Anime Review: Mirai Nikki

(Sorry for the MASSIVE delay on reviews, been busy with school and all. Anyway, here you go!)
(Also, this review contains spoilers in [these kinda brackets]. You have been warned.)

Before I go anywhere with this review, I'd just like to point out that opinions vary. My opinion may be different to yours, and that is fine. It doesn't make you wrong.

I've been watching anime for a while now, and there was always a handful of anime that was looking at me. Waiting for me to pick it up and give it the time it deserved. Mirai Nikki was such a series. I've had it in my hands on many occasions, but never really been in the mood for it. Until recently, where I did finally finish the series. Now, to say that the series was bad is a lie, a fall though lie. It was good, some may even say it was great. And if you haven't seen it yet I can say nothing other than it's a series you have to have seen. However, you may notice that I complain a lot about this series, and it'll all be explained soon. I promise.
Mirai Nikki is a very dark Romance series, and the only reason I add'Romance' to this is because the series follows a 'couples' trials in a very dark situation. Otherwise I'd just call it a very dark and psychological series.

Story
Yukiteru "Yuki" Amano is your loner. He spends his days alone in his room, fails to interact with kids in school, and pulls himself into an imaginary world where he talks to his imaginary friends Deus Ex Machina, the God of almost everything, and Murmur. Yuki also spends a lot of time on his phone, writing down everything that happens around him in it. One day when talking do Deus, Deus mentions something about a game, and the next morning Yuki wakes up with a diary that can tell the future. Completely bewildered by this, Yuki begins to use his 'Random Diary' to do all sorts of things, like steering clear of bullies, and cheating on tests.
As this is all occurring, the police are after a serial killer, who is going around killing people, as most serial killers do. On his walk home from school, Yuki finds out he is being followed by the killer, and starts to run away. While running away Yuki stumbles upon a classmate of his, Yuno Gasai. She quickly tells him to follow her, and being the loner with no opinion he follows her. Over the next series of events Yuki quickly finds out that Yuno also has a diary that can tell the future, called the 'Yukiteru Diary' because it tells Yuno exactly what is going to happen to Yuki. Soon Yuki and Yuno become cornered, and using his only good skill, Yuki throws one of his playing darts, piercing the phone of the serial killer, making him suddenly disappear.
Yuki and Yuno are then teleported to Deus, who explains that Yuki is part of a battle royal, where the winner will take his place as God to rule over the world. Along with this, he mentions to the other 11 participants that 'Diary Owner 1', in this case Yuki, is his favorite to win. This makes him the biggest threat of course, and the number 1 target.
The series now follows Yuki and Yuno, trying to survive the battle royal by all means, and by all means. I mean, all means.

Characters
As with my other reviews, I'll stick to just the hero and heroine.
Yukiteru Amano: Yuki is, for lack of better words, a cry baby. He starts off as a loner, doing nothing but talk to his 'Imaginary' friend Deus and his lackey Murmur. We soon find out that Yuno and Yuki have a little bit of history together, but I'll go into detail with that in Yuno's review. My biggest problem with Mirai Nikki isn't the story, the animation or anything like that, heck. Even like the characters. Well, all of the apart from Yuki, the fact that he doesn't change throughout almost the whole series until some crazy thing happens [his father gets killed], and he suddenly becomes very serious about winning the Survival Game. I suppose he also becomes quite good at manipulating Yuno as the series progresses, but if your girlfriend is as f**ked up and in love with you as she is, I get the feeling it can't be too difficult. But the thing that really ticks me off is the last 5 minutes of the final episode. All that character development, all of that build up, to give me an ending like that just gave me a sour taste in my mouth. Again opinions may vary, but it just really pissed me off for the series to end like that.
Yuno Gasai: Sadly this is going to be rather short, because if you have seen the series, you know why she's as 'crazy' as she is, and if you haven't, the it's something I really cannot spoil. But in any case, Yuno's story really begins when she saves Yuki from the Third diary owner. We then find out that Yuno has been obsessed with Yuki ever since she helped him fill out his 'Plans for the Future' sheet, where she writes down that he'll marry her on it.
If you have heard or seen anything of Mirai Nikki, you will probably know that Yuno is, aside from a freakish stalker girl, also a murdering psychopath. The thing I like about Yuno though is that, for all her 'strange' ways, we are shown throughout the series, why she became like this. The character development is really nice, and although her character doesn't change dramatically like Yuki's does (even if that was only for a short time), it's still nice to see there being some development in her character and her story.

Animation
The animation for Mirai Nikki was done by a company called Asread, who have done work on series such as Corpse Party and Kiddy Girl-and. They have also helped produce bigger works such as Full Metal Alchemist, Sword Art Online and a very popular series right now called Kill la Kill.
The art is fantastic. The animation itself flows very nicely, and the feeling you get from the series is expressed through the drawings in the exact same way. The gore is there, but it doesn't flood your eyes (not all the time anyway) and the feel I got from watching it was very aesthetically pleasing.

Openings and Endings
The first opening 'Kūsō Mythology' was amazing. Not only was the animation in it beautifully placed with the music, but the tempo, the way it sucked you in. Everything about it felt very, Mirai Nikki-like, which I find some openings fail to do for me, which I sometimes get disappointed by. 'Dead End' was the second opening, and I was surprised to recently find out it was completely English. Again it gave off the feeling that the opening really belonged with the series, and not like it was just there to roll opening credits through.
I found both endings to be pretty average. Probably not really my taste, but they aren't terrible either, so that's a good thing.

Other Points
What I like about Mirai Nikki is that most of the other Diary Holders get some screen time, not all in the same amount, some hardly any at all. but at least we get to know a little about all of them before Yuno sticks a knife in it, so to speak. However, and this is my biggest problem with the series. Those last 5 minutes of the last episode really ticked me off. But before you say "But if you watch the OVA it fixes that", I'm reviewing the series, not the OVA, not the franchise, just the series. Because of that the OVA doesn't fix it, because for me it's not there to fix it. At least not in this review it isn't.

Final Marks
For all my complains with Yuki being a cry baby that doesn't grow up, the rest of the series is great. The story will keep you curious about what is going to happen next, and I found myself wondering what kind of stories the Diary Owners had, and what they were hoping to get out of becoming God. In the end I have to give this series a solid 8.5/10. Because no series is perfect, and for all it's good points, there are always little plot holes and other questions you are left with that you can only ever really get an answer to if you read the manga.

Thanks for reading through all of that, please tell me if you think there's something I can improve on, or if there are things that you disagree with. See ya.