Rintaro Okabe/Relationships

Kurisu Makise
While "Christina" might seem like a nickname he gave her simply to get under her skin, he actually gave it to her as a way to hide his embarrassment, as she, a genius and successful scientist, was what he strived to become. Okabe and Kurisu initially have an antagonistic relationship, with both of them having issues with each other's high and mighty attitudes. Later in the story, he admits that he fell in love with her from their first meeting, but did not want to admit it to himself. After he expresses that he will help her with her problems as a lab member, the two have a much more amicable relationship, though they still bicker often. After Okabe becomes depressed following his numerous attempts to save Mayuri, Kurisu is the first one to notice and successfully cheers him up, and he confesses his troubles to her. From this point on, she acts as his reliable aid in his quest to save Mayuri, being the one person he can consistently depend on regardless of the world line. After realizing that he could only save Mayuri by letting Kurisu die, he entered another depression as he was unable to make the choice between the two and ends up time leaping repeatedly in his indecisiveness. Kurisu, again, manages to catch on to his actions and confronts him, leading him to realize that he loves her and he agrees to undo the final D-Mail because it is what she wanted. Later on, when confronted by Suzuha, Okabe had no interest in trying to change the future until he learned that he could save Kurisu. He was even willing to kill Dr. Nakabachi to save her life.

Following the creation of the Steins Gate world line, Okabe is satisfied that Kurisu is safe, even if they never meet on this world line. However, he is genuinely happy when they bump into each other and immeditaly invites her to join the Future Gadget Lab. In the Egoistic Poriomania OVA, the two are shown to have a relationships identical to their relationship on the Alpha Attractor Field, with Kurisu slowly recalling events from it, and the OVA concludes when Okabe properly confesses to her before they kiss.

In Steins;Gate 0, her death is the main impetus for his depression. He frequently flashes back to her death at his hands and can suffer panic attacks when she is brought up. However, his symptoms lessen after being able to speak to her once more on an Alpha world line as he is finally able to get some closure over her death. Over time, these feelings begin to bleed over onto Amadeus Kurisu, forcing Okabe to remind himself that the real Kurisu is dead. His feelings for Kurisu and his desire to save her are one of the driving forces for his desire to achieve Steins Gate.

Mayuri Shiina
Mayuri is Okabe's valued childhood friend who he sees as more of a little sister due to their age gap. While he often seems dismissive of her, he actually cares for her a great deal and is willing to go to great lengths to preserve her happiness. He sees her as someone helpless who he needs to protect, all while thinking that a role reversal would have been ridiculous. Her death is what teaches Okabe about the dangers of their time machine and trying to prevent it is what motivates Okabe's actions for the latter half of the game. His desire to keep Mayuri alive leads him to erase the happiness of Faris and Luka and he only truly hesitates to save her when Kurisu's life is also at stake.

In the Stardust Sky ending, Okabe realises that he always had romantic feelings for Mayuri and decides to sacrifice Kurisu, while in the Kurisu (after having triggered at least one but not every Kurisu flag) and true ending his love remains platonic, most likely because of having fallen more in love with Kurisu in these endings.

In Steins;Gate 0, he still shows great fear that changing the world line would lead to Mayuri's death. When he first hears about Kagari Shiina from Daru, Okabe immediatly suspects that he is her father, showing that he can picture himself becoming romantically involved with Mayuri. On some Beta world lines, he makes Mayuri's safety his only reason for living and dies saving her life. After unintentionally entering an Alpha world line, Okabe, as a result of his choice to keep Kurisu alive by sacrificing Mayuri, becomes severely depressed and takes the same pills as in the Beta world lines. Her confession to him at the end of the story allows Okabe to truly understand how much he means to Mayuri.

Itaru Hashida
Itaru (nicknamed Daru) and Okabe became friends in highschool. The two have a strong friendship with both being able to overlook the other's odd tendencies. Okabe has enough faith in Daru's abilities that he believed that Daru could have repaired Suzuha's time machine in just a few days.

In Steins;Gate 0, Daru and Okabe's relationship is slightly strained due to Okabe avoiding the lab. Like the rest of his friends, Daru is concerned about Okabe's depression, but unlike the others, Daru has full confidence that Okabe would eventually move past it and reach Steins Gate. Later on, when Okabe makes an insensitive comment towards Maho, Daru is the first to snap and him, punching him and voicing his thoughts that Okabe is using his pain as an excuse to be ungrateful for the work everyone else is putting into reaching Steins Gate.

Moeka Kiryu
Okabe initially meets Moeka by chance when they are both looking for the IBN 5100. While he is somewhat put off by her reliance on her phone, the two maintain an amicable relationship. However, after she kills Mayuri, Okabe becomes fearful and hateful towards her. Any trust he had towards her is gone and he sees her as nothing more than a threat to Mayuri. When he discovers that she commited suicide, he is less concerned with her death and moreso that he would not be able to locate the IBN. When he confronts her in her apartment, he quickly ascertains that she had been abandoned by SERN and after a struggle, is able to convince her of the truth. During this confrontation, most of his negative feelings of hatred towards her fade away as he realizes that she was being manipulated. He later agrees to her helping him track down FB and when Moeka is dying, Okabe is able to forgive her as she and Yugo Tennouji were both pawns of SERN. By the game's epilogue Okabe once again considers her a proper Lab Mem and gifts her a Lab Mem pin.

In Steins;Gate 0 Okabe is still fearful of Moeka, but understands that she is not a threat under normal circumstances. In the Twin Automata route, he is able to trust her enough to allow her to save Maho, and in the anime adaption, he requests her help to prevent the destruction of the time machine.

Luka Urushibara
"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 Urushibara.

While he is hesitant to admit it, Okabe is attracted to Luka despite his gender. Okabe sees Luka as Mayuri's classmate and his student in swordsmanship (though the latter is mostly Luka playing along with Okabe's delusions). When Luka is changed into a girl by his D-Mail, Okabe, under the impression that the D-Mail did not work, unintentionally sexually harasses Luka by grabbing her crotch in an attempt to prove Luka's gender. Even when Luka's gender is revealed to him, Okabe still thinks of her as a guy, and as a result does not know how to handle her romantic advances to him, becoming even more unsure upon learning that she had feeling for him even when she was male. When Okabe undoes Luka's D-Mail and reverts Luka to a guy, he asks Luka about his feeling for him, but notes how Luka avoids answering the question.

In the Link of Corruption and Rebirth ending, Okabe is unable to sacrifice Luka's happiness, even if it meant allowing Mayuri to die. While Okabe is initially depressed about Mayuri's death, Luka is able to help him move on and the two go on to have a child together. This route is unique as it is the only one where Okabe intentionally chooses someone else over Mayuri.

In Steins;Gate 0, Luka is one of the people concerned about Okabe's change in personality, though he is left in the dark about the true reason. Suzuha states that this is because Okabe desires for Luka to be the person who keeps him grounded; the piece of normalcy in his life seperate from everything related to time travel. Luka's death in 2036 is the final push Okabe needs to commit himself to achieving Steins Gate and preventing World War III.

Faris NyanNyan
While he considers Faris a friend, Okabe is often thrown off by her antics; she is the only person who not only encourages his delusions, but even goes so far as to add new plotlines. Later on, he is willing to get beaten up by 4℃'s gang to protect her which leads to her developing feeling for him.

In Steins;Gate 0, she is the one person who he informs about time travel from before the events of the Visual Novel (Mayuri, Daru and Suzuha already knew). Later on, he has enough trust in her to let Maho stay at her apartment after her hotel room is ransacked.

Suzuha Amane
For the first chunk of the game, Okabe sees Suzuha as little more than the strange part-timer at the store, not knowing that she was John Titor and that the two had been communicating online. Upon Titor telling him that he was destined to save the future and calling him the Messiah, Okabe immediately began writing him off as a sharlaton. After discovering Suzuha's true identity, he takes her words as truth and commits himself to helping her repair her time machine. Later on, after discovering that him stopping her from leaving led to her amnesia and suicide, Okabe felt an immense amount of guilt and became desperate to correct his action, even if it meant Suzuha would never get to know her father.

In Steins;Gate 0, Okabe's relationship with Beta Suzuha is heavily strained due to his refusal to change the future. Her presence at the Future Gadget Lab is the main reason he does not return to it. However, after reigniting his Hououin Kyouma persona, he moves past his fears and is willing to save Suzuha and Mayuri with the time machine, even if he loses his own life in the process.

Maho Hiyajo
After meeting, the two quickly bond over Kurisu and get closer as the story progresses, with Okabe eventually revealing the truth about the time machine to her. By 2025, the two are very close, with Okabe giving her the most heartfelt farewell of the group.

Yugo Tennouji
Yugo Tennouji is Okabe's landlord and Okabe casually calls him Mr. Braun. Despite their relationship being antagonistic at times due to Okabe's experiments regularly irritating Tennouji and Tennouji constantly threatening to raise Okabe's rent, the two are not genuine enemies and seem to have some small level of concern for one another.

In Steins;Gate 0, Tennouji is noticeably more tolerant of Okabe after he gives up his Hououin Kyouma persona.

Nae Tennouji
Nae herself is frightened by Okabe's Hououin Kyouma persona.

On some Alpha world lines, Nae blames Okabe for her father's death and goes mad, being driven by pure hatred of Okabe to join the Rounders just for the chance to capture and torture Okabe and even using the Time Leap Machine thousands of times just for the chance to threaten him in the past.

Alexis Leskinen
Okabe initially got along well with Pr. Leskinen, viewing him as an intelligent, if childish man that he enjoyed talking to. After Leskinen's betrayal, Okabe is more hostile towards him, seeing him as the heartless and methodical person that he truly is.

Amadeus/Kurisu
While initially hesitant to converse with her, Okabe steadily become more comfortable with [Kurisu] and the two bond over the course of the story.