Rintaro Okabe

Rintaro Okabe (岡部 倫太郎, Okabe Rintarō?), often nicknamed Okarin (オカリン) or Hououin Kyouma (鳳凰院凶真, Hououin Kyōma), is a self-proclaimed mad scientist and the main protagonist of the Steins;Gate series.

Appearance
Okabe 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 and cheeks.

Okabe also wears a lab coat that reaches his shins, over a plain white T-shirt (light gray in the anime), and khaki-colored slacks. The breast pocket of his lab coat has a red pen sticking out, and around his slacks he wears a black military-style canvas belt, with a gold-colored buckle. He has dark socks and wears green slippers when inside the lab.

In Steins;Gate 0, he is more professionally-dressed compared to his Steins;Gate counterpart, donning a black dress-shirt, blazer, and slacks held by a black belt with a metal buckle. His hair is more neatly combed, likely to follow university standards. He no longer wears his signature lab coat.

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

In the bonus episodes, when he was portrayed in 'model-like' clothing and poses, he was perceived as attractive. Mayuri Shiina said that "we cannot imagine Okarin without white clothes", indicating the changes of Okabe's appearance from Steins;Gate to Steins;Gate 0.

In some drama CDs, he is depicted to cosplay with handsome outfits.

Personality
Okabe is a melodramatic, eccentric and rarely tsundere individual. He is a self-proclaimed mad scientist, who likes to assume his "true name" "Hououin Kyouma" (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 as he calls Kurisu a number of names that irritate her to varying degrees. On the other hand, there are some who like his nicknames such as Luka Urushibara with the name "Lukako"(るかこ, Rukako), which affectionately alludes to his feminine nature.

Okabe was 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 could not understand why she was crying afterwards, even though she explained why sarcastically. His social skills were so poor, in fact, that Kurisu considers the childlike Mayuri to be normal by comparison. However, he is not hesitant to lend a helping hand to people whom he had never met, as shown in his first encounter with Luka. Although very intelligent, Okabe is shown to be easily deceived; when Kurisu sent him a D-Mail saying that he was an airhead, he bought her claim that it was a compliment, only realizing later that it essentially meant his head was full of air.

Okabe likes to pose as an agent working against a certain "Organization" which he suggests is always after him, as he believes this kind of image gives him a cool and mysterious aura. (Ironically, this false organizations would materialize in the form of SERN, STRATFOR, DURPA, and Russian intelligence.) He usually gives off the impression of being delusional and paranoid, displaying eccentric mannerisms such as talking to himself on the phone and engaging in fits of maniacal laughter; he seemed to have a severe case of Chuunibyou at the start of the series, but it is only one side of his character. There are several occasions that the anime displays what goes on in his mind, portraying him as rational and possessing great situational awareness.

It is later revealed that his 'mad scientist' persona is largely a façade he wears in order to make life interesting & for Mayuri and he tends to drop it if the situation becomes serious. He later drops his Chuunibyou façade completely upon witnessing Mayuri's multiple deaths, revealing a serious side of himself he has not shown for the first half of the story as he works hard to undo all the previous D-mails he has made - all 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 cynical, depressed and frantic. He 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 could not 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 ordeal was her fault for not going straight back to 1975 and instead stopping in 2010 to find her father.

In the Suzuha Ending (of the visual novel), Okabe's personality becomes exceedingly warped and twisted, as a result of his numerous time leaps. He begins to lose his understanding of "consequences", adopting a "do as you want" mindset without regard for others. With this mindset, he nearly let Daru getting hit by a truck just to see what would happen and even considered assaulting Suzuha, and Suzuha acknowledges that his soul was close to breaking. 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 Faris, Luka, and Mayuri, although these are determined depending on the route chosen in the visual novel. However, he openly displays his affections for Kurisu near the end of the story, regardless of the route chosen.

After Kurisu's death in Steins;Gate 0, he becomes even more miserable, to the point of experiencing panic attacks from references to her and having to actively consume anxiety medications. Okabe had gradually wallowed in his own misery with his guilt complex weighing down on him, refusing to perform anymore time leaps even with the knowledge from Suzuha of World War III's inevitable occurrence within the Beta Attraction Field should he remain aloof to taking action. This is due to his belief that not only is he incapable of changing the future, but as Kurisu sacrificed her life for that worldline, trying to change it is dishonoring her sacrifice. He had also abandoned the identity of Hououin Kyouma in its entirety, choosing to live as a normal university student, to great discomfort within his circle of friends. Over the course of the story, he regains the strong desire to see the future of the Lab Mems through to the end and returned to his former conduct; a notable feat is him having time-leaped over 3000 times backwards from 2036 to ensure it.

In the movie Load Region of Déjà vu, Okabe possesses a strong distrust for time travel in general. After his experiences, he believes that no one can alter the past without unintended consequences and would rather be erased from the worldline completely over letting Kurisu use time travel to try and save him.

Relationships
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, as a genius and successful scientist, was what he strived to become.
 * Makise Kurisu

Okabe and Kurisu initially have an antagonistic relationship, with both of them having issues with each other's high and mighty attitudes. 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 worldline. 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.

In Steins;Gate 0, her death is the main impetus for his depression, but his symptoms lessen after being able to speak to her once more in an Alpha worldline.

Mayuri is Okabe's valued childhood friend. 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. 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 hurt the happiness of Faris and Luka and he only truly hesitates to save her when Kurisu's life is also at stake.
 * Mayuri Shiina

In Steins;Gate 0, he still shows great fear that changing the worldline would lead to Mayuri's death. In some Beta worldlines, he makes Mayuri's safety his only reason for living and dies saving her life. In the Alpha worldline shown in the story, choosing to save Kurisu over Mayuri is shown putting Okabe into an even deeper depression than he was in following Kurisu's death.
 * Itaru Hashida
 * Moeka Kiryu
 * Luka Urushibara
 * Faris NyanNyan
 * Suzuha Amane
 * Maho Hiyajo

Background
Okabe lives an average life with his small group of friends until he creates the PhoneWave (name subject to change) with Itaru. His parents run a family business selling vegetables, and he once got an eggplant for Christmas.

He is childhood friends with Mayuri Shiina. After the death of her grandmother, Mayuri entered a depression and, fearing that she would go away (commit suicide), Okabe embraced her and said the first thing that came to mind, which happened to be the ramblings of a mad scientist that he had seen on television. Proclaiming himself a mad-scientist, he stated that Mayuri was his hostage and as such, could not leave him. Mayuri accepted and this incident gave birth to his "Hououin Kyouma" persona. In the Steins;Gate worldline, before meeting Mayuri at the grave, he stops at the train station where he meets a time travelling Kurisu Makise who gave him the idea of Houoin Kyouma and who also takes his first kiss. In some Beta worldlines, he instead encounters a time travelling Kagari Shiina at the train station who gives him the inspiration for Houoin Kyouma and teaches him a song.

Okabe went to the same high school as Itaru Hashida, though according to Daru, they did not actually become friends until their final year. He and Daru both enrolled at Tokyo Denki University as engineering students. In March of that year, he established the Future Gadget Lab, a small homemade laboratory situated above Yugo Tennouji's CRT store, and dubs himself Lab Mem 001 (the first member to join the lab). After half a month, Mayuri began coming by and was made Lab Mem 002. About a month later, Okabe convinced Daru to join by telling him May Queen was only a three minute walk away and he became Lab Mem 003. It is an area where he and his fellow Lab Mems create "Future Gadgets for the betterment of mankind".

Some time before the start of the series, he happened to see Luka being harassed by some photographers in Akiba. He stepped in a shamed the men. When Luka was feeling depressed because of his gender, Okabe stated that it did not matter and took Luka to BladeWorks, where they purchased Samidare, leading to Luka becoming Okabe's disciple.

Alpha Attractor Field
In the Alpha wordlines, Okabe and Daru are destined to create the Anti-SERN resistance group, Valkyrie. Okabe dies in 2025 and, depending on the worldline, is captured and tortured by Nae leading up to it.

Beta Attractor Field
In Beta worldlines Okabe and Daru are destined to create the terrorist group, Valkyrie. In most worldlines, Okabe dies in 2025 either as a result of protecting Mayuri or after being captured by Strategic Focus. In some worldlines, after being captured, he is not killed, but instead tortured to the point of becoming brain dead. He is later recover by Daru who lies about his death and keeps his body hidden.

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 (English dub)
 * "The universe has a beginning, but no end. — Infinite. The stars, too, have a beginning, but their own power leads to their destruction. — Finite. History dictates that it is the wise who are most foolish. One could call this a final warning from God, to those who can still resist." -Okabe's opening monologue
 * "It's the choice of Steins Gate." -Okabe's catchphrase.
 * "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 Shiina.
 * "Uhh... Hey mister, I am mad scientist. It's so COOOOL! Sonuvabitch." -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 Urushibara.
 * "Is this the choice of Steins Gate. No, get out of your damn head! None of that stuff is real! Not Steins Gate, not the Organization, none of it!" - Okabe to himself
 * "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 worldline
 * "Alright! From now on, I am Mommy Uncle Okarin!" - Okabe to Nae Tennouji
 * "Seinem das Jede." - Okabe to Kurisu, Steins;Gate QNP Special
 * "''How much time have I lived through? Through how many world have I travelled? Numbers too great to count. So much that the sky and the stars became blurs. But no matter what, I always had you there with me. I always had your smile to reassure me. "I'm fine, so...". On that day, you smiled gently and left me with those words. An event so very, very long ago that it almost feels like a lifetime has passed. Those words rest with me even now. Not once have they faded from my mind. I knew all along. That was your gentle lie to me. A lie far too slefless. All so that I could continue onwards. I could tell even then that you were lying, but I clung to your words regardless. I placed everything on them. Night spent wailing with grief. Winters spent writhing in agony. No matter how the seasons passed, no matter how blessed I was by people's kindness, there forever remained one regret that would gnaw away at the back of my mind. Of course, I already know. I know that you'd never blame me for what happened. Even so, Within that endlessly repeating time, The weight of the sin that I bore... It never faded, not even for a second. But now... Now, having crossed through those innumerable worlds, I've finally become aware of their importance. Wandering blindly in the dark, Having lost my bearings, on a journey with an unknown destination... Those who stood by me and supported me through it all. My precious friends... And of course, you. Never fading, no matter how much time passed. My feelings towards you. Because everyone was always there for me, because "she" gave me a push on the back, and because "you" were right here with me too. These are the reasons that I'm able to move onwards once more. The "you" living on inside my heart gives me courage even now. "Pull yourself together already." I'm sure you'd be saying something like that right about now. I wouldn't blame you. After all, I feel the same way. But you need to understand. I can't bring myself to let go of those memories. All the tears that were shed, the blood that was bled, all those feelings left unsaid. I wasn't able to let go of a single thing... That's why I've decided to aim for it once more. Yes. The "Gate". The "Gate" which exists in the gap between past and future, between miracles and fate. It may well take me another few lifetimes in order to achieve this. It may be that I need to traverse countless more worlds. But I do not care. There's not an iota of hesitation left within me. I've steeled myself. No matter how many times it takes, no matter how many worlds I cross. I'll make it there for sure. I'll be able to "begin" once again. That is my... That is our choice. So I don't need your gentle lies anymore. Please, wait for me. Until the day that we can meet once more. Until the day that begins our new "past," and our new "future" .''" - Monologue Okabe in 2025, Drama CD Lyra of the New Dawn.

Trivia

 * In the Gamma worldline, Okabe is a collaborator of SERN, member of the Committee of 300 and becomes the dictator Hououin Kyouma, ruling over Japan with an iron fist.
 * Okabe loves to drink Dr. P but in the Gamma worldline, his favorite drink is Mountain Dew.
 * The reason Okabe barely calls Kurisu Makise by her real name, but instead with the various nicknames, is because he was too embarrassed to call her by her real name.
 * The actions of the Committee of 300 of the Steins Gate worldline fit Okabe's delusions almost to the letter.
 * Okabe claims he has an IQ of 170. For reference, 145 is considered the genius level of intelligence.
 * In the events of Deja Vu, Kurisu Makise is the one who gives Okabe the backstory and name of Hououin Kyouma.
 * His catchphrase, "El Psy Kongroo" means something like "The Mind Agrees" or "The Mind is Congruous" and is supposed to be Latin, but the grammar is not correct.
 * Rintaro Okabe is also playable in the game #COMPASS.
 * Okabe calls his favorite order at Kitchen Jiro "Mad Menchi Katsu Curry" which is curry with two pieces of menchi katsu as toppings.
 * Okabe does not have his driver's license.
 * Okabe dislikes eggplants.
 * Okabe had a hard time noticing when Moeka is in the room, frequently getting surprised that she's behind him.
 * A nickname for the Okabe in Steins;Gate 0 that fans of the series have given him is "Sad scientist" as opposed to "Mad scientist".

Etymology

 * The name Rintaro means "ethics, companion" (倫) (rin), "thick, big, great" (太) (ta) and "son" (郎) (ro).
 * Rintaro's surname Okabe means "ridge, hill" (岡) (oka) and "part, department, category, section" (部) (be).

Alias

 * Hououin means "phoenix/phoenix bird" (鳳凰) (houou) and "hospital, institution/Inst., temple, mansion, school" (院) (in).
 * Kyouma means "bad, misfortune/mischance/miscarriage, ill luck/unluck, fail, muff, overshoot, fiasco, baffle, calamity, affliction, disaster, catastrophe, cancer, plague, distress, harm, poor crop/poor harvest/scanty harvest/lean harvest" (凶) (kyou) and "real, genuine" (真) (ma).