This was the choice of the Steins;Gate

I’ve come to the realization that my past 3 reviews have been pretty overtly negative, so I felt like writing a positive review for once, either that or it was the choice of the Steins;Gate that I chose to write this, either way, let's get started

Story:

The story of Steins;Gate is about a rag-tag group of lab-members discovering that they can travel through time.

I know that plot-synopsis of Steins;Gate is basic as fuck, & probably doesn’t tell you much about the story, but I’d like to keep the story of Steins;Gate as spoiler free as possible. With that being said, the story of Steins;Gate is fairly complicated, but it’s not difficult to grasp or understand. It achieves a great balance of being a complex storyline with many twists & turns along the way, but it never becomes overbearing, difficult to follow, or unnecessarily complicated. I don’t want to spoil what our group of lab members will get into, as everything in Steins;Gate has a meaning that, would be outright spoilers if I started explaining them, so I’ll contain myself

Characters:

Steins;Gate has one of my favorite cast of characters in all of anime. Every last one of them have unique personality traits, & all contribute to the plot in some way. Okabe’s antics are just a joy to watch, Kurisu is the lab member there to keep every-one on track with her serious & stern personality. Mayuri is the exact kind of some-what innocent character that a series like Steins;Gate would need, & Daru is quite the lad himself. Those are just the main 4 lab-members. For the sake of staying as spoiler free as possible, I won’t mention all of them. I will say however, that every last one of them has an arc they go through in the show. All of them are fleshed out, & all of them contribute something to the narrative at large.

Art:

Steins;Gate has incredible artwork on all fronts. Character designs are distinct from one another & incredibly memorable. On top of that though, the character designs all reflect the personalities marvelously, you get a great idea of who these characters are & what they’re like just by looking at them. Backgrounds are also well designed & have a sublime level of effort put into each & everyone of them. Steins;Gate does make use of CGI, but it’s blended well & compliments the scenery, you can hardly tell it’s CGI if you don’t have an eye for that sort of thing.

The animation in Steins;Gate is, of course, excellent. Even the greatest attention to the smallest of details have been taken into account, so even the most static of shots in the series are exciting & a joy to look at. The action scenes are just as well done as the scenes where the characters are just standing around talking to each other & explaining the intricacies & science of the show.

The Storyboarding is also spectacular, every shot leads into one another so seamlessly & gives the show a flow that I really have yet to see in other shows. The directing is also great, the framing, compositional work, & editing are all as equally on point as the storyboarding is, so I have no complaints there

Sound:

The voice acting in Steins;Gate is incredible, these aren’t people in the booth, these are the characters themselves in the booth. Miyano Mamoru as Okabe is the huge stand-out performance, but I don’t want to undersell the talents of actors such as “Kana Hanazawa”, “Haruko Momoi” & “Yukari Tamura” as Mayuri, Suzuha, & Faris respectively.

The music in Steins;Gate is good, but not one of Steins;Gate’s stronger aspects in my opinion. It’s all good stuff that sets the tone of a scene masterfully, but the music is a bit too atmospheric to be memorable in my opinion. Still though, it’s not bad stuff at all, just weaker comparatively too all the unbelievably strong aspects about this show.

Overall:

If I could sum up Steins;Gate in one word, I’d go with “Excellent”. Steins;Gate really doesn’t have any glaring flaws to it, I really don’t have anything negative to say about the show. The characters are all likeable & memorable beings. The story is complex but not hard to understand, achieving a great balance. The visual craftsmanship on display is well made. The directing & storyboarding are expertly done, & the music, which I said was probably the weakest aspect of the series, was still great & just adds to the series. So with everything said, my final rating of Steins;Gate is going to be a deserving 10/10. I implore anyone reading to stop what they’re doing & go watch the series, & if you’ve seen the series already, well go rewatch it. Treat yourself with a good anime. P.S, Steins;Gate has one of the best 1st episodes in anime I’ve ever seen. It also isn’t badly paced in the 1st half either.