Rintaro Okabe

Rintaro Okabe (岡部 倫太郎), 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
Rintaro 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. Rintaro also wears a lab coat, which he wears over a simple shirt and slacks.

In the game Rintaro 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
Okabe 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 Hououin Kyouma), 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. This makes him slightly hypocritical, due to the fact that there is essentially no-one he calls by their real names, and he in particular calls Kurisu a number of names that irritate her to varying degrees.

Okabe is also socially inept, to the point that he saw absolutely nothing wrong with yelling in Kurisu's face for calling him 'Okabe' instead of 'Hououin Kyouma' and couldn't understand why she was crying afterwards. Before that, he examined her body after discovering with shock that she was alive, which caused Kurisu to believe she was groping him practically the moment they met (in that timeline). His social skills are so poor, in fact, that Kurisu considers the childlike Mayuri to be normal by comparison.

Okabe 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; he had a severe case of Chuunibyou as seen at the start of the series.

It is later revealed that his 'mad scientist' persona is largely a façade he wears in order to make life interesting for his dear childhood friend Mayuri; after her grandmother's death, Mayuri fell into deep despair, but Okabe snapped her out of it by acting like a cartoon character and declaring her his hostage. He later drops his Chuunibyou facade upon witnessing Mayuri's multiple deaths, revealing a serious side of himself he has not shown for the first half of the series as he works hard to undo all the previous D-mails he has made, while in order to obtain the IBN 5100 and prevent Mayuri's death. As a result of going through dozens of time-leaps, he becomes rather clinical, depressed and frantic. He also develops a guilt complex, believing himself to be responsible for everything that's happening and frequently blaming himself whenever something goes wrong, even when he had no control over it or couldn't possibly have seen it coming. An example is when he blamed himself for stopping Suzuha from leaving during the night of the storm, which resulted in the loss of her memory and her failure in finding the IBN 5100, despite Suzuha's insistence that the entire thing was her fault for not going straight back to 1975 and instead stopping in 2010 to find her father.

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 has seemed to develop feelings for Kurisu, along with Ruka, Faris, and Mayuri as time passes, 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.

Rintaro 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 dubs himself Lab Member 001 (the first to join the lab).

Rintaro has always been close friends with Lab Member 002 and co-founder of the "Future Gadget Lab", his childhood friend Mayuri, who he made a vow to protect when they were young.

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

Rintaro 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. After that, he was in a state of shock, frequently touching Kurisu, who then accuses him of sexually harrasing her. It was then that he realized that this was the real Kurisu.

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 agreeing to let 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 (short for DeLorean Mail. This could be a reference to the famous "back to the future" movie series.

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 did 14 experiments on humans, called the "Z program" and all humans that have been experimented on have already died and turned into a gel like state and was found in different places in the past. Daru found a unknown database of SERN which even Daru cannot crack. Okabe decided to asked Titor about the code, and found out he needed the IBN 5100 in order to access SERN's secrets. Okabe starts searching for it and finds out that Faris' 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 (Faris' D-Mail has literally remodeled Akihabara, Luka'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 mails from an unknown person, attached with gruesome images. The night of the day Kurisu completes the time leap machine, Mayuri's watch stops, much to her surprise. Soon, a group lead by Moeka attacks the lab, killing Mayuri in the process. With the help of Suzuha Amane, Okabe was able to use the time leap machine to travel back through time and save Mayuri. However, no matter how many times he tried, the result doesn't change: Mayuri still dies. It was then that Okabe begins to be terrified of Mayuri's death every time he sees Mayuri's watch stops. 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, Rintaro 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. Rintaro 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, Rintaro 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-mail he has ever sent from SERN's database. Rintaro 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 Rintaro (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 Rintaro). Going back to the lab, Rintaro 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, Rintaro crumbles upon reading it. The time machine's repairs were incomplete, causing Suzuha to get amnesia and 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 committed suicide. Rintaro 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 Rintaro with his Reading Steiner.

Retrieving the IBN5100
After sending the D-mail, Rintaro still hasn't escaped from the Alpha Attractor Field, but because he did change the world line, the Rounders' attack and Mayuri's death 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, Rintaro succeeds to cancel Feyris's and Ruka's D-mail (which turns Akihabara back to "normal" (a city of Moe culture) and Ruka was born 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, Rintaro is able to find Moeka's apartment, but he also finds out that Moeka had committed suicide. Rintaro 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(Nae). Unable to find out who that is, Rintaro 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, Rintaro 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) and Moeka repeatedly pound at the door. 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 D-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 then confronted Moeka, had another fight with her and was forced to kiss Moeka to silence her. He then 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), Rintaro and Moeka tailed many people who took the IBN5100 and spent an all-nighter to find FB, which to their surprise, turn out to be Mr. Braun. After hearing the story from Rintaro about Amane Suzuha, Mr. Braun uses his gun to commit suicide. Rintaro then grabs his phone and runs out of the house. Rintaro is noticed by Kurisu (who has been watching outside the house) that after she heard the gun shot, someone in the house jumped out of the window and ran away. Returning to Moeka's apartment, Rintaro 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 died in Okabe's arms and then FB kills himself) and tells Rintaro she would meet him in another 15 years. Shocked by the new revelation, Rintaro 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 Rintaro won't know anything about why Nae kill Moeka). This time, Rintaro waits outside of the house (FB will definitely die due to world line convergence). After the gun shot, Nae leaps through the window, Rintaro 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 Rintaro and tortures him to death, and then takes the time leap machine to travel to the past to exact revenge against Moeka and Rintaro (though she cannot kill Rintaro 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
Rintaro, after undoing Moeka's D-mail, notices that if he cracked SERN's Database and delete the first D-mail by using the IBN 5100 he'll end up in a world where Kurisu died at Radio Kaikan. Therefore he refuses hacking SERN to delete 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 crack the first D-mail, he tells her the truth about her death. Kurisu doesn't care if she dies and urges him to save Mayuri. Rintaro then confesses his love for her. She kisses Rintaro (and he demands another one from her after the first kiss). Rintaro finally decides to sacrifice Kurisu and return to the original Attractor Field he was in.

Finale
Now in the original world line, still feeling sad after losing Kurisu, Rintaro receives a phone call from Amane Suzuha, who offers to meet him on the roof of Radio Kaikan. When Rintaro 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 Rintaro tries to stab the culprit with a knife, but stabbed Kurisu instead. The force was so strong that the knife pierced the skin and penetrated the flesh, all the way to the bone. Okabe felt that. He was then left with a dying Kurisu in his hands. Kurisu then apologizes for letting Okabe get involved in her murder, saying "I'm sorry for dragging a stranger like you into this." before finally collapsing onto him, staining his outfit and filling his soul with grief.

After returning to their time, Rintaro was devastated, repeatedly saying that "I killed Kurisu" and wanted to take an eternal slumber before Mayuri (visual novel)/ Suzuha (anime) slaps his face. He then awaken from his delusions and 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 allowing Mayuri's Metal Upa to not be detected by the Metal detector in the airport and let the files that was stolen by Shouichi Makise burn down in the accident, thus achieving the final divergence value that's larger than 1 (1.048596), which he dubs the 'Steins Gate'. His Future self dubs this mission as 'Operation Skuld'. Rintaro planned on doing this by knocking her out with a taser and using the fake blood in Future Gadget #6 (the lightsaber from Spark Wars. This could be a reference to Star Wars-the famous American space opera). When Rintaro returns to the past, he obtained the Metal Upa first before his past self does. Mayuri will then instead receive an ordinary green Upa, lose it, and have it picked up by Kurisu Makise. Rintaro soon realizes that the fake blood he brought dried up. Without much choice, Rintaro risks his own life by letting himself get stabbed by Shouichi Makise, and then using his own blood to recreate the scene where he saw Kurisu lying unconscious on a pool of blood, in order to save her. Kurisu witnessed it and called for help. But Okabe then taser her and leave her lying in the pool of blood, before saying "farewell" to Kurisu and talk about his past self (the next 3 weeks will only be a mere 3 weeks to others, but, for you, it was the time you spent with Kurisu). Suzuha calls Okarin stupid for doing that, because he risked dying of his injuries and exposing himself to his past self but Okabe retorts stating that the mission was successful, and he fullfilled all of the objectives: create a fake crime scene with Kurisu bleeding, fooling his past self, Rintaro returns to his time.

He was hospitalized for about a month due to his wound and around September 2010, he got out of the hospital, consequently obtaining 8 LabMem badges which were just finished. Rintaro visits Yanabayashi Shrine to appoint Luka Urushibara as LabMem #006 and gives him the LabMem badge, then visits Mayqueen to appoint Faris as LabMem #007 and gives her the LabMem badge as well.

As he was about to go upstairs to the Lab, he finds out that Moeka works as a Part-Timer in the CRT workshop. He then gives her the LabMem badge and appoints her as LabMem #005.

In the Visual Novel it continues and shows Rintaro heading into the Lab and finds Mayuri and Itaru inside, and gives them their respective LabMem Badges, while in the Anime, Mayuri was not around since she was looking for Rintaro who was released from the hospital. He then puts another LabMem Badge in a box and tells Itaru that the 8th Member will appear 7 years later, and for Itaru it was an inescapable fate.

Rintaro goes back out to the streets of Akihabara, carrying 2 LabMem badges. One is for himself, LabMem #001, and the other one is for LabMem #004, Kurisu. Okabe reflects that it will never reach it's owner since Kurisu in this worldline has no memories of the 3 weeks she spent with Rintaro in the Alpha worldline.

A bit saddened by the realization, he walks through a crowd of Akihabara, when someone familiar passes by him. He stops and turns around, not really believing what he'd seen. The person turns out to be Kurisu. She smiled thankfully and remarks that she was afraid of never being able to see him again and would forever been unable to thank him for saving her life.

Rintaro who becomes too emotional, puts up his Chuunibyou act and pulls out his phone. He tells the phone that he's unsure of why he was able to meet her again and states that he would accept the task of protecting her in the name of Steins;Gate.

In a slip of tongue, he calls Kurisu by the nickname he used in other worldline, Christina. Kurisu replies him by stating that she isn't not Christina nor his Assistant. Both were surprised, and Kurisu reveals that she had just acted on instinct. Okabe reflects that the Kurisu in this worldline should not have known about the nicknames he gave her in other worldline. But then he come to a realization, that Reading Steiner, exists in every single human. All they need is a little push and they would remember. Rintaro then welcomes her, and appoints her as his Assistant once more before giving her the LabMem badge he had. Rintaro continued living in this Steins;Gate worldline happily with both Kurisu and Mayuri safe and sound.

Quotes

 * "Consider, can the universe be justifiably called infinite? Doubtful. It may not have a discernible end, but it had a beginning and its component parts definitely have a limited cosmological shelf-life. Splitting hairs or not, if history tells us anything, it's that scientists often make very poor poets. We're all just a ship of fools chasing phantoms heedless of what really underwrites natural law." -Okabe's opening monologue
 * "It's the choice of Steins Gate." -Okabe's catchphrase.


 * "I'm the great mad scientist, Hououin Kyoma!"
 * "Perverted Genius Girl!" -Okabe to Kurisu.
 * "Sorry, The Zombie" -Okabe to Kurisu.
 * "Let's hear what the genius thought!" -Okabe to Kurisu.


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


 * "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.


 * "Uhh... Hey mister, I am mad scientist. It's so COOOOL! Sonovabitch." -Okabe to badge maker, 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.
 * "It's all my fault. From start to finish, it's my fault. I'm the one who told Daru to hack into SERN. I'm the one whose stupid idea it was to build a time machine to begin with and the one who brought Moeka into her lives. I'm the reason that Mayuri [sobs]" -Okabe to Kurisu.
 * "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.
 * "No one knows what the future holds, that's why its potential is infinite. Just like what this reunion demonstrated."- Okabe to Kurisu during their reunion in the Steins;Gate world line

Trivia

 * In the Gamma World Line, Rintaro is a collaborator of SERN, member of the Committee of 300 and becomes the dictator Hououin Kyouma, ruling over Japan with an iron fist.
 * He loves to drink Dr. Pepper but in the Gamma world line, his favorite drink is Mountain Dew.
 * The reason he barely calls Kurisu by her real name, but instead with the various nicknames, is because he was too embarassed to call her by her real name.
 * The actions of the Council of 300 of the Steins;Gate World Line fit Okabe's delusions almost to the letter.
 * It is explained in the VN that his surname "Hououin" comes from the japanese equivalent to the mythical fire bird, the "Phoenix", which is pronounced as "Hou-ou". Kyouma comes from "Horrible truth" or something to that effect.
 * He claims he has an IQ of 170. For reference, 145 is considered the genius level of intelligence.
 * In 2015 December, "it was the choice of the voters (and the choice of Steins;Gate) that Okabe Rintaro is officially the Top Time Traveller."  This bracket started on October 21st 2015, in which fans had till October 30th to submit time travellers for the bracket. Rounds of elimination between 64 different time travelers from popular culture occurred the following 6 weeks.


 * MAGES. is a self proclaimed "mad magician" from Hyperdimension Neptunia, which is referencing Okabe Rintaro's "mad scientist". This character references Okabe Rintaro's character of loving Dr.Pepper. ("Doc Tear Popper") She even calls Noire "assistant" as Noire shares the same voice actress for Makise Kurisu, Asami Imai. There are sometimes references to a "Door of the Fate Stone" in which "Steins;Gate" literally translates into "Stone;Gate".
 * During event 20 of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 MAGES. takes out her cell phone and seemingly talks to herself about some kind of "Organization" getting rid of all of the Doc Tear Popper in the universe, this is a reference of Rintaro Okabe, who also does the same thing. She also ends her cell phone calls with "Loochs tneve emag noitamina cisum" claiming it is a secret code. Much like what Rintaro Okabe does. Only instead of "Loochs tneve emag noitamina cisum" he uses his own well know quote "El Psy Congroo" (music, animation, game, event, school backwards, spelling MAGES.)
 * Kurisu drank a can of alcoholic beer once, and was drunk before she could finish it, causing Okabe heaps of trouble. During the time she was drunk, she pushed Okabe downstairs and asked him to hug her and spend some quality time together. Okabe however, was too shy to even reply. Kurisu then hugs him even tighter and both of them fell down a flock of stairs, giving both of them a headache.
 * In the future of the Alpha world line, Okabe became the leader of the resistance against SERN's rule, and was known as an international terrorist (in the side story ""The Far Valhalla,"" it's revealed that SERN released Okabe and Daru so that they could found the resistance, thus completing the cycle of fate). Okabe got captured by SERN's Rounder unit in 2025 and was tortured to death.


 * In the events of Deja Vu, Makise Kurisu is the one who gives Okabe the backstory and name of Hououin Kyouma.