Steins; Gates 02 – Paranoia of Time Leaps

Makise Kurisu returns from her premature grave to momentarily give Okarin the spooks, then to lecture him on the implausibility of time travel. Okay we have our sceptic. Alongside Kurisu, more of the female cast were brought to light, mainly through crossing paths with our male protagonist. Nevertheless none of these introductions felt forced or even out of place. Okarin had varying relationships with each new female character from first introductions, Amane Suzuha and Kiryuu Moeka, to friendship, Nyannyan Feiris, to unwanted crush, Urushibara Ruka. Personally the most intriguing meeting was Kiryuu Moeka, I’m not entirely certain the relevance of the rest, other then to flesh out the cast.

Next, the storyline continued to develop at leisure, carefully outlining the multi-universe theory, put forth by self-proclaimed time traveller, John Titor, but throws some mystery in for good measure. Literature on John Titor is suddenly vastly reduced, even Okarin’s personal collection is missing, and after making contact with the alleged time traveller, Okarin becomes aware that what he knew about Titor is no longer true in his reality. According to the many-worlds theory, does that mean Okarin stepped into another universe at the point of Makise’s death in the prior episode? Then again, how does Okarin remember? Surely the many-worlds theory only suggests that two conflicting universes can exist at the same time – one in which you die, one in which you survive? However I’m not ruling out that Okarin isn’t just a paranoid schizophrenic.

Verdict: Very Good.