Mirai Nikki

Obviously I gave it a ten. This manga never failed to keep me angry. I was mad at the characters' choices, I was mad at the plot twists and I was mad at the fact that it came out once a month. BUT! Don't let that deter you. This is the single greatest manga I have ever read. It really keeps you begging for more, especially if you were up-to-date and had to wait a month for a new chapter. The story is amazingly complicated. You will understand if you start from the beginning, but good luck explaining it to your friends.

Story: 11
It deserves an 11. It's just so damn confusing! I couldn't stop reading it. The character development was great. I was attached, I was chrushed, and I was emotionally controlled.
Basically, there is a boy named Amano Yukiteru, who is a loner. He writes down his daily tasks in his phone as a diary. He's been living in this fantasy world outside of reality with a being named Deus-Ex Machina. Yuki knows Deus-Ex doesn't exist, or so he thought. Deus-Ex proposes a game. Twelve people get a diary that tells them the future in their own style. It modifies their current diary to receive messages as though the user had written it. So the winner of this game becomes God of the world and can do whatever they want. The catch though is, you can only win by ELIMINATING all of the other players.

Art: 10
I don't really know how to describe the art , but I know it's good. It's very descriptive in its depictions. You can understand what is being shown to you with no complications.

Character: 11
The Character Development was absolutely flawless. I was amazed how strongly I felt for some of the characters. Even now, as I am waiting for the last chapter's release, I can reflect on the characters I've truly come to know. I felt the things that the characters felt. When they were in love, I could feel the love. When they were in pain, I could feel the pain. This was absolutely incredible and should be read more than once. I plan to read it again.

Enjoyment: 11
I'm not gonna lie, (and I've already said it), this manga pissed me off all the time. It has a constant habit of using cliffhangers. It just drives you insane! But here I was, every thirty days, checking back for a new chapter! And that's how I will be for the last one. But I completely enjoyed myself as I went deeper into the story. I don't know what else to say but READ IT!

Overall: 12
This manga caught me by surprise. I don't remember how I found it, but I've been reading it ever since chapter 10 was released. Anyone I've talked to about this manga has never heard of it, and this is why I think that this is one of the most UNDERRATED manga of all time. I'm telling you that this is perfect, but the fact that I don't know the ending may change my opinion. This manga WILL take you on a trip. It WILL attract you. And it WILL NOT disappoint you.

Mirai Nikki got a rather large following pretty quickly on the internet community, mostly due to an interesting premise and the promise of a new shiny Yandere lead (which is rare nowadays). The interesting twist of dueling minds, fortunetelling, and romance was a strong selling point for the series... but sadly it was unable to truely live up to the high standards it tried to achieve. It had the potential to be rather good, but ended up being rather sub par.

As stated... Mirai Nikki has a very intriguing premise to provide. A group of people, ranging from pathetic school boy, to homicidal terrorist, to upper-class business man, quite a good variety of people lets say, are given a gift from god (aptly named Deus Ex Machina). They are given the power to see the future, but in a unique sort of way. Each person in question had one thing in common... they all keep a diary of some sorts, and the future they see is dependant on the type of diary that the person keeps (for example, the lead Yukiteru keeps a diary of everything he sees, as such he can tell what will happen to everything that he can see around him). Even better they are given a chance… a chance to become god. This all comes at a large cost however; they must kill all the other people with a diary in order to achieve such heights.

For the first couple of volumes, this plays out quite well. A lot of the battles turn more into a battle of the minds, where each person tries to dupe their future opponent… so that their diary will not be able to predict a way to avoid their demise. There is a twisted kind of logic to the diaries, which doesn’t totally hold together… but is about as good as you can get when you have people accurately reading the future outcome of things. For a while this kind of battle is really intense. Situations get hairier and hairier and the solutions are usually pretty clever and well thought out. But eventually a shift starts to take place… and around volume 7 – 8, the books start to take a real nose dive. You see, while the battles previously had used a sense of wit and cunning to get resolved, the newer ones started to fall back on a plot device as old as time itself… deus ex machina powers (although I guess that kind of works in a way… considering these are powers given to them by a guy named Deus ex Machina). The reasons for them surviving in near impossible situations become hazier and less thought out with each passing volume. At the end, a couple large plot points are basically forced upon the reader, and little rhyme or reason is used. I don’t want to give away the ending, but let’s just say the author writes himself into a corner here. He’s creates a dramatic and decisive point for the protagonist to overcome, but realizes he has no logical way to get out of it… and so just quickly writes up some contrived reasoning for the ending, before quickly just cutting it off and ending the damn thing.


The characters are probably more subjective than anything else… so I can’t really comment on them without my own bias. Their interactions are pretty decent, although at times it feels like people just turn out good or evil for no real reason at all (the ninth is really guilty of this). The two leads, Yukiteru and Yuno, rather un spectacular in my opinion. Yukiteru is the typical lead… pathetic, weak, lonely, and most of all a huge whiner. Yuno is a psychotic killing machine, who only thinks about her love for Yuki, and kills anyone or anything that gets in their way. I personally find her to be unnerving and really annoying at times, but a lot of people seem to enjoy that “Psychotic for love” trend, so don’t let me burst your bubble. I also kind of detest how the author tries to make us “feel” for their romance when really they both deserve to die when compared to the other numbers… Overall the cast is a decent group, nothing spectacular but enough to keep the manga on its feet.

So… overall, Mirai Nikki is a decent manga that could have been a whole lot better. The first couple volumes feel fresh and interesting, but the last few feel rushed and contrived. In the end Mirai Nikki is like a virgin’s first time. He prepares and finesses over everything, starts out strong, everything seems to be going great, but then it suddenly ends early and just leaves everyone involved with a feeling of disappointment.

If you love the horror genre I highly reccommend you check out this series.

Yuki is a 13 year old boy who writes diaries in his phone about what's going on around him. He has no friends except for his, what he thinks, are his imaginary friends Deus Ex Machina and Muru Muru. One day he wakes up to find already written entries in his diary for his morning surroundings. Turns out to his surprise these are predictions. He follows these predictions for a couple weeks and out of nowhere the class beauty Yuno starts talking to him. She mentions Muru Muru to his shock. She advises he doesnt use his phone anymore cause he is in danger. He ignores her but then finds himself in trouble when a guy (who is later revealed to be his homeroom teacher Takao Hiyama) tries to kill him. A dead end appears on his phone, signifying he is about to die, and when close to his death he throws a dart at Hiyama and destroys his phone which he disappears into a mini black hole. He then finds himself is Deus's world and he is sent to a space where he sees shadows of 11 small platforms and and only 10 people who are shadowed, but he does recognize Yuno. Deus says he is the God of Time and Space and he is about to die and has choosen 12 people to give future diaries to who could be his succesor. He gives them all a number and tells how number one(Yuki) has already defeated number 3 and survived a dead end. Everyone begins to set their eyes on Yuki and decide they want to kill him.

Story: Dont wanna spoil anything but you will love the never ending twists and the unpredictability of the events. WARNING: It is a very addicting series.

Characters: The only word I can use to describe these characters is they are all phycopaths, except Yuki (well at the beginning anyways). The one character who stands out and is my favorite in the series and my favorite yandere would be Yuno. She is in love with Yuki and will do anything, and I mean anything, to maintain that love. Because of this she can seem to be an ally but can be Yuki's worst enemie at times. Also Yuno is what makes this manga so unpredictable. You'll also love Minene who is number 9. She is a terrorist and loves to bomb things and people up. She starts out as an enemies but as the series progresses she becomes one of Yuki's allies. Im not gonna go into all of the characters but each one is unike.

Art: In my opinion it is not overly to unike but it is very well drawn. Lots of blood and gore just for a warning.

Overall I enjoyed the pace of the series, the mostly freaky romance between Yuki and Yuno, the array of characters and just the fact this anime follows the story closely to the original manga.