Steins;Gate - Episode 25 OVA (Completed)

Had it not been for a certain magical girl series, Steins;Gate would easily have been my favourite anime series of 2011, so I'll certainly never turn down the opportunity for more of the same - a good thing too between the movie in production and this bonus episode OVA on the TV series' final Blu-Ray volume.

Taking place after the events of the series proper, this instalment sees the gang granted an opportunity for a trip to America courtesy of Feyris as she heads off to participate in a Rainet tournament.  This is, of course, a perfect opportunity for everyone's favourite mad scientist Hououin Kyouma to conquer the US and bring it to its knees - although it's probably best not to tell the guards at Homeland Security that.  Still, with that misunderstand cleared up, Okabe gets to meet once again with Kurisu, who seems to be more than a little curious about the dreams she finds herself having courtesy of the fragments of memories remaining in her mind of the many world lines her own adventures have traversed.

While these visions of a life she never lived continue to bug Makise, Okabe himself finds himself distracted by the appearance of a girl bearing a remarkable resemblance to Suzuha, causing him to give chase to find out if she's somehow entered his timeline earlier than anticipated.  Of course, this proves not to be the case, but Okabe isn't completely off-base in his recognition of Suzuha's visage at least...not that it's going to help him to get back to civilisation when he's stuck in the middle of nowhere with a dead cell phone and only 67 cents in his pocket.

Considering how perfectly Steins;Gate wrapped everything up, this extra episode was also going to be a bit fluffy, and that does indeed prove to be the case here - it gives us some proper closure on the relationship between Okabe and Kurisu but that's about it, otherwise preferring to spend its time having a bit of fun with its characters.  This is no bad thing of course, much of the first half of the series proper did exactly this with joyous results, but there's no doubt that this episode isn't quite as sharp on account of its stand-alone status.  Still, it managed to make me laugh out loud a few times and generally entertained me, so I can't knock it too much - I just hope the forthcoming movie has something more ambitious lined up than a mere recap or something along these lines.