Rintaro "Okarin" Okabe (Japanese: 岡部 倫太郎, Hepburn: Okabe Rintarō) is a fictional character in the Science Adventure series, first appearing as the player character of 5pb. and Nitroplus's visual novel game Steins;Gate (2009). Okabe is a self-proclaimed mad scientist who often goes by the pseudonym Kyouma Hououin (鳳凰院 凶真, Hououin Kyōma). He is the founder of what he calls the "Future Gadget Laboratory" (未来ガジェット研究所, Mirai Gajetto Kenkyūjo) in Akihabara, where he spends most of his time and has dubbed himself Lab Member No. 001 (as he is the first person to join). As he experiments with time travel, he learns that he is the only one who possesses the ability to determine changes between different timelines, which he dubs "Reading Steiner". He is 18 years old and a first-year student at Tokyo