HomeAnimeSteins;Gate Collection 2 - Anime Review

Steins;Gate Collection 2 – Anime Review

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mma6752brTitle: Steins;Gate Collection 2
Covers: Episodes 13-25
Published by: Madman Entertainment (Australia) | Funimation Entertainment (North America)
Based on: Visual Novel by Nitro+ and 5pb
Audio: Hybrid Dub
Subtitles: English
Runtime: 325 Minutes
Cost: $59.95 on EITHER DVD or Blu-ray
Special Thanks: Madman for kindly providing me with Blu-ray sample of this release

The microwave is a time machine and the girl gets shot. Okarin sends another text. Nukes another banana. The mad scientist meddled with forces he never should have known about. The girl gets run over by a car. Okarin goes back to stop the bleeding. Dashes madly through the dark streets. Races against time. The girl gets hit by a train. Failures and flatlines multiply in a ghastly pattern of repetition. Over and over and over again until sanity is stripped away and you start to notice shapes slipping in and out of the shadows. SERN. The girl gets stabbed before and after the kissing. Okarin grows frantic. Bodies pile up around him. SERN is getting closer. The girl is bleeding. A Top Secret Future Gadget Lab member from the future is their only hope. The blood sprays and the girl dies. SERN destroys the world. Kills all the girls. There is time for one last try. Now Okarin bleeds but he won’t stop. Ever. The microwave is a time machine and the girl always gets shot.

Welcome to the second half of the Steins;Gate anime series, an adaptation of the (now) multiplatform visual novel series developed by Nitroplus and 5pb. Having come out of my initial review with a high score of A – I will admit this was one release by Madman Entertainment that I was excited to get my hands on, and did not disappoint. To read my original review of Steins;Gate Collection 1, just click HERE.

For fair warning before getting into this review, by reading this article it is assumed you have watched the first collection as spoilers will be unavoidable – and this is a series I recommend going in with as little knowledge of the plot as possible. Without further ado, lets review!

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Storyline

Rintaro Okabe and the rest of the team at the Future Gadget Lab had done it… not only had they succeeded in developing a time machine which allowed text messages (D-Mails) to be sent into the past but also developed a time machine for the mind – to send ones memories a few days into the past. Unfortunately, during a party to celebrate this a team of ‘Rounders‘ (Lead by lab member Moeka) assumingly hired by SERN barge in to take over their possessions and themselves…. all except Mayuri who is deemed as not needed and killed. Okabe takes the chance in using their new time leap machine to send himself back in time to prevent this attack from occurring. As it becomes clear that Mayuri’s death irrespective of how it happens is unavoidable…. this leads Okabe to discover answers about SERN, what the D-Mails have caused and in turn attempts to set things right…. if only it were simple.

While the anime adaptation of Nitroplus/5pb’s first science adventure game Chaos;Head was lacking – potentially due to the lack of episodes made available to an extensive plot, I think the team behind Steins;Gate (anime) made good use of the 25-episode slot allocated to it – even if there is still much content not covered (Due to the multiple route nature of a visual novel). This is definitely a much darker set of episodes which loses quite a lot of the more light-hearted tone of the first-half – as Okabe is forced to keep sending himself back in time, testing him mentally as he seeks the assistance of the others in order to reach a conclusion where everyone survives.

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While some of the episodes do take the same character-focused approach as the first half – it sort of gives justification to including these episodes in the first-half and provides ample development for characters whom may otherwise not have received much otherwise. On the note of character focus, while all the characters are present at some point the only characters whom receive consistent attention are Okabe and Kurisu, with all other characters aside from Suzuha Amane more or less taking secondary character roles not matter how important they were to the first-half (Surprisingly even as a character of important – Mayuri doesn’t appear much in my opinion).

While the series may sometimes drag on a bit, for the most part Steins;Gate provides a complex and creative concept bundled nicely in the anime format. With plenty of surprises along the way, a once again interesting (Although at times underutilized) character cast and a perhaps predictable but well implemented conclusion…. Steins;Gate Collection 2 was equally as good as the first and I think still deserves a place on my Top 3 North American anime releases of the year 2012.

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Design and Music

As the second collection of Steins;Gate was originally aired sequentially to the episodes of collection one, there are no notable differences in terms of design quality between the two. While the cover artwork of this release highlights the notable graphical style of the visual novel series – they were not able to replicate it for the anime format (For an example of the visual novel aesthetic – check out an example opening sequence HERE). Other than that, the visuals are of a standard I would have expected.

There is actually a second opening sequence to the last few episodes, although this is simply the second part of the song Hacking to the Gate by Kanako Ito. While it was a simple shift it was a welcome modification and still proved to be an enjoyable song. In addition, two new ending sequences are used for individual episodes – “Sky Clad Observer by Kanako Ito” for Episode 23 and “Another Heaven also by Kanako Itou” for Episode 24 which were both solid songs (Both sourced from the visual novel). Other than this, the music and voice acting was of the same standard as the first collection – and I encourage you to read my earlier review to find out more.

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Extra Content

Funimation Entertainment once again provide the same sort of stuff that they provided with the first collection including:

  • Episode Commentaries
  • Textless Opening Songs – Hacking to the Gate Version 1 and Version 2
  • Textless Closing Songs – Toki Tsukasadoru Juuni No Meiyaku and Sky Clad Observer
  • US Trailer
  • Trailers for Level E, Serial Experiments Lain, Fafner, Texhnolyze, Soul Eater, Sengoku Basara, Aria the Scarlet Ammo and Funimation.com. Granted my review is off the Blu-ray edition, I expect Madman Entertainment to include their own trailers on the DVD release.

The Final Word

The good thing is, this is not the end for the anime releases in Steins;Gate. While the main storyline may seem to be over, a film titled Steins;Gate: Fuka Ryouiki no Déjà vu is set for release in Japan I believe next month, so we could potentially be seeing this released down the track by Funimation (and then Madman Entertainment hopefully). As for the actual visual novel releases internationally… they are up in the air but I would keep an eye out for JAST USA in terms of a potential PC release.

Steins;Gate was an enjoyable and interesting anime series, and one I think is worthwhile watching if you are interested in the genre.

Final Score
Storyline / Character Development: A
Design: A-
Music/Voice Acting: A-
Extras: B
Personal Preference: A
Overall Score: A

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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