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Taking place in Tokyo, Japan during the summer of 2010, Steins;Gate mainly follows the character Rintaro Okabe (J. Michael Tatum), a university student and self-proclaimed mad scientist. He is the founder and head of the Future Gadget Laboratory, a small organization based in an apartment dedicated to creating new technologies. Along with him are his long-time friend from childhood Mayuri Shiina (Ashly Burch) and expert computer hacker Itaru "Daru" Hashida (Tyson Rinehart). Rintaro is interested in the possibilities of time travel and attends a conference on the subject, but some strange events start side-tracking him until the whole world seems to change. However, only he can remember what the world was like before the change. Things become even more confusing for him when he encounters the young scientific genius Kurisu Makise (Trina Nishimura) whom he had previously seen dead before the world changed. Meanwhile, at the Future Gadget Laboratory, Rintaro and Daru's experiments on a microwave oven seem to have given it the ability to send text messages into the past.I first heard about Steins;Gate a few months ago through the original video game, originally released in 2009, that is available on Steam. I have always liked time travel as a mechanic in storytelling and the video game interested me. After playing through it, I was not disappointed and immediately fell in love with the interesting and complex storyline and the characters. It was inevitable that I would eventually check out the anime adaptation.The anime adaptation follows the game's story fairly closely, though there are necessarily some scenes that were eliminated and details left out for timing. Still, the core story, following the "true ending" in the video game, is followed faithfully. That is the main attraction of a series like this. It is difficult to really talk about the brilliance of the story without going into spoilers, but I will give some idea as to what this story is about. As mentioned earlier, time travel is one of the main themes of this series. Rintaro uses this technology to make alterations to the past and notices what kind of effects they have, though not everything goes according to plan. Throughout the story there is the question if what they are doing is ethically correct, so there is a sort-of philosophical element to the storytelling. I also really enjoyed the integration of real-life elements in the story, most notably by making the story of John Titor (an individual famous for making postings on the Internet in the early 2000s claiming to be a time traveler from the future) an essential part of the plot. While some aspects of the show may be bizarre to the Western viewer without a decent knowledge of Japanese pop culture or anime in general, it does not really detract from the story too much. The science fiction element and emotional responses of the characters are what really drives the story.That is another bright spot of this anime: the characters. The cast itself is rather minimalist with only around a dozen characters, but they are well-written and memorable. Almost all of the characters go through their own journeys and experiences that reveal more about them than first appears and this keeps the show interesting. To take a few examples there is the main character of Rintaro who starts off by acting obnoxious and immature, but as the events of the story go on and he is tested again and again as he experiences the consequences of his decisions you find yourself rooting for him to ultimately succeed. Mayuri comes off as an airhead in the beginning, but as you learn more about her background and her relationship with others you start appreciating her good heart and honesty. Moeka Kiryu (Jessica Cavanaugh) is introduced as a rather mysterious person and socially inept, but her presence in the story becomes a major turning point and, despite what she does, by the end you sympathize with her as well. These are just some examples I can talk about without spoilers. Make no mistake, by the time you finish watching this series each major character will leave their mark on you.When it comes to the animation itself, I am at a disadvantage since I am not that familiar with anything comparable. Aside from some Japanese anime films, this is the first anime television series I have watched since my days of watching things like Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! when I was younger. Overall, however, I enjoyed it for what it is. This is primarily a character-driven story so there are no big action sequences. Still, as a means of telling its story, it comes off well.The music is generally okay, though I must say it felt inferior to the superlative music composed for the video game.This box set itself contains the complete series on both DVD and Blu-ray. This includes all of the original twenty-four episodes of the series plus a bonus OVA episode that acts as a postscript to the main story. There is the option to watch the dubbed version done by Funimation or the original Japanese voice work with subtitles. The original Japanese is a treat for those that have already played the video game as the main cast from the game reprises their roles for this anime. The dub is also pretty good, though with the usual adjustments for cultural differences. The Blu-ray version, which is the one I viewed, looks absolutely great with a nice, sharp image. I suppose the only disappointment here is the lack of bonus features. Aside from some trailers, the only bonuses to speak of are some audio commentaries on four random episodes done by the English voice actors and some other crew at Funimation. I usually like commentaries because of the insight offered into the creative process, but in this case it is overwhelmingly uninteresting as they just talk about voice acting and their own backgrounds.In conclusion, this is a fantastic series that is likely to be enjoyed by those that like science fiction stories involving time travel. Indeed, this is easily one of the best time travel stories it has ever been my pleasure to experience.
