Mirai Nikki
Future Diary

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To me Mirai Nikki is a truly unique manga. It's the only work of fiction that I've come across that somehow manages to be "so bad it's good" while also being damn good! Sometimes it comes of as so silly that I laugh at it, but still I find myself genuinely interested in what will happen next. I don't know how it manages to pull this off, usually when I laugh at how a plot twist or element is stupid (in some other manga) I would begin to feel that the entire manga is stupid and bad. But not with Mirai Nikki! This paradoxical quality ... intrigues me. But maybe I'm alone in feeling like this towards this manga.

The story of this manga is at times really clever and complicated. The concept for the story is good and the manga has a lot of cliffhangers and unsolved mysteries so you'll easily get hooked. The pacing is mostly good, but some random scenes can be a bit slow. While the plot as a whole is thought out, sometimes it honestly makes no sense and some scenes just feel fail and silly. Still this is part of its charm.

The art is okay. It's pretty standard "nothing special"-manga style and it does what it's supposed to. Some expressions can be a bit over the top but for most of the time it works.

Some of the characters here are truly great, but the vast majority of them are pretty boring and forgettable. However Mirai Nikki has the most Yandere Yandere ever! And she is awesome! She alone is reason enough to read this manga.

Overall I found this manga very enjoyable. But sometimes it was enjoyable because of the wrong reasons. So even tough I enjoyed it I don't consider it to be a truly great manga. It's no masterpiece or work of art but it'll keep you entertained and I recommend reading it. :)

Okay, now, I know I'll certainly get a lot of people who'll dislike this right now only for the low rating. But holy potatoes, this manga is one of the most overrateds I've ever seen. And with this I hope I can get someone not to waste their time reading the manga Mirai Nikki (or Future Diary, whatever you want to call it).

Now, let's begin the review. Well, first of course I'm going to say what I think about the story, and there's not much to say about it really. It isn't good, it's far from that. The manga had everything to be very good, ... but it screwed everything up. And when I mean everything, it is everything, from plot to characters. I found it interesting when I read, at least the beggining. But... Dude, the story develops in a very weak and forced way, that makes it almost a non-sense plot.
The way that violence and murder is treated during the story is just ridiculous, and completely useless. I even think the manga would be better if all the non-sense fighting and carnage were abscent from it almost completely. Look, I understand it is a survival game, where you need to kill people. But, seriously... At first I was surprised in seeing that the manga would focus more on the intelectual side (plans, strategies and such). But, of course, I was wrong. Because it only focus during the first few chapters, turning then into a game where you only make a plan full of flaws and then kill someone that also was chosen for the survival game.

The story has indeed strong points, like some of the mysteries involving the game itself and lots of other things which would be spoilers, so, I would usually tell you to go read and find out what those mysteries were, however, don't do that, please. Even if they are something that sorts of pushes you into reading more, when you find out it is in a strange way that doesn't actually surprises you like in most stories out there.

Also one thing that truly irritated me was the fact that the characters were just horrible. Literally, horrible. Yukiteru (the main character) was ridiculous, annoying, and looked like a crying baby almost all of the time during the beggining of the manga. And when you think he'll slowly develop his personality, what happens? Nothing. And suddenly he changes into a strong boy who can handle weapons and kill lots of men with Yuno. That's just ridiculous. It would've not seem strange if the development of the character wasn't sudden or it could've been "hidden" underneath the story if that one was actually good.
Then we have Yuno Gasai, the only great character in the story, but she couldn't save it of course. Her personality is very interesting even for me, who personally doesn't enjoy yandere that much. Her strange affection for Yukiteru can be odd sometimes, and even annoying, however, it is interesting and, of course, odd in a good way. But, unfortunately, she wasn't able to save the manga in my opinion. But of course without her I wouldn't be able to give a 5 as the rating.
Then, apart from Yuno (and Uryuu who I will talk about in a momment) all the other characters are dumb and have no depth on their personalities at all, even if a few may seem appealing some times, like Akise who wanted to be a detective, and was supposed to help on the intelectual part of the story, and also, the terrorist Uryuu Minene who was meant to have a tragic and sad past, but we cannot feel much about her, since this past isn't worked a lot during the story. However she probably is a, let's say... Medium-Good character that I personally cared a little about for.

And also, I would like to point that out: I didn't care for any character except from Uryuu and Yuno. Literally, when a character died, I showed no emotion for them, it doesn't matter who it was. Characters are the weakest point in Mirai Nikki, without a doubt.

The ending of the manga totally screwed up. It is a completely stupid, dumb and ridiculous plot-twist with no basis. A manga which could have a medium-quality story ended up with an ending that was just baseless. The first plot twist is just dumb, but tolerable. However, after what we all should think was the ending, there's the thing that just crushed the story in pieces and was only for those who want every story to have a stupid cliche ending.

Moving now to a different topic, we are going to talk about art. Well, the art of the manga is not bad, and not surprising. It is okay in most parts, mediocre in others and can even impress a little on... Oh no, sorry, it doesn't surprise you. Most fights on manga and anime are made with dinamic movements and poses that gets you excited to see what more that fight is going to present you. Not in Mirai Nikki. Though the explosions are pretty well drawn - something that is, in most mangas, pretty simple and sometimes unrealistic - the rest of the fights doesn't pushes you on to wanting to know more about everything that is happening. They are not exciting, not well-drawn at all from an artistic point of view, and also, are most of the times useless to the story to develop, and only are put there to prolongue it more and more.
The character designs aren't bad, but aren't very good. That is what the art presents, it's nothing awesome or stunning, but also it isn't just blurry images or characters and shade-less images like lots of shounen manga today (you probably know which ones I'm talking abou).

But of course, the art didn't count much for me to give the final score, so the bad storyline, awful characters and the abscence of excitment and stunning mysteries still overthrow the somehow good art the manga presents.

Well, since there is nothing too much about the story, the enjoyment truly isn't something I can give a high rating. I have to admit I enjoyed the manga for the first few chapters, however, that was the time where I had no experience with actual good anime and manga except for Death Note and Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebelion, so, after I discovered great anime and manga I also discovered that Mirai Nikki was nothing but an "okay" series.

Overall: 5/10

All in all, Mirai Nikki isn't great in any of its aspects, okay on the art, mediocre on the story and awful on the characters the plot shows the readers, us. It is completely overrated, and people shouldn't be reading manga/watching anime like this one, because there are a lot of short ones that presents a much deeper storyline, better characters and outstanding art.
No, I don't reccomend Mirai Nikki (neither manga, neither anime) to anyone who is reading this review, search more for other anime and manga, because this one is only going to get your time wasted. And please, don't spend money on buying volumes from this. I'm trying to help you, but well...

If you're a fan of the series, and you are reading this review, well, I'm pretty sure you're going to click the "not helpful" button. And if you wish, you can do that. Just don't considerate the final rating as a review, I tried my best to talk about each and every aspect of the manga, saying the good points and bad as well.

Why did we decide to call it a spoon? Does the breakfast club exist? Is this intro eye catching enough or should I just cut this grandiose intro crap everyone does go back to straight out harassment of the manga?

How on earth does this manga have a fanbase?

This manga is so, so terrible. I do not understand at all the high rating. Is...is this like a troll rating thing? If so, please tell me and restore some of my faith in humanity

Please.

but more than likely, and sadly, this doesn't appear to be a troll fanbase. People actually think this...this thing is good for some ... inexplicable reason

This mangaka has no concept of transitions - we are quite literally thrown from arc to arc without a care in the world. It got to the point where I actually thought I was missing pages or chapters.

Arcs are thrown into your face without any explanation, characters appear out of nowhere - there is no foreshadowing nor people actually lurking in the shadows; one moment you will be looking at a shrine, and on the next page you'll be in a cave with some random person for one panel, and thats the last you see of them for the chapter, so when they get hurled into your face again, it immediately jerks a "who the fuck is that?" response over and over.

And dear fuck, the deus ex machina.

Yeah, yeah, I know what you might be thinking - "OH TEE HEE DEUX EX MACHINE THATS THE NAME OF THAT GOD PERSON IN THE MANGA HES DOING IT ON PURPOSE!!!"

No. If the mangaka is doing this on purpose, hes a moron. If he's not, hes still a moron. There is absolutely no meaning whatsoever to the plot-deux-ex-machina. At all. It's not satire on other mangas, its not some game changing plot device abuse, its not the breakfast club, its just total shit.

This manga actually appears to only annoy the living fuck out of people with its inconsistencies. And I don't mean a kind of minor annoyance, like the inconsistency of a pudding. This level of inconsistency is like being hurled around in a plane that drops to ground level about 50 times from 10 thousand feet up in 1 minute.

That's not even possible.

At many points throughout the manga I felt that it would've been better if the characters did not speak. Not for dramatic effect, but just because all the characters are fucking morons and should keep their mouths shut the hell up. This is most prominent in the "transition" page we get every few chapters. Completely full of shit that makes no sense. It might seem like I'm being dismissive here - and that's because I am. This manga should simply have been dismissed from the editing office, but instead, we're here and I have to write this review to sate my massive why-the-fuck-who-the-fuck-where-the-fuck headache.

The sole redeeming point of this manga, aside from it having a yandere, is how the main character changed at the end of the series. He actually became a pretty cool guy, and made the last few chapters actually enjoyable.

Unfortunately that does not change the fact that this manga is shit. What I would compare this to is you being force fed shit, literally, for the majority of your life, but for the last few days, you get pudding. Just a normal pudding, ya know? But compared to the shit you've been fed, that pudding is god. It also helps that your tongue is probably numb from all the shit

I actually recommend you read SOME of this manga, especially if any of you are interested in writing. This manga will provide a perfect example of what not to do for transitions, storyline, and will make sure you thoroughly check your work for swiss cheese.

If you choose to read the entirety of this manga, please: remember what you've been fed for the majority of your life.