|
The Series (5/5)
Rintaro `Okarin’ Okabe, is a self-proclaimed mad scientist, who works out of his apartment that he dubs the "Future Gadget Laboratory". One day while attending a lecture on the possibilities of time travel, Rintaro finds himself in the midst of a time travel event involving a satellite crashing into the building he's in. He goes on to hook up a telephone to a microwave, and create something that defines the essence of time travel. Rintaro and his team who include his hacker assistant, and a young girl obsessed with cosplay find that while matter becomes goo in the time travel process, they are able to send digital data back through time, informing themselves and others of future events, and in specific terms altering the present.
It's a complex story that gets more interesting as it goes along. The first 10 or so episodes of the series involve introducing the characters, their situation, and the reality that they live in, before using that setup to create something truly interesting, and compelling. The story behind Steins Gate seems to take queues from the post-2005 episodes of Doctor Who and the films Donnie Darko and Primer with the way time travel is utilized. The tone of the show bounces back between comedic and fun, and darkly serious. Animation for this series is excellent, and truly brings the show to life. This really looks great on the current Blu-ray release.
Audio/Video (4/5)
Steins Gate is presented by Funimation in a very solid 1080p AVC encoded transfer that is bright, detailed, and simply makes everything here look fantastic.
Audio for the show is presented with a 5.1 truehd English track and a 2.0 HD audio Japanese track. Both tracks are excellent and come through crystal clear.
Extras (2.5/5)
There is a clean opening and closing, and select episode commentaries by the English dub actors.
Overall
Steins Gate is a truly excellent time travel series, that uses time travel in plausible ways. The Blu-ray looks and sounds excellent, and has a decent extras slate. RECOMMENDED.
|
