Bradcat's Anime Focus... Steins;Gate

It's going to be very difficult for me to talk about Steins;Gate without; A.) Giving too much away and spoiling the plot in some way, or B.) Not knowing when to shut up about how great it is.

The story follows self proclaimed mad scientist Rintarou Okabe who goes by his alias of Hououin Kyouma or "Okarin" to his friends (a nickname which he dislikes) and his struggle against the mysterious organisation known as... "The Organisation". According to Okabe The Organisation are everywhere, they tap our phones, use our personal information for their own gains, and of course, are trying to steal his inventions. It's safe to say Okabe is not only a "mad scientist" but also a conspiracy theory nut.

Okabe is joined by his two friends, the rotund computer hacker Itaru Hashida, and the lovable Mayuri Shiina (or Mayushii), who introduces herself, with a vocal fanfare of "Tuturu". Confused? Watch this clip...

As the series progresses, he is joined by other characters who join his fight against "The Organisation" the main character who joins him in episode one is a red haired scientist called Kurisu Makise, whom Okabe takes great pleasure in referring to her as "Lab assistant number 2" or "Christina" in an attempt to make her feel slightly inferior despite her possibly being a better scientist than Okabe. It often leads to humorous confrontations like this...

The story really gets underway when Okabe realises in episode one, that he has potentially invented a time travel device by mistake. A large portion of the episodes after that, focus around him trying to understand how to control the time machine device; while the later episodes focus on the consequences of time travel itself.

The series also focuses on the story of John Titor. For those of you that don't know this famous story, around 2001 a man appeared on a public forum claiming to be sent from the year 2036. His mission was to find an IBM computer which was made in the 1970's, but was crucial to deciphering a piece of code in his time. When people questioned him about time travel, he was able to provide detailed information on how the machine worked, and even included diagrams. He then mysteriously vanished from the forums and no record of him was ever found. Obviously many people claim it to be a total hoax, while others still believe it to be true. You can read more about this story by clicking here.

I already feel I may have given too much of the plot away, so I'll try to wrap up by saying that this anime is an incredible story about time travel and the lengths people will go for their friends and loved ones. With the series only being 25 episodes long (along with a film which was released this summer) it's very easy to get into the story very quickly. Though I will warn you now, give this anime your full attention as the plot contains time travel, a concept of which people can lose track of very easily. Ask anyone that saw the movie "Looper".

I'll shut up about how great this show is now...