WARNING, review has spoilers spaced from the rest at the bottom, if you do not want spoilers, do not read past where I put my overall rating and the second spoiler warning (which is in all caps).
Time travel can be a very convenient plot device for lazy writing, see this as an example. The time travel tries to feel scientific but fails when aspects like characters guaranteed to die are added because it doesn't make much sense given logical reasoning. Half the how-time-works explanation feels well done and fleshed out, but the other half (specifically that pertaining to the 1% whatever and characters being bound
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to die for no reason other than plot) fail miserably. The writing in this feels like how a AAA first person shooter feels, addictive but not really entertaining. There are constant cliff hangers and parts that are meant to be "so sad" in order to desperately try and draw the viewer in, but in the end just feel empty because you know that the MC has time travel and nothing that happens really matters that much.
Speaking of the MC, he is definitely not one of my favorites. He claims to be a mad scientist but he is never really seen doing any science, engineering or the like, instead having the other characters do it for him as he acts as more of just a project manager. His 8th grade syndrome is also really annoying and feels unnecessary, just added to make him feel like some sort of self insert character dream for those with 8th grader syndrome. He is also amazingly dull sometimes, and not even just in the way of most anime protagonists who can't figure out that a girl likes them, but also in the way that he completely trusts pretty much everyone around him who shows any interest in him and rarely learns from his mistakes. He has amazingly thick plot armor as well, always able to get back to the time machine when he needs to and other things like that.
The plot is also amazingly predictable, to an honestly astounding level. I never thought I would be able to predict the twists and turns of a show as far in advance as I could with this one (sometimes multiple episodes in advance), but that is by no means a complement to the show. Instead it just feels frustrating as the viewer is given approximately the same amount of information as the MC, but the MC is so stupid that he can't figure out any of the things before they happen. A lot of the main moments throughout the show are set up in the most typical way possible, making the entire plot feel like a bunch of tropes packed together.
There are some things that the show does well, the way it portrays the main “bad guys” of the show as nothing more than desperate marionettes makes what they do feel at least somewhat realistic. The visual portrayal of the MCs stress, depression, apathy and hopelessness also feels pretty well done and helps the viewer get in the headspace of the MC.
The parts of the time travel that are done well do feel really good (pretty much all the early stuff that doesn’t have to do with the differences between alpha and beta timelines, etc.). This makes it feel like even more of a let down when the less sensible parts of time travel are added as the authors just get lazy trying to compensate for how little anything matters by forcing some things to be “inevitable” even though it doesn’t make logical sense. The universe isn’t some assassin that hunts down people to make sure they always die at a certain point and the addition of this just hurts the plot by making it so that all the established logic and reasoning mean nothing since the authors can just add whatever BS they want. There are some other issues as well, for example, WHY DOES EATING MEAT VS VEGETABLES WHILE PREGNANT CANONICALLY CHANGE A BABY'S GENDER WHEN THEY ARE BORN. Just screw genetics (XY vs XX sets of chromosomes) and how human reproduction works I guess.
Overall this series had a lot of promise and a moderately satisfying ending, but there are just so many issues that I can’t rate it too well.
OVERALL RATING: 5/10 Average anime, I have a neutral opinion towards it (other than maybe a bit of disappointment).
SPOILER WARNING: POINTS BELOW ARE CERTAIN SPOILERS FROM THE SHOW IN ORDER TO JUSTIFY MY ASSERTION THAT THE SHOW IS PREDICTABLE.
The whole scene with Nae pushing Mayuri in the subway is one of my least favorite scenes in all of anime. The second I saw Mayuri and Okabe standing right by the edge of the train tracks I thought to myself "Mayuri is going to get pushed into the oncoming train now, isn't she". Then I saw Nae being highlighted amongst the crowd "so Nae is probably going to be involved with her getting pushed". Then Nae bumps into Mayuri and Mayuri goes absolutely flying (IDK how, a little girl runs into her and she is thrown 5 meters fowards for some reason because screw physics) right as the train goes through and it hits her. Also for some reason Okabe was barely even holding onto Mayuri's hand so he couldn't stop her from flying in front of the train, even though just before he had seemed to have a tight grip on her hand. Now, logically speaking Okabe could certainly go back in time, do things roughly the same, but just either have Mayuri further back from the tracks or brace her so that Nae doesn't send her flying and there we go, Mayuri saved (which was his goal). Instead however, Okabe doesn't do this, instead trying more and more convoluted methods to fail at saving her. As I said earlier in the review, the universe is not some obsessive hitman and it is stupid that the show thinks it is.
The "twist" of Moeka being a bad guy and her sending a different D-mail than just the one about not buying a new phone were both painful obvious right after she sent that D-mail. Like after she sends that D-mail the IBN 5100 (which she has obsessively wanted to get for a reason that Okabe never even thinks to ask about) has disappeared from the shrine and Moeka is suddenly busy with "work", I WONDER WHY THAT IS.
Suzuha being the daughter of Hashida was also pretty easy to guess since she went to the convention where her father was supposed to be but he didn't end up being there. At the same time Okabe had called Hashida away from the convention where he was supposed to go. This one I wasn't super sure about (her father could have ended up being some random 3rd party character that becomes relevant later, that does also happen with decent frequency in anime) but was still something I was pretty confident to be the case and was proven right on.
The one major twist I didn't predict (excluding the Braun one because that was only relevant for like 5 minutes in the entire series and honestly did do well on having little indication of that being the case) was the final Kurisu being saved one but that was only because I ruled that out from being an option because IT WAS ALREADY ESTABLISHED SOMEONE MUST DIE UNLESS THERE IS A HUGE CHANGE IN THE TIMELINE. The confusing part about it is that the major change is not her death but the papers burning up. Since her death could happen and the papers could still burn up (since that is because of the metal upa) why would she stay alive given the rules of the timelines. If it is possible that there is one timeline where she still dies and the papers burn vs her not dying and the papers burning (which logically should be the case), shouldn't that mean that there is also a timeline where Mayori doesn't die but everything else remains roughly the same?! Both of them dieing vs living would have major consequences on the future given the butterfly effect so it doesn't make sense why one case works and the other doesn't. A major inconsistency in the mechanics of the world is just as bad as a predictable plot, which is why I am including it in here.
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Jul 19, 2020
Steins;Gate
(Anime)
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WARNING, review has spoilers spaced from the rest at the bottom, if you do not want spoilers, do not read past where I put my overall rating and the second spoiler warning (which is in all caps).
Time travel can be a very convenient plot device for lazy writing, see this as an example. The time travel tries to feel scientific but fails when aspects like characters guaranteed to die are added because it doesn't make much sense given logical reasoning. Half the how-time-works explanation feels well done and fleshed out, but the other half (specifically that pertaining to the 1% whatever and characters being bound ... 
Jul 6, 2020
This show is a perfect example of the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" and I am sure the author got a fair bit of enjoyment out of the juxtaposition he created. In order for one to enjoy this show it must be approached with an open mind, as many tropes are twisted throughout the show and can leave the person watching confused or annoyed if they are stuck on the idea of harems or MCs who are nice for the sake of being nice to everyone or hard magic systems where how the magic works is explained as absolute truth rather than
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