Rintaro Okabe

Rintarou Okabe (岡部 倫太郁 Okabe Rintarō), a.k.a Okarin, a portmanteau of the Oka- from his surname and the Rin- from his given name, is a self-proclaimed mad scientist and the main protagonist of Steins;Gate.

Appearance
Rintarou has the characteristics of a lanky young man, with a square jaw and bony cheeks. He has his short black hair swept back and has brown irises, with a small amount of stubble on his chin. Rintarou also wears a lab coat, which he wears over a simple shirt and slacks.

In the game Rintarou appeared much "dustier". His face was pale and unshaved and he seemed a lot more "messy" in contrast to his relatively "clean" appearance in the anime.

Personality
Rintarou is a melodramatic, eccentric and rarely tsundere individual. He is a self-proclaimed mad scientist, who likes to assume the nickname "Kyouma Hououin" (鳳凰院凶真), and often uses this to introduce himself to others. For the most part, people do not seem to care and instead address him by his actual name or by 'Okarin' (his nickname), much to his chagrin.

He also likes to pose as an agent working against a certain "Organization" which he thinks is always after him, as he believes this kind of image gives him a cool and mysterious aura, though this seems to disappear as the story progresses, with SERN likely replacing the "Organization's" villainous image.

He usually gives off the impression of being delusional and paranoid, engaging in strange mannerisms such as talking to himself on the phone and engaging in fits of maniacal laughter often; this is in fact a façade he wears in order to make life interesting for his dear childhood friend Mayuri. Initially, he is portrayed as being rather arrogant, however, it is later suggested that this is due to Rintarou's eccentricities and social awkwardness.

Despite the aforementioned traits, he is actually a kind and caring individual. This is particularly evident towards the end of the anime and the visual novel, where he casts aside his peculiar façade, to save his friends from the seemingly unavoidable fate of the Alpha worldline.

In the Suzuha Ending, Okabe's personality becomes exceedingly warped and twisted, as a result of being forced to choose between saving Suzuha or Mayuri. Despite this, he soon returns to acting like his old self upon being confronted by Suzuha.

He seems to have feelings for Kurisu, along with Ruka, Faris, and Mayuri, as he became lovers with any of them in their respective endings, though he openly displays his affections for Kurisu near the end of the story, regardless of the route chosen.

Background
He and Itaru are both students of Tokyo Electronics University, and have been friends for roughly three years, according to his words, although Itaru claims that their friendship was only about a year old.

Rintarou founded the "Future Gadget Laboratory", a small research institution situated above a CRT store. It is an area where he and his fellow Lab Members create "Future Gadgets for the betterment of mankind". He is Lab Member 001.

Rintarou has always been close friends with the second Lab Member and co-founder of the "Future Gadget Lab", his childhood friend Mayuri, who he made a vow to protect when they were young.

Rintarou lives an average life with his small group of friends until he creates the Phone Microwave with Itaru.

The Death of Kurisu Makise
In order to gather additional units for his college course, Rintarou attends a seminar being taught by Shouichi Makise about the fundamental theory behind creating a time machine. He arrives early, and upon entering the room of the lecture, the building is seemingly shaken by an earthquake. He runs upstairs and finds a satellite on the roof of the Akihabara Radio Tower. As Shouichi begins his seminar, Rintarou, a staunch believer of time machines, recognizes the core material on which the professor speaks and makes a commotion, accusing the professor of having plagiarized the idea from John Titor, who spoke of this theory 10 years prior. He is pulled out of the seminar and meets Makise Kurisu for the first time, though she insists on having seen him just 15 minutes ago.

Afterwards, Rintarou  talks to Mayuri about her Metal Upa, which she lost, before they hear a scream come from upstairs. Rintarou rushes to the source of the sound to investigate, and finds the body of Kurisu Makise in a pool of blood.

Rintarou is shaken by the incident, and he contacts his friend Itaru about it through a text message. Immediately after sending the text, the people in the street all disappear, and the satellite he saw earlier appears to have crashed into the roof of the Radio Tower.

He questions Mayuri about the apparent disappearance of the pedestrians, who seems to not have noticed. He later discovers that Itaru received the message, though 5 days earlier, and it is broken into 3 messages, and that Shouichi Makise's lecture was cancelled.

While attending a lecture for credits that afternoon, he meets a perfectly unharmed Kurisu Makise, who he proceeds to feel to confirm that she is actually there.

John Titor and Future Gadget #8
Although he was certain that the events that he experienced did happen, he double-checks the occurrences on the Internet, coming up with the confirmation of what Itaru has told him. He would soon stumble upon John Titor, a time-traveling character famous for his discussions of the world on the year 2036, and this sparked his interest in knowing more about John Titor and his ideas about time travel.

Shortly after Kurisu joins his lab (due to her curiosity of the experiment that Okabe and Daru are doing with the Phone Microwave), Okabe soon realizes that the Phone Microwave is actually a time machine. WIth the help of Kurisu, Okabe starts doing experiments with the Phone Microwave by using D-mails.

SERN and the IBN5100
After stumbling upon Moeka, a shy woman that only communicates by her phone on the street of Akihabara, Okabe learns about the IBN5100, an old and exceedingly rare PC that may be in Akihabara. Okabe also has Daru hack into SERN to find out some info related to the time machine. To his shock, SERN has been researching the time machine and already succeeded in making one. However, SERN experimented on humans, and all humans that have been experimented on have already died. Daru found a database of SERN that can be decoded by using the IBN5100. Okabe starts searching for it and finds out that Feiris's father once had an IBN5100 and dedicated it to a shrine. He ultimately finds it at the Yagabashi Shrine and brings it back to the lab.

D-mails and Reading Steiner
Okabe starts doing experiments with the Phone Microwave by trying to send text messages (which the group agrees to call them D-mails) to the past. He learns that the experiments only work in a specific time of the day (10am to 6pm). Also, if the D-mails can actually affect the past, then the present will be altered and only Okabe can notice the change, as other members' memories has also been altered to fit the new timeline. He exchanges messages with John Titor, and learns about world lines and Attractor Fields, and also that he has a special ability, which he can retain memories from before the world line changes. He decides to call that ability Reading Steiner

Rounders' Attack
After sending several D-mails, Okabe has change the world line drastically (Feiris's D-mail has literally remodeled Akihabara, Ruka's mail changes him from a boy to a girl. Also, the IBN5100 is nowhere to be found due to the change of world line). In the mean time, Kurisu is also working on the Time Leap machine, a modified version of the Phone Microwave that can send the user's memory to the past. Also, Okabe has been receiving threat mail from an unknown person. The night of the day Kurisu completes the time leap machine, a group lead by Kiryu Moeka attacks the lab, killing Mayuri in the process. With the help of Amane Suzuha, Okabe was able to use the time leap machine to travel back through time, trying to save Mayuri. However, no matter how many times he tried, the result doesn't change: Mayuri still dies. Falling into despair, Okabe confronts Kurisu for help. Kurisu advises Okabe to seek explanation from Suzuha.

John Titor and the time machine
By confronting Suzuha after time leaping, Rintarou now learns that Suzuha is in fact John Titor. Suzuha travels from the year 2036 to 1975 to obtain the IBN5100, but stops midway at 2010 to find her father, Barrel Titor, who is currently in Akihabara. Rintarou also learns more about the world line and attractor field and the future of this Alpha world line (SERN will rule the world with a dystopia, Rintarou becomes a terrorist leader, Kurisu is the mother of the time machine that enable SERN to complete world domination), and also that he cannot save Mayuri due to world line convergence. To save Mayuri, he has to move to another Attractor field, and to do that, he needs the IBN5100 to erase the first D-mails he has ever sent from SERN's database. Rintarou and the other lab members (consisting of Kurisu, Mayuri and Daru) agree to help Suzuha to fix the time machine (the machine previously thought to be a satellite lodged in the Radio Kaikan's rooftop), which is currently broken due to the rain a few days prior, as well as to find Suzuha's father. Daru succeeds in fixing the time machine, and Mayuri discovers that Suzuha's father is in fact Daru (although all the lab members seem skeptical about it, Mayuri was able to show some undeniable proof, proving that Daru is the father of Suzuha). Suzuha was very happy, she bid farewell to the lab members and go back to 1975 to obtain the IBN5100 to give it to Rintarou (However, because the time machine was incomplete, she can only go back to the past, so if she manages to obtain the IBN5100, she will have to wait 35 years to give it to Rintarou). Going back to the lab, Rintarou receive a letter from Mr Braun, saying that it is a letter from an old friend of his. Realizing that it is a letter from Suzuha, Rintarou crumbles upon reading it. Because the time machine malfunctioned, Suzuha lost all of her memories when she went back to 1975. When she remembered her purpose for traveling to 1975, it was already too late to secure the IBN5100. Suzuha fell into despair and commited suicide. Rintarou now realizes that he cannot obtain the IBN5100 in this world line, thus he sends another D-mail to prevent himself from the past from stopping Suzuha to leave Akihabara before the night of the rain, so that Suzuha won't lose her memories when going back to 1975. Of course, doing so would make the other lab members lose their memories regarding the time they had shared with Suzuha, except Rintarou with his Reading Steiner.

Retrieving the IBN5100
After sending the D-mail, Rintarou still hasn't escaped from the Alpha Attractor Field, but because he did change the world line, the Rounders' attack is delayed by 1 day. Now, he has to cancel all the D-mails he has sent in order to retrieve the IBN5100. After some difficulties, Rintarou succeeds to cancel Feiris's and Ruka's D-mail (which turns Akihabara back to normal and Ruka turns back to a boy). The last D-mail he must cancel to get back to world line where he has the IBN5100 is Moeka's D-mail.

With the little information he knows about her, Rintarou is able to find Moeka's apartment, but he also finds out that Moeka had commited suicide. Rintarou rushes back to the lab to time leap to when Moeka was still alive, but before he could do that, he realizes that someone is using the time leap machine. Unable to find out who that is, Rintarou decides to forget about it and time leap. He went to Moeka's apartment to find that she is in some kind of trauma because her boss, FB, seems to have abandoned her. After some struggling, Rintarou finally takes the phone from Moeka, and with the help of Kurisu (who is at the lab at the time), he sends a mail to cancel Moeka's D-mail. However, nothing happens as he realizes that the world line hasn't changed (his Reading Steiner did not activate). Soon he realizes that Moeka lied to him about the content of the D-mail. The real content is about the location of the IBN5100. Once again, he sends a mail to cancel her D-mail, but still nothing happens as the Moeka from the past seemed to ignore the mail and still searched for the IBN5100. He gives Moeka back her phone, and offer her to help him to find FB, as he thinks that only FB's mail can cancel Moeka's D-mail.

After a stake-out in front of a locker (in which Moeka hid the IBN5100), Rintarou and Moeka is able to find FB, which to their suprise, turn out to be Mr. Braun. After hearing the story from Rintarou about Amane Suzuha, Mr. Braun uses his gun to commit suicide. Rintarou and Moeka grab his phone and run get out of the house. Rintarou is noticed by Kurisu (who has been waching outside the house) that after she heard the gun shot, there's someone in the house jumps out of the window and runs away. Returning to Moeka's apartment, Rintarou decides to send the D-mail, but before he could do that, Nae appears and kills Moeka with a knife (in the anime Moeka was shot by FB and then FB kills himself) and tells Rintarou she would meet him in another 15 years. Shocked by the new revelation, Rintarou postpones sending his D-mail to time leap again to learn the reason why Nae did it (this is optional, the player can choose to send the D-mail instead of time leaping, the outcome won't be any different, just that Rintarou won't know anyting about why Nae kill Moeka). This time, Rintarou waits outside of the house (FB will definitely die due to world line convergence). After the gun shot, Nae leaps through the window, Rintarou chases her and eventually catches up to her. He now learns that this is not the Nae he knows, but in fact the Nae from 15 years in the future, who'll actually become a Rounder. She is the one who captures Rintarou and tortures him to death, and then takes the time leap machine to travel to the past to exact revenge against Moeka and Rintarou (though she cannot kill Rintarou because doing so would result in a paradox). Upon learning the truth, Okabe finally decides to send his D-mail and returns to the world line which he obtained the IBN5100.

Struggle and Confession
Rintarou, after undoing Moeka's D-mail, notices that if he undo's the first D-mail by using the IBN 5100 he'll have Kurisu die. Therefore he refuses to undo the first D-mail. He struggles to find a way to save both Mayuri and Kurisu, but all is in vain. When Kurisu asks him why he didn't undo the final D-mail, he tells her the truth about her death. Kurisu doesn't care if she dies and urges him to save Mayuri. Rintarou then confesses his love for her. She kisses Rintarou (and he demands another one from her after the first kiss). Rintarou finally decides to sacrifice Kurisu and return to the original Attractor Field.

Finale
Now in the original world line, still feeling sad after losing Kurisu, Rintarou receives a phone call from Amane Suzuha, who offers to meet him on the roof of Radio Kaikan. When Rintarou gets there Suzuha tells him that they needed to prevent Kurisu's death because it somehow stirred up WW3. However, when they attempt to do this, the operation ends in disaster when Rintarou accidentally kills Kurisu. After returning to their time, Rintarou receives a message from himself in the future, telling him that the way to save Kurisu without altering the events that led to him developing a time machine is to fool his past self into believing Kurisu had been killed and thus achieving the final divergence value of 1.048596%, which he dubs the 'Steins Gate'. Rintarou planned on doing this by knocking her out with a taser and using the fake blood in Future Gadget #6. But when Rintarou returns to the past, he realizes that the fake blood dried up. Without much choice, Rintarou risks his own life in order to save Kurisu's by using his own blood instead. Successfully fooling his past self, Rintarou returns to his time and manages to reunite with Kurisu in Akihabara, living a happy life without ever creating a time machine. Rintarou's past self then becomes the Steins;Gate worldline in which the world is free of SERN control because Rintarou and Kurisu manage to create a time machine before SERN does. (Now without the problem of jumping back worldlines because Kurisu never died in the first place)

Quotes

 * "It's the choice of Steins Gate." -Okabe's catchphrase.


 * "I'm the great mad scientist, Hououin Kyoma!"


 * "Theories are nothing more than words. Accept what you have seen!" -Okabe to Kurisu.


 * "No one knows what the future holds, that's why its potential is infinite."


 * "I won't let you go. I won't let anyone take you. You're my hostage now. My guinea pig! There is no escaping me! Muhaha, muhahaha!" -Okabe to Mayuri.


 * "Hey mister, I am mad scientist. It's so COOOOL! Sonovabitch." -Okabe trying to speak English.
 * "It's an intellectual drink for the chosen ones." -Okabe about Dr. Pepper.
 * "I would say the person with the perverted imagination is the pervert." -Okabe to Kurisu.
 * "This is Luka Urushibara. The 'son' of this shrine's chief priest. Yes, a son. No matter how you look at him, he looks like a lovely girl, but... he's a guy. ...His voice and behavior makes him look like a female. Or more like, more feminine than a female. But he's a guy. Taller than Mayuri, yet oh so slender... But he's a guy. Looks stunning in shrine maiden clothing. But he's a guy. He's holding a broom, so I'm guessing that he was in the middle of cleaning. But he's a guy. It's so hot, even though it's almost evening. But he's a guy. Hell, cicadas won't shut up. But he's a guy."-Okabe about Luka.
 * "You, on the other side of the monitor, with the dumb expression!" -Okabe to the Alpaca-man software.
 * "Because I'm from the goddamn future!" -Okabe to Moeka.

Trivia

 * In the Gamma World Line, Rintarou is a collaborator of SERN and becomes the dictator Hououin Kyouma, ruling over Japan with an iron fist.
 * He loves to drink Dk. Pepper.
 * The actions of the Council of 300 of the Steins;Gate World Line fit Okabe's delusions almost to the letter.
 * It might be possible that his surname " Hououin " come from the old norse word for Odin " Óðinn "  deformed by the japanese prononciation. It can explain why most of his operation use norse mythological names.