Rintaro Okabe and his childhood friend Mayuri attend a time-travel lecture at Akihabara's Radio Kaikan. Before the seminar, physicist Kurisu Makise confronts Okabe and insists that he spoke to her only minutes earlier, although he has no memory of doing so. Later, Okabe hears a scream and finds Kurisu lying in a pool of blood. He sends Daru a message reporting her apparent murder, then experiences a disorienting sensation as the surrounding crowds vanish and an artificial satellite appears embedded in the building. Days later, nobody remembers the lecture because it was supposedly canceled, and the message to Daru is dated before Okabe sent it. At the Future Gadget Laboratory, Okabe, Daru, and Mayuri test their Phone Microwave, which inexplicably turns bananas into green gel. Okabe's confusion deepens when he encounters Kurisu alive at another presentation. The impossible sequence suggests that his message somehow reached the past and altered events, while only Okabe retains a clear memory of the original timeline.
Episode 2
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Okabe struggles to understand why Kurisu is alive and why the world no longer matches his memories. She publicly dismantles his arguments about time travel, leaving him embarrassed but even more determined to investigate. At Luka Urushibara's shrine, Okabe collects food and introduces the gentle shrine attendant as another acquaintance. He also meets Suzuha Amane, an athletic young woman newly employed by his landlord, Yugo Tennouji, at the electronics shop beneath the laboratory. Online research reveals that John Titor, a self-proclaimed traveler who originally appeared on message boards in 2000, is now posting in 2010 instead. All records of the earlier appearance have vanished, although Okabe remembers them. A withdrawn woman named Moeka Kiryu asks him about an obsolete IBN 5100 computer, claiming she urgently needs one. Back at the lab, another Phone Microwave experiment makes a banana disappear and reattach to its original bunch as gel. Kurisu arrives at precisely that moment, witnessing evidence that challenges her skepticism and drawing her into the mystery surrounding the machine.
Episode 3
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Kurisu agrees to examine the Phone Microwave only after Okabe names her a laboratory member, a designation she treats with irritation. During a new test, Mayuri opens the microwave and a burst of electricity accompanies another unexpected result. Reviewing phone records, Okabe and Daru confirm that a text message was delivered before it was written. The group realizes their improvised appliance can send limited data into the past, although they do not yet understand why or under what conditions. Kurisu initially rejects the conclusion despite observing the experiment herself. Okabe begins connecting the device to reports about microscopic black holes and asks Daru to infiltrate SERN, the international research organization operating the Large Hadron Collider. John Titor warns that SERN's secret time-travel research will eventually create a dystopian future. Daru's unauthorized search uncovers encrypted records indicating that the organization has already conducted human experiments. The subjects did not travel successfully; their bodies were discovered in grotesque, gelatinous states. What began as an eccentric household invention now appears to reproduce part of a deadly technology pursued by a powerful institution.
Episode 4
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Daru cannot read the most important files taken from SERN because they use an obsolete programming language. John Titor tells Okabe that an IBN 5100 can interpret the code, connecting the investigation to the computer Moeka has been seeking. Kurisu remains reluctant to call the Phone Microwave a time machine, yet she helps Okabe research the vintage system. Faris Nyannyan, the popular maid-café performer whom Okabe knows through Mayuri, recalls that her wealthy family once donated an IBN 5100 to Luka's shrine. Okabe confirms that Luka's father still possesses the machine and persuades him to lend it to the laboratory. Transporting the heavy computer through Akihabara becomes an exhausting task, but Kurisu joins Okabe rather than dismissing his claims. Their search also reveals how differently each person approaches the mystery: Okabe dramatizes every development as a conspiracy, while Kurisu demands repeatable evidence. Once the IBN reaches the lab, Daru finally has the hardware needed to decode SERN's hidden database. The group is now positioned to learn exactly what the organization's experiments produced—and why the same physical distortion appears in their gel bananas.
Episode 5
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When Okabe and Kurisu return with the IBN 5100, Suzuha reacts to Kurisu with immediate hostility and privately warns Okabe not to trust her. The lab members gather the cables and adapters required to connect the outdated computer to Daru's modern equipment. Once the system is operational, Daru deciphers SERN's classified reports. The files describe multiple human attempts at time travel, with subjects appearing at different dates as compressed masses of gelatin. Kurisu interprets the result scientifically: passage through an artificial micro black hole would squeeze matter at a molecular level, explaining both the failed subjects and the bananas altered by the Phone Microwave. The discovery horrifies the group because it demonstrates that their accidental invention is connected to a process that has already killed people. It also confirms that SERN has concealed a functioning, if incomplete, method of manipulating time. Rather than stop, Okabe declares that the laboratory must perfect its own device before the organization does. His theatrical confidence masks the scale of the danger, while Suzuha's unexplained fear of Kurisu suggests that the consequences may extend far beyond the experiments recorded in SERN's present-day files.
Episode 6
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The laboratory names its messages to the past “D-Mails” and begins measuring the Phone Microwave's limits. Through controlled tests, Okabe, Kurisu, and Daru determine when transmission is possible, how many characters can be sent, and how far backward a message can travel. Their method remains unreliable, but experimentation turns the accident into a repeatable system. Moeka arrives asking to borrow the IBN 5100. Okabe tries to conceal both the computer and the time experiments, yet her persistence and constant phone use make secrecy impossible. Rather than force her away, he recruits her as the fifth lab member and allows her to observe. The decision brings someone with unknown motives directly into the project. Kurisu continues refining the scientific explanation, while Okabe enjoys assigning dramatic terminology and membership numbers. Beneath the playful atmosphere, the group now possesses proof that information can alter the past and access to records of SERN's fatal trials. Every new participant increases the chance that the discovery will spread beyond the lab. Moeka's fixation on the IBN, in particular, raises questions that Okabe overlooks while celebrating the apparent success of his invention.
Episode 7
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After Daru upgrades the Phone Microwave, Okabe proposes a simple test of whether a D-Mail can change history: he sends Luka the winning numbers for an upcoming lottery. The transmission causes the same powerful disorientation Okabe experienced after reporting Kurisu's death. When he recovers, the other lab members do not remember conducting the experiment. Luka did receive the numbers and bought a ticket, but an error in Okabe's message led him to select one incorrect digit. The failed jackpot still proves that the past changed. Okabe concludes that the transmission moved him onto a different “world line,” replacing events and everyone's memories except his own. He names this unique retention of prior timelines Reading Steiner. Suzuha's remarks and John Titor's explanations support the idea that multiple possible histories converge or separate according to divergence. Titor tells Okabe that crossing beyond one percent divergence could prevent SERN's future dictatorship and calls him a potential savior. The grand language appeals to Okabe's persona, but the experiment establishes a sobering fact: even a small message can rewrite reality, and he alone may be left carrying memories of what was erased.
Episode 8
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Okabe explains world-line shifts and Reading Steiner to Kurisu and Daru, who must trust memories they do not share. Moeka asks to send her own D-Mail. After the transmission, Okabe enters a timeline in which the others no longer remember meeting her, confirming that a sender's apparently private choice can reshape broader relationships. Moeka refuses to reveal the message's contents. Luka then requests an even more personal experiment. Uncomfortable with being treated as male despite a feminine appearance and identity, Luka wants a message sent to his mother's pager before his birth, using a folk belief that diet can influence a baby's sex. Kurisu doubts the claim, but the group transmits dietary advice to the past. Okabe experiences another world-line shift, yet sees no immediate difference and assumes the attempt failed. The episode expands the experiments from harmless testing into alterations motivated by intimate wishes. Because only Okabe recognizes when reality changes, neither Moeka nor Luka can reliably explain what their messages eventually caused. Kurisu's warnings about uncontrolled consequences grow more urgent, while Okabe continues granting requests without a method for restoring the previous world line if an unseen change proves dangerous.
Episode 9
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Faris overhears Okabe and Daru discussing the Phone Microwave and asks to use it, but a more immediate problem appears: the IBN 5100 has vanished. In the current world line, the lab never obtained it from Luka's shrine. Kurisu explains that earlier D-Mails may have produced a butterfly effect, changing events far removed from each message's intended target. Okabe confronts Moeka, but she claims not to know where the computer went. Unlike the world line immediately after her transmission, everyone now remembers her, showing that subsequent changes have overwritten parts of that reality as well. Faris reveals that she is Rumiho Akiha, daughter of the family that owns much of Akihabara, and offers information about the IBN in exchange for sending a message ten years into the past. Okabe reluctantly agrees without learning the message's content. After the shift, Faris's father says his family no longer possesses the computer. More visibly, Akihabara has lost its maid cafés, anime shops, and otaku culture, becoming an ordinary electronics district. A single private D-Mail has transformed an entire neighborhood, proving that the laboratory can no longer predict the scale of what it changes.
Episode 10
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Okabe explores an Akihabara stripped of the culture Faris once helped create and realizes that her D-Mail prevented the district's transformation into an otaku center. He also finally notices the effect of Luka's earlier request: in this world line, Luka was born female. The revelation confirms that the seemingly implausible dietary message changed a fundamental part of Luka's life. Suzuha tells Okabe that she came to Tokyo searching for her missing father and plans to leave if she cannot find him by the next day. Okabe appoints her as another lab member and organizes a farewell gathering. While preparing, he receives an anonymous message saying that he is being watched, accompanied by an image of gelatin. The threat links the playful experiments to SERN's failed human subjects. During an outing with Mayuri, Okabe recalls a severe childhood illness that may have been an early manifestation of Reading Steiner. Suzuha leaves before the party and sends a farewell. Unwilling to let her go, Okabe transmits a D-Mail instructing his earlier self to stop her departure. Reality shifts again, keeping Suzuha in Tokyo but adding another uncontrolled alteration to the accumulating timeline.
Episode 11
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The group discovers that the large CRT television in Yugo's shop acts as the Phone Microwave's essential “lifter,” explaining why D-Mails only work while it is switched on. Kurisu proposes a more ambitious device: compressing a person's memories and sending them into the brain of their past self, effectively allowing consciousness to leap backward. Okabe prefers this approach to more D-Mails because the traveler could respond to unexpected consequences. While shopping for components with Mayuri, he encounters Moeka and then Suzuha, who claims Kurisu will work for SERN in the future. Kurisu denies any connection and reveals the painful collapse of her relationship with her scientist father, who resented being surpassed by his daughter. Okabe receives another anonymous threat, this time showing a severed doll's head, and rushes back out of fear that Mayuri is in danger. Daru then discovers that the laboratory's system has been connected to SERN's network without permission. The combination of surveillance, Suzuha's accusation, and the unauthorized link suggests that the lab is no longer experimenting unseen. Someone already knows what they have built, even as Kurisu moves closer to completing the time-leap machine.
Episode 12
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Using SERN's Large Hadron Collider remotely to compress memory data, Kurisu completes a machine capable of sending a person's consciousness up to forty-eight hours into the past. Although the breakthrough offers a way to revisit mistakes, Okabe has become alarmed by the threatening messages and decides not to test it. He proposes announcing the discovery publicly instead, hoping openness will protect the group. The lab members hold a small celebration, where Suzuha again accuses Kurisu of becoming a SERN operative in the future. Mayuri eases the confrontation, but a televised bomb threat shuts down the rail system and creates an atmosphere of isolation. When Suzuha learns that the lab is connected to SERN's network, she abruptly flees. Armed intruders led by Moeka then storm the laboratory. Moeka reveals that she is a Rounder working for SERN and orders Okabe, Kurisu, and Daru captured along with their equipment. She dismisses Mayuri as unnecessary and shoots her before Okabe can react. The experiments' consequences become brutally immediate: SERN has found the lab, a trusted member is an infiltrator, and the newly completed time-leap machine is the only possible route back before Mayuri's death.