{"id":6914,"date":"2018-07-27T13:00:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T20:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6914"},"modified":"2018-07-17T12:22:38","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T19:22:38","slug":"mark-watches-steinsgate-episode-4-interpreter-rendezvous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/07\/mark-watches-steinsgate-episode-4-interpreter-rendezvous\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Steins;Gate’: Episode 4 – Interpreter Rendezvous"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourth episode of Steins;Gate<\/i>, the lab team seeks a special computer to decode something Daru found, and Kurisu has a change of heart. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Steins;Gate<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious how people read Okabe and how they feel about his behavior. He is easily the thorniest, most stubborn, and most irrational character out of the bunch. He lashes out at other people the second anyone contradicts him; he calls Kurisu names and ignores her every time she corrects him; he assumes that anyone who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t agree with him is working for the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Organization.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I feel like most of this is intended as humor, but as I said on video, the dialogue is odd at times. I am never sure if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a subtext I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m missing or some cultural cues I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not Japanese. For example, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that whole conversation that Suzuha and Okabe have about being a warrior, and I fully do not get it. Same with the exorcism moment in the second episode. What are those moments? What are they supposed to mean? I feel<\/i> like I got some of the context from the scene at the maid cafe, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another example where I know I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know enough to fully understand what was happening. (Is maid cafe even the right word?)<\/p>\n

These elements are probably the only things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m struggling with while watching Steins;Gate<\/i>. Like, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed<\/i> to think that Okabe is a jerk or if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just misunderstood. What I do<\/i> have a better grasp on is the story as a whole, and I love the slow build that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting. The mystery of SERN and the IBN 5100 is not being revealed rapidly, but instead, an unnerving sense of the world turning into something else fills the screen. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one reason why I like Kurisu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey as much as I do. She has a moment of existential crisis as she tries to accept that she did<\/i> witness a message traveling into the pass. That turns into vehement denial, which then quietly turns into her being unable to resist her own curiosity. What if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong? What if she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine what she saw?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Steins;Gate<\/i> feels like it is playing with the notion of reality and unreality. Even as Okabe reaches out to John Titor, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not sure whether he can trust what is being sent to him. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s openly hostile towards Moeka, despite that she is clearly connected to all of this, too. What does he choose to believe is real? How can he believe anything<\/i> if he has memory of another world line? Like, now I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop thinking about how the world is probably gonna change around him AGAIN. We saw it happen in the first episode. How long until some event causes this to happen? I also can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny that when Okabe finally tracks down the IBN 5100, he learns that it was donated to Luka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shrine… ten years prior. Which is when John Titor was SUPPOSED to have existed. And the person who donated it said that a young man would one day stop by and ask to use it. AHHHHH, DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T DO THIS TO ME. Who is Titor? Oh god, what if it is Okabe??? I could believe that in some weird loop of time, he ends up inspiring himself to believe in SERN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dystopia and figures out how to stop them using the IBN 5100. I know Titor said that grandfather paradoxes aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually real, so what if they were telling the truth about that, too?<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m real excited to see what the code says or does now that they have the IBN. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M NOT READY.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Interpreter Rendezvous\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"