Rintaro Okabe

Rintarou Okabe (岡部倫太郎, Okabe Rintarō), a.k.a Okarin, a portmanteau of the Oka- from his surname and the Rin- from his given name. He 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 up 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.

Personality
Rintorou is a melodramatic, eccentric individual. He is a self-proclaimed mad scientist, who likes to assume the nickname "Kyouma Hououin" (鳳凰院凶真Hōōin Kyōma), and often uses this to introduce himself to others. For the most part, people 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.

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 manaical laughter often, this is in fact a facade 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 Rintorou'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 perculiar facade, 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. It becomes so twisted, in fact, that he actually feels the desire to see Hashida be knocked down by a truck, in addition to feeling the urge to rape or kill the female lab members on several occassions. Despite this, he soon returns to acting like his old self upon being confronted by Suzuha.

Background
He and Itaru are both students of Tokyo Electronics University, and have been friends for roughly three years, although Itaru convinces him that their friendship is actually a year short.

Rintarou runs 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.

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

Okabe lives a carefree and casual life with his small group of friends, never believing himself to be in any real danger, that is until he and Daru create the Phone Microwave by mistake.

The Death(?) of Kurisu Makise
In order to gather additional units for his college course, Rintarou attends a seminar that discusses the fundamental theory behind creating a time machine. As a staunch believer of time machines, Rintarou 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.

Things appear normal for Rintarou for the few moments that followed, until he hears a painful scream. Rintarou rushed to the source of the sound to investigate, but finds something else inside: the body of Kurisu Makise lying in a pool of blood on the floor.

Rintarou is shaken by the incident, and he contacts his friend Itaru about it through a text message. He would soon go to Itaru and realize that things have changed; not only did the satellite deployed in Akihabara Radio Hall crash, but there was no conference to begin with. Rintarou would also discover that the message he sent to Itaru on that day (the 28th) was received by Itaru on the 23rd, five days into the past.

Another surprise would await Rintarou as he discovers that Makise Kurisu is still alive.

John Titor and Futuristic Gadget #8
Although he was certain that the events that he experienced did happen, he double-checked the occurrences in 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.