We are back with another Psychological-thriller Science-fiction based anime. Steins; Gate was released on April 6, 2011, and the show ended on September 24, 2011. With only 24 episodes in the series, it is a great choice for those who like fast-paced anime without many slow-moving scenes or filler episodes.
Directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki, Takuya Satō, and Tomoki Kobayashi, the anime is based on the manga written by Jukki Hanada. Since its release Steins; Gate has been getting love from everyone. The critics loved it the fans loved it. There are not many people who have any complaints about anime. Steins; Gate is considered the best anime of the 2010s by some, while others may not consider it as great.
The series had a great run during its time as it was something people had never experienced before. Although the talks of time travel and time machines have been around long before the anime was released, Steins; Gate still succeeds in doing a job where it sticks to the old principles that ensure its success while adding some elements that never bored the audience or made them feel like they have seen something like this before.
The fans loved the anime but Steins; Gate was also successful in impressing well-known critics out there. Since its release, even the critics have loved the show and have not said anything negative about it. The anime’s storytelling, character development, and dialogue were extremely impressive.
There is no doubt that Steins; Gate is one of the most addictive animes out there, and since it only has 24 episodes, you will be able to finish the series in no time. If you are still not sure if the show is worth watching and whether it will disappoint you or not, then you are at the right place. Let us dive deeper into the anime and see what made Steins; Gate such a huge success.
Steins; Gate Summary
If you are having doubts about watching Steins; Gate, then this summary might just be what you need to realize how great it is. Although if you are one of those people who are careful about getting spoilers, then let us be clear and tell you that there will be some major spoilers for Steins; Gate ahead. Steins; Gate is a show about a self-proclaimed mad scientist Okabe.
Okabe, along with his childhood friend, Mayuri, visits a lecture where he creates a scene and is escorted out by Makise Kurisu. Makise then tells him that he met her a few minutes ago and said that he wanted to tell her something. Okabe laughs when he hears this, thinking the girl is mad as he has never seen her before.
While going back, Okabe receives a strange static message on his phone, after which he hears a scream coming from upstairs. He runs back only to find Makise, the girl he just met, lying dead on the floor. Okabe is shocked he doesn’t understand what just happened. On his way back, he decided to text his friend Daru to explain to him what had just happened.
This is the moment where Okabe unintentionally changes the world line triggering a series of positive and negative incidents. Everything is pushed into complete chaos. And we also see a satellite crash into a nearby building.
Okabe has no idea what just happened and went back to rendezvous with his friends at the “Future gadgets lab,” there, Daru tells him the lecture has been canceled. A confused Okabe checks his phone only to find out that the text he sent Daru was sent a week ago.
He then sees Makise, whose dead body he saw with his own eyes, to be alive and well. Okabe soon realizes that everyone else has no idea what has just happened, and he is the only one who remembers that altered past.
We move forward and are introduced to two new characters, Okabe’s landlord Mr. Braun who is a small shop owner, and a young girl named Amane. After a little chat, Amane gets a part-time job at Mr. Braun’s shop. Later in the show, we see Okabe talking to a person named John Titor online.
John claims that he is a time traveler who came back from the year 2036 to prevent the events leading to world war 3. A lot of things happen after this. Okabe meets a woman named Moeka, who is looking for an IBM 5100.
We also see Daru and Okabe using their new time machine called “The Phone Wave” to send a banana a few minutes back in time. Doing this jellifies the banana, and it turns into a green slime-like material.
Makise joins the club, and after a few tries, the group figures out how to send a text back in time. They also find out that an organization named SERN is trying to build a time machine as well. Okabe then asks Daru to hack into SERN’s servers to find out more about their time machine.
Daru successfully does so, and Okabe manages to get his hands on an IBM 5100 that can decipher the encrypted code SERN has been using to hide the information about the time machine. They successfully decrypt the message, and the gang is shocked to find out that SERN has been using human experiments to perfect time travel.
The gang is perplexed. After some discussion, they decide to call the messages they sent in the past “D-Mails.” Moeka shows up wanting to borrow the IBM 5100. However, Okabe denies this request. Due to some events, Okabe decides to make Moeka a part of their team and declares her the fifth member of the Future Gadget Lab.
Okabe uses the phone wave to send himself the lottery numbers from one week ago. Once again, we see weird images on our screens, and then Okabe is transferred into another world line where he looks at the lottery ticket and realizes that he has sent himself the wrong numbers.
He then tells Daru everything and tells him that he can remember the previous world lines that nobody else does. He names this ability of his “Reading Steiner.” The experiment is continued, and Moeka sends Okabe to a world line where everyone but him seems to remember her. During this time, Luka (an apprentice of Okabe) drops in on the conversation.
He reveals that he eavesdropped on them talking about the time machine and asks them to send a D-Mail about a diet to Luka’s mother that can change the gender of a baby. Okabe does so and is sent to a world line where Luka is a girl.
He also finds out that in this World line, the gang does not have an IBM 5100, and nobody even knows that they had one in the first place. He assumes that Moeka stole it but soon realizes that it is not the case. Later in the show, we see that Faris, a friend of Okabe, finds out about the time machine. She requests he allows her to send a D-Mail without disclosing the contents of the message.
Once again, the D-Mail is sent, and Okabe changes the world line. Here he meets up with Amane, who tells him that she is looking for her father and if she can’t find him, she will give up. Upon listening to this, Okabe becomes a bit emotional and tells her he will help her find her father. He then declares Amane as the eighth member of the Future Gadget Lab.
Okabe gets a threatening text saying, “I am watching you” he gets a little paranoid and stressed as he feels like someone has found out about his abilities. In the evening, the gang organizes a party, but Amane never shows up.
Okabe gets worried and sends himself a D-Mail sending himself into a worldline where Amane shows up at the party and stays for a while. The next day, while buying parts to upgrade the phone wave, Okabe receives another message, an image of a bloodied doll with a text that says, “you know too much.” Okabe gets home and tells everyone about the message he received.
Daru then finds out that SERN has been connected to their computer this whole time and has been spying on them since the beginning. Makise tells everyone that she has completed the “Time-Leap” machine that allows them to overwrite a person’s memories from the past with their present memories, thus making time travel possible.
Although it has a limitation that it can only send a person’s memory only 48 hours back in time. Okabe suggests that they should go public with their findings, and the whole group has a celebration party that night.
Daru tells Amane that SERN has been connected to their computers for a while now, and Amane gets scared and runs out of the room after hearing this. Right then, Moeka shows up at the party with some thugs who work for SERN.
She shoots Mayuri, and this leaves Okabe in utter shock and disbelief. Okabe uses the Time-Leap machine to go back 48 hours in time. He then looks for Mayuri so he can save her, but once again, she is killed by SERN.
Okabe uses the Time Leap again and again to save Mayuri, but every time, he is unsuccessful and suffers the same fate. Once again, he uses it to take him back to the time before Makise completes the Time-Leap machine. Amane approaches them and takes them to the building where we saw the crashed satellite at the beginning of the show.
She then reveals that she is John Titor, the time traveler from 2036 with whom Okabe was talking online. She tells Okabe that the satellite is a time machine, and to save Mayuri, Okabe has to travel back to his original timeline, where Mayuri is still alive.
Amane tells them that in the year 2036, the world will be controlled by SERN and to prevent SERN from becoming so powerful. She decided to go back to the year 1975 so she could stop SERN from getting their hands on the IBM 5100. However, she came in 2010 to find her dad.
She crashed into the building and was not able to go back in time as her time machine stopped working. Okabe went back in time 5 hours ago, and he then explained to everyone what they had to do. Daru starts working on the time machine to fix it while the rest of the gang tries to find Amane’s dad.
It is then revealed that Daru is Amane’s dad. They both hug each other, and then Amane goes back to 1975 to complete her mission. She is unsuccessful in doing so as something is broken in the time machine, and she loses all her memories about her mission when she got there.
Twenty-four years later, Amane committed suicide when she remembered everything. Okabe once again sends himself a D-mail going to a timeline where Amane goes straight to 1975 instead of staying in 2010 to look for her dad.
Mr. Braun reveals that Amane still died but this time due to an illness. Okabe is distressed. No matter what he does, it all ends up leading to the same outcome. He couldn’t save Amane, and he might not be able to save Mayuri either. Makise then reveals to Okabe that they might be able to get everything back to normal if they undo all the D-Mails they sent.
We then see Okabe undoing all the D-Mails sent by everyone one after the other, with each D-Mail pushing back Mayuri’s death day. Daru starts to hack into SERN to delete any evidence that the group was involved in time travel. Okabe realizes that once he goes back to his original world line, he will have to face Makise’s death.
Okabe tries to save Mayuri without reverting the last D-Mail (the one he sent to Daru in the beginning) but fails to save her. He reveals to Makise that she dies in the original world line, and Makise convinces him to revert the D-Mail to save Mayuri.
The duo confesses their love for each other, and Okabe reverts the last D-Mail to go back to his original timeline, where he finally saves Mayuri but has to face Makise’s death. Here the series is divided into two endings one is the happy ending, and another is the sad one, which marks the beginning of Steins; Gate 0.
Steins; Gate Happy Ending
In this ending, Amane comes back from the year 2036 and tells Okabe that she is here to stop the world war and also help him in saving Makise. They go back in time, and a series of events lead to Okabe accidentally stabbing Makise. Okabe and Amane come back to the present, and Okabe accepts defeat. He is broken and hopeless and realizes that there is no way he can change his fate.
Okabe is completely shattered when Mayuri convinces him to keep trying until he saves Makise. Amane reminds Okabe about the static message he received on the day Makise died. The static message is now readable, and it is a video message from Okabe’s future self telling himself that he has to make the past Okabe believe that Makise is dead to save her.
Okabe does so and successfully makes his past self believe that Makise is dead. He then travels to the present with Amane. Okabe has succeeded in saving Makise, and later in the series, they both walk past each other. Makise remembers a lot of memories from the other world line, and the series end with both of them looking at each other with a spark in their eyes.
Steins; Gate Sad Ending
The other ending of the show is not a happy one. In this, we see that after failing to save Makise in his first attempt, Okabe returns to the present. Here, instead of convincing Okabe to try again, Mayuri comforts him.
Okabe leaves the role of the mad scientist and starts living a normal life until one day. He meets an AI that looks exactly like Makise. The show ends here with Okabe in utter shock and surprise, not knowing what this is or how to feel, and this ending marks the beginning of Steins; Gate 0.
Steins; Gate Review
Steins; Gate is, without a doubt, one of the best animes out there. It takes something like time travel that we have seen many times but still makes it into something we have never seen before. Steins; Gate is one of those series that is perfect in every way.
The characters are very well written, with each having some ability that makes them special, and it does a great job of making us feel a connection with them. Story writing is one of the aspects of a completely flawless series.
Every episode and every plot twist was amazing, and the story proceeded in a manner that kept you hooked onto your seats, wanting to watch all the episodes in one go. Overall the show does a great job with everything, and if you want to watch it, then it is worth your time, and you will not regret watching it at all.
Our Rating: ⭐ (5/5).
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