'Steins;Gate: The Movie − Load Region of Déjà Vu' Is a Sentimental Follow-Up to the Anime Series

I’ve just recently become a Steins;Gate fan, and it’s only imperative that I also check out Steins;Gate: The Movie − Load Region of Déjà Vu, a.k.a. Steins;Gate: Fuka Ryōiki no Déjà vu, the feature-length follow-up to the anime series.

It’s set a year after the OAV epilogue, and starts off with Kurisu returning to Japan for a seminar, allowing her to reunite with the Future Gadget Laboratory gang.  Meanwhile, Okabe’s “Reading Steiner” has begun to overload – an intense, grave side effect from the substantial time traveling that he underwent a year ago.  He gets severe visions of the events in alternate worldlines, causing his existence to fluctuate in and out of the “Steins Gate” worldline and ultimately getting erased.  This time around, the roles are reversed: it’s Kuriso who needs to do the time traveling in order to save him.

First and foremost, this film is a terrific time travel thriller.  However, it works exclusively for those who have watched the original series, for the former greatly builds upon the events and concepts that the latter has introduced and established.  Steins;Gate is such a confusing, complex anime, and without the familiarity for its mythos, ethos, and pathos, this movie is almost impossible to follow – much less, enjoy and appreciate.

For those who love the anime series, loving this follow-up movie comes naturally.  Though it doesn’t necessarily improve the original series as a whole, it has managed to push the right buttons to be a sentimental, immersive sequel.  As before, the shift from comedy to drama is impeccable, the storytelling is gripping and emotional, and the insights are deeply interesting (seriously, when it comes to the ethics and implications of time travel, Steins;Gate gives and inspires excellent thought experiments – both in intellectual and romantic ways – to ponder on.  I especially like Kuriso’s theory on “déjà vu”).

There is time to appreciate the characters, particularly the tranquil “circle of friends” dynamic that the Future Gadgets Laboratory has.  However, the central focus of the plot is on Okabe and Kuriso.  You will gravitate to them more than you did during the series.  New qualities aren’t necessarily revealed about them.  What’s shown here is simply what has already been previously revealed about their personalities and relationship in the series.  However, what the film does is put a powerful emphasis on these things.  Thus, you will only love these two characters more.

There are intriguing parts here that I think would have been more fascinating if, instead of a movie, a “season two” was made to expound them.  There’s the potential of Steins;Gate being elevated if it went this route.  On the other hand, there’s also the feeling that it should be sufficient already that the film has done a satisfying job, that there’s no need to elaborate further.

In the end, the Steins;Gate film simply sustains the impact of the anime series.  And that’s totally fine.