Mirai Nikki - This is how you RUIN a show

Miria Nikki was an amazing experience for the first 12 episodes, offering a great thrill for the most part. The problem with Mirai Nikki, is how badly they tried and tell a story after the first 12 episodes and completely ruin their own formula of character arcs.

Miria Nikki's initial formula was done in the form of character arcs, introducing a new character in the game. Each character in the game was unique, they all had some sort of serious mental scarring or unwavering determination to become the next god of time and space.Throughout each arc, Yukkii began to grow as a character and we learned more mysterious rumors of Yuno, the shining start of the show.

Unfortunately, after the 12th episode, the show does a 90 degree turn towards building up more rumors about Yuno and more build of a final showdown that never happens. All this new information about Yuno, and Yukkii's growth as a character became an annoyance, we no longer had these great character developments for the remaining players in the game. The producers of the show had to dedicate a few episodes directly towards Yukkii's friends in hopes they would shine on their own and give us a break from the randomness of Yuno's behaviour and Yukkii's attempted coming of age story. This change in pace became a Yuno and Yukkii focus on wavering emotions that never matches the feel of the show.

The BEST character in the series IMO.

Everything up until episode 22 was all fine and dandy, the show builds up to an ending I never saw coming. The show made us believe that the world was headed for destruction, with Yukkii becoming trapped by Yuno's deceiving nature and ends up killing everyone trying to help him. After this episode I was pumped for some epic showdown where Yukkii would somehow revert all the horrendous actions he took part in and go out with a bang. Unfortunately the show takes a downward spiral into a "make-it-up-as-we-go-along" story. I won't spoil anything here, but let me tell you something, this was the worst ending to any show I have ever seen. Random flying battles, followed by a fake "everything turned out OK" ending when Yukkii basically ends up sitting the corner with a blanket over his head.

If you wanna ruin your own show, this is how you do it. I would recommend the first 12 episodes for anyone who enjoys thrillers, crazy psychos, and bloody deaths, but after that I felt the show lead me on to expect a half decent ending rather than the shit storm they gave us.

Thrill and action was deserving of an A.
Story plot deserves a C+.
Character development gets an A for the first 12 episodes and an F for the remaining episodes.

~Djr7

 

Mirai Nikki Ep 22 - Kill Everyone!

This question was left burning in our minds for a whole week.

I was not anticipating this episode to go by so fast for myself. The entire time I was on the edge of my seat watching Yukkii shoot his friends in cold blood with all these questions being raised towards Yuno's existence, and the fate of all life on earth. This episode was the beginning of the end, and I have no idea what is going to happen in the finale.

Shes definitely using Yukkii for something, but for what?

While Yukkii is the center of this show, Yuno is the main attraction with her mysterious and curious end game goals. Throughout the season I though Yuno was just a psycho who was fixated with Yukkii, however this episode raises further questions to whether or not she is the original Yuno, or who Yuno even is. Yuno seems to be in possession of three diaries, raising speculation about multiple Yuno's or something of the sort. I have been able to half guess most of the mysteries that circulate throughout the show but I really have no idea who Yuno is or what this girl's purpose really is. Akise made it clear that she is just manipulating Yukkii, but I don't think he realized it himself until after his meeting with Deus.

I wonder what will happen to Murumur.

Akise had this surprising confrontation with Deus, only to find out his existence was created by Deus as a spectator, which makes a lot of sense with how awesome Akise is. Unfortunately this little emotional showing feels bland after Akise escapes only when Eigth makes him a diary, thus giving him an alibi for existing. This scene was served as a triumphant win over Deus's reasoning and logic, but it ends up being a pancake flat quick fix that makes no sense by using a diary which Deus created in the first place. Akise's end was nowhere near as awesome as Uryuu, but Akise was still one of the dominant characters of the show.

Oh no, trust me, she NEEDS to kill.

Overall this was a nice set up for the final episode, and it actually returns to the original emotions that were set in the beginning of the show. We have no idea who Yuno really is or what her intentions are, and we find Yukkii to be a confused, scared little sheep, but there are no covers for him to hide under this time. 

WOW did not see this coming.

I did not expect Akise to go so far as to kiss him, I will admit there were several undertones of his apparent love for Yukkii but I did not expect this.

~Djr7

Mirai Nikki Ep 21 Uryuu's Final Act

Au Contraire!

Episode 21 sure took its sweet time coming out. I had to suffer for weeks without my Mirai Nikki fix, but it was worth the wait with Uryuu's continued spotlight and a return to a more believable Yukkii. Plenty of action filled up this episode with a steady pace of awesomeness at every turn.

Uryuu has captured the role of "best diary holder" for her craziness above the other diary holders, and with how hard it is to figure her out. I was highly interested with how she would take to Nichijima's death, and lucky for me she continues her bad-ass bomb girl role, but retains this subtle sadness inside of her for his death. Uryuu really shined in this episode with her resolve to help Yukkii and we even see a rare emotional side that links to her deepest desires to have her family back. I realized how similar the two are, and how crazy it is to see how Yukkii could one day turn up to be just like Uryuu.

Why not?

The last few episodes had Yukkii running around being all serious showing no emotion as he killed others, but thankfully he returns to normal after putting on a strong resolve to become god and bring his family back from the dead. Yukkii was brought back down to Earth after his conflict with Uryuu, which was a nice return to a believable Yukkii rather than the hardened version we saw in the past few episodes. Yukkii is once again an interesting character as we get closer to the end, with a bleak future that gives no promises for how things will turn out. 

BLOCKED!

Akise still plays a role in this game, safeguarding Eighth he now holds a key piece and will help determine how the game will end. Akise is the only non-diary holder that interests me, he is cunning, smart, and is able to play along with any situation to make things more interesting

Wheres your hand at?

There were a few things that really bothered me in this episode near the end. After returning home with his friends, Yuno tells him he still needs to kill off Eleventh, Eighth, and Ninth, and yet we were lead to believe that Ninth and Eleventh had already died. After learning about Deus and Eleventh's creation of the diaries, nothing else was really brought up about Uryuu and Deus' conversation.  

 I'm super pumped to find out more about who Yuno is and what this secret is about her not being the real Gasai Yuno, even after accessing the vault of which only the real Yuno would have access to. The mysterious gears popping up over town suggest Deus doesn't have much time left, with Murumuru pointing out that Deus should last until the 28th, the day where Yukkii and Yuno are suppose fall in love or something. 

P.S. I found this poster at my school, accidental meaning? I THINK NOT!

~Djr7

Mirai Nikki Eps 18-20 Jam-Packed-Awesomeness!

Epic win.

Holy crap did ep 20 ever renew my faith in this show. I found episodes 18-19 to be very rushed and at a loss for the steady flow that Mirai Nikki has held throughout its season.

Wonder how it smells?

Episode 18 was really two episodes crammed into one, forcing all of the juicy important info into a compact burst, which flew right over my head. I was shocked with how Yuno was treated, but also I find myself giving sympathy for the poor girl.

The confrontation and resolve of Yukkii and his father was rushed in a way that makes me wish I didn't even watch it. I was very intrigued at how Yukkii's father would intertwine with the diary holders, but instead they ruin a perfect opportunity to bring one more delicate situation to Yukkii's life.

Episode 19 was fairly interesting, but it made the mistake of assuming that the previous episode was good enough to tell us how Yukki has changed. I found it hard to follow with what was happening between the remaining diary holders. Yukkii has apparently become hardened by everything that has happened so far, we have seen a steady transformation of Yukkii over the season but episode 19 takes a huge leap in Yukkii's progress to this hardened state. Yuno has returned to her usual self, but it was done through Yukkii's hardening so it is less confusing to try and understand her, since she has been a psycho love nut the entire season.

Episode 20, this was awesome, and there was no Yukkii or Yuno at all. One thing I will give this show credit for is their ability to give us a break whenever Yukkii and Yuno become too much, or change too much.

Uryuu makes a triumphant return as the terrorist. One thing I just noticed is how her diary only lets her escape, thus her all-out crazy explosive attacks are pure skill. After seeing the gym teacher scene and nurse scene of her, I was really unhappy that she was reduced to nothing more than an assistant character rather than taking matters into her own deadly hands. Uryuu gets a lot of screen time with her infiltration of Eleventh's territory and we see an actual soft side to her when Nishijima proposes to her.

A new outfit is nice, and look how calm she is during the massacre.

Aside from setting up what will be an even more action packed episode for next week, we learn the truth behind Eleventh's diary and his surprising connection to Deus.Upon hearing that Deus was working with Eleventh before the game to make these diaries just blew my mind, we haven't seen such a unique twist like this at all during the show, but it definitely puts a spin on things.

 I really don't know what to think about Yukkii, I loved the show for its contrast and the events between Yukkii and Yuno, but now they are partners in crime and don't contrast all too much anymore now that Yukkii can kill so easily.

~Djr7

Mirai Nikki Ep 16-17 Emotions Run High

Love those eyes, epic return of classic psycho Yuno moment.

The end of the Seventh arc has arrived, however it was a nice bag of treats with the info on Marco and Ai, mistrust between father and son, and subtle relationship change between Yuno and Yukkii.

Episode 16 was interesting with Yukkii's father issues, although it turns out his father is quite the lying bastard who has recurring problems with money. My guess is that Yukkii's father gambles too much and only cares for himself. Yukkii's father appears to be working for one of the diary holders with promise of wiping his 3 million debt if he destroys his son's cellphone. Uryuu has become rather bland lately as she was only involved in the humor portions found in the episode. Another thing to note about our cunning terrorist; how is it that she is walking around freely just because she's a diary holder? I'm pretty sure her terrorist activities shouldn't be overlooked just to forge this alliance with Nishijima and Yukkii.

You'r better than this Uryuu.

Episode 17 was the better of the two with a very nice wrap up of Seventh and a change in relationship between Yukkii and Yuno. First off, I want to point out the nice background history between Marco and Ai,. The intro was an ethos dump to get us to feel for the lovers, and it worked, they are the contrasting form of love that Yuno and Yukkii fake in order to survive.

Our protagonists don't really follow their usual methods of eliminating other diary holders, but instead, Marco and Ai help Yuno and Yukkii realize that they cannot fake their friendship anymore and must actually learn to care for another by dealing with their emotions instead of faking their trust for each other.

With the end of an emotional appeal to Marco and Ai, a major cliff hanger involving Yukkii's pathetic father is left to wet our appetite for the next episode.

~Djr7

Mirai Nikki Ep 15 - Vulnerable

sooooo ZOMG moment.

Again sorry for super delayed post. I will keep things light in hopes to get back on track.

Picking up after last episode, it seems Yuno is keeping her distance from Yukkii, but that only lasts so long when she has a diary depicting your every move. With Yuno out of the main group, Yukkiii once again has reason to fear Yuno, since she may pop out of nowhere at any moment and could do who knows what with her delicate mind.

She is quite frighting when defending Yukkii.

The group decides to help Yukkii out, now that he has a solid group of friends and isn't alone anymore the show has turned from its thriller roots. I gotta say the show is struggling with it's vibe. We were introduced to a lonely dependent kid with a psycho stalker, and now we have a somewhat capable hardened Yukkii with reliable friends. I think the show has lost it's murderous crazy touch, and instead needs characters like Akise to hold it together before our Yuno and Yukkii  importance goes overboard and no one cares.

I was happy that the newest diary holder was an actual diary holder and not some fill-in. This show would have gone downhill if they started throwing endless amounts of fake diary holders at me. The power that the latest diary holders had challenged Yukkii and Yuno's OP combination and proved to be an interesting fight, even though team Yukkii has only Yuno to contribute in a battle.

The end sets up for a return of Uryuu and this is sure to be an explosive episode for next time (pun intended).

~Djr7

Mirai Nikki Ep 13-14 - Total Psycho

I have high hopes for Akise's role.

Well it has been a while since I have posted anything and hopefully I am able to get back on track with all my shows I am covering.

Well for starters, I would consider the recent episodes as a new start for Yukkii, now that Kurusu is gone. With all the attention hogging that Yukkii, Yuno, Kurusu, and Uryuu had in the last little while, it felt nice and fresh to have 2 episodes dedicated to Yukkii's friends.

At least they know when production quality isn't necessary.

Hinata, Kousaka, Akise and Hinata's friend (the name escapes me) were the focus of the episodes and I must say it was a nice change of scenery as they run around trying to figure out where Yuno has taken Yukkii. Normally Yuno is one of our main characters, but this time we get to see Yuno as an enemy and threat to Yukkii through his friend's point of view.

Kurosaka was quite funny with his sudden diary powers to foresee his "awesome" moments such as his "awesome kick" and other lame moves.

Yuno has once again gone completely insane, this time towards everyone, including Yukkii. She even has this mental problem where she can forget things, such as murdering her parents. While I enjoyed these two episodes with the shift of character focus from Yukkii to Akise, the ending just doesn't fit, and I fear things may go downhill from here (Pearz also mentioned this to me). Normally, if Yuno was a regular enemy, she would have died in Kurusu's fashion, but because she is one of the main characters, she will end up tagging along for the rest of the season and either die or once again return to normal. After being denied by Yukkii, the only reason any of Yukkii's friends escape is due to the fact that they all received notification of the other diary holders coming to kill them. And so the hostage scenario is called for a cancellation as everyone vacates the premises.

I can't say I'm all too thrilled to find out that the remaining diary holders are "lending" their powers to a bunch of what seems to be mercenaries. Unlike the uncertainty that Kurusu carried whenever he was helping Yukkii and Yuno, I cant help but fear some sort of dumb character conflicts with the mentally broken Yuno as Akise is the only interesting and capable person left in the group imo.

~Djr7

Mirai Nikki Ep 12 - The Fall of Kurusu

Crazy man with a tiny knife.

This was a very intense episode with a lot of resolved issues that have been built up over the season thus far. With our battle royal between all the future diary holders, we haven't actually had a main villain or protagonist, as almost everyone opposes Yukkii in some way. Kurusu's careful plan to turn Yukkii into a criminal was pretty creative, but the amount of intensity Kurusu gave us was equal to that of a great villain. Kurusu's intense determination to wipe out Yukkii and Yuno was far greater than any of the diary holders so far.

Those eyes!

Kurusu's goal was originally to sacrifice himself and help Uryuu become god to save his son, but with the sudden change in plans, Uryuu needed to forego the alliance and side with Yukkii and Yuno instead. Kurusu decided that the only way to save his son would be to become god himself. Filled with a great amount of determination he went all out in a winner-take-all approach on the newly formed alliance. Kurusu really drove fear into Yukkii's heart more so than anyone else thus far imo. Kurusu had a dissapointing ending with his sudden loss of determination, but it did well to invoke a lot of climax leading up to his demise.

That look, "Go f**k yourself Kurusu!"

I loved the two standoff scenes with Kurusu, they both involved Yukkii and Yuno playing roles as the hostage and opposing force to Kurusu. Yuno really has her bad-ass moments when it comes to protecting Yukkii which I find very exciting.

Yukkii's ability to finally break free of his scared little boy personality allowed him to finally have some courage to change the future by his own hands after shooting Kurusu, even though the diary foretold Yuno being hit instead. Yukkii needed to step into the world of adults after being placed in an unfavorable position. He was able to show great determination, as we have seen subtle and minor changes in his personality and growth over the season.

Those faces crack me up.

Another chance meeting that could only be fate between Uryuu and Nichijima. The two are once again tied together, however this time Uryuu is able to persuade Nichijon to follow her lead as they work to entrap Kurusu and escape the Dead End flag. Uryuu carefullt recorded Kurusu's alliance talk about leaking her information and in doing so forces Nichijima to resign Kurusu as a detective. With Kurusu's role as detective at an end, so is his detective diary's use.

After resolving all of the issues with the police and Kurusu, Yukkii and Yuno were free to live some of their normal lives together. Yukki was finally able to confess his feelings toward Yuno, and it seemed like a happy ending indeed, until the sudden revealing of Yuno's true nature. Yuno is still psychotic, and I am very pleased with this. Yuno was introduced as a crazy stalker with psychotic issues, but later we are convinced that she is normal around Yukki and only does these things for Yukkii. If we followed this logic then Yuno should be normal with no more issues, however it seems Yuno is still a force not to be taken lightly, she still has psychotic plans in store for Yukkii and remains as the main problem for Yukkii to handle. Where does this leave Yukki, we thought everything was resolved with his acceptance of her love, but it seems the plot will thicken as the rest of the diary holders need to be revealed and Yuno is still a mystery case.

Akise will no doubt play an important role in what I believe to be the unveiling of those secret bodies in Yuno's house.

~Djr7

Mirai Nikki Ep10-11 - An Epic Turn of Events

Forgive the super late postings, I'll start with last week's episode briefly.
Episode 10 was our usual toned down plot/relationship development episode where we learned a bit more behind Uryuu's past, which really didn't reveal much. Uryuu has had the most amount of screen time of the other diary holders, even more so than Kurusu. I still demand that twelfth be revived and get more screen time, since he is my favorite of the other diary holders.

Murumuru really doesn't stand up as much of a character with how unimportant she seems.

All the real action was shown in the beginning of episode 10 with Uryuu's past encounter with Third. Murumuru was narrating the scene between Uryuu and the detective as if it were some romance, however there was no way to tell what the two were actually saying since I can only read Murumuru's narration. I never knew that Third's coat was bullet-proof and explosive-proof, where do you buy a coat like that anyway?

Yukkii and Yuno gave us a bit of humor as they attend some sort of practice wedding event. We get to see into some more serious thoughts from Yukkii, as he ponders how he should deal with Yuno. Yukkii clearly shows how he wants to have a relationship with Yuno, but has his doubts since finding bodies in your stalker's house is kind of a turn-off.

I'd rather know what the corpses are, rather than where they were re-located. 

It was pretty obvious that Akise would do some snooping around, but he was quite clever to trick Yuno and Yukkii to be busy for the day, as he searches Yuno's residence. It was a bit of a confusing end where Yuno suddenly forgets about the bodies and thinks this is the first time that Yukkii has been at Yuno's house.

Episode 11 was amazing, but before I dive into it, I want to continue my train of thought on Yuno and her behaviour.

Kurusu is able to uncover his advantage through Yuno's weakness.

It's become pretty clear how Yuno has a mental issue whenever she isn't around Yukkii. Yukkii has become Yuno's anchor to sanity, but when Yukkii is in danger, or not around, Yuno goes berserk, slaying people and causing harm to anything in her path. I always thought Yuno was just a bad-ass psycho, but the explanation from Fourth describes it as more of a weakness than a strength, as he is able to use Yuno's berserk behavior to gain the upper hand. This is the first time that Yukkii is the string one with Yuno being the weakness that Kurusu needs to exploit.

Having Future Diaries takes the fun out of it though.

After episode 10's ending with Fourth arresting Yuno and Yukkii for the slaying of Tenth, the couple are brought in only to be blindsided by Fourth's brilliant plan. Fourth has lately been a character lurking in the shadows, playing his cards behind the curtains with his alliance with Uryuu. Fourth manages to instigate Yuno to shooting him, creating an investigation for his "Investigative Diary" to gain the advantage for capturing the two, now that they are wanted criminals. This brilliant plan made me pause and dissect how long it took Kurusu to work his magic. I have found a new respect for Kurusu, not only does he wish for Fourth to become the "winner" in order to save his son, but he was able to use tenth's death to lure in Yuno in order to have complete freedom from the law to take her and Yukkii down.

This scene was super awesome, Yukkii had to decide what was necessary to survive. His big decision comes from either accepting Uryuu's idea of taking Kurusu's son and wife as hostages, or face certain death from their Dead End flags from Kurusu. What makes this scene so awesome is that Yukkii has to decide right in front of the child and wife, he is also staving and will be too weak to go on if he rejects Uryuu and her doughnuts. It's time for Yukkie to grow up and face the harsh reality that the game has put him in.

I'm surprised Yukkii isn't bothered with how Uryuu has positioned herself on his head.

This was probably the wildest episode yet with how things turned out, I was very happy with Uryuu's plan to switch teams after Yukkii activated a bomb to force Uryuu into a tight spot. It looks like this will have another season as next episode will end with Yukkii, Yuno, and Uryuu, making a stand against Kurusu who has activated the "New Future Alliance's" Dead End flags.

~Djr7

Mirai Nikki Ep09 - Unexpected Ending

Therefore she must die? YES! I can only imagine how messed up it would be if Yuno and Yukkii married.

Well I was pretty impressed and could not have guessed what happened in this episode. I couldn't count how many times I was kept guessing as to what could happen. I was mainly shocked to find out that Akise isn't even a diary holder, further propelling him towards awesomeness. I suppose it would be a bit too similar to have Kurusu and Akise as detective/investigator diary holders. We learn the true intentions of Hinata, as she only wishes to have her father back and start a new life together. Akise had found out about Hinata's father, who is a diary holder bent on eliminating possible diary holders. All by himself without any obvious help, he discovered future diaries, and in doing so, became an inconvenience for Hinata in reuniting with her father.

The crazy luck this Akise has is pretty unbelievable, he managed to guess three times in a row which hand the coin was in during the standoff with Yukkii's diary in jeopardy from Hinata's clutches. OK, I guess it's not really that hard to guess three times correct in a row, but it was still pretty awesome how Akise remains cool and calm with dealing with Hinata.

Who would have thought this would be the turn out.

I was very surprised to see no one die, well no one important anyways. The old man ends up biting the bullet in the end, but I didn't really care since he didn't get as much screen time as the others, and ended up saying how he never cared for his daughter, the scum. The last two episodes were a pretty good info episodes on Yuuki and his inability to have friends. All Yukkii wants is to survive the game and end up with friends, he wants to avoid going back to his situation before the "game" started, being alone as a bystander.

Yuno gets trolled by Akise, saying he might have interests in Yukkii.

It was pleasing to see everyone survive, and even more awesome when Yukkii has one of his golden moments of saving everyone by proclaiming his acceptance of Yuno as his girlfriend. Yukkii has no intention of becoming involved with Yuno at this stage, but he had to do it, in order to save his new friends from the jealous and  psychotic Yuno. With more allies on his side, I really love how the show is shaping with Yukkii and Yuno's character progression.

It was a very well done episode that had me guessing so many times. I still can't believe the 5 of them ended up not only alive, but remained Yukkii's friend. At least I got my wish with seeing more of these characters, but it also means a potential slice of life-ish, Yuno crazy lovey dovey scenes. I can bet that the next episode will most likely revolve around Yukkii dealing with a love struck Yuno, more than usual.

~Djr7