Mirai Nikki [future diary]

Story - 8: The story of Mirai Nikki is really not that creative in my opinion. There are 12 people with cellphones that give them hints about the future. These are called Future Diaries. Once the main character is awakened to his power, he is soon faced with all 12 holders of Future Diaries hunting him. This is definitely a good setup for a tense plot, the only problem is that the situations are often greatly devised, but when it comes to combat, things go really poorly most of the time. The mangaka can definitely write the fights in a way that makes the characters as vulnerable as a normal person rather than having fictional levels of endurance. An attack with a knife would easily mean death.

The Future Diaries are fun because the text shown on them is often fun to read (except for that confusing "I'm golden" "I'm shining" nonsense) and it makes things a bit of a mystery. It is definitely very difficult to tell who the next diary holder is, but these people are often adjusting their allegiance based on what works best for their survival and it makes things unpredictable.

The problem with the fights is that they almost always go to the point of no return, but the main characters manage to be at random places and survive or the enemies are made too one-dimensional after they have gone on the defensive. The absolute worst of the diary holders is the "Power Rangers" style guy. He added nothing to the plot and his character was really fake and he was defeated before he did anything. Then came the fighting couple, which somehow only count as one diary holder (without a real explanation). They are the most stereotypical kickass couple ever and they have a bunch of nonsense tests for the heroes to go through effortlessly.

A bigger problem later on is when the chapters transition to a completely unlinked scene. When I had pretty much given up on this manga, I was going to skip through, but that was the very chapter where they had almost awesome fanservice in a completely unexpected situation. I thought I missed a chapter, but there was no warning that the event would happen. It does not even make sense for Yuno (the shitty yandere) to have done it at all because she was never psychotic with Yuki around.

Art - 8: The character designs are really awesome. Yuki seems like a normal kid, but he looks more effeminate than almost any male we've seen in a manga and he wears a very well-designed jacket. His outfit just gives off the empty feel that is suppose to reside with his character. Yuno is like tailor made in her appearance. She is made taller than Yuki and she also has the face of Jeffrey Dahmer (trust me, she does) which actually looks really cute on her and perfect for a yandere. She looks a lot more natural than pretty much any manga/anime character.

The rest of the 12 holders look really fun. These people all look like Halloween monsters (except the first opponent) but they are actually scarier, or more unsettling than any scary movie creation I have seen before (besides Freddy, of course). The only bad design seems to be that of the little kid (unfortunate since he is probably the best among these characters). His clothing is just too overdone, but he would otherwise have been fine. The best design either goes to the detective, or the mother, who both look quite deformed in a very stylish way that just oozes personality.

The backgrounds are not detailed too much, or at least they looked to flat to be memorable. However, there are quite a few details in the background and anything having to do with fire looks fantastic (which is thankfully a lot).

Character - 4: Unfortunately, the main couple, the child and Akise seem to be the only good characters as far as chapter 33. There are many characters introduced which seem like they would become more fun as time went on, but they are not developed.

Yukkiteru is often a point of criticism, but he is not an inconsistent character at this point. In the beginning, he does indeed have friends, but he is increasingly absorbed into writing life stories into his cellphone. It is Yuno who is first to break his social isolation and when Yuki returns to his friends, he soon finds that he can no longer appreciate them at all, despite him being afraid of commitment with Yuno. He is trying to escape Yuno because he knows she's a killer and it does not feel safe for a sane person, even a previously lifeless one, to live their life with one.

The greatest trait about Yukkiteru is that he is a very submissive character most of the time and that is extremely uncommon in a male character in anime or manga. You never find a character like Yuki who feels like life is pointless unless they are rebellious and boisterous on the outside or soon destined for a magickal adventure.

Yuno seems to be pretty much the purest yandere character besides Nu from Blazblue. However, Yuno is a huge failure and because so much of the book relies on your appreciation of Yuno and her flaws are not very forgivable to me.

Most people would not find flaws with Yuno because she is such an apparently edgy character which makes a great love interest and she apparently is like a serial killer. However, she really does not kill many people at all in this manga. The plot is almost always about avoiding Yuno killing people at all. She fails because her character feels like a cop out whenever she should be going into a murderous rampage. Instead, she is extremely sensitive and romantic and not much else besides a lot of false threats and a standard shounen fighter. All of her kills are nullified by the fact that they were a just cause or the fact that the diaries were designed to make bloodless deaths possible. (RIDICULOUS!!!!!)

It just feels like Yuno is not trying to kill people and she is just very knowledgeable and trying to keep Yuki alive. It is extremely disappointing and fake.

The child with the diary who visits Yuki is a really fun character because it is pretty much the only time Yuno is made to feel like a real Yandere. The kid is just as insidious as Yuno is supposed to be and since Yuno can sense that the kid is evil, a lot of good scenes happen. The best part is that it is a kid that Yuno is trying to hurt. It is also super fun to see him playing with Yuno so effectively and they seem like a really good match in talents, almost making it seem like this could really be the end for one of the good guys.

Otherwise, there are pretty much a bunch of characters who feel too cliche and are likely similar to characters you have seen somewhere else, but without as much depth. Deus Ex Machina and his servant are really, really stupid characters so far and almost made me not want to go to the second chapter.

Enjoyment - 6: While Mirai Nikki should be enjoyable for a lot of people, those who came to see a real Yandere should be highly disappointed. Yuno just felt more and more like she was stealing the plot and she is the character most people liked in the first place. This makes it really hard to concentrate on any new ideas they introduce when you keep hoping that Yuno's character might finally be done right for once, only for them to just tease you for a whole chapter without any real scenes to give her a chance. Perhaps, there will never be a good Yandere. The relationship between Yuki and Yuno still makes up for this problem enough, but it would have been much better if Yuno actually killed or hurt people or even animals.

Really, nobody should be too disappointed if they are able to not care that much about Yuno. However, there are still those character moments where they seem so shallow and memetic that you get terribly annoyed that they even exist. And then, there are scenes that seem to not take a logical course of action, which makes it hard to really immerse yourself in the action or suspense, which is a potentially huge flaw.

Overall - 6: Up to chapter 33, you probably will wish that you never read this because you will be pretty much addicted to the end if you are not sensitive to how much compromise you are going through.