I came into Steins;Gate completely cold. I watched it when it came out and I only just realised there's more to the universe. It's a ridiculously good anime, probably a top 10 for me. It's got a really cool storyline with loads of plot twists, interesting characters and deep mystery.

> Well, it's more because of its cult status (especially on imageboards) than actual objective appreciation.

No way. There are nearly 3M user ratings on that website. How many of those would you say belong to regular imageboard users? A few tens of thousands, tops? And when was the last time you saw a Steins;Gate meme?

Also, absolute meme shows which are imageboard fodder don't tend to rank very highly. See, e.g.: https://myanimelist.net/anime/32615/Youjo_Senki (#808 on the all-time list.)

People really liked the Steins;Gate anime on its merits.