If there’s one thing that’s annoying about time travel stories, it’s people fussing about some contrived “paradox” theory or other. A close second is people fussing about the butterfly effect. Stein’s;Gate has had its share of butterfly-fretting, but in its thirteenth installment we finally get to one of my favorite time-travel trope, the Groundhog Day scenario. In the classic Bill Murray film, the main character is stuck in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over again for reasons unknown. Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu had a similar plotline with the Endless Summer arc. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni revolved heavily around a time loop. There have been dozens of video game scenarios that are simply so difficult that the player has to re-try over and over again in a manner reminiscent of Groundhog Day, and I’m not just talking about Donkey Kong Country here.

Time travel tropes are sticky business, but Stein’s;Gate is handling it admirably so far. I certainly feel a bit liberated in regards to posting pictures that look like spoilers now, that’s for sure (a character can only die so many times before it loses its dramatic kick).