Steins;Gate: Soumei Eichi no Cognitive Computing

Although I'm still not sure why IBN sponsored this, I'm really glad that they did. To put it bluntly, these short episodes show us Stein;s Gate re-imagined as a slice-of-life anime. With any sort of apparent threat seemingly gone, we get to enjoy our characters doing everyday things like cooking, going shopping, riding the subway and even renting an apartment (not necessarily in that order). By using a cute little robot to portray cognitive computing and create more hilariously awkward situations, these shorts never fail to disappoint and, if anything, are likely to bring a smile to your face. At 12 minutes total, they're notmuch of a time investment and are definitely a rewarding experience if you really love the characters from Stein's;Gate and have missed them acting silly around each other.

Steins;Gate: The IBM Ad is a series of four four-ish minute long OVAs created as a collaboration with IBM to explain the impact their Cognitive Computing (AKA advanced weak AI) could have on daily life. The shorts follow the Gadget Lab some time after the OVA episode as they relax and live normal lives together. Mayuri brings in a Upa she brought that have Cognitive Computing on board and they proceed to use it for a variety of mundane yet entertaining things. The story is weak, but it doesn't do anything to hurt Steins;Gate's great plot. Its place in the timeline is clear, but itscanonicity, or lack-there-of, is also clear. Each of the stories are perfectly coherent slice of life fair. The writing is funny and there's even one touching Okabe-Kurise moment that gets pulled off perfectly. Art is fine, the great art style of Steins;Gate returns, but the budget is clearly a few pegs down. Expect cross-eyed Kurisu, off-model Mayuri, and rapidly expanding & deflating Daru, but don't expect outright ugly. Sound is... okay. The voice actors all come back and do a fantastic job, but as far as music goes... I legitimately can't remember. As of writing this, a mere ten minutes after watching the shorts, I cannot describe what the music was like. I just pulled up an episode, and it seems to be mostly stereotypical background bleep-bloops. Nothing offensive to the ears, but it it instantly forgettable. Characters are spot on. After watching the movie and seeing how badly White Fox's writers can butcher the characters, they are absolutely spot on with them this time. The OkabexKurisu moments play out exactly like they should, Mayuri is as adorably spacey as she should be, Daru is an unrepentant pervert, and all is well. Overall this is a perfectly acceptable little OVA series. Don't expect it to rock your world or anything, but if you want some bite-sized Steins;Gate, there's a lot worse ways to burn fifteen minutes.

Steins;Gate: Soumei Eichi no Cognitive Computing is comprised of four 3 minute episodes of Steins;Gate parodies Here, we get to see our beloved characters go about doing daily routines like cooking, buying clothes and goofing off :P The 12 minute long specials is unexpectedly sponsored by IBM haha Being a Steins;Gate fan the first time I laid eyes on Kurisu I mean... the anime. I'm pretty damn satisfied with this as it sorta gives me a healing moment, away from Steins;Gate and you know... allows my heart to prepare for Steins;Gate 0 without actually drifting away to other animes This shorts also sorta brings about the fan service everyonewas waiting for, OkarinXChristina :P I'm hella jealous hue, I wish I had a Kurisu with me in real life too!!! TSUNDERE FTW!!! EL PSY KONGROO! Take note that this review may be outdated. Always check my profile for my latest rating, I may have changed my rating due to various reasons.

Honestly surprised at the high score this has. If you want cutesy, "slice of life" I guess, 1d interactions between characters, you'll get that from this. You can take the Steins;Gate cast out and insert any random characters in this with the same ultimate results. In that way, I'd call this fan-service-y. I'd rather just go invest in an actual S.O.L. anime. If you want to see characters you liked in the show interact in more "random daily life," surface-y ways, by all means! No judgement - enjoy! And to be fair, there were certainly moments in the original that went beyond "character development" and into"just meeting some tropes/fanservice." These ads hit those tropes. The problem for me is these ads really fail to deliver on any level that made me like the original show in the first place - anything beyond tropes and fanservice (again, not the ecchi kind). Obviously. They're each 3 min. shorts designed to get IBM generally on the brain. It takes all of ~7-15 minutes to watch all of them (depending on the watch speed), for any completionists. The point is simply that you (arguably) gain nothing by watching them. They're overall pretty "meh." This was 100% just IBM taking advantage of Steins;Gate mentioning them, and collaborating to make an ad... idk...¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Watch them off of the high of finishing steins gate if you "just need more steins gate!!!" or if you're feeling nostalgic. Otherwise, meh. I'm skeptical of any scores beyond a 5 ("average") being anything other than complete adoration for the series. On their own, this set of shorts are average. As "extensions" of the series, they're arguably bad (they add nothing except more teasing of Kurisu x Okabe shipping). Note: I watched them a long time ago off of the high of the original, which is when I gave them a 4. I rewatched them on 2x myself just before this review to try to be more fair. At the time of writing this review, I find myself being more forgiving to these ads for being average, and less forgiving for little moments of tropey fanservice in the original (which I'm currently re-watching for the 3rd time, and seeing more of than I did the first or even second time I watched). So let that color how you read my review and what you expect out of these.

Merchandise

Links may contain affiliate references

Studio