Where the Steins;Gate Anime Fails as an Adaptation

The Science Adventure series is infamous for having horrifyingly rushed anime adaptations. Yet among its entries, there is one peculiar exception to this trend — Steins;Gate. After all, Steins;Gate's anime adaptation is not only one of the all-time best-received visual novel-derived anime, but also one of the all-time best-received anime in general. But while it is an excellent anime, paradoxically, as an adaptation of the second entry in the Science Adventure series, the anime leaves a fair bit to be desired. There are a few ways in which the anime adaptation falls short — dare I say, fails — as an adaptation of its source material. In this video, I delve into the Steins;Gate anime's few fatal flaws as an adaptation, the most egregious of which just might be the single worst character assassination an adaptation has ever pulled off. While these flaws are few, they are significant enough for me to not be able to recommend the anime as a substitute for the Steins;Gate visual novel for anybody actually looking to get into the wider series. The day I am uploading this video marks the Steins;Gate anime adaptation's 14th anniversary. Coincidentally, it is also the year 2025, a massively significant year in-series. So for the occasion, I wanted to make something meaningful. I have very fond memories of my experience with the Steins;Gate anime, which I watched for the first time over 10 years ago. But uncritical Steins;Gate videos praising the anime without discussing how it stands as an adaptation are a dime a dozen. So I wanted to do a video more critical and informative than the overwhelming majority of Steins;Gate-related videos out there. Do bear in mind that there are a number of other points regarding the Steins;Gate anime's adaptation decisions that I simply could not bring up in this video because they would heavily spoil both past and future SciADV entries. Time Stamps 00:00 Introduction 02:46 Spoiler Warning and Trigger Warning 03:03 Omitting Ties to the Wider Series 08:09 How Cutting Narrative Ties Impacted SciADV Post-Steins;Gate 09:30 Cutting Okabe's Breakdown in Chapter 10 10:03 The Worst Character Assassination of All Time 15:06 Omitting Time Leap Nae 17:42 Recap and Conclusion