Steins;Gate 0
a review by CaninnTurtle
a review by CaninnTurtle
(Disclaimer: I will assume that anyone reading this has watched Steins;Gate, so I will be speaking freely of it here. There will be some delving into spoilers for 0 too, so consider yourself warned.)
I think we all remember the feelings that the original Steins;Gate made us feel. Wonder, heartache, desperation, confusion, amusement, and the list goes on. It's these feelings that make us hold it so dear to this very day. We remember our favorite scenes and the feelings that we felt when we first watched them and are rewarded with a sense of nostalgia. For me, one of my favorite scenes from Steins;Gate (up there with every Kurisu scene, but I digress) is at the very end, when he receives the video from his future self affirming to himself that Steins;Gate can, in fact, be reached. Obviously, this is the very moment that Steins;Gate 0 is concerned with, but therein lies one of the major issues with 0: It rather cheapens this moment when it actually comes about in the final episode by bogging down the rest of the show with seemingly pointless side content.
Right off the bat, we're introduced to new friends, each of whom don't matter at all aside from Suzuha's mom, who's given at least a small spotlight in the form of two episodes or so. We're also introduced to Leskinen, who's genuinely an interesting character, but receives a criminally little amount of screen time, and Maho, who acts as discount Kurisu for Steins;Gate 0. Not to say that these character's are bad per se, just unnecessary. Why would we need more friends for the lab parties when we have criminally underdeveloped Ruka and Feyris? I understand that that is probably due to adaptation constrains from the original visual novel, but still, it's a shame to see such long established members of the cast get such poor development even after 47 episodes. Notice how I never even talk about Kagari, the Kurisu clone? Exactly. Pointless.
I got a little out of order with that little character critique, so I'll get back on track now. Visually speaking, Steins;Gate 0 isn't going to blow your socks off or anything, it's more of the same in regards to looking like Steins;Gate, aesthetically. However, there were some excellently framed shots, these two being the first to come to mind:
Favorite Character: ~~Kurisu Makise~~ ~~Amadeus~~ Rintarou Okabe
I tried to sneak Kurisu into my photo choice for Okabe, but unfortunately, I couldn't find a good one from 0. Honestly, I would have gone with Kurisu or Amadeus if I didn't feel as if those answers were major cop-outs, since they only appear in a handful of episodes between the two of them. Honestly, even though Okabe wasn't as fun as he was in Steins;Gate, he was easily the best character in 0, watching him overcome his emotional and mental struggles was certainly a highlight of the show, especially when everyone around him was blatantly disregarding his trauma for most of the show, which was a little frustrating. Shout out to Daru as well, who really stepped up as a character in 0, really maturing as a character throughout the run time.
More to the meat of why Steins;Gate 0 was so up and down for me was simply because of how pointless at least half of the show felt. I expected much of the setup to go somewhere with them making it seem like Leskinen and Kagari were going to be real problems that would have to be dealt with, only for them to be sort of sidelined for the actual story. It felt like such an occurrence happened at least two or three times too, which makes it all harder to forgive. It turns out Amadeus was literally made to be erased, Mayuri's cosplay friends meant nothing, Kagari and Leskinen are simply a small hurdle for Okabe, and as I mentioned before, Ruka and Feyris still exist. They bait us with so many story lines in the first half of 0, that it simply feels cheap when we find out the real story is essentially the 'Mayrui Route', oh, and this is how the backstory to reaching Steins;Gate works out. I feel like the point of 0 got lost somewhere in translation. Wasn't it supposed to be about the Okabe who sends the video to the past? Why is it that him sending the all important video to achieve Steins;Gate feels like an afterthought?
I'm a little disappointed with the lack of focus in Steins;Gate 0. It gave us some cool moments, like the aforementioned episode 13 scene, but a lot of useless time too. Don't get me wrong, I will always appreciate more Steins;Gate, but Steins;Gate 0 just makes me appreciate how good the original was instead. I like how they tied some things into the original, like the D-Mail to keep Kurisu from entering the lab for a few minutes, those moments were cool, but there was a distinct lack of those. Usually, we criticize works for leaning too hard on their successful predecessor, but in Steins;Gate 0's case, it didn't lean hard enough on the original.
All of this isn't to say that Steins;Gate 0 is terrible, but when you decide to make a sequel to a universally praised show, it's going to be examined under a different, more critical light. For me, Steins;Gate 0 was acceptable, but did not in any way reach the potential that it had. There were moments that I thought that 0 had finally reached the excellence of its predecessor, but it never quite did. Obviously, I'm glad that we got more time in the Steins;Gate world, even if I wasn't as big a fan this time around.
61.5 out of 94 users liked this review
