History VisualNovel / SteinsGate

** Okabe mentions "Maybe you should make an [[{{GIFT}} APA analysis]] on [[Website/FourChan /b/]]". It's changed in the dub to him suggesting that she's checking out her [[{{Website/Reddit}} AMA threads]].

* {{GIFT}}: While Hououin Kyouma and John Titor basically act the same as their real-world counterparts, [=KuriGohan=] is sarcastic, vulgar and condescending.
* {{GIRL}}:
** [[spoiler: The true identity of the mysterious FB is none other than Mr. Braun, who fakes being a mother figure for Moeka because that's what would buy her loyalty.]]
** Also invoked by name in one of the [=RaiNet=] anime episode summaries.

* InnocentInnuendo: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Daru every single time, much to Kurisu's annoyance.

* IResembleThatRemark
-->'''Kurisu:''' I'm not a tsundere!
* InsaneEqualsViolent:
** [[spoiler: Moeka totally loses it once she's accepted by FB, and kills Mayuri just because FB told her to.]]
** A downplayed version of this, continuing from the above example (in visual novel only), [[spoiler: the adult Nae (who had witnessed her father committed suicide in front of Okabe and Moeka and mistaken them for forcing her father to kill himself) decided to perform time leap from year 2025 ''all the way back'' to year 2010 to her younger self just to kill Moeka and succinctly threaten Okabe about his grim future, all while she dons a totally bloodshot face at his direction.]]
* InSpiteOfANail: While there can be surprising changes that come about as a result of D-mail usage, the world will fundamentally remain the same. For example, whether Luka is [[spoiler: a boy or girl]] will changing almost nothing in relation to their life or relationships.
* IntentionalEngrishForFunny: The {{Defictionalization}} of the Future Gadget Lab's [[http://futuregadget-lab.us/ homepage]]. Apparently, it was coded and translated entirely by Daru. Since he doesn't speak a word of English, the results are predictable.
--> This [[RougeAnglesofSatin Paige]] of English is made of efforts to expansion into west, as a making into perfect English by glorious Super Hacka with a helping of machine translation software.

** [[MagicalParticleAccelerator SERN]] and [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer IBN]] play an important part in the plot. However, there's also [[Website/{{Google}} Goodle]], [[Website/YouTube MewTube]], [[VisualNovel/{{CLANNAD}} CLADANDAN]], [[Music/AKB48 KBA84]], [[{{Doujinshi}} Comima]] and "Wiki Wiki" for Wiki/TheOtherWiki.

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Okabe's attempts to save Mayuri during the middle of the anime series. Having to watch his ChildhoodFriend die over and over, [[YouCantFightFate no matter what he tries to do]], taxes him heavily. It gets so bad that even some of the other characters, such as Kurisu, Daru, and even Mayuri herself, suspect something is wrong when they know next to nothing about the events he's witnessed.]]

History teaches that those who hold wisdom are often the most foolish. \\

This may be called God's ultimatum to those who rebel."''

The {{sequel}} to ''VisualNovel/ChaosHead'' and the second entry in the VisualNovel/ScienceAdventureSeries, ''Steins;Gate'' is set roughly one year after the events of the previous game. Instead of the "delusion trigger" system introduced in ''Chaos;Head'', ''Steins;Gate'' uses the similar "phone trigger": whenever somebody calls Okabe, he can choose whether or not to answer. Text messages include blue hyperlinks that can be selected to reply to the text. The player's choices determine what sort of path the plot takes. Other than this though, ''Steins;Gate'' and ''Chaos;Head'' doesn't share any direct connects, either story or character-wise, and the plot can be therefore easily be followed without having played ''Chaos;Head''. (Though there are many references to ''Chaos;Head'' in terms of various character namedrops as well as a few recurring plot points and types of in universe fictional characters that are brought up in Steins;Gate, though these are likely to go completely over a blind readers' head.)

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Congratulations, Okabe, you managed to [[spoiler: save Mayuri]] and all you had to do is [[spoiler: sacrifice the woman you love, the happiness of your friends and your own state of mind.]] Cue the credits! Then, right in the middle of the credits in comes a call [[spoiler: from Amane Suzuha]] but not the one Okabe knows. Turns out he forgot a few important things, namely that [[spoiler: the time travel machine was on the roof even in the restored timeline and that John Titor predicted a devastating war that would kill over five billion people.]]

* YouHaveFailedMe: In the anime, [[spoiler:after Moeka helps Okabe track down FB, he executes her for betraying him]]

** In the visual novel, the endless time loop Okabe inflicts upon himself in Suzuha's path has him grow increasingly insane, going as far as to consider raping Suzuha since he's in a world with no consequences before snapping out of it. He also decides to see what happens when he doesn't pull Daru up from the front of an incoming truck he knows is coming.
--->'''Okabe''': What will happen... if I don't pull Daru back? Will the truck catch on Daru's fat? Will it send him flying like a rag doll? Will it take off his head? Will blood spray from the stump like a crimson fountain? Will the girls scream, I wonder? Let's find out.

* TheTimeTravellersDilemma: Preventing a BadFuture [[spoiler:and saving Mayuri's life]] requires a great deal of sacrifices, the most difficult one being [[spoiler:''Makise'''s life]].

** [[spoiler:Kurisu to Okabe in the Steins Gate timeline, since the first thing he did upon meeting her was save her from her murderously jealous father. This prompts her to start looking for him on the streets of Akihabara to thank him, & eventually restart their [[PastLifeMemories relationship from another timeline.]]]]

* PlanningForTheFutureBeforeTheEnd: In the second to last time loop in the Alpha world line, Okabe spends the last few minutes before [[spoiler:Mayuri's regularly scheduled death]] discussing plans for next year's Comima and promising her that he'll cosplay next time around. This becomes way more heartbreaking in Luka's ending, where [[spoiler:Mayuri]] attempts to discuss future plans with Okabe when [[spoiler:he's given up on saving her]], with him unable to bring himself to respond out of guilt.

* NecessaryWeasel: It's admitted that time travel shouldn't be possible. Not only that, but the way it works in Steins;Gate (replacing memories such that no one can tell the past has changed) would prevent anything useful from being done with time travel. That, however, is boring, so Okabe gets to have the Reading Steiner.

* GovernmentConspiracy: While it is never revealed in Steins;Gate specifically, if you read any other of the mainline entries (that isn't ''Steins;Gate 0''), it becomes pretty blatantly apparent with the hints the game throws in coupled with other game knowledge that SERN was really just a subsidary backed by ''The Committee of 300''. This is further supported by the fact that Chaos;Head reveals [[spoiler: the ultimate goal of the Committee is to kill everyone but the worlds' top 1 billion elite humans and subjugate them into slavery]], which ends up becoming the bad future in [[spoiler: Suzuha]]'s timeline, despite SERN being the ones behind it who should otherwise have no idea of this goal if they were not connected.

* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Besides the obvious example of [[spoiler:there actually being a world-shattering conspiracy behind the scenes, Okabe manages to guess/joke about a lot of stuff early. For instance, Moeka's superior, FB, turns out to be Tenouji, under the pseudonym of '''F'''erdinand '''B'''raun. What does Okabe call Tenouji? [[AccidentallyAccurate Mr. Braun]].In chapter 4 on the 6th of August, if Okabe sees Kurisu crying outside the retro TV store while also arguing with someone on her phone, he thinks that it could be her father whom she hasn't seen in seven years; He was right.]]

** The very first chapter has Kurisu, who Okabe saw murdered, somehow back to life and behaving as though nothing happened, and nobody else seems to remember her dying. It goes unexplained until [[spoiler:the later chapters reveal that Okabe traveler to a world-line where, due to the Butterfly Effect, Kurisu was never murdered]].

** A minor example from episode 3:

*** Counts as something named the Jellyman report doesn't sound particularly serious but causes Okabe to have a minor HeroicBSOD.

* WhatTheHellHero: All of the lab members' reactions to Okabe's groping of Luka to prove he's still a guy.
** Okabe is ironically this to the protagonists of Chaos;Head, because [[spoiler: his first d-mail jumped the worldline into an attractor field where SERN, and by extension the Committee end up achieving their goal of killing all but 1 billion people of humanity and subjugating them, which in turn undos all the hard work the protagonists of that story did to stop the Committee from ruling the world.]]

* WholePlotReference: Suzuha's route in ''My Darling's Embrace'' is one to ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part I''. In it, [[spoiler:Daru falls in love with Suzuha, his KidFromTheFuture, and it is up to her to get her parents together and ensure her birth.]] Lampshaded:
-->'''Okabe:''' Your own negligence caused [[spoiler:one of your parents to fall in love with you]], and now you need to [[spoiler:help them along so that they get together]], huh...\\

* YouCantFightFate: Once the world has decreed that something will happen, it's going to happen. No matter what you do, certain events will take place unless you remove their cause in the past. These tend to be the critical events that greatly shape the world such as the birth or death of a person or acquisition of an item that has drastic effects on the world. On the other hand, certain critical events are also ''prevented'' from happening: Okabe eventually learns that it's impossible for him to die until 2025 on the Alpha and Beta Timelines.

** [[spoiler: Mayuri will die on the 13th, and then a day later each time Okabe resets one of the changes he made. She'll keep dying until he removes info from SERN's database about the call he made to Daru.]]
*** If this is done, then [[spoiler: in the epilogue, Okabe has to trick time into allowing Kurisu to live. He even kills her once himself on accident in an attempt to save her.]]

* ScrewDestiny: [[spoiler:Okabe's main goal is to save Mayuri from her fated death by undoing all the time traveling he did.]]
** This is actually a bit of a weird variety since it was [[spoiler:him screwing with destiny to begin with that all of this happened.]]

* SeriousBusiness: Rai-Net. [[spoiler:In one timeline, a group of Rai-Netters attempt to kidnap Faris and beat Okabe half to death just because she beat them in a tournament.]]

** [[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam Shining Finger]], Moeka Kiryuu's nickname, given by Okabe.
*** The first person to directly point out the reference, complete with the "My hand glows with an awesome power" line, is Daru, who is voiced by none other than [[Creator/TomokazuSeki Domon Kasshu]] himself.

** Kurisu comments in the dub if Okabe "could be any more of a [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Wesley]]". He teases her about this after realizing what she just said.
*** In the sub, she quotes [[Manga/DeathNote Yagami Light]].

* ShownTheirWork: In one timeline of their first meeting, Kurisu lectures Okabe on the impossibilities of time travel; the lecture is cut quickly to a picture of Okabe straggling out of the lecture hall absolutely mauled by Kurisu's arguments. In the Visual Novel, this lecture scene is shown to the audience and is literally TurnedUpToEleven, with Kurisu mentioning exactly eleven different theories of time travel, subsequently shooting down two of these hypotheses. That the creators took the time to explain the absurdities of theoretical time travel in a visual novel/anime about time travel shows something pretty special.

* ShrinkingViolet: Moeka is such an extreme case that she prefers texting over talking.

* TheSlowPath: [[spoiler:Alpha Suzuha's time machine is backwards only.]]

* [[StupidSexyFlanders Stupid Sexy Luka]]: Okabe's reactions toward Luka, after he cosplays a she.
-->'''Okabe:''' My soul... My soul is being devoured!

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Kurisu just ''[[{{Tsundere}} loves]]'' to do this.

** [[spoiler:This is also an interesting moment because of the whole thing with her father later on.]]

* TakeAThirdOption: Occasionally, Okabe considers taking one of these rather than [[spoiler:deprive someone of their happiness outright.]] However, you are rarely given the choice to actually do so. The one time you do, [[spoiler:Okabe does manage to save both Mayuri and Kurisu, but accidentally sacrifices his relationships with everyone but Faris, who is somehow his lover now. The [=PhoneWave=] (Name Subject to Change) was never invented and thus he is now stuck in this world. Which may or may not lead to the BadFuture.]]

* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler:Kurisu blocked a stab from Okabe meant for Dr. Nakabachi, giving him a huge HeroicBSOD. Later, Okabe provokes Dr. Nakabachi into stabbing him.]]

* TemporalParadox: The more Okabe messes with the past, the more the world and people around him begin to change. Some are beneficial, other changes can be downright catastrophic.
** The ‘paradox’ piece itself is subverted through a number of mechanisms:

* ThemeNaming: Okabe tends to name endeavors "Operation (figure from Myth/NorseMythology)". Lampshaded by Kurisu, and later by Okabe when she makes up her own Norse-flavored Operation. Daru tends to add meaningless version numbers onto their inventions.
** The Operation names take on extra significance as the True Ending approaches. The first major operation was Urd, named after the Norn of the Past. The second was Verthandi, named for the Norn of the Present. Players who've been paying attention to their Norse mythology - [[Manga/AhMyGoddess or to their anime]] - will note that [[RuleOfThree there's one more important Norn - Skuld, the Norn of the Future]].

* AllThereInTheManual: When watching the movie, some people who only had access to the anime wondered when [[spoiler:Nae killed Moeka]]. It's a scene that only happens in the visual novel and was altered in the anime.
** In the side materials it's mentioned that Okabe and Daru's taken course in college is engineering. It wasn't mentioned in either the anime or visual novel.

* CallBack: Episode 25, that dude who was selling brooches in Japan is in fact also a taxi driver in LA. And another one which is much relevant to the plot, [[spoiler:see LoveConfession below.]]
** Episode 25 is full of callbacks but they're a lot more noticeable if you read the visual novel. The choice of Los Angeles as a setting was because Kurisu used it in an example involving wormholes and Okabe's overreaction to the motel was a callback to him teasing Kurisu staying at a hotel.

* CatchPhrase: Mayuri's "Tuturu~" whenever she greets someone. %%Clarify: also a phone wallpaper sent by Mayuri.

* CommonalityConnection: First came the lab coat. Then came Dr. Pepper and 2chan memes. By the halfway mark, Okabe and Kurisu are practically BirdsOfAFeather who don't get along only because [[BelligerentSexualTension they also share the trait of major]] {{tsundere}}-ness.
** Both of them, on different timelines, even [[spoiler: feel up]] Luka [[spoiler: to ascertain his/her real gender.]]

* DisappearedDad: [[spoiler: Faris's father, who died in a plane crash. This makes her use D-mail to save her father and causes Akihabara to become well-known for electrical appliances instead of otaku culture. In addition, her father saved her from a kidnapping incident by selling his IBN 5100 to SERN in the past.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Suzuha, after she travels to 1975 using the time machine fixed by Daru, having lost her memories then recovering them 25 years later.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Okabe really puts himself through the wringer, but the TrueEnding is ultimately a happy one. [[spoiler: Even though no one remembers anything that happened except for Okabe, everyone is alive and well, the BadFuture is averted, Okabe reassembles the lab members, and Kurisu manages to reunite with Okabe and they start their relationship over again. It is also implied that since all people actually have the ability of "Reading Steiner" (Okabe just has a much more advanced form of it) that they could eventually end up remembering the sacrifices he went through.]]

* {{GIRL}}: [[spoiler: The true identity of the mysterious FB is none other than Mr. Braun, who fakes being a mother figure for Moeka because that's what would buy her loyalty.]]

* GratuitousEnglish: All over the place.
** Especially in Episode 25, when Okabe takes this [[ChewingTheScenery even further]].

* HeroesWantRedHeads: [[spoiler: Kurisu is Okabe's love interest and "most important person" in the route that leads to Chapter 11 and the Epilogue (aka the canon route). Essentially, she's the canon love interest.]]
** Although in the original visual novel, she was a brunette.
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler: Okabe, when he lost all his ways to save Mayuri and upon discovering that he is the one who stabbed Kurisu.]]
** In Episode 23 [[MultipleEndings Beta]], [[spoiler: this escalates into full-on PTSD as he comes to terms with his murder of Kurisu. He even sheds his lab coat and dons a black outfit he once wore in his school days.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Kurisu decides to sacrifice herself so Mayuri can survive. It doesn't help.]]

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: Okabe initially believes that additional divergence caused by Suzuha's trip to 1975 would subvert Mayuri's murder.]] Nope.
** Also really the only justification for him to keep [[spoiler: time looping back to before Mayuri's death. The audience is spared seeing all of the repetitions, but he goes through ''dozens'' of {{hope spot}}s back-to-back over the course of the series.]] [[TheWoobie Poor guy.]]

* InsaneEqualsViolent: [[spoiler: Moeka totally loses it once she's accepted by FB, and kills Mayuri just because FB told her to.]]
** A downplayed version of this, continuing from this example (in visual novel only), [[spoiler: the adult Nae (who had witnessed her father committed suicide in front of Okabe and Moeka and mistaken them for forcing her father to kill himself) decided to perform time leap from year 2025 ''all the way back'' to year 2010 to her younger self just to kill Moeka and succinctly threaten Okabe about his grim future, all while she dons a totally bloodshot face at his direction.]]

* LargeHam: Okabe ("I am Mad Scientist Hououin Kyouma!!")

* MentalTimeTravel: The Time Leap Machine sends memories into the past, but nothing physical.
** Or, to be more specific, it ''could'', but whatever it does would be jellied as the wormhole it generates is microscopic and can barely fit a few photons at a time (that is, electromagnetic waves, such as those making up a text message). It's compared to trying to fit a soaked sponge through the small hole in the sink.

* MistakenForRomance: Three main characters guess that Okabe Rintarou and Shiina Mayuri are dating, a suggestion Mayuri responds to with confusion, and Okabe responds to with a flat denial. Though things have potential to progress in that direction, at the respective times of the guesses, neither of them think of each other that way.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: All over the place. Every time Okabe lets a friend send a D-Mail or sends one himself, [[spoiler:the divergence gets further away from 1% and further guarantees SERN's dystopia]].

* PlanningForTheFutureBeforeTheEnd: In the second to last time loop in the Alpha world line, Okabe spends the last few minutes before [[spoiler:Mayuri's regularly scheduled death]] discussing plans for next year's Comima and promising her that he'll cosplay next time around.
** This becomes way more heartbreaking in Luka's ending, where [[spoiler:Mayuri]] attempts to discuss future plans with Okabe when [[spoiler:he's given up on saving her]], with him unable to bring himself to respond out of guilt.
* PoliceAreUseless: Police officers only serve to interfere with Okabe's actions. They do absolutely nothing when [[spoiler:Okabe and Faris are being hunted by a group of angry mobs all over Akihabara!]]
** [[spoiler:Although by that point that section of the city is well under the control of the Rounders.]]

* AdaptationDistillation: The anime cuts out at least half of both Faris and Luka's arcs and simplifies the Moeka section of the story by cutting out a lot of elements that aren't directly related to the climax of the story. It also has a tendency to remove a lot of the science from the story.
** Being a recursive adaptation, ''Steins;Gate Elite'' is also guilty of this, as it follows the plot of the anime instead of the original visual novel. Plot elements that haven't already been adapted into the anime are AdaptedOut entirely, though it zig-zags around in this case, as there are indeed new scenes animated and voiced just for the routes and their endings, which the anime glossed over.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Although [[LampshadeHanging they didn't expect it to work]], the lab team successfully [[spoiler:turn Luka into a girl by telling his pregnant mother to eat lots of vegetables, under the reasoning that eating meat will infuse testosterone into the fetus. Physical sex is genetic and determined at conception, so this doesn't make any sense (Okabe himself is so baffled by it that he pulls a CrotchGrabSexCheck on Luka), but in a series that deals extensively with [[ButterflyOfDoom the fallout of time travel]], it's probably not so simple]].
** Its probably worth noting that [[spoiler:several disorders exist with [[WrongGeneticSex males having two X chromosomes]]. Some of these are caused during or immediately after conception and as such could be subject to the butterfly effect. This perhaps makes the plot more believable, especially considering Lukako's feminine appearance]].

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Since the whole plot is built on the idea of time-traveling, this kinda goes without saying. Black holes inside the microwave oven? Yeah, why not.
** A special mention should be made for the "compress the digital data using the black hole" idea. Compressing data doesn't really have anything to do with physical "pressure", it's a purely mathematical procedure. Also, "streaming the digital data through the black hole" is impossible.

* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Besides the obvious example of [[spoiler:there actually being a world-shattering conspiracy behind the scenes, Okabe manages to guess/joke about a lot of stuff early. For instance, Moeka's superior, FB, turns out to be Tenouji, under the pseudonym of '''F'''erdinand '''B'''raun. What does Okabe call Tenouji? [[AccidentallyAccurate Mr. Braun]].]]

* CombatPragmatist: No matter what he's doing, if there's an [[GoLookAtTheDistraction opportunity to cheat]] [[LoopholeAbuse somehow]], Okabe will take it.

--->''Mission Report: Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... I failed... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure... Failure...''

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Kurisu's father who does lose the paper that would have made him famous, but still seems to avoid any legal punishment for stabbing Okabe. Even worse in the other timeline where he was responsible for his daughter's death and then stole her paper, gaining fame and power.]]
** [[spoiler: The anime did not mention about Nakabachi's fate, but in the VN, he was arrested in Russia for his outburst and being a suspect for attempted murder in Radio Kaikan building.]]

* TheIlluminati: The group pulling SERN's strings. They are only obliquely referred to as "The Committee of 300" and nothing is ever revealed about them. However, [[VisualNovel/ChaosHead you learn more]] [[VisualNovel/RoboticsnOtes about them]] [[[[VisualNovel/ChaosChild in the other Science Adventure entries...]]

* TheIlluminati: The group pulling SERN's strings. They are only obliquely referred to as "The Committee of 300" and nothing is ever revealed about them.

** In Luka's ending, [[spoiler:she and Okabe are happy together, but Mayuri is dead. The group stays together.]]
** In Mayuri's ending, [[spoiler:Kurisu dies and a lot of Okabe's relationships are lost.]]

* BecauseDestinySaysSo: [[spoiler:Unless Okabe manages to change the attractor field, a significant person's death can never be changed. This also applies to his own death, as in both the Alpha and Beta timelines, he will not live past 2025.]]