This show came out in 2011, and yet, I’ve finally found the time to go watch what has been considered the better of the semicolon anime series — you know, Chaos;Head and Robotics;Notes — thanks to Secret Santa. This is the 3rd year I’ve actually managed to choose a selection of anime from some random person on the internet that I won’t know of until some days later. Maybe it’s someone I know. Maybe it’s not. Whatever the case, this year’s selection of anime seemed pretty good. I was recommended Steins; Gate, Clannad, and Haibane Reimei. Clannad would be in the long line of Key Anime that I have managed to avoid since attempting to marathon Kanon 2006 back when I was a wee lad in high school (hint: a long time ago), but I did intend to watch that. Haibane Reimei, which has some dudes that worked on some anime called Serial Experiments Lain working on it, I did plan on watching. In reality, I wanted to watch all the three shows I was given. Welp, so much for that, since I decided to write about the work I had discs for. Oh well. Hopefully I’ll touch on those two series in the future.
But instead, I’ll just talk about the mad, mad world of Steins; Gate. Or more specifically some dude named Hououin Kyouma.
This particular semicolon title based off a VN by Nitroplus delves into the always tricky time travel story. At the center of all this is a guy who claims to be (and tries to act like) a mad scientist in Rintaro Okabe, who ends up witnessing the death of Kurisu Makise in his timeline, or the beta world line, but in sending a text to one of his lab members, he mysteriously gets sent into the alpha world line, a world where him witnessing the death of Kurisu never happened because the conference he was at was cancelled. While stuck in this time line he ends up learning how to travel back in time (HINT: it involves microwaves); he also ends up finding out about an organization that may or may not be interested what he’s doing. So much so that it eventually gets said organization to find him, abduct him, and for no real reason (ok ok there was a reason), kill his closest friend in Mayuri Shiina.
This turns what was kind of a light-hearted and mostly character centered anime (with lots of science involved) into a literal endurance test for Okabe as he tries to find a way to stop seeing Mayuri die, then in turn he has to face off against fate in itself, since by trying to save Mayuri, he has to deal with Kurisu dying instead. The plot I find gets to nonsense territory in the second half (I mean seriously, going back to the original timeline involves WWIII? And Okabe deciding to live with that happening?), but really, as ambitious as that second half was, it’s mostly held together thanks to Okabe. His mad scientist persona never managed to get annoying, and his personality changes after seeing the countless deaths of Mayuri (I mean, he sees her get run over by a car, get hit by a train, die off stairs, etc) felt real. Well, not all that real, but at some point, he had to snap, and at some point, he couldn’t be the same as he once was. And I felt it was carried off well. (It probably helped to have someone like Mamoru Miyano voicing him).
What also helped was the characters around him. Ok, not exactly all the time. Mayuri is that type of character that will forever annoy you (I mean seriously her tuturu~ was fine at one point, but come on now, can’t she actually have more of a personality?), but let’s face it — Okabe and Mayuri had a bond, and apparently Okabe could not let that slide, and not let it end this way. Because of Mayuri, he could A) be encouraged to act as silly as he wants B) continue to travel to countless times just to save her. There were also other girls (including one that apparently is good with a gun), but I didn’t really care about them. I think I heard meow a bit too much for my taste.
Naturally though, the only character interaction (aside from Mayuri) that mattered was with Kurisu. Her tsundere personality combined with Okabe’s tendencies, probably on the surface, shouldn’t actually work. But thanks to their words and their situations, the pairing comes almost naturally, and is pretty enjoyable. It gets more enjoyable when the guys working on this anime finally map out their original intentions and ship Okabe and Kurisu. That shameless pandering is shameless, but it’s effective, since the chemistry between the two had been building, and for Okabe, only Kurisu, no matter what timeline he ends up, is the one who actually is there for him.
The only issue though (well, maybe from other stuff), quite frankly, was how it ended. At some point, I thought that Okabe would pay the price for all his time traveling shenanigans. Yes, he did eventually lose it thanks to seeing Mayuri die over and over again. And yes, he did manage to affect the world in a manner that WWIII was going to happen. But instead, it goes for the happy ending route. Which, in the end, I can say I liked, since it preserved the life of everyone Okabe cared for, and I, for the most part, cared for. Maybe Okabe dying in the end would have been a bad thing. Just maybe. But I feel like it could have gone for a better ending. Maybe Okabe would manage to save Kurisu and Mayuri but in the process he dies. Maybe he should have ended up creating that time paradox himself. Well, I say that, but what do I know about creating good endings? (I don’t.) Well, whatever the case, despite the ending, and despite some plot instances somewhere in the anime, this particular semicolon title was one that I could, in the end, say I enjoyed. (Well, Robo;Notes was close, buttttt it falls flat on its face at the end.)
But there’s one question that I…I would like some help with…
Just Who The Hell Is Hououin Kyouma?!?
With that question in mind, I guess I should stop writing about my Secret Santa now, else I manage to further embarass myself for dubious reasons. Thanks to the one who suggested it though. And, well, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.
