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If you are looking for an exciting deathmatch in which every single mistake bears irreversible consequences and breaking out of a tough spot requires flawless reasoning, I sincerely recommend you giving up on a forced romance that is Mirai Nikki.

The truth is, even the brightest premise can't shine if it's burried under horrible writing. This story doesn't progress as a natural result of made decisions - instead, characters are bent in order to make it move. As so, obstacles aren't overcome by brilliant ideas and hard work but either convenient coincidences or luck. Since "nonsense" is the leading word for action scenes, not even a ... bunch of qualified professionals can dream of fending off the almighty psychopatic girl. Add to this out of place comedy reliefs and behold the decaying remnants of tension. Let's not forget about explosives and traps which are just there, without any rational explanation of being set beforehand. Although these inconsistencies don't look like grave failures, they were enough to make me stop treating this show seriously pretty early. That, on the other hand, is a fatal mistake in a build-up to the incoming drama.

However, when it comes to ruining the deadly and insecure atmosphere of a battle royale, I have no doubts that characters and their irrational behaviour take the lead. The main protagonists are far beyond having a plot armor - the whole world is constructed in a way that ensures their victory. With that said, their struggles lack of meaningful impact, so there's no need for them to reflect and change. Yukiteru Amano is often described as a pitiful loser, but is it possible for someone like him to hold on in the survival game without any redeeming qualities? He's merely a depending on others coward whose convincing development ended up at awkwardly swinging a weapon once in a while. As soon as stalking and possessiveness were outwardly portrayed as signs of deep care, I bid farewell to his potential to grow. Thus, the main character's strength in this deathmatch isn't courage, determination or inspiring attitude - it's his overwhelmingly powerful and insane ally, Yuno Gasai. She displays features of a mary sue as not only her combat abilities are unmatched, but also she can outwit enemies without much effort. Even if things don't progress according to her plan, she's not affected by consequences and her abuse is quickly forgiven. As the result, just like Yukiteru is free to stay weak if he relies on her, she doesn't have to strive to become a better person in order to reach her goal. I do believe the portrayal of Yuno is one of the most problematic aspects of this series.

Since the characters who are given the most screen time are devoid of depth, nothing more can be expected from the other diary holders. I can't deny that they are diverse, though they do have two things in common. Firstly, each of them is over-the-top. Creating a candidate for the Deus' throne is easy - all you have to do is think about a driving motivation or a single trait from any category and take it to the extreme. Needless to say, enemies made like that are one-dimensional, though their cardboard textures are ineffectively concealed by either giving them a second feature which is contrasting to the first one or presenting a tragic backstory. The other similiarity is that they like to make their lives harder by playing around, so that they lose the perfect opportunity to kill the main duo or have a change of heart that results in helping them. If getting out of the toughtest situation without painful losses is this easy, the suspense is gone. What is yet another proof of the lazy writing, the narrative tries to convince us that a few kind lines are more than sufficient to quickly gain friends willing to sacrifice their lives for one's sake. Besides, a lot of relatively important questions are left unanswered, including the very origin of the survival game.

The situation does become more dramatic in the last part, but the crucial problem remains: why would I care? As a viewer, I should be at least a bit attached to the protagonists and root for them after witnessing a plenty of their difficult battles towards the final destination. Looking back at the previous episodes, I'm supposed to be proud of how far they have come to stand here. None of these is present in Mirai Nikki as every conflict was resolved before leaving depressing mental scares. The triggering point of above mentioned drama was already implausible, but not as terrible as Yukiteru's reaction to it which brought out a reverse character development in a disguise. Therefore, the ending seemed to be dragged out to me and, despite of that, it didn't feel complete. It lacked of a convincing build-up and didn't make a coherent entirety with the rest of the story.

With the exception of art and sound which are just fine, I can't find any strong points in Mirai Nikki. It doesn't have any memorable scenes, so I'm sure I'll forget it within a few days, though it wasn't a particularly dreadful watch either. As this show made it clear in what direction it was heading, I can't talk about disappointment here, despite being strongly against such a turn of events. At the very least, I don't regret trying to find out the reason behind its popularity - that, however, still remains a mystery to me.