Over the years, I’ve more or less dubbed myself to be a woman of habit. I order the same bubble tea drink (mango green tea with lychee jelly and tapioca) at every bubble tea place. I position myself accordingly on the subway platform so when I get to Flatbush Avenue, I’m the closest to the exit. I watch Stein’s Gate at least once a year, typically around Christmas, though this anime is noticeably lacking in holiday spirit and festive cheer.
Though I suppose breaking my habits every once in awhile is a good thing. I wanted to introduce my friend to one of my favorite animes because it is perhaps the initial motivation to my ‘time-traveling’ craze. Or it could have been those Back to the Future films I used to watch as a child. We’ll never really know. Either way, I love writing about time travel and anything sci-fi related, and I’m thankful for shows like these that inspire me to create my own adventures through time (and space).
Explaining the premise of a time travel show can be a bit difficult. I might even venture into the theory of time travel itself. University student Okabe Rintarou and his fellow lab members accidentally discover time travel through one of their experiments. Okabe learns, through a time traveler from the future, that if a certain organization gets its hands on this technology, a dystopia is bound to happen. To stop the organization, he and his lab must learn all they can about their time traveling device, called the Phone Microwave (subject to change) – given Stein’s Gate humorous tendencies, this really is its name. But as the past keeps on changing as he searches for the truth, Okabe soon realizes that there are some tragic events he might not be able to prevent.
It’s always fascinating to watch a show through a closer, more analytical lens. First time around is for enjoyment, but after a couple of times, I’ll start to pick up the tiniest details. Time-travel shows and movies usually are cyclical in nature – so the first episode has all the hints of what’s to come. Then there are the references. I never realized there were so many references to Norse mythology and the German language in Stein’s Gate – “Operation Skuld“, “Operation Urd“, and the insignificant “Guten morgen!” from Daru (even though the anime is set in the heart of Tokyo). I guess a title like Stein’s Gate could have been a hint.
The theme of fate versus free will in Stein’s Gate continues to fascinate me, years after I first watched it. Okabe matures over the course of the anime as he learns that not everything can be fixed by time travel, and as the butterfly effect causes some irreparable damage. But if some events are destined to happen, can some be changed, as well? And what would you change, if you had the ability to time travel?
-Raisa Alexis Santos
The Junction Journal 