memories from other worldlines called the "Reading Steiner". We were always anticipating more scenes with him to gain a better understanding of what was going on in the show and we eventually find out that John Titor is actually the alias of Suzuha or Part time soldier.

Animation and Art Style
The show is animated by Studio White Fox who is responsible for many famous anime like Re Zero and The Devil Is A Part Timer. But the show was animated back in 2011 so it's pretty dated in terms of animation but there are still some impressive cuts to be found like the scene where Okabe runs back from the supermarket to the lab to ensure his lab members' safety.
The artstyle is pretty unique compared to most anime out there and the character designs especially are memorable and great.

Soundtrack and Songs
The soundtracks and songs from this show are genuinely amazing and fit perfectly with the tone of the anime, anyone else who watched the show would say the same but unfortunately I'm too stoopid to go into detail so I'll just list a couple of my favourite osts and songs,

• Hacking to the Gate
• Sky Clad Observer
• Gate of Steiner
• Believe Me
• Christina I

Pacing and Direction
Although the start of the show is pretty slow especially compared to other anime out there, this is a part of the experience that is Steins;Gate. This is an adaptation of a visual novel by the same name and they're notorious for being extremely slow paced to flesh out the characters and world. So considering what they had to work with to make an anime adaptation possible and above all, interesting, they did a fantastic job of not making any of the slower scenes boring and always showed something interesting when the show was starting to run dry. Once we reached episode 12, the pacing completely changed and we never stopped.
The direction was great too, there were many subtle details I liked throughout the show and things you only notice during a rewatch. The color palette and lighting were used to set the tone and mood perfectly especially in the scenes with high tension or scenes with time travel. The camera angles and framing were especially noticeable throughout the watch like the scene where Akihabara changes, close ups were used at first to only show the characters and their expressions and then slowly turns into many wider shots showing how much the place had changed.

Emotional Impact
This show left quite a mark on me, I never expected it to be this good when I first started the show but I realized it in that ONE moment that changed the entire show. I've never felt such tension and fear in a scene from a piece of media ever before, most Steins;Gate fans probably get PTSD when someone says their watch isn't working. It's hard to describe how much of an impact it had on me but I always wanted more from this show to the point I watched every episode, every OVA and every movie and I still wanted more. It's one of the few anime that I can say without doubt that it's changed my life.

Overall Thoughts
Definitely one of the best shows I've watched in my life and I would erase my memory just to watch it again. I can't recommend this show enough to anyone else and I'll definitely rewatch it many times over the course of my life.