Mirai Nikki – 04

Episode 04 –

Sheesh, Yuno sure knows how to creep you out. If I was Yukiteru, after seeing those dead bodies in Yuno’s house, I wouldn’t even think about associating with her ever again. And yet, she manages to indirectly force him into staying quite through sheer intimidation, and other sly tactics. Yuno certainly isn’t someone to mess around with; at least, I wouldn’t ever want her as my enemy. That being said, the introduction of another Diary holder does bring up some rather intriguing possibilities, especially due to the clairvoyant nature of the new future diary. There’s already scheming going on from several diary users, and Yukiteru is trapped amidst all of the chaos. This series reminds me of Death Note in the sense that there’s a large sense of uneasiness, coupled with a ton of tension and a lot of unpredictable, thrilling plot twists.

Well, to be more specific, the story doesn’t treat these diaries as perfect weapons, but rather, points out and exploits all their flaws. For the clairvoyance diary, where the diary can see everything that other people can see, the episode exposes it’s flaw in a rather creative way; if everybody sees the same thing, then the predictions become worthless. This series feels like a very high-stake mind game, where each of the future diary users are using cutthroat tactics to try and kill each other. The deaf guy using his abilities to throw the outside world into complete chaos, and using it to confuse the enemy and create an opening, is indicative of just how much these diary users are putting at stake.

That being said, there’s one thing that makes me a bit uneasy here; a lot of these future diary users are forming alliances, but aren’t they all supposed to be enemies in the first place? There can only be one survivor in the end, so no matter what, everybody will have to fight each other. The issue that worries me the most is when Yuno and Yukiteru will eventually have to face off against each other, but even if you exclude that issue, both the policeman and the clairvoyance diary user can betray everybody at any time. This adds an extra dimension of uncertainty to the story, where anything can really happen. And that unpredictability adds a lot to the thrill factor to this series.

In the end, the game of cat and mouse that’s going on in Mirai Nikki has proved to be quite the captivating story. On top of that, we have some rather freakishly twisted characters (such as Yuno), which adds an element of uncertainty and craziness to the plot. I’m really liking the atmosphere to the series so far, and while there are some plot holes, Mirai Nikki does a good job at maintaining a highly suspenseful story.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.8/5

Screenshots are later in the post.