Mirai Nikki, from start to finish, has been one long string of contrivances ranging from somewhat plausible (Yuuki distracting psychotic cult leader by throwing a red ball at her that just happened to conjure up childhood memories) to completely impossible under non-Mirai Nikki circumstances (Every single fucking one of the last five episodes). It’s a show that isn’t afraid to break its own rules without explanation in order to keep things exciting, something that it does with reckless abandon and with enough regularity to completely negate whatever string of logic that it’s holding onto.
Imagine my surprise when the finale, instead of going out in a most likely literal blaze of glory, decided to stop drinking its PCP-laden water and actually end the story the way a script not made entirely of lawn trimmings and scotch tape would have. Sure, there are some remnants from the crazy old days of dimensional time travel and duplicates existing in the same universe, but they’re downplayed enough that they don’t steal the attention from Yuuki reaching his Evangelion-esque “Congratulations!” moment and attaining bitter godhood. Even Yuno’s change of heart didn’t feel too out of place, and not just because it was only the millionth time she’d had one since the beginning. And yet, it didn’t have quite the same spark the made the rest of the series an unbridled delight to watch.
It may sound like I’m kind of disappointed with the way it went, but any attempt to upstage the level of lunacy that it had exhibited before would have been gratuitous at best. I’m actually pretty content with the ending, even if it was overly-saccharine for the kind of show that has school bombings and rape cults factor into the story, and a little kid try to kill people through means of electrocution.
Yuuki’s eventual godhood (spoiler alert) was the only remotely bittersweet element in the story, but it did a good job showing just how little the survival game brought him joy, especially with the death of dimension-hopping Yuno. It was a neat way of showing just how much godhood resembled his previous life of sitting around brooding in the dark, implying that the survival game was entirely unnecessary, not worth the trouble for somebody whose life reverted to how it was before he was pulled into Deus’ sick game. Even that was left up in the air with a possible cliffhanger, so I can’t entirely praise it for its depiction.
What made Mirai Nikki so ridiculously fun since the very beginning was the fact that it was ultimately a story made of papier mache and fond wishes, but it somehow came together to be greater than the sum of its parts. The occasional brilliant moment of pensive reflection shone all the brighter for the paste-eating stupidity that characterized the majority of its run. All in all it had a great many flaws, but also a great many redeeming factors that will most likely have it barely squeezing into my annual Best Of list. Unless the rest of the year can produce a show as wonderfully deranged and unapologetically dumb as this, it’ll likely hold that position without much debate. I said it once and I’ll say it again, I fucking love Mirai Nikki.
Well all I have to say is thank god. Thank god they didn’t fully adapt the ending from the manga. You think this ending was bad, the manga ending will feel so out of place you will feel like punching somebody.
In all seriousness, I felt this ending was more deserving than the manga ending. Fading to black after showing the message was fitting.
I’ve heard the same from people that read the manga, that the anime ending did the story more justice. I’m glad that the anime improved on the manga in some regard then, rather than just aping it.
Yeah, the manga ending was just too out there, even for Mirai Nikki, while the anime at least only hinted the manga’s ending. Read from here if you want to understand how bad the manga’s ending was: http://mangafox.me/manga/mirai_nikki/v12/c059/37.html
I think I’ll take your word for it, since it’s the same word that everyone’s been screaming with justification.
just looked at the manga ending “Yuno smashed the wall of space time with a hammer” it the greatest line in the history of everything
also nice to know that eternal happiness is just a few thousand year and a couple of comical genocides away so yay for that
all in all liked the ending and loved the show just hate the dog guy
I thought he was a decent character, though he was given hardly any screen time. Certainly not enough to really learn anything about him, anyway. Still a great ending regardless.
I liked the ending to Mirai Nikki, both of them actually – The manga ended on a very strange and surreal note, whereas the anime ended in quite a definite but beautiful way that fit with the overal feeling of the series. Silly, but great fun to watch.
The anime felt a bit more… poignant than I expected it to be. Not like I didn’t want the series to ever be smart, but it was kind of unexpected to see Yuuki go full circle.