Mirai Nikki – 23 & 24

Gives new meaning to the term “self-harm”

Snazzy new icons from Ness! Don’t you just love it?

 Episode 23

As suspected, Murmur is more than she’s been letting on. Not just a mere minion, she’s after Deus’s crown and kingdom, and aims to become the new God in his place. She prolongs the life of the planet until the 28th, but predicts it will still end – this is reiterated by Yuno and Yuki’s diaries. So Yuki and Yuno are taking refuge at her house, pretty much just waiting for the end, taking baths and Yuki is trying not to let his suspicions of Yuno cloud his judgment. Meanwhile, Yuno is having trouble suppressing her womanly urges…

 

Yuno – “For the love of God, Yuki! Just sleep with me!”

With one day left until the apocalypse Yuki gets up early to go to the ruins of his house and the school, on a memory trip and to try and sort his feelings for Yuno. And that night he indulges in Yuno’s romantic nature. The two take a bath and spend the night together. THEY HAVE SEX. After that Yuki feels this is the perfect time to call Yuno out on lying to him about being about to bring people back. Great judge of mood, as always Yukiteru. Sigh. She pulls an axe out from under her and wedges it in the floor in a bizarre fit of aggression. Then she calms down says she was only trying to console him by saying that.

 

Well, nice to see that the awkwardness is gone.

Oh no, wait…there it is.

It’s then Yuki brings up Akise’s dying message; “This is a second world. Gasai Yuno has already once become God and gone back in time.” Upon hearing this Yuno attacks Yuki with the axe, much to his confusion. He runs outside where Murmur pushes him into the corpse hole and he emerges in a flashback. She guides him through them, and offers the reason why Yuno is trying to kill him – While on the outside Yuno desperately tries to stop Yuki learn the truth.

 

That there are two worlds, and the one Yuki is existing in at the moment is the second. He’s shown a vision of himself and Yuno lying side by side, having committed a double suicide after killing all the other Diary holders. Vision-Yuno gets up however and spits out the pills, she opens her arms to the heavens and declares she’ll become god and bring Yuki back. We know this is impossible however but First World Yuno did not. So, using her new found powers, Yuno asked Deus to return to a past where Yuki was still alive. This had complications however as Yuno had to kill herself when she went back in time, because two of her around would be difficult to explain. So it sinks in for Yuki that the Yuno who said she’d be his wife was dead. Yuki emerges from the corpse hole extremely pissed and ready to face Yuno.

 

Episode 24

With 20 minutes to midnight the world is still being devoured C style. Murmur gets both Yuki and Yuno on a raised platform so they can talk. Yuno explains that if Yuki won’t kill her then she’ll just kill him and do all this over again with a third Yuki. Murmur let’s Yuki drop off the platform so Yuno can win and become god, but Yuki is caught by none other than Ninth!

This is apparently Deus’s doing, who saved Ninth from the vault explosion and split his knowledge and power with her. The two have chased Yuno and Murmur into the past – thus creating a third world. They’ve gone back to when Yuno was still kept in a cage by her parents. Except this time she only has her mother, who leaves her. Tsubaki is still alive as well. Yuki and Ninth find the third world Yuno in time for the first world Yuno to appear. Ninth manages to get them all away, and once safe she questions Yuki on who he really wants to save.

Scottish translation: “STOP BEING SUCH A FUCKING TOOL!”

 END THOUGHTS

What a couple of episodes. When I heard speculations of time travel I was seriously hoping it wasn’t going to happen, I thought it would be just too silly and too out there, but I stand entirely mistaken. It actually did work within the context of the story, and ended up being really clever. Infact, Yuno (the first Yuno), her motivation and situation was fantastic. The only thing I don’t get, or I think is a bit weak was Yuki’s reaction to Yuno killing the other Yuno. He claimed that she was the one who promised to be his wife, and that they were different – surely this isn’t true?

Yes, the second Yuno would have said that to him before the first Yuno killed her, but the first Yuno also said that because she went through all these events before. It is really complicated, all these different worlds. I get how Sixth is alive and Ninth’s return, but does that mean that in the third world (the one they’re in now) Akise will be alive? Or because he was a Deus creation he won’t exist anywhere else? Ninth’s miraculous appearance is slightly unwanted from my point of view. After everyone is “dead”, I don’t really welcome them back.

It does something to the atmosphere to have a minor character return so near the end when it felt right for it to be just Yuno and Yuki. And them chasing each other through a myriad of timelines has endless possibilities and senarios I don’t really want to get into when we’re so close to the end. I just hope the resolution isn’t jepordized by this new, very bold move and massive leap in the story capability. I’m a little nervous about it now, if I’m honest. Still, these past few episodes were mostly exposition, and the exposition was satisfying and kept at a dizzyingly fast pace.