It reminds me of my favorite xkcd, only Kyouma’s time machine sends things in the opposite direction.

Christina discovers how to send memories through time, and apparently it’s simple enough that they can do it with supplies from Akiba. Part-time girl accuses Christina of being a CERN agent. The threats against Kyouma were upped again this week, although I found last week’s picture much more intimidating. Oh, and Kyouma has control of the LHC. The world is doomed.

The biggest question now, for me at least, is what is the story with part-time girl and Christina? I highly doubt that Christina is actually an agent of CERN. But since part-time girl is from the future, perhaps Christina eventually becomes an agent of CERN in some parallel universe. If you’ll recall, Christina was killed in the first episode but then came back with a timeline shift. I’m guessing that there is some organization in the future opposing CERN (including part-time girl and possibly Moeka, assuming they aren’t in CERN themselves, but not Kyouma, since he would have kept his memory…? or perhaps not, his memories seem to always go sideways in time, but never backwards).

Someone from the future probably arranged to have Christina killed, but then another change in timelines prevented this. Or maybe Mayushi changed the timeline— I have my suspicion that the microwave isn’t the only factor in allowing time travel, and that there’s more to Mayushi than meets the eye. Anyway, whatever happened, one of the effects may have been that Christina met Okarin and didn’t join CERN. Perhaps even part-time girl’s return to the past was the cause. I have my suspicions that Christina’s father will turn out to be with CERN, so this could help to explain how Christina joined.

If you actually managed to read through everything I just said, you can tell that my thoughts are even more confused than the Steins; Gate timeline. Which is exactly how a time travel show should be.

My one gripe with this episode is that its portrayal of science is stretching my suspension of disbelief. Chrstina was a genius physicist since elementary school? No, I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. The myth of the child genius never actually happens. And the “Oh, I forgot, but I wrote a paper about the exact problem we’re trying to solve” never happens either. Same with “I can build a machine to connect to your brain and send memories through time with parts found next door by tomorrow”. I know, I know, it’s more entertaining this way, but this kind of portrayal of science in fiction sets ridiculous expectations among non-scientists. Same with its portrayal of hacking. “CERN hacked into our system, so now we have control of the LHC.” No, it doesn’t work that way. And anyone who was even aware that the LHC control system was on an outward facing network ought to be shot.

That’s got to be one of the most intimidating death threats I’ve ever seen.

The revelations came in fast and heavy in this episode. I had speculated earlier that part time warrior was John Titor, but it turns out that she’s actually his daughter (assuming he is Barrel Titor in this universe?). Still, this implies that she is either a time traveler as well or her father is a fraud. I can’t say I’d be surprised either way. Interestingly Kyouma’s ability to retain his memory of other timelines is turning out to be something of a hindrance, since he doesn’t know what happened in his current timeline.

It also turns out that Kyouma has been jumping timelines since he was a kid. The big question now is why: is CERN changing the past just as Kyouma is? Or is it other people, such as John Titor? Maybe it’s actually Mayushi who can change the timeline and not the microwave.

Kyouma also decides to discover Ruka’s gender once and for all. Attempted rape is never a smart move. I’m curious to see if they’ll ever explain how a message to eat vegetables could change her gender. Not that I’m complaining, this scene was pretty funny.

Finally, could this knife-wielding Mayushi be a portent of things to come? I certainly hope so.

This episode picked up where the last one left off in expanding on the effects of time travel. As I predicted last week, the IBN 5100 has disappeared from the lab and seems to be getting further and further away with each of Kyouma’s efforts to recover it.

For an episode purporting to be about the “butterfly effect” in time travel, the cause and effects for all of these changes didn’t seem too far-fetched to me. I would guess that Moeka sent a message related to the IBN 5100 (what else would she send?) which could explain why it wasn’t at the shrine. My guess is that Moeka actually did take it originally. Then when Feyris prevented her father’s death, the machine was no longer donated to the shrine. The main question I have is why was it at the shrine originally? Did someone else use time travel to get it to be there? The shrine seemed to be holding it specifically for someone who would come looking in the future. Anyway, casualty has gone kaput in this multiverse.

All the time travel aspects are fun to think about, but the best part about this show is just watching the interactions between Kyouma and Christina. Christina really brings out the best side in Kyouma by actually bothering to argue with him. And as I’ve said many times before, Kyouma has the best evil laugh I’ve heard in a long time. His voice actor deserves an award for this. I still can’t believe it’s the same guy who did Setsuna F. Seiei.

This episode consisted of Kyouma trying random things to change the past. The things he did seemed innocuous enough, but I think they’re going to end up having larger consequences than it initially seems. This is especially the case with Moeka’s message. I don’t think anyone actually saw what she typed, and I’m very curious as to whether she actually sent the message she said she was going to. Kyouma didn’t check very thoroughly to figure out what changed from the past, and I’m wondering if the IBN is still lying around his lab.

My suspicions about John Titor’s identity have shifted from Moeka to part-time girl with this episode. She seems awfully familiar with John Titor’s message and curious about Kyouma’s reaction. Plus she does seem to know something about Christina from the future. Perhaps she even had something to do with Christina getting killed in the alternate timeline.

Somehow Ruka’s gender has managed to become even more ambiguous with this episode. I doubt that he’s a girl now, if only because eating habits don’t actually influence gender. Still, if the message was sent not while Ruka’s mother was pregnant but before, it’s possible that Ruka has become a male.

Now the mystery and time travel aspects of the story begin to deepen as Kyouma attempts to use the time machine to change the past. Instead of trying to bring world peace, Kyouma tries to win the lottery. Only third place though, since winning first would only serve to draw the Organization’s attention. They fail to win due to writing the number down wrong, but do manage to change both the past and future into a brighter one with more Dr. Pepper.

The strange part is that Kyouma is the only one who remembers the old timeline, the same thing that happened when Christina was killed. Now who changed the timeline to prevent Christina from dying? Was it CERN, and was the intention even to save Christina? It seems that it must be something related to her, since it’s too much of a coincidence for a satellite to fall through the roof of the same building. Crashing a satellite does seem like a rather drastic action to take though.

My other question is what happens to the memories of Kyouma from the new timeline. It seems that they’re just overwritten with the memories from the old timeline.

And Kyouma once again interacts with John Titor. He really needs to just meet up with John Titor. I still have my suspicions that Titor is Moeka, considering that she always talks on her cell phone and wants the IBN 5100. The shot of her while John Titor was speaking seemed suggestive as well.

Now that Kyouma has become the Messiah, hopefully he won’t feel overwhelmed with responsibility or anything. Remember that your first duty is as a mad scientist, not as a savior!