First off, I assure you all that this card isn't a spoiler. ^^;

Steins;Gate turned out a lot better than I thought it would. It starts off slow and at a very lackadaisical pace, but the 2nd half really picks up speed while also building on everything that was established in the first half. There were a few twists that really threw me for a loop, and I came to care for characters whom I honestly expected to be pretty inconsequential at the start. In the end, I suppose the moral of the story and even the way in which the plot unfolds is very "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time"-esque, but I think this show still offers a pretty fresh take on an old tale.

More specific points of interest:

- I actually rather like the way time travel is treated in this anime, especially since the risk of a time paradox is NOT a topic of concern for almost the entire series, thank God.

- Admittedly, some of the characters got on my nerves in the beginning. The eccentric otaku stereotype charas just don't immediately appeal to me in the way they do for other people. But once the story takes a turn for the worse, the characters became a LOT more palatable (particularly Okabe and Mayuri for me).

So to sum it all up, the first half of Steins;Gate is good, the second half is great, and the series as a whole is worth watching. My rating: 8.5/10 :)

Time: 1 hour
Layers: 9

Original pic.
Carbontype font @ dafont.com
Quote from ep. 16 of Steins;Gate.