Mirai Nikki

This 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 eleven 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.

Mirai Nikki or The Future Diary is a fairly popular anime and is usually hated or loved by people, rarely do I see people go for the average opinion. An anime that became known for the famous yandere Yuno; if there's anything about anime that you've seen she's probably one of them.

 

For an anime heavily based off survival and the reliance of others this anime quickly goes from slow paced to fast pace with action happening mainly every episode. I usually stray away from the survival genre for it's lackluster consistency to stay with the original idea and theme of survival. Being the popular anime this is, it's definitely one that deserves more credit than it gets, sure it's not perfect, but it's also not terrible, it may not be the very best thriller, but it's definitely better than some.

 

Starting off the story you're introduced to Yuki, a boy who generally sits by himself and likes to keep a diary of what he observes. We get introduced to Deus Ex Machina and he gets thrown into a battle royale to determine the next heir for his throne. With a total of 12 participants and all blindly hiding their identity, he gets a sense of despair and fear for what's happening. A new situation and world has been brought to him, kill or be killed. With that being stapled into the story, there are some episodes where the anime strayed off from the whole aspect of survival and took it down a notch which ruined the feeling it was trying to give off earlier.

 

Overall the story actually may seem pretty obvious but has many layers covering others and uncovering them throughout the story. To say this anime is predictable is true in some sense, but in some other aspects it's completely off and made one of the reasons why this anime as good as it can be. It's unpredictability gives it that extra level of cliff hanger and sense of awe in what may happen next. It's not just in one story where there's plot twists, this entire anime has plot twists in the character emotion, to the entire concept of the anime being twisted, it's all one big combined twist that may seem confusing at first, then gets answered... only to be left with a confusing ending.

 

They introduce the idea of Future Diaries or Mirai Nikki. They're basically their main weapon of attack and is what guides each character further into the tournament and survival. There's different types of diaries which vary depending on the owner and help different situations that spawn from this battle. While this whole concept is initially really good, the anime throws it into something that seems as if it's just an aesthetic for the owners, for some characters the diaries are their main weapon and are really useful, while others just die off quickly without making any good use without their diary whatsoever. Dairies are the main lifeline of the owner and if they get destroyed, the owner is considered dead for good, there's no re-spawning after the game is over. It brings in a whole concept of making the most out of the diary, yet it never explored the idea of them.

 

Being a battle royale focused on 12 characters the diversity is there, but again, it's not fully explored and you have characters that are more developed than others. While some characters are introduced later into the story and some right at the start, the relationships between them are some of the most interesting interactions i've ever seen in any anime. The trust and distrust between them just switch so constantly to make the story more awkward. Mainly following Yuno and Yuki, you still do have some side characters like the other 10 members left to participate and compete. While only two or three of them were even remotely developed, the whole aspect of character development was thrown out the window-except for the main two.

 

To start off you have Yuki, a normal boy who is just thrown into a new world. Possibly the worst partner you could have in any situation, he's cowardly and very VERY indecisive with what to do at any given moment. He's easily fooled and often trusts too easily. He's probably the most annoying character out of everybody honestly, from his bipolar actions to random confidence boosts for no reason, he goes from someone you can relate to in some sense, to a puppet being manipulated by others. To say he has no good points would be rather rude, but he didn't really prove to be much throughout the entire series.

 

Secondly you have Yuno, a girl who is introduced as the love interest to Yuki and his stalker. She's someone who can't be fooled or tricked due to her quick-witted mind and experience. Her back story is fairly well rounded and made sense to how she came to be the person she is. While her reasons for doing certain things may be irrational, but they all mean well, to protect Yuki at all costs. She's probably the most committed girl I've seen from going as far to do anything for him and sacrificing a lot to get nothing in return. She's basically the pants in the relationship and drives the story forward.

 

The other characters aren't really developed enough except for maybe Number 9, but that would spoil a lot in the show so i won't go into detail for that. Yuki's friends that he makes throughout the show are going to appear and reappear, but whenever they show conflict starts. As I said earlier Yuki has some serious trust issues and it brings conflict that you don't expect or conflict that just seems suitable for what's happening. Some side characters being introduced are actually more developed than some characters that are meant to be important, which was a big let down, but a huge up for the characters that did get developed.

 

Typically for anime with action, art is a huge factor that can make or break a show. This show does pretty well with the art and detail given into the scenery. Every character does have their own unique structure and design to them; no one is similar, yet no one is standing out from the rest of the pack. To say the art is bad would be rude from the detail given to the littlest things from clothes to the diary themselves. The diversity in the art styles for the diaries such as a scroll, or a radio is quite unique which I liked about this. Though it's nothing spectacular, but is nothing to derail since it gets the job done at the end of the day. Combined with the soundtrack this anime has, it's nothing great either, but nothing bad. The voice actors are pretty well chosen for the characters they play and really do quite well to give off their personalities.

 

Overall I think this anime isn't near perfect nor isn't near terrible. It's probably the most consistent survival game I've seen in the sense of story, but no where in the characters is it consistent at all. They're all really well planned, but just went nowhere with their development and use in the story to just push it forward and end faster. The story is fairly interesting, if you're not watching for dialog or script. They fall flat in that aspect, but concept wise it's all good. You have big diversity to like in this show, but also a big group of flaws to point out. It's one that tries to be something it's not, but still manages to be okay. I'd recommend this to anyone who just needs something to watch or likes something with unexpected twists, or people who just want to hear a girl scream a name the entire anime, that's cool too.

Rating: 8 / 10
-Kaito