Yo, it’s ya coy and I’m here today to discuss one of my favorite shows: Steins;Gate. Steins;Gate is an anime based on a visual novel video game that follows our protagonist/ eccentric/ self-proclaimed mad scientist Okabe and his close friend Mayuri as they try their hand at becoming incredible inventors in his makeshift laboratory/ apartment. As hard as he tries, Okabe is a pretty huge failure when it comes to the art of invention, and eventually begins tinkering just for the sake of tinkering: he invents a claymore that functions as a refrigerator, a hair dryer that functions as a breaker switch, and a microwave-phone apparatus that links alternate timelines together…wait, what?
The show is so great because even when Okabe makes a worthwhile invention, the audience can’t tell because he treats all of his inventions – successful or otherwise – the same way, as brilliance incarnate and a revolutionary force for the ages. The “Phone Microwave”, as it is so expertly named, seems to only turn bananas into smoking green gel at first, but when an experiment goes wrong, Okabe soon realizes that he can send text messages to the past. Each time a message is sent, though, the timeline resets to the point at which the Phone Microwave was born, and Okabe receives the message, getting another hint at things to come.
Steins;Gate, through its many re-dos, alternate timelines, and plot shifts, show just how impossible it is for Okabe to reach a happy ending. No matter what he does – it seems, he cannot fix things just by hitting the reset button. He has to methodically and exactly make sure every detail is perfect in order to avoid a problem that an alternate him encountered, but this creates a problem that was not present for the alternate him. By pursuing his happy ending, Okabe learns that there is no such thing as a happy ending; time is far too fickle for him to be able to subdue it and this causes him to nearly give up on several occasions. It really makes you think how lucky more classic characters like Naruto or Ichigo really are – that they aren’t the best because they are the main character – they are the main character because they are the best. The main character lives the longest, avoids getting killed off, and succeeds through skill and smarts, but also largely through luck. Okabe does not have this luck, and instead has to settle for retrying events to force the happiest ending possible. He ends up being entirely alone, because no one believes him every time he resets – why would they?
This sci-fi thriller has an incredible twist that I don’t want to ruin for anyone, so I’ll leave it alone, but trust me: this 24-episode show is as coy as it gets. The characters are constantly coy to one another and the action, suspense and romance are also exceedingly coy. In fact, I would give this show a coy 9.5/10 – it is THAT good.
~Astro Coy