English Dub Review: Steins;Gate 0 “Recognition of the Elastic Limit -Presage or Recognize-

Hououin Kyouma will rise again!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Kagari is gone, and a melancholy descends on the Future Gadget Lab over the loss of their new friend. Suzuha and Daru aren’t ready to give up yet, though. Using the internet, they contact Maho on a video call to try and get her to come to Japan and make another time machine so they can fix the past. Maho is skeptical, but contemplates the idea.

Fubuki, meanwhile, is in the hospital once again, and while Okabe is there with the others, he runs into Professor Leskinen once more.

Back at Daru’s apartment, Suzuha gets attacked by the masked assassin from a while back. Much to her surprise, the assassin reveals herself to be the brainwashed Kagari, and the two duke it out until Daru arrives at the apartment and Kagari runs off after leaving Suzuha with a nasty gash across her stomach.

Maho finds herself at an impasse of what to do, but thinks back on her life and how she’s always found herselves in Makise Kurisu’s shadow. Her self-doubt ends up giving way to confidence, however, as she decides to take up Suzuha’s offer and follow the path Makise had taken, so she may become a brilliant scientist in her own right.

Our Take:

Episode 14 of Steins;Gate 0 has some big footsteps to follow after the tragic disappearance of Kagari and the revelation of what a torturous life she’s had. Following such a strong emotional checkpoint isn’t easy, and that expectation leaves this episode wanting, but is still enjoyable enough. While it can’t meet the high expectations I hold for my beloved Steins;Gate, we get some cute moments and character developments that make for a pretty good episode.

Maho’s return is nice; I do enjoy her otaku sensibilities as sort of a Diet Watamote, and she’s actually in a position to have her character challenged to grow. Seeing her stare Makise Kurisu, the Mozart to her Sallieri, in the face while contemplating whether or not to build her time machine is an excellent visual metaphor for the character to face. Maho has quickly risen to be the most interesting character in this show, faced with challenges and turmoil that expresses a deep humanity. The leftover scientist, always picking up the pieces of her exceptionally talented friend, finally comes to grips with who she can really be.

Kagari’s reveal as the masked assassin that has been plaguing the Future Gadget Lab is a nice reveal, but to be honest I haven’t felt the relationship between Suzuha and Kagari to be that interesting. Their conflict is still valid, but not as powerful as it could be if the show had focused on building up their relationship more. Still, I’m happy to see the show keeping the ball rolling with its plot.

After the big reveal that Kagari was brainwashed into becoming a sleeper agent, I was hoping we would get some more insight into what that process entailed and the pain that Kagari might have gone through. Unfortunately, one of the main issues with Steins;Gate 0 is that it doesn’t take the time to give those plot developments the attention they deserve. The lack of focus spreads from episode to episode, with a cast that’s too big and a plot that’s too thin to hold up the series length.

Perhaps things would be easier on Steins;Gate 0 if it was twelve episodes instead of the 24 that it seems to be slated for. While living in the shadow of its original season, Steins;Gate 0 isn’t really living up the expectation of the grim “Darkest Timeline” marketing made it up to be. Though this episode is of middling quality, it’s nowhere near as bad as it could be, and as the series goes on, I enjoy what it presents to me.