Saturday, September 28, 2013

Mirai Nikki

Hello folks boys and ghouls for todays review and since we are closing in on always awesome month of October I decided to do something awesome for the occasion. We going to look at a series that has everything, action, romance, horror, comedy, blood and gore, and a creepy stalker girl with a deadly obession. This is MIRAI NIKKI OR FUTURE DIARY as it has become to be known as in the English translation. I'm serious this series is the shit just check out the opening below!



NOTE: I do not own anything of the videos or images.


I'm usually very picky when it comes to picking a series that I want to watch from start to finish but Mirai Nikki won me over at day one.



The story follows a hapless loser named Yukiteru "Yuki" Amano who spends just about most of his days writing a diary on his cell phone and watching the world go by. He doesn't have any friends except for a pair of "imaginary" ones named Deus Ex Machina and Muru Muru the former giving Yuki a unique diary and mentions a special game. It turns out Yuki's diary is capable of predicting the near future of things around him. He survives a brush with death when he is pursued by a blade wielding masked man but manages to kill him with the timely appearance of a pink haired girl named Yuno who had her own diary.

It turns out that Deus is far from imaginary and is the ruler of time and space and that Yuki is a participant in a survival game in which he and eleven other individuals(minus the guy he killed) must fight and kill each other in a span of 90 days. The winner will inherit the throne and take his or her place as the God of Time and Space.



This not the first death game themed story but it does have its own unique flavors and twists that seperate it from it cousins. First each competitor has a Future Diary a powerful device usually in the form of a cell phone although there are others that take there own unique shape like a computer or a book. The type of ability of a Future Diary depends on the person who wields it. For example lets someone was working as a principal at a school which means he is responsible for a place filled with hundreds of kids. Now lets imagine he has a Diary which allows him to keep track of every student what they are doing. Something that complex would mean that the diary would need to be a bit large so something like a laptop or a a computer would be appropriate. But a common trait that several Future Diaries is the power to predict the near future in some shape or form.



Another noticeable difference is the competitors in this death game. Usually in these types ofstories the characters forced into these deadly situations will either try to fight against the guys pulling the strings or team up to escape with the exception of the few who decide to play to save their own skins. In Mirai Nikki most are willing participants in this bloody game. We got a cult leader with a fucked up back story, a psycho toddler, a serial killer, a terrorist, a dirty cop, a super sentai wannabe, a weird ass looking woman and her squad of battle orphans, a battle couple, a dude who is a little too fond of his dogs, and a mayor with Nazi ideology. What a lovely bunch huh? But to me that's one of the strengths of the series; the cast has such a mix different flavors from fun and silly to bat-shit insane and awesome.

While we are still on the subject of characters I guess I'll name a few of my personal favorites.



The first one is Yomostu Hirasaki the twelfth diary user. This guy is just a joy to watch and I wished he had a bigger part. Blind and completely out of his mind the guy dresses up as a Super Sentai Hero and goes running around the streets at night fighting crime. This guy is the definition of crazy awesome plus he has one of the most kickass entrances I've seen.



My personal favorite of the bunch is Minene Uryuu a survivalist and terrorist who is determined to wipe God from the face the earth. This character saved the show for me and what I mean by that is a topic we'll get to in a bit. Minene is such a cool anti-heroine; she's a broken bird with a very tragic past but that doesn't stop her from kicking some serious ass. She also(in my opinion) has the best character development of the entire cast and has some of the best moments whether they are funny, epic, or heart warming. Not to mention her seiyu Mai Aizawa does such an excellent job in her portrayal of the character.



The show is a fucking blast but despite that is no where near perfect. The show starts off very strong mixing each episode and each chapter with an delicious blend of horror and action and at first I thought this show could only get better...Well I was only partly right. The stakes becoming higher yes but a couple of moments felt like complete cope outsand the twist is so obvious that you could see it from a mile away. Remember when I said that Minene saved the show for me? Well the reason for that is because the leads Yuki and Yuno are annoying as a hornet up the fucking ass. Yuki our main character is a whiny little wimp and while I can understand his fear considering the situation but hearing him cry and cower for a third of the series was enough to make me cringe. Yuno isn't much better while a girl with an ax can very entertaining I found myself often hating her guts although I found her creepy psyche to be fascinating. I was always baffled by the obsession people had for Yanderes sure I can understand why people would have fun with these characters but some folks take it a "little" too far. It doesn't help that these two are wearing the most effective set of plot armor I have ever seen.



The worst of the flaws comes at the end of the series mainly the ending which felt absolutely rushed and without much closure which left a lot of fans pretty pissed. This was remedied by an OVA called Future Diary: Redial which help tied up loose ends and answered many of the questions left unanswered so its all good.



I guess while we're still talking about the anime I should mention the Dub done by Funimation. I watched the first episode and it seriously left something to be desired. Now I'm not trying to sound like some kind of purist who thinks that dubs are evil and all that shit I just think that from what I've seen Funimation could have done so much better. The cast sounds pretty solid at first glance; Brina Palencia who plays Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Eve from Black Cat is in this but sadly she just so happens to play the very emotional and psychotic Yuno. Some people actually like the Dub version and that's cool maybe if I see a few more episodes the voices will grow on me then again maybe not.



Overall Mirai Nikki/Future Diary is an awesome ride which I would strongly recommend that you should check out. You can find episodes online on multiple sites and all 26 episodes are available on DVD.



So ends another review thanks again for joining me and stay tuned for future articles down the road. If you have seen this show feel free to share your experience and/or opinions in the comments section below.See you all next time!
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