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Future Diary
Anime Review
Yukiteru is a loser. He doesn't interact with his other classmembers. Yuki keeps a diary on his phone detailing everything he does, with a time and date stamp. He also has an imaginary friend. This friend however, is some kind of demon that controls time and space, and appears to mess with the universe just for laughs.
It turns out his imaginary friend is real. Deus Ex Machina is indeed a god of time and space, and messes with the universe just for laughs. And now he's decided to mess with Earth. You see, what he's done is given Yuki a glimpse into the future via his cellphone. His "diary" starts showing events that haven't happened yet. And loser Yuki suddenly becomes a bit of winner because he knows the future.
 Except.... Except that it seems he's not the only one. There are others with similar cellphones that show them the future. And those people appear to be involved in a game that eliminates each other in a "last man standing" type of situation and the only advantage Yuki has here is that there's this pink-haired cutie helping him, because she's in love with him, except she's also part of this game and yes, she's got a future diary as well.
So, can Yuki really trust her since she also wants to be the last man standing? Aside from not-dying, the winner gets to take Deus' place as a ruler of time and space, a pretty hefty prize. Oh, and by the way — the way to kill someone is by destroying their phone (so, better not drop the damn thing!), so Yuki's really got his work cut out for him.
The manga for Future Diary has been around for some time, but finally there's an anime available and Funimation has provided a reasonable dub that keeps the entertainment value high as the show is well directed, and the story, although a bit of a re-hash of several other anime with similar themes; it's always a fun ride to see how the loser turns into a winner via a combination of dumb-luck and eventually some clever scheming. I only wish my phone could inform me before I was going to be killed, or if there was going to be a pop-quiz in school. That would be handy to have, no doubt!
Reviewed by by Brian Cirulnick, January 2013
Future Diary
Manga Review
Yukiteru just couldn't have a boring imaginary rabbit or fuzzy bear as a best friend; he just had to pick Deus Ex Machina, the God of Time and Space. It probably would have been fine if his imagination stayed in his imagination but unfortunately, Deus is real and was so bored in his omnipotence that he really shows up in Yuki's room every time he starts imagining him.
He thinks Deus is his friend. He spends his entire day in his own little world, texting away on his cellphone, keeping a diary and the only interaction he gets all day happens when he gets home to talk to Deus. Normally, yeah, that would make Deus his friend. But really what kind of friend gets inspired by your cellphone diary enough to create a game out of it to kill you just so he can be entertained? I think Yukiteru is more like a pet to Deus. One of those cricket pets where the only reason to keep it alive is so that it can battle other crickets when you are bored.
 So the Final Destination version of the Running Man with a cellphone strapped to him for texting mayhem begins. It was fun at first when he didn't know there are people out to get him. All Deus told him was that his cellphone is his future diary. He will know ahead of time when a pop quiz is coming and the cellphone even conveniently has all the answers on it. When some kids from school are waiting on his usual route to go home to beat the snot out of him, he knows to take one of his other routes. All he has to do is make sure that the cellphone Deus gives him stays in one piece; after all if the cellphone tells him what his future is, the cellphone is his future and no cellphone would naturally mean no future.
 It doesn't get scary until Yukiteru sees an entry telling him that he's going to be killed by a serial killer that's been seen around his school. He's dead, he's dead, he's so dead. All he can do is sit back and get killed; no matter if he runs or where he runs to, the killer follows him to that last entry and that's it, no new entries pop up after that. Who is the serial killer? Is it the strange girl that always looks at him in class? No way; there is no way that someone that cute and smart and girly can be a serial killer... Right? She is following him though AND she knows he has a future diary. As they are running and kissing, they manage to kill the real serial killer who seems to have a future diary, too. What?!?
Oh, this definitely Deus' giant multiple cricket battle. Do you hear him chuckling in delight yet? Yuki has a future diary that tells him what happens to him all day. Yuno, the strange girl, has a Yuki stalking future diary that updates every 10 minutes. They killed the third diary holder, Takao Hiyama, Yuki's teacher and friendly neighborhood serial killer. There is a total of 12 crickets in Deus' ring; Yuki and Yuno only has to survive 9 more attempts on their lives and kill each other to end this game. With Yuki being the runt in the litter and the prize at the end of the game being Deus' godly powers, survival is definitely entertainment worthy of everyone.
Reviewed by Carolyn Whu, November 2009
Below: Two page spreads from Future Diary manga (click on to see at full size).
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Below: Scenes from the Future Diary anime.
Below: Panels from the Future Diary manga.
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