Future Diary was a suprisingly awesome anime/manga (I watched the anime only). I wasn't so sure about it at first because I thought it was going to be another bloodbath without enough story to justify the bloodshed that was happening/going to happen but I was wrong.
What if you could look into the future just by looking at the screen of your cell? Sounds awesome, right? Well what if I told you that several others also had the same ability but you have to kill each other or else the world will end and whoever is the last person standing becomes god of time and space? Shit just got serious now!
Future Diary is an anime I would've dropped by the end of the 2nd or 3rd episode but I was forced into watching it because of the damned anime recommendation circle I'm part of but I'm glad I finished this anime because it was worth sitting through the whole series. To be honest, the realizationg of how good this anime is didn't hit me until about halfway through and Future Diary definitely earned the right to carry the genre name of suspense. This anime had me sitting on the edge of my seat wishing I had popcorn to snack on while watching this psychotic masterpiece.
Future Diary started a bit slow for me but it's not so much that it's a slow paced anime, oh no, that's definitely not the case, it's just that murder action suspense isn't my cup of tea but the character writing was way better than I initially thought and the anime grew on me.
Our MC in Future Diary is a middle school student named Yuki Amano. Yuki is a loner (and a total wimp too), he records his daily events like a diary in his cell, he also has 2 imaginary friends; Deus Ex Machina the God of Time and Space!, and there's Murmur (assistant of Deus Ex Machina the God of Time and Space). One day Yuki learns that his diary recordings are showing events that are yet to happen and end up coming true. This brings Yuki discomfort and he learns that he is a player in a survival game where all players must kill each other in order to take Deus Ex Machina's place as god of time and space because he's slowly deteriorating. Yuki (also known as 1st) ends up teaming up with Yuno Gasai (aka 2nd) who is an obvious psychopath from day 1 but she is madly in love with Yuki which causes her to go to extreme lengths to protect the love of her life.
I didn't really like Yuki all that much because he's incredibly wimpy and weak-willed (especially in the stting in which he is placed) however, at a certain point in the story he becomes more confident, badass, likeable, and a character I could root for. Yuno stays psychotic til the ending but over the course of this 26 episode+OVA we learn more and more about our heroine of this story. Yuno Gasai is the most psychotic yandere character in anime I've ever seen but I just couldn't bring myself to hate her (especially after learning why she's the way she is). Honestly I couldn't care less about the characters who weren't chosen as candidates/players. They just weren't interesting enough for me to care about them, the psychopaths were waaay more interesting like the terrorist, the cop, the child, the mayor, and everyone's favorite, Yuno (the MC's love interest).
The story of Future Diary has this brilliant formula that makes an excellent suspense story; plot mixed wth confusion -> problem -> answer to problem in next episode -> new problem -> answer to problem in next episode -> slight explanation -> new problem -> answer to new problem in next episode -> more explanation -> new problem -> answer to problem in next episode -> rinse and repeat.
The animation is good and it really captures the psychotic looks in the characters eyes.
After the end of each episode there are mini episodes attached on about Murmur's silly adventures and her interactions with certain characters in the series.
I shall not spoil the ending but I will say it has a depressing turn that I couldn't help but compare it to Serial Experiments Lain's ending but with a love plot attached. After the credits of the 26th and final episode, there's hope!
That scene after the credits of the last episode is explained through an OVA that I imagine many people would call the true ending.
This was an epic anime with plenty of unexpected twists and turns and would recommend it to anyone who likes suspense, mystery, violence, character development, psychotic romance, and thick plot.
So if you're interested, PLEASE GIVE IT A SHOT!
