Mirai Nikki (TV)

This is the first anime review I've ever written, so hopefully everything will turn out ok. Any feed back would be appreciated as long as its constructive ;) This review won't contain any spoilers. What would you do if you had something that told you the future? If you already had all the answers for an upcoming test, or knew how to avoid bully's on the way home from school? What about if it told you were going to die? Mirai Nikki is a brilliant mix of a Psychological Thriller, Action, and Romance. Yuki is a boy who gains the ability to read the futurethrough his personal diary, which is awesome until he finds out that there are 11 other people who also have their own diary's and are his opponents in a competition to become a god. But thats not all bad, he happens to have someone to protect him. Enter Gasai Yuno, a cute girl who goes to Yuki's school. She also has a future diary, and it turns out she has a bit of a crush on Yuki.... and is an insane psychopathic stalker, or Yandere if you will. The story follows these two as they try to survive in the killing game they've been placed in. Personally, i think the anime is a 10/10, but for this review i gave it a 9 because of a few small problems in the story. Story 9 - The story of Mirai Nikki is at its core a Romance, though its so much more than that as well. It explores how ones actions and willpower can change the future and how good people can do go insane or do terrible things because of traumatic experiences. The pacing is fairly fast, but not forced, even when there's no intense action going on, you find yourself on the edge of your seat knowing that an enemy could pop up at any time. I experienced all sort of emotions throughout the anime, fear, happiness, excitement, sadness.The shock value was insane. My reason for a 9 instead of a 10 was that some of the things that happen in the anime are soo over the top ridiculous and unbelievable that i just couldn't reasonably give it a perfect score and that some of the things that happen in the last few episodes get a bit out of hand, you'll see what i mean when you watch it. Art 10 - Don't know what all there is to say about the Art. It's not the best ive ever seen, but there's no problems with it. The action scenes are fast paced and well animated and the characters all look fine. I see no reason to dock an anime points unless the animation is so miserable that it has negative effects my viewing experience, and one of my favorite animes is Berserk, which is terribly animated. Sound 10 - The Opening and ending themes are fantastic, and go along perfectly with the anime. The first opening theme is my favorite song of all of them and does a perfect job of maintaining the feel of the anime. The music generally goes very well with the scenes that its played over, especially when Yuno does something awesome. Character 10 - I would rate this higher if possible. The characters is where Mirai Nikki truly shines. Yuki is a kind of a wimp who has to rely on others to protect him, and ive seen plenty of people complain about this, but in all honesty i think that makes the anime so much better. He's a 14 year old boy thrown into a battle royal with people trying to kill him, I would probly be a bit of a wimp if that happened to me too. He's forced to seek aid from and rely on others in order to survive. And he isnt without redeeming moments either. All the side characters are well developed and have their pasts and motives explained in the story and a few of them are just plain awesome. All that being said, the part of this anime that got me hooked, and the reason its become one of my favorites of all time, is the female lead Gasai Yuno. She's incredibly cute, and incredibly psychopathic, and the perfect yandere. Shes also one of the most unique characters I've ever seen in an anime. Most of the psychological thrills stem from trying to figure out what the heck shes going to do next. At one moment your scared of her, another you can't help but smile at how cute something she does is, then you notice the knife in her hand and your scared of her again. Sometimes you want her to do something insane and at others your shocked about something insane shes doing. She's the selling point on the entire anime for me. Enjoyment 10 - I couldn't stop watching Mirai Nikki, i watched it over the span of 2 days. And spent the entire day at work the second day anticipating what would happen in the anime after i got home. I have yet to watch an anime that kept me on the edge of my seat to such an extent as Mirai Nikki. Overall 9 - Mirai Nikki is a great and unique story, the characters are excellent especially Yuno, who is one of the most unique characters ive ever seen in an anime. Mirai Nikki is certainly worth giving a shot.

I'm going to tell you all a story. Once, there was a man. A man who loved trains. This man loved trains so much that every year or so he would put different things on the train and send it off for other people to see and enjoy. Sometimes he would put fruit on the train, othertimes he would put toys. All to see the end result that his precious train would deliver. One day, said man decided to put as many fucked up things that he could find on this train. He put razors, cyanide, bombs, and even decided to mix in some sweet thingswith all of this, like boxes of sugar and a pink dress fit for a loli. He piled the train up, barely being able to fit in all of this stuff onto it, and set it off - awaiting for the end result. Of course, with the train being overloaded with a bunch of different shit on it, it was only natural that the man's train would crash. And crash it did. However, the man did not care. For he would see it that this trainwreck made all the way to its destination, no matter how much shit he had to pull out of his ass to make it work. And so, with everything in the train clashing into one another as the man pulled his own strings to make the train continue going (no matter how much logic it defied in the end) he eventually got the train to reach the end. Some people looked at the mess of the train and thought, "Wow! Look at all of this stuff! There's knives in this train? Stuffed animals? Explosives? Books? How marvelous! What a wonderful thing this train has brought everyone!" while others looked at the end result and knew right away what a terrible mess all of this stuff was. Rest of the town was too busy watching K-On! to care. The moral of the story? When you take as much random crap as you can and load it all into one train, it will crash. And if it crashes you should end it. Oh, and people like trainwrecks. If you haven't already voted this unhelpful for the seemingly irrelevant story, I'm here to tell you that this tale was my description of "Mirai Nikki's" story - a trainwreck. I won't give you a rundown on what the story is about. You have the synopsis and Google for that, so I'll just get straight to the point. The story doesn't really have any idea where it's going or how it should be directed. They made sure to throw in as many psychotic characters, themes, events and mix it in to be able to attract as many viewers as possible. Seriously, you'll find everything from rape to child abandonment to feeding children grass - all to make the story and characters look like they have depth and the viewer to feel "cool" for watching such miscellaneous shit. The transition between events in the story doesn't flow and all seems very random at best. It's as if these events happen just because the plot demands it. The story had some strong points - while the fighting scenes didn't always make the most sense or had little to no build-up, they were very entertaining to watch and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in seeing how it played out. However, the poor writing and lack of common sense in most of the story is what makes it so terrible. The plot loses all of it's purpose by the end of the show as well, which just makes everything worse. It's a good story to be mindlessly entertained, but for those of us who were paying attention you can tell just how often things failed to make sense. It was all driven off of shock value and crazy, psychological things. Speaking of crazy, psychological things, let's talk about the characters, or as I like to call them, "plot devices." Each of the character exists only for convenience of the plot and nothing more, and same goes for their past. Every diary holder, save for First & Eight, has something that makes them insane or crazy in some way or another so that way they can serve purpose to the plot. If these characters weren't all deranged or had these insane backstories than they would be of no threat. So why did a bunch of characters with messed up lives get chosen to be diary holders, and then someone like Yuki (I won't focus on the Eighth) who lives a completely normal life gets chosen as well? It doesn't add up. As for the characters themselves, Yuki is just a normal guy thrown into a pit of madness. Many hate him, some pity him. Me? I pity the guy. You can't help but look at it realistically - he's a normal kid thrown into this survival game where everyone has some type of mental issue and is out to kill him. This doesn't make his crying and patheticness any less annoying, but it's justifiable. At the same time you can't help but wonder why Yuki was chosen to be a diary holder in the first place considering how out of place he is. Then we have Yuno, the main reason why everyone watches the show. Yandere. That's pretty much her whole personality. (save for her own fucked up past that tries to give her depth and reasoning.) Yuno is like a robot, per say - only programmed when desired to scream "Yukii!", act innocent, then kill people. And apparently that sells. She's a selfish, unreasonable character who's popularity is earned from her constant blushing and murdering. While she was indeed suffering from major emotional trauma, none of that justified the actions that she had towards Yuki and the people he cared about. Despite her "love" for Yuki, she still constantly hurt him and the friends that he loved - doing what she can to turn him against them instead of letting him be happy with both him AND his friends. She's simply an annoying character with no actual depth or personality. As for the other diary holders, they're mostly forgettable and run a cycle of "appear for a few episodes, fight Yuki/Yuno (mostly Yuno), win, reveal traumatic past, fight Yuno, lose" and repeat. In short, most of the diary holders were just forgettable and used only for the sake of being killed and adding excitement to the show. Side characters like Yuki's friends (namely Akise) are on-screen more and provide more to the story then even most of the diary holders. That doesn't change the fact that everyone is pretty flat. No real development is given the the majority of our cast. The development that does occur for a few of our characters is written or presented pretty poorly with very little reasons to back it up. I won't say too much as to not spoil the series, though. As I said before, these characters are nothing more then plot devices - created to make the story more "interesting" and to shock the viewer into thinking they're looking at an emotionally deep character. Artwork is nothing to be fawned over and is mediocre at best. Character designs aren't terrible but they aren't something that I'd call memorable either. The bloodbath scenes are the ones that look the most realistic and it's obvious that the animators took their most time in animating these. The animation is pretty fluid throughout the fighting scenes, but it's an overall forgettable performance save for the blood and gore that they flesh out so well. The soundtrack was again, not very memorable, but you can at least say that it stood out. Emotional music fit those so-called "sad scenes" pretty well (despite the lack of real feeling in the scenes themselves) and was well-played out. The battle music and of course, suspenseful tracks were also well-fitting and it's easy to say that those tracks were what helped keep you on your toes as to when something may be getting ready to happen. The seiyuu's did a pretty good job considering their roles, but based on a personal experience I can't say that hearing Yuno screaming "Yuki!" every episode and listening to Yuki cry every episode didn't get annoying or ear-aching. But overall no real complaints here. Did I enjoy "Mirai Nikki?" I don't know, do I enjoy not knowing where the hell a story's going? Do I enjoy watching pink-haired girls who only exist for "love" do a bunch of random, messed up stuff to everyone every other episode? Do I enjoy trainwrecks? No, I can tell you right now that I don't. The thing that made this show bearable, however, was Minene and Akise, who were probably the two most interesting characters in this show for me. Minene got more screentime then most of the diary holders and was actually tolerable, while Akise held that intelligent personality that always spices up a show for me. Otherwise no, this show held little to no enjoyment for me. Even though I'm a sucker for thrillers if there's nothing to hold it up, not even a simple plot that can be explained in a few words, then I won't enjoy it. Overall, "Mirai Nikki" left a bitter taste in my mouth. The lack of any reasonable directing - or even reason at all - along with a mix of unlikeable, forgettable plot devices, or as we all call them characters made this show nearly intolerable for me. It took as many different, fucked up things as possible in order to appeal to the general audience, threw in some blood and a horny yandere and viola! A masterpiece! Or so says the people who only look on the outside of the trainwreck. For those of us who are examining this train and everything that actually happened for the end result to be.. this, then you'll be able to see just how terrible "Mirai Nikki" actually was.

This anime is one that has a lot of good surrounding it by word of mouth, and every once in a while you hear someone say it was meh or not worth watching. When I originally watched this, I had only seen the opening and I thought it was amazing and one of the best openings I've ever seen, as I still hold to this idea today. Upon watching the first few episodes, I was intrigued, but not impressed. When I finally finished it, I felt like I had wasted a tremendous amount of time and immediately wrote it off with a one out often and rushed a poorly written and bad review of it here, which no longer exists. Then, after many months, I began to think: "What if it actually wasn't as bad as I initially thought?" and so I began the perilous quest of rewatching my most hated anime at this current time, and after finishing it, I wrote this review. This review takes a bit to get going to my main points, but if you're seriously considering watching this anime, I HIGHLY suggest you finish my review, and then read some other reviews that may/may not be more positive than mine. Art: 6/10 I will start with the art, as this is obviously the first thing you notice. For a 2011 anime, it's definitely up to par and has no really glaring problems, and is actually rather well done. That being said, I have seen much better anime, even in the same year. It also has some CGI, but it's nothing amazing, but it was done tastefully enough that it doesn't seem really awkward or make a bad contrast with the rest of the art. However, a large problem I have with this is if you are watching an uncensored version (AKA Not the TV version) like I had the misfortune of doing, then you will see some anime boobies. This may or may not bother you, but it bothered me as it was unnecessary fan service and it was more creepy and distracting than anything. Why am I mentioning this in the TV version? As a warning to those that there is a difference. The TV version also censors some very odd things, at least to a North American viewer such as myself, like severed limbs. Japan may have some different laws or preferences to us in NA, but it looks really dumb and childish when something like this happens, and it really takes you out of a suspenseful scenario. Sound: 8/10 As I have already stated, the opening is great, and I watch it almost every time. Same goes for the second opening and both endings. I highly enjoy all of these, and they are worth sticking around for instead of just jumping into the episode or to the next. The background music fits the tone for almost every scene and Tatsuya Kato did a good job in producing it. However, unlike some other music directors, like Hiroyuki Sawano, none of his tracks are very memorable, and so makes the music in the actual anime lacking to an extent, as there was nothing unique or fresh about his style. This is only a real problem for those of us who like anime OST's and will search them up after watching a scene where the song is what really made it for you. Story 4/10 Now this is where my review starts getting negative. If you're a big fan of the show and you don't like constructive criticism, turn away now. The story is about a young boy named Yukiteru Amano who is a very lonely and boring middle school child, who is just going through the motions of life trying not to disturb anyone and only observing the daily events that unfold around him. He himself never takes a large role in anything in his life. The only thing he has to go home to is his imaginary friends, Dues ex Machina, the "god" of space and time, and his servant, Mur Mur (Japanese pronunciation Mura Mura, which I much prefer and shall be writing it as such from here on out), who does nothing and a lot of it. One day, Yukiteru wakes up and finds that his diary entries, had already been written for him. Immediately writing it off, he starts his daily routine. Suddenly, the events in his dairy begin to unfold as they were written. Taking advantage of this, he starts utilizing his "future diary". However, he is soon approached by a pink haired classmate named Yuno Gasai, who somehow knows what Mura Mura looks like, even though she's just a part of Yukiteru's imagination. Yukiteru is appalled by this, and runs off, only to be continually cut off by Yuno, who then explains to him that there are eleven other diary owners that are all trying to kill each other to become "god", as the current one, Deus ex Machina, is dying and needs a suitable replacement in one of these diary holders. Yuno also makes it a point to confess her love for Yukiteru, by showing him her future diary, which tells her everything there is to know about Yukiteru, perfect for a stalker, as she has been doing for the past year. Now, thrust into this game of life and death, Yukiteru, with much help from Yuno, must outwit and outfight his enemies that are the other diary holders. Okay, that's the intro. Cue lots of filler and boring episodes where nothing happens, episodes that are really reminiscent of generic "villain of the week" shounen anime, and so many plot holes you could sink a ship with them. Upon rewatching this, there were many episodes I skipped because either A: Nothing happens in them, or B: They're just so boring to watch you can't help but skip them. I have so many problems with scenes or ways characters handle things that I could write a spoiled version of this review and it would be twice as long, but I won't. I will just warn you that this anime assumes you're stupid sometimes and creates hype with no build up and no pay off. But let's be honest here. If you have a friend that told you to watch this, but you're not so sure and want to read a review first, there's a reason they wanted you to watch this show... Characters 1/10 Now, for the absolute lowest point of this anime, it's characters. If you're a hardcore fan and decided to still read this review despite my warning, here's where you will be raging. My biggest problem with many shows are weak protagonists. Whether they are just too generic, too perfect, or in this case, too pathetic. Yukiteru, is not a good character. Most anime is marketed towards high schoolers and young adults, hence why most anime is in the Slice of High School Life Rom/Com genre. The reason for this is because if you can have a connection with the characters, you are way more likely to enjoy the show and keep watching. Therefore, when you're mains are all middle schoolers, you can't relate to them as much, or in my case, at all. In a survival game where you have to kill people, I understand why a middle schooler would be hesitant. Sake Esuno, the original content creator's solution to this? Yuno Gasai, whose brain doesn't work normally and easily is the first thing that will pop into an otaku's head when they hear the term, "Yandere". Yuno murders everyone and anyone who gets in between her and Yukiteru, unless Yukiteru has explicitly told her not to, but occasionally not even then, if she really hates them. While this isn't always a bad thing, listening to a middle school kid cry and scream is not pleasant, even if it's warranted. More on Yuno, she eventually loses all purpose and then begins doing crazy things just to be crazy so that you'll point at the screen, laugh and say, "Oh that Yuno, always being so nuts!". This is another part of the "hype because hype" driving factor behind some scenarios that ultimately make them blow up in the episodes own face. As for the supporting cast, they are either really well done and don't get enough screen time, or get some but are very obnoxious and you'd just wish they'd go away. Because of this, none of them are worth even mentioning, even though I quite like some of them. Overall: 3/10 I give this anime a three out of ten because I believe it had a ton of potential, but it was only squandered in favor of poor plot devices, lame twists, and boring fillers. An example of this is this anime is way too long. It has 26 episodes, but it could have easily been finished in 20/22, as the last four/five episodes all drag on very long with extraneous scenes. It may have only seemed like this as I have viewed the show before so I know what was going to happen, but I still feel it could have been shortened. Couple this with some episodes that literally have nothing to do with the plot, and you have a lot of wasted screen time, but more importantly, your time. Also, a "spoilerless" note about the ending, on the topic of tediously long scenes, I have no idea why there is an OVA other than to make viewers scream at their screen until they find out about the OVA, as the Manga ending is literally two pages away from the animes. Keep in mind, a manga page would contain anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute and a half of anime screen time.Sorry, don't mind me. I had to have another tangent, as this anime has given me much to gripe about. My final verdict is that this is not worth the watch. However, if, you still decide you wish to view this anime, please watch the subbed version, as the dub for this anime, while not bad, is just wrong, to put bluntly. While the dub voice actors do not do a "bad" job per se, I find it vastly inferior to the subbed version, as Tomosa Murata did such a fantastic job as Yuno, even though the character is poor. As for alternate anime with survival game themes or feels, I redirect you to instead watch Deadman Wonderland. Bear in mind, Deadman also has a whiny protagonist and a mysterious girl that saves him from everything, and that I don't hold this anime in high regards. I would be cautious with watching it, and even though I enjoyed it, I don't think it's all that special or great, but still a better watch than Mirai Nikki, and you'll spend only half the time. For an anime that I did like with a survival game feel, I highly HIGHLY recommend Fate/Zero, the prequel to the Fate/Stay Night series. And if the name "Gen Urobuchi" means anything to you, and you haven't seen Fate/Zero yet, I really suggest you fix that. And the dub is amazing, by the way. Please rate my review as you see fit, and if you have any questions or clarification, please post to my wall, and I will respond when I see it, thanks!

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 whatnearly 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.

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