First Impression: Steins Gate 0

I’ve said this before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, I know I get hyped over new anime a little too much. I went on about Attack on Titan season 2 last year, the Fate franchise gets a lot of unjustified love and more generally, I like a good superlative when I talk about shows that I’ve just finished or am looking forward to.

So with that said, I want it to start here by saying that looking at the slate of anime for 2018 that had been announced at the start of the year the one that I laid the highest expectations on was Steins Gate 0. In the year of more Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia and countless other promising looking shows, you have to ask, why?

Because you don’t make a sequel to a show that tied itself up nicely (near perfectly) if you’re not going to do it properly.

 

Steins Gate 0 takes us down a world line where Okabe decides not to go back in time a second time to prevent the death of Kurisu in the radio tower. From the outset of episode one we can see that the mad scientist persona is gone and Kyouma is nowhere to be seen. Instead Okabe Rintarou is attempting to become an ordinary college student – group dating and all. A cat is thrown amongst the pigeons though when he goes to a seminar on artificial intelligence and hears that a recently deceased young scientist came up with a memory based AI system.

 

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These first three episodes have introduced some new characters but have focused mainly on dragging Okabe back into a world that contains Kurisu. In small moments, we see the old Okabe – who insulted his friends as a would be mad scientist and who fell in love with a woman who fated to die – but these moments are short lived, if he is to recover (as the original story dictates he must) to his formed self, there is a long way to go and a lot of pain to get there.

 

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The other characters from the original show come back as we remember them – a welcome uplifting relief at times from the clearly concerned Mayuri and still harem obsessed Itaru. Suzuha is also set up to be interesting this time around with her mother now on the scene for the first time as her daughter attempts to sort the time machine as well as her uncle to save the world from SERN.

 

The most intriguing element so far though is the AI, Amadeus. Led by past Kurisu’s memories, she knows nothing of Okabe, but their relationship is set, once again, to be the cornerstone in which the story revolves. From these opening episodes she clearly isn’t going to be passive in her digitised state and the anguish that will put Okabe through is already clear to see.

A quick word on artistic direction and the like: the show is noticeably darker than first time around. A reflection of the times in which our main character lives in, the colour injected by Mayuri’s Christmas party is quickly counter balanced by the dark rooftop where Okabe speaks with the AI on his phone. He also looks older, and somewhat haggard in a new black shirt and jacket that replaces the t-shirt/lab combo. Steins Gate was by no means a cheerful story, but it was led by a character who’s outward appearance was positive – this time the lead has lost that positivity and so has the world in which he lives.

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What did you think of the first three episodes of Steins Gate 0? Is it living up to expectations? Can it match the original show or is doomed to fall short? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Thanks for reading! 😀