Future Diary

Future Diary
230px Cover of Future Diary volume 1
未来日記 (Mirai Nikki)
Genre	Action, psychological thriller, romance
Manga
Written by	Sakae Esuno
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten
English publisher	NA Tokyopop (former) Viz Media
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Shōnen Ace
Original run	January 26, 2006 – December 25, 2010
Volumes	12
Manga
Future Diary: Mosaic/Paradox/Redial
Written by	Sakae Esuno
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Shōnen Ace
Original run	November 26, 2008 – July 26, 2013
Volumes	3
Anime television series
Directed by	Naoto Hosoda
Written by	Katsuhiko Takayama
Music by	Tatsuya Kato
Studio	Asread
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Funimation UK Kaze UK/Anime on Demand
Network	Chiba TV (2011–12)
Original run	October 10, 2011 – April 16, 2012
Episodes	26 + OVA
Television drama
Future Diary: Another:World
Directed by	Michiko Namiki, Shogo Miyaki
Produced by	Ryota Fujino
Written by	Sayaka Kuwamura, Kaeko Hayafune
Music by	Shuichiro Fukuhiro
Network	Fuji TV
Original run	April 21, 2012 – June 30, 2012
Episodes	11

Future Diary (未来日記, Mirai Nikki) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sakae Esuno. It depicts a battle royale in which each combatant has a diary with entries from the future. The manga was serialized in the Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace between January 2006 and December 2010. Twelve tankōbon volumes were released in Japan. The manga has been licensed by Tokyopop, and ten of the English volumes were released, with a release for the last two now uncertain due to Tokyopop ceasing publishing in North America. A "pilot anime" DVD was released with the 11th manga volume in December 2010. A 26-episode anime television series produced by Asread aired in Japan between October 2011 and April 2012. Funimation has licensed the anime for distribution in North America. An 11-episode live-action television drama aired between April and June 2012.

Esuno has also authored three side-story manga, each one spanning five chapters: first Future Diary: Mosaic which focuses on another Diary Holder, Minene Uryu, and tells unrevealed plot points of the main story; in 2009-2010, Future Diary: Paradox (published in Young Ace), which tells the exploits of Aru Akise and Murmur set in an alternate timeline, and in 2013, Future Diary: Redial, which serves as an epilogue to the series.

Plot

See also: List of Future Diary characters

Yukiteru "Yuki" Amano is a loner who spends most of his time writing a diary on his cell phone or talking with his imaginary friends Deus Ex Machina, the God of Time and Space; and Murmur, Deus's servant. One day, Deus gives Yuki a special diary, mentioning something about a game. Strangely, Yuki's new diary has entries in it spanning the next 90 days—entries about the future that come unnervingly true. Deus, revealed to be the not-so-imaginary God of Time and Space, then forces Yuki to participate in a battle royale with eleven other people, each of whom also has a diary that can predict the future in some unique way. The rules of this "Survival Game" are simple: the contestants must try to find and kill all the other contestants before the world ends on Day 90, and only the last one standing can prevent the Apocalypse and become the new God of Time and Space.

Yuki initially has no desire to win the game, but after Deus informs the other contestants that Yuki, as the "1st" Diary owner, is his favorite to win the game, he is forced to team up with the 2nd Diary owner—his obsessive stalker and lover, Yuno Gasai—in order to survive the constant attempts on his life by the other diary users, who see him as the biggest threat. Although Yuki only feigns affection for Yuno to manipulate her into protecting him, he soon becomes too afraid to spurn her after witnessing her psychopathic obsession with their "Happy End" (a prediction in Yuno's diary that she and Yuki will "become one" on July 28, the 90th day of the game) and the terrifying methods she employs to remove anything and anyone she perceives as a threat to it. Yet despite Yuno's apparent insanity and the mounting evidence that she is hiding something from Yuki, his declarations of love become increasingly sincere over the course of the game. Even as he learns that he cannot trust any of the other contestants, Yuki continues to trust Yuno because her feelings for him are genuine and because he is unwilling to personally stoop to the dirty tactics the competition resorts to in order to survive.

Late in the game, everything changes when Yuki's parents are murdered. Upon learning from Yuno that he can bring his parents back to life by becoming the new God of Time and Space, Yuki becomes a ruthless, backstabbing, and manipulative terrorist who doesn't hesitate killing innocent people for the sake of killing the other contestants. Yuki's actions shock his friends, in particular Aru Akise, an aspiring detective who suspects that Yuno is not the person she claims to be. After Yuno and Yuki become the last contestants, Aru and the rest of Yuki's friends chastise him on how he has become just as bad as the other contestants. Aru tries to warn Yuki that Yuno is manipulating him and that she has an ulterior motive. Refusing to accept the truth and obeying Yuno's urging, Yuki unwillingly kills his friends under the belief that he can bring them back to life later. In one last desperate attempt to convince Yuki of the danger he is in, Aru sacrifices his life, refusing to dodge a fatal blow from Yuno in order to give Yuki a clue about Yuno's true identity.

As the "Happy End" draws near, Yuki begins to wonder about Aru's final clue. When he unwittingly brings it up after having sex with Yuno, with his desire to commit double suicide rather than win by killing her, she attempts to kill him with an axe and he is forced to flee for his life. In a major plot twist, Yuki is intercepted by Murmur, who reveals that Yuno is the God of Time and Space, Murmur is Yuno's servant whom she inherited from Deus, and the universe they currently reside in is actually a time paradox created when Yuno, the winner of the first Diary game, used her newfound powers to travel back in time and start the game over. In the original Diary game, Yuki's alter-ego and Yuno also defeated all the other contestants and decided to commit double suicide. However, Yuno only faked her death because she believed that she could bring Yuki back to life with the powers of the God of Time and Space. In a cruel trick of fate, Yuno was able to resurrect Yuki's body but not revive his soul. Mad with grief, Yuno decided to travel back in time with Murmur, kill and replace her past self, have Murmur of the second universe trap and replace her past self, so she can take part in the game once more and be together with Yuki again.

After Murmur finishes her explanation, Yuno appears and declares that it would be useless and absurd if both of them died. She argues that since he can't kill her, he will die anyway, either through her or the apocalypse. So she decides to kill Yuki in order to become god, travel back in time and become reunited with Yuki again in the diary game of a third world. As Yuno closes in for the kill, Yuki is saved by the sudden appearance of Minene Uryu, the supposedly deceased 9th Diary owner. Undaunted, Yuno and Murmur proceed to travel back in time to start the Diary game a third time, abandoning Yuki and Minene to the destruction of the world. To their surprise, Minene and Yuki are able to follow them, the former revealing that although she is no longer a contestant in the Diary game, she possesses part of Deus's powers and is there on his behalf to confirm his suspicions that Yuno and Murmur are from a parallel universe and prevent them from disrupting the Diary game. Upon arriving in the past two years before the game, Minene interferes with and ultimately prevents many of the terrible events that originally happened to the other diary owners, thus creating the third universe. As a result of this, Yuno finds that her parents in the new universe are willing to defend their universe's daughter. Yuki convinces Yuno to come to her senses and surrender as he loves her, requesting that she kill him and return to his universe to create a better world for herself. Overwhelmed by her feelings for Yuki, which won't allow her to kill him, and their grim fate that dawns on them and will separate them forever on the other, Yuno instead kills herself, ending the game and making Yuki the new God of his universe.

Despite his new title and powers, Yuki is so devastated by Yuno's death that he is unable to do anything but stare at his diary's final entry—"Yuno died."—and mourn her loss. After 10,000 years of mourning in the void of his post-apocalyptic universe, Murmur is tired of reading the same Manga and Yuki is shocked out of his depression when the space-time of his universe shatters and reveals a passageway to the third universe, created through the joint efforts of the Murmur of the third universe, the Murmur of the first universe, and the Yuno of the third universe. The Yuno of the third universe recognizes Yuki, reveals that she has the same memories as the Yuno from the first universe (courtesy of the Murmur of the first universe), and invites Yuki into the third universe so that they can finally be together. The Deus of the third universe calls off the Diary game and makes Yuki and Yuno his heirs, and Yuki is reunited with Yuno in the new, happier universe.

Media

Manga

The manga was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace magazine from January 26, 2006 to December 25, 2010 and was compiled into 12 volumes published by Kadokawa Shoten, plus two side-story manga, Future Diary: Mosaic and Future Diary: Paradox, compiled in one volume each. The manga was originally licensed in English by Tokyopop for North America, but only ten volumes were released before Tokyopop cease publishing operations on May 31, 2011. An additional manga titled Future Diary: Redial (未来日記リダイヤル, Mirai Nikki Ridaiyaru) was previewed in the May 2013 issue of Shōnen Ace sold on March 26, 2013, and a single volume of Redial was released in July 2013.

Volume list

No.	Japanese release date	Japanese ISBN	English release date	English ISBN
1	July 26, 2006	ISBN 978-4-04-713839-1	May 12, 2009	ISBN 978-1-4278-1557-6
2	October 26, 2006	ISBN 978-4-04-713872-8	June 9, 2009	ISBN 978-1-4278-1558-3
3	March 26, 2007	ISBN 978-4-04-713912-1	September 9, 2009	ISBN 978-1-4278-1559-0
4	October 26, 2007	ISBN 978-4-04-713954-1	December 1, 2009	ISBN 978-1-4278-1560-6
5	February 26, 2008	ISBN 978-4-04-715026-3	March 2, 2010	ISBN 978-1-4278-1561-3
6	June 26, 2008	ISBN 978-4-04-715072-0	June 1, 2010	ISBN 978-1-4278-1630-6
7	November 26, 2008	ISBN 978-4-04-715130-7	August 31, 2010	ISBN 978-1-4278-1751-8
Mosaic	November 26, 2008	ISBN 978-4-04-715129-1	—	—
8	May 26, 2009	ISBN 978-4-04-715248-9	November 2, 2010	ISBN 978-1-4278-1761-7
9	November 26, 2009	ISBN 978-4-04-715323-3	December 28, 2010	ISBN 978-1-4278-0520-1
10	March 26, 2010	ISBN 978-4-04-715400-1	April 12, 2011	ISBN 978-1-4278-0521-8
Paradox	March 26, 2010	ISBN 978-4-04-715412-4	—	—
11	September 9, 2010 (limited edition) December 25, 2010 (regular edition)	ISBN 978-4-04-900801-2 (limited edition) ISBN 978-4-04-715580-0 (regular edition)	—	—
12	April 26, 2011	ISBN 978-4-04-715679-1	—	—
Redial	July 26, 2013	ISBN 978-4-04-120616-4	—	—

Anime

Main article: List of Future Diary episodes

An anime television adaptation by Asread and directed by Naoto Hosoda began airing from October 10, 2011. Character designs are done by Eiji Hirayama and Ruriko Watanabe. An eight-minute "pilot" edition DVD was bundled with limited editions of the manga's eleventh volume, released on December 9, 2010. The series uses four pieces of theme music: two opening themes and two ending themes. For the first 14 episodes, the opening theme is "Kūsō Mythology" (空想メソロギヰ, Kūsō Mesorogii, "Fantasy Mythology") by Yōsei Teikoku, and the ending theme is "Blood Teller" by Faylan. From episode 15 onwards, the opening theme is "Dead End" by Faylan, and the ending theme is "Filament" by Yōsei Teikoku. For the pilot, the main theme is "The Creator" by Yōsei Teikoku. Funimation licensed the series for North American distribution, simulcasting the series on Niconico. They later announced they had acquired the rights for release on home video.

An original video animation episode titled Future Diary: Redial acts as an epilogue to the television series. It received a special broadcast on Niconico on June 19, 2013. It was also bundled with the manga volume sequel of the same name. The opening theme for the OVA is "Kyōki Chinden" (狂気沈殿, "Madness Precipitation") by Yōsei Teikoku, and the ending theme is "Happy End" by Faylan.

Visual novel

Kadokawa Shoten produced a visual novel based on the manga titled Future Diary: The 13th Diary Owner (未来日記 -13人目の日記所有者-, Mirai Nikki 13-nin-me no Nikki Shoyūsha) for the PlayStation Portable, was released on January 28, 2010 in Japan. A re-release with new graphics, artwork and featuring the voice actors from the anime was released on April 26, 2012.

Drama

An 11-episode live action drama aired between April 21 and June 30, 2012 on Fuji TV. The TV series has an original plot line that differs from the manga and anime.

Reception

During mid-November 2008, the seventh volume of the Future Diary manga ranked as the twenty-first best selling manga in Japan. The volume remained in the top 30 during the following week, though it dropped to twenty-fifth place. As of April 2012, it has sold 4 million copies in Japan.

External links

• Official website of the anime (Japanese)
• Future Diary (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia