If one anime perfectly represents how a death game should be played, it is the notorious Future Diary (Mirai Nikki). The anime holds the element of surprise as it takes its fans through a roller coaster of events that are not for the faint of heart or those with a light stomach.
Future Diary, also known as Mirai Nikki, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sakae Esuno. The manga began serialization between January 2006 and December 2010 and was compiled into twelve volumes, which Kadokawa Shoten published in the Monthly Shonen Ace. Tokyopop licensed the manga, and ten of the English volumes were published, but the eleventh and twelfth volumes were held back due to Tokyopop ceasing publishing rights in North America. A pilot anime DVD was released when the eleventh volume was published.
An anime television series was directed by Naoto Hosoda and written by Katsuhiko Takayama; studio Asread was in charge of the twenty-six episodes, OVA production, and ran from October 2011 to April 2012.
So without further ado, let’s get into what the anime is all about!
What Happened So Far In Future Diary
Yukiteru is a high school teenager who lives in the shadows and is antisocial; his only activity is updating his diary on his phone. He jots down everything in high school around him and views the scenario as a third person. He possesses an imaginary friend called Deus Machina, a God, but his mythical God now wants to play a game of survival due to a turn of events.
There are twelve contestants Yuki included in the game, and they have to use their diaries (on their phone) to eliminate the other contestants; the last man standing will succeed Deus Machina as the God of time and space. Yuki being largely inexperienced and helpless looks to take help from another diary user, Yuno. Each player is assigned a specific number and with the help of their dairies that guides them and tells them about their future in a way that the user would themselves would be recording it in their routine, daily lives, because of which it can be misinterpreted or wrongly guide the user as well, destroying the diary would end their future thus, automatically killing them in the process. Yuki studies Yuno primarily for her fighting and survival skills, where they assist each other in surviving the game.
What made this anime so unexpected was the involvement of Yuno to help Yuki survive. Yuno was hyper obsessively in love with Yuki and would do anything for him; her diary records every detail related to Yuki and his emotions and mental health. Her obsessive love for Yuki had turned Yuno into a yandere, meaning an extreme, psychotic lover. Her passion for Yuki had pushed her over the edge, and she had done something that was never expected of her; she let Yuki die to become a God and play the game again to start her life from zero and meet Yuki again.
Yuno, after becoming a God, had replayed the game in a different dimension and world to meet Yuki, but slowly Yuki found out about her and how she had killed the Yuno’s of other worlds to play in their place to be with him. In the end, Yuki deceives Yuno, and he becomes the new God. Yuki feels lonely and misses Yuno, with whom he fell in love and wanted by his side, but he is left all alone in space supervising the events of all the other different worlds without tampering with them in any way possible.
What Is Going On With Studio Asread?
Studio Asread is a Japanese Studio that was started in 2003 by ex-Xebec members. Since its establishment, the studio has worked on many different pieces of anime, such as Shuffle! , Ga-Rei: Zero, Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, Mother of the Goddess’ Dormitory, and their most recent one being Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest Season 2, which will be released in 2022. The studio has written OVA’s as well for Future Diary, Big Order, and Corpse Party.
What do we know about Future Diary Season 2 so far?
It has been more than a decade since we got blessed with Future Diary Season 1 but, after the final episode and the OVA’s, the studio has not worked on any more projects for Season 2. Fans have started spreading rumors that perhaps Mirai Nikki Season 2 has already been canceled, despite no official announcements by the studio or the producers concerning such.
The series gained a ton of popularity and was regarded as a prime anime, yet studio Asread has not made any plans to start Season 2 soon.
What are fans saying about Future Diary Season 2?
The psychological, thriller and romantic anime has made fans vote it one of the best death game anime ever created. Not only does the anime leave a positive impact on its viewers, but it has had an adverse effect on them. Fans agree to the fact that most of the characters suffer from different mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, trauma, and even the instability of the mind that pushes them to do strange things like murder. At best, the anime teaches viewers to know the difference between love and obsession and see mental illness from a different perspective.
Some fans have dubbed the anime as a guilty pleasure, viewing the characters as ‘Bad Ass’ and entertaining. Some have seen the anime more than three times and agree that it is not dull and is pretty intense. However, some fans found the series confusing or just plain frustrating because of the intensity of the series. Some fans felt that Yuki’s life was not described correctly. The series was rushed in compared to the manga; the protagonist (Yuki) was shown as a wimp till the last episode, and no development was made in any of the characters, safe for Yuno Garcai.
Will there be Future Diary Season 2?
Mirai Nikki holds a place as one of the best death game anime till today with an immense number of views and support from worldwide. In mid-November 2008, the manga’s seventh volume ranked as the twenty-first best-selling manga all over Japan. The volume remained in the top 30 during the preceding week but later dropped to 25th.
The manga had over twelve completed volumes published before the anime series; there were two OVA after the twenty-six-episode anime television series. Since its release, the anime manga series and the anime series both have gotten a considerable search on google, which is quite evident through the google trends statistics, showcasing the anime to be quite popular to this day.
However, it seems unlikely that we will be getting a Season 2 at all since the studio had covered all the twelve volumes of the manga into the twenty-six episodes of the anime series, thus completing it. The studio has no more source material for continuing Season 2.
When will Future Diary Season 2 be released?
Despite public demand from the past ten years, the studio has shown little to no interest in producing Season 2.
They are justified in doing so since the studio had squeezed in all the storyline from the twelve volumes of the manga into the twenty-six episodes and OVA’s of the anime series, they are now left with zero material to start a second season, and the only way possible to even begin Season 2, is if the writer first publishes more volumes and only then will we be graced with Season 2!
What Can We Expect In Season 2 Of Future Diary?
The studio had given us a confusing ending to the thriller, romantic, psychological anime in Season 1. While many fans have expressed unfathomable love for the whole series, they are still confused over the ending where we get to see Yuki reuniting with Yuno, his die-hard lover, as she breaks the barriers of all possible logic. They both get to live together as Gods in space and fulfill their promise to each other to go stargazing.
In Season 2, we can expect the two trying to bring about a few changes into the other worlds and dimensions, or maybe they might start a new world as it was seen in the last episode where Yuno and Yuki were meditating and had a sapling of a plant in an orb which points towards them trying to start a new world.
