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 pink-haired 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 they’re going to have to kill each other, or be killed trying. As it turns out, however, the pink-haired Yuuno wasn’t just saving him to be kind... She is head over heels in love with him, and she’ll 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, Yuki’s 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 you’re 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 date’s collection of red hats and AR-15s. Originally founded by former employees of Studio Xebec... Yes, we ARE starting off on the worst foot possible... They’ve only put out a handful of their own major productions since 2006, and while I’ve seen quite a few of them, none of it’s been especially great. Shuffle was terrible. Big Order was terrible. I didn’t hate Yuushibuu or Ga Rei Zero, but nobody talks about them anymore, I barely remember them, and they definitely didn’t set the world on fire. The biggest thing they’ve done recently was Arifureta, which is a strong contender for the worst isekai I’ve 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 don’t think I’ve ever seen that kind of thing in an isekai before. As far as I can tell, that’s their only shared quality, which is why it’s especially weird that not only is the nudity in Future Diary really badly drawn and constantly off-model, but also, that’s 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 don’t know if I’d go as far as to call it gorgeous, there’s nothing about the visuals that really stands out or inspires awe, but there’s nothing really distracting or incompetent about it either. I don’t think it had the largest budget in the world, and I wouldn’t 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 Asread’s output up until 2013, when the studio went quiet for three years, and he seemingly left the studio after that, but it’s 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. There’s a lot of fighting in this show, and while these sequences are very well choreographed and paced, Hosoda’s 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 it’s gotten out of his control.

I’m 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 you’re 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 doesn’t entirely reveal every character at once, and from a visual standpoint, I like how the diary-using characters we haven’t 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 they’re 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 mutant-like body... But I do think it was the right choice overall.

As for the English dub, well, it’s a mixed bag, but I do feel more glass-half-empty on this one. The acting is strong across the board, and I don’t necessarily think any of the performances were bad, but there’s only so much you can do with a script that was written by J Michael Tatum. One of the biggest tragedies of the dubbing industry(aside 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 don’t think there were any particularly egregious memes or internet references in this dub, but Tatum still has a penchant for over-writing 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 I'm going to give two highly noticeable examples. First, Yuuno is constantly calling Yukitero “Yuki-chan” 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 “Yuki-chan” over and over again, but after a few repetitions of “Pookie” and “Sugar bear,” you’ll be begging to go back to Yuki-chan. 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.” I’m 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. It’s 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 doesn’t sound violent enough for her... Oh wait! What about pummel instead? Aren’t I fucking clever?”

As for the casting, it’s mostly solid. Josh Grelle plays a lot of very similar anime protagonists, usually weak-willed 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 she’s 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 can’t get behind... As much as I enjoy hearing her in most anime, Brina Palencia was not the right choice for Yuuno. That’s 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 Tatum’s writing and the overall performance of Yuuno, I do think the sub is the better option here.

So because I said earlier that Asread’s resume was not promising, you’re 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 I’m no stranger to having controversial opinions. I’ve changed a lot through the time I’ve 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 couldn’t 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 I’m 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. There’s 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 I’m quite fond of. You have a baker's 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. I’ve always enjoyed stories like these, even when they aren’t killing each other. Give me a cross country street race movie like Rat Race or Cannonball Run and I’m 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, they’re both pretty shitty people, and they’re 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 flip-flops 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 don’t 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, it’s not just the two of them that are badly written. There is a ton of material in this show that doesn’t 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 I’ve been holding onto for a while. The more you’re enjoying a story, and the more you’re engaged and invested in what you’re watching, the less it’s going to bother you when something doesn’t add up. For example, I’m probably the only person alive who hates The Nightmare Before Christmas. So I’m 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 Boogie’s, that’s 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, you’ll never notice this, and if I point it out, you’ll get defensive and attack me for taking a movie way too seriously. You won’t notice the fact that Sally’s prophetic vision comes right out of nowhere with no explanation, only to wind up having no effect on the story. Hell, you won’t notice that Sally herself has no effect on the story, as aside from her kiss with Jack at the end(which also comes out of nowhere, as he showed no interest in her up until that point) she does nothing important to the plot that’s actually successful. None of that matters to you, because you’re too entranced by the movie to give a fuck. And there’s nothing wrong with that, media is supposed to get you too invested in the story to question it, otherwise we’d 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, let’s look at the Yuuno and Yuki vs. Sixth story arc. There’s a moment where Sixth arranges to have his diary shipped to the house from a convenience store he’d 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 don’t care, I’m 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 wouldn’t enjoy that shit? Hell, Home Alone didn’t 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 they’re related to each other, but they’re also distinctly different from each other. Obviously it’s possible for the two to work together in harmony, and that is the preferable outcome by far, but it’s 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 wouldn’t 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 they’re 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 somebody’s potential Godliness, but that’s the premise, and it’s 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 2000s-early 2010s, probably too much if we’re being honest. This show came out in a field of dark pseudo-psychological 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 doesn’t overplay its hand on violence. It’s not that gory, at least not to the point of sensationalism, sticking pretty hard to a relatively tasteful amount of violence that’s used in service to the plot(although it definitely could have used less rape). Also, I don’t 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 doesn’t feel forced at all. After an exciting and suspenseful multi-episode conclusion, we’re shown this really clever butterfly-effect 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 anti-hero squirrel-befriending badass, and her role in the story should make her an easy candidate for fan favorite, but here’s 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 didn’t 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 you'd be a good mom, that's rich. Hell, right after all those kids die, Yuki and Yuuno take a trip to the waterpark, because “They’re 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 don’t know if I’d recommend it to anyone, but I still personally love it. I am very aware of its litany of flaws and problems, but I think it’s 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 that’s a blast to watch, provided you’re 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. It’s not for everybody, but it’s definitely for me, and I’m not sorry.

I give Future Diary a 7/10.