1. People who are Genre rigid. This show is action, thriller, mystery, romance, comedy, etc. and often likes to shift from episode to episode or arc to arc. I personally can not place this series purely into one genre
2. People who are looking for a stable story. This show has more of a general story that changes as a result of the game. This is natural given that many characters initially DO NOT WANT to play the game and are FORCED to play it. Naturally, morality is thrown around and a simple story with a clearly defined goal isn't present.
3. People who cannot suspend their disbelief over the slightest thing. There are moments in this story where you ask yourself "Why don't they just kill them and be done with it?" which can be frustrating. There are also moments where a character will do something illogical. While these problems sound glaring, they don't take you out of the anime, and simply leave you with a "I wouldn't have done that" thought as the story continues.
If you got past that, welcome to my review of Future Diary. Future Diary was one of the best animes, no series, I have ever seen in my life.
Story:
The premise is this: There is this Time God who only seems to be known my introverts and outcasts. He decides to throw a "to the death" tournament to see who will take over his role of god. Each person is given a different "power" to their cell phone diaries that give them an edge in this competition.
The story is built around this idea initially, with some of the "players" wanting to win and become a god, and others who just want to be left alone.
This all begins to change as personal events unfold that cause people to become more actively involved. Each diary itself has a different and unique power, but the power is unique to the user specifically for the most part.
A lot of people found the ending to be unsatisfying, but to me it seemed more like the logical conclusion with the exception of some minor continuity issues. The only fault in this series typically comes from characters.
Characters:
Imagine someone you love romantically, real or not, obessively so. Imagine you have a journal or diary that confirms at the very end that you will end up with this person. Imagine being in said game above and that person also being a fellow competitor. Imagine that said person is also a bit helpless and will not survive unless you get involved. Imagine your diary also keeps track of what is happening to that person, so you can help them whenever you can.
However, deep down you know that even if you help them, there is going to come a point where it's only going to be the two of you left in the game. This is the MAIN character, Yuno.
Many people wouldn't call Yuno the main character since she is not the focus character. However, the series essentially is all about her and the actions she takes. She is psychologically unstable and is THE definition of a stalker taken to the extreme.
Yukki, her love interest, is essentially a bit cowardly, but has nerves of steel once in awhile that helps keep him and the others alive. He is the focus character of the series, but doesn't really act like a protagonist until near the end. He is more like the "Damsel in Distress" of this series, naively getting himself into trouble. It was a good move for the series to make him the focus character since it makes him more likable and since Yuno has the stronger story.
Yukki's friends are okay. Not much to say since I'd be spoiling the series. Luckily, they only really appear in the series to serve as support when more important stuff is going on, so their lack of development is not painful.
The other diary users I felt were written very well. They all had motivations and different ways of trying to achieve their goals. Some people might feel that they didn't give them enough story, but the story really isn't about them and that is what people may miss and that is why they were written well. Most of the users and their perspectives are told through the lens of Yukki, and this sometimes confuses the audience into thinking they are main characters when in fact they are simply well written support.
What are the problems with the characters? Well, some of the characters act almost too honorably given the situation, and instead of crushing their opposition they may prefer to toy with them instead. Other times, the characters seem to act dishonorably and betray each other. While this makes sense from an emotional stand point, causing Yuno and Yukki's relationship get closer despite understandable apprehension Yukki has with this, it sort of comes across as nonsensical to the character's motivation. In fact, there is so much of this that goes on that it made me feel that only Yuno was reliable and predictable. Which again works from the series stand point but takes away a bit of the realism from the support cast.
Enjoyment:
I really liked this series and the twists that resulted from it. I consumed this anime over the course of a night and the following day, which is to say a lot as to how drawn in I was. The last, 4 or 3 episodes I felt less invested in, but didn't drain from how great the rest of the series was. There are even subtle, one scene or one line incidents that change your perspectives on characters, or the story itself.
I recommend it as a MUST SEE. There are areas it could have improved in, could have made the characters a little more realistic, and could have ended it in different ways to convey different tones. However, I believe the few mistakes or over-sights that were made are worth the sacrifice of building up a stronger emotional investment.
I challenge you to watch episode 1-6 (or 4 at the earliest) and see if you're not interested enough to see what happens next.
