Steins, Gate is... today's representation of a society dissatisfied and full of disillusionment,
unable to really enjoy the present, because lives exclusively chasing the future or the past.
Or, in other words, when Okabe finally notices he hasn't talked with Mayuri for quite some
time, you really want to be right there and tell him: "DUH, maybe that's because you
used that wacky time travel microwave to win the third lottery prize, Mr. not so much Mad
and absolutely not Scientist!"
No no no no, I can't start like this for a masterpiece like Steins;Gate.
Steins;Gate doesn't deserve that.
I need something smart and philosophical.
Something in the style of… Alan Watts.
Steins;Gate is the animation of a sci-fi, time travel based visual novel that doesn't
need to run after ghosts, but, ironically, its protagonist must do it.
Okabe never stands still for a second, never shuts up for a second and never stops thinking for a second.
If he isn't annoying Kurisu, he's tricking Mayuri and Rukako with his false conspiracy theories.
If he's not thinking about the time machine, he's working on the time machine.
And if he isn't changing the past, he's running away from the future.
Until realizes he's always ran towards the wrong goal.
So turns and faces his ghosts, just as the wise Alan Watts said.
But the very act of running, either against or away from a ghost, is still a frightful act.
An act that creates distress and expectations which, condensed together, form fear.
And, although Steins;Gate isn't scary, what conveyed to me was an overwhelming anxiety,
hinted by the first 12 episodes and then showed by the following 12 episodes, through short
and precise scenes full of tension and suspense, very contrasting feelings compared to its
usual happy-go-lucky tone.
A contrast that immediately turns into confusion when the anime seems to have completely forgotten
about such scenes, as if they were only a fantasy of its eccentric protagonist.
And creating genuine confusion I think it's both the strongest and weakest part of the
whole anime.
The fact that Okabe doesn't comment those moments properly or pretend they never happened,
is alienating, because for 12 episodes you don't understand where the story is going
or, worse, if is actually going anywhere.
So I understand why so many people find Steins;Gate boring just from the first episode, because
feels like watching a slice of life about time travels and scientific theories that
wants to look smart for the sake of it, showing you something strange but unexplained.
If you have lived under a rock since 2009 and you're watching it completely blindfolded,
or if you know only its fame, then takes a true act of faith to continue on watching,
because Steins;Gate hides lot of things and doesn't even promise to show what you want
in few episodes.
But rewards your trust, delivering a plot that is perfect from any angle you want to
watch it, obviously leaving aside some minor deus ex machina.
And then, when you finally get to the climax, you'll probably apologize Steins;Gate more
for using its first half as a huge build up for the second, than to have taken its damn
time to show all of its cast interact with each other.
And that's perhaps because the characters, although interesting and unique, aren't so
important, after all.
The meetings between Okabe and the other future members of his lab seem completely random
and, when comes their time to shine, they're shown for a couple of episodes and then literally
stop existing.
They are not breathing characters like Okabe and Kurisu, but fillers, a probable legacy
of its visual novel origin.
But I don't feel comfortable talking about them so badly because yes, they are narrative
expedients, but not of the bad kind.
Each of them interacts with Okabe very differently.
Mayuri understands who he really is and in fact lets him play his role of "Mad Scientist",
Daru is indifferent, Rukako really believes him and Feyris imitates him.
They have a really good complicity, which is why Okabe and Kurisu are so good together,
because they are a great comic couple.
Okabe loves making fun of Kurisu because she gets easily offended, while Kurisu always
reacts in a very natural and sincere way, and so, try to ground him showing how much
childish he is.
And the fun part is that she often fails and, instead, show how much childish she also is.
Seeing them bickering is truly a delight because, in spite of everything, it's obvious they
care about each other.
Moreover, Steins;Gate marginalize the problem of not really develop its characters exploring
them in a unique way only few stories can do, that is exploiting time travels.
Steins;Gate uses the "what if" formula to show how characters would change if they have
the opportunity to fulfill a wish and, subsequently, their reactions when those wishes are unfulfilled.
So they don't evolve, they don't come outside their comfort zones like Okabe and Kurisu,
but we have a small window to observe their lives in alternative worlds with situations
and characters that can be radically different.
All of this making these moments important, interesting and, above all, relevant to the plot.
The perfect example is Rukako.
Okabe reminds us since the first episode that he, despite looking like a girl, remains a boy.
But what if, in another time line, he really is a girl?
It's exploring this kind of questions the first half of Steins;Gate, and this is also
why is potentially boring: it lacks important and relevant consequences in the short time.
In fact, if Rukako really became a girl, what would change?
"Nothing", says Steins;Gate, "just the gender of a character who already looked and acted
like a girl and nothing else."
This, until you reach the twelfth episode.
Then you understand that for every action, and in this case change, there's always a
reaction that, usually, is never pleasant to watch.
There's a strong and clear indifference for all the cast that never leaves the series,
but changes its shape.
With the episodes, together with Okabe, we too start to see all the characters more like
objects than real people.
And I think Steins;Gate conveys this detachment first using time travels, and then Okabe himself.
After all, before you knew them, but after jumping to a different time line you can still
say the same?
And this question serves nothing but to put more pressure and suffering on the shoulders
of our beloved hothead Okabe, who wants to carry the fate of the whole world alone.
Pain that, let's be honest, he deserves a little.
Okabe is that kind of character, the classic lazy and selfish protagonist, that appears
almost arrogant, who hides behind a mask (in this case being a mad scientist) to justify
his immense fear and indecision.
It's his fault if you cannot take seriously that hallucinating trip that is the first
episode: because Okabe is a hesitant fool.
He's a character who needs a strong shock if he doesn't want to succumb.
And Steins;Gate build this shock in a very gradual, almost... gentle way.
It gradually tells you that what Okabe is doing isn't a joke, and the more he continues,
the more risks do the same.
And when he realizes that his "new and exciting adventure" isn't the game he thought it was,
you already know that's too late to go back, and the bill to pay will be incredibly bitter.
This is the point where the viewer literally switches with Okabe.
If before you were running from episode to episode because "that scene must mean something!",
then it's Okabe that runs for you until the end of the series.
Because you can only stay where you are, stunned and exhausted, looking at a fake mad scientist
running incessantly like a hamster on a wheel with nothing but the dissatisfaction of being
responsible for the madness under his eyes.
And you feel partly guilty for that.
I really struggled to rewatch Stein;Gate because I knew what would happen, and I didn't want
to rewatch it.
Because it's true, Okabe is a clown who deserves a lesson, but he isn't a bad person.
He really cares about his friends and, even if he doesn't show it openly, he would do
everything for them.
He doesn't deserves what happens to him.
But Steins, Gate doesn't agree with you and, instead of a slap, forces Okabe to go through
hell itself, trapping him in situations that become increasingly more impossible as he
tries to redeem himself.
It's a real torture to watch.
And, by then, you regret the first carefree and "insipid" episodes, in which nothing new
happened but also nothing bad either.
So, all you want is to just to run with Okabe towards the finish line, hoping for a happy ending.
And the ending is what makes Steins;Gate the masterpiece it is.
It isn't given to you on a silver platter because Okabe is the protagonist, but is earned
literally with blood, tears and sweat.
Watching the last episode is conquering the top of a mountain that, before, seemed insurmountable,
or complete a puzzle impossible to complete: it is restorative, energizing and incredibly
satisfying.
And when you look back and remember what Okabe had to do in order to be in that exact spot
at that exact moment, you realize that he really is a hero, even if he has nothing heroic
but his incredible determination.
Determination and having a bunch of flaws are his only superpowers and what makes him
one of the most enjoyable and beloved protagonist of anime.
Many stories like to represent their protagonists as these perfect, immaculate and powerful
heroes of justice, and those are the stories that I dislike the most.
I think this approach lacks realism and depth because nobody is perfect, and reminding viewers
that you are not alone in making mistakes I think it's something very important.
But that doesn't mean those stories are bad or that it's wrong to design certain characters.
Even I like watching, for example, Marvel movies when I want to watch something with
my friends or immerse myself in a "power fantasy", because it's cool to see superheroes
doing super stuff.
And Steins;Gate is the perfect meeting of these two realities.
Okabe is both the hero of everybody and the hero of nobody, so much so that he doesn't
care about saving the world because "it's the right thing to do", but only because
he wants his friends to be safe.
In particular, a very, very special friend.
It's this attitude what makes the most famous mad scientist of all time Huouin Kyouma a
protagonist full of dramatic irony, because once he cross the point of no return, he can
no longer have what he's always had, but only what he never really wanted.
After all, saying that you are a mad scientist wanted by an evil agency doesn't mean that
you really want that.
But if this became reality, you can't hide anymore, and have to accept it whether you
want it or not.
And obviously Okabe didn't want that.
Steins;Gate, in its second half, becomes how it would feel to live inside the head of someone
who truly believes in conspiracy theories, and therefore, to feel like a tiny pawn of
a chessboard too big to be seen by your miserable and inefficient eyes.
And conveying this existential anxiety isn't exactly cosmic horror in a nutshell?
When I was in university, at a "management of the building site" lecture, our professor
told us that 94% of all working days would have been just normal: bad things would have
happened and good things would have happened, and that's fine.
Anyone can manage those days.
But is the other 6% what we should have been afraid of.
Because a 3% would have been wonderful: no surprise inspection, no hurted workers, no slowdowns.
All perfect.
But what would have shown ourselves to be real professionist would have been to face
the other 3%, the one in which, whatever you do, nothing will end up fine.
Where materials deliver late and damaged.
Where probably would snow in August just to make you late on deadlines.
"I can't give you real advices," he told us, "so be afraid, because the only thing you
can do is try and limit the damage, clench your teeth, and resist the pressure, something
that you can't learn from books."
The essence of cosmic horror is to be stuck in that 3%, where everything can only go to
bad to worse, and nobody cares about it.
But, talking more generally, cosmic horror is a branch of the horror genre created by H.P. Lovecraft,
a man who doesn't need an introduction, as an evolution of the Gothic and Romantic
horror of Edgar Alan Poe combined with the existential nihilism explored by the philosopher
Nietzsche and his existential gang.
Although Lovecraft is remembered and associated with the figure of Cthulhu, using gelatinous
monsters and indecipherable, tentacular aberrations is not a prerogative to write a good cosmic
horror story.
In fact, Lovecraft didn't really care about those mosters at all, unlike his friends,
that expanded themselves his pantheon of terrible, ancestral gods.
For him, they were only a means to convey something bigger and more frightening, something
easily recognizable even in his often forgotten collection of short stories: the will to represent
a blind but terribly curious humanity.
Lovecraft's intention was to instil a personal existential fear, a fear that each of us must
feel at some point in life, and managed to get it throwing down humanity from the pedestal
on which it is, asking uncomfortable questions: what if there is something far greater than
us that we cannot see?
What if our innumerable achievements in technology, society and medicine are nothing compared
to the mysteries segregated in the forbidden ocean depths?
The awareness of being a grain of sand in the desert, an insignificant being that isn't
able to do anything to change his uselessness: this is the focus of Lovecraft's stories,
and from where its terror arises.
If I have to think about a modern interpretation of Lovecraft's cosmic horror, I would instantly
name Welcome to the NHK and Steins;Gate for very different reasons.
Essentially, because they both share the theme of conspiracies, that can easily replace the
immortal giants of Lovecraft's stories because have the same ideology and motivation: the
fact that there is something hidden from the eyes of everyone, like the Illuminati or the Reptilians.
But above all, because Welcome to the NHK is a brutal representation of the protagonist's
fear, while Steins Gate has the identical narrative structure of all Lovecraft's works.
Think about it for a second: a mad scientist casually builds a time machine and, guided
by curiosity, uses it to discover a terrible hidden truth that make everything go to shit
like classic Lovecraftian endings.
But what distinguishes both titles from Lovecraft's stories is precisely the ending, because they
don't want to show how humanity is impotent and miserable, but rather that there's always
a light in the darkness, and this also applies to the more pessimistic Welcome to the NHK
and Steins;Gate Zero, where Okabe literally loses his determination and resigns to his defeat.
Many people succeeded in imitating the existential atmospheres of Lovecraft, but something no
one ever managed to replicate is his ability to blend together the grotesque with the elegant,
and create a harmonious but terrifying style.
Lovecraft wrote in a stoic but elegant way, often making use of words now in disuse, embellishing
abominations which have really nothing elegant that can be easily embellish.
And I think Steins;Gate does something very similar, but in his own way: he shows situations
that are grotesque and absurd, but with characters that look like perfect, anorexic almost scary
porcelain dolls (something very evident in the visual novel character design).
In fact they need just a little lighting change to make even the most innocent of girls something
disturbing and alienating to look at.
Re:Zero, in this regard, is another excellent example.
Even if he doesn't show his characters in an elegant way, he uses a common and banal
style to create situations that are the opposite of common and banal, going beyond grotesque
into something that could be considered brutal gratuitous violence.
And that's exactly where good horror comes from: injustice and senselessness.
But even if both Re:Zero and Steins;Gate have harrowing scenes, one more than the other,
no one considers them scary despite having all the elements to be scary.
The motivation is the same for why writers like Lovecraft and Edgar Alan Poe hardly scare
nowadays: because there's worse.
Videogames are undisputed champions when it comes to conveying strong feelings, because
they are the only medium that forces you to actively do something.
It's more easy to identify yourself in a protagonist you can control and spend dozens
of hours with, compared to something you can't interact with, like an anime, or worse, a book.
Once, Lovecraft and Edgar Alan Poe were really able to terrify because videogames and televisions
did not exist, cinema wasn't fully developed and, anyway, without the internet you wouldn't
have had access to endless options.
The only way to experience something scary was to read a book, and imagine it.
In fact, Lovecraft's monstrosities are never described in detail, but they're deliberately
nebulous, although vivid and real, leaving room for the reader's imagination to complete
the picture, something that, in our days, is not very effective anymore.
For those who haven't lived in the era of the first PlayStation or, like me, didn't
have the opportunity to play masterpieces like Final Fantasy 7, it's really difficult
to feel something for strange cubes with a vague human shape now, when everything try
to strike for realism.
That's why remakes and reboots are a necessary "evil" in today's culture.
It's a bully act of replacing "your" version of the game, the one you remember and love,
with something that's intrinsically different, but it's also an excellent way to let new
generations experience something similar to what you loved.
In an era like ours, where there is nothing really new, imagination is replaced with realism,
and simplicity and elegance with what's strange and modern.
In fact, in recent years we have seen the explosion of videogames such Undertale, Pony
Island and Doki Doki Literature Club, videogames that convey fear and anxiety questioning their
very nature of videogames and the role of the player in them.
While, returning to anime, we had Evangelion, Madaka Box, Madoka Magica and Re:Zero that
tried to mix clichés in something new.
And this my long ass rambling, even if Steins;Gate isn't spooky, takes us in front of a very
spooky question: simple stories, like Steins;Gate, have a place in today's modern market?
And my answer is a boring and very anti-climatic yes.
Obviously yes.
Why shouldn't they?
In fact I find easier to imagine the opposite: the more time progresses, the more stories
like Evangelion will have less and less place in our market, because nobody will be interested
in a commentary on the mecha genre.
While Steins; Gate will not suffer from the same problem.
After all, it's just the story of a time travel gone bad, and really nothing else.
And the proof is a certain trilogy that reminds me a lot of Steins;Gate, that is still considered
a "must watch", even 30 years in the future.
But to motivate how this trilogy succeeded, and why Steins; Gate has all the credentials
to do it, we must first understand the historical period of its publication.
I'm talking about the magical 80s.
The power of love is really a curious thing, so much so that, if it wasn't for the explosion
of that love in the 80s, our passions would be completely different from what we have
today.
In fact, for anyone who didn't lived in those years as myself, the only way to understand
them is to use the magic time machine called the "internet" and watch, read or listen to
anything popular back then.
After all, art is always the manifestation of people's feelings in a given historical,
political and social period of time.
And a glance is enough to understand why that decade is considered one of the most influential
in any field.
Those born after the advent of the atomic bombs found themselves in a world in which
was no longer possible to believe in anything or anyone.
The same science and technology that once made humanity great, now created something
that could destroy everyone and everything in seconds.
Mankind realized he had killed God, took his place… and shitted his pants.
Something had to be done, and quickly.
This is why in the 80s everything was tried, explored and changed.
Because "old" meant "obsolete" and "wrong".
New rules, fashions and passions were born and established, and those things became something
we now refer to as "unforgettable classics".
People from the 80s lived the success of Guns'n Roses, Van Hallen, Queen, and songs like "Livin
on a Prayer", "Beat It" and the absolute meme
[The best song ever created]
by the legend himself, Rick Astley.
In the 80s there was the birth of videogames, the anime boom, and the publication of my
favorite book ever: "Misery" by Stephen King.
And, also, there was the birth of films such as "Terminator", "Blues Brothers", "The Breakfast
Club" and, of course, "Back to the Future".
And all these "unforgettable classics" have survived the test of time not only because
represent a different era from today, but thanks to their enormous simplicity and desire
to not take themselves seriously.
I mean, who dance like Michal Jackson in "Thriller" nowadays?
Or wear strange clothes and funny hairstyles?
And "funny", here, is the key word we need.
Because everyone can complain about how bad was the music, about how videogames were junky
and inaccurate, or about how movies were too slow, but on the other hand everyone can appreciate
something simple, funny and carefree even if it doesn't meet today's standards.
It's also inherently funny to see how the world changed so much in such a short period of time.
And that's why I wasn't surprised when I found "Back to the Future" as the main inspiration
for Steins;Gate, because they share a simple and immediate plot, bizarre gadgets and the
main way to go back in time.
After all, the famous D-Mails used by Okabe were named in honor of the famous DeLorean.
But what I could never have imagined was that, among all three, they chose the worst of the trilogy.
Yeah, I understand why: Steins;Gate's time travel mechanic is practically the same as
the "Back to the Future Part 2" one, but they are more connected in a "spiritual" way, starting
exactly from how time travel works.
Any story that wants to deal with time travels must follow precise rules that must be explained
to the viewer in a clear and unequivocal way.
And Steins;Gate's rules are not simple, but are explained with efficient metaphors that
make them simple to get.
In fact isn't a problem following the complicated speeches between Okabe and Kurisu about the
time machine also because the anime follow rules that are never broken.
That's what I really appreciated the first "Back to the Future".
It's simple, clear and self-conclusive.
There was no problem understanding something, because the only rule was "change something
in the past and you will also change the future".
While Part 2 does nothing but complicate everything for the sake of doing so
without adding anything important.
It is literally a filler of an hour and a half with the only task of being the bridge
to the next film and its moral.
But this bridge, despite founding on solid ground, takes you only in front of a canyon
named "ending of Part 3", filled with uncomfortable questions about what actually
can change the present thanks to Doc and his fucking flying time traveling train.
Errors and inaccuracies, however, don't undermine that incredible and hilarious adventure that
is the entire trilogy of "Back to the Future", remaining current even 30 years in the future
because it doesn't want to be anything but itself.
In fact, despite having heavily disliked the ending, I was literally on the edge of my
seat during the final scenes of Part 3, and Par 2 remains very enjoyable despite being
narratively useless, because there's always time for a story that wants to be pure entertainment
and nothing else.
Steins;Gate, to me, seems the evolution and maturation of "Back to the Future" which,
just like its inspiration, wants to be just a story about time travel, friendship, determination
and nothing else.
And that's probably why such a niche story is, at the moment, the 4th best anime ever
on MAL, because it won't represent the year in which it was created like "Back to the
Future" (a thing we'll only discorver 30 or 40 years in the future) but, just like it,
can be appreciated by anyone because simplicity is never obsolete.
There is no other anime like Steins;Gate.
There's ERASED and Re:Zero, but both want to hit a very precise niche of people.
Re:Zero, for example, has a very playful and fun time travel mechanic (well, only for viewers,
certainly not for Subaru, poor thing), but it's an Isekai, and as such, if you don't
like fantasy, with magic and battles, you probably won't like it.
Furthermore, it isn't finished.
Many things remain unexplained, and this can easily be a determined factor to not watch
it, despite being very solid.
And I've already said it, but I think it's very important to underline it: Steins;Gate
is unique.
There's no other story to compare it to.
And that's why I've painfully rewatched it several times before writing this video.
Because even if I know every single scene, even if I know all the motivations and characters'
actions I…wasn't able to find its message.
But that's not really true.
Through Okabe's actions you can understand that "with determination you can get where
you want", but Steins;Gate never uses this message as its flag.
Usually there's always a moment where the line between characters and writers doesn't
exist anymore and, from there, you can clearly see what the story is all about.
Steins;Gate doesn't have that moment and it doesn't need one, in fact you can understand
why watching the film "Load Region of Deja Vu".
In addition to seeming a very bad fan fiction of the original series, unlike this one, there
is this moment where you have literally the writers in front of you repeating a stupid
message which you really don't care.
Hell, I know that I can't change the past, because otherwise I would have already done
so and now I wouldn't be here.
And Steins, Gate isn't this.
It doesn't take its scientific theories and possible messages and slam them in your face
to show you how smart it is like Until Dawn and its damned butterfly effect.
It's harassing, annoying and serves nothing but to spoil your enjoyment.
After watching the movie I didn't care anymore.
I simply wanted to rewatch the original series again, again and again.
And the sensation of finishing an amazing series that always make you feel good isn't
the most beautiful message of all?
Alan Watts once said that it's stupid to say that we don't have time, because we can't
be aware of the present.
That's why the hands of our watch are so thin as they are consistent with visibility: because
we are temporal beings, forced to live constantly in the future regretting the past, whether
we want it or not.
After all, time's not gonna stop without us.
That's why movies jump from one action scene to another, or why haiku, a form of Japanese
poetry created to encapsulate a moment in its simplicity, no longer exist.
Because in our society we can no longer stop to smell the roses, we can't stop to observe
a beautiful landscape.
We can't... just stop anymore.
Time is money, and time always flows too fast to have the convenience of stopping and thinking
for a second.
But Steins;Gate is not a haiku, it doesn't need to chase a moment in the eternity of
existence to stay current, because even if you don't have time just like Okabe and his
friends, there will never be a wrong time to experience the masterpiece that is Steins;Gate.
And, you know, there's only one right way to end this.
El Psy...
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