For once, this will be about manga! Also, this one is another psychological horror. Even Wikipedia agrees: “Action, Horror, Psychological, Supernatural, Suspense”. That’s Mirai Nikki! Like Higurashi, if you value your sanity, this one is not for you.

The basic premise is that the god of reality, Deus, is dying and he needs someone to replace him. So, being a god, he decides to play a game. Giving 12 people a “future diary” (which, incidentally, is what “mirai nikki” (未来日記) translates to), Deus tells them to, more or less, go forth and kill each other. The last one standing will take over as the god of reality. Tempting, I’d say.

The cover for the first volume of the manga

Of those twelve characters, not all of them are main characters, thankfully. There’s maybe four characters I would call primary ones, those being Yukiteru Amano, Yuno Gasai, Keigo Kurusu and Minene Uryu. Now, I’m going to talk a lot about Yuno.

I love her. It’s not healthy, probably, but I do love her. You could describe her as being a yandere. Yandere characters are mentally unstable and usually madly in love with another character. Despite being mad beyond belief, they really do love that character. Yuno is typical of this, and loves Yuki more than herself or her family.

Yuno Gasai. Note the blood dripping from the axe

She kills people. A lot of people. She even attempts to kill Yuki’s mother at one point because she does the heinous crime of disagreeing with something Yuki said. At another point she cleaves through another girls skull because she was holding Yuki’s hand. Yuki is only ever in the wrong once, and it doesn’t end well for those around him. There’s a good long part in the manga where she is holding Yuki hostage so he can’t escape and she can love him properly. She freely admits that Yuki might not love her, but she’s going to try her damndest to make him.

Yes, she killed them

Yuki is consistently creeped out by her, but keeps her around, initially, because she helps him a lot. He’s an incredible wimp. He’s also rather annoying, to start with. Always whinging about this and that. Eventually, he starts to pal around with her because she will not leave him alone, so he puts up with her.

Throughout the manga there are plenty of rather distressing scenes, including a lot of the Yuno’s aforementioned love of cleaving. There’s also the scenes were characters snap. They’re rather fun. Despite these (or maybe because of these?) there is a good, coherent plot, with plenty of twists and turns. An anime adaptation is coming out in October and, since the manga hasn’t been fully released in English yet, people might prefer waiting for that.