Mirai Nikki

Mirai Nikki (Future Diary) is a Japanese anime based off the manga series of the same name. It was serialized between January 2006 to December 2010 with twelve tankōbon volumes. The twenty six episode anime series aired in Japan from October of 2011 to April 2012 and Funimation had licensed for the distribution of the anime in North America.

Plot

Amano Yukiteru is known to be a loner all through his years in school. For the majority of his day, he spends his time writing diary entries on his cell phone and talking to his imaginary friends Deus Ex Machina (God of Time and Space) and Murmur (Deus’ servant) only to find that they aren’t as imaginary as they appear to be.

One morning, Yuki awakens to find his diary entries on his phone already written for him and throughout the day after reading this entries does he find that they speak of the future. When coming back home slightly worried, Yuki finds that Deus has forced him to be one of the twelve contestants to participate in a battle royale. Each individual has their own diary that can predict the future in a special way and the rules consist of contestants trying to find and kill the other in ninety days when the world ends. Only the last man standing can become God of the new world.

Overall

I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed in my life about an anime. While the plot was promising with the whole battle royale concept, I really hated the way it was made up. First of all, character development is key and while Amano Yuki is shown to be ‘growing’ and ‘maturing’ during these times, I didn’t think it would take him like twenty episodes to finally find the courage to defend himself or kill. I do like slow character development where – in a case – you may see someone with fragility and low self-confidence much like Yuki evolving into a man or maturing but in this anime, even at the end I didn’t see a difference.

On top of that, I didn’t like how gullible he was after Gasai Yuno was like his caretaker. I mean, everyone knew how much of a weird stalker she was, especially since she was always protective of him and had neediness issues. Love story aspect of it was horrid. If they had just set up the anime from Yuno’s past and how her first incarnation of the world was in love with Yuki and wanted to die with him before getting all power hungry and jumping into world two, it’d have been much more easier to follow.

Overall this anime is something I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. A complete waste of time and, to be honest, it’s been drawn out into more than enough episodes.