TL;DR: one of the best anime of all time, must watch.
Synopsis: Steins;Gate is a time travel story which involves the narcissistic college student named Okabe who discovers he can send text messages back in time. The time travel mechanism is a multiverse variant, where texts cause an alternative worldline to be created.
The english dub is known to reference internet memes in the script as jokes. As it premiered in 2011, most of that stuff is certified oldtroon tier, but it still has its charm to it.
The first episode introduces the four main characters very well: the college student Okabe, the cute “hostage” Mayuri, the giganerd Itaru, and the tsundere scientific prodigy Makise. In the episode, Okabe attends a conference where he meets Kurisu, who is then killed by an unknown assailant in a storage room. Stunned, he texts Itaru that Kurisu was stabbed, only for him to meet her a few hours later in the same building.
Okabe then realizes that it was the text message that caused Kurisu’s revival, and that that he can send text messages to the past by attaching a phone to a microwave and turning on a TV. With a twist — he is the only person who’s memories are preserved across worldlines. This discovery catches Kurisu’s attention, prompting them to join the lab that Okabe and Itaru formed. Later, they discover that they are not the first to use time travel, an organization called CERN had previously experimented with sending humans back in time, only for them to turn into green mush.
The next episodes consist in Okabe helping friends of his by sending messages back in time. Mostly light stuff, until CERN discover that they hacked into their database, and decide to kill Mayuri and capture the rest of the lab members. To prevent this, Okabe travels back in time over and over again to save Mayuri, only for him to realize that her death is inevitable. Later, it is inferred that Mayuri’s death can only be prevented by not sending any text messages to the past, which would cause Kurisu to die, as it was the text message that saved her from her assailant.
To avoid this, Okabe uses an actual time machine to travel back in time that he acquired from another time traveler he meets in the series. Their strategy is to fake Kurisu’s death, have Okabe and the assailant see the body, which causes his other self to send the message, but nothing changes because Kurisu wasn’t dead anyway.
Somehow he accidentally kills Kurisu himself, and travels back to the future. Okabe then lives a miserable life as a scientific dissident until he realizes that he can send a message back to his past life and try to save her again.
Okabe succeeds, and they manage to create a worldline where both Kurisu and Mayuri are alive and he doesn’t discover time travel. While Kurisu has no memory of them being friends, she still fondly remembers the weird college student who saved her. The two then coincidentaly meet on the street, and end up falling in love again.
I consider Steins;Gate to be a great anime. The story is pleasingly intricate and the character interactions (particularly between Okabe and Kurisu) are cute.
Most of the criticism of this anime tends to boil down to Itaru and Mayuri, who lack development and are flat characters. Personally I found this easy to ignore. The series revolves strongly around Okabe due to the reading steiner ability, which makes him the only one who changes with the chronological pace of the story.
Scoring:
Design (12/15):
Distinguishment: (4/5)
Animation: (1/2) - good enough
Sound: (2/2)
OST: (2/2) - kino
Character designs: (1/2) - the designs are great, but the faces need a little work
Backgrounds: (2/2) - detailed
Script (42/50):
Character Investment: (9/10) - I’m obsessed
Character Realism: (0/2) - realism is not what steins;gate went for.
Character Complexity: (2/3) - okabe does enough heavy lifting.
Plot solidness: (4/5) - reasonably well-written
Plot complexity: (9/10)
Ending: (5/5) - was pretty sick, even if they did retcon the time thing
Pacing: (5/5) - very fluid.
Stakes: (8/10)
Value (10/15):
Thematic elements: (2/5) - none?
Skill: (4/5)
Originality: (4/5) - time travel is not new, but the way they did it is
Enjoyment (19/20):
Did I like it: (19/20)