「着信拒否」 (Chakushin Kyohi)
“Blocked Call”

Tons of interesting stuff this week, but first things first – who would have thought it was actually the good Yuno we’ve been watching until this week?

On balance I think this is a very compact, lean episode of Mirai Nikki. This conclusion to the arc fit perfectly into the 22 minute format, and this was an instance where the lack of omake was probably a good idea. Everything progressed in a clear and logical way, and the buildup to the conclusion was excellent. As I mentioned last week this was really a sort of transitional arc for the series, because rather than being mostly self contained as the first four were, this arc is as much about the future as it is about the present. As such it was vital that it be adapted in a clear and concise way, and I think it was. And let’s be honest – there just aren’t as many dog-stabbings in anime as there used to be.

Gotten out of the way quickly was confirmation of what seemed obvious last week – the diary owner in silhouette was indeed Hinata’s father Tsukishima Karyuudo. He’s certainly a bit of a nutjob, a rich eccentric who walked out on his wife and daughter to devote all his time to his obsession with dogs. His “Breeder Diary” gives him the ability to see what his dogs see, and to give them orders as if they were human soldiers (really, it’s better not to ask). We don’t get a lot of exposition but my sense is that Tenth has more or less given up on the game by the time he joins the cast, and the gambit involving Hinata and Akise was pretty much a Hail Mary pass – and one based on a faulty assumption at that.

And faulty it was – Akise is no diary holder, but he plays one on TV. Yuno recognizes a sneak when she sees one and spots this almost immediately, though the others are fooled, and Akise manages to string the ruse along using only his wits and his balls of steel. The grin never leaves his face as he goads Hinata into a game of chance and beats her – and Yuki’s diary – using only his brain and (eventually) a little help from Yuno. It’s clear from the start that diary holder or no, Akise is someone to be reckoned with. He manages to escape Yuno’s knife attack easily, and stays one step ahead of her strategically as well. What’s really fascinating is watching Yuno’s feral face as she tries to make sense of this boy who fits nowhere in her world view – she recognizes him as dangerously clever, but also as someone who seems to want to protect Yuki – which she’s obviously deeply conflicted about.

Indeed, as remarkable as it sounds, we really find out here that we’ve only been seeing half of Yuno’s yandere insanity. It’s no longer just a question of protecting Yuki at all costs,it’s a matter of utter paranoia about any girl he comes into contact with and an urgent need to prevent him from having any friends – not because she needs to protect him, but because she doesn’t want anyone else to have him. Just when you thought Yuno had maxed out her stalker points she proves they go up to eleven, but even as she goes full-on “nice boat” we see another example of something we briefly witnessed a couple episodes back – Yukiteru is slowly figuring out that he has some power over Yuno, too. He’s learning that he can use her very obsession about him to his own advantage, and he ups the ante by telling her she’s his girlfriend – going all-in the yandere pot in exchange for her acknowledgement of the others as his friends.

Fundamentally, then, we have Yukiteru struggling to avoid being pulled into the madness of Deus’ game and Yuno’s obsessiveness and Yuno allowing herself to be tamed, just a little, in exchange for something she wants (that July 28 “Good End”). There’s no doubt that Yuki is fully aware of what he’s getting himself into, but in a sense he’s taking one for the team – using his professed love as a wedge to extract Yuno’s protection of his friends. Because of Yuki’s actions all the kids seem to walk away from this conflict with their lives, though Mao is stabbed by Yuno when she makes at attempt to destroy Yuki’s diary. Akise is obviously a wild card, and we still don’t know why he’s involved himself in this diary business at all – only that he feels “far more than friendship” for Yukiteru. And then there’s poor Tenth, who seems resigned that his last ditch effort to do right by his daughter has failed and leaves us with a last kind lie for her benefit and one final warning – “Be especially wary of those who act nice…”

 

Before I go, a quick note: I’ve just posted my Winter 2012 Season Preview and Poll over at LiA. Please stop by and check it out if you have a few minutes.

156 Comments

  1. FIRST! Heh, always wanted to do that…

    In light of some of the issues that have arisen in the last week, I wanted to briefly discuss the topic of spoilers in comments. The salient points:

    • Mirai Nikki is a series that’s especially dependent on the element of surprise, so I think it’s vital that you be able to read the comments without fear of being spoiled.
    • On most of the forums out there, there’s a very basic rule that manga or LN spoilers aren’t allowed anywhere on the anime threads, even in spoiler tags. I don’t think we necessarily need to go that far, but I want to clarify the position I’m taking on spoilers.
    • First, if you’re speculating and not spoiling, it might be a good idea to make that clear in your comment (and please don’t try to BS me if you’re a manga reader – I can tell).
    • Second, I know almost all of us can agree that manga spoilers should be buried in spoiler tags at the very least. If I see a manga spoiler not tagged, I’ll tag it. If I see the some poster doing it repeatedly, the comment will go into spam.
    • Third, because of the delicate nature of this series, if I see what I consider a huge spoiler – and you know the kind of thing I’m talking about, the kind that will ruin the series for an anime-only viewer if they see it – I’m going to delete it even if it’s tagged. Minor spoilers in tags are fine, but I don’t think it’s vital to an anime discussion to have deal-breaking manga spoilers where the unsuspecting can see them with one inadvertent click.
    • Fourth, I’m no longer going to be engaging in discussion with serial spoiler trolls. I’m simply going to take whatever the appropriate action is based on the spoiler and the poster – tag it, delete it or spam it.

    Just to be clear, it’s ultimately up to everyone to avoid spoilers on their own, and that means not opening tags if you don’t want to be spoiled. I’m not going to police the comments 24/7 so inevitably, some are going to slip through. But you should also know that there are posters who’ve announced publicly that they don’t think there should be any limits on spoilers, and that they don’t care if they spoil new viewers. So in effect, there will likely be mines out there – tread carefully. I’ll stop the repeat offenders and intentional saboteurs as quickly as they appear, but most of the time you’re going to be on your own. It’s my view that we can have a spirited and informative discussion and debate on Mirai Nikki without making it difficult for viewers to avoid having their entire experience ruined. It worked most of the time with Steins;Gate and I don’t see why it can’t work here.

    That’s it – hopefully we can all get along and this sort of post won’t be needed in future. As long as everyone is respectful of new viewers and plays fair, I hold no grudges.

      1. Spamming it is much worse, because it lowers your rating in Akismet, the spam filter plugin. This becomes a blemish on your record so to speak. If you have enough of these, all your comments will be immediately flagged as spam, not only on this site but any WordPress site using Akismet.

          1. Really…What about a wild card like me?

            Your citation tag is like a compliment from God to me. I maybe blind in the dark, but with you around, I know exactly where to go. So bring it on, bro…BRING IT ON!

            Chaos
          2. I appreciate the attention, but ironically you are right…

            I do need some time off. But, I trade stocks and commodity dude. So unless I want to stop eating, I need the Internet on a daily basis to trade. Mirai Nikki is about one of the few things I do that keep me sane next to porn, sex, drug, and medications. If you hadn’t already know, trading stock is a lot of stress and anxiety. I also have to do cold sale to customers. Some time I need to do something crazy and off the wall just to ensure I don’t lose my mind. What I need is a hobby like street racing, shooting guns at the range, or skydiving.

            Chaos
      1. If I remember correctly you were the guy saying Akise was a diary owner last episode. Now you’re saying Yuno is the only thing that makes this series unpredictable. Good job there.

        KoroshiyaKi
      2. Lol. what do you expect people to do? pause the video and write “it is predictable” on some blog hasn’t even posted a review yet? Ofcourse, accompanied by years worth anime/manga-watching experience you can make broad predictions and get 1/4, or perhaps get half of them right.

        But predictions while watching is a different case. You’d know, or you think you know 50%-100% what’s gonna happen next. Heck, I was even led to believe that a certain someone was an obvious diary holder, which, of course, was not the case. This brings us to what Enzo said: “Mirai Nikki is a series that’s especially dependent on the element of surprise”

        Alec
      3. Troll post.

        If something is predictable, then one should guess the plot of this episode IN ADVANCE because it was the second part of an arc.

        I know too many people who try to condescend by claiming powers of prediction LONG AFTER the fact.

        Amazingly, they never show the money.

        Next time anyone says something is predictable, ask them to prove their powers and predict the next episode. Or is that predictable? 🙂

      4. it is not hard to make ‘broad’ predictions prior to the airing of an episode.

        If you get it right, then yeah people sill say it’s predictable. If you didn’t get it right, but was still able to predict specific things while watching the episode, then people will just say it’s predictable. And if you got both wrong, people will just not bother to mention it about; they’ll just talk about something else. Its that simple.

        Alec
      1. wrote it in past tense xD

        Also that scene did not convince me. I mean, there is a reason or an explanation for everything, and so I thought that Yuno couldn’t possibly do that — And I still believe that is the case. Ofcourse, since the creators have not bothered to explain why that happend, I’m starting to believe that she was insane.

        Alec
  2. I am looking forward to the next arc. Having read it thousands of time, I can tell you…

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Da5id
  3. well, in as non-spoilerish way as possible:
    Yuno is completely possessive of Yukki.
    Yukki is managing Yuno quite well. Not many professional negotiators would handle rampaging psycho better. Plus he manages to get some real friends! Go Yukki!
    Akise is genius, non doubt. the way he handled situation WITHOUT diary, makes me wonder what he would be capable if he got his hands on one… hey do diaries disappear after owners death?
    4th definitely isnt as nice as he seems, and given he has the police on his side, I expect Yukki can run into most formidable enemy yet, soon. I wonder how 9th will react?
    Last but not least – I was totally surprised when the dogs siege incident ended without any fatalities (save remote death of the 10th). Everybody lives? In Mirai Nikki??
    One final thouhgt – it might be my paranoia but I am deeply suspicious of

    ewok40k
    1. Eh, idk if diaries disappear after a user’s death; I remember Reisuke’s was left behind to display his last entry, but I think that Third’s was sucked into his personal black hole with him? I guess it kind of depends.

      Also, I really felt for Tenth is his dying moments, and also during other times. Manga or anime, he proved to still be pretty sympathetic when talking to Hinata for the last time.

      Really excited for the next arc; now that arc is one of my favorites.

      Donyo
    2. All diaries remain even when the person is killed. However, the owner does disappear. It is unclear at this point, but I suspected that all defeated owners disappear in a whirl-wind black hole. Like they never been born with all traces gone…

      Chaos
      1. No, they still die in the real world: Fourth had to cover up the Yuno’s massacre of the cult and its head as a mass suicide, and Reisuke was reported as a missing child after he disappeared. They disappear because they are no longer connected to their own futures once their diaries are destroyed beyond working ability. And they only disappear if it’s their diaries that are destroyed. Tenth was shot in this episode and wasn’t killed via diary, so his body still remains as it was. And if Yomotsu Hirasaka (Twelfth) hadn’t swallowed the bomb, he would have died from the neck wound Yuno gave him with the ax, and his body would have remained as well.

        Donyo
  4. Hmm, I tried to make sure not to include anything considered “spoileric” to rant below, but I let mr. Enzo to take care of judgement :). These are just my personal opinions about series.

    I remember this being a point in the story where I stopped reading manga for the first time. While the genius murderer child -scenario felt absolutely ridiculous, the whole 13-year-old teenagers fighting against army of bloodthirsty dogs was simply stupid, and our Kaworu clone with dream to become-the-world’s-greatest-detective struck to me just an out of a place character – he was a cool and stuff, yeah, but didn’t really sit together with the atmosphere of the story.
    Every other arc also had their plot holes, but this had some pretty bad ones: why to play that game against Akise in the first place, why did 10th give away his diary to his 13-old daughter, how Yukiteru, Hinata and others could even speak of friendship after all that had happened, where Hinata got that fake corpse and why she ordered her dogs to hunt our group of the friendship when her girlfriend Mao was still with them – and if Mao was traitor all along, why did she help Yukiteru and co. instead of running hell out of there. And what was the breeder diary’s ability again, I got that it was somehow connected to controlling of the dogs, but even that wasn’t cleared up. Same with 12th broken hypnosis skills (he basically could take anyone to his control, but mysteriously our heroes didn’t have to worry about that), it was never explained where he got that ability (while it was explained that his justice diary reported all “wrong things” happening around him). Let’s not even talk about when 9th attacked the school and placed land mines to the ground (and when did she even did that? :E), which mysteriously didn’t explode at all when students came to the school just few minutes earlier in that episode (and where that motorbike came from??? :EEE).

    Anyway, even though the next arc felt better than previous ones, this was the point I gave up and stopped active reading, while I still checked manga out from time to time. For long time it didn’t really get any better (though it had some cool moments), but then happened first major plot twist, which made story much more interesting – and after that came the second and third plot twist, and I felt that someone had rammed his big black cock into my brain. After rereading the whole manga everything became the clear, and I truly started to appreciate the writing of the story and all foreshadowing that had been done. Now, while some people may feel that “this shit is ridiculous”, “main character’s wussier than pussy”, “wtf i dont get whats happening???”, I can promise after coming to certain point you will change your tone. If you don’t have any intention to keep watching to that point, just spoil yourself or something, better that than never learning.

    After reading some negative feedback from certain forums, I felt like I had to say something. Just try to ignore things that don’t make sense, cool things await :). Oh, and yeah, nicely done episode.

    Mal
      1. True enough, you don’t even think about the most of faults I mentioned, and even them could’ve been explained easily with some though. It just that author never did bother to give explanation – maybe he’s just lazy lol.

        Mal
    1. Looks fine to me, Mal – a few bits could be considered mild spoilers but they’re more general matters of opinion than fact.

      Not that I agree with most of your criticism, mind you, but that’s all good. And I get the sense that this show is being received pretty well generally speaking, so I don’t think too many folks are going to ditch before the parts you think are really good. I hope not, anyway. I happen to like this arc a lot, FWIW, especially considering all the heavy lifting it has to do. If plot arcs were building components, this one would be a load-bearing wall.

      1. Load bearing wall? Naw, corner support column subject to axial loads, large eccentricities in a three dimensional plane, sheer failure, and large rotational forces due to earthquake conditions.

        KoroshiyaKi
      2. Good then :). Yes, I’ve also got impression that many people like this arc – however, many of those same people have already read the manga, and in turn many of those who are anime-only watchers seem to have mixed feelings about the story so far. Just wanted to make sure that even after including all the faults of this anime, the good points are sure to make up for it.

        Mal
    2. Well to clarify it’s implied that any ability besides being able to predict the future is not a part of the diary’s powers. In short the dog control ability is basically that guys’s ability which only stretches the point of believability in the quantity he is able to do that in. The rest of it is just behavioral modification training for the dogs which allows you to teach them to either rescue a trapped earthquake victim or chase down a fleeing criminal. A two way communication system is what made the rest possible.

      Genius murder child was kinda explained by one of the spinoff manga chapters (though doesn’t stop that chapter in and of itself being retarded) and only requires us to strain our believability for a child with that cognitive ability.

      But yes the rest of that stuff is pretty much spot on in the questionable behavioral patterns as giving people less time to think is usually better for you if you have the advantage. These were some of the gripes I held with the manga as well. But I felt you should get some explanation for those two parts.

      KoroshiyaKi
      1. I see, well I also figured out that it could be just something outside of diary’s abilities. Though, considering the fact that always when Hinata threatened to do something with her diary, the dog’s came out and stuff. The breeder diary’s really didn’t seem to have any future reading ability, as Mao and Hinata used Yukiteru’s diary in that gamble. Well, we probably will never know :/.

        I have also read that spin-off, it was funny and gave us a little bit more backstory for our child murderer [all those who haven’t read it yet, I recommended it :)] – but like you said, it was hard for me to buy that kid, even screwed up as he was, could do or think things he did. But yeah, it was still swallowable.

        Mal
      2. Like humans dogs do take note of voice inflection and when you their alpha are angry at something they will respond in like. The diary reports on the actions of the various dogs and what happens to them, nothing more nothing less. This is why in order to win that game with Akise the Breeder Diary was useless while the Random Diary was priceless almost. Can’t predict what will happen to your dogs if nothing happens to them after all.

        KoroshiyaKi
      3. I guess that sounds playsible enough. Actually the breeder diary seems to be pretty close to 6th’s diary, which ability was to see future of the her followers – the breeder diary just predicted future of the dogs instead of humans. That child really had bad diary compared to others, lol.

        Mal
      1. I know I almost did, lol. It’s because it dragged on a bit too long, taking FIVE full chapters, with the coin guessing game being split between two chapters, and we didn’t really get some crazy conclusion, only the sinister twist near the end. I think people might have felt that Yukiteru’s school friends were a bit lacking compared to the other more impressionable diary holders: Ninth, Twelfth, Sixth, Fifth (though the last two rubbed some the wrong way). Nevertheless, this arc introduced some pretty important characters and concepts, so it was important overall, it just didn’t feel like it at first. I like that the adaptation is compressing and streamlining the plot in the clearest, most coherent way possible. In someways, the anime does do a few things better than the manga.

        Donyo
      2. lmao don’t be negging me, folks. Last ep review, I admitted that I almost dropped the series BEFORE this chapter!

        But it’s anime/manga like this one that make me decide that I would NEVER drop a series before 3 eps/a number of chapters.

        RARELY do you see glimpses of how truly brilliant a series is when the series first starts. I dropped shows like Gurren Lagann and Stein’s;Gate two or three eps in and felt downright foolish when I watched the whole thing almost a year later.

        Wait
    3. I thought her diary’s abilities allows her to so see what her dogs reports her. Mainly used for scouting/surveilance

      Can’t possibly be what the dog sees. Otherwise, she would’ve known where Yuno and Yukiteru were when Yuno stabbed and killed a dog

      Alec
    4. why to play that game against Akise in the first place:
      I’ll just chalk that up to childish naivete

      why did 10th give away his diary to his 13-old daughter:
      Well the anime explained that 10th was scared because he was being stalked by Akise and wanted someone else to do the dirty work. Having no actual people that he communicates with (remember, he only talks to dogs), he used his easily manipulated daughter. The wisest choice? Maybe not but it was the only one he had.

      how Yukiteru, Hinata and others could even speak of friendship after all that had happened:
      Haha, got me there. I guess I’ll just say Yuki’s desperate for friends, Yuno does whatever Yuki tells her to, and Akise doesn’t seem to be too fazed by all this.

      where Hinata got that fake corpse:
      Probably had it stashed in the forest beforehand

      why she ordered her dogs to hunt our group of the friendship when her girlfriend Mao was still with them – and if Mao was traitor all along, why did she help Yukiteru and co. instead of running hell out of there:
      Remember, Hinata and Mao did not know that Yuki had a diary at all. They were using him as bait because Akise (the supposed diary owner) suspected that Yuki was responsible for all the crimes (the cult killings and the kid’s disappearance). Hinata fakes her death, puts the dogs on the group, and leaves Mao there in case Akise shows up to maintain the element of surprise (basically to do to him what she did to Yuki). They probably didn’t even want Yuki or anyone else to die, only use the incident to draw out Akise. Unfortunately, Yuki got in the way and Akise was much more than those two could handle so their plan failed miserably.

      And what was the breeder diary’s ability again, I got that it was somehow connected to controlling of the dogs, but even that wasn’t cleared up:
      The only ability that the diaries give the owners are the ability to predict the future. The 10th control of the dogs, 12th hypnosis, Yuki’s ability to aim darts, and Yuno’s insanity are all parts of the personality they had before they even got the diaries. Their “natural abilities” are a bit unbelievable, but if you were God would you pick perfectly normal people to entertain you in a game?

      Moeronic
  5. Man and people said they never saw the connection between Kaoru and Akise… Now you guys know he’s basically his reincarnation. Ahahahahahaha.

    Hum three chapters in one go… Not bad, they needed to add in Akise grab though.

    KoroshiyaKi
    1. What Akise grab are you talking about lol. All I can say is Akise is acting a little strange when he says his feeling for Yukki is beyond friendship!

      Thanks for the nice review Enzo!

      Overall I could have guessed why Yuno wants to monopolise Yuki by preventing him making friends. But its actually quite satisfying seeing Yuno’s no BS approach to threats such as the stabbing of Mao and the dog :D. No fluff there!

      YoungGun
      1. Well it’s what attracted a bunch of people after all, Yuno always cutting to the point and getting to the heart of the discussion.

        Also I was just commenting on how Akise is Kaoru reincarnation and you are still wondering about what Akise meant by his words and subsequently by the same logic what grab I was talking about?

        KoroshiyaKi
    2. Thanks for the clarification Enzo. As far as I know from Evangelion, Kaworu did not “grab” anything inappropriate unless I miss something from NGE. But I do see the same vibe with between Akise and Kaworu.

      Just a quick comment, in the ED animation sequence, there is a shot of Akise (I think base on the clothes) standing in a position of a diary owner.

      YoungGun
  6. Nice episode as usual … love the 1st scene…. akise is good at acting

    BTW will there be something like blogging the last episode of some anime(all the blogger here)?

    Cause the end for some anime is “super near” and I would like to hear the thoughts of the “blogger” here 🙂

  7. really nothing to say or add about this ep…. it was nicely done, yah. But I swear that when Yuuki says “…so that’s what it is.” the japanese translation I heard was “psycho.” lmao

    Wait
  8. little resume:
    1st and 2nd are in one-sided love affair from hell
    3rd is dead
    4th is definitely not as nice as he seemed
    5th is dead
    6th is dead
    7th and 8th are unknown
    9th lies low in wait?
    10th is dead
    11th is unknown
    12th is dead.
    I presume Yukki will have to face yuno at the very end.
    It seems either he will go against 4th (possibly with 9th allied), in which case I expect lots of trouble with the police…
    …or one of undisclosed yet 3 diary owners will appear. What their diares look like and work, is complete mystery yet.

    ewok40k
    1. I said it before and I will say it again, everything that happen after encountering 4th are all his doing. I bet ya the person who cornered 10th was no other than 4th.

      I believe Akise is working for him, too. The two seem to be connected somehow. As for 9th, I believe that she is his backup plan in case Yuno and Yuki gain the upper hand on him. He plotted everybody demise since the beginning. It wasn’t realize until this episode that 4th is truly dangerous. One thing is for sure, he is no hero of justice…12th was.

      What do you call a super villain in a superhero costume?

      Chaos
      1. Uh, yeah, this episode clearly shows that Fourth was the one who cornered Tenth. But Tenth ended up misjudging it and thought that Akise was the Diary Holder who cornered him, since Akise was more conspicuous about it and Fourth also has members of the police force who could more effectively scout him out without giving him a regular face to look out for.

        Donyo
      1. Well how would you react when a person stab a knife at your hand?

        If you push forward and attempt to stop it by stabbing yourself in the hand than you’re an idiot. Only under one condition would a normal person do that: when there is no way of avoid the death blow, thus you rather take some damaged than to die.

        Chaos
      2. Chaos, I really have no idea what you’re trying to get at, but I think that Mal was just saying that since Mao managed to stab Hinata in the hand, that she should’ve given just as much attention to her hand as she did to Mao’s own stab wound. It wasn’t brought up at all and she seemed perfectly fine in her later scenes, like it never even happened.

        And it had nothing to do with avoiding a death blow or anything like that. Hinata noticed Mao going for Yuki’s diary, and guarded it because he and Akise won, and she was ready to honor that. Yuno’s only target was Mao, not Hinata, since Mao was the one who was about to kill Yuki. It’s not that Hinata was dodging either of them; she was protecting his diary. And Mao was so focused on destroying it that she left herself open for Yuno’s attack.

        Donyo
  9. Again, I hope I’m not saying any spoilers, just want to touch a bit on Tenth’s actions.

    I agree that Tenth probably gave up on the game by the time he was introduced. He figured out that another diary holder (assumed to be self-proclaimed detective Akise, when it was really detective and chief of police Fourth) was tracking him down, and he wanted to try to throw him off his trail somehow, setting up the ruse with Hinata as a figurehead who used his diary recklessly to create a string of randomly occurring crimes that Fourth’s diary would record. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, and Fourth had probably too clearly identified him by that point, hence how he couldn’t avoid his own Dead End (which occurred in a relatively short time frame; Hinata had only met Yukiteru that same day).

    Donyo
  10. Well, damn, first of all, thanks for the first comment, Enzo. Hopefully people will stop being complete dicks now. Second, if anyone read my comment last week, they’ll know how foolish I feel right now. They got me good…again. And in my mind, that is quite indicative of a great series. It’s been a while since I’ve looked forward to a series each week this much.

    1. Enzo didn’t took the picture from a distance. Mao was clearly a foot away from Yuki’s phone before Yuno stopped her dead in her track. She was fast. Hell, she even ran pass Yuki and killed the dog that he failed to see ahead.

      Chaos
  11. Akise is a scary opponent no wonder why the gave him, his own manga spin off… but really to many BL vibes for my tastes… let´s hope that now that Yuno is officialy Yukiteru´s girlfriend that doesn´t make her less crazier… =D

    kingdragun
    1. According to Akise, it was pure luck. 50/50. A true genius never leave anything to chance. Always planning two to three steps ahead of his opponent. Something is not right about him.

      First, he came off a smart and calm. Next he hit on Yuki. Then he side with Yuno. From my experience, Akise real target should be Yuno. He is merely using Yuki as a pawn to get to her. His last reply gave his real intention away.

      He said, “Yuki would have done anything to saved everyone…including killing you (looking at Yuno)”

      https://randomc.net/image/Mirai%20Nikki/Mirai%20Nikki%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2034.jpg

      By concept, Akise should have been more of a better pair with Yuno than Yuki. Yuno herself said it best, “Last of all, I just don’t trust you…”

      Chaos
      1. For consideration’s sake, anything written below is based purely on my own speculation and/or random thought(s).

        The way you put it like that, Chaos, it would indeed seem as though Aru-kun’s original target is none other than Yuno. Interestingly enough though, the two have more similarities than one might think:

        – Both seem used to the concept of death. Yuno is a given for whatever reason, but Aru-kun didn’t even blink when he saw her stab Mao and was quite calm when he and Kousaka were near on the verge of being devoured by 10th’s dogs.

        – Unusually perceptive insight. You might chalk it up as to Aru-kun wanting to be a detective, but it seems like a bit too much of a coincidence to have two such characters around the same age end up involved in the same Survival Game.

        – Both are deadly in their own respective ways. Yuno lacks any kind of style, but her zero hesitance in striking out at anyone near makes up for that. Aru-kun seems to be professionally trained and quite experienced as he didn’t hesitate in the slightest at overpowering Yuno when she held a blade to him.

        It’s almost impossible, but if I didn’t know better I’d swear the two could be brother and sister.

        …Still, if Yuno is Aru-kun’s target, one can’t help but ask why. Yuno herself doesn’t seem familiar with him, and Aru-kun doesn’t seem the type to be out for simple revenge if our favorite yandere somehow wronged him in the past.

        Regardless, I’m not convinced he’s not at least somewhat interested in Yukiteru.

        Like Enzo said though, Aru-kun is far too much of a wild card right now. Just gotta wait ’till something comes up to reveal more of his true intent…

  12. Nice twist. Akise isn’t a diary holder. He does show exceptional perception to determine in such a short time that warping the perception of the the diary holder will neutralise the diary.

    Since i really doubt there’s going to be any yaoi in this (i could be wrong), i’m guessing Akise’s sentence on his love being more than friendship means he’s somehow related to Yuki, either through blood (cousin, half brother, etc) or his father who has not shown up at all (step brother, etc). Big question then would be why Yuki doesn’t know him at least from the name.

    Alternatively that short part where Yuki has some sort of flash back to his “friendless” days might mean he killed someone or cause serious harm which would make him a pariah. In this case, Akise might be out for vengeance.

    Another possibility would be Akise is out to ensure the game ends with no winner by ensuring the last 2 standing die together and he’s betting on those 2 being Yuno and Yuki.

    Yuno vs Akise will be interesting as this episode, Yuno was caught unawares so the ease with which Akise disarmed her might not be so easily repeated.

    4th revealed his hand this episode. Good timing since its now obvious very few of the diary holders are in anyway kind and helpful

    Zaku Fan
  13. i really wonder how dumb yuki can be. anyone can easily know that yuno is jealous of him mixing with other girls, i wonder why i took him so long to figure it out… well it is an anime i guess

    UmadBro?
    1. I think he definitely knew it – he just didn’t realize Yuno was crazy enough to actually kill anyone merely for trying to become his friend until she said so this week. Up to now, he could explain all the psycho stuff she’s done as her trying to protect him from legit threats (except that room in her house, of course).

  14. Having read the manga, I was a little concerned about the pacing of the show, but I feel rest assured that they’re going at a right pace! 4 volumes in out of 12, 1/3 in, and 9 episodes out of 26, so it looks like they’re doing just fine. I knew a couple of friends who were worried that it wouldn’t do so well. Thank you asread for proving them wrong.

  15. This episode underscores a perfect little thought: To be able to predict the future, or to make the best guess we can (at the very least). Those around us have to be honest actors. Without proper information, you can’t even build the first level of a tricky house of cards. This applies, as we see, to Diary Owners as well as to normal folk.

    I haven’t read the manga; so this is my best guess, being an audience member. Yuki, my lad, you’ve just screwed everything up. One lie, dude. One lie on your part is going to screw everyone up.

    theskylion
  16. Enzo I’m sorry but NO! Sakae Esuno is NOT a girl!

    I’m 100% sure about it because I got my 1st manga volume autographed by himself in 2009 after hours of queuing. I don’t have any photograph (didn’t have a cam at that time and anyway pictures were forbidden) but here’s some evidence to back my claim : http://www.manga-sanctuary.com/mstv/interview-sakae-esuno-n141.html

    (sorry it’s in french, but the girl is the translator and you can clearly hear Sakae Esuno’s voice and see his hands)

    If you can understand japanese or french it’s funny cause the series was still ongoing at that time (just before volume 9 release) and he said he hadn’t written the ending yet and only had the “image” of it in his head! Manga readers can appreciate that in restrospect (I guess – I stopped the series before last volume to be able to enjoy the final in the anime). Also he was surprised of the massive interest from foreigners and you have to give props to the guy, even when the convention was closing he still was drawing autographs for the fans still in the queue! Really a great author and a very nice person!

    YunoFan
    1. Are you sure those aren’t “man hands”??

      Seriously, that looks pretty convincing. I’ve never found a translated interview but I was going by a photo I saw a while back that claimed to be the Sakae (a woman in the photo) holding up a volume of the manga. Thanks for the correction.

    1. Why?

      Was it the “I am the only friend that you ever need…” statement? It took her long enough to said it. It was obvious from the start. I don’t think there can ever be enough of Yuki for Yuno. Nothing is ever enough for people like her. Only her own destruction can fixed her.

      Chaos
      1. I definitely don’t believe that Yuno is beyond saving.

        From the moment I began to see what kind of a person she was, I’ve believed her falling in love with Yukiteru is, in her own way, her desperately saying “save me” from a world that would have otherwise driven her beyond the point of no return. That a part of her is still trying to hang on is proof that there’s still a chance for her.

    2. Yukiteru’s in a tough spot admittedly, but he isn’t beyond getting himself out of this one… at least not yet.

      The main problem here is that Yukiteru is still in the dark, as am I as well as my other fellow anime-only viewers, about what happened to Yuno in her past and what made her the way she is now. It’s a decisive piece of info that’s either going to tilt his opinion of her one way or the other. He’ll remain uncertain of what to think about her until that happens, IMO.

      He’s going to have to manage in the mean time, and at all costs never tell Yuno that what he said was just a convenient lie.

  17. I don’t remember his name but you know the guy in the yellow and black t-shirt that sold out Yukiteru during the Ninth incident. I don’t know about you guys but I really don’t like him. When he said to Akise “Why do you get to decide?” or something like that, I really wanted to jump into the show and say “Well you can do what you want and not survive while me and the rest of the crew will do whatever we want.” Then we’d see his pissed off face and he’d never speak again.

    Zangkin
      1. Oh, shit. I got spoiler tagged…LOL! +1 for Chaos… 😀

        I was just kidding around, but your action just meant that I was right. So my craziness and sometime airhead do served a purpose. Never let your enemies see your move, Enzo. It is a rule of thump. 😀

        Chaos
      2. Heheh. Show Spoiler ▼

        Donyo
    1. ah I remember when I realized about that. it was just like thrown there in the middle of the manga and I was like “huh?”. didnt have any foreshadowing like the anime did.

      Show Spoiler ▼

      and if everyone here cant tell what I meant, that was intentional.

      amado
  18. I though this was a mediocre episode. It felt weak and flawed compared to the action packed and shocked of the past episode. The only real twist I got out of this episode was Yuki declaring Yuno as his girlfriend. This must be the second biggest mistake of his life. The first was opening that door.

    They say that 3 strikes and you’re out. Yuki better be more careful in the future…

    Chaos
      1. Setup for what? More characters to killed?

        Seeing that half have been dead already. This series doesn’t like its characters hanging around or making a comeback. Code Geass was notorious for that…

        Instead of asking who is gonna die next, we should be asking: will there be anybody alived when this series is over? Show Spoiler ▼

        Chaos
      2. Of course no ones dies silly! Everybody will liveeee!!! *hint, hint, wink, wink, laughs hysterically* They… will… *laughs even more* I cant keep this up, continuing this will probably kill me due to suffocation.

        KoroshiyaKi
    1. Well, it might yet that opening that door and getting healthy dose of suspicion on Yuno will save Yukki – who knows how exactly looks “her happy end”?
      Also, consider that should Yuno be cured from habitually killing people she would make perfect girlfriend/wife.

      ewok40k
      1. That is 5 + entire cult + hundreds of middle schooler + serial murder girls + people eaten by dogs = a Ginormous number. As big as Yuno’s tits, which they didn’t show any for a few episode now. 🙁

        Chaos
      2. As twins from Blood-c would put it “they were only extras”.
        It seems only Yukki amongst diary holders cares about mere mortals dragged into the game.
        And I presume the biggest enemies that will take few eps each to kill are way ahead. Plus there is Yuno to deal with, and her not-so-proverbial skeletons in the closet…

        ewok40k
    1. Yes I was shocked that no one at the observation point died after all…
      I wonder if those newly acquired friends will somehow help Yukki later on.
      Especially if/when fourth moves against Yukki (and Yuno by extension).
      Also everyone is obssessed about “Kaworu” and yaoi vibes, yet no one commented such delicious yuri vibes between Mao and Hinata?

      ewok40k
    2. Holy Shi^&, Batman. She did gone through 2 whole episodes without killing anybody. She deserve a gold medal for that…

      (Thinking….) Dogs. She did kill that dog. So, oh poopy. (Gold medal taken away…)

      Chaos
  19. https://randomc.net/image/Mirai%20Nikki/Mirai%20Nikki%20-%2009%20-%2024.jpg
    To be honest, I know the first thing guys say when they saw this was “girls should stop growing when they get to that age.” I mean, its obvious considering how Hinata is a tomboy when she was so innocent as a child.

    Anyway, I just noticed that Aki is voiced by the same guy as a certain mad Master in Fate/Zero anime. I can tell that the dude voices the people with a rather “unique” mind. I can’t tell who else does he voice.

    L002
  20. Say whatever you want about Yukiteru, but he sure has a big heart. I wouldn’t want to call anybody who ordered dogs to devour me a friend, moreover save their lives.
    Yuno’s face when Akisa told her about his feelings towards Yukiteru is priceless. For the first time she looks really scared!

    KGFJ
  21. look like it seems everything look shaken-up a lot give yet we’re so not even yet near mid-way eps of series.

    flashback dog owner give diary to hinata cause fear or aru.
    now we go coin toss guessing who got the coin.
    while reveal aru is NOT a dairy owner cause yuno sense it.
    all coin toss aru wins so after that mao tried to stab the phone but yuno attack ya.
    then yuki, yuno, aru, & etc on run cause dog gone it attack.
    yet yuki idea to reason with hinata give yuno follows cause she want kill em’all & no need friends.
    to point when got there yuno plan to chop hinata’s neck but yuki pull the july 28 for yuki to say yuno is yuki’s GF.
    after all that dog owner on speaker say something mention cop owner than “bang”.

    MR.KLAC
  22. This is what I think will happen near the end of the series. Show Spoiler ▼

    conyo985

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