When the movie was first announced, it was looking real good with their trailers, I mean even without subs you could still decipher what exactly was going on.
As a sequel to its TV series, I was getting pretty much hyped up after seeing how well the TV series has been, not forgetting the mini OVA we had previously as well, the story is just being expanded right into the aftermath of the Steins;Gate world line that Okabe Rintarou had finally got himself into.
From the trailer, there's alrdy much "possibilities" that you can start guessing what exactly happens in the movie. Well, the part that got me so interested in it was the apparent disappearance of Okabe. At the point where Kurisu actually asks about this "particular" individual who was the creator of the lab and Hashida just replied that it was him. Oh wow. Damn. That's some development over there O_O and... seems like Kurisu is going to time leap herself as well. Dang, this is sure gonna be an exciting movie, and it sure was. :)
The movie takes place 1 year after Okabe entered the Steins;Gate world line, and Kurisu is back in Japan as a scientist in a talk but knowing her, she returns immediately to the lab where she meets both Mayuri and Hashida. Oh and right before that, we got another peek at Hashida's future wife, or Suzuha's mother, which means that in this timeline as well, Suzuha will appear in the future when the time is right. Okabe returns to the lab, sees Kurisu and started being slightly tsun himself. Which was later verified by Mayuri as well. With all the spamming of "Christina" all over the place, Okabe just couldn't open his mouth that he had organised a barbecue party for Kurisu and even invited Moeka and Feyris. Now that's just sweet isn't it? :)
With Mr.Braun bringing in all the beer to the barbecue party, we got a glimpse at how a drunk Christina was like. Apparently she was still quite buggy over the whole "another world line" story that Okabe had told her. It isn't everyday you get to see the two having a close chat after the TV series, or in this world line, so it was pretty neat to see the two, I would say, developing their relationship just a little more. Boy am I still amazed by Okabe's seiyuu, just brings out his character so well! And we have the gift from Okabe to Kurisu, a spoon and a fork. Now that's just nostalgic to see. Putting yourself in Kurisu's shoes, one would actually feel uncomfortable when someone else could actually know deep down, what you exactly want due to knowing the same you from another world line, which you yourself have no control of...
And 20 minutes into the movie, we got a glimpse at how serious the movie was going to become. With Okabe having all these "real" memories of previous world lines replaying right in his mind. Even after that, that huge sense of deja vu when he saw the clock stopped moving for a second, instantly reminded him of the danger which he instinctively picks up a knife and threatens Mr.Braun and Moeka who just entered the lab. Now, just what exactly happened? Of course this was the steins gate world line and Mayuri wasn't going to die here and all those were just mere hallucinations by Okabe but things didn't just stopped there as those memories just started becoming more and more realistic and the frequency just starts to accelerate itself.
Later in her own hotel room, Kurisu gets a surprise visitor who tells her about this thing called the "Phone Microwave SERN". To her in this world line, she doesn't have much idea on what exactly it was, but the unknown visitor just told her that she will, definitely, investigate it sooner or later. It was also a nice mini-transition that the producers made it that we could hear that it was definitely Suzuha talking to her after all. With Suzuha's appearance, would it mean that even in this world line, there will definitely be a time machine in the future? If so, it could possibly be Kurisu who had created it, but at what cost? Okabe would definitely be against it since it would only shift the world line once again if it was used, but in the trailer, we could see Kurisu possibly using a time leap machine, so perhaps that part we still got to wait it out. Not forgetting how confident Suzuha was in telling her about the Phone Microwave, it is most likely confirmed that Kurisu would make it, but for what reason?
The theme of "deja vu" was finally brought in when Kurisu helped Okabe sew his lab coat once again, just like she did in the TV series but when she completed it, Okabe just disappeared right in front of her. And that's where it struck me. "alright, storm is coming..." To Kurisu's horror, Okabe's disappearance wasn't on a surface level. It was as though Okabe's existence was written off by this world, that he just didn't exist at all. Further confirmation with Hashida acknowledges the fact that he was the one who had created the lab and the slot of Lab Member 001 was always left empty. Even Kurisu herself couldn't remember who the missing person was, she just felt uneasy that sometime was different in the world and she just couldn't pinpoint it out.
Days after the world "altered" itself to remove Okabe's existence, Kurisu finally got a hint after looking at her own fork, which was given to her by Okabe. Seems like the gift left a rather deep impression on her yeah :D Flipping through her own notes, she notices one that has the words "Phone Microwave SERN". After confirming with Hashida that there really was something weird in the world, after all Hashida could remember him hacking SERN but not the reason why, since the reason was Okabe all along. After returning to the lab, Kurisu and Hashida completes the time leap machine and this time, Kurisu was determined to use it, travel to the past and find out what exactly was wrong in the world.
Her time leap brought her back to the barbecue that they had and with Okabe still there, Kurisu wonders to herself how could she forget about him, and then the anomaly occurs again and Okabe's existence was written off once again. That's when Suzuha made her contact with Kurisu. It was explained that with all the accumulated memories from the other world lines residing in Okabe, he was shifted by "a law" to the neighbouring world line known as the R-world line, where Okabe, in the steins gate world line was deemed as an unstable existence. So that means that Okabe is now starting to drift between these 2 world lines and when he drifts over to the R world line, his existence will be removed over in the steins gate world line. Suzuha later explains to Okabe that the time machine was created by Kurisu to save Okabe's unstable existence but Okabe declines the offer of being saved and asks Suzuha to destroy the time machine. To him, he was afraid that the appearance of the time machine could mean another possible shift in the world line after all his hard work in shifting into the steins gate world line.
Kurisu rebukes him and reveals that she had used the time leap machine, which made Okabe all worked up since it was the creation of the machine that started everything, the D-mails and the deaths of Mayuri and Kurisu. Okabe doesn't want Kurisu to go through the same thing as he did, trying to save someone. With the time leap machine being made, it would mean that there is always the possibility of saving a person and with the possibility, someone would definitely use it and end up just like Okabe in the end, endlessly repeating the same time over and over again just for someone else. To Okabe now, having Mayuri and Kurisu live was the most important, and even with him disappearing, he just doesn't care. With their last night spent at the station, the two share a kiss which Kurisu finds it unfair since it was this kind of action that leaves such a deep memory that was not going to be easily forgotten.
Before Okabe's disappearance, Kurisu feels that she had to tell him something and runs to the lab, but before she was about to convey her true feelings, Okabe's existence was written off and the world had changed into one without the existence known as Okabe Rintarou. I guess that scene was pre-empted to have such uncanny resemblance with the TV series where Kurisu also returns to try and convey her true feelings but just didn't go through. It was painful to see Kurisu in tears after Okabe had disappeared and it seems like Mayuri had her own sense of deja vu as well, not wanting her to create the time leap machine again to try and save Okabe.
All hope was not lost as Suzuha returns to give Kurisu another chance to save Okabe, by a theory from Kurisu in the future, their goal is to implant a strong enough memory to overwrite the overload of the Reading Steiner so as to make Okabe's existence stable in the steins gate world line, making the steins gate world line no different from the others. Pretty sweet to see Suzuha wearing the cap that Hashida always had too :) By then, we would've thought that we could have seen the ending, but nope! Kurisu got to experience what Okabe had in his final time travel in the final series, that she had caused Okabe's death in the past. Not that it will directly affect her in the future since that would most possibly branch into another world line, the steins gate world line will automatically correct itself and Okabe would be still alive.
On the verge of giving up, the other lab members seem to have a sense of deja vu about the person called Okabe Rintarou and with Kurisu's imitation of him, the deja vu was made stronger and with that, various loopholes were found, such as those things that concerned Okabe and the others could remember but yet could not at the same time. With another time travel back to the time where Okabe actually "saves" Mayuri when they were young, Kurisu injected herself into Okabe's memory by being the trigger to the persona of "Hououin Kyouma" and also at the same time giving the young Okabe his first kiss. With that, Okabe goes back to the graveyard to find Mayuri and tells her that she would become his hostage from then on. It was that moment that Kurisu had achieved by inputting a strong memory, yet not changing the world line, just like how Okabe did to save Kurisu in the past. With that, Okabe is able to return to the steins gate world line with his "new" memories of the past and when he asks Kurisu if she would return his first kiss when he was a kid, she replies that she doesn't want to.
It was a pretty neat sequel to the TV series, considering the possible problem that could occur in the new steins gate world line. It was nice to see how many of the scenes lead back to the TV series, which makes us go "hey! I remember that!" Looks like the spoon and fork did play another important role over in the movie and of course Suzuha's appearance once again. It was really smart of them to pull another "almost confession" scene by Kurisu. Would've appreciated it if it really did go through this time round, but I guess they really want to keep the sense of "deja vu" high. What leaves as a possible question was that was the final timeline that Kurisu returned together with Okabe the steins gate world line? There wasn't any definite answer but I would think that it wasn't. Since when Okabe did save Kurisu and by not actually altering the past, he was shifted into the steins gate world line. So when Kurisu did the same thing for Okabe, I would assume that the world line had shifted once again, this time with Mayuri and Kurisu not dying and Okabe not disappearing as well. The plot isn't exactly perfect or so I would say, this movie generally focuses more on Kurisu and her being able to experience the same things as Okabe did, which I believe would make the bond between the two even stronger. They just do suit each other so well :) And kudos to this brilliant sci-fi romance series that I guess I'd never forget!
P.S. when Kurisu actually started talking about how cruel the world would be in a world where Okabe's existence was written off, it just sparked the Madoka reference over in my mind. I mean isn't that just like Homura and Madoka? Damn. Time travel is the thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment