Review of Steins;Gate 0

As I finish my ongoing binge of the Steins;Gate series, I find myself here. I'm glad I watched this by release date rather than following a supposed chronological order found online. While I didn't end the Steins;Gate series with the best ending that is the original, I feel that going back to episode 24 of the original would have left me detached from Kurisu if I would've watched this before, as she isn't in this season as much. My recommendation is to watch it by release date. Now, on to the review. Steins;Gate 0 isn't a masterpiece, but it's still pretty great. Since this is thestart of the bad timeline, it doesn't match the greatness of the original. At the start, we resume from Episode 23B. Okabe chose to live in a way that honored Kurisu's sacrifice, but it affected him deeply, leaving him as a depressed Okabe rather than Kyoma, while allowing the World War 3 future to progress.

I'm not going to lie, a lot of the first few episodes are build-up, introducing new characters and showing where existing characters currently stand. While much of it is good in its own way, the truly amazing episodes start about halfway through the series. The story picks up significantly at that point, gun violence, fights, heartfelt moments, and best of all, we get time travel shenanigans again. There are some odd points in the first half where important events are brushed aside in the next episode as if they didn't matter, but I can overlook that thanks to the strong second half. I can say I almost love it as much as the original because everything starts picking back up around that point with no time to sulk situations. I don't want to spoil too much for those who haven't watched this yet. And while the ending isn't as good as the original it's still a pretty good ending.

Opening and Ending: While the song from the original will always be a bop I love the opening of this season as well. Definitely adding it to my anime opening/ending playlist. The ending songs didn't hit as good but they're alright.

Overall: 9/10. It could've been a masterpiece, but that's alright. Steins;Gate 0 was good in its own way, and I love that I got to see another alternative timeline.