English Dub Review: Steins;Gate 0 “Recognition of the Asymptotic Line -Recognize Asymptote-

Can you feel the love tonight?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Suzuha is getting impatient with Daru and Yuki’s relationship. With her potential existence at stake, she pushes Daru to become more confident and finally ask out Yuki so they can ignite their relationship. She rallies the girls and tells a couple carefully placed lies to get Daru moving.

Shoved in the right direction, Daru goes on a date with Yuki, but puts on airs and ends up accidentally pushing Yuki away with his bravado. The date goes poorly, with Yuki running off at the end of it, and Daru returns home, defeated.

Later that night, Daru and Suzuha have a heart to heart, where Suzuha admits that she just wanted to spend more time with her parents and see them together again. Daru admits that he’s been selfish as well, and asks out Yuki over the phone to give things another try.

The date goes swimmingly, with Yuki being impressed by Daru’s actual self. Daru confesses how much he cares for her, and the two have a romantic moment in the sunset as Suzuha watches nearby. A happy ending for all.

Our Take:

We have something of a middling episode this week on Steins;Gate 0; a fun little time that delights and amuses fans of the series, but never really gets anywhere in terms of plot or development. While I never found myself disgusted or annoyed at the show, there is this little emptiness that underscores everything.

I’m really liking this new personality that Daru has adopted over the course of this series. Out of most of the cast, Daru has certainly grown the most, evolving from his otaku self into a better man. This new confidence and charisma accompany a personal growth into becoming Suzuha’s father, an idea that was just an unlikely outcome of the future, which here feels more real than ever. Daru has always been a fan favorite, but these last few episodes have made him much more interesting. As things change in this series, the cast must change with it. All this is summed up in a beautiful moment Daru has after failing on his date with Yuki; a monument to how far he’s come as a character.

You know, it occurs to me that Maho leaving to the United States turned out to not really be a big deal now that she’s returned so quickly. It sort of cheapens the emotion of her leaving in the first place to have her come back into the picture like nothing has really changed. Its a symptom of a larger problem. Sometimes, Steins;Gate 0 feels like its just running its tires, wandering around in circles without a strong focus or direction. That’s not to say that the show is bad, just that its a bit lacking in its pacing and story structure.

A show like this could probably be knocked down to around 12 or 13 episodes because it doesn’t seem like the story is substantial enough to carry things on as long as they have been. Especially in these later episodes, the show feels like just an episodic week by week of the lives of the Future Gadget Lab, instead of the gripping story that the original “Steins;Gate” had.

Maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal if the original series wasn’t so good. As a slice of life anime, Steins;Gate 0 doesn’t do too bad, especially in this episode. The character interaction is pretty on point, Daru and his friends are funny, and I’ve been pleasantly entertained the whole way through. The episode just lacks that strong central focus that could make this show something great.