Anime: The Future Diary Review

Title: Mirai Nikki aka The Future Diary

Air Date: October 9th – April 15th, 2012

Episodes: 26

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action/Adventure, Psychological

Languages: Japanese, English

Similar Shows: King's Game, Darwins's Game

Introduction:

If you haven't heard of Mirai Nikki, you've been living under a rock. Mirai Nikki is arguably one of the best animes in depicting the character known as a Yandere. But we'll get into more of that later on. So for those of you that haven't heard of this show, I'll start it off with an introduction. Mirai Nikki, aka the future diary, features 2 main characters, Yuki and Yuno, who are mysteriously granted cell phones with the unique power of telling the future.

12 contestants face off against one another through these cell phones to secure the number one spot. It's the classic fight to the death where you can only escape the game if you win or die. Winning would mean they become the successor to the God of Time and Space Deus Ex Machina.

I'll admit straight up that I like this show for all the wrong reasons. There's nothing necessarily revolutionary nor groundbreaking on this show; in fact, you'd probably find more than a handful of shows with the same concept. The most popular one that comes to mind is Squid Game. The most exciting thing about this show is the concept of the battle Royale by using the "future diary" as a means to even the playing field for the people competing for Deus's position. So as expected, there's a lot of issues mostly stemming from the main 2 characters. But, honestly speaking, if it wasn't for the plot and battle Royale style being "in season," then the show likely wouldn't have done as well as it did.

Trailer:

Character Development:

First, let's start with Yuki; there is zero growth in his character development throughout 26 episodes. It's beyond laughable. He's precisely the same character from beginning to end, and that's it. He starts the series as a loner who only spends time writing about things happening around him on his flip phone. I'm old enough to remember the days where flip phones existed, and typing on them was too much work. I'm not sure why anyone would want to do that regardless of the year, it probably would have been faster to just write his thoughts down, but I digress.

Yuki theoretically should be the main protagonist of this story throughout the series. Still, he spends most of his time running away and, usually, being protected from and by Yuno. He encounters the other diary users, including the toddler (prodigy of legends). Throughout the show, it infuriated me that other supporting characters were drawn towards Yuki when in all actuality, he not only lacked personality, he had zero backbone. There was nothing even remotely intelligent about him. For example, although Yuno's diary followed every movement Yuki made, he still made zero attempts to run away from her. Likewise, Yuki didn't stop her when she clarified her murderous intent or even cared. She ran through the motion sensors at the school and killed countless innocent students. This should've been Yuki's queue to exit. Instead, he runs home, only to have her show up at his house shortly later. I… it just makes little sense.

Please, writers, just make this make sense!

Everyone within the show somehow thinks Yuki was the strong character worthy of winning Deus' position as the God of time and space. But without pure luck and Yuno, he likely would have died and the first episode. Easily.

Next, off we have Yuno:

Now Yuno is the reason I watched the show twice in one month. I love Yandere characters, typically they are lovely to look at, and they represent technically what no sane person should want in a relationship. I gravitate towards them because they are hopelessly and love with the object of their affection and are loyal to an absolute fault. But there are many different types of this character; they are often depicted as violent, sociopathic, homicidal, and whatever other adjectives can describe someone out of their minds.

Let me clarify, Yanderes are great to watch. But only because they are fictional characters, it's OK to love them from a distance as I do.

From the first episode, when Yuki is introduced to Yuno, we can immediately tell she has an issue. Initially, the viewers aren't made aware until later that she obsesses with Yuki and is a stalker. Still, we immediately know she has some underlying problem going on. Overall they go into her back story more than what we see with Yuki. Her back story reveals that she had abusive parents that would often lock her up inside a cage; this typical trope is used to explain why she's often off the rails. It's convenient, sure, but otherwise, it's generally weak. Throughout the series, similar to Yuki, she has little character growth.

The growth we see is shown by the end, where we discover Yuno went back in time solely to save Yuki's life. Again, a convenient excuse to justify who she is and throw a psychological element into the story.

What made Yuno my favorite character wasn't mainly because she was crazy and obsessed with Yuki. Still, somehow she had this girl power that made me undeniably want to root for her. Usually, she single-handedly took out any enemies that came after while Yuki sat in the corner and cried. She displayed intelligence and planning far more sophisticated than most characters in times. The one problem with the writers is that they would also change her personality to be idiotic for Yuki to have his moments of heroism.

Yuki didn't deserve the love, support, and murderous intent Yuno had, but karma came for him in the end.

Pacing:

Mostly, the show was slow-moving and likely didn't need 26 episodes. Many scenes were useless or could have been cut out since they took away from the overall story and bored me for a solid 4-5 episodes. I've always found which shows are at least 24 episodes long; there is often a sweet spot with filler episodes and episodes that contribute to the overall plot. I'll generally expect at least one filler, but at least 95% of the show, I would like to be around the main story.

The writer spent a decent amount of time fetishizing Yuno and putting her in unnecessary situations with Yuki. But, unfortunately, it didn't further their quest but unnecessarily talked about the imaginary relationship that only existed in Yuno's head.

Overall Score: B (Worth a rewatch)

The show had many problems then, and even today, 10 years later, numerous issues have become even more problematic. Both characters are 14 years old, yet an unnatural amount of time is spent sexualizing Yuno and laying the fanservice too thick. Although she is my favorite character, I cringed at those moments because they seemed unnecessary.

Throughout this, I've given a good amount of spoilers. So if you haven't watched this yet, I'm sure you would have guessed by now that Yuki eventually texts Deus's spot as the God of time and space. Unfortunately, the writers didn't have enough bandwidth for a more creative ending.

Yuno makes in her quest to help save Yuki at all costs. He eventually has nothing left after the other future diary holders are defeated. I feel bad for him somehow, but he lacks any personality and is a gigantic coward spending millions of years alone. The crevice of space is precisely what he deserves.

To conclude, the show was top-rated when it first aired back in 2011, mainly as I said before, because of the battle Royale theme. There was no character development between the protagonist and minor development with supporting characters. Still, unfortunately, we didn't get to see enough of them to make a difference. Overall, the show is hot garbage, but because we all love a Yandere, we have no choice but to stan the show.

For everyone interested, join me in the Yandere stan club or spend however many hours facepalming because you sat through hours of a show with flawed characters.

As a side note, the only thing that kept me from facepalming is actually the opening song because it introduced me to my favorite Japanese metal artist Yousei Teikoku who is absolutely a queen. So please check out her music and simp for her as I do now.

Yousei in my opinion, was the best thing to come out of this show.

OP Song: Yousei Teikoku ‘Kuusou Mesorogiwi’

CL Song: Faylan' Blood Teller'