Mirai Nikki – 03 & 04
Stalking You Softly
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Okay, I am a pathological liar. So I didn’t manage to get this and Working’!! out in time, and am having to double post. Urg. Don’t like it. These two actually were directly linked and the cliffhanger would have been insane anyway so it’s not so bad. Just FYI, if I sound like a total pansy in my End Thoughts talking about how this show scares me, I went to see Paranormal Activity 3 on Halloween and have been jittery ever since. It was so much fun and such an amazing movie but it creeps up on you at night and I hate that, lol. I’m not easily scared but those movies…*shiver* Anyway! Onto Mirai Nikki~! |
EPISODE 3
Yuki and Yuno are on a date in Deadman Wonderland, Yuki begrudgingly going all the scary rides he doesn’t like to appease Yuno. We cut to a sit down earlier with Fourth; he wants them to help him find the other diary owners, for the sake of peace, of course. He desperately wants to capture Ninth, and we see a flashback of her crying over the corpses of her gun-downed parents (she looks so much better with her hair down, I have to say). So Fourth sends them to the fun park to lure her out, because a place full of innocent civilians is the first choice for a potentially lethal and bombastic encounter.
Ninth is hiding out, still suffering from ye old dart to the eye but manages to escape using her Diary and attempt to get back in the game. Yuki meanwhile is indulging a little in Yuno’s cuteness, because, well, he is a boy and she has massive jugs. Cliche #165 they are riding the ferris wheel at sunset when Yuno reminds Yuki about about an encounter they had a few years ago where Yuno said she would become his bride. It all seems very sweet and innocent if not for the dark shadows Yuno had under her eyes a few moments prior… Exit flashback and Yuki still thinks Yuno is hiding something from him, but she just smiles sweetly and kisses him on the forehead.
They are walking home when it starts raining, they pass by a series of police cars searching for Ninth. They go back to Yuno’s place which is a bit of a dive. Yuki is naturally a bit too inquisitive for his own good and goes exploring, really he’s led astray by his own diary…while this is going on Ninth’s been “rescued” by a mysterious stranger, who at first covers his face with a paper bag but when the drugs he gave her kick in he changes into some Persona-esque monster, asking her to tell him about the other diary owners that she knows about. Yuki ventures into the strange room, altering his and Yuno’s future in such a way that ALL of the diary owners sense it.
In the room is, presumably, the skeletal remains of Gasai Yuno’s parents. Yuno appears behind him crying, and says “Everything was going so well.” Yuki runs home but isn’t quite safe; he collapses against the door to get his breath back and before he can ponder too much about what he’s just seen, Yuno flips up the postbox and whispers goodnight…
Sleep tight, guys.
EPISODE 4
Shitting your pants yet?
Yuko is naturally scared out of his fucking mind by “Meeting the [dead] Parents” of Yuno and is huddled up in his room. He thinks of calling Fourth but because Yuno’s diary pertains so closely to him she knows what he’s about to do and warns him against it…Yuki somehow survives the night and finds Fourth and Yuno waiting for him. Fourth’s information diary has informed him of Ninth’s capture by “The Sacred Eye” (how apt) and that he needs their help in going to check it out. The guys head to their temple (get some funky shoulder sashes) and speak to “The Sacred Eye”, who turns out to be a little Loli.
She seems to be a diary owner herself, calling it the “Clairvoyance Diary” because it prophesies distant events. She is Sixth. She also says she doesn’t want to be God, and she considers herself merely an oracle. She offers them a trade; Yuki for Ninth. They compromise by staying there one night, in which Sixth’s futon catches fire because there is someone after her life. Yuki is naturally ineffectual, and it doesn’t help that a load of the followers seem to have turned into zombies and come into the room baring axes and shit. So people are dropping left, right and center when Yuki decides to grow some balls and try and save her, Yuno tries to talk him out of it but he just tells her she’s a nutcase he can’t trust. That’s going to go down well…
Miraculously the sprinklers turn on just in time, putting out the fire and freeing up the brainwashed followers. Sixth is touched by Yuko’s attempt to save her, much to Yuno’s yandere bloodlust. Cut to the dungeon underneath the temple where Ninth is chained up semi-naked, with a snazzy eyepatch, and being taunted by her mystery “savior”. The followers are still wandering around aimlessly and Yuno is preparing to axe Sixth to death. The “scary eye guy” as I’m dubbing him, raises the followers like zombies to attack the guys. Yuno starts hacking away at them mercilessly, telling Yuki that he can choose her and live or choose Sixth and die.
END THOUGHTS
These two episode were brilliant. I am continuously impressed with just how creepy, and just how scary Mirai Nikki can be when it tries. I’ll gush at the end though, because there were problems. It may have been brilliant but it wasn’t perferct. The timing was really warped in episode three. We’re shown Ninth escaping the building she’s hiding from at night but whenever it cuts back to Yuki and Yuno it’s day. I honestly don’t remember it being established that the scenes with her were a flashback or anything, so it just made it look like Yuno and Yuki spent days at that sucky amusement park. For the majority as well, three was actually really drawn out and boring. It started getting good about halfway/three-quarters of the way through and granted what it did at the end did made up for the weak start.
I loved the scene where Yuki finally asks Yuno WHY she’s actually stalking him. The flashback had a really eerie atmosphere with the muted colours and our first glance at Yuno having massive bags under her eyes. It was even more effective because in the next scene they were gone, the scene she was interacting with Yuki, and again it’s just pushing her abnormalness to the back burner where it can stew. Episode four almost ruined it. Almost. I think it was a bit too soon to see her hacking up people with an axe. Only in the last episode there was that fantastic reveal of the bodies in her apartment, but there was still that tension there of “oh, maybe they died of natural causes/committed suicide and she couldn’t bare to, or just plain couldn’t, move them”. That uncertainty is pretty much dead now. It kinda sucks but, again, episode four was good enough that I’ll forgive it.
Started out liking the strange guy who kidnapped Ninth but he slowly started to get annoying. His “eyeball” costume was good and creepy but his attitude was pants. For a show that can deliver some awesome “Oh, shit.” moments, to go the flamboyantly irritating villain route where he’s a prancing maniac just kills the atmosphere. The attempts of humor is another thing that washes over me. I’m here to be scared, so for me the jokes are a time-waster. I also don’t think they are particuarly funny. Yuno continues to steal the show with her cute but deadly persona. She is so innocently conniving, appearing out of nowhere full of smiles but with this undeniable threat and ability to instill fear in our hero. Granted, Yuki is a total pussy, but I’m pretty sure Yuno could make the manliest of manly men quake at the knees.
NEXT TIME
Oh, bring it on.
About Hime
Metanorn's resident perverted princess and porn critic; she covers the overlooked, the underrated and the down right stupid. No anime is safe from her critical eye, but throw something Jun Fukuyama related in her direction and she'll turn into a useless puddle of fangirl goo.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Wow, time flies by really fast. I can’t believe it’s actually been a year since I started commenting with you guys.
Episode 3: This show is gleefully twisted and violent. I can’t get enough of it. Amusement park or not, Yuno is still soft in the head but there’s also Ninth who’s in a similar state.
Episode 4: Here I thought this might be a dull episode but I was happily proven wrong. Zombies? A little out of place but it works. I can’t believe that pink haired demon just took an axe to someone’s head out of the blue. Sixth was pretty cute.
“Abnormal” isn’t even an understatement in Yuno’s case. The fact she can go batshit crazy without any warning alone is pure awesomeness. And I thought Bakemonogatari’s Hitagi Senjougahara was posessive over the boy she loves. If I were Yukkii, I’d kill her or marry her. It’s hard to choose. LOL. Choose her and live or choose Sixth and die. Nice.
Four episodes down, 22 more to go. I hope they keep this psychotic pace.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Oh, I didn’t realize it was gonna be 26 episodes. Awesome! Lets hope they don’t butcher it /pun
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
ah just so you know, guys. the sixth is not a yandere. or at least the yandere I was referring to last post…
too bad they didnt include the mini wedding they did in the manga with yuki and yuno. it was very sweet, yuki managed to get the guts and gratitude to tell yuno that he’ll go with it even though yuno said the day was enough(she was obviously knowing that yuki was tired and such).
and it set the mood for the WTF moment when yuki opened that door…
ah and they included the side stories in this one. the parts of minene werent part of the manga. those were from the other manga called mirai nikki mosaic.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Mini wedding sounds all kinds of amazing-awkward. I wish they’d done it, too, now xD
I’m glad they included it, Ninth is awesome, she’s just a maids outfit away from becoming Roberta from Black Lagoon.
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 37 comments
man I loved uryuu’s comment about yuno. she’s the one who managed to screw fate, not yuki.
like the manga, I laughed when yuno tried to calmly go in with an ax at the room.
yuki is starting to get the hang of handling yanderes.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
She’s so sneaky and hopelessly un-subtle. It’s fantastic.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Yuno’s completely out of it. She’s so scary I might take my chances with zombies. There’s nothing but madness and desperation in her eyes. She matches perfectly with Lucy from Elfen Lied.
POWUH: 400-499 with 406 comments
I’m still loving this series and slowly remembering the plot line. My favourite characters still have to be Ninth and Yuno, hands down.
I really hate that eyeball guy. So annoying. I want him to stop talking already. The anime amplified his annoying-ness because I could actually hear him talk.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Ninth and Yuno have been the best characters so far 😀
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
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POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 243 comments
I’m a little confused. Why was Sixth offering Uryuu as a trade when she was captured and imprisoned by Eyeball-Man? Eyeball-Man was trying to kill Sixth so I’m fairly sure that they aren’t in alliance? Is Eyeball-Man a treacherous follower of Sixth’s? Or was Sixth just lying about having captured Uryuu? Oh well, I’m sure we’ll find out…
And that final shot of Yuno, with blood all over her face, calmly telling Yukiteru that he has no choice but to choose her if he wants to live… That pretty much cemented Future Diary as awesome in my mind. This is going to be a great ride.
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
the anime forgot to point it out at ep 3.
the 12th was the one who captured 9th so that he could be accepted into one of the 6th’s followers. they missed the parts though where 9th and 12th were sneaking inside the place.
those parts were on the side story, starring uryu(9th) as main character. the manga is called mirai nikki mosaic.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
I wondered about that, too. Thanks for clearing it up amado.
@Bob from Accounting and what a ride I’m sure it will be!
POWUH: 400-499 with 428 comments
Interesting background to Uryuu in the 3rd ep, which I kinda expected from someone like that, since I doubt most people with normal childhoods would know how to make a bomb, let alone a thousand of them…though that guy at the end of the ep, the paper bag one (which means he must have a horrendous face, right?), with what he did…my pity for Uryuu just compounded. A lot. And for Yukkii finding out about Yuno’s dead parents, well, I don’t blame him from running from two decomposed corpses in the same house as a yandere, though I wonder what the reason for their death was…I suspect Yuno had a part since it would have been silly of someone not noticing the parents coming to work or how they’re not paying bills etc…
As for the fourth ep…I just realised how much Yukkii reminded me of Shinji from Evangelion; pretty cowardly, bossed around by the girls (sorry to any girls offended!) and mostly abandoned by those around him, though Shinji does have more friends I guess. And I think it was OC who mentioned but if Sixth is the other yandere you’re talking about, she seems rather normal…so far. Now, Yuno’s dichotomous choice to live or die…reminds me of Terminator; come with me if you want to live! Though, I guess Yukkii would always have the fear of dying from yanderism sticking close to Yuno…
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
when was I ever called OC? anyways, its not her. she doesnt qualify for yandere.
its not a girl anywayerm I think I gave away too much now…POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 243 comments
There’s a male yandere AS WELL? Good God, how much better is this show going to get?
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Hnng…need it now.
POWUH: 400-499 with 428 comments
Yes, and they find out his name was Daryl, the yandere way.
POWUH: 400-499 with 428 comments
Gomenasai! Couldn’t remember off the top of my head but now I know it’s anaaga, (Yay!), all hail anaaga! and, wait, what? having posted below BEFORE this one…I’m now quivering for Yukkii’s chances…and now i realise another Evangelion connection Show ▼
…not sure what to think of this…
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 48 comments
Twelfth got me laughing so hard. I never see that “transform” scene coming and thus I was thoroughly entertained. To be a wackjob villain, you must have a rotten personality which all of the Future Diary owners have (except for Yuki) so I sort of looking forward to see what other nutcases are in store for us.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
“made it look like Yuno and Yuki spent days at that sucky amusement park”
That bothered me, too. I must say that I liked the way they spent all that time making her sympathetic and normal, right before revealing the dead folks.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
It was a well crafted twist, just too bad the timeline had to suffer with the random eclipses.
POWUH: iLurker with 6 comments
yuna is quite frankly, the most batshit crazy character i’ve ever seen
AND I LOVE HER FOR THAT!
i seriously wasn’t expecting much from mirai nikki after watching the OVA… but the episodes so far are as you said, brilliant!
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Indeed they are! It’s great to see it make such a comeback from that awful OVA.
POWUH: iLurker with 3 comments
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