Firstly, this review contains very minimal spoilers. I reveal a few character traits that should be glaringly obvious to you as a human with eyes, and not a whole lot else.
I watched this with a friend, having finally had enough of him casually mentioning it from time to time saying “you need to watch this” followed by this little smirk. That smirk generally doesn’t bode well with this particular friend; my past anime-watching experiences with him have told me that any time that little smirk comes into play it means there’s a very particular reason he wants me to watch whatever anime it
...
is, and that generally means he plans less on watching the anime and more of watching me react to the anime.
Let me tell you right now that he had the time of his life watching me watch Mirai Nikki. And I think he’d probably get similar entertainment out of watching anyone else, so with that as a metric I think it’s safe to say that Mirai Nikki is not only a great show to watch, but also possibly functions as a spectator sport thanks to the sheer amount of concentrated insanity that takes place through its 26 episodes.
First let me tackle the premise. Mirai Nikki, aka The Future Diary, contains—get
ready—diaries that predict the future. Our main character, Yukiteru Amano, has one of these diaries which is known as the “Random Diary”, in that it predicts all random events around him. His ownership of this cellphone diary puts him into a survival game against 11 others with diaries that can predict various things ranging from the events occurring to another particular character to a diary that can see into all the other diaries. These 12 competitors have to fight to the death. Whoever wins becomes the new god, taking over for the current god, Deus Ex Machina. If you’re not already at least vaguely interested, then there might be a problem. The premise is, as you can see, quite unique and clearly set up to work itself into a fascinating story. To be honest, while as ridiculous as it is from a pedestrian viewpoint, it’s very likely one of my more favorite premises I’ve come across.
Now, on top of that, we have the other side of the premise, and that is the relationship between Yuki and his self-proclaimed bride-to-be, Yuno Gasai. That’s where the rubber really meets the road in this anime, as their relationship is a peanut butter, jelly and tuna-fish style mashup of adorable, creepy, and actually terrifying. Their obviously beleaguered relationship not only throws an entirely psychological-horror spin on the entire thing, but also absolutely positions this anime a top contender for one of my favorites of all time, and is, in my opinion, very likely the reason why it currently holds the #9 slot for popularity on MAL, although the rest of the package doesn’t disappoint either.
As for the story, let’s just suffice it to say that the events of this survival game aren’t exactly cut-and-dried—things get very complicated very quickly for poor Yuki. I won’t spoil anything but I will say things get very wild very quickly. As tempted as I am to make a list of all the ridiculousness that transpires even early on, I won’t in an effort to keep you as blind as possible going into this, because let’s face it, if I give you anything, whoever watches you watch this (that is, if anyone else is in a situation like my viewing) simply won’t be as entertained.
I will say, though, the story—particularly the way a few of the player characters are tossed into the mix, is one of few areas of the anime that I feel there’s room for criticism. I understand that the tactics the players in the survival game use are characterizations of their circumstances and personalities, but nonetheless I personally feel there are a few of the players whose methods are either A. only really explained through exposition, or B. off the wall to the point of even minor annoyance. There’s two separate game participant characters in particular that I can think of that are only seemingly there to advance the plot, and I believe the lack of proper introduction (A) leads to my second complaint (B) thanks to the fact that I’m told who they are and am simply expected to go along with it, when instead a little more backstory would be of help in explaining their actions and tactics.
The characters themselves are all interesting on some level, however as I argued in the previous paragraph I do wish there was more characterization of several characters. There are definitely times where Yuno seems to have a bit of a one-track mind (for roughly 3/4s of the anime) but that is, in an essence, her character, and while some may find that annoying, I found it interesting to watch her remain stuck on Yuki during the various changes in opinion of her Yuki himself has. On the topic of Yuki, our main character develops rather interestingly throughout the series as well, starting off at a sub-beta level of confidence in himself and progressing into an at least semi-competent, or possibly insane, human being himself.
As far as visuals, though, I must say this anime looks absolutely up to par; no particular visual element stands out, for positive or negative, so by all means it’s not a complaint for me. There’s a few character designs that I particularly enjoyed for a wide array of reasons, namely Minene Uryuu (Ninth), Tsubaki Kasugano (Sixth), Reisuke Houjou (Fifth), Murmur, and finally, of course Yuno Gasai (Second) who I must admit is one of the best example of a wolf in sheep’s clothing I’ve ever seen, thus why she makes the list. I’ll say this much: there’s something special about an adorable pink-haired girl wielding (and very much using) an axe. The only character design that actually bothered me was Kamado Ueshita (Eighth), whose design I find almost jarring. I understand they were going for: a short, rotund woman, but in execution she looks like some horribly malformed bobblehead creature, which, when compared to the rest of the uniformly-styled and well-put-together cast, stands out, and very much not in a good way. Thankfully, her role isn’t horribly prevalent.
The anime’s sound is also definitely worth mentioning, and for the positive. The voicing is solid and tense, the sound effects are realistic and tight, although there are times standard background noise feels a little sparse. Despite that, the soundtrack, I must say, is quite impressive. I enjoyed every song presented throughout the anime, particularly the opening themes (and both OPs are also excellent!) All the songs are paced well and provide the perfect mood for what’s taking place onscreen.
With all that in mind, it’s probably pretty easy to figure out I really enjoyed Mirai Nikki. Sure, it’s got its flaws, but those aren’t hard to bypass considering the sheer amount of insanity taking place throughout its episodes. If you’re a newcomer to anime, then this might be one I’d save for once you’re at least a few more series deep as it’s one you’ll either love or hate—it’s not hard to see that some might be a little turned off by such a wide range of psychological disorders as presented in this anime.
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Sep 3, 2016
Mirai Nikki (TV)
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Firstly, this review contains very minimal spoilers. I reveal a few character traits that should be glaringly obvious to you as a human with eyes, and not a whole lot else.
I watched this with a friend, having finally had enough of him casually mentioning it from time to time saying “you need to watch this” followed by this little smirk. That smirk generally doesn’t bode well with this particular friend; my past anime-watching experiences with him have told me that any time that little smirk comes into play it means there’s a very particular reason he wants me to watch whatever anime it ... |
