Forum - View topicREVIEW: Steins;Gate BD+DVD 1
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Clarste
Posts: 427 |
|
|||
|
I completely agree with this review. The characters are indeed unlikeable (especially at this point in the series), but there's still enough intrigue to make you want to keep watching.
Regarding the unlikeable characters though, I've always thought of that as a pretty interesting writing choice. I mean, how many stories are about losers who are actually losers? As opposed to losers with hidden positive traits. We all know someone like Okabe. Annoying, yet harmless. But mostly just annoying. Someone who desperately wants to be an interesting person but has no idea how to start, and honestly isn't a very interesting person. (ignoring the part where he accidentally makes a time machine out of his microwave) Most of the side characters are one-note cliches, but I think choosing to star someone like Okabe is a brave choice, even if it does hurt the chances of the show. |
||||
|
||||
|
Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
 Posts: 3782 Location: Montreal |
|
|||
|
If it's worth anything in terms of endorsement, the ANN servers are now named after Steins;Gate characters. *That* is how awesome I thought the show was.
Then again after watching the whole show it becomes a single experience for me; the ending impacts my appreciation of the first half so I can't say that the first half was "subpar" or anything like that. It's part of a single package which is greater than the sum of its parts. But I do remember that when I started watching Steins;Gate I thought the show was weird yet I found myself quickly and helplessly addicted. So that first half couldn't have been all that bad. |
||||
|
||||
|
MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
|
|||
|
So, is ST a masterpiece, as viewers' average rating says, or just a B level project, as Rebecca sees it?
|
||||
|
||||
|
omoikane
Posts: 494 |
|
|||
Thanks for saying that, because this is the fundamental attribute that makes Steins;Gate worth while, even if it's a side effect of good character writing. (...and to the same extent for Chaos;Head, but that's a different story). |
||||
|
||||
Saffire
 Posts: 1255 Location: Iowa, USA |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
|
|||
I think that's an important point - I suspect that the second half far outdoes the first and that if I had been reviewing the complete series I would have had a different final opinion. |
||||
|
||||
Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
|
|||
|
Now, I have to say, I've only seen the first episode of this show on Funi's site, but I'm surprised that several people are calling the characters unlikeable. This may change, but I was already loving Oakbe within minutes of the first episode. I loved his completely over-blown histrionics about EVERYTHING and supreme nerdiness. And I liked Mayushi quite a bit as well.
Of course, it could be that the characters start acting like idiots later on, but I'd be surprised if that happened. |
||||
|
||||
|
JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
|
|||
Yeah, I think Rebecca and I and the other people waiting for Funi's release are in a unique position of firmly believing that the second half of the show pulls all the seed-laying from the first half into something memorable...because we can see the potential, it's held our interest, there is something intangibly captivating about it...but it's all just conjecture, because that first half? Really is a whole lotta nothing. It's "entertaining" nothing. But it doesn't stand on its own as any kind of story, just the multitudinous germs of one. It's all setup setup setup with no REAL payoff until the last two minutes of the final episode on the set. Yeah, there's little payoffs but nothing that really jars you into what the story is ABOUT at large until that last moment. So it's hard to judge on its own. Perhaps impossible. @~@ There are plenty of shows that "get better" as they go on, or have stronger second halves than first halves (FMA 2003, Princess Tutu, Wolf's Rain, all of which, hey are some of my all-time favorites.) But Steins;Gate's first half doesn't really feel like anything concrete to judge. That was my takeaway from it, and now I'm sitting here feeling like a dodo desperate for that second half to come out because hey! It feels like I only got to watch the first five great minutes of the series! ^^; |
||||
|
||||
|
dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
|
|||
|
To all you unfortunate people who only have the first half of this series:
One or two stupid plot twists aside, the second half is much better than the first, and the final few episodes are amazing. Just when you think the show has reached the climax it then shifts up a gear. Overall I only rated the show a B+, but it would have been an A- at least if the first half wasn't dragging down the overall grade. Steins;Gate is the highest-ranking title on the ANN Bayesian rankings that isn't a sequel (it is #2 in the overall standings, behind Clannad After Story). It's vastly overrated - it isn't the second-best Anime ever made - but it has a huge amount of devoted fans and the second-half of the show is the big reason for this. Mamoru Miyano won the NewType Anime Best Actor Award for his work in 2011, much of it influenced by his role in Steins;Gate. Actor awards are (officially-speaking) not given for specific performances, but it's clear that his role as Okabe was the reason he won. Oh, and speaking of Okabe, he was the Best Male Character. |
||||
|
||||
|
Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
|
|||
|
Steins;Gate was a series which I remembered actually liking at first when I watched it, but as I thought about it later the more it started to sour for me later on.
I do agree that the characters were pretty grating. Either some of them were overused stereotypes, or some of them brought up some unfortunate implications which made me feel a tad uncomfortable. I also felt that it kind of suffered from what I call 'Simpsons Comic Book Guy Syndrome", where if something ridiculous happened, the characters themselves would actually comment on how it would be ridiculous. Sometimes this can be used for a nice bit of meta self-depreciation, but often I feel it's basically them saying, "Hey, if we point out our flaws, we don't need to actually address or fix them!". Ruka's whole spoiler[gender-change] things REALLY reaked of this. As did Feris' otaku-bate schtick. I actually don't have TOO many other issues with the plot, and I agree that the second half held up better and got pretty exciting, but I felt that Okabe's whole role in that part just seemed to screem, "THIS IS BASED ON A VISUAL NOVEL" (or whatever sub-genre used like to call it) which took me out of it a bit Last edited by Shenl742 on Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:42 pm; edited 2 times in total |
||||
|
||||
|
Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
|
|||
|
It's spelled 'ridiculous'. With an I.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
|
|||
Sorry if I stepped on a pet peeve there. |
||||
|
||||
BonnKansan
 Posts: 116 |
|
|||
Huh, interesting. Is that also why the error screens have a picture of a S;G girl(or Ruka)? Heck, does that indicate which server is telling me I have a problem? |
||||
|
||||
|
j4x
Posts: 4 |
|
|||
|
There can't be objectivity in one's tastes.
The reviewer might not have liked the show. This is his/her choice based on his/her own taste. So he/she is right about not loving it. But there is no absolute truth. Things that we think are true are things acknowledged by majority. Since the majority of people accepted the show as masterpiece, if there was a truth, it would be that this show is a masterpiece. In short: Keep crying, it's one of the best series ever. And your favorite isn't. Go kill yourself or just hate everyone. |
||||
|
||||
|
dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
|
|||
|
Thing is j4x, there was a time in which most people thought that the stars were gods or ancestors; anything other than balls of thermonuclear fire. That the world was - according to the leading, most free-thinking experts of the day - no more than twenty-five million years old (most people thought it was even less). That women were incapable of voting or engaging in most occupations. That Kennedy was the major hero of the Cuban Missile Crisis. All were widely-held at some point, and all were proven to be wrong in due course.
What you're doing wrong is using a fallacy called argumentum ad populum, which stands for 'appeal to the people' (i.e. popularity). It can be better described as, "If many believe so, it is so." But that's simply not true. Every generation has held beliefs both scientific and cultural that were later disproven. You can argue all you like that Steins;Gate must be a masterpiece because that is its average rating here at ANN, or that it must be the second-best Anime ever made based on its rank. However it isn't a logical argument and it's simply not valid. Is it a good show? Yes. Yes it is. I easily rated it a B+ as it did a lot of great things. But Steins;Gate has too many issues to objectively be called a masterpiece. Weak first half, some supporting characters don't really work, some plot twists are just plain dumb, and the mechanics of time travel are appalling*, even compared with your typical timey-wimey time travel stories. The whole business with CERN was never explored properly. Now, the plot itself is pretty good, and the main characters are an awesome bunch, and the tone of the show appeals to Western Anime fans (with references to mad scientists and Dr. Pepper and whatnot). But that just means it is good at attracting fans. The show itself ain't a masterpiece, not even within a country mile. And it's certainly not the second-best Anime of all time, I can tell you that for a fact. * Phone-microwave? Seriously? The writers couldn't think of anything a bit more plausible? Heck, a Furby toy hooked up to a vibrator would make as much sense. Don't even get me started on spoiler[the headset Okabe uses] in the show's second half. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group