Series · 2011
Steins;Gate
STEINS;GATE
Rintaro Okabe runs a makeshift invention laboratory in Akihabara. An accidental device lets the group send messages into the past. Their experiments begin as curiosity, then force them to confront what changes when a message can alter the circumstances in which it was sent.
The laboratory’s grand name sits beside gadgets with little apparent purpose, making the discovery an accident among amateur projects. Okabe’s self-image as a mad scientist does not supply the knowledge needed to control time. The premise moves from making an invention to living with the consequences of using it.
The discovery draws the group toward SERN, a research organisation that may be developing time travel in secret. Okabe asks the hacker Daru to investigate its records. Their improvised laboratory now has a reason to look outside itself, and a much larger institution against which to measure what it has found.
Main anime route · Approx. 10 hours · 25 episodes
Original 2011 television anime: 24 broadcast episodes plus the original unbroadcast Egoistic Poriomania bonus, 25 story units. Excludes altered 23β, Steins;Gate 0, film and promotional shorts. The 24-minute multiplier is a nominal approximation rather than an independently measured bonus runtime.