Mirai Nikki (TV) Review

What would you do if you had something that told you the future? If you already had all the answers for an upcoming test, or knew how to avoid bully's on the way home from school? What about if it told you were going to die?

Mirai Nikki is a brilliant mix of a Psychological Thriller, Action, and Romance. Yuki is a boy who gains the ability to read the future through his personal diary, which is awesome until he finds out that there are 11 other people who also have their own diary's and are his opponents in a competition to become a god. But thats not all bad, he happens to have someone to protect him. Enter Gasai Yuno, a cute girl who goes to Yuki's school. She also has a future diary, and it turns out she has a bit of a crush on Yuki.... and is an insane psychopathic stalker, or Yandere if you will. The story follows these two as they try to survive in the killing game they've been placed in.

Personally, i think the anime is a 10/10, but for this review i gave it a 9 because of a few small problems in the story.

Story 9 - The story of Mirai Nikki is at its core a Romance, though its so much more than that as well. It explores how ones actions and willpower can change the future and how good people can do go insane or do terrible things because of traumatic experiences. The pacing is fairly fast, but not forced, even when there's no intense action going on, you find yourself on the edge of your seat knowing that an enemy could pop up at any time. I experienced all sort of emotions throughout the anime, fear, happiness, excitement, sadness.The shock value was insane. My reason for a 9 instead of a 10 was that some of the things that happen in the anime are soo over the top ridiculous and unbelievable that i just couldn't reasonably give it a perfect score and that some of the things that happen in the last few episodes get a bit out of hand, you'll see what i mean when you watch it.

Art 10 - Don't know what all there is to say about the Art. It's not the best ive ever seen, but there's no problems with it. The action scenes are fast paced and well animated and the characters all look fine. I see no reason to dock an anime points unless the animation is so miserable that it has negative effects my viewing experience, and one of my favorite animes is Berserk, which is terribly animated.

Sound 10 - The Opening and ending themes are fantastic, and go along perfectly with the anime. The first opening theme is my favorite song of all of them and does a perfect job of maintaining the feel of the anime. The music generally goes very well with the scenes that its played over, especially when Yuno does something awesome.

Character 10 - I would rate this higher if possible. The characters is where Mirai Nikki truly shines. Yuki is a kind of a wimp who has to rely on others to protect him, and ive seen plenty of people complain about this, but in all honesty i think that makes the anime so much better. He's a 14 year old boy thrown into a battle royal with people trying to kill him, I would probly be a bit of a wimp if that happened to me too. He's forced to seek aid from and rely on others in order to survive. And he isnt without redeeming moments either. All the side characters are well developed and have their pasts and motives explained in the story and a few of them are just plain awesome. All that being said, the part of this anime that got me hooked, and the reason its become one of my favorites of all time, is the female lead Gasai Yuno. She's incredibly cute, and incredibly psychopathic, and the perfect yandere. Shes also one of the most unique characters I've ever seen in an anime. Most of the psychological thrills stem from trying to figure out what the heck shes going to do next. At one moment your scared of her, another you can't help but smile at how cute something she does is, then you notice the knife in her hand and your scared of her again. Sometimes you want her to do something insane and at others your shocked about something insane shes doing. She's the selling point on the entire anime for me.

Enjoyment 10 - I couldn't stop watching Mirai Nikki, i watched it over the span of 2 days. And spent the entire day at work the second day anticipating what would happen in the anime after i got home. I have yet to watch an anime that kept me on the edge of my seat to such an extent as Mirai Nikki.

Overall 9 - Mirai Nikki is a great and unique story, the characters are excellent especially Yuno, who is one of the most unique characters ive ever seen in an anime. Mirai Nikki is certainly worth giving a shot.