Aaand we’re back! Equipped with a new gaming chair from Craigslist, as well as a new, relatively sleek desk—also from Craigslist—it’s ChrisGLink! Sorry for being a bit late with this one, I came down with something for a couple weeks, so I’ve been grumbling and groveling in bed instead of reading volume 3 of the Steins;Gate 0 manga like I was supposed to be doing. However! That all changed today, and now I’m out of bed and into my new chair to tell you guys all about my thoughts on the newest and final volume from Taka Himeno’s adaption of Steins;Gate 0. So, what did I think of it? Well, let’s get started.
Please note that although a copy of Volume 3 was provided to us by the publisher, this will not influence my opinions of the work in any way.
Like always, the physical quality of the release is fantastic. The art on the front is nice to look at, and upon flipping it over to the backside, it even has a few subtle connections that I enjoyed picking up on with full context of the story. I was a little disappointed that it didn’t continue the aesthetic used on the covers of volumes 1 and 2, but this is by no means a poor cover.
The pages are just as smooth and satisfying to run your hands across as ever, leading the read to be comfortable and swift as I opened up the volume. It’s still fairly large, sitting at the same height and width as the Occultic;Nine light novels, which are a couple inches bigger than your average manga. The print quality is still very impressive, with both normal pages, colored pages, and the two-page spreads all providing a very welcome feast for the eyes.
Himeno’s artwork has maintained its good quality ever since the first panel of the first volume, with rarely any duds in sight. Characters are just as, if not more expressive than the amazing sprite work and CG work present in the visual novel, and each actor in the story is visually distinct and drawn with the utmost care. The trend where I was compelled to pull out my phone and take a picture of the pages in front of me continues from the last few volumes as well, but that didn’t happen quite as often this time around.
The translation also delivered upon what it set out to do, portraying the characters faithfully throughout the entire runtime. In fact, one of the final scenes in the volume was translated to a stellar degree, and I found myself with a big grin on my face reminiscent of the same one I wore when I first read 0. Other than that, there were only about two instances in which I raised an eyebrow, but that’s simply because my brain’s been trained to look for those things. For example, rather than being localized, a Japanese meme is just left in the dialogue and explained with a short translation note at the bottom of the page, which I felt was a little strange. There are several ways I could think of to localize this meme, and considering many other memes and words are localized in this release—including the word “chuuni,” which is swapped out for the more modern “cringe,” sometimes to a moderately anachronistic effect—I found it a bit strange.
The typography oddities I pointed out in the previous review have pretty much disappeared, which is a very welcome surprise. I don’t recall noticing any misaligned text, text bubbles with an absurd amount of white space, or anything like that. However, there still are some instances in which both the Japanese sound effects and the English sound effects are left in, as opposed to just picking one or the other, which leave the page feeling fairly incoherent and messy.
In regards to the story, however, this is where things get the rockiest. See, the Steins;Gate 0 VN is long—around 30+ hours long. As such, there’s a lot of content to cover, and generally, I felt that the first volume in this adaptation did a good job setting a tone and pace for the release. However, when the next volume came out, I was a little bit skeptical due to the vastly quickened pace, and upon reading this final volume, I came away a bit dissatisfied with how utterly quick the story was finished up. One of the biggest themes of Steins;Gate, and by extension, Steins;Gate 0, is struggle, but in this release, that struggle is downplayed quite a bit. Not to the point when it disappears entirely, but it is indeed noticeable if you’ve experienced the source novel. The biggest sufferers of this incredibly expedient pacing are the emotional scenes, which are my favorite parts of 0. My second favorite scene in the entire work was sped through in less than three pages, and I found it immensely disheartening with how much I was looking forward to it. I still found myself consistently engaged, and I never felt like it was telling the story improperly, but it still bothered me left me feeling a bit unsatisfied.
Because of these things affecting what I believe to be the core of 0’s story, after having reading all three volumes, I can definitively say that this release should only be read as a supplement to the original story. And don’t get me wrong, it’s a very nice supplement! But still a supplement nonetheless.
In conclusion to the review of the conclusion to the 0 story, I can say that this adaptation provided me with a newfound appreciation for Steins;Gate 0. It’s still a story that I believe to be rough around the edges, with some strange, out-of-place material and other odd decisions, but even so, there’s still many moments that have me feeling as invested as can be. The art alone provides a wealth of further understanding into these characters and their feelings, and for that reason alone, it definitely earns a recommendation from me.
A huge thank you to the folks over at UDON Entertainment for sending us a review copy, and we sincerely hope you guys will continue to bring us over more fantastic Science Adventure series content over in the west.
Steins;Gate 0 Volume 3 is available to pre-order now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble for $24.99 (USD).
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