Steins;Gate

Okabe is a loud college dropout who calls himself a mad scientist and mostly annoys his friends. Then his ramshackle lab finds out their hacked microwave can send short messages backward in time. They treat it as a toy until they realize they have been changing the past, and that someone is watching. The first half is slow and goofy on purpose, building a cast you actually like. The second half turns that warmth into the engine of real dread, because once a friend is gone, the only way to save her is to undo every change he was proud of.