Top 10 Mad Scientists

Ahahaha! Ahahaha–!!!

… Ah. There really wasn’t much to laugh about, was there? Anyway, welcome back to our weekly Top 10, ladies and gentlemen, where we take a topic that you choose and we choose the best of the best in that category. Today’s subject is a little bit experimental, as we’re going to be looking at our Top 10 Mad Scientists and write up our thesis about their potentials for the top spot. We’ve taken a lot of candidates and we felt like we’d do something a bit different for this one. We’ve put a pinch of this and a dash of that together to give birth to a list which shows off the best of the best of these mad scientists. Creation is a powerful tool; so let’s see what these scientists can bring to life!

Steins’ Gate – What’s with all the hubbub?

Published by: Manga Entertainment (UK), Funimation Entertainment (America)
Year aired: 2011

If you have already seen this series then you should know the first and last episodes have very similar names: Prologue to the Beginning and End, Prologue to the End and Beginning. So, now that I’ve said that, you might be able to guess some of the basics of what this series is going to be like.

So, Steins’ Gate aired in 2011 but started life in a rather different way to most anime series, which are usually adapted from manga comics or an anime is the cause of a manga. Rather interestingly, Steins’ Gate started life as an interactive story which started life on the Xbox360. There’s not much to the game play as it’s mostly just the retelling of a story with some button pressing but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. It suits the series and suits the genre, that of a “Science adventure”.

Another interesting point about this series is the constant use of a form of theoretical science. Theoretical science isn’t proven but it’s a concept, a theoretical concept.

Steins Gate was also released on the PC as an interactive novel.

Story

We’re already talking about the most important part of Steins’ Gate. If you watch this series, you entirely watch it for the plot.

Featuring a fantastic mix of sci-fi and romance, this series revolves around Okabe, who declares himself to be a mad scientist. Always nice when you’re honest with yourself. He enjoys a good bit of science and as such starts the series by going to a talk about time travel!

So, when things go very wrong indeed, Okabe sends a message off to alert his super hacka super hacker, Itaru Hashiba, to the thing that went very wrong indeed. Only, much to Okabes chagrin, it appears that Okabe had managed to send a message back in time himself.

This series revolves around time travel, fixing things that shouldn’t have happened and a sort of trial and error approach. The dynamics between the characters, especially the dynamics between the Future Gadget Laboratory: Okabe, Mayushii (Mayuri Shiina, a childhood friend of Okabe. She is a part-time maid at a maid café and makes cosplay costumes) and Hashiba. With Hashiba accidently blurting out things that could be seen as innuendos quite often and with the innocence of Mayushii, it’s usually up to Okabe to defuse any potentially “damaging” situation.

With the rather silly nature of Okabe, too – This series is pretty amusing. WARNING: This video has a naughty word.

This is one series I don’t want to say too much about the story of as if I did, it might spoil the fun. Watch this series for the story – Trust me there!

Music

Something feels missing from the theme of the series for me.

I cannot fully put my finger on it, but this feels cold to me. It doesn’t feel like a theme that makes me want to know more. This is rare for me to actually knock a theme to a series, but there is something very lax and missing about it (This is just a personal opinion).

I might not be well liked for saying that about this theme, but it also doesn’t feel very original. Sure, it’s not the same theme as any other series and it doesn’t directly “rip anything off”, but something in me has clicked to say “I’ve heard this before” in a round about way. But that’s fine, as this series is one to make you think rather than sit back and chill with it. You don’t want the distraction of J-Pop in your mind throughout the series, you want it to be relatively clean and simple. For that reason, the music has done well enough here!

Artwork

Now, the artwork in Steins’ Gate is good enough, however it’s just that. Good enough. There’s nothing in this series that blew me away, unlike some other series that I’ve reviewed.

The characters are all realistic which is nice for once, however at the same time, this to me isn’t a great thing. In anime, I (personally) like to be transported to the land of crazy. I like to see outlandish characters or otherworldly lands. Give me something interesting to look at, not an exaggerated reality.

With this being said, as I mentioned earlier: There’s nothing wrong with the art in this series what so ever. It’s pleasing to look at, but there’s nothing that truly throws you off or looks out of the ordinary. It doesn’t need to, the story sells it.

The characters of Steins Gate, nicely done, but nothing too zany.

So, I’ll give Steins’ Gate:

The “almost there” 4/5

There’s nothing truly wrong with Steins’ Gate, really. The problem is, there are so many elements of this series that is done… Nicely… But there’s not much that actually dropped me to my knees to say “Wow!”. The higher mark for this series is due to the story being superb. Now don’t get me wrong here, the characters are likeable and in most cases they are in fact, fun! The story is well done but with the “nicely done” artwork and the “Nicely done” music, something is missing for me.

What do you all think about Steins’ Gate? Care to leave a comment and flame the heck out of me for saying that the theme wasn’t great and the art left a lacking taste in my mouth? I welcome your comments, as this series has a fantastic story – It just didn’t quite hit as high as it could have done for me.

Steins’ Gate – What’s with all the hubbub?

Published by: Manga Entertainment (UK), Funimation Entertainment (America)
Year aired: 2011

If you have already seen this — Wait a minute, I sense deja vu!