Steins;Gate – 03

Everything is Miyano Mamoru and nothing hurts

I have finished all my exams as of tonight! Huzzah! This means I switch from anime to gaming mode, but I’ll still be keeping up on the weekly spring season in the midst of button-mashing. As a “YAY I’M DONE EXAMS” gift from Sassy who is actually in the middle of “SCREW LIFE, I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF EXAMS” as far as I know, is a ringtone! Say thank you to Sassy, everyone! It’s a ringtone of Mayuri’s DO DO RU~ so you can hear her every time your dumb friends sends you some dumb text. You can pretend it’s a cute girl wanting to call you!

Kurisu Makise is one brave girl for not turning and leaving the second Okarin opens his big mouth to spout utter nonsense. Undeterred by his  “Agency” this and “Stein’s gate” that, she begins her inspection of the banana. She originally came to find out if she was really in danger of being stabbed or if Okarin was just a giant pervert, but found something much more meaningful. A banana that travels into the past!

Okarin agrees to tell CHRRRRIISSSTINAAAA all about his magic microwave machine if, and only if, she agrees to be an official member of his lab (and not sue him for sexual harassment). Intellectually hungry and not about to walk away after just having a taste, she agrees. Mayuri arrives and the complete team is here and standing by to re-inact the strange time travelling text that Okarin sent.

Mayuri’s yuri mode ACTIVATED. Target locked…

So how does it work? Well, a week ago (in the timeline where Kurisu is killed) Daru was running some tests on the microwave, so his cell phone was plugged in. Coincidentally, this is when Okarin sent the “Kurisu got stabbed!” text, thus activating the time travel properties of the microwave. So as long as a phone is attached to it and receives a text, you have text time travel! ALRIGHT, LET’S TRY IT!!!

Hmm, a little more lethal and thunderbolt-y than expected…

Much like when you put a cinnamon roll in for 20 minutes instead of 20 seconds, the results are disastrous (Trust me, I found out the hard way). At the expense of a desk, food, and the cleanliness of their lab; we now know that this is a surefire way to send texts into the past. Unable to believe that her painstakingly researched thesis has been refuted, Kurisu high-tails it out of there.

After the whole fiasco, Okarin takes it easy and just chills on the couch. He awakens to 13 texts from the Shining Finger girl about her IBN computer and decides he might as well go out for food with Daru. Of course, not without discussing some conspiracy theories. Daru mentions that John Titor said the Large Hadron Collider could create a mini black hole to be used for time travel. Of course, this is yet another true event in our world. It’s owned by SERN too, so Okarin starts to realize that SERN having a time machine is serious business. Time to hack into the system and find the truth.

After shafting Daru and letting him take the bill, he runs into Miss Crazy Part Time Worker at Mr. Braun’s. I say crazy because she seems to spend her time either listening in to Okarin’s every conversation or investigating everything she overhears online. Also, she has the exact same hairstyle as I used to when I was a kid and a heartless bully, so I am ON GUARD. She tells Okarin more about IBN’s than Daru cared to reveal, which gives Okarin a eureka moment.

To confirm his thoughts that John Titor needs an IBN 5100 to stop the plans of SERN, he goes straight to the message boards and asks the time traveller himself. If he doesn’t, the world will become a dystopia of pain and suffering. Okarin insists that he saw him in 2000, and this interests John Titor enough to give out his phone number to him.

Meanwhile, as Okarin searches for the ultimate truth about time traveling…Mayuri thinks about ponies.

Daru manages to actually hack into SERN’s database, or at least, their e-mails. They find out about a Z-Program that was a mission to create a mini black hole. The results: a human died due to some sort of mismatch. So this time machine SERN has may have…killed someone?

The Blushing Yuri Special:

Your boobs are so soft and squishy like a gel banana~

I wonder what I might have done to the previous female members to make them leave? Right, Kurisu~?

NO, I AM NOT RE-INACTING THE “I WANT TO SPARKLE” SCENE FROM HANASAKU IROHA

End Thoughts: Steins;Gate is still rocking it each week. There’s an ample amount of setting up everything, but it’s not like each step forward isn’t without weight.  I think this might be like Shiki where there are long stretches of slightly slower, plot-building episodes followed by a massive climax. I don’t mind, because even the laid-back episodes are worth watching. But now that they know about SERN’s experiment, what are they going to do? What could they POSSIBLY do, a ragtag team of 4 members? Unless they manage to snatch up an IBN 5100 or get Kurisu’s genius brain working on what to do next, they’re lost. This is a really big story that’s being tackled here! I’m excited!

Although we did get a lot revealed this episode, it slowed down noticeably.  The episode was primarily just talking and explaining these revelations. You would think an episode so full of dialogue would get boring, but the writing is so sharp and the seiyuu so talented that it doesn’t become much of a problem. Miyano Mamoru is pulling out all the stops on this one. He’s always over-the-top in the best way possible, but he is REALLY going all out for his role as Okarin. I couldn’t imagine Okarin voiced by anybody else.

I’m the type who loves anime that can easily drum up big discussions, and I peg Steins;Gate as being that sort of anime. There’s been a myriad of real life events that were referenced to build up a conspiracy theory, and that adds a nice touch. A touch of reality. I distinctly remember hearing news of the Large Hadron Collider and how there was a possibility of it creating a mini black hole. It almost makes it seem like Steins;Gate could actually be happening, like…now. That sort of blurry intersection with real life is really interesting to me, it’s like blending two worlds together.

For anyone too lazy to read up on the John Titor thing, the main things I gleaned that haven’t been mentioned in Steins;Gate so far are basically:

-John Titor only visited the year 2000 for personal reasons, such as to see his family
-He predicted a civil war in 2004
-He predicted World War 3 in 2015
-He predicted the U.S.A. would be split into 5 regions by war

Is this of any use right now? Or ever? Probably not. BUT THE MORE YOU KNOW~ The only odd thing is that the Steins;Gate John Titor didn’t visit 2000, so maybe his family IS DEEAADDD. /batman. Anyways, read up on him if you want to as well. Or on the Everett-Wheeler Graham multiple worlds theory. Or watch Noein, which explains parallel worlds a lot better and is an all-around cool anime. Endless possibilities of semi-useful study topics! Impress friends at parties with your knowledge of time travel and your DO DO RU ringtone!

See you next week~ El Psy Kongroo.