best of 2011: #1
Categories: best of 2011
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It is the choice of Steins;Gate.
#1: Steins;Gate
Also wins for 2011:
- Best Science Team (Sorry Nichijou)
- Most Awesome Noise (Tu~tu~ruu~)
- Best Product Placement (Dk. Pepper. Yes, Dk.)
- Best Male Character and Mad Scientist
- Best Use of Friend’s Daughter
- Most Ridiculous Genderswap
- Most Wasted Bananas
- Best Use of Cell Phones
- No blog好ã Steins;Gate Posts In This Worldline
It’s hard to discuss this year’s #1 without discussing #2. They’re basically the same show. They both feature a main character desperately traversing time to stop a future that he and she do not want. Both fail. Repeatedly. Repeatedly. Repeatedly. To the point where hope should have been rung out, squeezed out, and choked out of them; nevertheless, they keep going. Ticking along like time. Because for Okarin and Homura, it is more than love, it’s more than friendship, it’s more than life itself.
It’s crazy. Both Steins;Gate and Madoka are about the same thing, air at almost the same time, and are high quality shows that could compete for #1 any year. Yet one and only one could be #1 this year. While I think most people’s gut reaction and choice is Madoka, I feel differently. While Madoka has many superior aspects including a better director (Shinbo on top of his game), a vastly superior villain (everybody loves Kyubey), and enormously better production values (Shaft being Shaft paid off handsomely), Steins;Gate has Okarin. And that’s enough. As fun as it may be to watch Kyubey manipulate everyone, it’s more emotionally fulfilling watching Okarin undergo his trial and emerge both victorious and as a better man. This isn’t going to about what Madoka did or did not do but what Steins;Gate did and did well.
Steins;Gate is no slouch. The direction is quite good and despite the average animation budget, it conveys what it needs to convey nicely. It doesn’t play any tricks or uses any gimmicks but does invest nicely in facial expressions and action scenes that warrant it. How can you not appreciate pouty Kurisu? The show lets everything else fall to the wayside as it tells a story. A story about a crazy mad scientist, the people who love him, and the people he loves.
Any successful anime will make the viewer feel what the character is going through. Nothing quite compares to Okarin’s grief as he bears his burden throughout his time leaps. His desperation and how the desperation changes him just comes out so much more powerful than Homura, not that Homura’s wasn’t impactful as well. Okarin was just on another level, like comparing 1996 Jordan to 1996 Hakeem. The scene that really got me was when Okarin finally breaks down from his grief and tells Christina that not only has he seen Mayuri die 15,532 times (approximate), he has gruesomely let her die as part of his experiments to see how inescapable her fate is. Just a raw scene of a man driven to the brink. This scene is anime at its emotional finest. Until the next one.
And then as he’s crying and emotionally broken, Kurisu tells him, “Goddamit, I love you, but you have to choose Mayuri.” Oh. My. Fucking. Ohanekawa-sama. Can anime get better than this?
And it does. Okarin tries a Hail Mary to save both Mayuri and Kurisu… and fails at the last moment. Soul-crushing. So much more soul crushing than any despair laid on Homura, Madoka, Kyouko, Mami, or (laugh) Sayaka. Yet, Okarin picks himself up. I can almost hear Joe Esposito in the background music. Anime at its finest.
But those aren’t the only scenes of note. Steins;Gate is peppered with them. Suzuha making her final time leap. Mayuri pep talks for Okarin. Ruka going from boy to girl to boy. Mayuri’s slap when Okarin was about to give up. Kurisu dressed up as a meido. Moeka’s Judas. Mr. Braun’s daughter eating alone at the table. The show has fantastic lighter moments like the lab coat scene and Kurisa browsing 2chan and everyone scene involving gel-bananas and almost every laughable future gadget… these scenes really contrast the good times with the bad times with the very, very bad times… and Okarin’s eventual triumph.
Nothing in Steins;Gate is left to chance: it is a carefully constructed narrative that flows through Okarin as he is the universe that everything revolves around, and it’s on his shoulders that everyone’s burden’s falls. Yet, he manages to solve all the issues by being himself. He fights with his friends that he earned along the way. He then depends on everything to overcome his problems… there’s a sense of supreme, Gurren Lagann-class camaraderie that exists in Steins;Gate that’s not quite there in Madoka. I like anime with an emotional punch, and Steins;Gate hits like After Story. Steins;Gate just had so much more emotional impact, and that’s all because of one man– one mad scientist man.
In honor of Lab Members #001 through #008, Best of 2011 concludes with Steins;Gate… at least in this worldline. Psy. El. Congroo.
13 Responses to “best of 2011: #1”
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Another thing to note is that Urobuchi is a master at timing his writing. Think about it:
The Madoka finale aired on Easter (even though there was no way he could’ve predicted that earthquake); around the time that Steins;Gate aired, there was suddenly a report about Neutrinos traveling faster than light (which has since been proven false again, but still); and Fate/Zero had both Mother’s Day AND Father’s Day Kiritsugu edition.
I have no idea how he does it, but he just does.
I can’t wait for the movie…
“Close your eyes.”
@Joe iirc, Gen Urobuchi was not the writer behind steins;gate. But the publishers were 5pb AND Nitroplus. I guess that’s the reason Homura and Okabe are sometimes drawn together in fanarts.
my problem with SG is I can’t stand Okarin in the early eps and i still haven’t gotten past the early eps.
“Psy. El. Congroo”
It’s El. Psy. Congroo. This is why we have passwords…
Your pick for steins gate is totally accurate, I would have agreed as well if you had choosen madoka. Steins;Gate did an awesome job, completely overwhelming Chaos;Head and opening the way to Robotic;Notes. In particular, did you notice character-wise stains gate passes every checklist for a harem anime (thundere, childhood friend, timid sister/miko, etc, even a male friend with no love chances) but breaks every single stereotype, effectively breaking the harem completely?
Finally I want to add another great moment of steins gate. That punch in the face Okarin gives Moeka. Amazing, no anime has dared to show such domestic violence before that I can think of.
Woohoo!!!! Totally got me off the hook here. When your #2 came out, I was like, the hell!?? I mean, what’s better than Madoka that year? Browsed through my 2011 shows, saw SG, reminiscing the despair, and hoped that its the one coming out above Madoka. Totally agree with you Jason for putting this show above else.
El. Psy. Congroo.
The Okarin Punch spawned one of the most facepalming debates in Animesuki forum. I mean, he was out to save his childhood friend and somehow someone decided that domestic violence and the place of women in japanese society was more worth discussing than Okabe’s struggle? F*ck that shit.
Totally awesome, my only real complaint is that when watching the series it looked a little dark most of the time, although I guess I can see that the darkness sorta represents okabe’s despair
>my problem with SG is I can’t stand Okarin in the early eps…
^This!
Okabe is the reason why I prefer Madoka over Steins;Gate. I did not like the male lead. There is an old adage that says, “Great men are never respected in their own land.” Why? For the same reason I didn’t like Okabe: we saw him come up, worts and all. I can’t seperate Okabe from the silly, self-deluded blowhard he once was to the person he became.
He annoyed the heck out of me! Even more so than Mayuri — and that alone is quite an achievement.
It’s typical of anime male leads to go through this hero’s journey from self-absorbed beta-male to greatness but your mileage may vary. Some can get away with it (Simon – Gurren Lagann) and some cannot (Shinji Ikari).
I liked Steins;Gate when it aired. It was one of only three shows I actually enjoyed in 2011. However, Okabe was the one fatal flaw that stopped me from liking it as much as I should.
So if you never think your blog has influence, let me say this: After reading your review of the series, I went back and watched the rest of it. Thanks man. This has obviously opened the Steins Gate. Amazing show, and I agree that it edges up and over Madoka through to be fair it was twice as long, giving them more time to explore the characters.
I just marathoned through this series because of this post and man is it good. Now that I think about it, interestingly, all the visual novel greats involve some form of time travel: Steins;Gate, Ever17, Muv-Luv, Baldr Sky, Clannad (to an extent).
Oh yeah, and of course YU-NO.