REVIEW - Mirai Nikki (2011)

Yandere's are fucking everywhere nowadays. There are a few animes about them, a whole two visual novels and a good few mangas. They are inescapable (is that a pun? I dunno ) and so god damn popular that it's actually unreal how many people cosplay as the "Queen of Yanderes." What anime series stars the Queen of Yandere's?

Well, Mirai Nikki by Studio Asread. That's where.

(Note: The following review is of the Anime Series alone without the OVA; Mirai Nikki Redial)

Mirai Nikki stars a young teenage boy by the name of Yukiteru Amano. Yukiteru spends the majority of his time alone typing in diary entries into his cell phone, and when he goes home, he covers himself up in a blanket and goes into the imaginary world where his "imaginary" friends, the God of Space and Time Deus Ex Machina and his assistant Mur Mur await him. One day, Yuikteru's diary begins to very accurately predict everything that's going to happen around him within the next ten minutes. Deus then tells Yukiteru that this is not an accident, and that in fact Yukiteru is unwillingly participating in a Battle Royale, with the winner becoming the God of Space and Time. Also participating in this battle are 11 other diary owners, one of which is somebody who is obsessed with Yukiteru. Also, if nobody wins, the world gets destroyed because I dunno PLOT CONVENIENCE. While the concept is great and for the most part extremely well executed, it get's VERY confusing by the end. Sure the show's plot isn't what it's remembered for, but still, the ending to the show sucks. It's not ruined by it, but it is quite distracting.

One, Two, Gasai's coming for you....

The characters are Mirai Nikki's highlight. They are very well written, with most of hem having a very tragic and upsetting backstory. Sure, some are better than others, but the cast in this show is one of the most diverse and batshit insane you'll ever come across in anime.

Yukiteru Amano (AKA Yukiiiiiii)
Man, talk about depressingly realistic. Yukiteru Amano is what you get when you live a sheltered live: a complete anti-social shut in with no cares for the outside world at all. He has no friends, has mediocre relations with his mom and just doesn't care about anything but his phone. When the Survival Game begins, he starts to make friends however and we see his character grow and slowly become more and more confident and less paranoid around Yuno. He's easily manipulated though, since he's not very smart. As a main character he's not a real standout, but he does his job okay I guess.

Gasai Yuno (AKA "The Queen of Yandere's")
First of all, that title of Yuno's? "Queen of Yandere's"? Bitch please, I know far better Yandere's than Yuno (See: Shion Sonozaki from Higurashi, Kotonoha Katsura from School Days and Saki Miyauchi from Yandere). So yeah, Yuno's over rated to fuck.

Moving on, yes, Yuno is a Yandere. She likes Yukiteru. Okay that's a lie SHE FUCKING CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING THAT ISN'T YUKITERU. Seriously, this bitch doesn't consider realistic consequences most of the time, and a lot of the shit she does almost get's her dearly beloved "Yukii" into trouble and in a close to death situation. She even kidnaps him and ties him to a chair so that he wouldn't have to participate in the Survival Game, and the whole time he resented Yuno for keeping his friends away from him. She's stupid a lot of the time, but she has her qualities. For one, she can be really adorable at times and is freaky (the good kind) too. She's not Asuna bad, but she's not Nagisa good either. She's just in the middle.

WHY ISN'T THIS A MEME

Animation-wise, it's like Sword Art Online. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but it's not fantastic either. Sure there are some real stand out moments and some real surreal scenes, but other than that, Mirai Nikki isn't really amazing. Such a shame for the company that animated Fairy Tail, Anohana and the Legendary Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

The sound in Mirai Nikki is again, mediocre. The soundtrack as a whole has about 4 really good tracks and the rest are all just generic or used for ambience, and in a high action gorefest such as this you'd think they'd put more Metal and shit in there but nope. I will admit, the first opening and ending are pretty kickass, but the second one's don't really standout that much to me. The voice acting is pretty good in both Japanese and (le gasp) English.

High as Shit.

Overall, Mirai Nikki is good but not great. It's got a fantastic cast of characters and a good setup, but a poor execution, ending and low quality animation really drag this show down. And yet it's considered anime of 2011? Did people even watch Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo? I was laughing my ass off the whole time during that anime! And yet it lost to this show. Well, I guess people must really like Yandere's.

Story: 7
Characters: 9.5
Animation: 5
Sound: 7
Personal Enjoyment: 6.5

FINAL SCORE FOR MIRAI NIKKI: 6.7/10