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.