Anime Review:
Steins;Gate Episode 7
What this is about: Watching all of the anime shows so you don’t have to! For more information about me and my reviews, click here for details on what I am reviewing.
Series Premise: Steins;Gate is a 24-episode weekly television series that started in April 2011, based on an X-Box video game by 5pb. A small group of friends headed by self-proclaimed mad scientist Rintarou Okabe (a.k.a. Hououin) manage to create a way to send messages into the past using a modified microwave oven. However, a larger, more sinister government organization has also been doing research in time travel and Rintarou’s group soon finds itself in danger.
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Episode Summary: Rintarou decides to give the Mobile Microwave (name subject to change) a try, and sends a message to the past to win a small prize in the lottery. But as soon as he sends the message, the world goes all wonky, and no one can remember doing the experiment but himself. Ruka then arrives, explaining Rintarou gave him the lottery numbers a week ago. Confused, Rintarou consults John Titor, who gives him a hint at his potential great power.
My Impressions: I am trying to think if we really learned anything new here that hasn’t been covered in one form or another in previous episodes. About the only new tidbit of information is that Mr. Braun has a daughter, although I doubt that means anything at all.
Yeah, we already knew how the microwave operates. Yeah, we already know it changes the timeline and everyone does not remember the previous timeline…except for Rintarou. I guess they wanted to do sort of a summary episode so that anyone who was not paying attention gets it explained all over again. Or perhaps just to get to the final few minutes when John Titor was pontificating about how Rintarou is unique and special in his ability to remember…and as such has the ABILITY TO CHANGE THE WORLD. Now that’s some pretty heady stuff, and potential a real game-changer for the series. Up until now, it’s been more of a bunch of amateurs playing around, almost like a game. But throw in the concept of being able to save the world, and that’s a pretty heavy yoke to throw around our mad scientist’s neck.
Speaking of our absent time traveler, so far John Titor has been viewed as some sort of distant advisor/guide…but what do we really know about him? Just a few phosphors on the computer screen…could be anybody. Which arouses great suspicion from me, at least. What are Titor’s true intentions?
Oh, and let’s not forget the earlier suspicions about the girls that compose Hououin’s Harem. I’m less apprehensive about Kurisu, who may just be caught up in this nonsense. But Ms. Autistic-Girl-Who-Only-Talks-Through-The-Cellphone remains on my radar…and especially Ms. Part-Time-Girl, who is so obviously more than she seems.
Seven episodes in, and we’re still waiting for something to really happen, something new, some sort of actual honest to god conflict. Steins;Gate is still stuck in the exposition phase of the first act, and it’s really wearing thin.
The verdict: 
- My earlier reviews:
- Info resources:
- If you like this, you might also like: Noein or Future Diary
Sampling of Online Reviews:
- “Wow, some actual action! The first part had me worried that it would settle into another slow episode, but about 1/3rd through things finally picked up to just about the right speed for me. Finally, some actual time travel! For a show about time travel, we haven’t had a lot of, you know, time travel. Unless you’re a banana.” – Metanorn
- “Once again another all right episode, and as I’ve said before this gradual story progression is really something that I’m liking about this series. Where this time around we saw the experiments continue in far more definitive way and had none other than John Titor bestow upon Okabe the responsibility of saving world.” – Gin no Dangan
- “Steins; Gate truly is an anime that leads the viewer to actually think, I think that is the reason why I love this show so much compared to other. I feel more involved watching it than some other anime where you just watch ninja’s fight each other. I only hope the show will continue on his path to excellence and won’t go downhill halfway through.” – Angry Anime Bitches
- “Now Kyouma is the Messiah. Great, another anime drawing its lingo from that bloody bible again…It’s not that I necessarily dislike this lingo as a plot device, when used where relevant and revealed carefully. Even in Steins;Gate, the plot built up carefully to making such as statement so that it didn’t come off as ridiculous. But it’s when lesser anime try to follow this lead, they stumble horribly and become pretentious messes.” – The Cart Driver
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