Rintaro Okabe
From Steins;Gate
Rintaro Okabe is the main character of Steins;Gate, a first-year university student in Akihabara who calls himself the mad scientist Hououin Kyouma. Founder of the Future Gadget Laboratory, he stumbles into a way of sending messages to the past, and his 'Reading Steiner' memory makes him the only one who notices when the world changes. He is voiced by Mamoru Miyano in Japanese and J. Michael Tatum in English.
About Rintaro Okabe
Rintaro Okabe is a first-year university student who calls himself Hououin Kyouma, a mad scientist fleeing the 'Organization', a performance his friends tolerate with love. Beneath the act he is fiercely devoted, and when his lab's accidental time machine starts rewriting the world, his unique 'Reading Steiner' memory makes him the only one who knows. Every loop to save Mayuri costs him more of himself.
Appearance
Okabe is a tall, lanky 18-year-old with messy dark hair and tired, sharp eyes. His uniform is a white lab coat worn over casual clothes at almost all times, usually with his phone in hand, held to his ear for dramatic conversations with people who are not there. The performance is constant: sweeping gestures, villain laughs and sudden poses in the middle of Akihabara streets.
Personality
Okabe's mad-scientist act, paranoia about an 'Organization', codenames, theatrical speeches, is a game he plays to entertain his friends, especially Mayuri. Underneath it he is loyal, brave and deeply responsible: when the lab's experiments put people in danger, Okabe takes the weight personally and refuses to let anyone else carry it. He hides fear and pain behind the act so successfully that only a few people ever see how much each setback costs him.
Background & Story
Okabe rents a small room above a CRT shop in Akihabara and calls it the Future Gadget Laboratory, where he, his childhood friend Mayuri and his hacker friend Daru build useless inventions. Calling himself Hououin Kyouma, he frames the lab's life as a war against a shadowy Organization. Then one of their gadgets, a phone-controlled microwave, turns out to be able to send short text messages into the past. As the lab tests what changing the past does to the present, Okabe discovers he alone keeps his memories when the world shifts around a change, an ability he names Reading Steiner. What begins as a game with a banana and a microwave becomes the lab's dangerous secret, and Okabe's responsibility grows with every message sent. (Premise only, the story's later turns are left unspoiled.)
Powers & Abilities
- Reading Steiner: When the past is changed and the world line shifts, Okabe alone retains his memories of the previous timeline.
Key Relationships
- Mayuri Shiina: His childhood friend and the lab's warmth, the person his mad-scientist act was originally built to cheer up.
- Kurisu Makise: The genius neuroscientist who joins the lab, argues with him constantly and becomes his intellectual equal.
- Itaru Hashida: 'Daru', his best friend and the lab's super hacker, who builds whatever Okabe dreams up.
- Suzuha Amane: The part-time worker below the lab, whose knowledge of the future is greater than she first admits.
Quick Answers
How old is Okabe in Steins;Gate?
Okabe is 18 years old, a first-year student at Tokyo Denki University.
What is Reading Steiner?
Reading Steiner is Okabe's ability to keep his memories when a change to the past shifts the world line, while everyone else's memories adjust.
Who voices Okabe?
Okabe is voiced by Mamoru Miyano in Japanese and J. Michael Tatum in the English dub.
What is Hououin Kyouma?
Hououin Kyouma is the 'mad scientist' persona Okabe performs, a self-invented identity his friends mostly play along with.
