ANIME REVIEW: MIRAI NIKKI: THE FUTURE DIARY (BLU-RAY)

Mirai Nikki: The Future Diary
Released By: Manga Entertainment
Rating: 18
Running Time: 309 Mins
Audio: English & Japanese DD 2.0
Release Date: 22/2/2016
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes 

Yukiteru is the sort of kid who doesn't do well in groups who gets pushed into a death match along with other players. These players have a prophetic device tuned to their personality disorder which can control what happens to themselves and others in the future. Each also have a digital diary with which to predict from, but not all will be able to get it right. Bearing in mind they all have one kind of mental illness or other, the story makes for an unusual one where you might think they are imagining what happens to them.

In this anime, Yukiteru is part of a band of lone players, who all have their own individual psychoses and troubles who have to fight to the death so that they can get to the endgame - a battle to the death with death himself, or at least that is the idea. As with most of this type, there has to another element to the endless fighting, maiming and killing, a love interest that, thankfully doesn't detract from the main story.

Yukiteru, called Yuki here has the problem of staying the same person, having the same emotions as when he first got dragged into this nightmare of tracking and killing. It is harder from him to keep his sanity and decency when he could just as easily treat others like meat when he comes across them. All the characters have lives to go back to, but as it has a higher rating than most anime, it is obvious this is due to the bloody gore and violence in it. The violence isn't meaningless either, it only serves to show us how humanity can deteriorate in anyone with the right amount of button pressing.

One main reason for wanting to buy this blu-ray edition is that there is greater picture quality even if there are no new extras added in the bonus material section. Greater meaning is given to the characters when they die as it is likely that you will have only just got to know them over the episodes, and you will miss their presence over the course of the series as they aren't faceless characters, they all have their own story to tell, and come across as not as mad as they first appear. It will be sad to all who watch it when the characters get picked off one by one, and as the hashtag says on the cover, they will all die at some point through the anime - or will they?

Contains episodes 1-13.


Bonus Material: Episode Commentaries, Textless Opening and Closing Animations and Trailers for other Anime series.


Summary: Now was a great time to release The Future Diary as it's like The Hunger Games in many ways!