Anime 10620 Mirai Nikki Tv Reviews Filter Check 2

You know, having a future diary for myself would have been ideal for my viewing of this anime, so that I would be warned of how nonsensical and down right retarded the anime gets, which is a shame because I happen to have been enjoying the bloody fun so far...

STORY: Mirai Nikki (Future Diary) is, for lack of a better way to describe it, fucking nuts. A psychogist would be laughing at this mental breakdown of a plot, but I got to be fair, I do enjoy this anime to a certain degree, but it's the crazy sharp turns it loves to take is what ... nearly throws me off into complete confusion, not the "I don't understand" kind of confusion (Though is still includes that from time to time), but the "Why and how is this happening" kind.

However, let's avoid the deep end for now.

The series is based on a manga of the same name originally created by Esuno Sakae about a battle to the death style of competition between 12 eccentric characters, from a terrorist, to a leader of a cult, to a lovey dovey couple, to even a orphen caretaker for the chance for one of them to take the place of a god, who is literally Deus Ex Machina, before he himself dies. Each will battles each other by using future diaries commonly being in the forms of cellphones, which each one varies on what type of future it fore tells.
It's sounds like the love child of series such as Eden of the East and the Fate/ series, though doesn't even get close to them in the intellect or character development department.

The main character, Yukiteru Amano, holder of the future diary that works as you'd think every other diary holder's would work, is an outstanding leading... total pussy. He is your typical spineless wimp, borderline disgusting even (A kid who would stay behind the sidelines and let the guard dog handle everything as he runs away shamelessly, the hero ladies and gentlemen). From having no friends, to even recording what he does daily in his phone (Pre-future diary), he is the definition of an unlikable main lead, one would or should never root for him, under-dog traits or not, his actions are hardly redeemable, he's easily fooled countless times, and develops at the pace of paint drying on the wall... A wall that is told to pretend his character development... Seriously, he remains the same way until he is told to "act" like a badass and and forgets about being a total wimp until later on, but he's my best friend compare to the lead female character.
Yuno Gasai is what makes this anime surpremely entertaining and utterly batshit insane, this is an arkham asylum of lead character (I honestly believe she'd give the Joker a run for his money), but damn she is just fun to watch, wondering what she will do in the next episode is a one hundred post forum topic in of itself, for good and bad. She is also, for reminder's sake, totally insane and major threat to the cast by her self and a catalyst for the series' plot and character development breakdown. She is hopelssly obsessed with Yukiteru, calling herself his future bride, so she's your classic case of stalker too, but to disturbing lengths. She even goes to far so to kidnap Yukiteru, keeping him tied up, all the while prancing around in her underwear. She is a character that indiscriminately kills anything in her way, she's fun to watch but damn, how can anyone like this character? Especially Yukiteru, which he never can't get his hands washed of her.
I know that she's commonly categorized as a "Yandere" type character, but that's not a good reason to fawn over a character like her, she's not a character type, she's a damn psychopath with an endless thrist for blood in sheep's clothing.

But this where I jump right into the twenty feet deep portion of the swimming pool called the "plot" where seemingly anything goes, anything no matter how much sense it doesn't make. The future diaries do seem to be too convenient (Which is understandable since each character gets that advantage for themselves), but one of them practibly, or just flat out ruins the anime completely, as everyone seems to be pulling a future diary for their selves at random, and more over a lot of the diaries range from creative to just gimmicky, where the later is more common (Diaries predicting the actions of other couples and one that literally breeds more diaries is just absurd). Even the majority of the cast come down to one trick performances (Or well they only get one try before they're dead and forgotten forever), just a enemy of the week type of formula rules the most of them (And a lot of side characters that don't contribute to anything, like the stout Mur Mur, what is her purpose anyway? Sigh... You will laugh when you find out).

The anime is indeed addictive, from bloody murders and crazy fallouts from the lead characters, but it's stupidity is overwhelming and just wants to make you tilt your head at the story developments and the absurd character display (Yup, trusting the stalker that just doesn't know how to stop killing everything is the best choice of action Yukiteru, while you're at it, go ahead and hide right behind her back-? You're there already? Then disregard this then and watch your back, like you care pfffth).
But seriously, the main problem with Mirai Nikki is the inclusion of a character being Deus Ex Machina, it's rare that a story can do this effectively and even rarer for a story to not be confusing nonsensical gibberish, which by the way, Mirai Nikki ends up becoming. The anime is still capable of displaying solid moments with the main couple from time to time, but you'll be far from invested with it as the anime marches forward as it makes up shit as it goes along all the way towards the end.

ANIMATION: While it's not among the best, it's not terrible either. While the blood bathes in general get the most of the budget for the animation crew, it's overall pretty average, even character designs are pretty regular too outside the quirky ones and the 3d animated god.

SOUND: Outside of the craziness, the theme music is extremely addictive, with the first opening theme song, Kuusou Mesorogiwi by Yousei Teikoku, being the best. While the performances from the voice actors give off a love and hate vibe, especially where Yukiteru is concerned, his performance only reinforces the pathetic wimp that he is, from whining and freaking out the time... But that's good casting in hindsight (I'm trying to state a positive as a negative, I think this anime is making me crazy...).

OVERALL:
The Good:
+ Great theme music.

The Mixed:
+/- Bloody good fun with crazy as all hell characters / When the plot goes off the rails, it's not a pretty trainwreck.
+/- Creative ways for character to combat each other / Most of which is one time gimmicks.
+/- Yuno Gasai / The unlikable wimp of a main lead, Yukiteru and Yuno Gasai.

The Bad:
- Character development isn't acting like something you're not, which the main proceeds to do so.
- Towards the end, the story begins to literally make up shit as it goes along.

It's not okay for people to go "That just her character type heehee," when that character in question is unlikably insane, and it doesn't help when the show is almost a competition to see who's the craziest. An over the top psychotic free for all death match is one thing, but when you start to consider a line getting crossed, that line has already been beaten, stabbed, mutilated and and sculpted into something completely unrecognizable before your consideration begins to come across your mind, that's when it's time to get the fuck out.

Mirai Nikki is disappointing. My review will contain a few little "spoilers", though they have little relevance to anything and spoil nothing. This review is kind of a mess and all over the place, much like this series!

- - - S T O R Y - - -
Okay, so the story starts off really dark with some creepy kid who avoids making friends. He keeps a daily journal of the things he observes. He likes to spend his spare time sitting alone in his room with a blanket wrapped around himself, where he gets into "the zone" and hangs out with his imaginary friends, ... who are evil gods that have no regard for human life. At this point in the story, it's got you thinking this is pretty twisted and you're wondering what's gonna happen next.

The basic plot is simple, but effective - kill the other guys before they kill you; the winner becomes the god of space and time. Not knowing the identities of the other people turns it into a sort of psychological game, which makes it more interesting. Now, this was good when the enemies actually desired to become a god, but later in the story, there are characters who don't really care about that. So, you think they'd just stay out of things and keep their identities hidden? Nope! They attack the main characters head on for no apparent reason.

Anyway, about halfway through the series, it starts to get pretty senseless. Eighth's diary is based on the power of a computer server. Why? They didn't really explain this, so it makes no sense to have an ability like that. I can speculate and say it's because Eighth didn't actually have a diary and that the blog site she hosted allowed other people to write on "HER" blog, but c'mon. That's as stupid as saying that the cell phone diaries belong to the phone manufacturers. This part of the story also just really overcomplicates things without making it interesting. It just becomes less interesting as it is nonsensical.

Yukiteru eventually has a little revelation, causing him to change from a wimp into James Bond. Um... I guess it was cool to have a main character who acted more like a main character, but this was far too sudden and out of character. Akise reveals a "shocking truth" about Yuno, which is supposed to be like some ultimate plot twist... except they didn't give us enough clues to make it worth anything when they revealed it. The plot twist only makes sense after you've seen the entire thing, so it um... kinda fails as a plot twist.

There ends up being some big final battle between two characters that we really didn't get to know or care about. It's a battle with lots of beams and explosions, which uh... seems really out of place. It's like this anime was trying to be too much at once. The last episode doesn't really conclude things, so prepare yourself for some disappointment.

- - - A R T - - -
The art was okay, but it seemed a little cheaply animated at times. It seems up to standards, but sometimes it just stuck out to me how the animators looked like they got lazy.
Somehow, it feels like Yuno was in her underwear too often for no reason.

- - - S O U N D - - -
Nothing in particular really stood out. Same high pitched female voices you hear in any other anime.

- - - C H A R A C T E R S - - -
Oh boy, here we go.
Yukiteru - He starts of being some creepy kid like I mentioned earlier. This was interesting. He's kinda wussy, like any average 12 year old boy would be, but he's not unlikeable. It took him a while to realize how he felt about Yuno, but it was good to see the progress - it made it believable. His character does a sudden 180 later in the story. This kinda ruins his character since there was no real development leading up to that and no real development afterwards; he was just suddenly a completely different person. This was disappointing.

Yuno - She's a "stalker", which um... is a weird concept in itself. When you think of a stalker, you think of a 50 year old pedophile or something. In Japan, for some reason, I guess they consider kids and teenagers "stalkers" if they watch the person they have a crush on. Anyway, Yuno is supposed to be some psychopath who can only be tamed by Yukiteru's love. Can he help her calm down and give up her lunatic ways? Find out next episode!
It was fine that way. We could see their relationship develop. Then at the peak of Yukiteru's love and trust in Yuno, the writers thought they'd give us a plot twist? It was one of the stupidest plot twists I've ever seen. It ruined Yuno's credibility as a character and was just... why? What was the point? It made no sense at all for that to happen. They had what they wanted, so why the fuck would things downgrade to the point that their relationship might as well have never existed? They should've stuck to building her up into a respectable character instead of um... ruining the entire series. This was disappointing.

Eighth - What the fuck is she? Seriously. Her existence simply does not make sense. She is a chibi middle aged woman who is also gigantic. She is clearly not human, but nobody cares.

Eighth's Lucky Star apprentice girl - She was part of the Sacred Eye cult, then she became a member of Eighth's orphanage. In world 3, she is simply with Eighth, though. What a plot hole.

Akise - He's pretty much the only cool character. However, he is gay and kisses Yukiteru for no reason. Was that supposed to be a plot twist? I don't even know anymore...

Ninth - She's kinda stupid. She introduces herself in some kinda Victorian dress and big poofy pigtails, yet she's supposed to be some terrorist who specializes in explosives. She's loud and pretends to act a little crazy. She falls in love with the person she thought she killed, she becomes friends with the person who destroys her eye, and she plays a big plot hole role later in the story. This was disappointing.

- - - E N J O Y M E N T - - -
The plot was really enjoyable at first... y'know, before they butchered it. There was some mild fanservice, which we easily could've lived without. It was a strange kind of fanservice, though. Yuno's swimsuit falling off and floating gently down the stream? A pretty typical occurrence that happens to every anime girl at least once in her life, right? Instead of making her panic and bounce all over, instead of making her use this to seduce Yukiteru, instead of drawing her looking like she's ready to be raped... they honestly made it a pretty modest event. Yukiteru also accidentally pulls a girl's pants down, exposing her underwear, but they didn't draw the girl to look sexy or anything. She was simply a girl with her underwear exposed. These scenes were 100% unnecessary and added nothing, of course, but I was glad that they didn't try to make it look like hentai.

There are also 2 rape scenes and 1 sex scene, but they leave it entirely up to your imagination instead of making it really graphic. Again, I'm glad they didn't try to make it look like hentai. People can watch porn on their own time; it has no place in telling a story, and I can respect that this anime didn't ruin itself with that. However, I have to say that using rape in a story is pretty tasteless, lazy, and overdone. Getting to know the backstories of these characters, becoming a little emotionally invested in them, then they just have something like that happen to them... it's just a disgusting thought. I can understand if they wanted to make the characters tragic or like we could know more about them by seeing their hardships, but rape is just kinda crossing the line. It's not interesting and it's too harsh for simple entertainment.

I think the two most interesting things in the anime are the relationship Yuno and Yukiteru develop (before the retarded plot twist kicks in) and the betrayals. This anime has a lot of thrilling betrayals in the first half. The ones in the later half are kinda boring since you don't get setup to believe in the trust the characters share.

- - - O V E R A L L - - -
This had a lot of potential to be good. It's really disappointing they ruined it with all those inconsistent and random ideas. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, really, as it is just a big let down. If I knew ahead of time that the story was gonna go downhill so badly, I don't think I would've watched it.

Mirai Nikki (or Future Diary as it is known in English) is one of the most popular anime to come out in recent years along with Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan and much like those shows, it has divided the anime community into two camps, those who love it unconditionally and those who hate it with a burning passion, which results in a slew of insults complete with poor spelling and grammar being thrown around forums and comment sections. Now that I’ve got this little bit of superfluous information out of the way, you probably want to know what I think about the ... show. Well, that is the purpose of this review (obviously).


I’m just going to start off by saying that it is quite silly. Don’t get me wrong and start attacking my page, because “silly” doesn’t always equate to “bad” (case in point Gurren Lagann is one of my favourite anime of all time). But keep in mind that I didn’t say that the particular brand of silly is awesome. The premise is actually bloody interesting. It revolves around several people in a battle royale where the winner becomes the god of time and space and they are all equipped with supernatural cellphones that can tell the future (also known as “future diaries”, hence the show’s title) which they use to their advantage. A large perk of a premise like this is that it is perfect for setting up plot twists and for creating tension. Boy does the show use this to its advantage. Alliances are forged and broken by betrayal, good guys turn out to be bad guys and major characters are killed off. This makes the show unpredictable which we can all agree is a good thing. It also places a lot of focus on the side characters as well as the main characters as they off each other and help each other out so it feels more authentic than a lot of other survival game stories where the side characters are all placed in line for our protagonist to fight.

I am now going to address what I said earlier about the show being silly. It is over the top. And trust me, that is an understatement. Homicidal five year olds, zombies, the god of space and time (Deus Ex Machina) and the list goes on. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with being over the top to a certain extent (I love the Sin City graphic novels for crying out loud!) but there are times when the show tries way too hard and certain things just don’t fit to the point where you get the impression that the show doesn’t know what it wants to be. The show wants you to believe it is a dark psychological action/thriller. There are times when the over the top nature works in its favour, for example I thought the addition of zombies and a crazy religious cult added to the cool factor of the show as well as setting up entertaining action scenes (because honestly who doesn’t want to see a cute pink haired yandere fight zombies with a goddamn axe) but there were times when I felt like the show was saying “Oooh, we’re super dark and edgy because we have a five year old psychopath” and this gave me the feeling that they were trying too hard and made it seem quite stupid. And when you’ve added a character with an army of robot dogs, it stops being simply stupid and becomes fucking childish. Stuff like this prevents you from taking it seriously when the show obviously wants you to. That being said, the show was rather entertaining. Like I said earlier, it is quite unpredictable and has a certain cool factor. However the things I mentioned did hinder my enjoyment, which is quite a sad thing.

The characters are without a doubt the weakest part of the show and were what held it back the most. First off there’s fourteen year old Yukiteiru Amano, or Yukki as he is often referred to. He’s our protagonist. Yukki is dragged into the game by his friend Deus Ex (the god of space and time and the guy who started this competition) who Yukki had thought was his imaginary friend up until that point. Yeah, this fourteen year old boy has a fucking imaginary friend. Yeah that’s right, he’s a fucking loser! To further emphasize this point, before being dragged into this little game his only hobbies were recording mundane shit on his phone and unenthusiastically throwing darts (a feat which comes to his advantage later). But what’s he like? Well calm down and I’ll tell you. He’s a pussy. He cowers, cries and whimpers throughout the majority of the series making the viewer want to jam a screwdriver though his skull. “But dude, you have Shinji Ikari in your favourites, you’re contradicting yourself you biased prick!” is what some of you might be thinking right now. Well, Shinji is realistic and that’s the reason I like him. Yukki pushes this angst and wimpiness to the point where it’s not credible and exaggerated wimpiness is not something an average viewer would find appealing. I love Kamina from Gurren Lagann for his exaggerated manliness but that is an appealing characteristic in a protagonist. I guess the writer thought to himself “I’ll be different and put a scared kid in the role of the protagonist instead of the generic righteous leader type we’re so used to in these types of stories”. This would have been a really good idea if he was given more complexity than just “being a pussy” and if he were given a reason for being a pussy. A good example is the aforementioned Shinji Ikari. He’s an interesting and well thought out character that has layers (insert Shrek joke here). He also has good reason for being the way he is. His father treats him like shit and his mother died under dreadful circumstances when he was very young and to top that all off he’s forced into a situation that he knows fuck all about by his father. Yukki on the other hand grew up with a really chilled mom and an initially awesome dad (SPOILER: becomes a cunt later in the series) and his situation is nowhere near as bad as Shinji’s. And besides, Yukki makes Shinji look like Kenshiro on steroids. One Youtube anime reviewer referred to him as Noodledick Vaginasaurus and I can see why. He is without a doubt one of the worst protagonists I have ever seen. Towards the end of the series they try to make him seem like a badass but this drastic change feels really sudden and he doesn’t stay that way for very long so his character becomes very inconsistent.

The next character that I’m going to talk about is the character everyone thinks of when this series is brought up. Yes, the one and only Gasai Yuno. She’s become one of the most popular and iconic anime characters in recent years as well as the waifu of many lonely weeaboos. She is a psychopath who falls in love with good old Noodledick to the point where she is dangerously obsessed. She is also a contender in the survival game and is on Yukki’s side and she protects his useless ass from the other contestants. She flips between being a cute naïve teenage girl to being an all out psycho at the drop of the hat and these changes are unexpected and the transition is great. This genuinely creeps out the viewer and the fact that it can happen so suddenly adds to the sense of unpredictability that I mentioned earlier. She’s a fun character to watch too. Her insanity paired with her cuteness gives her a certain bizarre charm. However, as fun as she is, she is definitely not flawless. She’s ultimately just an archetype (that archetype being yandere) and this is a bit disheartening as it tells you that the writers were being lazy and just decided to use a simple, set archetype instead of adding more to said archetype. Another issue I had which was very much subjective was that she called out the protagonist’s name constantly throughout in a high pitched tone of voice. This was cute and pretty creepy the first couple of times but it got to a point where I felt like shoving screwdrivers in my fucking ears. She’s a really enjoyable yet problematic character who is frankly a tad overrated.

Now for the rest of this show’s cast. Unfortunately they’re the show’s worst flaw in my humble opinion. A lot of them are copied and pasted from other, better shows (we’ve got Kaworu and Revy here), are given less screen time than they deserve, feel like they don’t belong in this sort of show, have REALLY overblown backstories and for the most part they don’t behave in a believable way (dude, one doesn’t become someone’s close friend in three minutes).

Now let’s delve into the show’s art. It’s not spectacular but it’s definitely not bad. I particularly liked the depth and detail they gave the eyes of the characters and the scenes in Deus Ex’s world which had a really dreamlike quality due to all the purple used. The overall designs of the characters are standard fare and there is nothing about them that really stands out as being really good or really bad, with the exception of Deus who has the misfortune of being done in shitty CG.

The same can be said about the show’s soundtrack. It does its job sufficiently enough but when I think back there were no tracks that really stood out. The same can’t be said about the show’s OP tracks though. The show’s first opening is without a shred of doubt one of the greatest of all time. The contrasting red and whites and the song’s fast pace and grand scale are enough to send chills down one’s spine. The second opening is memorable for a different reason though. It’s in FUCKING ENGRISH and it is therefore goddamn hilarious.

In conclusion Mirai Nikki isn’t the deep mature thriller its fanbase make it out to be but it certainly isn’t the harbinger of anime’s decay like many critics would have you believe. Granted it can get REALLY fucking stupid but it can also be a ton of fun at times too. Whether I’d recommend this show or not doesn’t matter because you’ll probably watch it regardless due to its immense popularity. Since I’m more or less impartial to the show it’s not something I’d recommend but at the same time it’s not something I’d tell people to stay away from. So that about wraps up my review. Sayonara suckers.

Feedback would be much appreciated.

This anime series left me speechless... and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way.

The story was engaging from the beginning. Don't get me wrong. It was just that the premise was completely and utterly arbitrary. For the most part, especially throughout the first two thirds of the series, you can forgive it as the story keeps hinting that there is a meaning behind it all. It tries to make out that the premise isn't arbitrary, that its a deep story line which will have an ending that will blow you away. Well... the ending does blow you away, with a ... sawed off double barrel shotgun. So yes... it does do that at least. Essentially its a narrative about people who can read the future all trying to kill each other.

And then there is Gasai Yuno. WHAT THE...?!!

Possibly one of the most bizarre, interesting and (dare I say it) entertaining characters I've seen. She's what makes you keep watching, to try and find out what the hell is really going on. I won't say more.

However, apart from this one character, the plot holes are too deep, too wide and too glaring. I suppose I can forgive one lapse in logic. Two begins to bug me. But in Mirai Nikki the annoying plot holes keep adding up.

The term "plot holes" doesn't really do justice to what is happening. They are not so much "holes" as they are rice paper sheets plastered over windows in order to keep the sun of reality from shining through. It does an admirable job, and you admire it for trying its darned best... but when the dawn comes, there ain't nothin' those thin sheets are going to do when the rays hit.

I'll be watching and then a sudden red flag pops up in my mind warning me that what I am watching is illogical. I'll push it to the back of my mind. But that annoying feeling just keeps itching away, until you are finally forced to vocalise your annoying niggling feeling either aloud to yourself or to your just as bemused friend sitting next to you... before they voice it first.

Okay, I'm exaggerating here.

Mirai Nikki is entertaining. The fight scenes and some of the scenarios of the participants of the "survival game" are quite entertaining. You'll have to suspend your disbelief for quite a while in order to enjoy this anime. It is most certainly possible given the music, the action sequences and the animation are all really well done, slick and sharp. There will be moments when you'll be wanting to question "why?" or "what?" or "when?"... Just ignore those irritating questions, sit back and enjoy the Gasai Yuno show...

sorry? I mean Mirai Nikki... Did I say the Gasai Yuno show?

Story: 6
Art: 9
Sound: 9
Character: 7
Enjoyment: 6 (although this fluctuates dramatically so it's hard to give it an exact score)
Overall: 6

(nothing special, although it tries... by golly it certainly does try)

There are some shows that somehow manage by on sheer energy alone. Their plotting could be messy, their pacing uneven, their characters inconsistent, etc.; yet they are just so damn entertaining. Mirai Nikki definitely is definitely one of those shows. It is a floundering, unruly mess that often dives into nonsense in its attempt to shock and woo the audience. There is also nary a dull moment in this incoherent storm of blood and violence.

The concept of the show is really quite cool. It centers around a tournament in which contestants are given diaries that show them the future, or more accurately certain future events ... that adhere to each diaries specific theme. The winner gains mastery over space and time as the successor of the current god; for the losers all that awaits is death. This all comes as a shock to Yukiteru "Yuki" Amano, an asocial middle school student who becomes the first diary holder; he is reluctantly forced into the competition, equipped a diary which gives him a description of his current and future surroundings. He also gets a shock when he finds out a beautiful and seemingly perfect girl in his class, Yuna Gasai, is also a diary holder. On top of that, she turns out to be obsessed with Yuki, and her diary records his every move. As unsettling as this is to Yuki, Yuno might be his only ally and hope to survive the gruesome competition.

Mirai Nikki has to be given credit for taking this idea and running with it. The show never drags because the plot is constantly moving, more often than not at a break-neck pace. It wastes no time in bringing story arcs to their climax and moving on to the next one, satisfying everyone's impatient inner adrenaline junkie. There are twists and turns around every corner, many you just won't see coming. The show also does a good job of building tension, and anticipation for the insanity that will ensue. The fact that the show is bat-shit crazy only adds to the excitement of the ever moving plot. The tone can go from tense to comical and back again in a moment. There are a lot of things Mirai Nikki can be accused of, but being boring is not one of them.

The problem, however, is where Mirai Nikki is running to. The plot is constantly moving, but that doesn't mean its going in a good direction. In fact, the reason you won't see some plot twists coming is because they seemingly pop out of nowhere, or are so improbable you wouldn't even consider them. It seems as if the writer was so intent to throw in as many shocks and thrills in as possible, that he forgot to put together a cohesive plot. There are things that happen which are just mind-bogglingly ridiculous. Some twist will leave you confused on whether to be shocked or amused, despite the tone clearly pointing toward the former, because of how silly they are. Some twists are also so obviously intended to move the plot along that it is a bit insulting to the viewers' intelligence. There are moments which attempt to be to poignant, but fail to because they are blatantly made for plot convenience. Mirai Nikki is entertaining, but its best to view with your brain turned off.

The cast of characters is a colorful bunch. Our protagonist Yuki is one of the more mentally stable in the show, but he is also one of the dullest. He's a typical male anime lead. He's a bit wimpy, has trouble connecting with other people and fighting his own fights, though deep in he is a nice kid. We've seen this character so often, and it is all Yuki can be described as, really. The other competitors in the tournament range from being fairly rational to outlandishly insane. A police captain who is the fourth diary holder stands out as the most rational, and possibly most sympathetic, of the group; while the twelfth diary holder, a blind man who fancies himself a hero and likes super sentai, stands out as one of the craziest.

Then there is Yuno, who takes the idea that crazy is cute to a new level. Yuno's infatuation with Yuki engulfs her entire character. She is willing to eliminate any obstacle, and I do mean any at all, that gets between her and Yuki. On one hand, this makes her very entertaining to watch, since she's willing to go to any extreme to be with him, even if it is against his will. Plus, she just looks so cute when she's stalking Yuki, or contemplating murder of someone she sees as a threat. However, she's so crazy it is actually hard to connect to her on a deep level. The story has to resort to giving her an extremely tragic past in order to justify her actions, something it does for a lot of its characters, I might add. Because of this, many of the dramatic moments that surround her, and there are a lot, are forced and a bit insincere. Also, her relationship with Yuki often comes off as unhealthy rather than sweet, which makes attempts to play it off as endearing more than a little unnatural.

On the technical side, Mirai Nikki is a mixed bag. The show usually looks good, but can stray into off model character designs and choppy animation quite a bit too. Some scenes just look abysmal, clearly minimal effort was put into them and quality control is pretty much non-existent. Luckily, this only happens on occasion, and the show for the most part looks decent. Character designs look nice, though are not outside the norm for an anime series. Strangely enough the show looks best when the characters are going crazy. Likewise, backgrounds are solid, though the only really memorable one is Deus' lair. The lighting can be a problem, though, as it can look really unnatural at times. The soundtrack fairs better than the visuals. It's well composed and fits the tone well throughout the show. While it is mostly used to accentuate the looming danger in tense or creepy moments, it also does very well in the shows more emotional moments as well. It can even be uplifting on occasion.

As entertaining as Mirai Nikki is, it cannot be completely congratulated. Truth be told, the story is a disaster. It is filled with plot holes and contrivances, and lacks genuine depth. Still, I can't say I didn't have fun watching it. There is something endearing about its willingness to go to such insane lengths in order to entertain. It's just a pity that the end result doesn't match its enthusiasm.

Last month, this would have gotten a 9/10.
A number of recent circumstances bring it down to a 6/10.
Though I admit I could see from the start that this series was going to be very predictable, it started off good for what it was, however, the events that occur now will only have the more impressionable (new to anime, new to the demegraphic, very young etc...) of us gripped.
I'll explain further...

Stroy...
We have a Battle Royale style, supernatural story inwhich characters duke it out in game complex game of life and death which will eventually leave one person standing - death is enevitable.
Where it goes ... right...
There are a number of charactes present withiin the competition, so the pace isn't likely to be slow and there are a range of potential favourites.
The methods in which the game is played are complex enough to gain and maintain interest - each character has a different tool, so it is importiant to follow what is going on.
Many people don't like gecko endings - seeing as the manga finished, this is unlikely to have one.
Where it goes wrong...
Two main characters are pushed forward at the start, they're working together; it's all against them - where does this leave the oposition?
All oposition seem to reside close by, when there's little reason for them not to recide on another part of the world.
The two mains both being schoolchildren of the same age, in the same class.

Character...
We have Yuki - a quiet, nervous, passive teen boy who displays little personality and little interests.
We have Yuno - an unhinged girl who is is in love with this boy for no particualr reason I recall.
Delving further...
Yuki is pretty much pathetic - the type who is ment to represent the common writing tools 'underdog' and 'normal school kid', yet his out-of-place self is highly inconvenient within this story, he's the type who'll hide behind the strength and/or skill of others, this is where Yuno comes into place - the 'highly intelligent' and 'very athletic' popular girl in school who turns to be a yandere, in love with the leading male, she now has the convenient task of 'being the one to protect her love', thus, giving them reason to be around one another.

Enjoyment...
It is good; one of the best of the year, yet personally, I think I'm a tad too old for this - everthing is predictable if you're a veteran like me.
This is a great starter anime - years ago, I may have given this a 10/10.

Overall...
I have the ability to predict what will happen next, dispite having NOT read the manga.
Good story - something different which is definetely worth the watch.
Decent characters excluding a few, yet certian cliche's are hard to avoid these days to be fair.
Depending on your anime intake, predictability is high; this series displays key example of plot armour and character sheild.
6/10 - a fair series that, at the moment, is at a stage (8 episodes) where it can only get better?

I'll make myself clear before I finish...
I knew of the manga a few years back, yet never got around to reading it. It was announced last year that this was getting an animated series, thus, this adaptation was highly conveinent for me. :P
Basically, I was and still am, optimistic - I want to like this series, but so far, it's just OK.

[Adapted From Blog Post]

Can I say something crazy? I absolutely adore the genre "battle royal" whether it be the movie "Battle Royal", the book "The Hunger Games", or that one video with the "Sesame Street" characters. I always find myself drawn to to this kind of story, that is the kind where an X number of participants are put in a remote location and are told to kill each other until one is left standing; I think they make up for thrilling stories. So you can imagine, when I find a story of this nature in anime, it pretty much goes straight onto my 'Plan ... to Watch' list, for better or for worse. While Fate/Zero was an absolutely amazing delight, and Danganrompa...less so, where does Mirai Nikki fall in the spectrum, hit or miss? Let's say it hit the ball out of the park...and into the river.

The story begins with our main protagonist: Yuki Amano, a shy high-school kid who has a quite distinct lack of anything resembling friends. He's not bothered by this however, and instead spends his time constantly updating a diary kept on his phone, a diary that pretty much chronicles every single little thing Yuki does over the day, hour by hour. When he isn't updating his slightly creepy hobby, he talks with his imaginary friend: Deus ex Machina, the lord of time and space. Having a strangely vivid imagination, Yuki divides his time between having curiously detailed conversations with 'Deus', and building an entire timeline of his life on his phone.

One day however, Yuki learns that his imaginary friend Deus, is not quite a fictional as he lead himself to think. It turns out Deus is actually god, but a god with a problem, he's dying, and the time to choose a successor has come, and turns out Yuki is lucky enough to be considered for the position. Not so luckily however, Deus also informs him that the only way to succeed him as god is take part in a specially crafted death-game where himself and 11 others will battle to death for the right to become the new king of time and space. In addition, each participant in the game has been given a "Future Diary" a device that will tell the future; Yuki's cellphone becoming his own diary, detailing everyone happening around him...a minute or two before it actually does. Armed his this information Yuki returns to his school, waiting his moment to track down the other "dairy users", he soon finds out the the death battle fully intends to bring the party to him when a masked man with a knife attempts to saw his head off. He is eventually saved by a classmate named Yuno Gasai, who turns out to another dairy user in the death-match, and also completely insane. She claims to be completely in love with Yuki(even though he can only remember talking to her once), and helps fend off the attacker. Yuki, reckoning he can use her considerably more skilled knowledge of fighting to stay alive, so he plays along with her love story, though as he uncovers secrets of her past, turning and running the hell away from her seems to become the more viable option. Together the two, will need to have to outwit the other psycho-paths Deus has chosen for this game, and discover the real reason behind this death-game.

Now let's be honest here, this is a pretty awesome set-up, and leaves room for a lot of cool ideas what with the time prediction aspect of the death-game. The first few episodes of Mirai Nikki I actually found quite intriguing and I also really liked the dark tone and gritty violence it was going for, which is something I think is often underused in anime. Not only could I expect some cool action and entertainingly crazy characters, but the whole mystery behind why Yuno is so infatuated with Yuki was also fairly interesting. Unfortunately, it's the manner Mirai Nikki goes to answer its questions that leads to its downfall, as well as a few other pressing problems that need to be addressed. The series has a bad habit of trying to outdo itself far too often. It'll throw plot-twists at you as the series progresses with increasingly regularity. Here's the problem with that: if you try to continually provide mind-blowing twists that change "everything" you only end up pushing your plot and characters to the limit, you'll end up contradicting yourself, and relying far too often on convenience. If you want to enjoy the show, you'll need to ignore the increasingly flawed plot, as problems start pouring in as episodes continue. Of course though, the show leaves the biggest "twist" for the very end, which completely destroys any continuity the series had left, and is so ridiculous that its hard not to roll your eyes.

Also, Mirai Nikki is not one to be subtle with how dark its trying to be. It'll completely lay down horrific information with absolutely no build-up or purpose, just because its trying to shock the viewer. By the end, Mirai Nikki has brought rape, entire families being killed both on and off-screen, and murderous little children to the table, really for no reason at all, and is exasperatingly dramatic for the most part. Yeah, that dude will definitely abandon his child to die, because "this is a dark show guys." Not to say the horror aspect never works, because personally Yuno has a couple scenes that freakin' terrify me, but its not enough to make up for the rest of the melodramatic crap. ...Onto the characters.


Now let's be honest here, this is a pretty awesome set-up, and leaves room for a lot of cool ideas what with the time prediction aspect of the death-game. The first few episodes of Mirai Nikki I actually found quite intriguing and I also really liked the dark tone and gritty violence it was going for, which is something I think is often underused in anime. Not only could I expect some cool action and entertainingly crazy characters, but the whole mystery behind why Yuno is so infatuated with Yuki was also fairly interesting. Unfortunately, it's the manner Mirai Nikki goes to answer its questions that leads to its downfall, as well as a few other pressing problems that need to be addressed. The series has a bad habit of trying to outdo itself far too often. It'll throw plot-twists at you as the series progresses with increasingly regularity. Here's the problem with that: if you try to continually provide mind-blowing twists that change "everything" you only end up pushing your plot and characters to the limit, you'll end up contradicting yourself, and relying far too often on convenience. If you want to enjoy the show, you'll need to ignore the increasingly flawed plot, as problems start pouring in as episodes continue. Of course though, the show leaves the biggest "twist" for the very end, which completely destroys any continuity the series had left, and is so ridiculous that its hard not to roll your eyes.

Also, Mirai Nikki is not one to be subtle with how dark its trying to be. It'll completely lay down horrific information with absolutely no build-up or purpose, just because its trying to shock the viewer. By the end, Mirai Nikki has brought rape, entire families being killed both on and off-screen, and murderous little children to the table, really for no reason at all, and is exasperatingly dramatic for the most part. Yeah, that dude will definitely abandon his child to die, because "this is a dark show guys." Not to say the horror aspect never works, because personally Yuno has a couple scenes that freakin' terrify me, but its not enough to make up for the rest of the melodramatic crap. ...Onto the characters.


Our main character Yuki really isn't much too talk about. He starts out the series as a complete wimp, and while his gradual growth of confidence is nice, it's handled sloppily at best. The animators never really seemed to care too much about his character, and this leads to a massive personality change for him in the last third of the series, which reasoning for is extremely crude and hard to see how he got from point A to point freakin' point H so quickly. To be fair though, he's probably the most down-to-earth character here. He really gives off the impression that he's in a fight he never asked for, and especially considering how much his life starts to crumble apart during the anime, its hard not to at least respect him for how well he takes everything. Unfortunately his character is often brushed aside because the animators apparently thought we need to again see how awesome and crazy Yuno is again. Why do you think I needed to settle on a Yuno thumbnail for his review? Since the animators didn't care enough about his character to make him good, Yuno pictures were my one and only option. The hell? He's supposed to be the main character!

And now for the only character in this entire show that we're supposed to care about: the queen of stalking herself, Yuno Gasai. For the first half of the show, the character development she's given literally begins with she loves Yuki and ends with she's insaaaaaane. Thankfully she's given enough back-story to make her a decent character by the end, even if her reasoning for doing the things she does seems a little sketchy, though to be fair she is crazy, so I guess that's an excuse. I just can't help but feel that Yuno is just the perfect "yandere" that we're supposed to worship, and draws complete character attention so that everyone else in the show becomes super 1-dimensional. It's same problem shows like Sword Art Online and Gosick had, just concentrating on one character simply means that you didn't care enough about your world as a whole to make it fleshed out and interesting, which you know, sucks, and means I won't have to much to say on this next character.

Akise Aru is an enigmatic want-to-be detective who regards attending school with quite a bit of contempt, and prefers to spend his time solving cases. He appears later on in the show and becomes an ally of Yuki during the death-game. Besides from this though, he doesn't have a lot more to him, besides from acting mysterious and totally not like Kaworu from Evangelion. The only other personality trait he acquires would be traversing into spoiler territory, but even that is completely out of left field with its reveal, and only really serves to aid Mirai Nikki's worrying habit of digging its own grave. While he has a cool reveal at first, he quickly falls into the category of characters I would list as "meh".

The students that make up the high-school characters are fairly one-sided and boring, and the other participants of the death-game are killed practically as soon as they're introduced, but there's one more additional character I would like to touch upon briefly. Ninth is a part-time ally of Yuki and part-time terrorist participant of the death-game. She's generally likable and has some awesome moments, and ell, the anime was even kind enough to give her a decent back-story before switching instantly back to Yuno smashing someone's head open.

Finally something positive to talk about. The soundtrack for Mirai Nikki was composed by Katsuhiko Takayama and it actually contains some bad-ass tunes, from two exceptional openings and that track above this paragraphs. It's full of those high energy action songs that really get you ready for what's to come, though if I had to add, certain tunes can be overused due to the low amount of actual music on the OST.

The animation was handled by Asread, and don't feel too sorry if you haven't hear them. They've only ever been credited with making 7 anime series as well as a couple OVA's, so understandably, the animation is fairly average. Oh, it's not bad, but there's never any time the animation is superb or standout moments, though they do tend to make the series's many fight scenes engaging and exciting. The character designs are a bit of a mixed bag, with some designs looking semi-realistic, but others quite literally resemble the Pillsbury dough boy. I'm not even joking. All in all though, most of them are distinctive, which is really all you can ask for, and once you see these characters again after watching the show, you should recognize them instantly.

So, in conclusion I'm not going to say Mirai Nikki is a good anime, or that it's even worth your time. Its great premise get completely ruined by the over-the-top plot twists and bland characters. It handles its mature themes in an immature fashion, and pretty much falls apart plot-wise by the end of it. Though if you're in the mood for a good ol' bloodbath to turn your brain off to, I'm going to not stop you.This series can be fun at times, even decent, but that quite long list of problems I mentioned above will stunt that pretty quick. Also if you don't like Yuno's character you're basically screwed enjoyment wise. Yeah. She's crazy.... and stuff.

Final Verdict: 5/10

P.S: You'd think Deus would have saved a lot of time by just picking slips of paper out of a hat.


For this review and others, feel free to check out my blog! (Link on profile)

A MONTH BEFORE THE GAME STARTED-
I was handed a Diary by a tiny girl named Mur Mur. The 'Reviewer's Diary'. In this survival game, I'm the 13th Diary holder. I think I have the "weakest" diary out of all the other diary holders.
This "Diary" of mine automatically writes out my thoughts and comments while watching the anime, Mirai Nikki.

Diary Entry #1 (1/5/13) 11:24 AM
========================
Based on the Sypnosis, Mirai Nikki is a psychological thriller, based on the manga written and illustrated by Sakae Esuno, is about Yuki, a loner who's not very good with people. He prefers to write a diary on his cell phone ... and talk to his imaginary friend, Deus Ex Machina – The God of Time and Space. However, Yuki soon learns that Deus is more than a figment of his imagination when he makes Yuki participate in a battle royale with "TWELVE" others. The contestants are given special diaries that can predict the future, each diary possessing unique features that give it both advantages and disadvantages. Within the next 90 days, the contestants must try to survive until there is only one left standing. The winner will become the new God of Time and Space.

Diary Entry #2 (1/7/13) 3:52 PM
=======================
Mirai Nikki premise is pretty unique, I'll have to admit.
The first episode was good.
It got me hooked almost instantly.
After the first few episodes, Mirai Nikki starts becoming stale.
Mirai Nikki's graphics are pretty nice though; nice backgrounds, decent visuals

Diary Entry #3 (1/9/13) 4:21 AM
========================
GOOD LORD, Gasai Yuno. I thought she was one nice, sweetheart at first, but then turns out she's one crazy, Yukiteru-stalking, psychopath. She's only 14 years old, but to me she looks like a 16-17 year old. Whats with her over-developed body?
And, Amano Yukiteru, why are you such a coward? You can't have a girl like Yuno protecting your butt everytime you're attacked by another Diary Holder. Geez. Probably the first protagonist I don't like in an anime.
Episodes are getting progressively becoming dull too.
"Blood Teller" by Faylan is a really nice song to listen to! INSTA-favourite ED of the week or month.

Diary Entry #4 (1/10/13) 2:23 AM
=======================
I'm starting to feel awfully bored in the middle of series.
Series is starting to introduce more Diary Holders; but most of them are annoying as hell. Though, it was fun watching them fight, while I was hiding in the background.

Diary Entry #5 (1/11/13) 9:37 AM
=======================
Managed to complete (barely) the anime!
The ending was absolute meh.
What's with the Dragonball-like fight in the few episodes, couldn't stop laughing at that part.
Hmmm...I'm getting this feeling that someone stalking me...

Diary Entry #6 (1/12/13) 10:00 AM
======================
DEAD END

crazy bitch protagonist, kicking ass. blood, tits, survival game. wholy shit this will be epic. oh, you fucked it up trying to mix genres? oh, ok. has happened before.

STORY 5 / 10 : take a plot with a lot of potential, add female protagonist and show her tits, then add plot holes as big as kim kardashians butthole, and you got mirai nikki.

ART 6 / 10 : nothing great nor bad. decent art style, decent animation.

SOUND 8 / 10 : one of the best openings ever. i didnt like the anime but im not deaf either. its one of the best. there ... some soundtracks really memorable (tho they dont have names, theyre called 5 and 8 -.- )

CHARACTERS 6 / 10 : unlikable charatcers that have been greatly developed. how the fuck did that happen? i did not like or care for them, but they did get developed greatly.

ENJOYMENT 5 / 10 : eh. i did enjoy it at first, but when the "plot twist" with the plot holes happened it was such a turnoff.

VOICE ACTING 6 / 10 : both japanese and english dubs were mediocre to decent. yukis performance was unstable, yuno had some really good dub moments in the japanese dub, but overall decent

OVERALL : 5 / 10

This review is spoiler-free


Mirai Nikki started off great, i started watching when it was about 13 episodes in.
As the episodes moved on I noticed a dramatic drop in quality. The characters slowly became terrible, save for Yuno. The characters were not believable at all. Yukki feels like a bad Shinji ripoff, but instead of having depth and character like Shinji, he really is just a little bitch. His abnormal tendency to forgive people who were trying to kill him 5 minutes prior is painful. Instead of giving the impression that he's desperate for affection, it just makes him impossible to like. His sudden personality ... change to a terribly cliche, over confident "shounen jump badass" made me cringe, and even Yuno was awful in these stages. The direction of the anime seemed childish, like they were trying to be cool by adding action and plot twists. The art wasn't too bad, though it wasn't the best either. The OPs are fairly representative of the quality of the show. The first complemented the series and was actually very good. The second half's OP had such bad engrish i was embarrassed to watch it. Each week after about episode 16 left me disappointed, expecting the great stuff I saw in the earlier episodes that i loved.
After watching the whole series i felt like a had been taken advantage of. I realise that lots of people will disagree with this review, claiming Mirai Nikki is "badass", but to be fair, lots of people like Naruto. I really am not trying to offend people, other than Naruto fans, but it had to be said.
overall, i would say, if you're looking for anime that feels like shounen jump while being more violent, with sexy Yuno, this might be for you. overall i wouldn't reccomend it

I'm just going to keep this short and lazy.

Amazing concept, very poor execution. Unlikable characters, very little plot consistency, writing sometimes falls to baffling levels of terrible.

However, if every part of Mirai Nikki was as good as the beginning and the ending, it could have been great. Sure, some things didn't quite click, but the plot came together at least somewhat cohesively.

Too bad the OVA screwed it up completely

NOTE: I have previously made a review for this series 10 years ago, but it was pretty crap so I decided to rewrite it completely. There are also some light spoilers ahead.

Ah, Mirai Nikki, once extremely popular series which is now remembered only for the ultimate yandere girl Yuno Gasai and for being a massive trainwreck full of plotholes and inconsistencies, the ultimate “Turn off your brain” show. Does it hold up at all over 10 years later?

The presentation is not much to write home about, the anime was done by studio Asread who have never produced anything of note so don’t expect any eye ... candy. The character designs and movements are often ridiculous and the bright shiny colour palette just doesn’t match with the series theme. There are also various directing errors and awkward transitions. The music themes are however much better and the first opening which perfectly sets up the story is iconic at this point. The voice acting ranges from serviceable to annoying with the exception of the God who is voiced by the legend Norio Wakamoto himself.

The premise of a death game has been done to death at this point but at the time it was something actually interesting and fairly unique. We have 12 contestants with their personal future diaries (usually mobile phones) which reflect their personality fighting to the death to decide who will be the next god of time and space. At the time it was often often compared to Deadman Wonderland, another edgy series with a weak protagonist and Eden of the East which also contained 12 people with phones in a survival game. The viewer is easily hooked at first but as the series goes on it becomes dumber and dumber.

The first big issue lies with the characters, almost all of them are unlikable or incredibly stupid, take the main duo for example, Yukiteru Amano, AKA Yuki is one of the most hated main characters of all time. He’s a total wussy who cries a lot and feels like a product of his time when many series had similar protagonists. You might think that he’s overhated because he’s just a 14 year old boy but the problem is that he never develops or learns from his mistakes, he tries to save everyone but ends up killing many people in vain instead. Except he suddenly turns into a murderous psycho near the end as well. However the most infuriating thing about him by far is that he forgives his selfish cunt of a father despite betraying him multiple times because he said it was for their own good. But what about the main heroine Yuno? Honestly she’s just an annoying and stupid one note character who can’t think of anything except Yuki and killing anyone who gets in his way, her stupidity is definitely entertaining though.

Most of the other diary owners are not worth talking about, they are relevant only for a few episodes and then quickly die. For example Third is the first character who poses a threat to the main couple, a serial killer who wears a fireman’s outfit, he seems threatening yet he dies almost instantly in an anti-climatic way. Which is a pattern for most other diary holders, those include a guy who is a parody of Super Sentai heroes, a dog breeder or a whiny insane girl who is leader of a cult, one of the diary owners is literally a 5 year old kid who has access to lethal weapons for some reason and he’s just extremely annoying. The 8th is the only diary owner who is not a total psycho and is not interested in winning at all, she’s kind hearted but her stupid comical character design doesn’t match with the series at all, she is mostly irrelevant to the story as well.

The most relevant diary holders are Keigo Kurusu, the 4th diary owner who is an indecisive detective and the most notable opponent in the first half and 9th Minene Uryuu, a crazy terrorist with a hatred for god and religion who blows up buildings, she is one of the only characters who shows any development and later falls in love with one of the police officers. The biggest disappointment by far is 11th who is presented as the grand mastermind, but he appears too late and barely impacts the story as well.

Another big issue is that the diary owners don’t try to go after each other but they just go after Yuki and Yuno instead which just makes the series feel formulaic since the couple usually just takes them down one by one with only one exception. The whole story just consists of many disappointing and anticlimactic twists and plot conveniences, characters often don’t kill others when they have the opportunity and the interaction between characters feel unbelievable.

Then we have Deus Ex Machina, almighty God of time and space with terrible hairstyle who designed the game. How come he doesn't know the winner of the game, he could have spared the lives of all the stupid people who senselessly died and why did he choose those people including children for his death game? He is assisted by Murmur, an annoying loli comic relief character.

The only somewhat decent character who is not a complete idiot is Aru Akise, a young detective who is a shameless rip off of Near from Death Note and Kaworu from Evangelion, he has similar name and hairstyle, he is also gay for the main character and he is literally voiced by the same guy. We also see a few more of Yuki’s friends, a stupid douche, a tomboy and a lesbian who is in love with her. We never see any other characters in the anime and streets are often completely empty which just looks incredibly awkward. Yuki’s mother is barely present in the story and she doesn’t seem worried her son has nearly died multiple times.

There is no point in comparing the anime to the manga since it follows the source material quite faithfully and there aren’t enough significant differences. The whole story is just an unpredictable mess but that’s what makes it fun, you constantly wonder what kind of stupid twist happens next and then we get to the big plot twist in the end which settles the deal. It’s just entertaining in “so bad it’s good” kind of way which makes it more endearing compared to other similar edgefests like Akame Ga Kill or Deadman Wonderland. It is by far the most successful series the author has made. Don’t even get me started on the absolute shitshow that was Big Order.

--WARNING-- (This does contain a few spoilers, because it was hard not to put any in.)

I told myself I would never write a review for this anime simply because almost everything that I would type out would be negative. Now here I am.

I feel like I more or less should warn people who were as naive as me. I started this anime with high hopes and perhaps to see something that I had never before seen. While the concept was amazing, I don't feel they took it in the right direction.

I'm not going to sit here and ... give you a run down of the whole anime because you really can look anywhere to find the story. But the bottom line is it was just an utter disappointment.

I came upon this anime by accident, but the idea of a survival game using cell phones and this fascinating girl known as "Yuno" captivated me. The first episode went by in what felt like less than ten minutes and I thought I was going to fall absolutely in love. The episodes when on and I found myself becoming more and more interested, but at about ten that all came crashing down.

I started to dislike it bit by bit. It began with Amano "Yuki" Yukiteru believing he was falling in love with Yuno. I myself couldn't feel pity for her, not with her stalker mentality and psychotic tendancies. He himself said she was crazy in the beginning and that he wouldn't get involved, but somehow or another he was able to completely throw that aside to give himself to her. How..how do you look past something like that?

Many people apparently do pity Yuki for ending up in the game at all, but I can't. I just can't. He made his bed and he ended up having to lie down in it.

In the end he turned into this complete brat who was willing to twist the entire world just to be with this insane girl and have his parents back. He even shot his friends who only wanted to help him and make him see what was really going on.

I will admit I loved characters such as Akise and Minene, but they only got so much screen time. It's honestly sad when you find yourself hating the two main characters in the end and wanting/begging for them to die.

I didn't get my wish. The final episodes were what made me score this anime the way I am. I found Yuki to be irritating, Yuno to be too obsessive, and parts of this whole thing to be pointless.

I wish it had gone in a better direction, because this "love story" just wasn't worth it.

This review contains no spoilers.

With a newly acquired and unique future-predicting diary function attached to their cellphones, twelve people spread all over the city get involved in a battle royale to death organized by the current decaying god, in which the winner will become the new god of this world. And so our main character (who happens to be one of the twelve), an ordinary teenager shut-in named Amano Yukiteru, begins his journey accompanied by a mysterious female classmate that seems to know a lot about him. Which one of the Future Diary owners will rise victorious in this bloody thriller where toying with fate ... is nothing but child's play?

Most synopsis for Mirai Nikki (The Future Diary in english) fail to be clear enough in depicting how amazing its possibilities were in terms of plot. What we get instead is an averagely entertaining show that is best watched with your brain turned off because its flaws are just too hard to overlook. The story, while apparently engaging at first, quickly devolves into nonsense that conveniently spawns one plot point after another. Even the whole constitution of the show (Cellphones that foresee the future and even your own death with some anticipation, while also getting you instantly killed if someone happens to destroy yours) is too far fetched and weak on it's own.

The main character is a loner with zero redeeming qualities who is afraid of everything and the female lead, Gasai Yuno, is an annoying and sick murderer (that somehow possesses top notch assassin skills despite the fact that she's in school) who is pathologically attached to the main character. Oh she's also another Diary owner. While I understand that any normal person would be afraid in these circumstances, it is no excuse to have such an unlikable and WEAK male lead. It deserves to be mentioned, however, the fact that the main character does a 180° later on in the series, over the course of 1 episode or so, which adds to the overall hilarity.

The rest of the cast (the other 10 and some random characters) are hard to describe. They are mostly stereotypical characters with a unique trait or two, some border so much on the ridiculousness that it really becomes hard to take seriously in the context of this show, not to mention that most are obviously discarded as the show advances due to the nature of the plot. While some are sort of interesting (and certainly better than the main two) they are not enough to save the character aspect of Mirai Nikki.

Sound and animation are solid. Special mention to the first opening because it fits the mood and initial tone perfectly, definitely one of the best I've seen. The rest of OPs and EDs were alright, just like the voice acting and soundtrack. Animation was fluid, I have no complaints on that matter either.

But anyway, it is a widely known fact that sound and art are not enough to save an anime.

So fast forward to needless fan service, decisions and plot devices that lack any logic whatsoever, plot holes, ineffective comedy and EVEN the inclusion of homosexuality; Mirai Nikki simply fails to deliver the strong storyline that it seemed to have at first glance. That's not to say that MN epically fails in every aspect though... the action scenes despite being brainless and devoid of any realism / logic can still be entertaining, the female lead's twisted behavior can be amusing at times (generally when she's not being annoying as hell) and the sound and art are good. Kinda sad that those are all the positive things I've got to say about Mirai Nikki.

So onto the detailed analysis:

General:
Atmosphere 7/10 --- Nothing stellar, I guess it's hard to build the proper mood for a battle royale filled with whiny teens for the most part.
Characters 3/10 --- Disappointing and obnoxious. Secondary characters aren't that much better.
Story development & ending 3/10 --- Weak and inconsistent. Despite being a free-for-all, at no point it stops being an episodic battle of the main characters against every single of the other 10. Also plot holes galore.

Technical:
Art 7/10 --- Good, no complaints.
Soundtrack 9/10 --- Background music I don't know, but the OPs and EDs were great (mainly the first OP)
Voice acting 7/10 --- Annoying, but that's how the characters were supposed to behave, and they did a good job at that.

Personal:
Priority (How eager I was to watch the next episode) 6/10 --- Caught my interest sometimes, not gonna lie.
Memorability 4/10 --- I didn't care much when it ended, I didn't care much when I heard about the OVA release. Forgettable.

Final score:
5/10 --- Mediocre

In closing, I can see why some people enjoyed Mirai Nikki, but for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to put up with the glaring plot holes and lack of logic present in almost every point of the show (I can somehow do that for other animes though). The characters and story pacing obviously didn't help much with that, either. Mirai Nikki is an entertaining anime if you are willing to turn your brain off at all the flaws it has and still manage to enjoy it, it has a powerful synopsis and it sure showed potential but in the end, like it happens many times, the execution was poorly done.

Mirai Nikki is certainly not for kids! The themes it touches can be disturbing and the content itself is a little too explicit. I'd rate it for 16 y/o and higher.

This was my first review, I hope you enjoyed it!

Okay. There is a lot to say about this anime. There's good, and there's bad. And then there's downright stupid.


Story/Character:


Okay, as you all know, the plot starts off pretty simply. People have Future Diaries. They have to kill each other. However, the plot turns really convoluted after a certain episode.

I'm actually a big fan of yanderes. And to me, Yuno Gasai was the only thing about this series that was constantly good. She was a very well written character. And was very enjoyable.

However, there are some really bad characters. Like how some characters were "quirky" but had no real personality to back ... it up. Most the characters come off as complete psychopaths at first, like Minene, and Reisuke. And others just lose it at random points throughout the series. And some characters are shown to be "Good guys" despite doing very horrible things. Again, like Minene and Yuno.

One thing that you'll notice, is that the writer seems to really like Yuno. In fact, no matter what, she's /always/ right. ALWAYS.
Until the end of the series where the writer decided they hated her and turned her into a complete monster.


Some of the plot twists were laughable. And I hated more characters than I liked. Some characters had no personalities what so ever. And most the romance, besides Yukiteru and Yuno, were poorly executed. Meaning the characters met like twice, and decided they were in love. Except on one occasion, they met once.

Art:

And they art was pretty weird at times. I didn't care for some of the character designs. But overall, I liked it.

Sound:

The voice acting and theme songs were good. I liked most of the aspects of the sounds.

Enjoyment:

I did enjoy the series very much. I really liked it. I just didn't like the direction it took at the end.

Overall:

It's okay. Really, it's fun to watch. But overall, it's not great, not bad, just okay.

I got to be honest. I thought I could like this anime just a little more. But, it's just.... the hell? What's a going on a here? Am I on drugs? Am I hallucinating? What the fuck are these people doing... do they have inhuman abilities or some shit like that? Whatever...

Story: 7/10

Story is like, uh... It's okay, I guess. The god of time and space, Deus Ex Machina is dying and sets up a game for 12 people to compete against each other with diaries that tell the future and shit like that, so he can get one of them to become his successor, ... a.k.a the new god of time and space. At first, the main protagonist, and a major fucking loner, Amano Yukiteru, thought of Deus Ex Machina as his imaginary friend, oh... sorry I didn't tell you but...yeah. I'm the god of time and fucking space. Here are all the diary owners for ya!
A loner, a stalker, a teacher, an officer, a five-year old kid, a cult leader, a couple, some big-headed person, a terrorist (my favorite), a dog-lover, the mayor, blind guy that likes justice.

Art: 8/10

Eh, I didn't know what to rate this, because it was kind of shitty but it was okay, so I just gave it an 8. The character designs are pretty legitimate or are they fake?? Nah, they're pretty legit. I don't like how creepy the characters can look at times, but... that's good, I guess? I don't really know. I'm not very good with this particular anime art. I don't really like how things are drawn, but couldn't decide whether it's good or not, so entered "fuck this shit" mode and gave it an 18... I mean 8.

Sound: 8/10

I think I like the soundtrack better than the actual thing. I mean, the soundtrack makes the deaths or whatever, makes me feel sympathy or some shit like that. Actually the only character deaths I felt sympathy in *insert spoiler here*. Yes. Insert that spoiler. But none of you should know, because I'm my own person. You are not me.

Character: 5/10

Utter shit. I'm saying this, but I've given it a 5. I'm giving generosity, you see. All the characters in this show are pretty goddamn shit. Except Uryuu Minene... and Keigo Kurusu, maybe? Anyway, I cannot feel anything for all the character deaths, except maybe one or two, but other than that, it's like, yeah, whatever... die already. Yuno is just a psychopathic insane bitch who would kill anyone who tries to befriend Yukiteru, or kiss him or whatever. Talking about Yukiteru, he turned into an absolute fuckhead at the end of the anime. I mean, I should probably make a thread about this and complain why Yukiteru is such an idiot, don't know why he loves Yuno, but again, I'll make a thread about that. So goddamn dumb. D... dumb! Dumb! Dumb! Best characters in this show; Hinata Hino, Nonosaka Mao, Kosaka Ouji, Akise Aru, Uryuu Minene and Misama Nishijima. All the others are shit. I used to like Yukiteru, but no... he just decides he is... just retarded. You should know what I mean.

Overall: 6/10

6. Generous? Fuck if I know, you decide. I don't like what this anime focuses on. It's supposed to be a survival game, where all the mother-fuckers die and then one becomes god, but... it kind of focuses on Yuno trying to get Yukiteru to love her. But, why? She's crazy, insane... yeah... what's not to love, right? Oh, even more... she will try to tie you up until July 28th! Isn't that great?! Not to forget that she can MAGICALLY hit knives out of the way. The cursing isn't really all that necessary... actually it is. I thought this anime would be better... but I do admit it has a bit of moments... uh, I think. I may have wasted time by waiting purposely to finish this anime. I shoulda just got it over and done with.

Why I did enjoy "Mirai Nikki" at first and why it fell from grace (in my opinion)

First of all, the plot was hilarious. Honestly. The ideas the producers had and how the story proceeded was very well done. It was like a bizarre mix of "Death Note" and "Steins;Gate", with elements of both included. And, just by the plot presented, this anime could compete with Fullmetal Alchemist and Steins;Gate for the first place.
So why didn't that happen?
It's hard to say, where exactly this anime went downhill. Some of the characters were very convincing (Minene Uryuu [Who developed greatly from an rather medium to one ... of my favorites],Gasai Yuno [Who surprised me every time she did something, because her actions where not foreseeable, even if the rest of the casts' actions were]), some were kind of ok, and some were so damn annoying I had to take a break, because I couldn't stand them by any manner (Mur Mur)
and some where just so mysterious, that I stopped caring (Deus Ex Machina [SPOILER: Who amused me by doing by his name one time], John Baccus].
My twice-biggest problem is the main characters attitude to act like Shinji Ikari (not to mention Akise Arus alias Kaworu), which means, that he is completely useless most of the time.
And my second biggest problem, is the ending. Not the ending itself to be precisely, but the way you are feeling from about episode 21 to the end. Thing is, that i personally thought, that the final has come now. And now. But now they will finish it. Oh no. They won't. They needed like five episodes to tell their ending, which was completely unnecessary. An ending is presented to you, with which you would be totally fine, but yet another one is presented, and another one. And this is, why this anime is not really worth watching. Most animes got a problem presenting an ending, or an ending with which the people can live. But this one tried to insert every element, that was successful in other animes, to his own, even if it was unnecessary to do so, because the story would have worked perfectly well without it.
Résumé: Great start, great plot, some great some horrible characters and an ending, that just did not want to ever end.

Mirai Nikki is a "death game" thriller that had a lot of potential. The show itself was like a sinusoidal curve with my interest in it. At the beginning my interested steadily rose, until dropping off until around eps 18ish, then dropping off after episode 22.

The story, without going into spoilers, was your average "kill everyone until you're the last one standing" hunger games approach to select the next god. It focuses on our MCs and their interactions with a certain number of enemies at a time, then moving on to the next batch. It seems repetitive and ... predictable, but I can honestly say that the ending few episodes weren't what I thought was going to happen. 7/10 for a pretty good thriller ride

The animation and sound departments were unremarkable. 6/10 each because they're good, but I didn't want to listen to the OST afterwards, and I didn't really see anything unique about the art. Some censoring early on is a nuisance, however, and the character models aren't half bad.

The characters are where this anime shines...blackness upon its overall score. They're shit; the MCs Yuuko and Yuno that is. I contemplated dropping this series because of the bad MC, but stuck through it because of the other characters being average. Yuuko may be the only relate-able character, but that doesn't make him an interesting character. 4/10

I enjoyed most of this series, maybe not the ending or some mini-arcs, but overall 5/10 for the somewhat fun watch.

Everything together, I scored this a 5.6/10, interesting premise, above average everything else, just shit characters that hold it back.

There can be one or two psychos in a show but in this series there is not one who is sane...the charaters are poor, plot is interesting but story is very poor and characters as i mentioned before are all insane, they are arbitrarily too good at somethings and everyone is good at one thing which is providing the plot with pointless twists. The characters are just immposible and difficult to connect to or imagine. You'll run out of imagination trying imagine how far they can they really can be pointless. Even a five year old kid is shown to have a killing insane ... violent intent and plots like pro. But somehow evn though i dont get any high out of this series there is something that doesn't to tally dispose of this series. I still want continue seeing it for the reason that i want to know how much more pathetic its going to get.
If you are looking for plot like DEATHNOTE and violence like in GANTZ then this series would be ok for you.
But the series got no soul...

Mirai Nikki is probably best known for its female lead Yuno Gasai, the prime example of a so called Yandere. But it also has an interesting premise: The God of Space & Time & Death is about to perish and wants to find a new god by giving 12 individuals the chance to use their cellphone diaries to look into the future and kill each other untill only one participant remains.

Story:
The idea of the story is nothing new, we have seen something similar in Battle Royale and other works, but the future diaries give it a fresh touch. We get to see different versions of ... the device, their strengths and weaknesses and the cleverness (or lack thereof) of their owners. The story itself never falls flat and provides constant conflict and action (which often moves into splatter territory).
9/10

Art:
The animation looked solid at first, but as the show continued, it provided quite a few awkward animations. I don't know why this happened, because in the beginning it all went down smoothly. The CGI effects blend in well and don't disrupt at all (and that's coming from somebody who dislikes CGI in general). In fact later on, they look even better than the classic animation.
6/10

Sound:
The first opening was one of the best I've seen yet and really set the mood for what you are about to watch. Sadly it got replaced midway by a not so cool song that is sung in Engrish. The ending was okay, not good but not bad either. The soundtrack didn't really stick to me, but it was never a disturbance or distraction, so I'd say it's solid.
6/10

Characters:
Now here's the major problem of Mirai Nikki. The male lead has to be one of the worst characters I've ever seen. Many people despise him for being a wuss and they are kinda right. Yukiteru in itself is annoying as hell, but the combination with Yuno, who keeps exploiting him, could have worked well. But after she went too far and Yukiteru even WANTS to completely avoid her, he keeps coming back for more. That isn't excusable with his weak character anymore, that's just going back to status quo for the sakel of it. As if that wasn't enough, he becomes a complete bastard (who is still a wuss) and Yunos character takes some hits too. While she started out as a great villain, she was more and more devillified as the story progressed, making this show lacking an actual antagonist. The only thing saving this show at all are the minor characters, which are a lot of fun. The other diary owners, Akise, Deus & Mur Mur kept me entertained when the main characters failed to do so.
3/10

Enjoyment:
Overall, I'd say it was worth watching. I'm just glad I had no high expectations for this Anime, otherwise I would have probably dropped it. If you'd just exchange Yukiteru with somebody slightly interesting, Mirai Nikki would've made its way into my favourites. But as it stands now, it's just an average show with some highlights and some lowlights. Solid entertainment but by no means a future classic.
5/10

Overall:
5.8/10