My overall rating (7) is considered "good" so it's not a bad score
Ok that may seem like a weird a weird quote for this anime, but let me explain. I really really liked some parts of Mirai Nikki like the art, the sound, and there were some great characters with rich backgrounds ready to be explored! They have all these great ingredients, but end up either not using those ingredients or not using them to the fullest.
Story 5 - The set up was of a battle royal to see who would become god nothing really special in my books, so I was expecting to give the story an 7 or around that. The last 3-4 episodes changed my mind completely when it stopped being a psychological thriller with action of course and just turned into a huge slug fest of who has the most godly powers and can create black balls of "energy" and shoot them at each other. The god is called Deus ex machina which made me laugh because Deus ex machina is Latin for God of the machine. You may think why would you laugh at that? The reason is that Deus ex machina is also a term for where seemingly impossible situations are solved immediately with little explanation. It is usually seen as poor writing to use Deus ex machina in your plot. I couldn't tell if the name of the god was some kind of joke, but it did make me laugh. There was a lot of jumping in the anime near the later episodes which can confuse people and probably had events from the manga that weren't added to the Anime. Also one thing that bugged me was that basically not one of the 12 future diary holders were killed by anyone other than Yuno! It was almost like all of diary holders were just trying to kill yuki and yuno!
Art 9 - Some amazing art this would be one of the great ingredients that Mirai Nikki had, but was ultimately let down by the plot and other things. Nuff said
Sound 9 - The sound in Mirai Nikki fit the situations they were in perfectly and was another great ingredient in the show, but the reason I didn't give sound a 10 which I was on the edge of doing was that it wasn't used to it's full potential. The music was blunt in its nature. What I mean by this is that the music signald to you what is going to come next and never mislead you or created false suspense like a good Thriller/ Physiological / Mystery should. It may seem like I'm knit picking things and that's kinda true because when it comes between the difference between a 10 (Master piece) and 9 (Great) I try and see if it is truly worthy of a 10.
Characters 7 - I loved the Characters! ... just not the main male character. Most Main characters (not all) fall into 3 categories Strong and dumb, Smart and Confident, and Weak and naive. Unfortunately "Yuki" falls into the third category and single-handedly lowered the score from characters from a 9 to a 7. All the other characters had a rich back story full of pain anguish and a reason to be in this game while "yuki" has divorced parents and is a little depressed because he feels lonely. There are some characters who didn't get any exploration even if they looked like they had a interesting story.Even though "yuki" was only one character he was the MAIN character and he only made you want to strangle him sometimes. Yuno was a crazy ass bitch who was insanely crazy! She added most of tension in the series and creeped me the fuck out and was one of the best fleshed out characters I've seen in a while, but in the final episodes her craziness seemed to get less and less intense without much reason behind. Yes, she was conflicted about killing yuki because she loves him, but she literately tried to kill him half a dozen times before that. Overall though she was a good a good character who progressed the plot forward more than anyone else.
Enjoyment 7 - The plot may have holes and the main character might be a let down, but overall I enjoyed it.
Overall 7 - I think that story, characters, and enjoyment are the most important factors (about 90%) while art and sound should be an after thought. Art and sound should only be able to bring the score up one or down one it shouldn't be able to dictate the whole score so that's why if this was a book (no pictures or sounds) I would have given it a 6, but the sound and art were both amazing so I can only say that this anime deserves a 7 (good)
Also the quote at the beginning.
Puppies = art, sound, Most characters except Yuki.
Train wreck = Story, Yuki.
