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As the latest visual novel anime adaption to come out in the anime industry, Steins;Gate goes above and beyond what many of its contemporaries have accomplished.
The main plot of Steins;Gate revolves around the experiments and activities of a certain group of friends who managed to customize their microwave into a machine that could send text messages into the past, and the resulting consequences of their actions as the organization SERN, researches on time traveling, tries to capture them.
While Steins;Gate is a science fiction story, the core of its story was always the characters and it was the science fiction elements that acted as its framework. Most of the story is built upon highly entertaining interactions, as well as wonderful character development that really manages to come through to the audience and elicit empathy. As the story goes on, one cannot help but feel the desire to root for the cast to succeed.
On the production side of things, the budget certainly could have been better, as the anime's visuals sometimes lacked the impact I felt they deserved. The audio was generally very good, but not spectacular. What really shined through though was the quality of directing. The way the camera moves around during certain climax scenes, and the use of the few stand out songs from the sound track managed to bring out the best of certain climax moments throughout the show's run.
Another thing that most certainly should not be forgotten is the quality of the voice acting in this show, especially that of Okabe's voice actor, Miyano, Mamoru. Miyano's performance in this show seriously deserves a standing ovation. The sheer emotion he managed to express in his role was chilling. It really helped in engaging the audience during key scenes.
One thing that must be appreciated in this anime is studio White Fox's ability to adapt the story well. Too many times in the anime industry have we seen a combination of poor planning, production values, and an inability to stay faithful to the source material ruin an otherwise quality source material. Coming into this anime it was hard to not be wary of the same problems arising due to its predecessor Chaos;Head being an absolutely terrible adaption.Thankfully, Steins;Gate manages to trump the usual issues of many other visual novel adaptions, earning its place as a very enjoyable anime.
Overall, while Steins;Gate is not a hard core science fiction story, it manages to bring enough intrigue plot wise while balancing out a very endearing character driven story. The amusing character interactions manage to make sure that the story never becomes stale, and its build up to its most shining moments always draws you in for more. Steins;Gate has it least in my book earned its way as one of the most impressive visual novel adaptions to date.
Rating: 9/10
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