Mirai Nikki — First Impression

Mirai Nikki is one of my favorite manga. So I was eagerly anticipating the anime adaptation, and probably would have enjoyed it no matter what. But how did it turn out?

Pretty well. Yukiteru’s portrayal went great: he’s pathetic but can be pretty cool when push comes to shove. Yuno (who is really the star of the manga, at least for me) went less well though. Much of her charm comes from how two-faced she is. She can be sweet and innocent, or a crazy bitch. I felt that they neglected the sweet and innocent part, and jumped the gun on the crazy bitch part, making it less effective. Look at this face:

This is a sex-crazed Yuno that I don’t recall seeing until much later in the manga. It’s the contrasts that make Yuno such an effective character, and I’m concerned that the animators are neglecting that. They’re only focusing on the crazy part. But much of her appeal comes from how she lulls the reader and Yukiteru into a false sense of trust and security, only to leap to an even higher echelon of insanity.

I must say: excellent casting for the voice actors. Yukiteru, Yuki and Merumeru sound just like I imagined them. Deus sounds even better than I imagined him.

I’ll definitely be blogging this. It’s gonna be awesome. This whole season is looking great for lovers of crazy characters such as myself. We have the murderous Caster pair from Fate / zero, the entire cast of C^3 (the second episode was amazing, by the way, although I’m not going to blog it) and we also have Gasai Yuno, the crown princess of the crazies.

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15 thoughts on “Mirai Nikki — First Impression

  1. I’m not familiar with the manga, but I did have high expectations for Mirai Nikki from what I heard about it. That said, it did not disappoint, and I had no qualms about Yuno’s character who I think went through the whole transition that you detailed within this one episode: going from nice to stalker, to obsessed.

    1. Hm, ok, that’s good. Maybe it’s just me who saw all the signs then, since I knew what to expect from the manga.

  2. WAKAMOTOOOOO as Deus. Did not expect it, was completely awesome. All the VAs sound fine so far, except I still hate Yukiteru’s voice. Meh, I’ll get used to it soon…

    1. Totally awesome. I hate Yukiteru’s voice as well, but I imagined it would be whiny while reading the manga as well. I think it fits his character.

  3. I really liked this episode, brought up some much needed manga nostalgia.
    I totally agree with you on the Yuno point though, her full crazy self wasn’t revealed until quite a bit later on. I mean, we knew she was creepy (keeping a diary on Yuki and all), but even that creeepiness was just a bit more than what you would expect from a super naive high school girl and at this point in the manga, most people could not have predicted just how crazy she is.

    I don’t normally notice VA’s, but nothing seemed off, so I am going to go ahead and agree with you on VA choices, also Deus sounded god-like. 😛

    1. Glad to hear I’m not alone in this. Much of the fun from a crazy character comes from having her surprise you.

  4. I didn’t like the voices in the OVA, but now I like them… I had the same problem with Haganai. Maybe short OVAs doesn’t do a show justice.

    1. Quite possible. I vaguely remember not like Yuno’s voice from the OVA, but I also vaguely remember not watching it… so… I’m confused… But anyway, I do remember hating the voices on the Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai OVA, and liked them once the series started.

  5. I haven’t read the manga, and it seemed like they didn’t explain a whole lot. Such as why they were put in this survival game in the first place. I still have a few questions heading into episode 2, so hopefully more is revealed later on. Overall this looks very good.

  6. I liked the 1st episode though the art is some what, I don’t know how to put it, lacking? Manga Yuno looks cute. This one, she looks a bit old or something?

    Yukki’s voice is… well, I knew he would be voiced by a girl, it’s just that it’s too… obvious, I guess.

    If I’m not mistaken, there were some scenes added in the anime version like how the victim reported on TV was killed.

    It’s all good though. I’ll continue to watch. I hope they stay loyal to the manga.

    1. Hm, I didn’t notice Yuuno looking differently. One thing that did bother me about the art though is the colors— they’re too pinkish, I guess?

      There may very well be new scenes, I don’t remember the manga that well. I don’t really mind if they change some things from the manga, as long as they capture the crazy twists and turns and especially Yuno’s craziness.

      1. Yeah… and it’s too pinkish.

        Mirai Nikki already has a good story and characters. if they mess up anything, especially Yuno, I don’t think it’ll end well.

        I mean one of the things that made the manga popular is Yuno.

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