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Notice: some spoilers will be present in this review, despite my best efforts; I've made them as vague as possible, but sorry about that anyway.

Another advertises itself as a mystery horror anime; its premise is definitely interesting and right off the bat the production values look promising. Unfortunately, the show starts to fall apart halfway through, the mystery leaves you with many, MANY questions of the wrong kind and is so serious yet so over-the-top that the "horror" tag might as well be read as "comedy".

This show is a prime example of a promising story being told in the worst manner imaginable. The beginning is ... strong, then it starts going downhill in the middle, with the last stretch being just a mess. This is mostly because of how the mystery is handled: at first, Another does a good job at being mysterious and creepy. You know something's up, yet you don't get many clues or even get thrown off the path to the truth. You (may) feel on edge, yet you have no idea why. Obviously, those are the signs of a good mystery. Unfortunately, it doesn't last - pretty much everything about the mysterious curse is revealed and explained long before the final stretch. The only detail that wasn't exposed was the curse's catalyst for that year. This is quite possibly one of the most disastrous moves I've ever seen in an anime, since from that point onwards the characters get almost nothing accomplished and are just swept along by the flow. They don't even TRY to figure out the last, most important piece of the puzzle, making a considerable part of the show very boring... at least, that's what it would've been if the death scenes weren't taken up to eleven.

Let me stop talking about the plot here for a moment to comment about the death scenes, which are probably the reason why you've heard about Another. Some are creative. Some are nasty. All of them are over-the-top, to the point where they can be hilarious. Sure, many of them serve as cheap shock value to keep the viewer interested, but I'll be damned if they didn't do their twisted, morbid little job well. As soon as the first person dies, a (maybe hidden) part of you wants to keep watching to see if there'll be an even more exaggerated and ridiculous death in the series; hell, the laws of physics seem to be altered every other moment just so this can be done.

Anyway, back to the plot. Perhaps one of the show's biggest flaws is that the supernatural elements are never properly explained. Okay, so many years ago someone popular from the class died, and ever since then that very class has been subject to a devastating curse. Why does that happen? Aside from the curse's annual catalyst, nothing is ever explained about it. It just happens. There's also an issue with dead people and memories (can't talk more about it without giving a big spoiler). Again, why does that happen and how? Never explained. Your guess is as good as mine, really, and if you want to know, mine is that the Grim Reaper has enough spare time to screw around with middle school students every year. Finally, Another also commits two writing sins that really annoy me: the first one is that, in multiple occasions, cell phones will malfunction for no reason whatsoever while characters are holding important conversations. This is a blatant diabolus ex machina and only serves to cheapen the writing. Second, at one point a character we've never seen before goes nuts. The problem is that the reason for that is lazily handwaved, making it seem like a poor excuse just to up the chaos even more. Speaking of chaos, let me ask one very simple question: why is the school still open? Over half a dozen people die there almost every year, yet the authorities never did something about it? And if that's the (really illogical) case, then why in the world are people still enrolling their kids there? This isn't a question that stems from deep thought, IT'S COMMON SENSE.

The sound department is hit-or-miss. The BGM itself is not bad; while it's sometimes effectively used to create a good, tense atmosphere, it's also misused some other times, and it's not very memorable. The OP, however, is just bad. The imagery fits, but the song feels incredibly out of place and is nothing special either. Same goes for the ED. As for the voice acting, it's... OK. Nothing amazing, yet nothing particularly bad either.

Another's greatest weakness is its characters. I don't think they even deserve to be called that - "amoebas" is more fitting, as they display the intelligence and personality of a single-celled being, and that's IF the characters in question have any "relevance" to the plot; if not, "death fodder" fits the bill quite nicely. For starters, we have the protagonist, Kouichi. When the body count starts to rise and his classmates desperately tell him to lay low before someone else dies, what does he do? Keep trying to find out what's going on. Hell, at one point he thought a doll was a REAL PERSON. And guess what? Aside from his stupidity and some stalker tendencies, there is nothing remarkable about him. Even worse is Mei, who is proof that Rei Ayanami expies get carte blanche from the anime fandom no matter what they do. Not only does she have no personality to speak of, in the last few episodes she reveals that she knew the answer to the mystery all along AND withheld a piece of very important info from everyone else. Because of some stupid, never-explained power she has. So basically, everything that happened, all the chaos, bodies and paranoia, almost all of the show, ALL OF IT probably wouldn't have happened if she OPENED HER MOUTH IN THE BEGINNING. Her reason for not revealing the truth doesn't make it any less aggravating.

The supporting cast is just as bad. Even the named ones, some of which have quite a bit of screen time, are so forgettable I don't even remember their names. The only memorable thing about them is, as usual, their lack of brains: one guy - who looks like a girl - likely has NO common sense, as he shows very delicate evidence to emotionally unstable girls; this, surprise surprise, makes them go berserk. Then there's a girl with twintails who wants to stop the calamity; there is almost always a character like this in horror/mystery movies, and she is so loyal to that common, predictable archetype that a savvy viewer will easily know everything that she will do/will happen to her before half of the anime has gone by. But worst of all is the blonde guy. While he arguably has the most "personality" out of the cast, this jackass is the group's idiot, and he EARNS the title. No, seriously, you heard me right, he accomplishes such a DIFFICULT GODDAMN FEAT with ease. His crowning moment of stupidity? Forcibly removing a tape AS IT'S PLAYING from the player to make it stop. Remember: this anime takes place in 1998, when tapes weren't the ancient forgotten technology they are today. Ladies and gentlemen, this is something else.

To make things worse, the blonde had some TOUGH competition for the title of "most brain-dead character" in this anime. You see, a little over halfway through we learn that one of the old students discovered something very important about the curse. He even made a "copy" of that knowledge for future generations. Only one problem: HE HIDES THE DAMNED THING IN AN ABANDONED SCHOOL BUILDING. The thought of handing it over to the school's staff or the police never crossed his mind? Brilliant, just brilliant. There are plenty of more characters, but really, you're not gonna care or even remember about any of them because they're pretty much just going along for the ride to the slaughterhouse.

If there's something that nobody can deny about Another, is that it looks good. The animation is very nice and fluid, with some obvious bumps in quality during the death scenes. The backgrounds have a great amount of detail, being sometimes nothing short of gorgeous. The lighting is good as well, which is great for creating the ideal atmosphere for each situation, something crucial for horror works. It's a shame, really; the anime didn't deserve this quality.

In conclusion, Another is a mess. It may be pretty, morbidly entertaining and have a strong, interesting beginning, but it is unfortunately plagued with bad, forgettable characters, a terribly mishandled mystery, half-hearted or straight up missing explanations and many other writing flaws. It serves as a great example for what not to do in the mystery horror genre, and I wouldn't recommend it - unless you like tearing apart bad works of fiction as you're watching them or find over-the-top deaths to be hilarious.

Thank you for reading this review.

Notice: this review will contain a few spoilers. I'll mark them but if you haven't watched this yet, proceed with caution. Sorry about that.

Survival games have always been one of my favorite kinds of stories. I just love them. So naturally, when I heard about Mirai Nikki's premise, I was greatly looking forward to it. Unfortunately, after an excellent first episode, this series began to get worse and worse; by the end of it all, it had become nothing but a huge disappointment.

Let's begin with the positive aspects of this show. The art and animation in Mirai Nikki are, for the most part, rather good, ... but nothing very impressive. As for character designs, it's pretty hit-and-miss. Some characters look OK, while others are so ridiculous it makes the anime seem/feel less serious than it should be, which is NOT a good thing for a thriller/mystery.

The music is great. Most of the tracks are somewhat memorable and fit their scenes well. The OPs and EDs are also very nice, with the first OP being particularly awesome. I never skipped them. Voice acting-wise, everyone does a solid, consistent job, except for Yuno's seiyuu. I'm sorry, but her voice was annoying and hearing that infamous "Yukki!" every god damn minute was painful.

Now let's get to the bad stuff. While the premise is amazing, the story & script are very poorly written. Thing is, Mirai Nikki is a shounen trying (and failing) to be a seinen; thus, it lacks the maturity and depth needed to handle the kind of story it offers. Many questions are left unanswered, some of the writing choices are just plain stupid, half of the characters have a very low IQ and, for a mystery, there aren't that many twists, and those the anime DOES have are often predictable.

The whole concept of using Future Diaries to outsmart opponents in deadly, tense battles is BARELY explored, plus the battles themselves seldom involve complexity. When you've got tools as powerful as those, you'd think there'd be gambits just piling up on each other, but no. Many battles are over within a minute and are so basic it's insulting. Speaking of insulting, this show has a nasty tendency to have its world just forget about some of the big events related to the diary holders. Normally the media would be all over a series of bombings, massacres, etc... but here? Nah, it's just Tuesday again. It's astonishing how everyone can easily get away from anything.

Another problem with this anime is its bad habit of throwing in bits of humor in the middle of serious moments. It really kills the atmosphere and it's not funny. Even in the more lighthearted scenes it's not funny. Since we're talking about the atmosphere, have I mentioned that some details in crucial moments are overlooked, which obliterates the immersion? Empty hospitals, incompetent cops, silent bystanders...it's the little things that can make or break the mood. A shame, really, because the anime IS able to create a good, creepy atmosphere at times (ex.: the end of episode 3).

Remember what I said about there being a lot of predictable twists? I kinda lied. The biggest twist in the whole story, which unfolds in the last few episodes, took me by surprise. Did it make sense? Well, yes, at least until the anime began to blatantly make shit up on the spot. Did it answer a few questions? For sure. Did it raise even more questions - most of which remain unanswered - and present to us an INCREDIBLY STUPID twist later? OH YES.

Now for the worst part of it all. The characters. If you're already angry at me, stop reading because I will not be gentle.

For starters we have the male protagonist, Yukiteru (or just Yuki). This guy. Let me tell you something about this guy: he might just be one of the worst written characters I have ever seen. No hyperbole there. Not because he's a wimp 95% of the time - I can understand why. No-one normal would stay frosty after being dragged into a survival game full of maniacs. So why is he so bad then? It's because he's absurdly inconsistent. Most selective memory of all time, gullible when not paranoid (never with the correct timing), ability to forgive that defies common sense and, later on, he can't even settle on a personality (which seems to run in the family). Worst part is, his personality shift happens suddenly; he gets almost no development for 18 or so episodes then BAM! complete 180. If you're going to change a character's attitude, make sure it isn't baffling and that it sticks.

Then we have our female protagonist, Yuno, the main source of yandere-ness, fanservice and body bags. THE poster girl of Mirai Nikki, to the point where she may be more popular than the show itself - just look at how many favorites she has here at MAL. The creator knew of this, so s/he made her the most complex character in the whole cast and genuinely fun to watch. Unfortunately, that complexity only really shows up in the last few episodes, so until then she's pretty much a one note character - crush, kill, Yukki!. Moreover, the yandere trait eventually wears off, meaning she can get kinda annoying afterwards, even with all the carnage she provides. If it cannot wear off for you, then Mirai Nikki will be considerably more entertaining. Either way, Yuno was a hit-or-miss character for me.

The supporting cast - Yuki's friends and the other diary holders - is where it gets ugly. Out of the former group, the ONLY truly memorable character (and, might I add, one of the few characters in this anime that I liked) is the intelligent Akise. His personality and abilities are a perfect match for this kind of story, which is a shame because he didn't get enough screen time. The other three, despite getting some things accomplished, end up being inept at almost everything, to the point that Akise pretty much has to carry the team.

As for the other diary holders...just where do I begin? For starters, they're pretty much all insane or very dangerous individuals, except for maybe 2 of them; that alone raises a pretty important question: "why did Deus even consider letting one of those crazy bastards be his successor?". Another problem is that some may as well have "fodder" written on their foreheads: most don't even last for three episodes, plus they're lucky if they get a mediocre, unpolished back story full of cheap shocks to make you feel bad for them.

*SPOILERS PRESENT IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPHS* What kills me is that some of the diary holders are such piles of stupid writing it's absurd. I mean, one of them is a 5-year-old kid who's just as messed up as the others, somehow has access to stuff like toxic gas and who can formulate rather elaborate plans. Another is the mama bear of an orphanage composed of people who are willing to erase anyone for her - dressed as ninjas, no less. Yet another is a blind Power Rangers fanatic who dresses up as an eyeball (and who can somehow bring dolls to life. Never explained!) to fight crime. Remember, this anime takes itself seriously.

There's also the eleventh diary holder, the Hitler wannabe who gave Deus the idea for the diaries. Since the anime never even tries to further explore such an important character, allow me to ask some questions: how did he (or any of the diary holders) meet Deus? Why did Deus even listen to this obviously crazy man? Why future diaries, and not some kind of superpower? By the way, why is Deus decaying? What is MurMur's origin? Why did EVERY ONE of the diary holders only gun for Yuki? The questions pile up fast once the characters are taken into consideration.

Was there not a single diary holder that I liked? The answer is yes. That would be Minene, the ninth, the series' resident internationally wanted terrorist (at the tender age of 18. Seriously). She was pretty awesome and likable for most of her screen time, which made watching her turn into a textbook tsundere even more painful. And let's not talk about her ABSOLUTELY STUPID role in the final marathon of twists. *SPOILERS END HERE*

What about enjoyment? Believe me in this one: if you pay attention to the writing, Mirai Nikki will be painful. The mountain of questions, the absurd decisions that some of the characters make, etc...you just won't get a lot of breaks after the first few episodes. So what if you employ the good ol' "turn off your brain" strategy? It probably won't be all that enjoyable either. As I've said before, this is a shounen trying to be a seinen. You can just FEEL it try. And fail. I don't know about the rest of you, but that really kills the experience for me.

In conclusion, Mirai Nikki is a huge disappointment. Its messy story and weak characters are simply not fit for the genre it belongs to. Even if the art was OK, even if the soundtrack was great, even if the anime has its moments and holds the potential to be enjoyable should one ignore the writing issues, it simply does not live up to the hype. I'm probably gonna get lynched by its fanbase; however, I don't really care. I'm done. I needed to get this out of my system, and there it is.

Thanks for reading this review.