When time travel is involved you expect that there will be paradoxes involved, or at the very least events that will leave you asking more than a few questions, and yet this one just seems like it exists to fill time while they investigate it.
Steins;Gate has never shied away from the fact that the narrative is very firmly built upon the mechanics of time travel. It’s plunged us into loops and paradoxes previously and ultimately it has used these to its advantage and been clever enough in its approach that it hasn’t left us all pointing at a glaring hole in the time line constructed even if there are a few questionable moments.
Yet episode 12 of Steins;Gate 0 plunges us headlong into a bootstrap paradox that it takes the entire episode and then the after credits sequence to set up and I have to wonder if the payoff will be worth it. Because either we literally do have a closed loop which will leave us forever at a loss to explain where the song originated given it seems to just perpetually exists within the loop, or someone inserted the song into this loop for some reason that I’m sure will never adequately satisfy common sense.
Still, I have to give credit where it is due, and finally doing something with Kagari’s story rather than introducing her and then getting distracted by other things is kind of nice and a return to exploring Mayuri and Okabe’s relationship, which is fundamentally why Okabe got himself into the endless loop in the first place, is also greatly appreciated. It would be nice to see this built upon a little as we go into the second half.
So what about you: how did you feel about the episode and the knot this story seems to be tying itself into?
Linked Reviews:
- Episode 11: As If Things Are Finished
- Episode 10: And This Is Why Characters Should Speak
- Episode 9: Putting It Together
- Episode 8: Reliving The Tragedy
- Episode 7: Leaping To Conclusions is Fun
- Episode 6: And Round and Round We Go
- Episodes 4 + 5: It’s Never Over
- Episode 3: Kurisu and Okabe Still Have It
- Episode 2: Okabe Reacts
- Steins;Gate 0 First Impressions
Thanks for reading.
Karandi James
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I am one of the few people that did not really enjoy the original Stein’s Gate (but to be fair I am still going to give it another chance as I plan to rewatch it), but I have not been hearing the most positive things about this new installment. Real shame 😢
The biggest issue, outside of the fact that we already know how the story needs to end given where in the timeline we supposedly are (and if they go off on a tangent they are really going to lose me), is that seeing Okabe so flat as a character isn’t fun or interesting. While it does add weight to what he went through during all those time loops, what it doesn’t do is make for particularly entertaining viewing. There are a few bloggers who disagree with me though and seem to be quite enjoying it.
That really does sound bad. One of the fun things that I DID like about Stein’s Gate were it’s characters especially Okabe. Hearing him described here as a flat character sounds really bad. But then again, the movie that was made for Stein’s Gate also had that. It was really dark and way too serious, and just felt completely out of place when compared to the original show.
Well I always trust your judgement when it comes to anime.Seeing that I already wasn’t a fan of the orginal series, I will be giving this a pass for now. 😊
I must admit, I’m mostly still watching Steins;Gate 0 because I’m curious. I want to see how we’re getting back to the time line we’re supposed to be on. I want to see whether they can get there without tangling themselves in paradoxical knots. But I wouldn’t jump up and down to recommend it as it is. Maybe if the second half does something amazing.
Well, I will keep my fingers crossed that it does. And …to be honest, the original Steins Gate also took it’s time to become interesting. The first half was really weird and at times very boring. The second half though totally changed things around. So who knows? 😊