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.
