First of all, there will be spoilers in this review. It would be too difficult trying to explain why this anime is fucking garbage without mentioning some spoilers. If you haven't watched this anime (I don't recommend doing that), click off the review. But then again, this review will targeted towards people that have already watched the anime.
The premise of Mirai Nikki was surprisingly interesting when I first started watching it. I thought that a battle royale death game would make for an awesome anime, unfortunately that isn't the case. What a lot of people need to understand is that just because a premise is interesting, that doesn't make an anime good. There are anime out there with uninteresting premises that actually turn out to be amazing, and then there is this piece of trash. Maybe a good premise can make an anime interesting at first, but all it comes down to in the end is execution.
Mirai Nikki is a battle royale anime in which 12 people battle to the death using "diaries". Since the god of their world Deus ex Machina is about to die, he must give the duty of god to one of the 12 diary holders. These diaries all have different abilities, but the most important ones are the diaries of the two main characters. Yuki's diary allows him to see slightly into the future, while Yuno's diary allows her to see Yuki's future. So the two main characters team up to defeat the other 11 dairy holders. It seems interesting at first, but now here's when the bad writing comes into play.
There is one major complaint I have about the premise of the show. If Deus ex Machina needs to make someone else god before he dies, why the fuck did he pick these people to be the contenders? A 14 year old kid that gets bullied, a yandere, a terrorist, etc. What made him want to pick these people to be the contestants out of all people in the world? Was there something special about these people? Was there any explanation on why he picked these people? Nope, no explanation at all.
I have never seen such ridiculous plot armor in anime before watching this shit. Literally every single battle they get into is won because of asspulls and plot armor. I shit you not, every single battle in this anime was poorly written garbage. It always made me laugh how the god of their world is named Deus ex Machina. Well, that explains why there's so much Deus ex Machina nonsense in this anime. The worst part is that even when the other diary holders could've killed Yuki or Yuno, they didn't for whatever reason. There has been numerous occasions where 9th could could've killed Yuki, but again it never happened. There were also many moments with 9th holding a gun to Yuki's face with the intent to kill, but plot armor strikes again. There has been countless occasions in which the other diary holders outsmarted our two main characters, but plot armor strikes again and again ad nauseam.
One of the big reasons as to why I hate this anime is mainly because of the sheer stupidity and nonsensical things that happen in it for the sake of plot armor. An example of this is when Yuki and Yuno were fighting against the 5th diary holder. She literally walks through poisonous gas, inhaling all of it, and then kills him with ease. Apparently she was able to do this because her love for Yuno made her stronger... -.-
I have never seen such retardation before in my life. For a series that tries to act all mature and bloody, it sure is funny how stupid and childish it can be. On numerous occasions has this series defied all logic and just went full retard. I'll talk more about this later on in the review.
There is no sense of danger at all in this series. I knew there would never be a sense of danger by the time I got done with the first four episodes. Every single time the characters are about to lose, they win because of deus ex machina or just pure stupidity from the writers. A perfect example of this was during the battle against the fourth diary holder. Fourth diary holder takes Yuno as a hostage, Yuki then shoots him straight in the head which doesn't make any sense. His diary said verbatim: "shoot and you will miss and hit Yuno". He then proceeds to shoot anyway and it doesn't hit Yuno at all. I'm saying all of this to prove one point only, that this shitty series has no sense of danger at all. Even if their diaries were to tell them that there is 0 chance in survival, they would STILL find a way to survive and win. At one point in the show, someone even took Yukiteru's diary from him, and he REFUSED to kill him. How the hell can people consider this anime entertaining when you know the main characters will NEVER lose? WHY do the villains in this anime flat out REFUSE to kill the main two characters?
When I first started watching this anime, I thought that it would be an anime with lots of strategy and mind games. Unfortunately that isn't the case. There is zero strategy involved in anything. Not in the fights, not the battles in general. If Yuno has a problem with anyone, she'll just kill them. Apparently she's an expert marskman and a skilled swordsmen? Where the hell did any of this come from? How in the hell is a 14 year old child an expert swordsman and marksman? This is just god awful writing. The writers pretty much just said fuck it, we don't need strategy in this anime, lets just make Yuno solve every conflict by cutting them down. Rather than win battles with strategy and wits, Yuno and Yuki win their battles by simply just cutting their enemies down like it's nothing. This is why it always makes me laugh when people compare this anime to Death Note. Light Yagami wins his fights by using strategy, these two fucking idiots solve every conflict with brute force. This is the exact same problem I had with Code Geass R2, not having any strategy and always solving conflicts with brute force. This is just awful writing at its finest.
How many times in this series did Yuno and Yuki keep switching sides? First they ally with one person, then another, then another, and it goes on and on. And they end up betraying and killing everyone they ally with. The writers literally don't know what the fuck their doing with the series. I'll talk more about this later on in the review. Next i'll be talking about the shitty characters.
This is one of the few anime I've watched that made me root for the villains rather than our main characters. The main reason for that is because the two main characters are fucking terrible. Neither of them are likeable, and neither of them have an ounce of depth to their character. Now I'll be talking about both of these awful characters and why they're complete shit.
Yukitero Amano, one of the worst main characters I've seen in anime. There was not an ounce in character development with him at all. At one point in the series he just suddenly starts acting edgy for no apparent reason. That's not character development. Listen up people, there's a difference between character development and character 180s. Character development is a change in a character over time, and there should be a reason for that change. Yuki has no character development whatsoever and that's final.
Yuki is just a shittier version of Igarashi Ganta from Deadman Wonderland and also Shinji Ikari from NGE. The main difference between them though is that Ganta and Shinji are actually far more realistic characters.There was no realism to be found in Yukis character at all. He continues to stick around Yuno knowing that she's a fucked up person. Knowing that she has done some fucked up shit and even attempted to KILL him, he continues to team up with her? At one point, she even tied him to a fucking chair and his friends had to fucking save him. He even picks Yuno over his harmless friends. If you've watched this anime then you know what part I'm talking about. Even when he could've been free from her, he CONTINUES to be around her and fall for her. What in the absolute fuck is that?
I have no idea why people like Yuno Gasai. She's the most stereotypical yandere you can think of. I already know how she would be like before I even watched this anime. Now that's weird. Why the fuck does a cliche yandere have so many people that like her? No unique character traits whatsoever, has no good reason for her actions, and has absolutely no character development at all. It's funny because she actually had a moment to develop as a character, but the writers fucked it up big time. I thought that she would change and start putting more trust into Yuki's friends. She did for a moment, until she eventually went back to how she originally was since the beginning. The writers just fucking reset all of the development she has received, and turned her right back into the stereotypical yandere character people love her for. So yeah, that's all she really is: a generic yandere with zero unique character traits.
And again, when in the flying fuck did she learn how to use a sword? How is a 14 year old skilled enough to do any of this? It's very pathetic how this series uses garbage action scenes to progress the plot.
Most of the other characters in this anime are irrelevant and not worth mentioning. The only other character worth mentioning is 9th.
9th actually had the potential to be a great character, but unfortunately she ended up being complete and utter garbage like the rest of them. She starts off as a terrorist, and just being a stereotypical villain. And then she becomes more badass and badass. Well she is essentially just a Revy rip off, but she was at least the most interesting character in the anime. She becomes trash the moment she spares Yukiteru's life. There was literally no reason to spare his life at all. Yukiteru was sleeping right in front of her, and she decides to not to kill him for no reason at all. Then next time they meet, she wants to fucking kill him. And then next time she wants to team up with him, and then next time she wants to kill him.
The writers have NO fucking clue what they're doing with the series! They need to make up their god damn minds before ever trying to make an anime again. This is just sloppy writing. There are many instances of characters just randomly changing their objectives with little to none explanation at all!
Now since this is a review, I have to not only point out the negatives, but also the positives. To be completely honest, I don't know if I can do that. The only interesting thing about this anime was the premise, but this goes back to what I was saying before. Having an interesting premise doesn't make an anime interesting. The only thing that matters is execution. When it comes to execution, this anime is poorly executed and poorly written garbage. Not even the music was good for me. The opening fucking sucks and I had to skip it every episode. The background tracks were not noticeable in the slightest. So yeah, there literally is nothing good about this anime.
Now onto the animation and art style. Well first things first, the art style isn't anything special. It's just the typical art style most anime had around that time. The animation wasn't bad at first, but then it got fucking terrible real fast. The last couple episodes had the worst animation I have ever seen in my life! I shit you not, the animation was so fucking bad. The worst part about it is that they didn't go back and redo those episodes with shitty animation. They actually thought that releasing that shit to the public was ok!?? I remember back when everyone was shitting on Dragon Ball Super episode 5, but at least they went back and redid it. I'm specifically talking about the episode when 9th fought that one loli towards the end. The animation was god awful and just a fucking eyesore.
Overall, this anime is a straight up 0/10. The only thing it did for me was make me laugh at how stupid it was. Bad storytelling, bad characters, boring action scenes, bad animation. plot holes and inconsistencies, plot armor, and the list goes on and on. This series is absolute garbage and I recommend you stay away from it.
