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You want to know the truth about Mirai Nikki

IT SUCKS

Now of course that won't do so now I have to explain in great detail why it sucks which trust me won't be fun, but the people need to hear the truth. I'm not too impressed with the current reviews of this show on MAL mostly because THEY ARE NOT REVIEWS, THEY ARE FANBOY/GIRL RANTS. A review should be analytical and look from a CRITICAL standpoint. True as a flawed being I am unable to bypass my bias but at least actually i'll try.

Mirai Nikki/Future diary is a psychological thriller.... appaently. But its also a romance, ... action, horror and fantasy show. Since words can't really define it i'll move on to the categories.

Story-When I review anything that is a story in any regard I generally judge the storytelling itself by three categories. These categories are Premise which is the concept and basic plot outline, the execution which is how each part of the plot was handled and finally the pacing which is how these parts fit together and how natural the progression felt. Mirai Nikki's premise is actually not bad, its certainly not original but it could have worked MUCH better than it did(which is still not very good) if it had not completely fucked up everything else in the most spectacular way possible. The show starts off decently with the concept of these 'future diaries' being introduced but instead of explaining them and how they work the show immidiately throws you into a cascade of bullshit.

Mirai Nikki is horrendously cliche while at the same time making no sense. The show dosen't have plot holes as some say, it IS a plot hole. The concept of telling the future already opens up lots of room for narrative fuck ups but the show also breaks basic logic almost consistently just so it can appear more 'dark' and 'daring'. This is why Mirai Nikki shoots itself in the foot, it tries to be mature by adding in lots of gore and crazy twists but ends up going the other way and feeling ridiculous because of how little sense it makes and ultimately feels childish and stupid. The pacing is breakneck and never slows down apart from pointless filler episodes that add nothing and just kill any tension that would be there in the first place.

The romance aspect fails because it STILL feels shoehorned in despite being a major plot point and because the characters(who we'll get to later) are annoying and don't make a good couple. As for the thriller aspect and the future diary concept itself, well it could have been cool but it tried way too hard to make the audience take it seriously despite it not being very original, interesting or thrilling at all. It tried a 'Death note' approach of mixing supernatural powers and mind games but for some reason forgot that it wasn't as smart or well written as that show and just made all its characters seem like complete morons(moreso than they already are). The ending to the show is horrible and unsatisfiying while the ending to the OVA is ridiculous and contrived so its a lose-lose there. In terms of themes obviously there's not much to say except that this show handled sensitive topics like rape and abuse with all the care and subtlety of a bull in a fucking china shop and at times came off as either disgusting, exploitative or offensive rather than just edgy bullshit thrown in to hold the interest of people watching this train wreck.

Score-2,5/10 Stupid, contrived, ridiculous, nonsensical and at times offensive

Characters-You'd think that after bashing the general plot so much that would be my least favourite aspect but no somehow prehaps by the gods of awful writing this show has characters so laughably bad it even overshadows the godawful plot. All the character are given one note personalities and often ridiculous, overblown defining traits so the show can continue to shove logic up its ass and blow shit up for the sake of encapsulating more mindless casuals in its insanity. Characterization for most of the diary holders(who are the main focus character-wise) is limited to a short backstory which makes us either feel sorry for them or hate them depending on what one dimensional hack is getting 2 minutes of backstory in the middle of a episode because PLOT CONVINENCE and gives them a motivation before they are killed by the main characters. So you'd think aside from the 10+ other diary holders there would be some good development for the main two characters Yuki and Yuno right? NOPE.

Yukiteru is basically hack Shinji Ikari in that he is a similar archetype but isn't explored in enough depth and has all of Shinji's undesirable traits magnified by 1000. Aside from being annoying he gets no real development and dosen't really do anything meaningful in the story. And now for everyone's favorite yandere, Gasai Yuno!.... is a godawful character. Many find her crazy actions fun and exciting but in my opinion its creepy and she really isn't well developed or believable, and even if she was entertaining to watch you shouldn't force yourself through a show for one character and if you do you have low standards and would probably like this show anyway.

Characters-1.6/10 Cliche, one note, underdeveloped, annoying and sometimes creepy(not in a good way)

Art-The artstyle is very bland and dosen't help the series stand out in any way, there's too many bright colours and it ends up looking like a mashed fruit bowl and dosen't fit the supposedly dark tone the series is trying to give off(key word being 'trying'). The character designs are cartoony and undistinct and none really stand out. Its pretty standard stuff, weird hair colours+large crazy eyes which I guess fits but seeing how bland the characters were anyway it only makes them blander. Some of the character designs are totally ridculous and goofy which once again you'd think might fit seeing as how silly the series is but then you remeber its actually trying to take itself seriously, FAIL.You'd think the series would have really good animation to show off all its fight scenes and gore but its kind of underwhelming. The animation in the opening sequences is pretty cool and unique though the way it presents itself is slightly pretentious considering how bland and uninteresting the rest of the animation was. I always consider animation to be less important than story and characters so therre's not much to say unless its good or it fits the series, in this case it is neither
Animation-5.2/10 BLAND

Sound-Well as for the music it can be summed up in a similar way to the story in that it tries to create a creepy and disturbing atmosphere and as music alone its not that bad. Its mostly techno/electronic with some more experimental flashes here and there and also synth strings and the like to build tension and some piano when the plot is trying to be emotional. It would fit the tone of the show well if the show itself knew what tone it actually had and on top of that none of the tracks stand out or are that well composed. Even if the series had been better the OST is rather cliche and typical of modern thriller anime. Special mention must go however to the first opening song which is FUCKING AMAZING, the song is easily the best attached to the series and really gets you hyped(even if it is for nothing).

The voice acting in Japanese is decent as Japanese dubs are rarely terrible but nothing stood out and the actors sounded either bored or overacted the scenes but seeing as what they had to work with I really acn't blame them. Also, Yuno's seiyuu got annoying very quickly but the constant screams of "YUKIII" in the script are probably to blame for that. I must admit that I have not seen the English dub but quite frankly I really don't want to as 1.I don't wanna sit through this mess again and 2. Even fans of the show hold it to be godawful and judging by their standards on things my reaction to it may be enough to crush my jaded, snobbish mind for good. Just be thankful I haven't so I still exist to write this review and don't give the sound a lower score
Sound 4.8/10 MOSTLY BECAUSE OF OPENING 1, bland OST and acting everywhere

Enjoyment-For some anime fans, watching this trainwreck may actually be an enjoyable experience as it has plenty of action and twists to keep people who are capable of turning their brain off(or don't have one to begin with) entertained. Unfortunately if I turned my brain off I would cease to be so for anyone who isn't capable of this the show will almost constantly piss you off and make you feel dirty and be generally not a positive experience especially if you favour substance, good writing and subtlety over shock value. If you base enjoyment on getting cheap thrills, shocks and favour spectacle and scale over substance then you might actually enjoy it. Keep in mind that this is not praise for the show but merely my explanation as to its popularity and NOT how I believe one should judge a show.
Enjoyment 2.0/10 since I have to base it on my own enjoyment

Final scores
ONS(Overall narrative score, Story+Characters/2)=2.05 Grade: F
OAS(Overall aesthetic score, Art+Sound/2)=5.00 Grade: D
OFS(Overall final score, average of all categories)=3.22 Grade: E

Conclusion-If I had to describe Mirai Nikki in one word it would be clusterfuck, it tried its hand at so much random shit and not only failed at pulling that off but also managed to fuck up each individual aspect and is a disgusting trainwreck of edgy bullshit.

If you are entertained by shallow nonsense of this kind then feel free to rage at me all you want. I just think MAL reviewers need to be more critical when reviewing their favourite shows otherwise it becomes a fanboy rant/gush site rather than a legitmate place to find people's critical opinions on anime.

Almost 3 years after Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica was first released now might seem like a redundant time to be writing a review for it as many people within the anime communtity have already seen it, discussed it and come to a final opinion on it. Despite this however I realised the other day after trying to sell the series to a friend that even though many people have heard of the series and how its actually really good despite its minimal fluffy exterior its still very difficult to get other 17 year old males such as myself to take it seriously. While they often ... hear about its dark themes they don't feel like experiencing it for themselves for whatever reason. But I will state here and now that this series is definitely a must see.
Story-The story of Madoka Magica is most likely the thing most widely praised about it along with its animation. It is written by Gen Urobuchi who is sometimes nicknamed the Urobutcher due to his dark and brutal works which should give a preliminary idea of what kind of story this is considering his other works(Psycho pass, Fate/zero) and while this series is very different to those ones the style of writing is quite similar. Madoka magica is a top-tier example of brilliant tragic storytelling with a perfect grasp on twists and turns, weaving complex themes into a narrative and keeping you guessing the conclusion until it smacks you in the face. While some of Urobuchi's other works (including the 3rd Madoka movie) suffer from disjointed ideas and odd pacing this series blends everything it has to say together without feeling forced, rushed or leaving anything unfinished. It's the kind of series that gives you an understanding of its world and concepts to ease you in and then suddenly turns EVERYTHING on its head in one jaw-dropping moment to make you rethink everything you thought that you knew. Its crazy and could have failed in a lesser written series but it manages to work here without feeling like a deus ex machina or a cheap writing decision because of how much sense it makes when you think about it in retrospect. I'm only talking in broad narrative terms here because of how much better it is to experience this series with minimal information about the actual plot. The series covers themes of Hope, despair, self-sacrifice, nihilism and faustian concepts and countless others many of which it explores and resolves without you even noticing on first watch which gives the show a high rewatch value. There are a few minor problems with the narrative such as some concepts introduced later on that don't make a whole lot of sense under scrutiny but they don't manage to topple the thematic palace that the show builds throughout its run.
Story-9.5/10

Characters-Now this is the aspect of the series that Madoka-sceptics like to rip on the most and generally divides opinion with watchers of the show. A quirk of Urobuchi's writing style is that his characters are generally designed to represent 1 aspect or flaw that defines them and leads to their downfall. People who dislike the characters often claim that they are bland and uniteresting but I do not find this to be the case. This is only a 12 episode series that focues mainly on plot and themes more than anything else and if it spent too much time on characters navel gazing it would detract from all the other aspects. The characters definitely have personalities and traits that serve to aid the ideas at play in the story but it dosen't make them feel inhuman or unrelatable mainly because they act and react very realistically when faced with the heart-breaking decisions they have to make and you really do feel for these characters. Even if you know things probably won't work out for a character you still want it to as you know they didn't want to be in the situation they are in but they deal with it and keep going until the very end. You can relate to the emotional turmoil they must be feeling and that makes all the heart breaking scenes you witness in this series even more emotionally resonant. No, they're not really complex or original but that's not the point, they do feel like real people and without them the story wouldn't work as well as it does.
Characters-8/10

Art-This is the bit that even sceptics agree is really, really good. Madoka's art style is an eclectic mixture of styles that while vastly different to each other manage to create a blend that mirror the plot and ideas perfectly. The character designs were part of director Ayiyuki Shinbo's original idea to market the series as a cutesy magical girl series targeted at a younger audience than it actually is and as such are very typical of the genre and of production studio Shaft's other works. The trademark big eyes and almost pencil-like aesthetic to the characters is probably what puts a lot of people off. It is true that it seems kind of jarring at first to have such disturbing content with such cute looking character designs but it really only makes it more disturbing than it already was and adds to the overall impact of the series. The rest of the art style is really weird but effective, from the near-future aesthetic of Mitakihara city to the bizarre and psychedelic witch mazes and the escher-esque dream-like landcapes the art style of Madoka magica takes you on a journey equal in splendor to the story itself.
Art-10/10
Sound part 1:Music-Yet another brilliant aspect of this series is the heart-achingly beautiful music penned by Yuki Kajiura, it not only compliments the already incredible emotional tension the series has but also creates its own beautiful atmosphere that melds perfectly with the animation and dialouge. Kajiura's music is mainly a mixture of strings, electronics and guitars that blend in an explosion of different feelings and moods. The creepy and foreboding 'A duel with a witch' uses distorted guitars and a haunting choir to build a creepy and disturbing atmosphere while tracks like 'Decretum' and 'Inevitabilis' are indescribably beautiful and reach the exact wavelength of emotional resonance that the story reaches and manages to say so much about what the characters are going through that it has made me shed tears once or twice and i'm someone who rarely ever cries. The opening and ending themes are polar opposites to each other, The opening theme 'connect' is a very stereotypical magical girl anime theme song (for more of the director's misleading) but is so damn catchy that you won't really care how out of place it feels after a few episodes of dark, faustian tragedy. The ending theme 'Magia' however is a dark, gothic song performed by Yuki Kajiura's band Kalafina which feels much more like the tone of the show and is also a really awesome song.
Sound part 2: Voice acting-The japanese track is something that I don't believe I have the knowledge to discuss as I do not speak the language and do not know a lot about the voice acting industry in Japan but for the most part it sounded great and managed to convey the wide emotional ranges present in the story very well. The english dub however was not perfect, don't get me wrong its not bad by any stretch of the imagination it just dosen't compare at least not for me anyway. The casting is quite stereotypical and while there are some stand outs like Cassandra Lee as Kyubey most of the girls sound too girly and typical of the genre for such a dark story. If they had cast more natural sounding voices it would have worked so much better in my opinion as many of the emotional scenes just don't work as well in the dub.
Sound-8/10 but only due to mediocre dub without it music alone gets 10/10
Enjoyment-This is a hard one to discuss as my enjoyment of a series very much relies on the above categories. Enjoyment in this series is tied mainly to how emotionally gripping it is, due to this I had to limit myself to 1 episode day on first watch because of how intense each episode is. I enjoyed it on the basis that I wanted to see what was going to happen to these characters and how such desperate situations were going to turn out in the end, I would be legimately suprised if anyone was able to drop this series mid way through due to all the twists it throws at you that just coaxes you to go one layer further into the story. Overall watching Madoka magica was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and was riveting, engaging and heart-wrenching from episode 1 to 12.
Enjoyment-10/10

Overall verdict-
+ Well written, complex plot, unique and beautiul art style, fantastic and fitting music, a thoroughly engaging watch
-Mediocre dub, some may be put off by character designs
Final score-9.1