When the series should have ended (spoiler)

I agree that the series went on about 2 or 3 episodes too long. Personally I don't really mind that he saved Kurisu as it was fairly clear from the start that her death was time travel related (the first thing she ever says to him aknowledges that she's just met a previous version of him), but they sure dragged it out. Did we really need an entire episode of him going to America just so they could reiterate what the ending of episode 24 implied; that she will get her memories back.

I absolutely agree. When I had watched episode 22, I turned it off before the post-credits scene had started. I thought the series was over, and I actually felt fulfilled despite there being some loose ends that were never tied up. I had the feeling things had been set right even though they really hadn't, yet there was no escaping that this was how it had to turn out in the end. Like you said, it ends showing time travel to be devastating, which was something which really had been building up in the last couple of episodes, and I felt it was one of the more mature endings I'd seen in a while.

Then I realized there were more episodes still, which really surprised me. The end of episode 22 felt so much like the end of the series, and I had no idea where they were going with the story (since I didn't watch the phone call after the credits). I still liked the actual ending and I really enjoyed the anime overall, but I didn't have the same eerily fulfilled feeling after watching the last episode that I had after watching what I initially thought was the ending.

I think the series was pretty good, not perfect but very entertaining.

Technically they had to go past episode 22 or else that would have left a big plot hole. I mean from the beginning it was clear that Kurisu's death was time travel related. Kurisu made it clear in the first episode that she had met Okabe before, even though Okabe had never met her before. I'm talking about when she pulled Okabe out of her father's Time Travel lecture. The last few episodes help to tie up the lose ends regarding their first encounter by explaining exactly what happened. Also I would have hated it if tthe show ended with Kurisu dying. What's the point of having time travel technology if you can't use it to right wrongs. Truthfully I hated the fact that Faris' father had to die and that Ruka had to become a dude again also. although I love the concepts in this show.

Be sure to play the VN (it's getting localized in a few months on PC) if you haven't. There are much darker endings.

I thought the ending was pretty strong. I mean this was the ending that was always supposed to happen because if you look right at the start of the first episode before kurisu is killed Okabe hears a noise and runs up to the roof and seea Suzuha and the time machine on the roof, although he doesn't know who or what they are. While Kurisu and Okabe's tragic love thing could have shown the consequences of time travel most of the episodes before that already were along those lines. I agree they could have developed the father figure more but for me it made sense that Okabe would try to save Kurisu seeing as he doesn't know when to quit and cares for her so much and if the show had ended on ep 22 there would be too many plot holes and unanswered questions. My only problem with the end is that SERN are still a threat as they were already experimenting with time travel even before they were alerted to Okabe's D-mails so they could still possibly create their own working time machine.

They adapted from a Visual Novel which had multiple endings. The point at Episode 22 is one of the endings. They wanted to adapt what's attributed as "True Ending".

The life of Okabe of Beta timeline after Kurisu's death is told in another visual novel. That is the Okabe that sends Suzuha in past to ensure that Kurisu does not die.

I felt exactly the same way. The last three episodes cheapened what Okabe he had to go through and all the sacrifices he made. Despite the loose ends I think if episode 22 was the series finale it would have been a much more powerful and memorable ending.