lmao

I’m so torn. This manga really is awful. Like, really truly awful. It has no sense of balance, no sense of clarity. The whole thing is a huge shitshow of epic proportions.

But holy MOLY is it entertaining.

I think part of that does come from what little merit the manga has. You know what I’m talking about. So I’ll say it like this; Yuno is a fun character at the best of times, and an even more fun character at the worst of times. Why? Because when she’s played for horror, it’s downright hysterical. We see whole pages and panels of her bright, happy face either before or after she just cut someone down with an axe, or tied the protagonist up in a chair, or shot up a group of people with a fucking assault rifle; and given the enormous lack of awareness that’s dripping from every page, I can only assume these scenes are supposed to give the reader the creeps... but it fails so hard at that it comes full circle into being hilarious. We’ve hit “so bad it’s good” territory.

But the manga also has scenes of tension that, on some level, aren’t entirely flawed. Yukiteru is a whiny baby boy, but he’s juuuuussst normal enough to be a somewhat relatable character (ouch, did I out myself?), so it’s possible to give the scene stakes when his life is at risk—obviously I don’t expect the protagonist to die in volume 5 of a 12 volume manga, (especially when he’s, y’know, constantly rewriting time itself) but because of this seeping lack of awareness, I feel like the artist was just doing his best.

However, his best is still a plot that makes absolutely no sense. None at all. Not even a little bit. It’s hard to give a death game premise gravity in the first place, but Future Diary really does grab the concept by the feet and spin it around and around until the poor thing throws up. How the fuck did Yuno get machines and gallons of concrete to fill some pit? How the fuck did she dig such a deep hole? Why the hell did God pick a bunch of random ass people to take his place in a pointless murder game? How did some random ass woman plant a bajillion explosives throughout an entire middle school? And why on EARTH did life return to normalcy for the kids involved afterward? (Don't even get me started on the big twist). This manga is just absurd. And for what it’s worth, it’s not the prettiest thing either.

But make no mistake: I have no regrets. I bought it. I read it. I intend to keep it on my shelf. I don’t think I wasted my time, despite all of its flaws. Terrible writing is better than mediocre writing, in a way, because it can be great popcorn material. That's what Future Diary is. The occasional glimmer of real effort through a curtain of "so bad it will make you laugh." But holy yikes on a bikes, pick something else if you’re looking for nuance.