So after a long hiatus I am back to Steins; Gate with my sons.

Originally this started with my younger son watching Steins;Gate with me so that I could control what he watched and to share the experience of watching one of my favorite anime’s with him. After a time, my older son began watching with us and it became a group activity (it just took us a long time to get around to finishing the series.

But finish the series we did. We binge watched the final 8 episodes and OVA that we hadn’t finished.

Steins; Gate, while an excellent story, is a demanding watch. The first half or more is a lot of set up and exposition. It is really well done, but to a younger viewer may be harder to sit through.

My younger son had a harder time with this. He is easily distracted and antsy. So missing subtle things and small jokes happened easily and I had to remind him that he needed to pay attention at times.

His older brother, being a bit more mature, was more inclined to watch intently because he could see, by context, what the show was demanding of the viewer.

And while the first half moves a bit slowly with all of it’s set up: it pays off. Intensely. Very intensely…

I won’t put any spoilers here, but Okabe (our main protagonist) is put through the wringer. It is emotional and traumatic. Not just once, but multiple times in the last half the series. It is a great pay off for all of the early set up.

Both of my boys were watching with emotional awe as the rest of the story played out. My older son was left a little speechless at the end as I said: “So that’s Steins; Gate. Understand why it is one of my favorites?” I think he did.

Even for myself, I had forgotten some events (last 2 episodes) and was audibly gasping as things occurred. I also have a greater appreciation for the series as I have now watched Robotics; Notes and am currently watching Chaos; Head, where all these worlds are connected to one another in a fashion.

Attention Parents: This is an intense show. There is blood, murder, and tragedy. There are gel-nanas and gel-humans. It is a dark show at times. There are also off-color jokes and a lot of “hentai” name calling. Subject wise it is also dense matter dealing with concepts of time and multiple universes/ timelines. This would be harder material for younger children to understand or enjoy.

That being said: It is still one of my all time favorite shows and I’m happy I got to share it with my boys.

Until next time:

El Psy Congroo!

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