Mirai Nikki Episode 17-18 Roundup

Episode 17

Sorry guys. I completely forgot to review episode 17 last week. Episode 17 was pretty much Marco and Ai’s backstory, plus Yukiteru and Yuno trying to best them even though the tower was collapsing around them. Yuno injures Ai by shallowly slitting her throat when she goes to protect her diary, and luckily for Yukiteru and Yuno, who decide now would be the best time to escape, she has a parachute. Unluckily for them, however, Yukiteru’s dad runs in and snatches it, then jumps out the window and down to relative safety. Well, I hope he’s a qualified skydiver or has some knowledge of aeronautics, because I think if you parachuted out of a tower in the middle of a city, you would crash into something or get stuck on a building, even if the wind was in your sails. I don’t know, I just remember my cousin in the army telling us over dinner that one of his colleagues nearly got seriously injured when he was parachuting and almost ended up in a tree after meeting with an unfortunate gust of wind. Yukiteru’s dad lands in a nearby park, though, so it’s all good!

Not anymore, though. Yukiteru’s mother comes rushing up to him and asks him where Yukiteru is, completely ignoring the horrified expression on his face, even trying to drag him to the police station, much to his behest. And he actually kills her! Holy crap! I also loved the scene where Yukiteru, Yuno, and Ai are stuck in the tower after the roof caves in, and we’re treated to more of Yuno’s insanity. She points her knife at Ai again and tells her she’ll slice her up, and maybe the screams will get Marco to come back and look for her. *shivers* It’s especially freaky when she quite happily responds to Yukiteru’s cry of: “No, don’t!” with a cheery “This is the only way, Yuki!” I love Yuno as a character so much. So, more crazy stuff happens, and Marco and Ai eventually die together, but… Yukiteru learns that his mother is dead. D:

Episode 18

I was really surprised at how good episode 18 of Future Diary turned out to be. It started out really silly, yet serious (Yuno running around in a mascot costume trying to stop Yukiteru delivering a love letter to his crush interspersed with some really dark scenes about her backstory), then it hit a really nice tone for the rest of the episode. Yukiteru has no proof that his father stabbed his mother, of course, so he has to uneasily live with him while investigating more about him. He sees his father has a receipt from a pawnbroker, so he follows him back there and finds out it’s a telescope. Yeah, his father was trying to make amends by going up to see the stars, just how Yukiteru wanted it.

He’s genuinely sorry about killing his mother, and knows the police are after him. And he asks Yuki if, after he finishes his prison sentence, they can start with a clean slate.Until these guys in grey (who look like the guys Takano uses in Higurashi when she needs to kill someone off or threaten them in some timelines) kill Yukiteru’s father. Right in front of him. Something snaps in Yukiteru, and he pretty much snaps into the same mode that Yuno goes into when murdering en masse, and decides he will become god, to revive all his fallen friends and family. Of course, Yuno then shows up and tells Yukiteru how much she loves him and she would be ready to die for him, and Yukiteru has a good cry and the episode ends.This episode was pretty amazing. Compared to some of the others we’ve had, this one, as I said earlier, hit the tone this series strives for just right.