In this episode we’re introduced to Okabe’s surprisingly large harem as the mystery deepens. Okabe remembers more things that the rest of the world has forgotten, and a banana teleports from the microwave. The biggest mystery though is why our main character is so popular.

Okabe is a great character. I really can’t see him getting boring even after two seasons. Makise also seems like she’ll be a great character based on her bullying of Hououin at the lecture. That beginning scene was great. But in this episode we’ve met a ton of new characters that seem rather lame by comparison. We have Mayuri and her friend at the maid cafe, corn girl, cell phone girl, and shrine maiden girl guy. They all seem rather generic. Of course, this is only the second episode, so hopefully I’ll be proved wrong. But since the story is by the same people who made Chaos Head, well, I would say I’m not too optimistic.

But if Okabe remains the driving force behind the show it can still turn out well. Take the scene with the shrine maiden guy— tons of shows have crossdressers like this. Usually everyone only finds out by accident and surprise / horror / hilarity ensues. Except this variety has gotten rather old. Here all the characters are aware of it, but Okabe says in his cynical monologue that it’s a guy after every line. It was Okabe that made this scene work. Okabe’s voice actor, Mamoru Miyano, is doing an amazing job. It’s hard to believe he was also the voice actor for my least favorite character of all time, Setsuna F. Seiei. (Although to be fair, my issue with Setsuna F. Seiei is not his voice, but everything else).