Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「Hacking to the Gate」 by いとうかなこ (Itou Kanako)
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼
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「始まりと終わりのプロローグ」 (Hajimari to Owari no Purorōgu)
“Prologue of the Beginning and End”
So who didn’t get this show? Yes, yes, I see a lot of.. nothing because I’m looking at a monitor, but I can guess most people with no previous knowledge of the story have really no concrete idea of what happened. Don’t worry, I’m in the same boat.
At the basic level, the events over the course of the episode seem to take place in an interval of one day. Okabe Rintarou (Miyano Mamoru), or “Okarin” (or Hououin Kyouma), an eccentric poor “mad” scientist, is similar in many ways to Satou from NHK ni Youkoso, except that Okarin has a goal in mind. What that is, he doesn’t exactly know, and I’m not supposed to know either, but because of the preview, we now know he will create a time machine with the microwave that can only spin backwards and make green gel bananas. The agency, while currently a figment of conspiracy in his mind (again, Satou), really will be after him and his invention, but as of now, only fragments of the truth are shown, which makes the episode sort of “wtf did I just watch.”
Makise Kurisu (Imai Asami) dying and “reviving,” her implication of a past meeting, memory conflicts occuring in Okarin’s mind, the random scream (guess who it is), static phones, and a startling experience of an alternate plane with no people are markers that the timeline has already been tampered with. The first episode merely shows this specific time interval in the eyes of a clueless Okarin, one that has not yet been involved. As for details, there’s a multitude of them to gather, such as a quick glimpse of Mayuri visiting someone’s grave, but none of them at this point really says much. One speculation I have is that the urgent message to Kurisu was probably what could have prevented her death, but it’s a bit pointless to expand further when the episode was just not meant to be fully understood until a presumed later point in the series.
Although the plot in a time travel series can easily be an excuse to not focus much on the characters, the cast of Steins;Gate doesn’t seem to disappoint. Miyano returns in a more mature fashion than his previous endeavors, on occasion reminding me of his work as Light in Death Note, so it’s a throwback seeing him play a half-maniacal character once more. The seemingly useless childhood friend Shiina Mayuri, brought to life by the voice-I’ll-never-get-sick-of Hanazawa Kana, appears with him in the empty plane, bringing about some suspicion of her actual nature, and generally induces much of the dialogue and humor from Okarin. The third member Itaru Hashida (Seki Tomokazu) comes off as your typical lazy otaku (except with coding skill), whose usage of Shiina for a perverse line made me chuckle, so I like him for that.
The first episode wasn’t really too gripping, due to confining itself with pure exposition, and the jarring bits and pieces of seemingly irrelevant scenes might even bore a lot of viewers. I’ve grown a thick skin to extreme exposition in all sorts of media, and if you could sit through any season of Index, this is a piece of cake. The story’s obviously got potential, and although I’m wary of screw-ups due to the limiting factor of time travel, I’m a bit more confident due to it having an already established source material. I couldn’t possibly avoid an anime about time travel, so I’m mighty curious to see how far they’ll actually take the concept.
>mfw there’s an arc to search for the metal oopa because it somehow saves the world
Also, since the story heavily relies on suspense and the unknown, please use spoiler tags if you must, or just simply avoid them from this point onward. :]
ED Sequence
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ED: 「刻司ル十二ノ盟約」 (Toki Tsukasadoru Juuni no Meiyaku) by ファンタズム（FES cv.榊原ゆい） (PHANTASM (FES cv. Sakakibara Yui))
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼
this reminds me a bit of doni darco. the whole going back in time thing
You mean Donnie Darko?
How much did they pay you to write that?
a simple “mind-fuck” episode
wait till we get to the latter part where things really get messy
and this sure is to be the best show of the season for me, every aspect is perfect ^^
Hmm, I’m in for a bit of mind fuck. From what I’ve gathered from the preview, it seems interesting enough with nice looking art.
Eccentric
I heard this series is some way related to Chaos;Head, evev though I never watched it…
Even the opening sequence didn’t make sense, but I enjoyed Itou Kanako’s singing as usual. I hope the single gets released soon.
from what I know, this show has no direct relation to Chaos;Head aside from the fact that original games are made by the same companies. and also the fact that they both has delusional science as a theme. if you like this show, I recommend you to go check out Chaos;Head too 🙂
the one who sing the ED song is one of chaos;head heroine
From what I understand it’s set a year after the events of Chaos Head. Since the game is still in Japanese I can’t be sure of that though.
Well, it IS set approximately a year after the events happened in Chaos;Head.
hurray for blogging this, Kiiragi!!!
without playing (or rather, reading) the game, all I can say is this show creates a similar atmosphere like Chaos;Head did before… and sure it has a lot of potential 🙂 hopefully it will create a even better mind blowing experience than Chaos;Head though.
and of course, the best line of the episode is “your banana is flat…” :3
Hehe, the sub I watched translated it as floppy, much more perverse and instantly put “Fat Otaku” on my favorite new character list.
Ooh, not knowing anything about this story makes this to look like a real fun watch.
Question: by source material, you’re referring to the game right? Or is there another series or other form of media that is connected to this one. Like Chaos;head, is that related to this at all or do they just have similar names because it’s the same studio?
Yeah, the game. I’ve read that Chaos;Head really has nothing to do with this show, except that it takes place one year before, and they’re both in the same worlds. Other than that, nothing.
Actually just wikipedia’d it (Why didn’t I do that sooner…) and Chaos;head took place in ’08 while Steins;Gate (from now on I’m just referring to them as C;H and S;G) takes place summer of last year and in two different cities.
I’m thinking you’re right and they’re not related. I hope they’re not because I don’t want to have to marathon through another series to enjoy this one.
They’re not related story-wise. They’re just created by the same people.
Uhh I don’t get this episode at all. I think I have the right idea they’re trying to get out but it’s hard to wrap your brain around it. The memory relapse thing is really screwing me over. Also the random street with no one on it didn’t make sense. Hopefully things will clear up because I really think this show has potential.
before I know madoka
I’m sure this will be best show of the year
even now Steins;gate still have potential to exceeding madoka
this series is not for everyone and will definitely be hated by some for sure.
but one thing is certain, Chaos;Head’s anime adaptation can’t even be compared to this. Even though it’s still Stein’s first episode. It’s like comparing “shit” to a “crown” ^^
Now this is awesome. lol Dark theme anime.
After what happen to Madoka, this is gonna do for me.
I’ve seen Chaos;Head, I’m wise to Stein’s;Gate’s tricks.I shall not be fooled again,
I WON’T LET YOU MIND RAPE ME THIS TIME!
Plus, I saw Donnie Darko and S.Darko
I’m wise to your scheme 5pb and Nitroplus!
love the first ep. it kinda gives a Boogiepop or Lain feeling to it
The first episode was… alright I guess. But hey, I’ve survived through both Index seasons and Merry, so I can live through one episode of pure exposition.
To be entirely fair, Chaos;Head didn’t make very much sense at first, so I’m not put off by the near-total lack of coherency of this episode.
Lol after reading the first six chapters of the manga there is some mind fuck going on there
YYAAAAAY YOU PICKED IT UP <3 kiiragi =D
The trio reminds me of Satou, Misaki and Miyazaki haha. INBO!
I’ll definitely like this cast of quirky characters and the episode itself is quite intriguing.
Thanks for picking it up.
Wait, by picked up you mean you will blog it, or just watch it? Looking at the schedule S;G is still grey/uncovered.
I think I’ll leave that as mysterious as the show is.
Categories are the giveaway. If a series is filed under its own category and not simply Snapshots, regular coverage is heavily implied.
In other words, guys, this show is getting blogged by Kiiragi. ;3
weird, after i watch the first episode i felt that i watched it before and thought it an old anime, but now that i think about it. it probably a game i played before
this episode screwed my mind royally… hope we will find out new info soon!
Throughout the episode i found myself more concerned for Mayuri than the doctor. Her interest in collectables and showing her emotions on her face is very endearing
That’s just you falling for Hanazawa’s charm. It’s understandable.
feel the same way. might also be because of the design on the girls, they all seem mysterious and also their eyes….
Kana Hanazawa makes charaters into the best characters
Hello, just a quick question…
In scale of 1 to 10, how dark is the episode and how dark is the the anime going to be?
I’m OK with chaos;head so put that at 1 and please put madoka at 10.
I’m trying to find out if i can watch this or run like a madman from this anime… thanks.
So far? 0. It’s lighter and funnier than Chaos;Head’s first episode.
I finished chaos head a couple of weeks ago and its not so bad. just needed an epilogue about the characters lives. I also liked the ED song of it.
I wonder if there is a connection between this one and chaos head. it would be a bit more interesting if it does.
well this one isnt quite as gripping as I thought but will give it a couple more eps to make more sense of it. I could guess that he got into something like a time paradox so he changed the fate of kurisu and got back in time somehow.
Insanity and Paranoia just the way I like it….
well, this certainly held my A.d.d at bay. Much better than chaos head, and without all the dumb ahego faces!
If you don’t mind me asking, did someone in Japan send you the songs? I can’t find a single version of the episode with the songs in it and I assumed that there wouldn’t be one until Crunchyroll airs it.
I’m usually not adverse for story-building episodes, but this was quite boring. I’ll try one or two more episodes just because the preview sounded somewhat interesting, but I’m not holding out much hope.
this is not action anime
the rollercoaster will be in its peak at half of series
and after that shit will get real
Just because I said it was “quite boring” doesn’t mean I like anything but action anime… The main character talking to himself or babbling incoherently also didn’t help my impression of this show.
Now that’s what I call a mindfuck. I hope I won’t be regretting watching this series
Should be an interesting show for many to watch. 🙂
lol, I bid you good luck covering this anime Kiiragi.
Makes just about as much sense as Chaos;Head.
that’s just you
in my opinion this is the best performance mamoru miyano ever played!!!
wait for 5-6 episodes and you will be understand
The manga… made me feel lost. I hope this will be better than Chaos;Head. Both has … equally weird premise, but Chaos;Head execution is just lacking
As confusing as the first episode may have been, I’ve long since learned I’m better off sticking with a show for the long haul when time travel is concerned because I just know there are going to be a lot of perplexing issues that take a while to become resolved. In any case, I quite like Okarin. Still can’t decide if he’s genuinely a bit off, or if he’s just enthusiastically throwing himself into the mad scientist thing. Chaos;Head didn’t really do anything for me, but I’ll wait and see if Steins;Gate does a better job.
this is my next anime!!!!!!
#1 naruto
#2 john titor
http://steinsgate.tv/story/story01.html
so basically, an episode is divided into TIPS in their official site to keep track of the “events or things” that might change or will be important in the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVz_B9dbvXk
preview for episode 2, looks like they will only show this in their official youtube channel, anyways after seeing this, i’m excited for episode 2 ^^
damn. 2nd episode looks awesome. XDD i want more kurisu!!!!
A lot of people are saying the same wtf thing so I’m gonna watch it back to back with the second episode. Things might make more sense that way. D:
I stopped watching with that terrible laugh Okarin’s voice actor fed me. 🙁
When they show the OP, I’m going to switch the song with Chaos;Head’s OP, F.D.D, just to see how much it fits lol.
i get the feeling that Makise Kurise will be killed over and over again or they try to save her
i get this feeling that the one who made this wants us to understand how confusing time traveling(hehehe also the VN) is.
I can see this being as terrible as chaos;head was. But of course I’ll watch it anyway for the lolz. Yet another sub-par anime that hanazawa kana makes watchable
I’m really looking forward to the next episode. This type of anime really does appeal to me and I’m expecting a lot from it. I thoroughly enjoyed Chaos;Head, so I am hoping to get the same level of entertainment. I’m a huge fan of time travel based stories, so kampai!
I was especting something similar to Chaos;Head, but… meh… This episode sucked.
Series has potential. I liked the first episode. Banana part was cute. 😛
Animes like this can never be gauged off the first few episodes.
a Mind Fuck is when you get the stuff that’s happening and your playing around with the ideas but when you don’t get anything at all it’s called Mind Rape
if peoples understand everything at prologue
what’s the point of mystery genre in fiction!?!
A bigger problem i find is that many people overestimate their own intellect and blow on a show saying “Hah, look at my genius! Anime Y is shit because X is a plot hole!” until they get pointed out the exact places where the show already explained X or that X is not explained because its to be revealed later (aka “mystery”). Then it becomes “this is shit writing because i didn’t get it the first time!”.
Most recently saw it with Madoka. Really facepalming stuff sometimes.
what the hell happened there…
What Homura ? 😛
Thank you!!! My thoughts exactly with the manga. I have never been so confused in my life. Seriously, even if you read the manga, I doubt it’ll give you any new information (don’t read, just in case, until WAY later) I wanna watch this (but then again, I don’t). Such a conflicting feeling…
Confusing, but not impossible. Most of the episode makes sense if we really think about it, but the first few minutes really don’t for me.
Woooooo! Feels like a time traveling story done right. I imagine from the time traveler’s point of view this is what it would be like.
yipee!! kiiragi’s blogging it!! XDD
btw, quite confusing episode, really mind boggling. i haven’t played the VN, so i kinda thought okarin has gone mad. LOL.
Its like Donnie Darko (like previous poster said) and a bit of Shutter Island (where the guy was just running around in one of his fantasies)
So this series is like 24 episode long. I found the first episode quite engaging but it is not enough to get me hooked on this series. I will be watching the next few episode to see if this series is my cup of tea. If it turns out to be like Chaos;Head which I have a very hard time finishing, watching it up to like episode 8 then I can’t have myself to watch the remaining episodes putting it on-hold for more than 2 years now, then probably I wouldn’t be able to finish this too.
I forgot to mention this in my previous pose, but seeing that this is time-traveling and not some psychopath with multiple personality disorder, then I guess this is something to look forward to. My previous experience with time-travel series like Natsu no Arashi is very good with their execution of time-traveling hitting the right marks and the outcome very believable that it is very easy to understand and enjoy, I hope the same thing could happen to me in this series.
Again my point on this series is that I assume that everything that happen in episode 1 is something related to “time-traveling,” because if this is due to some psychopath with multiple personality disorder then I will have a hard time with this series.
dont worry
okabe is different
Man, I absolutely hate time traveling. It’s such a mind-fuck to figure out. For example, how the hell did this Okarin guy travel through time in the first place, if I can take the summary as truth the microwave should only be able to sent messages into the past.
As far as I can see there were 3 ‘time-lines’:
1) The beginning till the moment the scientist ran out of the building after he’s seen the crime scene.
2) The part where he’s in an empty city, assuming together with Mayuri, but even that’s not clear to me, because right before the OP there were several shots of crowded area’s, so I’m not sure if that was the moment everything returned normal again or if they just showed that to emphasize the fact that it was crowded before everything went to fuck?
3) The whole ‘let’s invent crazy shit’ part till the very end. If it’s physical time traveling, then it’s obvious why Kurisu was shown alive again, the whole ordeal following her death never took place in that particular time line we’re in at the moment.
Anyway, the only reason I’m watching is because it does intrigue me, it’s just irritating to follow, that’s all.
I sure hope they won’t play around too much with paradoxes though.
From what I got, Okarin unintentionally sent a message to the past which would presumably alter the future or the current time period he is in which in turn would somehow explain the random satellite falling and everything going to fuck. o.0
More like, he sent a message to Itaru but after that time lapse and that disappearing of people, suggesting a change in the sequence of events in time probably caused by some time machine possibly the time machine mentioned that was invented by that guy which basically changed what actually happened but somehow leaving Okarin’s perception of time and his memories in tact. He seemed surprised when he was told the date was the 28th, kind of showing that everything that he had heard was conflicting with his own account of what happened.
Looks like they’re going for a “multiple timelines happening at the same time” approach with this one. They did, or rather are doing, this with a certain manga called Let’s Lagoon, but this actually makes a little MORE sense.
I really don’t like shows like this, where you can’t grasp the basic plot or premise of the show from a single episode, but it’s not really a bad thing. Darker than Black was like this in a way, but the story was still pretty clear as the show went on. It’ll be bad if the lack of quality goes on for the whole series, though.