Steins;Gate: Fuka Ryouiki no Deja vu: SLA Screening Review

*Spoiler warning: if you haven’t see the Steins;Gate TV series, then I recommended you watch that first before reading this review!*

Steins;Gate was one of the shows in 2011 that got plenty of praise and was also one of the first shows to air on the UK streaming service ‘Anime On Demand’. Two years after the TV series finished airing, I got the chance to see the feature length movie at Scotland Loves Anime titled – Steins;Gate: Fuka Ryouiki no Déjà vu and it was the film that excited me the most.

The staff, studio and cast remain the same with Hiroshi Hamasaki as the director and White Fox studio behind the animation.

The film takes place a year after the events of the TV series. Kurisu Makise travels from Los Angeles back to Akihabara for some science lectures but also takes this chance to visit her fellow Science Lab friends again. All is well and good until Rintarou Okabe starts having
strange headaches. It’s his past decisions in the time-lines he visited, that are affecting him and lead him into some big trouble. When Kurisu finds out, she attempts to help him as much as possible .

This Steins;Gate movie is both a blessing and a curse from my point of view. It’s fantastic because it still retains the humour, wit and character that made the TV series such an entertaining show to watch; it feels untouched with all the main and supporting characters making an appearance, and it certainly feels like a sequel. Yet that is also its problem, because the film never really does something new which leads to less emotional impact, especially when the drama starts to come into play later in the movie.

One way the film tries to keep everything fresh is by making Kurisu the main protagonist, and while this helps when it comes to depicting her conversaitons with different characters, the way she is used feels very similar to the TV series plot but has the disadvantage of a film’s running time.

On the other hand though, the film does tie up a few loose ends, especially when it comes to Kurisu and Okabe, which some fans will be satisfied with, and it feels like proper conclusion to the Steins;Gate anime.

The animation and character designs remain mostly the same here with a few exceptions, thanks to a film budget,, but nothing really impressive.

In Summary

Sure, the film doesn’t hold many surprises but it’s still Steins;Gate. Its charm and characters still shine through to make the movie worth watching for fans or anyone who followed the TV series.