Review of Steins;Gate 0

A sequel by it's definition, is a piece of media which it continues the story, can expand the world, it's characters from it's predecessor and yes by definition Steins;Gate 0 is an interesting look back into the Steins;Gate franchise, this sequel for LA is a special case of a meandering sequel that was rather disappointing but had it's slight glimpses of greatness. Look, LA loved Steins;Gate and thought it was masterpiece of a time travel anime back in the day and still do and Steins;Gate 0 WON'T tarnish this fact all due to how Steins;Gate 0 fits into the timeline and has only like one smallaffect to the original series, but as much as LA wanted to see more of the Steins;Gate franchise, this wasn't how LA would see it as.

Mild Spoilers ahead...

Steins;Gate 0 focuses on Houon- *ahem* Okabe Rintaro in the timeline where Okabe stopped time traveling after his botched attempt in saving Kurisu and essentially choose Mayuri over Kurisu, Okabe became sad non-scientist but it's not until he meets Maho Hiyajo voiced by Sayuri Yahagi an interpreter for the forum presentation of Amadeus, an AI able to store a person's memories, Steins;Gate 0 is how this all leads up to that video text message from the original series.

LA might as well get those "glimpses of brilliance" out of the way first. So what Steins;Gate 0 does to expand it's world is through it's character development, new and old, some of the best character development comes in the form of Daru as he tries to both connect with Suzuha BUT also Yuki Amane, if there was someone who got his lion-share of character development then it's Daru and he mostly deserved it considering the original series where he was usually the butt of most jokes or was mostly system control. Because of Daru getting the limelight it also gave more to Suzuha and her dilemma's with the time travel machine as well her own gripes about Daru and Yuki as a result but more importantly what she is gonna do once the time machine is fixed. New characters like the aforementioned Maho gets development, mainly due to her being a colleague of Kurisu gave herself something of an inferiority complex to the liking of Salieri to contrast with Kurisu as Mozart and looking into Mayuri's view of the entire situation and the events that occurred within Steins;Gate 0 that better than her original series counterpart due to her larger involvement in the plot and her breaking out of her *ahem* hostage persona. Now LA did leave out Okabe in all this, as his disdain of even using or mentioning the time machine having dire consequences comes up thus his disengagement to the bigger scope of the plot, but in all seriousness all this is leading the plot to Okabe finally re-emerging as Houonin Kyoma and seeing that transition was done extremely well. As for what Steins;Gate 0 did for the time travel aspect, LA did find some of it's uses unique or at least subverting expectations in how it was used and at least not interrupting or largely affecting other timelines all that much to make it a stable timeline as much as the time travel wasn't used all that much until the latter half but still it still stands.

So what made Steins;Gate 0 the "meandering sequel" that LA felt after watching it, well as much as LA saw the character development of several new and old characters greatly expanded on, it did at times feel like filler to pad out the anime, but good filler nonetheless, the other more annoying element of Steins;Gate 0 is that of the tired cliffhanger, that of which REPEATS itself for lesser and lesser shock value, look LA felt the major cliffhanger during the near final arc of Steins;Gate 0 was done to death and fine "repeating" makes sense because time travel sequel but it wears out it's welcome as soon as the second iteration, the other cliffhangers however doesn't get mileage as it's either dealt with rather quickly or the build up isn't worth it as we ALREADY KNOW IT ALREADY due to all the obvious hints given to us during the build up. Kagari...Kagari voiced by Megumi Han was just a major plot obstacle and fillery character to meet a quota for LA as well. LA really didn't see much reasoning as to why she was even in Steins;Gate 0, yes we find out later but even then, she for LA was something of a double agent, both in-universe and meta-wise in terms of what she was doing here, look, she WAS suppose to fill in for the Kurisu stand in appearance and all but in terms of the larger plot, she had links with Mayuri and Suzuha but it's when she finally KNOWS what she means to Mayuri is when she becomes the major obstacle for BOTH villain and Okabe that she was just the unpredictable factor that NO ONE WANTED. Yes we get backstory on her and she has major involvement in the plot, but all in all, LA saw Kagari as such a wasted potential with little or confusing turning table of heel-face turns that LA just didn't care about her and even remembered her all that much as a result. On speaking of the villains...well let's get that out of the way, in the original series, the "villain" was FATE ITSELF, but in Steins;Gate 0, it's one cackling megalomaniac scientist-like villain who takes centre stage and really we knew he/she was the villain with how much Steins;Gate 0 built itself up with the inclusion of this new character as well all the hints leading up to him/her and guess what, he/she just wants world domination using the time machine to kick of World War III that of Suzuha's dark timeline, if anything fine he.she is suppose to contrast to Houonin Kyoma in this respect but how this major villain is portrayed is NOTHING compared to fate itself and what this even meant in the grand scheme of Steins;Gate universe, the major villain outright is a small blimp and an almost embarrassment to Steins;Gate 0.

Animation and Voice work were all to be expected really. the animation done once again by White Fox still had it's original counterpart aesthetics down pat with it's intrinsically distinct character designs and the such, the fair few "fights" shown in Steins;Gate 0 was actually somewhat gorier than it's original counterpart to what some of the characters are capable of..well it's not the darkest timeline for nothing but still LA was surprised by it to say the least how edgier Steins;Gate gotten. Voice acting wise, Mamoru Miyano gets the bench due to him being Sad Okabe but him getting back to Houonin Kyoma briefly was great on his part, Yukari Tamura, Tomokazu Seki (Daru's VA) and Kana Hanazawa gotten mileage due to their inflated screentime and LA didn't really mind it. Megumi Han as Kagari was fine as the amnesiac girl but like LA felt about Kagari as a character, Megumi Han was underutilized even in Kagari's majorly involved plotlines and Sayuri Yahagi as Maho was decent enough and she had similarly good chemistry with most of the cast, especially Tomokazu Seki and Mamoru Miyano. Overall, production wise, Steins;Gate 0 was pretty strong on this front at the very least...LA just couldn't say the same for it's plot and characters -sigh-

Steins;Gate 0 was an extremely hard sequel for LA to judge, with LA being nostalgia blinded at first seeing all the characters back in whatever form or different timelines etc. but taking off those blinding glasses as LA kept seeing Steins;Gate 0 aping the original series, for both good and bad reasonings as LA listed above and really as much as Steins;Gate 0 doesn't affect the original series, expanded the Steins;Gate universe and it's characters for better but with fillery execution, and for the most part, keeps it's time travel aspects within it's own rules with new time travel elements to keep that stable timeline, LA just can't help but seeing Steins;Gate 0 as "meandering". Sure you can see the original series as meandering during the first half as well but during all those "meandering fillery" moments, had itself hidden plot elements that latter on had a flow on effect and a larger scope to the plot at hand that made both it's meandering moments and it's time travel aspects be more cohesive as a result, Steins;Gate 0 on the other hand was a meandering mess as it tried to develop it's new and old characters, tried to bring in hints but hints we could easily predict and it wasn't until the latter half when anything truly happened that had some connective tissue to it's previously mentioned plot lines and true this might be because of Okabe's reluctance to shun time traveling in any means possible but that plot point doesn't excuse what it resulted in...a tired and worn out cliffhanger that was aped from the original, different scenario, same "defying fate"...this time longer and more drawn out AND an embarrassment of a "major" villain in human form that made Houonin Kyoma look professional.

Steins;Gate 0 wasn't the Darkest Timeline for no reason BUT LA will say as much mud LA flung at this sequel and LA's multitudes of problems LA had for this sequel it overall as much of a meandering mess it was, LA just found it...just "ok" and that is probably the worst thing to say about a sequel trying to expand it's universe and all that results in is an "ok".