Many people are surprised when they see how I "averagely" I rated Mirai Nikki. After all, it's managed to obtain a huge amount of fans, especially for characters like the "lovely" Yuno Gasai. And it's not for nothing; the series has a very original plot that I can't say I've seen before even if it's, in its most basic form, a last-man-standing sadism game, similar to series such as Battle Royale.
Anyway, so, why the bad rating? Simple. The characters. They are among the worstly developed and most unrealistic characters I have ever witnessed in any anime and/or manga. Funny considering what attracts the most amount
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of viewers is actually the characters, namely Yuno and Minene, and dare I say, sometimes even Hirasaka (also known as the weird Power Ranger with a balloon for a head).
I feel the need to explain this better though, mostly because otherwise I'll be bashed by fans on how the characters are extremely well developed and have amazing psychological facters well explained in the anime. Well... that's false.
Why? I'll explain it character by character. Do not worry, I'll warn if there's gonna be a spoiler.
Okay, let's start with the fan favorite, Yuno, one of the best characters in the series indeed. The fact that she's a psychopath-stalker hides well behind the charade of her meek and cute character, and the events behind why she's insane make perfect sense, after all *SPOILER ALERT* you'd have to have an amazing mental fortress to be able not to go crazy when your crazy mother sticks you in a cage without food just because. *SPOILER END*
Yuno, honestly, I don't have TOO much of a problem with...
But now it's time to get hardcore. My favorite character is Minene, because she's just an awesome badass. Problem; she's a terrorist bomber. A terrorist. She kills innocents just because, and at the beginning of the series kills pretty much all of Yukiteru's classmates except for a couple lucky ones... yet afterwards everyone seems to forget the fact that she's a terrorist and she becomes a cute/badass tsundere... while she's awesome, that's a ridiculous flaw. Also *SPOILER* the fact that a cop falls in love with her and marries her despite her being a mass killer is just laughable. Also, that she has plenty of chances to kill Yukiteru but doesn't for absolutely no logical reason is yet to be explained o_O *SPOILER END*
I've really elongated this a bit too much so I'm just gonna skip to the biggest piece of f****ed up s***t in the series, Yukiteru. From here on out there's gonna be a lot of spoilers so if you haven't seen the series just jump to the last paragraph D:
First, he starts of as a whimp. Then, he gets the diary... and remains a whimp. Sure, all okay for now. Then he falls for Yuno despite for her being a stalker...then discovers that she has dead people in a room of her house, that she logically didn't think of hiding or anything. Why even, when it's perfectly hidden in a huge fucking room O_O
So, he discovers that yet doesn't tell a cop who he knows and just so happens to also be a diary owner... why? No reason. Instead he decides to act like he saw nothing and STILL HANGS OUT WITH YUNO! Sure he acts scared, but that doesn't change the fact he keep staying in the vicinity of a stalking, psycopathic killer... next we have how a new friend of Yukiteru's later reveals herself to be the daughter of a diary owner and tries to kill him... and her innocent friend who seemed adorable also tries to kill people because why not. Then Yuki does some random motivational speech and they are all friends again... even though one of them almost died after being stabbed by another one of them... NEXT UP! Yukiteru's divorcee father turns out to be a royal asshole who leaves Yuki in a falling building to die while he escapes with the last parachute... and then kills Yuki's mother accidentaly on purpose... and Yuki then decidedly forgives him and wants to see fireworks with him...AND I'M JUST GETTING STARTED GUYS! I also have to add a ton of scenes in a ton of episodes in which Yuki discovers from freaky shit from Yuno, freaks out and stays away from her for an ep or two, and then gets back together with her. Constantly. Like, every 5 episodes. At least. Also, remember how Yuki is supposedly psychologically growing due to all the stress and hardships? Yeah, there actually gets to a point where he apparently doesn't care anymore and starts to kill everyone just to win... two episodes later, mental breakdown, and he drops right back to how he had begun the series. As a worthless whimp. Great psychological evolution, great indeed.
Now as for other flaws I want to point out. Apart from the diaries and Deus, we can more or less see that the world is supposedly our world... so then how is it explained that Hirasaka can create clones of himself and hypnotise people? How come the mayor not only talks to Deus, which we can push aside as the same with Yuki, but also somehow was able to, by himself, create the diares? How does a baby manage to get himself a ton of lethal armament and a gas mask? And forward mail? BEING A BABY? How come Yuno's father, apparently normal, knows that his wife is sick enough to stick his daughter inside of a cage without food for an entire day and doesn't do absolutely anything?
...as for a final scene, mayor spoiler here of course, I want to add that the ending, despite looking like a "happy ending", with every character o so happy and such... we have to remember that that's just a different dimension. Those are other people. In our present Yuki's real dimension, he killed his friends. They are dead. Forever. They ain't coming back and they know who killed him. That "happy ending" is practically just an illusion. It's like watching a war film where everyone dies but then showing a happy family on the other side of the planet with no care in the world. Sure, they are happy, but our main characters arent'. Not one bit.
Final paragraph here. So, in general, character development, character psychology... saying this series has it is an insult to psychology... this series is as realistic as Fairy Tail, although luckily this series isn't as bad as that one.
It looks like I've ripped this series apart, and I won't say I haven't but its still got good things. The story, as I said, is really original and has some unexpected twists, the art is for the most part excelent and its quite enjoyable. The opening and ending songs are also a pleasant treat to listen to. So, good things are plot, art, music and general entertainment, but sadly it's not enough to cover the horrendous and blatantly terrible characters within.
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Aug 31, 2014
Mirai Nikki (TV)
(Anime)
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Many people are surprised when they see how I "averagely" I rated Mirai Nikki. After all, it's managed to obtain a huge amount of fans, especially for characters like the "lovely" Yuno Gasai. And it's not for nothing; the series has a very original plot that I can't say I've seen before even if it's, in its most basic form, a last-man-standing sadism game, similar to series such as Battle Royale.
Anyway, so, why the bad rating? Simple. The characters. They are among the worstly developed and most unrealistic characters I have ever witnessed in any anime and/or manga. Funny considering what attracts the most amount ... 
Apr 20, 2014
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
(Anime)
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It's very hard to get great manga and give it justice with an anime, as we can constantly witness in countless anime. Censors, fillers, etc; they get what we love and in one too many occasions ruin it.
This is definitely not one of those cases. In fact, its the exact opposite. Following the criteria of "if it isn't broken, don't fix it", Bones Studios gets the flawless FMA manga and delivers us a nearly perfect adaptation, following the manga closely with very few deviations. Fluid animation makes the already intense battles just so much more impactful. The characters are imperfect and relatable, each have their different ... 
Apr 20, 2014
Fairy Tail
(Manga)
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Intriguing plot. Unique and original world. Well developed characters. Amazingly epic and suspensful battles.
Fairy Tail is none of these. When I was first introduced to this manga, it sounded like it knew where it was going. It seemed to have a plot, interesting secrets and mysteries. So far the biggest mystery to me is how Natsu isn't the Guildmaster of Fairy Tail as well as the strongest of the Ten Wizard Saints. As I sat reading chapter after chapter, I watched how characters 10 times stronger than Natsu were defeated by apparently overpowered foes, only for Natsu to stand up, eat some random flame, ... |
