Mirai Nikki (Future Diary)

Sakae Esuno’s “Mirai Nikki” (Future Diary) revolves around Yukiteru Amano, a high school student who could be popular if he wasn’t so introverted, always on his phone in class. He writes a daily diary on his phone, never talking to anyone other than his “imaginary friends” Dues and Murmur, basically going to his own little world inside his head. Dues then exclaims that Yuki’s diary can now tell his future, which of course Yuki never believes at first. Though the next day, the diary is already filled out with events Yuki has not yet fulfilled. After performing these tasks, he finally believes what Dues said to be true. This assigns him as the first diary holder, which all the other diary holders call him “First”. The most popular and gorgeous girl in his class, Yuno Gasai, approaches him, knowing about his future telling diary, as she has one herself revolving all around Yuki’s future called the “Yukiteru Diary”. Having this knowledge, he then realizes that she is the second diary holder, and a stalker, having Yandere (A Japanese term for a person who is initially very kind, loving, caring, and gentle to someone (or at least innocent) they really, truly like and care about a lot before their purely intense romantic love, admiration, and devotion becomes mentally destructive in nature, often through overprotectiveness, violence or brutality) tendencies. Once again, Yuki goes into Dues’ world, and learns that these “future diaries” hold the key as to who will be the next God, since Dues is eroding away as the time goes by. The last diary holder standing wins, and becomes God. Another diary user then comes after Yuki, trying to kill him, his diary being the “Murder Diary”, telling him where all his victims run to so he can close off their escape routes and kill them. But with the help of Yuno’s “Yukiteru Diary”, they lead him to his own untimely death, stabbing through his phone with a dart. Since all of their phones are connected to their diaries, it also has a connection to the diary holder’s life. If the phone or diary is destroyed, the owner dies along with it. As the story progresses, Yuki’s mother is killed by his father on accident, and his father is killed by con men who tricked him into trying to destroy Yuki’s diary to pay off debts, whom his ex-wife left him for. After seeing his parents’ corpses, Yuno tells him that if he becomes God, he can resurrect his parents in a new world. He agrees and helps Yuno kill all the other diary holders, including a boy named Akise Aru who is later involved in the game, and is the 9^th diary holder, receiving the “Detective Diary” from the 8^th diary holder. He is later decapitated by Yuno when he kisses Yuki, who she’s obviously madly in love with. At the end of the story, Yuki finds out that Yuno was the 2^nd world’s god, and they were in the 3^rd world. She won the last game, but decided to commit a double suicide with 1^st world’s Yuki. But she ended up throwing up her pills, and woke after Yuki had already died. She decided to start anew with Yuki, starting a new world and new game with him involved. Yuno sacrifices herself, and Yuki becomes God. He then realizes that he can’t bring people back from the dead, not his friends or family, and not Yuno, who he fell in love with. Struck with grief, he refuses to create a new world.

Since the light novel and manga were so popular, an anime adaption was created, and became extremely popular throughout Japan and America. An English dub was recently created in 2013, and the anime itself was made in 2011.

Book Review by Laura D.