tohya.net
What a ride. This show started just kind of alright for me, then quickly devolved into Taboo Tattoo territories of terrible - which means it made me laugh like the greatest comedy on earth for all the wrong reasons. Or maybe not? Honestly I found myself confused sometimes whether the directing just failed to properly convey jokes or tongue in cheekness. Then it kept having its ups and downs until it did surprisingly well towards the end.
Anyways the survival game aspect of Mirai Nikki is pretty terrible. It plays in a real world scenario with supernatural elements, and asks the audience for a whole lot of suspension of disbelief to roll with. The action is ridiculously over the top, characters have little or sketchy developments. The story involved lots of mind games - but none of the characters come off as smart. The mind games themselves aren't impressive at all. There is little depth to most characters and the survival game in general. And the game's gimmick does not really work in action scenes. Like yeah of course these characters are constantly reading messages on their phones (or other curious items) while in the heat of combat.
Surprisingly it's still an enjoyable watch though. There are some glimpes of good writing and you got to consider that the source material was published in a shounen magazine.
No complaints in the art and music departments. Art and soundtrack work well, but don't stand out in particular.
In the end I applaud this anime (manga) for its creative portrayal of a love story involving violent yandere elements. For what it is I found Yuno's character surprisingly well rounded. If you ask me the survival game here is merely a prop to support the special kind of love story that stands in the center of Mirai Nikki. The story manages to depict a crazy concept of romance as wholesome (if you can manage to see it through to the end).
Still not sure who I would recommend this to. Maybe people that are interested in crazy or are really good at suspending all their disbelief to roll with a story no matter how insane it is. Personally I was well entertained.
(Originally posted on mal on may 30th 2021: https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=400183)