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「修理」 (Shūri)
“Repairing”
“Nothing good comes from digging up the past.”
– Uryuu Minene
If you’ll forgive the hyperbole, I think that was the best Mirai Nikki episode for quite a while, and one of the best of the series so far. For the first time in several weeks everything was firing on all cylinders, with the mix of controlled chaos, memorable imagery and black humor just right. This was Mirai Nikki at its trashy best. It also benefited from a big dose of Ninth, who’s probably my favorite character in the anime version of the story (which seems to suit her character better than the manga does) and the introduction of Yukiteru’s father Kurou (Koyasu Takehito).
Kurou helps things in a number of ways. His character changes the emotional and tactical nature of the story, opening up some interesting angles we haven’t seen yet. He’s also voiced by an industry stalwart and major talent in Koyasu-san, who brings just the right tone of sardonic neediness to the role. He joins the story at the hospital where Yuki and Yuno are recovering from their injuries, and we get a little background on why he and Rea divorced, and on why Yuki is so keen to see them reunited. We also see that Ninth (as part of an agreement with Nishijima and Akise) is acting as Yuki’s “coach” – helping him to get stronger so, presumably, he can take care of himself without needing to rely on his on-again, off-again (sane-again, insane-again) girlfriend.
Like the masterful but insanely frenetic 5th episode, this one acts as a sort of perfect storm of strategizing, with several different plots and stratagems converging around Yukiteru. There’s Seventh – who have apparently decided to keep Yuki and Yuno’s phones intact as a means of information gathering and potentially taking down the other surviving diary holders. In response to this we have Akise, who devises a plan to use Yuki’s diary for misinformation, using Minene to convince Yuki that she has a secret plan to take down Seventh, thus buying time before Seventh would consider destroying Yuki’s phone. Akise also uses Nishijima to convince Yuki that Seventh is hiding at the “Mother’s Home”, the orphanage run by Eighth. And atop this we have Kurou, who confesses to Yuki that he has three million yen in debt (and that it was his mismanagement of money that led to Rea divorcing him) and is later spotted by Yuno, going through Yuki’s things at the hospital and telling someone on the phone that he’ll destroy Yuki’s phone soon, presumably in exchange for the money to repay his debts.
Again, we see a situation where Yuno is both Yuki’s greatest friend and greatest curse. It’s her paranoia that leads to the discovery of what Kurou is planning – she seems convinced he’s working with the still unseen Eleventh. But then she thinks nothing of killing Yuki’s father right in front of him – first by stabbing, then casually (and hilariously) attempting to poison Kurou’s tea without even bothering to hide it from Yuki. Yuni’s thinking is single-minded to the point of being alien – she seems quite taken by how much fun her Yukkii is having playing the absurd penalty game Minene has devised for him to compete against his Dad, but it’s a perfectly natural assumption to her that she should kill him in front of Yuki without a second thought. Yuki for his part seems perfectly willing to risk his life to save his father from Seventh, even after he finds out the truth – all in the quest to see the stars with his parents at last.
While Yukiteru is still undeniably weak (two chin-ups worth) a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and there’s a sort of resolve that comes to him at last in this episode – that he needs to take control of his fate by whatever means necessary. This comes in part through Ninth’s help, no question, though just what’s motivating her at this stage of the game isn’t clear – – and also from seeing yet another figure he should be able to depend on (Kurou) brought low by his own weakness Also not clear is who “Ta-kun” is, except that they spend a lot of time coordinating with Marco over the phone. When Yuki and Yuno are lured by Seventh to the Sakurami Tower to hand over Kurou or else, Ta-kun apparently blows up the building with all hands – including Seventh – inside it, leaving us with a vicious cliffhanger and Yukiteru with a terrible decision to make…
Omake
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Ta-kun is that third Diarist who came with the Seventh Diarist in episode 15 I presume.
Solid episode!
Needless to say, no answers to this if you’ve read the manga!
Thanks for replying — it’s all speculation, since I only read the corresponding manga chapters after the episode airs. (I believe it’s now at the end of chapter 31, and episode 16 completed 2 chapters).
Hence the obvious inference that the third member of the Future Diary apprentices that invaded Kousaka’s house is left unaccounted for in this episode.
Wuh… Ta-Kun is barer of Atomsk of course!
Time to rewatch FLCL. Look what you made me do!
Don’t forget to watch it in DUB, SUB, Director’s Commentary AND Voice Actor Commentary!
There are few better ways to spend three hours of your time!
The English dubbed FCLC commentary with the voice actresses were pretty funny. I can still remember the part where one of them was listening to the Japanese opening song and kept telling her co-actress that the Japanese words sounded like English words. Another part was where she explained that the director specifically told her to use the word “hayai” instead of “so fast”. I laughed more than I should that night and decided to commit it to memory. =)
derp FCLC
I think Ta-kun is 11th…
I think you are right since eight called him ta-kun when he was sitting in the tree calling with eight while seventh was inside kousaka’s house fighting yuno and yukiteru.
They are going faster than i expected them to lol, go yuno <3
Yuno, I like your eyes.
Favorite scene: Cute gf trying to slaughter her bf’s father and then being pulled away without seeming to understand why.
How do you have two parents with brown hair and come out with black hair?
Anyway, I always really liked 7th in the manga. They were the perfect foils to Yukki and Yuno because how vastly less dysfunctional their relationship was in comparison, yet both couples were in the exact same scenario. Even their diaries were better functioning, since Yuno’s diary only kept track of Yukki and Yukki’s kept track of everything BUT him, making the duo able to keep track of everything going on around and with Yukki. 7th’s diaries kept track of everything about each other making it an incredibly solid defense. The only flaw was that without one, the other won’t work.
Yukiteru’s hair color is actually pretty close to his mother’s, just slightly darker.
The same reason why I have paler skin and lighter and permanently reder hair then both my parents. The genetic crapshoot is a mystery to me as well. ^____^
But even the two 7th’s look more like they’d be his parents! I mean, I know they aren’t, but…still it’s kinda creepy.
I agree with you. Minene are definitely a lot more appealing in anime than the manga. Still, I don’t think she’s a bad character to begin with. She’s just doesn’t appeal to me that much in the manga than she is in anime.
The moment I saw Yuki’s dad, all that I can say is Show Spoiler ▼
She’s definitely not a bad character to begin with, but somehow she just explodes in the anime in a way she doesn’t in the manga. Full credit to Aizawa Mai, I guess.
She (Uryuu) has always been my favorite character in Mirai Nikki ever since I first read the manga. Her psychological profile is complex and contradictory- but somehow still reconcilable. She’s a terrorist who’s capable of committing vicious atrocities without batting an eye, yet everything she does is still grounded in rationality; her actions are guided, motivated and at times perverted by something resembling a structured personal belief system. (She’s an idealistic atheist terrorist who vehemently denies the existence of god and targets religious leaders because she lost her parents to a religious extremist attack.)
And it is this structure that somehow provides a measure of order in chaos; beneath her violent exterior, her inner psyche remains more or less intact; she is remarkably stable emotionally, is still capable of love, and even possesses a shockingly normal sense of morality (relatively speaking)- contrasted against Yuno’s shattered mind- even after (Ninth) having been through significantly more suffering in life comparatively. She manages to retain her sanity even after literally losing everything for a second time over the course of the story; the epitome of psychological resilience, a perfect foil to Yuno’s mental fragility. I personally find the Ninth to be Mirai Nikki’s most intriguing character- relegating Yuno to second place by a notable margin.
I do agree, however, that many of the nuances of Uryuu’s character were somewhat buried and read-between-the-lines in the manga, and some of her character development is contained in the Mosaic shorts which some people may not have read. (Portions of these shorts were included in the anime as parts of the main story and/or as the omake). The anime’s script succeeds at bringing the nuances of her character to the surface where the manga faltered, while Aizawa Mai does a good job at bringing this coherent contradiction to life; the sum of these place Minene (deservingly) in the spotlight…
Apolities Zen. I hit the wrong button with my fat thumb on my phone.
That was the most nuanced take on Minene I’ve ever seen and I agree with the contrast between her and Yuno Gasai. But we don’t know Yuno’s whole story yet though.
Thanks 🙂 Having read the manga and all the shorts something like three times over, I can tell you that Yuno’s backstory is no less emotional than the Ninth’s, and better developed, considering that she, and not Minene, is the female lead. But the overall construct of Yuno’s personality struck me as rather simplistic in comparison to the Uryuu’s. Where Yuno’s actions are motivated by a simple desire to protect Yukki from harm, Uryuu’s are driven by her own unique personal life philosophy. And this provided her psyche with the necessary structure to withstand repeated incidences of severe emotional trauma- which utterly destroyed Yuno’s. I guess that’s why I (personally) always found the Ninth to be a far more interesting character than Yuno, long before I even knew there was going to be anime at all…
Great episode, Gasai Yuno is always a treat
Whats really creepy and disturbing can be quite hilarious at times
One phrase for caption 28…
I got my one eye on you punk!!!
I feel so sorry for Yuki, especially after this episode… most of who he trusted betrayed him at one point or another. Yes, he is weak, but remember, he is still just a kid (middle school kid)… we are not watching some guy with military strength or great intelligence or perfect resolve to survive. I just feel that people’s expectation of him is too high for what he is… but it is very nice to see him overcome his fear 🙂
Yuno is as godly as ever, and if I am in Yuki’s shoes, I would definitely pick up Yuno’s hand…
9th is awesome, couldn’t believe she is this awesome 🙂
@Jrj
I agree, and I did a graph of Yukiteru’s actions that tracked his heroic/wimpish factor from chapter to chapter and the results?
A couple of peaks and a couple of valleys, but mostly middling around the average behavior of a 14 year old kid.
You do realized that Yuno is the same age as Yuki AND she is a girl…
By definition, Yuno should be the weakest yet she has proven the strongest. So I don’t think Yuki’s age or his lifestyle matters in comparison to Yuno’s. ANd she can still kick his sorry ass any day of the week. I think every viewers has this thought about Yuki at some point in this series, “Just died already.”
In fact, I was smiling when 7th tossed Yuki of the balcony. Just died already, weaksauce!
there is more to Yuno than we know… and anything more would be HUGE spoiler…
What? She is really a man…(reference from this week episode of Persona 4)
Oh, no! That is scary.
Yep. Just re-watch the first few moments of Episode 1 again to get a hint about Yuno. Dunno about spoilers, but I suspect both OP and the current ED are hints as well.
Well, to be honest, I think Enzo made this episode sound a lot better than what it actually was.
I don’t wanna rant (I’m slowly doing this every week now, though…), let’s be clear on that; I’ll just voice my opinions.
The biggest issue I had here was with the overall direction the episode had. Once again, I cannot help but see ‘plot armor’ around First and Second’s cellphones, being duplicated so as to not destroy the real ones just for fun.
I’m sure manga readers may know the hidden reasons for these actions, but me, as an anime-watcher, cannot help but see it all as ridiculous and illogical.
I could easily let this all pass without problem if they adressed this issue, but they did not. If we had Seventh(male) say sometime “F*ck this sh*t! I’m breaking the goddamn cellphones!” and Seventh(female) snap something like “No, wait! Remember what we’re doing this for!” so as to prevent the man from ruining their still-hidden-plans, then that’d be good enough. But that never happened, so, again, the result is some ridiculous series of events which will always end up favoring de main character–a harsh contrast with the unique premise this show had when it first aired: a bloody, all-out survival game, where anyone can lose at any time.
Enzo, you certainly made some interesting points from this episode I hadn’t taken much into account. For instance, the police investigating Mother’s place so as to make Yukiteru assume things to finally end up written in his cellphone–in Seventh’s hands of course. The motives of these actions aren’t clear yet, but it’s a build-up of events nonetheless.
However, because the episode’s pace felt dull, most of this events passed without much attention. Instead of placing the right tune to play the scene in a rather mysterious way, so as to make me think “Mmh, could this be part of Akise’s plan, too…?”; I was thinking more along the lines of “Finally, the cops do something useful for a change–Wait, we are already in the tower meeting up with Seventh? They went all by themselves again?!”
Best moment in the episode by far was Yuno’s trademark-batsh*t-crazy glare at Kurou. And, also to be mentioned, I thanked God (or Deux?) Yuki finally stood up to someone for what seemed the very first time: competing against his Dad, he growled and scowled at Ninth’s unfair judging, as if he was in charge. It was too bad no characters seemed to take this into account; it would have been nice for someone to be surprised at Yukki’s sudden actions, even if the overall mood of that scene was for humor.
Oh, and could somebody please clear this one thing up? Last episode we saw Ninth’s comeback with both eyes. I assumed she had gotten it back somehow. Now we see her again with the eyepatch.
?
I guess Ninth’s right eye was still ‘dead’ last episode, but she just decided not to wear the eyepatch that day…Am i right?
If I haven’t been beaten to it already, minene got a glass eyeball in the episode that fifth is introduced.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. Someone’s already said this but almost none of the diary holders are in it earnestly to become god. It’s like the creator had the idea for yuno’s character and backstory (which is, imo, the strongest aspect of the series) , and then built the plot around that. So the whole fight to the death thing never gets used to its full potential, like in Battle Royale – yuki and yuno are keeping their plot armor. And there were a couple of other really cheesy/contrived moments in the episode too, like the “cliffhanger” at the end.
so yes, her eye is still dead.
(why can’t I edit comments)
Oh, I see…Thanks for the reply–And yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with you too on the Edit-question :B
Her eye isn’t just dead, it got plucked out!
https://randomc.net/image/Mirai%20Nikki/Mirai%20Nikki%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2002.jpg
Uryu Minene has a nicely shaped behind for a terrorist bomber, and the way her hand is on Yuki’s torso makes one imagine she was stroking him there before his deadbeat dad came along. YUM. She has my vote as the best supporting female character of 2012. LOL.
https://randomc.net/image/Mirai%20Nikki/Mirai%20Nikki%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
I was expecting Yuno to have a Geass symbol in her eye from this screenshot. Haha.
Yuno + a Geass ?! Do want!
You know, rebel fighters have the nicest body. They fight constantly and could died any minute so I am not at all she has a nice body. Most rebel fighters have giant muscles, too. All the more ass to kick…
Not really, that’s because of Hollywood and other media influencing our views on rebels’ physiques. Real Life rebels are more often wiry-muscled rather than the “giant muscles” you speak of. Most of the time they’re not even in a nice condition because they fight constantly, suffer bad weather, etc.
that eye https://randomc.net/image/Mirai%20Nikki/Mirai%20Nikki%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2029.jpg of yuno.
really fear her or mess with yuki no matter who you are yep you’re so get “yuno eye”.
now we meet his dad wonder next?
I think it is fairly obvious that Yuki and Yuno are not up against the 7th duo and 8th. In fact, they are up against a trio: 7th, 8th, and 11th. I believe Ta-kun is no other than 11th himself.
However, it is odd how 7th kept the fact that he had Yuki and Yuno’s phone from the other two. Look like they don’t trust each other. Ta-kun is plain crazy and doesn’t hesitate to burn down house or blow up building while his comrades are still in it. Also it appear the trio are unaware that 10th is dead.
Then again, it is only speculation…
I’ll just tell you now, Show Spoiler ▼
And why is it important that they don’t know about 10th? 10th has nothing to do with anything happening right now.
No, no no. Not even close to not being deleted. ~Enzo
How is pointing out an incorrect theory a spoiler? You seemed fine with me debunking his theory about Ai not being a legitimate diary holder. How is saying one character is not the character he thinks he is different?
You specifically spoiled something not in the anime – something quite important – and didn’t even put it inside a spoiler tag. Sorry, but that’s a yellow card.
But even when I did put it in a tag, you deleted it. How could saying one character isn’t a diary holder be important? There are tons of other characters who aren’t diary holders.
If the author decided not to tell them yet, there’s a reason for it. If it’s something the viewer wouldn’t have known without reading the manga, it’s a spoiler. Period.
Just speculating, but I will put spoiler tag on it just in case
Show Spoiler ▼
Both 7th diaries are real and work like real Future Diaries. Ai’s isn’t even an apprentice diary, it’s the real deal.
No need for spoiler tags since all of this is old news.
You’re right; it doesn’t take a genius to realize there are 13 people in the game. Because we were explicitly shown that 7th is two people counting for one number in the last episode. Did you somehow miss this or…?
And where did you get that her hair was down to her waist, and that she therefore must be a different player? First of all, Ai is standing right next to Marco in the ED, and secondly, her hair doesn’t look like it goes past her shoulders, even when she’s in silhouette. The number was explained already; it’s an old point that’s irrelevant now.
Oh great… Why Koyasu has to jump onto this series?
His voice maybe good but man… Whenever I hear him, he reminds me of his failed pet project known as Weiss Kruez!
But anyway, I think Kurou might live for another day next episode.
Yuno may be paranoid about Yukki, but that doesnt mean even his father is not out to get him… Aren’t most diary holders from fscked up familes?
1st parents divorced, dad out to kill him
2nd parents dead, presumably by her
3rd ?
4th has dying son
5th abusive aprents
6th abusive cultist parents
7th presumably orphans
8th surrogate mother for bunch of orphans
9th war orphan
10th divorced, likes dogs more than own daughter
11th ?
12th ?
6th’s parents weren’t evil. In fact, they treated her well until they died. Then the remaining cult memebers raped her.
I don’t like 12th had any bad childhood. He is just delusional about being a superhero.
you must be pretty fscked up to start a cult around own child…
Evil is a big word and I’ll leave that to you to decide, but they sure as hell were bad parents…
Yuki’s dad isn’t out to kill him, he has no idea about the game. I seriously doubt he’s that much of heel he would kill his son just to get out of debt.
@ Tez – you will soon find out just how low Yukki’s dad has sunk…
Yo, Enzo. I notice that you’re writing style and format here is quite different from your website. Why is that?
To be honest, I don’t know what you mean – on the shows I simulcast, I post the exact same impressions on both sites. On the others, I really make no changes in the writing style or content – I don’t actively strive to write pieces of different length or structure.
Unless you mean the fact that the sites look different? In which case it’s mostly because they’re on different platforms.
K, I don’t care if the situations are serious. That head is distracting!
Yuki needs to get himself Ninth.
I had to laugh when Yuuki got Yuno away from his Dad. By now it is just such a matter of fact thing for him. “No, no, stabbing the man in the face will not solve all our problems, Yuno.” “But Yuuki, I love you almost as much as I love stabbing people in the face.” ::whine whine:: says Yuuki.