Future Diary is, for me, a bit of a guilty pleasure. I can see its numerous flaws and for the most part I'm able to overlook them. Because despite some of the stupid shit in the anime the show does have its moments.
The story begins when a loner high school student Yuki's cell phone is given the ability to predict future events (a future diary if you will) and he discovers he's in a fight to the death with twelve other individuals who have similar diaries. The last one standing at the end will essentially become a god. The fight to the death setup might be a bit familiar but it provides a good source of tension and the twist with the diaries does keep things interesting.
Characters
Our main character is Yuki a quiet loner who spends most of his time by himself. He might be the biggest detriment to the show to most people. Though I didn't find him as annoying as some people would have you believe his constant whining, crying, and spinelessness can get to be a bit grating at time.
Yuno is our other main character and honestly she makes the show. She's so batshit insane that every moment she's on screen you know something's going to happen. She is obsessed with Yuki and in love with him to a degree that is pretty unnerving. She's violent and callous but utterly devoted to Yuki. Again she's the most interesting character and she really is the driving force behind the show.
Along the way we get introduced to the other diary users who are crazy to some degree or another. This is also the meat of the show. Future diary is fast paced and very found of plot twists there's almost something happening whether we get to see another aspect of Yuno's insanity or fast paced action when another diary user is introduced. But this is ultimately the show's greatest weakness as well. It's so found of these sudden plot twists that it doesn't really care if they always make sense, relying instead on the fast paced action to keep the audience's from stopping to question things. And for a good portion of the show this works fairly well. The great pacing means that even at the dumbest of plot twists I was always engaged but for the sake of criticism here's a few plot holes I noticed.
***Spoilers***
Bombs everywhere. Almost every fucking action seen has the opponent rigging the setting beforehand with bombs (At a school, hospital, and tower) and I can't help wondering how the fuck that works. You mean to say they carted several tons of explosives and hid them throughout the building without anyone noticing? And again it would be one thing if this happened once but like I said it happens three fucking times.
Parachuting. Yuki and his dad both use parachutes to escape from tower rigged with explosives. How the hell did the know how to work the parachutes.
Yuno. Akise (who happens to be the show's second best character) finds three bodies in her backyard and doesn't trust Yuno. Why doesn't he have the police question her. Why has she been able to go on living in her house? No one's noticed her parents have been missing? Shouldn't she have been sent to a foster home?
I could go on an on...
***end spoilers***
For me though the moment the anime really starts to collapse is the final couple episodes where the pace slows down and a couple of the dumbest plot twists occur which I won't spoil here. It doesn't help either that Yuki makes some choices towards the end that made me finally hate the character. Despite all that though I still like the show. The action is good and the story (excluding the finally couple episodes) is fast paced enough that the plot holes were never too distracting. Yuno helped make the show interesting and it has one of my favorite opening songs of any anime. I also appreciate how the show is willing to go violent and took some risks with the material. (There's a good deal of violence and gore). Again it is a flawed show but it's apparent to me that a lot of effort went into making it and even if all the crazy plot twists don't always pay off at the very least I can say I was consistently entertained.
6.5/10
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