Yukitero Amano thought it was all a dream. Why would some bizarre looking God and his chibi assistant spend so much time talking to some shy middle schooler whose eyes are constantly glued to his cell phone? This illusion is shattered as his phone starts to update itself and he finds himself the subject of two different stalkers... A man in a mask who wants to kill him and a pinkhaired cutie who wants to save him. Yuki soon learns that his contact with this very real God was no dream... Rather Yuki and twelve others have been entered into a deadly survival game where theyre going to have to kill each other or be killed trying. As it turns out however the pinkhaired Yuuno wasnt just saving him to be kind... She is head over heels in love with him and shell do anything to ensure the two of them win the game and I do mean anything. With several mysterious enemies lurking in the shadows each one possessing some kind of device that tells them the future and a psycho yandere girlfriend as his only hope of survival Yukis going to have to learn the hard way that in the war to succeed the almighty there are no lines between friend and foe. The term Red flag is defined as a warning of danger... A telltale sign that youre approaching a situation that you would be much better off avoiding. For example the resume of an anime studio called Asread is a bigger red flag than your dates collection of red hats and AR15s. Originally founded by former employees of Studio Xebec... Yes we ARE starting off on the worst foot possible... Theyve only put out a handful of their own major productions since 2006 and while Ive seen quite a few of them none of its been especially great. Shuffle was terrible. Big Order was terrible. I didnt hate Yuushibuu or Ga Rei Zero but nobody talks about them anymore I barely remember them and they definitely didnt set the world on fire. The biggest thing theyve done recently was Arifureta which is a strong contender for the worst isekai Ive ever seen. Yeah I liked the Corpse Party OVAs but those are a guilty pleasure and only a seasonal one at that. And then you have Future Diary which is for better or worse their most famous title. While Future Diary and Big Order may share a creator/mangaka the only thing I can think of that all of these titles have in common is the use of uncensored nudity... Well except for Arifureta but I dont think Ive ever seen that kind of thing in an isekai before. As far as I can tell thats their only shared quality which is why its especially weird that not only is the nudity in Future Diary really badly drawn and constantly offmodel but also thats pretty much the only complaint I have about this show from a visual perspective. That one issue aside Future Diary is a damn good looking show. I dont know if Id go as far as to call it gorgeous theres nothing about the visuals that really stands out or inspires awe but theres nothing really distracting or incompetent about it either. I dont think it had the largest budget in the world and I wouldnt be surprised if a good chunk of their resources went into certain CG effects but whatever budget they had was managed exactly how it needed to be. Director Naoto Hosoda was at the helm for most of Asreads output up until 2013 when the studio went quiet for three years and he seemingly left the studio after that but its clear why they kept using him until then because he was good at his job. This series is really well directed in general but Hosoda does a fantastic job with action scenes. Theres a lot of fighting in this show and while these sequences are very well choreographed and paced Hosodas biggest talent seems to be his usage of the settings. The locations where each action scene takes place are highly diverse and Hosoda seemingly loves to explore how each fight both could and should work in the given space. For bigger locations he explores the various possibilities offered within. For smaller spaces he gleefully exploits the more claustrophobic nature of the setting. His action scenes can go from small and intimate to damn near apocalyptic in scale but it never feels like its gotten out of his control. Im also really fond of the character designs. One of the anime that Hosoda directed after leaving Asread was Juuni Taisen which is also a battle royale type series with a wacky and gimmicky cast and yeah if youre telling a story about twelve strangers trying to off each other you might as well make each one as memorable as possible. Unlike Taisen however Future Diary doesnt entirely reveal every character at once and from a visual standpoint I like how the diaryusing characters we havent really had a reason to meet yet are kept in the shadows lingering in the corner of your eye as purple silhouettes as their outlandish visual features build up anticipation towards the reveal of who they are and why theyre there. This can lead to some disappointment when they do enter the story... My first time through I was expecting eight to be some kind of creepy cannibal but it turned out there really was no reason for her to have such a mutantlike body... But I do think it was the right choice overall. As for the English dub well its a mixed bag but I do feel more glasshalfempty on this one. The acting is strong across the board and I dont necessarily think any of the performances were bad but theres only so much you can do with a script that was written by J Michael Tatum. One of the biggest tragedies of the dubbing industryaside from every single Scott Freeman performance aging like milk is the fact that Tatum has to be one of the sweetest men on the planet with an amazing voice and yet he becomes otaku enemy 1 as soon as pen hits paper. I dont think there were any particularly egregious memes or internet references in this dub but Tatum still has a penchant for overwriting his dubs with pretentious phrasing and awkward English language expressions and idioms and while that might not sound bad on paper... localizing the dialogue IS the idea after all... These phrases rarely ever fit well in context often softening the impact of an important line or betraying the intent completely. There are a lot of examples of this in the Future Diary dub but Im going to give two highly noticeable examples. First Yuuno is constantly calling Yukitero Yukichan in the sub and Tatum decided to replace this with a string of cringey pet names that make the Hearts and Hooves Day episode of My Little Pony an easy watch in comparison. Yeah nobody liked hearing Yukichan over and over again but after a few repetitions of Pookie and Sugar bear youll be begging to go back to Yukichan. The other example is a scene where Yuuno is talking to another character and she says the line I trust you about as far as I can pummel you. Im not gonna lie my first time through the series I had to listen to that line read about a dozen times to make sure I heard it correctly. Its one of those magical lines that makes less sense the more you try to figure it out. All I can figure is that Tatum wanted to use the common American phrase I trust you about as far as I could throw you but then he thought Nah that doesnt sound violent enough for her... Oh wait What about pummel instead? Arent I fucking clever? As for the casting its mostly solid. Josh Grelle plays a lot of very similar anime protagonists usually weakwilled everyman characters who get dragged into larger than life situations he knows his shit and can probably play a role like this in his sleep. Todd Haberkorn is suave and inquisitive as the less creepy of two queer characters. Emily Neves almost never disappoints in any role shes given so of course she does an exceptional job as the ninth diary user. The rest of the cast is filled out equally well with Funimation regulars except for one role I cant get behind... As much as I enjoy hearing her in most anime Brina Palencia was not the right choice for Yuuno. Thats not to say there was anything wrong with her acting oh no she hits every note perfectly the problem is that the character is just outside of her vocal range and the way she pitches up her voice for the role just never sounds natural. I personally think Tia Ballard Stephanie Sheh or Brittney Karbowski would have been better choices. But yeah between Tatums writing and the overall performance of Yuuno I do think the sub is the better option here. So because I said earlier that Asreads resume was not promising youre probably wondering if Future Diary is just more of the same. Well for most people the answer to that question would be yes but I am not most people and Im no stranger to having controversial opinions. Ive changed a lot through the time Ive spent writing these reviews. I can remember a time during the early days back in my why is my blog such a pathetic failure days when I genuinely believed that there was such thing as objectively good media and objectively bad media and I wound up writing some less than positive reviews of shows I genuinely loved and enjoyed all because I couldnt manage to find a compromise between my personal taste and my professional taste. I would review an anime that was an important part of my life and I would wind up giving it a lower score than I wanted to because it had committed some unholy literary sins that I felt obligated to hold against it. Well you know what? Fuck that shit. I hate those old reviews and Im not making that mistake again. When it comes to Future Diary in particular there are three sides to the story that we need to examine. Theres the concept the writing and the execution. Starting with the concept this series is based on a fairly standard idea and it happens to be one Im quite fond of. You have a bakers dozen highly unique and distinct characters all battling it out right in the gorram street to try and eliminate each other while affecting the world around them in various intentional and unintentional ways through the pure chaos of their conflict. Ive always enjoyed stories like these even when they arent killing each other. Give me a cross country street race movie like Rat Race or Cannonball Run and Im a happy Kyuubey. I love the variety of set pieces I love the different dynamics and interactions I just love this shit in general. Not all of these stories necessarily have to have main characters but this one does and unfortunately this is where the problems begin. For most people anyway. From what I understand people seem to really despise Yuuno and Yuki. Not gonna lie theyre both pretty shitty people and theyre not well written either. There is a fanbase for yandere type characters and Yuuno is obviously going to appeal to them but general audiences seem to find her annoying and morally repulsive and it is eventually revealed that there are some potentially problematic elements in her backstory... And Yukiteru is known as a selfish coward who constantly flipflops between being in love with Yuuno being terrified of her despising her using her out of necessity and then loving her again and the only thing consistent about any of it is that his feelings for her change depending solely on the plot. Put simply the dynamic between these two characters does not make any logical sense and while I personally dont hate either character as individuals... Their moral issues are justified by the circumstances of the story in my opinion... They are probably one of the worst couples in anime history. But you know its not just the two of them that are badly written. There is a ton of material in this show that doesnt make any sense from the larger overarching plot points and reveals to even the smallest little plot beats of a given episode but here is where we need to have another important discussion that Ive been holding onto for a while. The more youre enjoying a story and the more youre engaged and invested in what youre watching the less its going to bother you when something doesnt add up. For example Im probably the only person alive who hates The Nightmare Before Christmas. So Im probably the only person who noticed how sus it was that even though Jack told the trick or treaters not to bring Santa to Oogey Boogies thats the first place he went after deciding to go retrieve Santa. So either he knew where they were going to take him but said not to because he wanted to have Santa killed without getting his hands dirty or shitty writing. For most people because you love and enjoy the movie youll never notice this and if I point it out youll get defensive and attack me for taking a movie way too seriously. You wont notice the fact that Sallys prophetic vision comes right out of nowhere with no explanation only to wind up having no effect on the story. Hell you wont notice that Sally herself has no effect on the story as aside from her kiss with Jack at the endwhich also comes out of nowhere as he showed no interest in her up until that point she does nothing important to the plot thats actually successful. None of that matters to you because youre too entranced by the movie to give a fuck. And theres nothing wrong with that media is supposed to get you too invested in the story to question it otherwise wed all be cynical fucks like Cinemasins and nobody would enjoy their stories ever again. How does this apply to Future Diary? Well for one example lets look at the Yuuno and Yuki vs. Sixth story arc. Theres a moment where Sixth arranges to have his diary shipped to the house from a convenience store hed recently visited. When it arrives Yuki snatches it from him and opens it but he opens it from the wrong side activating a booby trap that immediately spreads a toxic gas throughout the house which Sixth has the antidote to. There is not a single word in that sentence that makes any fucking sense whatsoever. None of that should have worked and yet the battle of wits between these three diary users is so suspenseful and intense and well paced and fun that I dont care Im still not being taken out of the story by any of this. This entire arc is basically Home Alone but with Kevin as the invader and who wouldnt enjoy that shit? Hell Home Alone didnt make any sense either if you thought about it too hard This is why I wanted to talk about the relationship between writing and execution because theyre related to each other but theyre also distinctly different from each other. Obviously its possible for the two to work together in harmony and that is the preferable outcome by far but its also entirely possible for one to actually pick up the slack of the other. Future Diary is not a well written series from any angle but the execution is fucking amazing and I will die on that hill. I would even go as far as to say that it wouldnt make sense for this show to make sense. Character inconsistencies are everywhere but they work with the flow of the story. There are twists and reveals that seem immediately questionable but the way theyre revealed is so perfect that my fucking goosebumps had goosebumps. The very idea of God finding his successor by making people kill each other over his throne by itself sounds like a terrible way to judge somebodys potential Godliness but thats the premise and its still awesome. Now I will admit there is an element of edgelord to this series and I can understand that might turn people off. There were a lot of edgelord anime around the late 2000searly 2010s probably too much if were being honest. This show came out in a field of dark pseudopsychological horror gore porn that was nowhere near as mature as they thought they were all trying way too hard to achieve relevance through shock humor and puddle depth attempts at nihilism using the most shallow tactics to trick the audience into thinking they had some degree of poignancy. Personally I think Future Diary may actually be one of the better titles in this field. For one thing despite its reputation it doesnt overplay its hand on violence. Its not that gory at least not to the point of sensationalism sticking pretty hard to a relatively tasteful amount of violence thats used in service to the plotalthough it definitely could have used less rape. Also I dont want to spoil the ending too hard but as bleak and edgy as his series can get it ends on a positive and uplifting note that doesnt feel forced at all. After an exciting and suspenseful multiepisode conclusion were shown this really clever butterflyeffect scenario that turns everything dark or pessimistic about the story on its head and it all just feels so damned emotionally satisfying. The only time these writing deficiencies genuinely bothered me was with the character of Minene Uryu a constant presence throughout the series who is usually shown to be an antihero squirrelbefriending badass and her role in the story should make her an easy candidate for fan favorite but heres the problem... In her introduction to the story she blows up a school killing countless children. Like a lot of fucking children. And then just like The Queen of Fables from the new Harley Quinn cartoon the narrative goes a long way to try and pretend that didnt happen or at least never mention it as a mark against her character. She has several moments throughout the series that ultimately ring hollow when you remember Yeah but you killed a ton of kids though. Yeah nice speech about losing your parents in a war but how many parents lost their kids because of you? Oh wow a cop who knows damn well what you did just said youd be a good mom thats rich. Hell right after all those kids die Yuki and Yuuno take a trip to the waterpark because Theyre still rebuilding the school. Well also mourning the dead but whatever. Future Diary is available in physical format from Crunchyroll and for streaming from Crunchyroll Amazon Prime and Hulu. The manga is currently out of print from Tokyo Pop but can be bought for Kindle from Amazon and a recent live action adaptation is not available stateside. If you want to see the creator of Future Diary REALLY put out a disastrous piece of shit check out its sister anime Big Order. Future Diary is one of those weird shows where I dont know if Id recommend it to anyone but I still personally love it. I am very aware of its litany of flaws and problems but I think its actually because of all that shit that this show is able to fall into a category that I like to call Awesomely bad. It was clearly a passion project by the people involved and while they may or may not have been aware of its issues they still believed in it and put as much energy effort and pure crackhead determination into it as they possibly could resulting in a series thats a blast to watch provided youre able to get into it in the first place. While it may fail in certain areas it succeeds in others with high quality production values inspired direction a killer first opening that goes harder than it has any business going and a genuinely exciting sense of pacing and execution. Its not for everybody but its definitely for me and Im not sorry. I give Future Diary a 7/10.