Review of Steins;Gate 0

Well, here we are. Steins;Gate 0 has now ended. I have to say, it's been a long time since I've been so caught up by an anime. Although SG0 is far from perfect, it lives up to its reputation as a prequel/sequel of Steins;Gate. STORY Steins;Gate 0 is a prequel set in the future. I really don't need to say more to show how ingenious this is! Steins;Gate 0 takes place after the first season (minus the last episodes), in the Beta Timeline where Shiina Mayuri is safe but Makise Kurisu is dead. Okabe Rintarou is broken due to his numerous time travels where he kept seeing hisfriends die in front of him, and this season focuses on his trying to live his life, knowing fully well that World War III is approaching.
This is basically the story of the Okabe that sent the video mail in the end of season 1.

Now, the pitch is really interesting. It dives a bit more into the apocalyptic future they kept talking about during SG. Besides, SG0 includes various new storylines, entering the themes of brainwashing and AI.
The problem is, these storylines don't really tie up well. Before being an anime, SG0 was a VN, so they merged together all the storylines of the game into a single one. Sadly, this mix up isn't homogeneous, at all.

On the contrary, the rythme of each episode vary a lot. Some of them are really fast paced, while nothing barely happens in some others.
Now, this season makes up for this problem with a lot of awesome ideas. I'm not spoiling anything here, so I'll just say that many moments are exceptional.

ART
While the first season was quite disgusting to watch, this one is very clean. The animation could be better but hey, we don't watch Steins;Gate for good fights.

SOUND
The openings and endings are excellent, and the OST is... kind of the same as in the first season. There are some variations, but we get back the themes of the first season, which are great.

CHARACTER
Okabe is a broken man and tries to live a quiet life, while Suzuha and the other Lab Members try to change the future. New characters appear, like the American Professors and a student, Mahô, who used to be the "rival" of Makise Kurisu. Mahô is tormented by Kurisu's death, and she learns to deal with her grief by meeting Okabe (who's also grieving for Kurisu).
Anyway, there's a lot of different characters, and what I really enjoyed is the fact that most of them do find themselves useful at some point.

ENJOYMENT
While I am disappointed that we don't get that much deeper into World War III, I really loved the characters and the overall story. Although the many storylines make this season quite confused, this season totally makes up for it with brillant ideas. It also ties up very well with the first season.