How many times have you started an anime, got halfway through the first episode, and then had to stop so you could watch the preceding series to understand it? That was the problem when I started Steins;Gate 0. The story of Rintaro Okabe is one of tragedy and what happens after one story is over and another one begins. Based on the best selling visual novel, this story concerns what happens when you get an unexpected second chance.
Absolute Zero
Rintaro used to be a time traveler. That was before he got involved with Kurisu Makise and had to sacrifice her life to stop a future war. Deciding to give up on time travel, he wanders aimlessly through life. Suzuha Amane, the time traveler from the future, has been pretending to be his sister. Rintaro has given up any interest in science, intending to just live out his life as an ordinary citizen. Fate steps in when he attends a science demonstration on artificial intelligence, an AI with a very familiar name.
Rintaro is interesting in anime as we see not the beginning of a hero, but the end of one. His adventures are behind him, which leaves him as a normal person, an idea that would have horrified his younger self. The presence of Suzuha is a constant reminder of his failure and the person he lost. There is still a ray of hope, and some of the “mad scientist” still intact. By deciding to become a tester of the new AI, Rintaro is still hoping that the mistakes he made can be undone.
Closed Epigraph
The AI, named Amadeus, can act like the person who has put their image as the interface. When Rintaro comes to the lab later, he finds the AI is now Kurisu. This is when the plot really gets going. Rintaro is now talking to something that sounds and looks like Kurisu, but it is not her. He discovers this when her thoughts on a subject differ from what she told him. Rintaro feels some degree of guilt, why else would he choose to be faced everyday with the person who he failed to save? One gets the sense that he believes that this program is the closest thing to her he will ever get.
This of course raises an interesting question: Is this version of Kurisu enough to still bring about the future war? It has the same thoughts as the original, and one wonders what happens if it starts to evolve. The series is still its early stages, so this question hasn’t been getting serious consideration yet. We do see that Rintaro is becoming very attached to it. Will our hero have the strength to delate her, causing her “death” once again?
X-Day Protocol
Three episodes in and I can’t wait to see where the story goes. If you haven’t watched any Steins, I suggest you start with Steins;Gate. This show will make a lot more sense if you do. I am also interested in the video game to see what was changed. Rintaro might have made some mistakes, but the future is still to be written.
