Monday, September 7, 2015

STEINS;GATE Visual Novel vs Anime

After playing through Steins;Gate on PlayStation 3, I couldn't get enough so I started re-watching the anime with English dub. I just finished episode 12 and these are my thoughts so far. After spending ~35 hours listening to the Japanese cast, I learned to prefer them over the English cast. The English cast is still really good, especially Okabe and Daru, but I vastly prefer the Japanese voices of Mayuri and Kurisu. Hearing the Asuna's voice come out of the Part Time Warrior also takes me out of the experience.

I like the localisation into English that was done for the dub, over the anime subs, but I MUCH prefer the dialogue from the game. Okabe's "mad scientist" act is appropriately labeled as chuunibyou, though I never thought of it like that before the VN (visual novel). The anime used the term OTP. one true pairing, referring to Kurisu's bickering with Okabe, which I never heard of, but the subs for the anime called her tsundere, which I did understand. The anime, and even more so the dub, I think, doesn't give you such a clear picture that the group is really otaku. I never thought of Mayuri as otaku, but she is obsessed with cosplay. Whenever you see her sewing in the lab, she is making costumes for cosplay. Okabe has chuunibyou, 8th grade syndrome. Kurisu reads @channel, aka 2chan, in secret and is embarassed by it. Daru is clearly a nerd in both adaptations.

The biggest thing that bugged me, and pushed me to write this post, was Kurisu crying over Okabe yelling at her over his name in the anime. In the VN, she acts strong all the time and is always calm. She is seen by us and Okabe to be serious and objective, except for 2 serious moments, which are made more impactful because it appears out of character (really she puts on a front and hides her emotions). But the anime she cries twice (out of fear?) which makes her look weak (and Okabe looks terribly mean).

If you choose to ignore it, the conversation continues.

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