Future Diary

Mirai Nikki is an action series depicting a battle royale between selected individuals who own diaries that tell the future. Overall, the show combines elements of science fiction, action, suspense, romance, and comedy to some success; however, it had several weaknesses that marred the show. Unfortunately, many of the action sequences were either irritatingly unintelligent or plain impossible, with kids dodging bullets and fighting while reading their diaries. Moreover, the whole seriousness and suspense of the plot was ruined by the banal romantic comedy and a cute little girl recapping the story's events every episode. Additionally, the whole middle part of the series dragged on without any remarkable moments: the storyline was somewhat bland, the deaths were anti-climactic, and a suspenseful mood was lacking. The most detrimental weakness, however, was the logical fallacies in the plot, especially noticeable during the turning point at the end. These gaping plot holes took from the credibility of the anime and made it seem like more of a pretentious attempt at seeming clever rather than a genuinely brilliant masterpiece.

Despite these weak points, Mirai Nikki did nonetheless provide quite some entertainment, as the show was packed with intense violence, exciting romance, and bits of comedy. Even with the plot holes, the ending episodes were remarkable, providing a shocking turn of events that made enough sense to be memorable and mind-blowing. In fact, if the series was judged based on the ending itself, I wouldn't hesitate to give it an 8/10, but I have to evaluate the entire experience of the series as a whole. This series, additionally, had amazing character development, vivid imagery, and an impressive OST (most notably, the opening theme). Overall, this anime is an amusing show that provides cheap thrills and lighthearted humor, but does not deliver enough to deserve the excessive praise it has received.

Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) is an anime that was on between October 2011 and April 2012. It's a survival game among 12 people who have mobile phones receiving diaries about what will happen in several minutes within the future. Each future diary holder receives a future from a different perspective. So, the diary holders fight each other while avoiding their expected death by knowing the future.

The survival concept in a story such as Battle Royal, where everyone has to be killed until only one person remains, is not new. So you may figure it would be another survival story where only the protagonist survives in the end. But this survival game is interesting in that the diary folders use techniques in order to change their expected future. Another striking thing that stands out is that Yuno's love toward Yukiteru goes out of control to be psychotic and violent, showing her affection crazily to him. Although a typical 'Yandere' character like Yuno would be annoying, I could even develop a love for this crazy character toward the end. I think it's a new type of survival story in that the audience could be moved by a 'Yandere' girl.

Meanwhile, I couldn't help but compare the character Aru Akise from Future diary with Kaoru Nagisa from Neon Genesis Evangelion because both are played by the same voice actor, and the character's personality and the feature are very similar. Once I started comparing the two anime, I realized that there are other common points between the two. The protagonist, Yukiteru is shy, naive, cries easily, and a negative person, which is similar to Shinji in Evengelion. A similar character to Asuka found in Future Diary would be Yuno Gasai in that she is strong, sort of crazy, and strong-minded. You might find some other similarities while you watch Future Diary after Evengelion.

While I was wondering if the two anime have some common themes in the characters, I was drawn to the story of Future Diary towards the end. It is painful and upsetting to see Yuno's unruly character where she doesn't care for anybody but Yukiteru, and she cannot be in love with him. But I felt like I could accept everything from her in the end.

Overall, I like Future Diary. So I give it 8 stars.

This anime is rather dark and psychological meaning it involves a lot of thinking. If you enjoyed watching death note then this anime is definitely one to watch.

Story: 5/5 The first few episodes tend to leave the viewer with a dazed confused puzzlement. It starts off fast, episode one sets the plot and episode two starts the craziness already. It starts off really fast but slows down in the middle and then picks up extremely fast again. Overall, the story follows two young kids in their development of their "future diaries." Let me say, the plots are always twisting. Its a dark twisted story of survival. Lots of action, thriller, suspense, supernatural, and romance. There's a very dark overall mood in the anime with this overlooming supernatural sense. However, the writers effectively at the same time are able to make the anime relatable to the viewers through a mundane sense of psychology and situations that occur. That being said despite the serious tone set there are moments when the characters seem mundane living their daily lives and when it gets crazy things get messed up fast.

Animation: 5/5 Keep in mind its a rather new anime and very short. The quality is superb and that being said please don't watch for the faint of heart. There's blood, lots of it. It's not super gore heavy but man... when it does get bloody it gets pretty gory. The colors are a tad dark, everything is on the darker side mainly but they do get vivid from time to time.

Voice and Sound: 5/5 Great voicing and sound. Haven't seen the dubbed version (i only watch the subbed). But the voices are perfect for each character and the development. Sound is sweet, and sadly i don't pay attention to the music. But that being said, the music must work perfectly because they never annoyed me.

Overall: 9/10 The anime is superb and very thoughtprovoking. At first the anime seems to be a slasher film but the twists and turns and underlying meaning and themes nags at the viewers mind. It has the action that Death Note was missing and added the dark element that I personally prefer that Code Geass was missing. The story is simple but the best thing about the anime is the development of the main characters. The biggest twist and turns are from the actual characters themselves and once the puzzle is pieced together it is sure to make the viewer go "damn....so thats what happened" Only reason i don't give it a full ten is due to the gaps and holes. The anime picks up way to fast and the ending seems inconclusive (though that is how the manga ends). There could've been a few more episodes to piece the story better. But overall a great short series thats both dark and thought provoking with a little more gore and action than Death Note.

I still have no idea how to feel about this show. The hero is given a diary which can predict the future, and is thrown into a battle with 11 others where the last survivor becomes God.

This anime is different in that the main character is not equipped to handle the situation at all. In most shows, anime or otherwise, they never throw at the hero more than s/he can handle, no matter how ill equipped they seem at first. The hero here has no natural talent, nor is he given time to explore his power. From the start he is thrown into survival mode and makes most choices out of desperation, and even though it seems for a while in the middle of the show he has a handle on everything, he loses his grip and inevitably digs himself into a hole he can't climb out of.

The characters are insane, and the relationships they develop are even more so. The appeal is watching a character trying to be moral in a situation where doing so gets you killed and starting to hate him for it. It's seeing him slowly but surely lose his moral compass and become just another contestant, and watching him regret it later. It's fighting the urge to shout "you moron!" as he falls deeper into a toxic relationship and yet empathizing with him.

This show is absolutely insane, and I love it.

You want to know why it's not a 9? It has the worse main character I've ever seen. I just want to punch his face every two minutes. Other than that it's great.