That being said it is one of the best Fight Series I have ever had the privilege of watching.
The animation is top notch, its nothing less than pure visual porn, stimulating and bright when it needs to be without being too obnoxious while balancing shadow and contrast just right without obscuring the characters completely and to complement the pure eyegasm is probably one of the most solid audio of the season, starting with best opening of the season, every beat of it a perfect compliment to the show about to follow.
The music and sound inside is also very well put together all tied together with a fantastic Voice Cast, a very honourable mention goes to Tomosa Murata who delivers a hauntingly psychotic performance as the leading lady, Yuno Gasai.
Even Mizusu Togashi manages to make the wimpy protagonist, Yukkiteru Amano, sound respectable. But more on Yukki later.
The plot comes along pretty quickly, not 10 minutes into the first episode and we're already being drowned in it.
Yukkiteru Amano, a rather awkward child, lives a life of isolation, although not for lack of trying on anyone else's part, its all a personal choice on his part, spending all his days just watching people go about their days, recording everything that happens around him on his cellphone in Diary format, before going home at the end of the day and doing nothing but sitting on his bed and going over his entries for the day.
It is at this point that we are introduced to Dues Ex Machina (Voiced by Norio Wakamoto) and his lollipop assistant Mur Mur (Voiced by Manami Honda), Yukki's imaginary friends, because apparently he can't be bothered to accept the hands of friendship constantly extended to him at school but has all the time in the world to imagine up 2 non-existent friends and an entire environment for them to inhabit.
But, I digress.
This theme of friendship becomes quickly shoehorned into Yukki's motivations for most anything, as time moves on and he quickly realises just how he's been quashing his need for friends instead of the attitude he is introduced with as not really giving two damns.
But once more, I digress.
I can't really explain more without ruining the plot of episode 1 and a little of episode 2, but in the end it turns out Dues is in fact not Yukki's imaginary friend and instead an Omnipotent God with a fetish for Death Matches who has recruited not only Yukki, but 11 others, into a Battle Royale for the coveted position of God's Successor.
By using Diarys that can predict the future. True story.
Each Diary, as we quickly learn, is unique to each combatant, each one predicting the future differently.
But, the plot is not where the show's strength lies, the true strength is in its characters and their constant development. Except the characters who are only around for a single episode, but they don't really matter.
Each character has a rich, vibrant back story, delving not only into their motivations but also into just what made them the way they are.
There are even little omake type side stories at the end of each episode (Er, besides 9 so far) that go on to explain their receivership of their respective diaries.
And on that note, lets talk about our leads, Yukkiteru Amano and Yuno Gasai. Or as I like to call them, The Stalker and her Wimp.
The Stalker.
To the outside observer, Miss Yuno Gasai is every bit the model student she portrays, smart, athletic and sexy, she is the envy of every girl and the desire of every boy. But beneath the veneer of perfection lies a crazed murderer with an obsessive streak.
Put simply the real Yuno Gasai is Nutso Loco. Yes, with the capitols and everything.
This young lady has developed an absolute obsession with protagonist Yukki, to the point that when her diary is revealed to us, it doesn't tell anything of her future or her surroundings but instead predicts the events circling Yukki and his actions 10 minutes prior to said actions.
Also, as we learn around about episode 6, it isn't the most objective of diaries either.
While we haven't seen to much of her backstory to this point, we have been given pretty clear and disturbing insight into her psyche and into her obsession with Yukkiteru.
Which brings me to my next sticking point.
Yukkiteru Amano is an irritating, manipulative, thick headed, anti-social dick slice. I apologise for the language, but I'm really not sure I could have expressed just how irredeemable a character he is.
Well, no. That might be an over exaggeration, he does get better over the course of the first few episodes, before he becomes a completely different kind of annoying while still retaining alot of the aspects that previously made him annoying without really shedding too much else.
There are moments of Yukki that I do really enjoy (There's a part in episode 7 or 8 where he just bleeds epic) but overall as a character, and more importantly as a Protagonist, I just can't enjoy him that much, and the show suffers for it.
At the end of the day though, as basic as the plot is and as God awful Yukki is, the show is still one of the best of the season with some of the better visuals (I reckon if it gets a little more funding later episodes could be Fate/Zero level) and the music and characters surrounding our protagonist, warts and all, make for a more than enjoyable and quite a unique watch. As far as Fight Series go.
If you haven't seen this yet, or you've been on the fence for the last 9 weeks, I wholeheartedly say give it a shot, you won't be disappointed.
Except with Yukki. Always with Yukki.
