#esuno

[sunniedesi]

In Defense of Future Diary...

TW: lots of yapping.

Making a small essay for Future Diary is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Since my entire blog is dedicated to the series, it only feels right to put something like this out into the ether. However, I’m never sure of the topics that I want to discuss the most. Do I write a defense for the show? My reasons for loving it so much? Its relevance and importance for anime culture? An analysis of Yuno’s character? There’s so much I feel you could say, but I never find the right words to express my feelings coherently. Today, I’ll make the attempt, though. I’ll go over all of the aforementioned questions here, mostly focusing on my personal opinions and feelings regarding the show. I don’t have much experience writing essays or analyses of media, so sorry in advance if my yapping is all over the place.

To begin, I should probably address the elephant in the room: Future Diary, despite its popularity and almost cult-classic status, has turned into a show people love to hate. You see it everywhere, when it comes to reviews, comments, opinion pieces, you name it, if it has Future Diary on the title, people will let you know all the gripes they have with the show. And while I tend to feel defensive or even saddened when I see so much hatred directed at my favorite show… I don’t necessarily blame anyone for feeling that way. I don’t want to be one of those people who pretends to hold the intellectual high-ground, acting as if everyone else is media-illiterate and I’m the one who truly gets the meaning of the series. At the end of the day, it’s just an anime, it’s not that deep. Everyone’s gonna like what they like; we all have different tastes and interests, so it’s only natural we all hold such different opinions about the show, especially given its campy, gory and almost edgy nature. Future Diary is definitely a product of early 2000’s trends, which some people (me lol) appreciate, and others certainly don’t.

That being said, while I respect people disliking the show for personal reasons, there are certain criticisms I see thrown its way that are not necessarily warranted. These issues can be boiled down to the following categories: “plot-holes,” a weak protagonist and toxic pairings. I’ll delve into all of these in a second, but I must say, the amount of times I’ve seen these specific points parroted over and over again makes me believe that many of the people making these arguments are piggybacking off of one another. It’s almost like they’re following a trend, repeating how the protagonist “sucks ass” and that the plot makes zero sense, without showing any examples as to how. 

It’s really common to find shallow arguments like those in comments sections and forums, but since I don’t want to feel like I’m barking up a tree in writing this essay, I decided to look for a source that encapsulated all of the common criticisms, while also backing them up with examples. Now, there are many good video essays out there on Future Diary, my personal favorite is by The Hot Box. But as far as critical pieces go, the one I found that goes the most in-depth is by the creator NezumiVA, titled: Mirai Nikki is Garbage, and Here’s Why. I’ll be referencing the video as I go along, but please note that while I disagree with many of this creator’s arguments, I don’t intend this to be a personal attack. As I said earlier, we’re all entitled to our different tastes and opinions, I can respect them disliking the series while having my own criticisms to give regarding the video. Just a little disclaimer so my intentions aren’t misconstrued here. 

With that out of the way, let’s take a deeper look into the main three arguments I mentioned before:

“The plot-holes eat up the show”

If you’ve been in the fandom for a while, you know that this is probably one of the most common criticisms levied towards Future Diary, and perhaps the one that holds the most weight. Or at least it would be, if it weren’t for the fact that “plot-holes” aren’t exactly the issue people are pointing at here. To explain, I believe people who dish out this claim all have different understandings of the definition of “plot-hole,” so to clarify: a plot-hole is an inconsistency, a contradiction in the narrative. For example, Yuno’s diary is all about Yukki, if she were to have diary entries not about him, that could be considered a plot-hole, as it contradicts the original narrative. A smaller detail being unexplained or overlooked for the sake of pacing is not a plot-hole. A flaw, yes, but as long as it doesn’t contradict what’s already been established in the story, it’s not a plot-hole. 

On one hand, it is true that there are certain Deus Ex Machina moments that aren’t properly explained in the show (heck, the god of this universe is called that for a reason), such as: how does 5th acquire all of his booby traps? Or where did 9th pull that motorcycle from? Why are characters so quick to forgive/forget certain events? These are smaller details that aren’t properly justified on-screen for the sake of pacing and making the show more interesting. You could possibly count this more as a case of poor characterization, particularly with 5th’s character having a lot of knowledge despite his age or Hinata quickly accepting the coin toss challenge despite having an advantage. Given the show only has 26 episodes, it’s only natural that detailed explanations for smaller details are omitted to make the show flow quicker and be more entertaining. While this may bother some people, I don’t find it to be such a big deal, or at least not a reason to dogpile on the show, when many other animes with shorter runtime fall victim to poor characterization as well. 

Many deem the plot nonsensical for missing these smaller explanations, but again, I find that exaggerated as they’re much, much trivial details that the majority of people don’t think of or focus on when watching the show. The video I referenced touches on the plot being illogical several times, not necessarily mentioning plot-holes per se, but complaining that many of the justifications behind certain plot points are unrealistic or contrived, though let’s be real here… since when is anime realistic? Future Diary, I would argue, does a good job of balancing very unrealistic scenarios with some realistic characters (like Yukki, but we’ll get into that later), which is what makes it interesting to watch. After all, what’s the fun in watching a fantasy show if it’s completely grounded in reality? Not to mention that many of the points brought up in the video aren’t contrived, especially if you were paying attention to the show. For example, the scene of Yuno meditating to figure out Reisuke’s plan. This wasn’t a Deus Ex Machina moment, it was foreshadowing of the fact she has her first-world memories locked away, and the meditation was her trying to access those memories. Same thing with Bacchus having an overpowered diary, it isn’t for the sake of it, he literally designed it to be that way, because he was the one who presented the idea of the diaries to Deus in the first place.

I’m getting a little side-tracked here, but you get the point. Ultimately, the worst sin a show can commit is being boring, and while Future Diary has its flaws in pacing and characterization, it contributes in keeping the viewers hooked to the action, packing its small run of 26 episodes with quite a bit of entertainment. Moreover, a lot of people overreact to these so-called “plot-holes”, yet they also fail to pay attention as to why things happen as they do in the show. Many of these criticisms can be summed up as either: trivial details that are omitted since they have little relevance to the plot and/or people not paying attention to what’s going on. 

Moving on, let’s tackle another very, very popular argument:

“Yukiteru is a total pushover (to put it nicely).” 

This is, without a doubt, the most common criticism I’ve seen people have of the show. I’m not sure if this is because people are used to the upbeat, overpowered protagonist trope in anime, but people don’t realize that Yukki being frustrating, awkward and terrified is an important part of the show’s storytelling, not to mention relatively unique. Very rarely do we see a realistic portrayal of a teenage protagonist in anime, and it is important for the show since it serves as a contrast to the other characters, all dark, callous and obsessed with the goal of becoming a God. Yukki is the only character not interested in any of this at the beginning. All he wanted was to escape reality with his phone and imaginary friends, and he's now thrusted into this terrible and hopeless situation. How exactly is a young boy expected to react under these circumstances? 

Teenagers are naive, dumb, selfish, all characteristics portrayed in Yukiteru, and these characteristics are put under scrutiny by every one of the diary owners, constantly telling him to grow a pair and stop using Yuno. This is easier said than done when you’re used to avoiding every little bit of responsibility in your life, and a girl who’s self-reportedly “crazy good at killing people” suddenly thrusts into your life ready to do all the work for you. Yukki is indeed a very flawed character, but that isn’t an accident, it is an intentional addition. It’s what makes him interesting; it pushes conflict into the show, and most importantly, drives home one of the main lessons of the show with Yukki’s development: fear doesn’t mean you’re not brave, it’s having that fear and pushing forward that makes you brave. A little corny, I know, but a valuable lesson for the Survival Game. 

Every character has an incentive for becoming God, and they’re utterly consumed by it to the point of insanity. Even a character like 4th, who was originally concerned with the goal of bringing order and justice rather than more carnage to the game gets carried away when a proper incentive for God’s seat comes into play: saving his son. In a Survival Game where we're surrounded by the most cunning and twisted of characters, killers, terrorists, people in corrupt positions of power, Yukki stands out like a sore thumb for retaining his humanity throughout it all, unwilling to get his hands dirty, rather willing to see hope in everyone else. It comes across as naive and all-too trusting. This is especially true for his father, but considering how little people he has to rely on, plus his childish hopes of seeing his family back together, his forgiveness towards him makes sense. And the same can be said for Yuno, the one constant he’s got all throughout the game. Despite the abuse and manipulation, she’s ultimately got his best interests at heart, but I’m getting ahead of myself with this point.

Eventually, the circumstances that Yukki goes through (namely his parents’ death) put that humanity, kindness and mercy, the staples of his personality, to test. It’s a testament to how desperate situations can corrupt even the most innocent of individuals. Yukiteru goes from a hopeful individual to a callous killer, no different from Yuno and equally as selfish. Similarly enough, we know thanks to her third-world-self that Yuno was originally a normal, happy girl with the hopes of finally having a loving family taking care of her. All of this, to then be tortured by the people who were supposed to bring that peaceful family life to her. 

Yukki being a weakling may be frustrating to some, it is certainly brought up many times during the video essay, but it’s an important factor that drives the plot and many of Future Diary’s lessons about growth and accountability. Besides, the anime certainly wouldn’t be as interesting to watch if every character was just an OP know-it-all like Akise. Which no hate to him, but the show wouldn’t be the same if every character were like him.

And speaking of Akise, I’ll take the opportunity to mention a point in the video essay that bothered me a bit. The creator says the show is “queerbaiting” with his character, because Akise’s attraction towards Yukki is forced, but I don’t see exactly how this is queerbaiting. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t queerbaiting when a character is insinuated to be gay, yet it’s kept ambiguous enough to never address it? The show straight-up explains the reason behind Akise’s attraction to Yukki. His love is forced because it was created by Deus to further his investigation about Yukki and Yuno. Akise himself is a fabrication of Deus. It is literally explained in episode 23. You can’t bait the audience into believing a character is gay if you explicitly tell the audience the character is gay lol.

But that’s one of the smaller issues I had with the video’s criticisms. My biggest gripes were actually the following: at the beginning of the essay, this creator talks about how many of the plot points in the show are contrived and illogical, but at the same time, they dislike the characters having tragic backstories that explain how they went on to become twisted individuals. Isn’t it a little contradictory that you complain about a character acting unnatural, yet when the explanation for their behavior comes up, you completely disregard it? They go as far as to say Esuno hates women and is misogynistic for his portrayal of female psychosis, and the use of SA as a tragic backstory being distasteful. Because, according to this creator, people who have been victimized never go on to become terrible people themselves, and that this is a “problematic stereotype.” 

To say that this worldview is incredibly simplistic and naive is putting it mildly. Being a victim doesn’t exempt you from the capability of hurting others, and in fact, the opposite is often true. Hurt people hurt people, that is another main theme in Future Diary, and one of the things I love about it so much. It doesn’t make its characters victims of terrible situations for the sake of pitying them, but to portray their natural descent into madness from being corrupted by a cruel and unrelenting world. Yuno, Yukki, Minene, Tsubaki, these characters all started out as normal until life turned them into the nihilistic monsters they became. They’re morally gray, an example of what you can become when your ethics and moral worldview is tested by society so many times, it ultimately turns you into a societal outcast. Which only makes it funnier that one of the questions asked in the video is “are we supposed to like these characters?” Yes and no, that’s the fun of writing morally gray characters.

I often see these takes with people who fail to understand that the portrayal of something in media ≠ endorsement. It’s the crux of people who lack media literacy, the failure to understand morally gray or just straight up evil characters as protagonists. The media itself isn’t telling you to repeat their actions, it is an exploration of how these actions manifest in the first place, a cautionary tale, if you will. I know that having evil or twisted protagonists isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but to accuse the story or the author of malicious intent would be completely missing the point of the story’s purpose. Not to mention, that it is important for stories like this to exist, to put us in the shoes of those who enact harm, to understand why they do it and keep us from becoming like them.

The show doesn’t justify any of their actions, in fact, it often shows them for what they are: twisted and morally corrupt; it is on the characters themselves to bear the burdens of these actions. A clear example of this is the confrontation that Yukki has with his friends nearing the end of episode 22. It is probably one of my favorite scenes in the entire show: Yukki being forced to face all of his demons at once, realizing just how much damage he has caused, damage that he later has to mend in his final confrontation with Yuno to finally put an end to everyone’s suffering. It is dense, crude, and it is certainly necessary for both him and Yuno. 

Funnily enough, this youtuber goes on to say the following about Yuno’s background: “I really don’t care what her (back)story pans out to look like… her actions are still not excusable.” Which is true, just because someone was abused doesn’t justify them perpetuating the same abuse later. However, they then crush their own point by claiming that Yuno’s obsessions started all because of “a passing conversation.” I guess they weren’t lying when they said that they didn’t care about Yuno’s backstory… because chalking up her obsession as solely a result of that scene is completely disregarding her background. That conversation in the classroom did start Yuno’s fixation towards Yukki, but it is not the root of her obsessive tendencies. Yuno herself believes it to be, but this is an idea that is squandered by Yukki in his final confrontations with her. Moreover, if you paid attention to her backstory, you would understand it is all due to her childhood neglect. And similarly, Yukki’s attraction towards Yuno stems from this as well.

This brings me to the final criticism:

“Yuno and Yukki’s relationship is problematic, toxic and makes no sense.”

There is no denying that Yuno and Yukki start out as an incredibly toxic and troublesome pairing, using each other for their own selfish wants instead of working with each other. This is the Achilles heel in their dynamic, and it is often the cause of their troubles. Yuno acts impulsive, unstable and manipulative towards Yukki due to her insecurities and debilitating obsession, while Yukki pushes all responsibility to Yuno due to his own lack of a spine. They hurt each time and time again, yet they can’t help but be with each other. And this is because, in a twisted way, they compliment each other. 

On one hand, we have a social outcast, ignored by everyone including his family, visibly alone and afraid of being hurt by others, but still seeing the best in people. Then on the other hand, we have a popular girl from a prominent family, visibly perfect, but in reality just as alone due to abuse she experiences at home, making her view people as fundamentally cruel. On the outside they’re opposites, but deep down, they’re both lonely, and terrified of said loneliness. It is only when they meet, when Yukki shows her the kindness she was missing for years and when Yuno gives him the support he had always craved, that they fulfill each other’s needs. By becoming acquainted with Yuno and the Survival Game, Yukki becomes increasingly darker, eventually maturing at the end of the show, while Yukki awakens Yuno’s empathy and pulls her back from the darkness, as we see when she falters to hurt third-world Yuno and her parents. 

Their complementary personalities are even referenced by their diaries, which only work seamlessly if paired. They balance each other out perfectly, bringing out the best of each other, but only after learning to push back on their worst characteristics, which is also true for real-life relationships. In truth, just like these two, people are flawed, traumatized and generally toxic to one another. There’s no such thing as people or relationships that start out perfect from the get-go, they need to learn to grow together. 

In that sense, this is what makes the ending of the show so powerful to me. Yukki isn’t set on killing Yuno or becoming God anymore. He’s finally taking responsibility, coming to terms with the awful deeds he’s done, and the fact that he can’t undo them. Instead, he wants to help Yuno come to terms with her own demons, finally giving back to her what she needs and not something for his own benefit. Similarly, Yuno realizes just how off the deep-end she’s gone when she meets her past self, acknowledging that she’s lost her original goal, and that repeating the cycle of hurt won’t fix her already broken spirit. That world isn’t for her, and so she finally ends the hurt, giving her and Yukki the peace they need. 

Many people don’t like Redial because they see it as an undeserved Happy Ending for two awful individuals, but the way I like to see it is as a form of redemption. Both characters, in the end, do what they have to do to restore order in the world. Yukki pays for his sins in the void, finally a God but at the cost of mourning what could’ve been. First-World Yuno ends the suffering she’s putting herself through so her new self can thrive, almost akin to breaking free from her past traumas to finally heal. The new self regains those memories, not to sulk, but to build from them, going back with Yukki to start a new world that isn’t characterized by their original hurt. In a way, it's a story about how the most downtrodden of individuals can find solace in love, break from their past and learn to heal together. For me, it’s cathartic and fulfilling to watch.

To finish this lengthy post, I feel it’s appropriate to mention the importance of Future Diary’s characters, and more specifically, Yuno. The video describes her writing as shallow and contrived, but I’ve already addressed that in the previous paragraphs. Many people love chalking her up to “cRaZy YaNdErE gUrL™ 🤪​,” but she’s so, so much more than that. Her character actually has a lot of depth if you pay attention to her story: she’s a girl, an orphan who went on to be neglected by her foster father and abused by her foster mother, resulting in complex trauma, insecurities and fear of abandonment that she tries to hide and overcompensate for in her overly aggressive tendencies. Her obsession in avoiding the loss of the only person she has becomes her demise, as she lives in a loop of torment all for the sake of not being alone again, a cycle of hurt only she has the power of breaking if she finds the strength to do it. Whether it was intentional or not, Yuno portrays a lot of the issues people with mental illness, such as BPD, struggle with. 

Now, claiming that Yuno is a perfect, one-to-one representation of BPD would be reducing this disorder to a caricature, there’s obviously so much more to BPD than what you see in this portrayal. But, I feel like out of the huge list of characters that fall under the “yandere” or crazy girl trope, she’s probably one of the best written ones in anime. I know she’s often dubbed the “yandere queen,” but seriously, it’s rare to see media committing to this trope and properly characterizing it. I would go as far as to say she’s the best character I’ve seen written in this genre, only sharing that spot with another character from a certain game (but given that the mere mention of its name is enough to ensue controversy, I’ll abstain from talking about it here 🙄​). A big portion of characters within this trope are quite two-dimensional, without clear motives for their obsessions, or having their issues played up for laughs (I’m looking at you, Anna Nishikinomiya). Heck, many of the characters associated with the trope aren’t actual yanderes, like is the case for Shion Sonozaki or Lucy from Elfen Lied. 

Yuno’s character is rich and interesting to watch, she isn’t just some “crazy girl” for the sake of it. She’s a product of tragedy, only motivated by the hope of finally having Yukki alleviate all of her insecurities and sorrows. I’ve always found the “yandere” trope interesting since it delves into the lengths people are capable of going over an obsession, and how these form to begin with. Given how complex, sensitive and even personal this topic can be, it’s important to have characters like this be properly written, and I’m glad that Yuno set a standard for this back in her day, even if many people don’t take her character seriously. 

I think it’s important to close up this post repeating the sentiment I had at the beginning. My purpose in writing this defense isn’t so much to force people into liking the show, and even opinions I disagree with like the ones in NezumiVA’s video are valid in their own right, as everyone has different perspectives in interpreting media. This is simply my take as someone who’s been a fan of the show for a really long time, since I don’t see many in-depth essays for Future Diary out there. It is a show that has stuck with me for its lessons on learning to be brave, healing from the past and selfless love. As silly as it may sound talking about an anime, it’s something that I can always look back to and smile, laugh or cry along with. Despite people’s conflicting views and endless criticisms, it will never fail to have a special place in my heart. Given how much time I’ve dedicated to this series, it’s only fair I dedicated a little bit of that time explaining my love for it too. And if you made it this far down the post, I would also like to thank you for dedicating a little bit of your time to my shower thoughts as well!

[sleepii247]

OOOO I HATE YUNO GASAI WITH A BURNING PASSION

I hate Future Diary as a whole, there's nothing i found to be redeeming about that anime or its characters

But Yuno? Fuck her. Fuck bitch ass Yuki. I hate them both.

The end of that anime is them biting the curb up close and it's extremely graphic and extremely satisfying, that's canon because the creator told me so

[haveyoureadthismanga-poll]

[yunoteru4ever]

Appropos of nothing, I must give voice to this.

The fact that nobody has any idea what — if anything — Sakae Esuno has been doing/working on since friggin' November of 2023 is driving me absolutely CRAZY.

I'm being driven slightly more mad each day by this lack of info, is all.

[cantheywinthehungergames]

I just remembered this anime randomly. How about Eiji Hoshimiya from Big Order? The big order wiki says he’s estimated to be 17 years old.

Tribute Name: Eiji Hoshimiya

Age: ~17

Restrictions: No use of the Order power

If you would like to see a character aged 12-18 enter the Hunger Games, please submit them through my asks. 19+ aged character submissions are currently closed.

Please also look at my pinned post for submission rules as well as a list of previously submitted characters prior to submitting your character.

[hatsumishinogu]

Reign of the Seven Spellblades Vol.8

[the-chosen-blood-teller]

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Hello, everyone!

As of recent, me and my girlfriend have been working on a massive project: 

We are creating Esuno Collective, a Discord group dedicated to discussion of all of Sakae Esuno’s works. In this group, as we have it so far, you can discuss... (If you don’t care to read this, scroll down for a TLDR)

All of Esuno’s works: Hanako and the Terror of Allegory, Mirai Nikki / The Future Diary, Big Order, Detective Akechi Is Berzerk. This server revolves around discussion of all of these!

Collection! This will be a group where old and new Esuno collectors can come together and talk about this niche but fun collection topic.

Nostalgia! Actually, our main goal with this server is to allow others to look back at these works with a positive feeling of nostalgia, especially since they’re so memorable.

Much more is in the work to make this a place where fans of any of these works can speak and make friends with others who love the content just as much.

Other things-- of course there’s off topic channels, so that’s a thing too!

TLDR: We’re making a community for fans of not just Mirai Nikki but ALL Esuno works! 

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But, we really need some help. So far, we have over 100 emotes planned and made-- including some animated ones. We have graphics and other things, but we’d love to have more help from other fans who are interested. If you’d like to help / contribute to this newfound community, you can add me on Discord. 

My username is.. pizzahead. (Don’t forget the period at the end!)

The more different minds the better, since an even wider variety of ideas can be brought up! 

If you read this all, thank you! Esuno Collective should be open soon-- we just want to make sure that it’s set up completely with everything possible before we open the gates.

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[ultraericthered]

So I felt like making a hot take post about this audacious bitch:

Minene Uryuu, Ninth Future Diary Holder from The Future Diary. (Yes, she and Black Lagoon's Revy Two-Hands are almost the same character, I know.)

Losing her parents as collateral damage in religious extremist militia warfare when she was 8 years old, Minene was forced to live a brutal life as an orphaned, homeless street rat in a Middle Eastern nation overrun with the religious extremists' ceaseless conflict, possessing little of her own and having to resort to theft in order to survive. The result of this was Minene developing a burning hatred towards the idea of God and of all religion as a whole, organized or otherwise.

Carrying this disdain for everything related to religion and letting the wrath and hatred fester inside her heart as he got older, Minene was eventually able to make her living as a terrorist bomber, specifically targeting religious structures, religious organizations, and prominent, influential religious individuals, in order to destroy them in the name of atheism and shit. Before it was turned into her Future Diary by Deus, Minene's Escape Diary was a regular journal that she used to chart out all the possible escape routes in whichever area she was planning to attack. She is very tactical and intelligent, able to easily gather information and make deductions based on it. Having spent her adolescent years alone with no love or guidance, she believes she is fated to be all alone in the world, does not need anyone else in her life to help her, and must survive and endure at all costs so she may one day see the stated end goal for all her evildoing realized: the erasure of the very idea of gods and all religious faith built from the world. Throughout her life, Minene appears to be haunted by her eight-year old self and the memory of crying over her dead parents, symbolizing her desire to escape her own past and be saved.

So where I am going with this? Well, here's my hot take:

Minene Was Right.

...Except for all the ways in which she was not.

While wanting to erase the concept of deities and higher powers from the collective of humanity is childish extremism in her thinking (people have believed in such things for ages and I really don't think there is anything that could stop them), Minene's want to see the total abolishment of all religious institutions, depowering of religious leader figures, and cessation of both all damaging religious practices and of the relevance thereof, is honestly completely understandable. Sure, she cannot and should not force atheism onto all peoples of the world, and I'm sure once she was gifted god-like powers by an actual deity she'd find herself beginning to understand that, but when she looks at religion and its place in the world, Minene sees flawed, fallible, needy, selfish, hideously ignorant and deluded human beings taking the fact that conceptualized notions of divinity, spirituality, and higher power over all physical reality that is sacred and holy exist in life, and using it as an excuse to interpret spiritual faith in very human ways and apply them to human work for the fulfillment of human desires. Thus can religion become the driving force behind wars, behind crimes, behind abuse, behind oppression, behind classist, racist, sexist and homophobic practices, etc. If defined very broadly and stretched to meet the requirements that humans want it to meet, religion can be a vehicle for sin, all while the sinners hypocritcally preach that they're doing the righteous and holy work of their god(s) and stand against evil, vice, and sin that corrupt this world.

I feel I don't need to ellaborate on how much suffering is wrought upon too many innocent human lives due to violent conflict driven by extremists who use their religion to justify their acts of inhumane atrocity, who cling to the sacred dogma of their faith and the way in which they've chosen to interpret the words and will of their priests, prophets, messiahs and deities as being permission, or a mandate to satisfy their hatred, bloodlust, and hunger for power and dominance. Or on which currently going conflicts in particular I've in mind when I say all this. I've seen or heard the rhetoric of "our religion tells us..." or "our faith dictates that...", or even "our God commands us to..." applied to blatantly worldly matters and very human-centric, material-based disputes. And it strikes me as fucking ludicrous. So I just have to think that Minene had it right the whole time: if human religion and all the harmful ways religious faith gets utilized ceased to be, the world would be a far better place to live in. To me, this ideal is just.

So how did Minene then end up going oh so very wrong in her life?

I could easily point to the fact that she's a bloody terrorist, that she has gleefully bombed, gunned down, slashed up, and decimated populated areas with much human cost that she didn't seem to give a damn about, and clearly that's wrong....but that's a bit too obvious. Anyone with a functional moral compass can tell that the clear cut bad guy doing clear bad things is in fact bad and their actions cannot be considered right. I could go deeper and point to her hypocrisy, how she became what she'd hated most - someone who persecutes and victimizes other human lives due to her own belief that evil, sinful acts committed in the name of her own brand of faith (atheism) are justified or "necessary evil" - and that she's been every bit the demon that she'd come to see Murmur #1, 1st World Yuno Gasai, and John Balks as being....but nah, her worst error of all isn't even that.

Where Minene went wrong most of all is that her anti-religion ideals aren't and were never the true reason behind her turn to crime and terrorism, but merely the rationale she told herself. Meaning she was out committing impersonal, indiscriminate acts of mass harm and murder for the sake of no vision of a greater good, but over small, deeply personal psychological burdens that are really no good reason to do any of this awful, heinous shit. See, when I mentioned in my summary of her character that "Minene appears to be haunted by her eight-year old self and the memory of crying over her dead parents, symbolizing her desire to escape her own past and be saved"? That's what it's really all about. She chose to become a destructive, mass murdering terrorist and a public menace as a cry for help. Terror was her language for saying "someone help me, love and accept me, save me the way I was yearning to be saved, tell me it's okay for me to be human, to move beyond my painful past, live in the here and now for a better future, and not throw my life away doing horrible things....or if not, then please kill me! Just put me out of my misery now!" Anyone of sound mind and clear consicence truly motivated by a desire to make the world a better place for others to live in would never think terrorism to be an effecive recourse. Ever. That's how you can tell that Minene was never acting for the sake of that cause. It was always about her internal cycle of self destruction and the crying of her buried inner child for the healing and salvation of her soul, for the help she'd never recieved when she was orphaned years ago, never about the erasure of religion and how that might help the world at large. Minene's war was truly with herself.

With such a well thought out, disturbingly mentally and emotionally malnourished character to work with, it sucks that Sakae Esuno didn't always know how to work with her in the most effective ways. When you have a very realistically human set-up for someone who represents realistic human evil but then use it to depict instead a cartoonish, costume-wearing comic book supervillain and then still go for nuance, redemption and heroism with that character, it's gonna feel more than a bit awkward. But while I wish she'd have gotten more interplay with Yuno and Kurusu (and none at all with Nishijima), I do really appreciate that the core of her character arc was kept focused on her association with Yukiteru. What Minene truly needed was someone who'd be steadily open and understanding with her, which prompts her to be open and understanding with them, which itself taps at Minene's concealed humanity and draws out her better qualities, and Yuki was this person to her. What compounded this with the healing of Minene's heart and soul is that Yuki himself was, in his current state, reminiscent to Minene of what she'd been like as a kid: a naive, hopeful, and good-natured yet troubled youth walking towards a dark abyss as their innocence dies and their heart cries out for anyone or anything to pull them back away from the edge. While Minene realized the truth about what she'd yearned for and re-embraced her humanity too late to save Yuki from taking the plunge, it was just in time to save her own soul and make some difference, as ensured by, ironically enough, an Act Of God - literal Deus Ex Machina (but I remain torn on how this was implemented by the writing within canon, it sort of diminished Minene's arc tbh.)

And what she did not need was someone telling her "I love you as you are, warts and all, but only really because I love the idea of the person you could be and who I can see you becoming, because if you did become like that, then I'd want to marry you and get laid with you!" Goddamn, I hate the writing for that fucking character so much.

Hey, I now just realized - Minene and Cyrus from Pokemon could be considered like inversions of each other. Both characters suffered hardships in their young lives that brought them to some very valid points about worldly issues in need of being addressed yet their untreated personal pain and all the defects born from it in both mentality and personality steered them in the wrong direction, towards extremism and terrorism in their pursuit of a solution. But Minene seeks to eliminate the very idea of the divine while utilizing mundane human means, while Cyrus wants to eliminate human spirit while utilizing the exploitation of higher power in hopes of ultimately becoming a deity himself. And this is actually the second time one of the Diary Holders in The Future Diary has been likened to Cyrus!

[masked-and-doomed]

Why is Takao the only one who gets punishment in the 3rd World. Huh.

[worlds-4th-best-dad]

Happy Belated Death Day, Tsubaki and Yomotsu!

It's such a shame that the PWD reps died early. Hope you both enjoy the cake as a consolation! 💖💖💖

[haus-der-mysterionmusen]

"I don't know what I'd do if everyone hated me as much as they hate Eiji, he didn't even mean to kill all those people and I've pretty much become an accessory to all of Yuno's murders willingly."

"Don't worry about it even there are people who hate you, you'll always have me Yuki and I'll love for forever."

[sunniedesi]

Future Diary Light Novel (thoughts/ short TL)

It’s common for light novels to receive manga or anime adaptations in order to introduce the series to a wider public. What’s not so common is for the reverse to happen, though with a series as popular as Future Diary was back in the early 2010’s, it’s only natural that a light novel was among the many adaptations it received. Said adaptation was released in 2012 and written by the author Itou Nobuki (who, according to his MAL profile, hasn’t worked on any other piece). The light novel was divided into two books, and each chapter contains unique artwork done by Masahiko Yoshihara. The art is also the only different/new thing the light novel adds to this series. 

The general consensus on the light novel is that it’s a retelling of the manga, which other than giving you a little more insight on the characters’ thoughts, doesn’t add anything new. I decided to give it a read to confirm this myself, and… I have things to say (spoilers for the LN ahead… and Future Diary too, duh).

First and foremost, the notion that the light novel adds nothing new is mostly correct, save for the prologue and epilogue. The prologue introduces the reader to ““Deus,”” who is experiencing some form of memory loss and is now being guided by MurMur through the Akashic Records to remember the events of the Survival Game. The novel then goes over the events we already know from the series all the way up to 9th’s death… where it suddenly ends. Yes, the novel ends with 9th’s death and jumps straight to the epilogue, where ““Deus”” informs the reader that he cannot recall the events after that, because it physically hurts him to remember.

That’s when we get the revelation that this isn’t Deus we’re dealing with, but Yukiteru, who has taken on Deus’ role after winning the Survival Game. Apparently, he’s experiencing problems with his memory similar to Yuno’s due to the trauma of losing her, so to further help Yukiteru remember the ending of the Survival Game, MurMur gives him Yuno’s diary, from which he gathers the final details. From there on, the events carry out similar to Redial, where the last entry in Yukiteru’s diary gets rewritten to “Yuno’s coming to see me.” Yuno then magically appears and it’s happily ever after and blah blah blah…

While I found the prologue and epilogue to be insightful in terms of giving us more details about the ending, I was pretty confused that the novel left out the most crucial aspects of the story. Everything from episode 22 and on from the anime (or the last two volumes of the manga), which includes: Yukiteru killing his friends, Yukiteru finding out that the dead cannot be revived, Happy End, time loop plot twist (which is the pillar the story is built upon btw), the final battle between Yukiteru, Yuno and the 9th… and the list goes on. If someone who hasn’t read the manga or watched the anime read this as a stand-alone piece, they’d be left scratching their heads at the epilogue. 

The novel makes you raise all the questions that would lead to the eventual plot twist, simply to end with said questions unanswered. And if you think this is weird, it’s because it is. The author himself acknowledges this on the author’s notes at the end of the novel. He explains that the light novel was set out to be a two-parter from the very beginning, meaning he couldn’t extend it to fit all aspects from the manga. Which is understandable; however, he deliberately chose to end it with 9th’s death because he "wanted to leave the story at its climax for the epilogue."

Look, I understand this man was working with what he was given, but if he really wanted to blue-ball the audience, he could’ve at least tried to fit the revelation of the time loop before cutting to the epilogue. You know, so the story actually makes some sense? The epilogue casually mentions the second and third world as if it's something that's been brought up before, when this is the first and only time it's mentioned. Anyway, I’m going off on a rant here. I’m very particular about pacing and structure in writing, so seeing something like this really grinds my gears (especially since I wanted to see the events from the final episodes novelized).

With that out of the way, I did translate a little bit of the light novel since there’s no official translation out there, namely the prologue, chapter 1 and the epilogue. I’m not planning on translating the rest of the novel since it’s basically a retelling, but I did find those parts to be interesting enough to translate, given that the prologue and epilogue delve into Yukiteru’s ten thousand years of solitude. 

Now that I have my little rant/ translation projects of the week out of the way, I’ll go back my cave ~

[cerastes]

Mirai Nikki, I can talk at length about how disjointed this manga was, how utterly badly written it was, how much of everything it had going for it was a fortunate lightning-in-a-bottle combination of offering a few narrative beats and concepts plenty of people wanted and couldn’t find in other works of the time too easily, so you made do, but what I will forever appreciate about it, and why despite being keenly aware of how putrid it is overall, I still consider it a work I thoroughly enjoyed, is that it really dared to say “this evil terrorist woman who has blown up and killed several dozens of children and teens on-screen is one of the central characters of the narrative that we are in fact supposed to like and gets a good end despite never getting a redemption arc or anything of the sort”.

Esuno cannot write to save his life —just look at Big Order, aka “I played Persona one time while listening to Jojo and I think I get it” — but his particularly messy writing and obvious raging boner while ever handling a pen at least results, against all odds, in some quality evil woman representation.

[syrpai]

Some kind of muttering

I love visiting Tumblr and seeing how amazing people keep the Mirai Nikki fandom alive. It makes me smile and wonder why I didn't stumble upon this community sooner. To all you wonderful people out there, thank you for existing. You've restored my faith in the fandom after ten years of aimlessly wandering alone.

But anyway, that's not the point. Seeing how my feed is overflowing with posts has inspired me to write something of my own. I decided to gather a few fun facts and details that I find intriguing but perhaps not widely known. You might already know some of these, but I'm going to share them anyway. Cause I love to geek out… Sorry in advance!

Fact 1: Filament isn't about Yuno

The single "filament" was released on February 8, 2012. In the lead-up to this, Yui-sama - the vocalist and lyricist of Yousei Teikoku -appeared as a guest on the online show "Lantis no! Anison Tuesday!!" to promote the upcoming release. The show is your typical Japanese variety program: lively, full of laughs, and Yui-sama constantly making witty remarks with her signature stone-cold expression. The most interesting part comes toward the end.

At one point, Shiraishi Minoru (Kosaka Ouji CV ❤) asks Yui-sama what thoughts she had while writing the song. Her response:

This song is dedicated to one of the key characters of Mirai Nikki, Akise. The lyrics are about him. I can't go into too much detail, but I tried to capture his unspoken feelings and hidden thoughts in my own way.

But it seems Asread either didn't notice this or chose to focus on the main fan-favorite Yuno, so the video highlights her. The fact that no one noticed this divergence between the creator's intent and the final product says a lot about the similarities between Yuno and Akise. Or perhaps it speaks to the limitless freedom of artistic interpretation.

Fact 2: Favorite Characters

This is fairly well-known, but it made me think deeply when I first learned about it, and I realized it's pretty obvious even without direct confirmation.

Esuno Sakae's favorite character is Uryuu Minene, which he mentioned in the guidebook and at the Lucca Comics 2012 conference (very cautiously and vaguely, unlike in the guidebook). Sorry, Esuno, but you didn't exactly hide it, constantly making things easier for your favorite…

Another one of his favorites is Houjou Reisuke. But I'll stop here so you can wait for the guidebook translation from other wonderful people and read all about it yourself~.

Murata Tomosa's favorite character is Kurusu Keigo, as she mentioned in a promotional review of pachinko machines. For some reason, her choice made me really happy (maybe because Kurusu is one of my favorites too).

Fact 3: Gundams

As you may know, a certain percentage of the Murmur's Section is an adaptation of omake from the manga. And the one I'm talking about here is no exception.

In the Murmur's Section 12, Kurusu tells us about an incident from his childhood involving a figure of a mecha from the anime Gundam, which indirectly inspired him to become a detective. In the manga, he starts his story with:

When I was a kid, I wanted a plastic model of Zaku Recon Type.

The conversation then proceeds exactly as shown in the anime. You might think, what's the big deal? Well, here's the thing.

Let's revisit the same moment in the anime:

When I was a kid, I wanted a plastic model kit badly. It was a Gyan.

Interesting. Why did Zaku from the original become Gyan? It's understandable when a studio changes some details during adaptation to fit the runtime, but here Kurusu goes out of his way to express his love for Gyan, even at the cost of extra screen time. Why did the poor Zaku get swapped out by Asread?

The issue isn't with Zaku but with Gyan. To uncover the reason, we need to check the role list of Tanaka Masahiko (Kurusu's CV), where we quickly notice…

That's right, Tanaka voiced a character in one of the Gundam movies, M'Quve. If you're familiar with the Gundam universe, you should have already figured it out. But all I know about Gundam is that it has big robots. Beep.

Looking up the character, we finally find what we're searching for.

It turns out that Kurusu's CV, Tanaka Masahiko, once voiced a character in Gundam who, in turn, piloted a Gyan. So how could Kurusu love Zaku when he has his own beloved robot?

Fact 4: The Kansai Dialect in Hinata's Family

One of Hinata's traits is her Kansai dialect. I won't delve into the details since most of you probably know what that is.

What's interesting is that in the park flashback, Hinata's mother and Tsukishima Karyudo also speak in Kansai dialect, emphasizing their closeness and familial ties. However, during the game, in the few moments where Tsukishima Karyudo appears, he speaks in Tokyo dialect. Right up until his last conversation with Hinata. Tsukishima teases his daughter and mocks her entirely in standard Japanese. But then, at the very end, when he asks Hinata not to become as bad an adult as he is, he suddenly switches to a warm, gentle Kansai dialect. And it's just…

I don't know if this nuance was conveyed in the English translations, but I wanted to mention it because it really hit me hard when I first noticed it.

Fact 5: The Suggestive Billboard

At the end of episode 12 of the anime, Yukiteru tries to call his father to pick up a telescope… with a pawn shop ad in the background. Someone on the background art team clearly has a sense of humor.

Fact 6: Tired Artists and Their Deadlines

In the episode 6 of the anime, Yukiteru meets his mother at Sakuraimi Station. The station itself is modeled after the real-life Sagamihara Station (相模原駅) in Kanagawa Prefecture, where most of the anime's action takes place, based on other clues. In the TV version, it seems the poor artists were in such a rush that they forgot to change the name on one of the stands. This was fixed in the Blu-ray release, but I imagine for seichi junrei fans, this mistake was a treat.

Fact 7: Choroi

Choroi (ちょろい) is the line Yuno says as she brings an ax down on one of Omekata's followers in chapter 7 of the manga. It translates to "a piece of cake," but there's something memorable about this "a piece of cake." To simplify, it became a meme among Japanese fans that was cut from the anime, causing a flood of "choroi" on forums. Eventually, we got our "choroi" in the Blu-ray. Choroi?

Fact 8: Kanagawa?

As I mentioned earlier, it's generally accepted that the anime takes place in Kanagawa Prefecture. At least because that's what it says on the police cars. However, there's one exception. On the postal delivery that Reisuke receives in episode 7, it says とうきょうと, meaning Tokyo Metropolis.

Fact 9: Miura Azusa?

I've seen posts about this even in English, but yes: many people recognized Miura Azusa from THE IDOLM@STER on the Bridal Fair poster in episode 10.

Fact (?) 10: I still want this art in high resolution

I found this piece of art when I was young, naive, and just beginning to learn Japanese, driven by a desire to read fan-made manga and fanfics about NishiMine on Pixiv (yes, that was my motivation to learn the language), so I have no idea what it was originally attached to. Japanese NishiMine fans were raving about this art, so you've probably seen Minene in that red dress. I don't know much more about it, but I still love it dearly.

Conclusion

I'm sure there were plenty of other amusing facts that I've come across over the years, but as soon as I decided to gather them all, most of them scattered to the corners of my memory. So I probably forgot a few more interesting tidbits… But oh well. At least I've managed to collect these ones in one place now. And as everyone knows…!

[yunoteru4ever]

Sakae Esuno's "Railway Angel" ( 鉄道天使 )

As previously promised, I've finally scanned in all of Sakae Esuno's "Railway Angel" — his first-ever published manga. Esuno submitted this one-shot story to Kadokawa in 2001 as part of an annual contest. He was awarded the "Ace Next Rookie Mangaka Encouragement Award," and the story was subsequently published in the September 2001 issue of Monthly Ace Next (月刊少年エース).

The story herein is both written and drawn by Esuno, who would of course go on to create Mirai Nikki/"Future Diary," Big Order, and more. And as far as I'm aware, this is the first time this story has ever been made available online. (It's only the Japanese original for now; y'all will have to wait for a scanlation somewhere down the line. Apologies.)

LINK TIME:

[ihrtyunogasai]

i need sakae esuno to randomly come back and be like hi!! heres some mirai nikki art of every character you forgot about!! (and hinamao content!!)