Drawing on Time - Steins;Gate: Paranoia

March 13, 2019

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Welcome back to our next look at the Steins;Gate anime. First, something I didn’t mention in the prior post – the voice acting. For the record, our three main characters are Rintaro Okabe (voiced by Mamoru Miyano, or J. Michael Tatum in the English), Mayuri Shiina (voiced by Kana Hanazawa, or Ashly Burch aka Jackie Ross in the English), and Kurisu Makise (voiced by Asami Imai, or Trina Nishimura in the English).

Interestingly, the 2009 video game voice credits match the Japanese anime credits, though some have remarked on how the voices sound different in the different medium. However, the actors in the stage play from 2013 (yes, that really happened too) are different.

We’ve also met Itaru “Daru” Hashida (Tomokazu Seki, or Tyson Rinehart in the English), and “Mr. Braun” (Masaki Terasoma or Christopher Sabat in the English). The others I’ll mention as they appear. It’s worth noting that the voice acting for the dub is fine, though I do find the English script uses more “pop culture” dialogue, and occasionally loses information contained in the subtitles (and presumably the Japanese) as a result. For instance, the running gag of constantly saying “Phone Microwave (Temporary Name)”.

Outside the Future Gadget Laboratory, Okabe encounters Suzuha and “Mr Braun”

Either way, let’s head into episode two, which has the same title as the first chapter (of the ten) in the visual novel:

TIME TRAVEL PARANOIA

It’s July 28th. Okabe reacts to Makise being alive by poking at her and saying she was stabbed three hours ago. Daru reminds Okabe that Dr. Nakabachi’s conference never happened, to no avail. Makise is called away, thinking “Hououin Kyouma” is a nut. Credits.

We get a shot of the “Sciency” magazine where Makise is published (from April 2010) before seeing she’s lecturing at Okabe’s college. The topic, how time machines are not real. Which Okabe loudly disputes. Switch to a flashback format, where Okabe is calling Makise infuriating, from all the math she put up to show “time travel is unrealistic” based on string theory. (The Japanese also has her ask Okabe to produce “exotic matter”, whereas the English makes a “Doctor Who” reference instead.)

A phone call now brings Okabe to the Yanabayashi Shrine, where Mayuri is watching Luka Urushibara train. Okabe calls the new character Rukako, because of course we need an alternate name (subtitles also list him as Ruka). He is voiced by You Kobayashi, or Lindsay Seidel in the English. Wait, why are these female VAs? Well, Okabe himself remarks on how Luka has “feminine grace”, and is dressed as a shrine maiden… but is a dude. Really.

At any rate, the Shrine is offering corn to Okabe’s lab. Or perhaps to Okabe himself, as we see Luka has something of a crush on him. (Seriously, Luka’s a guy.) Mayuri checks a pocket watch, and heads off to work. (TIL) Returning to the lab, Okabe finds “Mr. Braun” is closing early to interview a part-timer. This turns out to be a young brunette wearing her hair in braids, Suzuha Amane. Suzuha has never seen unprocessed corn before.

Suzuha is voiced by Yukari Tamara, or Cherami Leigh in the English. She banters briefly with Okabe.

That night, Okabe researches the satellite crash (with the search engine “Goodle”). Also, on message boards, a time traveller named “John Titor” has turned up, saying in the future, “SERN maintains a strict monopoly on the time machine market”. Titor wants to change their dystopian future world. Titor also responds to a comment, saying the Grandfather Paradox doesn’t exist, you simply change world lines if you do something like meet your past self, or prevent a murder. (TIL) There’s a cool graphic here: Time isn’t a single line moving from past to future, it’s infinite parallel lines (“world lines”) that flow like a river.

Here’s one of the funny things about this anime. The anime genre itself typically parodies existing franchises (like WcDonalds for McDonalds), and here we’re treated to “Goodle” instead of “Google” (a one-off)… and SERN instead of CERN (a plot point). If you didn’t know, CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. They’re the birthplace of the worldwide web, and they operate the largest particle physics laboratory, including the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). And in our reality, in 2000, John Titor alleged that CERN would invent time travel.

Okabe muses “so Titor’s thing now is that he’s Japanese?”. (Recall he knows about Titor from when he was calling out Dr. Nakabachi. I said that would be important later.) Except a web search shows no John Titor ever appeared on the American Internet in 2000. The books about John Titor that Okabe owned do not exist in the lab, and Daru doesn’t know about him. Like Makise being stabbed, this is another thing that only Okabe remembers happening.

We see a running clock for July 28th, which I suspect means a commercial break.

Okabe (under the online guise of Hououin) posts to Titor, asking about the year 2000. Titor says he has no plans to visit that year.

Cut to Okabe near the Radio Building (where the satellite crashed). There’s a long haired girl with glasses there taking photos, as “evidence of the things I’ve seen today”. She’s looking for an old PC, and convinces Okabe to check with Daru to see if he knows about it. This girl is Moeka Kiryu, voiced by Saori Goto, or Jessica Cavanagh in the English.

To find Daru, Okabe visits the “May Queen Nyan^2”. Mayuri (aka “Mayushii Meow Meow”) works there, as does “Faris Nyan Nyan”… it’s a maid cafe with a cat theme. Faris is a girl who enjoys playing along with Okabe’s beliefs in “The Organization”, and Daru fancies her. She is voiced by Haruko Momoi, or Jad Saxton in the English. (Eventually we learn her real name is Akiha Rumiho. Seriously, why does every character need two names?)

In “May Queen Nyan^2”, Mayuri watches as Faris and Okabe talk

Daru identifies Moeka’s PC as an IBN 5100, ultra-rare, though a month ago someone apparently saw one in the area. (TIL) Okabe sends a message back to Moeka (whom he dubs “Shining Fingers” for her texting), saying the PC’s existence is all rumour.

Okabe then does an analysis on the “gel-nanas” (the bananas from last episode), noting they’ve been torn apart at the molecular level. In the lab, he and Daru decide to repeat the experiment, but with only one banana. And when the 120 seconds are up – it’s gone. Is their microwave a teleporter? Because the banana is somehow back to being attached to the pristine bunch across the room, albeit now in its gel state.

And who should show up at the lab then, but Kurisu Makise. A clever bookend to conclude the second episode.

PARALLEL WORLD PARANOIA

It’s July 29th. Okabe talks into his phone about how “The Organization” has sent an agent – is this the choice of Steins Gate? Makise parses this as German (Stein = Stone) and English (Gate), but Daru tells Makise it’s just a phrase Okabe likes. Apparently Makise tracked down the lab, wondering about the “being stabbed” thing, but the gel-banana now has her attention. Credits.

Downstairs, Suzuha is watching television, as upstairs, they investigate. (TIL) Setting aside a couple perverted comments about bananas, Daru thinks Makise’s input would be useful. Okabe briefly resists, because their gadgets are for lab members only, but relents if Makise joins the lab as member 004. Also, he refers to her as “Christina” (not Kurisu) and “The Zombie”. Makise agrees anyway, since she’s going back to America in August. Thus she learns about Future Gadget #8 aka “Phone Microwave (Temporary Name)”.

Mayuri arrives, and is thrilled another girl has joined the lab. The joy is interrupted when Okabe realizes there was an electrical discharge, which Daru remembers as being yesterday, around noon. That was when he’d hooked his own phone into Gadget #8.

Okabe realizes that when he sent Daru his email, he was sending it through their device.

Makise wants to recreate this, so Okabe puts Mayuri’s chicken tenders inside the microwave (even though Makise doesn’t know why something would need to be there). They start it, and Daru sends a message to Okabe’s phone. Mayuri then prematurely opens the microwave to check on the tenders, causing a huge electrical shock and explosion. The desk is broken, the tenders are charred… and Okabe has a message from Daru, received July 24th at 5:30pm.

Their message from July 29th went back in time five days. Implying their banana went back in time, onto the bunch. They have a time machine.

We briefly see Suzuha fixing up a bike (I think this is where we’d have had a commercial break?), then Okabe is waking up and looking at thirteen new messages from Moeka. Across the room, Daru says their microwave is no longer gelling the bananas.

Daru’s computer wallpaper of SERN’s Large Hadron Collider leads to Okabe remembering John Titor, who said SERN completes a time machine by 2034. Okabe and Daru discuss SERN and the idea of mini-black holes at a nearby noodle shop, Okabe deciding they need to hack SERN’s network for information.

Caption: Suzuha wonders what’s up with Okabe’s messages

Okabe and Suzuha talk outside as he returns to the lab. Suzuha reveals that she heard them talking about SERN, and she also knows Titor was talking about Moeka’s IBN 5100. Which was built before PCs could run BASIC, so it can read IBN’s proprietary programming language. Okabe checks this out – Titor’s posts now include remarks about the IBN, and how “time is not like a single river flowing from past to future”. Rather, alterations to time would change a “divergence number”, and people’s memories get reconstructed accordingly going forwards.

Ergo, if Okabe remembers Titor being in 2000, perhaps he’s remembering another world line? One he shouldn’t be able to remember? Titor is intrigued, and willing to meet.

We jump to the next morning, with Daru hacking and Mayuri concerned about Makise’s continued absence. At last, Daru manages to access a few emails from SERN (in English, but they have a translation program), where he finds “Z-Program” has come up 100 times in the past month.

Looking at Experiment Report 137 (from May 14, if you pause the footage), SERN has already generated mini-black holes, despite the company publicly saying their experiments failed. Also, the report concludes with “Human is dead. Mismatch.” (in red). We end episode three on Okabe’s shocked reaction.

What is about to be seen cannot be unseen

At this point, we’ve seen the majority of the cast, and laboratory has a time machine – but they don’t know how it works yet. Which is an interesting take on the genre, because usually the plan of a movie scientist is to invent a time machine in the first place. There’s an interesting blend of genre here too, both dramatic (Titor and SERN) and comedic (banana shenanigans), with hints of romantic entanglements in the background. Also, mystery.

So, where do you think we are going with this? Is John Titor posing as one of the main characters? (Moeka is also looking for an IBN, after all.) Did Okabe trade places with another world line self, or somehow get displaced in time and have his memory altered? (It’s interesting how the series manages to imply it’s the world that’s different, not Okabe, despite his rants about “the Organization”.) And why was Makise so adamant about time travel not existing? (Incidentally, I remember wondering if the gel-banana was made of “exotic matter”, though the English dub removed the reference.)

As the viewer (or reader), do you have any theories so far? We’ll continue next time with “Rendezvous”. Thanks for reading, and please do let me know your opinions, if you have the time.