First Impressions / Mirai Nikki

「非通知設定」 (Hitsūchi Settei)
“Restricted Call”

There now, Asread – you didn’t need luminescent pink eyes to show that Yuno was batcrap insane this week, did you?

The pieces are slowly but surely starting to come together on Mirai Nikki as we close out the first half of its run. Despite the fact that the break came after episode 12, this ep actually marks the halfway point – and while we’re in the middle of a very important arc, it still feels like as good a pivot as anywhere. With Fourth dead, the new battle lines are beginning to be drawn – both inside the game and among outsiders – and we’re starting to get a little look inside the game from the perspective of Deus and Murumuru, an angle that hasn’t gotten too much play unless you’re really good at reading between the lines of the omakes.

Of course, what’s largely a puzzle is just what Yuno is up to and why. While she’s always been erratic and seemingly crazy, Yuno has also seemingly always had Yukiteru’s best interests at heart. In the face of that, we see some very confusing and troubling events as the two of them take a road trip so he can show her the stars. Instead, she appears to drug him with tainted soda, and he ends up tied up in the basement of an abandoned hotel in a run-down onsen town as Yuno sits on a “throne” in her delicates, the pair of skulls she’d smuggled in her duffel on either side of her. That image of Yuno smiling beatifically is an iconic image of sheer insanity, with no animation tricks needed to belabor the point. When it comes to animating Yuno’s disorder, less is more.

While Yuno’s motives are unclear, what’s emerging more clearly than ever is a battle of wits and wills between she and Akise. The latter has joined forces with Nishijima, who gives the boy a lead as to where Yuno and Yuki might be headed. He recruits Hinata, Mao and “King” Kosaka to help the search, using the free hotel passes he’s been given by Nishijima as bait, and they track the pair to the resort town, full of closed resort hotels in various states of disrepair. Akise is clever and knows that Yuno has predicted their pursuit, but that doesn’t stop the foursome from getting into trouble when Yuno appears to lure them into a trap using fake texts from Yukiteru. Akise knows they can’t be from Yuki, but thanks to Kosaka’a dim-wittedness the two boys and Mao end up locked in an underground room filling with gas (it was – less convincingly – concrete in the manga) while Hinata lies unconscious, having gotten there first and apparently run afoul of the Yandere Queen.

The other thread at play this week is the increasingly nuanced relationship between Deus and Murumuru. There are indications that Murumuru is playing the role of a wild card in the game, seemingly unknown to Deus prior to the events of this week. She clearly had a role in the events that led to Kurusu’s death, telling Deus that she speeded things up because “they need to pick a replacement before Deus is relived of duty”. Interestingly, she offers a wager to Deus – Murumuru picks Yuno as the winner. Deus, for his part, sticks with what he announces was his view all along – his money is on Yukiteru.

While this wasn’t the most exciting episode of the series, I think it was a rather good one. It had the advantage of adapting some strong material, but also made some changes that seemed to improve the overall impact. It was more briskly paced, and crucially increased the roles for the other kids, especially Hinata and Mao. It was interesting – and I think it will pay even more dividends in the second half – to see an ep that focused almost entirely outside Yuki and Yuno, and even Minene. In addition to a little inside look at Deus and Murumuru we got a look at how Akise thinks strategically, and some nice detail on Hinata and Mao. Two things are clearer than ever – Hinata is crushing hard on Yukiteru, and Mao is crushing hard on Hinata (even trying to snap cellphone photos of her bits under the bath water). As for Kosaka, he obviously thinks an awful lot of himself – and doesn’t seem to do a whole lot of thinking apart than that.

As for the omake, not much new ground was covered but we did get heavily censored fanservice. If you’re going to have censor bars anyway, at least red police tape saying “Happy!!?” is more interesting than most…

 

Omake

56 Comments

  4. The “HAPPY!!?” should have been replaced with, “U MAD?” XD Yuno’s bust size seems to change from episode to episode, don’t you think? In the pool episode, her bust is kinda big, now it’s kinda small. I’m not complaining, though. XD

    The_Magus_Killer
    Reply

      2. Yes, I was referring to episode 3, where they went to the amusement park (with an indoor swimming pool complex) on 4th’s suggestion. Yuno’s bikini bra got washed away and we got delicious Yuno fanservice. This episode (13) is one of those staple hot-springs episode.

        The_Magus_Killer
        Reply

    1. Looks more like a geez fine happy?! Directed at otakus in Japan who only like anime if it has fan service. If that is the case it is pretty sad that anime these days has to be subjected to it when it just takes away from the story.

      KIRandom
      Reply

  9. Oh yeah, glaring flaw this episode: hasn’t Hinata realised that her father is dead yet? She’d hardly be out relaxing with friends at a hot spring resort if she knew that her father was killed. She seems totally unaffected.

    vjott
    Reply

  18. The story “seem” pretty simple. Yuno gone crazy and kidnap Yuki while the others try to help him.

    The main word is “seem”. Mirai Nikki always seem to have a twist or two every second episode of the setup of a new arc. Since things are usually oppose of what is shown. I say, somebody is out trying to killed Yuki and Yuno tried to protect him. I wonder who the real enemy really is?

    The second option is that Yuno really did lost her mind and went berserk. I highly doubt it.

    chaos
    Reply

    1. Don’t think too hard about it. Yuno really is that crazy, after all.

      This is what lots of the commentators meant early on when they were saying that we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Yuno’s insanity. Now we’re starting to really see how messed up she is.

      Donyo
      Reply

  21. WOW so much LOLs were spilled by the end of the episode. The highlight for me was the very end:
    -Craziest Yuno shot ever sitting in that throne. Or at least for now.
    –Wicked-cool-finale by having the music play before the ending sequence, while Deus reveals his favourite has always been Yukiteru, much to Murumuru’s surprise.

    I remember Steins;Gate (among other things) for being the only show that I never skipped the opening once…I will remember Mirai Nikki (among other things) for being the show that I never skipped the opening and ending once…

    I had some qualms with the first half of this episode thinking some shots and overall art wasn’t as good as it could be…But with the later developments by the end (and IMO art picking up as well), what can i complain about?!

    Justinnnnnn
    Reply

    1. Oh, and two (new?) OST songs in particular were plain awesome.

      -One playing during Akise’s thought process the night at the hotel, recalling his talk with Nishijima.
      -One playing during the search mission for Yukiteru and Yuno.

      I wonder if Murumuru or some Divine Intervention will interfere at some point with Nishijima and Akise’s actions? Not being players, I find it logical that Deus or Murumuru would want to eliminate them so as to let their players, well, play…

      Justinnnnnn
      Reply

  22. Aside from Akise’s magic jacket, something else that occurred to me:

    Mao was stabbed in the stomach by Yuno in episode 9 (June 1, if you were careful with with timeline)
    Let’s say she was lucky to avoid serious injury to any organs, and made a speedy recovery.
    Seriously, is it ok to take bath on June 28? In a HOTSPRING no less??
    You have to respect her dedication in providing fan-service…
    (no fanservice in manga, she was out with the party searching, which was somewhat believeable)

    Btw, how many people noticed Yuno and Yuki left for the trip on June 19 and the second half of the episode was already June 28? The poor kid has been in that chair for quite some time now…

    dene323
    Reply

    1. You made some good points! And oh boy, that magic jacket. I’m surprised nobody on their staff noticed that ridiculous flaw. Still not as bad as P4A’s eff up this week with two of the same character in one shot, though.

      Faye
      Reply

  24. Was probably the only the one that didn’t like the fan service, usually I’m the one that doesn’t care about it. It felt so off adding in/to filler-ish scenes when, like others have said in the past, the show is short on room for source material. I didn’t think they particularly well done either.

    One of the more dull and uneventful episodes of Mirai Nikki to date but I guess it’ll be picking up again next week. It is one of the more memorable parts of the series for me.

    nonaka
    Reply

    1. She has been trolling people for 12 episodes with silly antics, but keep in mind that in demonology, Murmur is a Great Duke and Earl of Hell (one of the 72 demons mentioned in The Lesser Key of Solomon). The name is definitely not randomly chosen.

      dene323
      Reply

      1. wow, never knew it… now I have a feeling that either she wants to manipulate game so NOBODY survives and she takes place of Deus herself, or she is in league with someone of the 12… She places her bet on Yuno, but this can be a deception. anyway it seems 4th was simply too overpowered with all the police at his call, and a chessmaster mind to boot, so Murmur nerfhammered him with the news of his son’s terminal illness.

        ewok40k
        Reply

  26. Truth be told, this episode was totally unexpected. Thought Yuno would hold out till the remaining Diarists were eliminated and we would be subject to another “date” episode. Guessed wrong! Good direction and great adaptation of the original manga chapter which seemed a lot more hurried and slap-dash.

    Am glad they shifted focus to Akise Aru, one of the best characters in recent anime history. Almost too much of a Gary Stu so keeping him as a supporting character balances it out somehow.

    Now we all know why that crude classmate is still around – he’s a foil for Akise.

    Zammael
    Reply

  27. Lol Akise & his jacket were just FAIL.
    Good episode over-all. I really hope we don’t get 2 episodes of Yukki whining and crying about how he couldn’t save his friends from his psycho girlfriend or something. He really annoys me >.<

    *Agi
    Reply

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