Category: Mirai Nikki

So with this we’ve gotten all of the endings of the past season. And it’s pretty weird indeed. At the very least, I’ve got to praise the creators for delivering a solid and climactic ending. This episde was fun, and also had a ton of character development. It was a bit cheesy when Yuno stabbed herself, but heck: she’s crazy, and this episode had far bigger question-marks.

First of all, I’m not sure whether I missed this or not, but the way in which Eleventh changed everyone’s future, was an explanation given of why he knew now that he Mirai Nikki project would fail? There’s also the question of Murmur’s intentions: was it ever revealed what she wanted anyway? I mean, she had captured the Murmur of the world anyway and eventually would have continued to e the assistant of the new God.

The strangest part however, was the sequel hook. I mean, I knew beforehand that Mirai Nikki isn’t going to end here and that some sort of sequel got announced at the end of this episode. However, what the heck did Yukiteru turn into anyway? He couldn’t get over Yuno… for 10000 years? It pretty much sounds like he reverted back to his old self and has been sulking for an eternity.

Still, I enjoyed this episode a lot. This series definitely had its issues, and being spoiled along the way also didn’t help, but it did come together quite nicely.
Rating: *+ (Great)

Whoa. Mindscrew!

This episode was a lot of fun to watch, and perfect for the penultimate climactic battle. It was completely over the top, but worked really well. It’s a bit of a strange decision to go on for three weeks longer than every other show of the past season, but it really worked out. I have to praise the producers of this series for taking the time for that. It’s a shame that to fill up the lost time, we were treated to those boring skits at the end of each episode, but heck: they can be skipped. I complained about them, but in the end they are a neat trick to get rid of that nasty limitation where episodes all need to be 20 minutes long.

Also, for a minute I was fearing that the series just cheaply pushed the reset button, but the creators really did some interesting things with it, especially with how the different timelines started to intertwine. Especially Yuno stabbing her own father was a bit surreal, especially how we saw a completely different side of him now.

Then this episode also used a classic twist that a lot of penultimate episodes like to pull: the illusion where characters just live their lives without any problem. It was with a little twist, though: Yukki knew what he was going into, and what Yuno was doing, but he was slowly drawn into it.

Oh, when Murmur went berserk, things really got crazy. It also was really well animated. Probably the best animation of the entire series and Asread definitely brought in a talented animator for that scene.
Rating: **+ (Excellent+)

Okay… so now this show just pulled stuff out of its ass to push its plot further. The result was weird and kindof interesting, don’t get me wrong, but where did Ninth’s resurrection suddenly come from, and why does she suddenly have flying, time travel and teleportation powers. Overall this episode was a bit too much convenient storytelling.

Still, I have to admit: this episode did something new to the resurrecting and time-travel tropes. I mean, for a minute I face-palmed when I found out that the creators were basically going to resurrect the cast again (so much for those death scenes, eh), but I actually really liked how this episode brought distinction in the people from different time-lines. It acknowledged that everyone Yukiteru knew is still dead, and it clearly labeled Yukiteru as an idiot for trying to save yet another Yuno. Time really got screwed over here, and that was a nice idea.

Oh, and this episode also explained why it was such a big deal that Yukiteru saw the corpses of Yuno’s family… only that it doesn’t… I mean, first of all they were terribly hidden. Yuno had plenty of time to clean things up, and she invited Yukiteru to her house, knowing that there was a really obvious room that anyone with a curiosity would want to check out. Second: wasn’t it Akise who found out Yuno’s identity? Didn’t he find out about that on his own?

Also, I keep finding it a bit morbid that the day that the creators chose for the world to end… happens to be my birthday. Are you trying to send me some sort of subtle message, Mirai Nikki?
Rating: *+ (Great)

I had already been spoiled for about half of the major twists in this episode (which also makes this a very bad show to want to rewatch by the way), but after finally seeing the complete picture in which everything is explained I definitely gained a new appreciation for this series. I think the only thing that’s left to be explained is what exactly Yuno’s diary means by “Happy end”. I mean, twice it obviously hinted at the two of them having sex and all, but it still makes no sense to see that as an actual “end”. I think that the best example of creative use of broadcasting schedules was with Michiko e Hatchin. It totaled 22 episodes, yet ran for two full cours and while it had a ton of random hiatuses, it also had random weeks in which it suddenly decided to air two episodes at once. We need more series like that.

As for Yukiteru, I think that this guy improved a lot. There indeed was a long while in this series where he had the bad main character syndrome, but in this episode he again was pretty interesting to watch.

Also for the record, Mirai Nikki has a very strange broadcasting schedule: with this there are still 3 episodes left, so this show will actually end on April 21st, a time when most of the spring series have already started (with the exception of Hyouka and that idol show, I believe). I like that. Screw the fact that you have to end at the final week of march. If this show wants to have 26 episodes, it can have them. It makes things a bit difficult to organize, but who cares?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

This episode was undoubtedly crazy.

The plot is finally coming together after all the seemingly unrelated arcs in the first half. Finally it becomes clear what Akise’s role is in this series and he finally got his episode to redeem himself. Also, there was Yukiteru who is well on his way to become one of the least inept main characters out there. Thankfully though, the creators are actually playing with this for once, rather than just copying the standard male lead over and over again. Oh don’t get me wrong: Yukiteru has elements of this guy written all over him, but being such a wimp to actually kill his friends like that in favor of his deranged girlfriend. I like that.

Overall, I do have to say that Mirai Nikki was by far the worst series for the past year to avoid spoilers on. Both from the different OPs and EDs, but also from the fans who kept giving away hints that the audience wasn’t supposed to know yet. Looking back, I think that that was for me unconsciously something that held my enjoyment of this series a lot, especially considering how focused this series is on its surprises and plot twists.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Apologies for the delay. There are times when I’m just a bit lazy with my entries. In any case though, the second half of Mirai Nikki has proved to be much more entertaining than the rather boring first half, and especially the final quarter of the series is without a doubt the best part of it.

Ninth’s death was really sappy, but it worked pretty well when Ninth suddenly started to relate to Yukiteru and realized the similarities they had. Oh, and I also love how the saves in this series have a mind of their own: out of their own volition they close off to protect Yukiteru, they only grant access to the makers (including their daughter) and even if you’re similar to said daughter you can get in. Again I’ve unfortunately been spoiled about the reason why, but the death of Eleventh was still very satisfying.

What I do like about Mirai Nikki is that, while it’s not the best of the season, it actually will end well. It waited until the manga was finished and allocated enough episodes to do it. With three episodes left and what seemed like the major antagonist Eleventh gone, I’m pretty excited for the final three episodes.

I do wonder, though: why is Akise in favor of making Yukiteru the next god, when he still has Eighth? I mean, he said that Yukiteru had a valid reason for bringing back his parents and restoring things to normal… but can’t eighth do that as well? He seems to forget that Yukiteru also has the makings of a psychopath and is incredibly emotionally unstable. I’d rather trust eighth, to be honest.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

When that cop suddenly started to propose to Ninth, I was a bit baffled. I mean, can you possibly find an even worse timing for that? It was obvious that he had a crush on Ninth, but the sheer randomness of actually proposing was a bit too much here. And then the rest of this episode aired, and I understood. Of course: in fiction, proposing to someone in the middle of a story is the equivalent of signing your own death sentence. It’s not really a plot-hole this time, but more like a really bad twist.

The cheese is what sets Mirai Nikki apart from Guilty Crown though: Mirai Nikki knows full well that it’s supposed to be over the top, and to its credit: this was exactly that. This was very entertaining, whereas Guilty Crown on top of being full of bad twists and plotholes is also completely stupid, very badly written, poorly built up and has atrocious characters. Here though, I liked Ninth quite a bit, and I have to admit: Yukiteru’s appearance in this episode was excellent.

This really is the Winter of WTF. First we had Milky Holmes, then Aquarion Evol also took the bizarre train, followed by Danshi Koukousei, Nisemonogatari, and really: Mirai Nikki also caught it. I’d also include Guilty Crown, but that unfortunately is in a bad way.

This was what I’ve been hoping this show would be: straight-up entertainment. It’s nothing much more, and it’s a shame that the first half of this series didn’t really impress much, but with episodes like this I’m glad to have continued.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Plothole time: a person cannot just “act well” from out of nowhere. I don’t care if Yuno wrote a perfectly fine script. Yukiteru still had to act it out with confidence. Something that goes completely against his character.

Still, this episode was full of fun twists. Eleventh as the major of the city makes for a nice final villain, and his speech in order to close down the orphanage was a very nice introduction. I just have one message to the creators of the anime: if you show him in the midst of all sorts of telephones, instead of having Eighth, you’re pretty much spelling out that he’s going to acquire her server diary at some point. Way to create tension here!

Now, I had been spoiled about there being two Yuno’s… multiple times (thank you, manga readers…), but still the identity of the third corpse came as a surprise to me. The creators can do some nice things with this. The whole plot twist of deceiving Eighth also was very nice to pull: they know how Eighth’s diary works, and because of that it would be easier to get rid of them, while also making use of the occasion to find out what Eleventh’s diary does. Why Yuno didn’t immediately pull the trigger when she had her gun right next to Eleventh’s nose is beyond me, though.

What also surprised me is how the soundtrack has gotten better recently. The new tracks here feel much more colourful and energetic whan what this show had before, working in this series’ favor.
Rating: ** (Excellent)