Anime Reviews (2010-2019): Steins;Gate 0 Part 1 (a Neo-Tokyo 2099 Anime on Blu-ray review)

“Steins;Gate 0” the overall series… not only is it highly recommended, it is also on my list for “Best Anime Series released on Blu-ray for 2019”!

TITLE: Steins;Gate 0: Part 1

DURATION: Episodes 23ß, 1-12 (300 Minutes)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (1:78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen), Dolby Digital, Audio: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0, Subtitles: English

RATED: 14+

COMPANY: FUNimation

RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2019

Directed by Kawamura Kenichi

Series Composition by Hanada Jukki

Music by Hyuga Moe, Nobusawa Nobuaki, Abo Takeshi

Original Character Design by huke

Character Design by Inayoshi Tomoshige

Art Director: Kodaka Takeshi

Chief Animation Director: Inayoshi Asako, Inayoshi Tomoshige

Anime Production: WHITE FOX

Featuring the voices of:

Imai Asami /Trina Nishimura as Kurisu Makise

Miyano Mamoru/J. Michael Tatum as Rintarō Okabe

Yamamoto Ayano/Brina Palencia as Nae Tennōji

Momoi Halko/Jad Saxton as Faris Nyannyan

Hanazawa Kana/Ashly Burch, Megan Shipman as Mayuri Shiina

Han Megumi/Alexis Tipton as Kagari Shiina

Kino Hina/Bryn Appril as Kaede Kurushima

Terasoma Masaki/Christopher R. Sabat as Yūgo “Mr. Braun” Tennōji

Saori Goto/Jessica Cavanagh as Moeka Kiryū

Tomokazu Seki/Tyson Rinehart as Itaru Hashida (Daru)

Yu Kobayashi/Lindsay Seidel as Ruka Urushibara

Yukari Tamura/Cherami Leigh as Suzuha Amane

Ueda Yoji/Christopher Wehkamp as Alexis Leskinen

Nishimura Maya/Emily Neves as Judy Reyes

Goto Saori/Jessica Cavanagh as Moeka Kiryu

Kobayashi Yu/Lindsay Seidel as Ruka Urushibara

Honda Mariko/Mikaela Krantz as Katsumi “Fubuki” Nakase

Yahagi Sayuri/Monica Rial as Maho Hiyajo

Seki Tomokazu/Tyson Rinehart as Itaru “Daru” Hashida

Tamura Yukari/Cherami Leigh as Amane Yuki

Okabe couldn’t save her.

Plagued by the guilt, his only solace lies with academia and with his friends who have been by his side from the start. But nothing’s ever easy. While Okabe struggles to leave his traumas in the past, he meets a familiar-faced AI that re-opens old wounds and could lead to a terrifying new future.

A few months have passed since members of the Future Gadgets Labs unlocked the power of time travel using a phone and an old microwave, but for Okabe Rintaro, has has crossed over hundreds of world lines, watching his friends suffering and dying many times for meddling with the fabric of the universe.

And each time Okabe has tried to save one, another one dies. Knowing the truth that his creation has led to a friend’s death, will Rintaro be able to prevent the death of Kurisu Makise? And can he do it without time traveling?

And who is Maho Hiyajo and what is her connection to Kurisu?

All this and more in the sequel to the popular “Steins;Gate”, titled “Steins;Gate 0”.

What is “Steins;Gate”?

With the success of their video game “Chaos;Head”, 5pb. and Nitroplus went to work on a new Japanese visual novel titled “Steins;Gate” which was released for the XBOX 360 in 2009 and followed by a release for Windows, PSP, and PlayStation 3. And a storyline that relates to events presented in “Chaos;Head”.

As with other 5pb. works, “Steins;Gate” would receive a manga adaptation for Media Factory’s “Monthly Comic Alive” before its first video game release, a secondary adaptation later that year for Mag Garden’s “Monthly Comic Blade” and an anime adaptation courtesy of White Fox for 2011.

“Steins;Gate 0”, a sequel was released in Japan back in April 2018 and is 23-episodes long. The anime series will be released in two parts, both available on Blu-ray+DVD+Digital courtesy of Funimation.

The original series “Steins;Gate” revolved around a scientist named Rintaro Okabe. Seen as a mad scientist, life for the scientist is getting out of hand as people he had conversations with are acting as it never happened, people he saw dead are alive hours later and situations that he feels are real, never happened. His friend and colleagues worry that perhaps the scientist is going crazy but perhaps Okabe’s latest invention, a microwave that can send text messages into the past and also allowing him to travel between alternate worlds is working…or perhaps, is this all in his mind?

And if the invention does indeed work, how will it benefit mankind when the man who invented it thinks he will be a messiah that can change the future?

Meanwhile, Okabe brings in a few people to join his team. Kurisu Makise is a neuroscience researcher who is often at odds with Okabe, but despite her being repulsed by him, she enjoys spending time with him and his friends, because despite being intelligent, she has been having personal problems with her father.

Working alongside Rintaro is the otaku Mayuri Shiina, a cosplay fanatic and airhead. Itaru “Daru” Hashida, the hacker and otaku who is always wanting to get close to women.

Also, featured is Moeka Kiryu, a shy girl that Rintaro has given the nickname “Shining Finger” (because she prefers to communicate only via texting, even if she is right next to the person she is communicating with); Ryka Urashibara, a male bishonen who looks very much like a girl; Feris Nyannyan, who works with Mayuri at a maid cafe; Suzuha Amane, a motorcycle riding girl who works for Rintaro’s landlord.

What happens when these characters start finding out about Rintaro’s possible time machine?

Rintaro and friends must try to find out what to do with the time machine, now that SERN has revealed themselves of wanting to stop it and going so far to kill Mayuri. But each time Rintaro time leaps, the result is the same, Mayuri dies. But why does she die and what is SERN’s true intention? Meanwhile, Suzuha, the part-time employee for Rintaro’s landlord seems to know a lot about time travel and how Rintaro may be able to save Mayuri? Is there more to Suzuha than Rintaro and Kurisu know about her?

VIDEO:

“Steins;Gate 0: Part 1” is presented in 1080p High Definition. Although there are major animation studios who do a great job with some TV series, the fact is that they are busy doing several series at a time. But when you have a company who doesn’t have so many things going on all at once, sometimes these anime studios put all they have into an anime TV series, making it so well-detailed, that you can’t help but be impressed. My belief is that White Fox, the animation studio behind “Steins;Gate” put a lot into “Steins;Gate 0” because it looks fantastic like the original series.

I love the amount of detail that goes into the character design but also the backgrounds. If anything, the cool look of what video gamers have seen through the “Steins;Gate” video games will notice the the high quality production with the TV series. There are scenes that are intentionally created to look soft, but colors are vibrant at times and if anything, the series looks amazingly robust and well-saturated on Blu-ray!

I didn’t notice any banding issues or any problems.

AUDIO:

“Steins;Gate 0: Part 1” is presented in English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0. As one would expect, the dynamic range for the English dub is much better and also noticed a good use of the surround channels for ambiance.

Both soundtracks are well acted and fans should be quite pleased. It’s important to note that Ashly Burch did the voice of Mayuri Shiina for the first 13 episodes and then Megan Shipman took over. Megan did a fantastic job and nearly sounds identical as Burch’s Mayuri, so a big applause for Megan for the wonderful voicework.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Steins;Gate 0: Part 1” comes with the following special features:

Episode 23ß – This features the group in timeline Beta, the timeline in which Okabe Rintaro chose to rescue Mayuri and his attempts to repeatedly save Kurisu Makise. What happens when Rintaro goes back in time to save Kurisu?
Episode 19 Audio Commentary – Featuring an entertaining audio commentary by Patrick Seitz (voice of John Titor) and Jessica Cavanaugh (voice of Moeka Kiryu).
Episode 2 Video Commentary – Featuring Cris George (ADR Director), J. Michael Tatum (voice of Rintaro Okabe) and Monica Rial (voice of Mayo Hiyajo).
Episode 8 Audio commentary – Featuring J. Michael Tatum (voice of Rintaro Okabe), Alexis Tipton (voice of Kaguri), Trina Nishimura (voice of Kurisu Makise).
Promo Video
Textless Opening Song “Fatima”
Textless Closing Song “Last Game”

EXTRAS:

“Steins;Gate 0: Part 1” comes with the entire series on both Blu-ray and DVD and a Funimation Digital is included.

More often, you see an anime’s brilliance typically when you start off with an anime series. I’ve raved about “Steins;Gate” since it was first released and I consider the original series one of my favorite anime series.

So, with the announcement of “Steins;Gate 0”, my biggest hope was consistency and that the series would be entertaining, full of drama and of course, seeing the characters fully integrated.

Watching “Steins;Gate 0”, as I said with the first series, for the sequel, it is the one of the best anime series on Blu-ray for 2019! That’s how much I enjoyed it!

As a big fan of science fiction, storylines of time travel have always been an interest to me. I love shows such as “Dr. Who”, films such as “Back to the Future” and even the alternate time episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.

With the sequel, it builds upon what happened in the first series (so please watch the original first, before jumping into “Steins;Gate 0”). we were introduced to the problematic situation of changing time. Once you start meddling with time, it can lead to disaster or situations that Rintaro never expected. And the interesting situation is that because he is the only person that can remember a change in timeline and no one else, his ability can also be used improperly if the invention is in the wrong hands. But also, because he is a person that doesn’t have much in terms of social skills, no one knows what to expect when he does meddle with time.

The episode 23ß shows us no matter how many times Rintaro goes to rescue Kurisu, he fails. And now it’s taken his toll that he never wants to time travel again. He has given up, but his friends hopefully manages that “The Mad Scientist” would return.

Unfortunately, as we have seen in the first series, having used the time machines to change the life of Kurisu (who died in the first episode but manages to thwart her death), for Ruka (making her a girl instead of a boy) and for Feris (saving her father who died in a plane accident as he tried to apologize to his daughter), he learns that by changing time, he unfortunately changes time enough to where Mayuri is dead because of his time machine and people want access to the technology.

And as he changed the lives of the people he cares about, in order to bring Mayuri back-to-life, all things must revert back to the way it was. But will he make that call?

In “Steins;Gate 0”, as Rintaro has given up, he meets Maho Hiyajo, a member of the Brain Institute at Viktor Chondria University an dis one of the leading minds behing “Amadeus”, alongside Alexis Leskinen. She happens to be Kurisu’s senior and friend (despite her being short and looking like a young girl).

Amadeus is an artificial intelligence system which uses Kurisu’s thesis to convert human memory into digital data and is able to create a fully functional artificial intelligence with all the capabilities and memories of the person whose data is using.

So, for the most part, one can back up a person’s memories. Rintaro becomes a tester, as Maho introduces him to Amadeus and is based on Kurisu’s stored memories.

Meanwhile, Suzuha Amane is growing impatient because in the future, America and Russia are battling for possession of Kurisu’s time travel technology which leads to World War III and wants Rintaro to use the time machine (which he doesn’t want to do anymore).

Meanwhile, Shiina Kagari, the other person who came with Suzuha from the future to the present is found and her memories are coming back. What is known about Shiina is that she was kidnapped but what is it about Shiina that ties her to the present?

As for the Blu-ray release, we are treated with one video commentary and an audio commentary tracks and as for the series itself, “Steins;Gate 0” looks amazing on Blu-ray, while the lossless soundtrack is clear and features good ambiance. Especially the voice acting on both the Japanese and the English end, with the English dub getting a thumbs up for writing but the acting is really fantastic for this series.

Overall, “Steins;Gate” has turned out to be one of the most fascinating, smart yet fun, science fiction anime series that I have seen in my long lifetime of watching anime and “Steins;Gate 0” continues and builds upon that. I’m absolutely hooked with the first half and can’t wait to watch the second half!

I highly recommend people watch the first series before watching the sequel.

“Steins;Gate 0” the overall series… not only is it highly recommended, it is on my list for “Best Anime Series on Blu-ray released in 2019”!

More from my site