Review of Steins;Gate 0

I initially watched Steins;Gate 0 back in 2018. I am a massive fan of the original and recall myself being very disappointed by Steins;Gate 0. I was 17 years old at the time and figured I'd give the show a rewatch now that I'm 5 years older. Unfortunately everything I thought about the show back then holds true to this day, and I do not recommend this show to anyone. Especially not to big fans of the original Steins;Gate like I am. The main issue with Steins;Gate 0 is not what it doesn't have, because it does actually have a lot going on (too much infact). It's the way in the plot is paced and presented to the viewers that's the issue. Not only are major events very easily swept under the rug, but there are times when the anime just drops a bombshell on the viewer only for that aspect not to be explored ever again. Mysteries are left completely unanswered and the characters just decide that they do not care. This adds to the disjointed nature of Steins;Gate 0.

Over the course of its (23 episodes of) runtime Steins;Gate 0 tackles several routes from the VN and it results in a structure that's very peculiar. There will be 3 mundane, or even boring episodes followed by a pretty strong episode where something actually happens. The issue is that after that strong episode, the plotline will be considered finished even though there are still lots of questions left for the viewers. It's a jarring experience and it feels like the show will actively step on the brakes whenever it's too close to getting interesting. The original Steins;Gate did not have this issue. Once it got going, it kept going all the way until the last episodes. Sure, not every episode was equally interesting, but there was not a moment where Steins;Gate slammed the brakes like this show does.

This perfectly leads into my second point, which is that Steins;Gate 0 is poorly directed. I don't know how this came to be, but the presentation of Steins;Gate 0 is completely flat compared to the original. Shots are static and backgrounds are very safely drawn. The result is that there's nothing interesting to look at. The original Steins;Gate definitely did not nail the art all the way through but it was willing to take risks in camera angles, artstyle and general presentation. I'm sure everyone recalls the famous scene in episode 8 of Steins;Gate where Okabe runs home and the colour scheme turns completely monochromatic with every piece of the foreground having thick outlines. You're not going to find anything along those lines here. The closest we get to creative direction is when the animators are looking for a new way to sexualise the show's female cast.

The quality of the art is inconsistent at best and horrendous at worst. In general Steins;Gate 0 lacks in between frames which makes animations appear choppy and stiff. This issue comes to light particularly during action sequences, where not only we have physically impossible situations happen like heads being chopped off with someone's bare hands, but these action sequences are genuinely so poorly animated that it's hard to enjoy them even if you let logic go out of the window.

Another thing that Steins;Gate 0 gets wrong is plausability. The original Steins;Gate is not realistic, because time travel is unrealistic. There is no theoretical explanation for time travel so it's the show's responsibility to lay out the ground rules for the universe a show is set in and make these rules plausible for the audience. The issue with Steins;Gate 0 is that the scope of what they're expecting me to believe is very different. Steins;Gate 0 will have any skeptical viewer go "well that's awfully convenient" more often than they'd like. There are so many strange phenomena that are just force fed to the audience with no real foundation and a critical viewer is just supposed to accept them. The very concept of Amadeus is a great example. It's an AI that's indistinguishable from a human, but the show completely quashes any concerns a viewer might have like "what it's like for her" or "is this ethical?" by straight up telling the viewers not to think about it and just accept it as it is. The show has several instances of completely impossible things suddenly being possible within the narrative that it's hard not to raise an eyebrow or two as you're watching.

In terms of the cast, it should be no surprise that Steins;Gate 0 is a major downgrade compared to the original. However, Okabe's character in Steins;Gate 0 is actually quite good. I find his demeanor very understandable for someone like him and there's nothing I'd change about his personality. Maho Hiyajo, while lacking the charm of someone like Kurisu and being unable to fill that void, is not offensively poorly written. I think giving Okabe a character to talk to who also knew Kurisu was a good decision and she's a welcome addition to the story even if a little bland. My problems are with the rest of the cast. It feels like everyone (and I mean everyone) other than Okabe was intentionally made to be less interesting. Meanwhile they padded the cast with useless characters who serve no purpose. Yuki, Nakase and Kaede have nothing going for them. Their sole purpose in the dialogue is to fill up the dialogue and nothing else. Nakase has a subplot surrounding her, but it only spans for half an episode and serves absolutely no purpose in the narrative. Mayuri and Hashida also got pretty significant downgrades. Mayuri does nothing over the course of the show and any interesting features she had in the original were stripped from her. She was bubbly, cheerful and yet emotionally intelligent in the original and in Steins;Gate 0 she's treated as filler. Hashida was always a nerd, but in this story he's straight up a pedophile even making creepy comments about Nae, a literal child.

With all of that being said, Steins;Gate 0 does actually have some highs. I think the show has a couple of very strong episodes that even fare well against the high bar set by the original. My problem is that those strong episodes are surrounded by dirt. While not perfect, the concluding episodes of the season are definitely passable and if the entire season had maintained that standard of quality I think I could have considered this a worthy sequel the original. However, as it stands Steins;Gate 0 feels like a hollow shell compared to the original and it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth to write about it.