Yuno Gasai lives a normal life as a first-year in high school. She gets along well with her parents and even has a small circle of friends. However, she cannot help but feel as if someone is missing from her life, someone so important to her that it was as if she had lived another life trying desperately to stay with them.
After a class trip to the beach, Yuno returns home; but in the middle of the night, she receives strange messages from a voice only she can hear. The voice informs her of the person she is desperate to meet and that she must find him. Soon, she finds herself in a mysterious realm, her only goal being reunited with the person she cannot remember. Though obstacles stand in her way, Yuno will stop at nothing to meet her beloved once again.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
The OVA received a special broadcast on NicoNico Douga on June 19, 2013. Bundled with the Mirai Nikki Redial manga volume on July 26, 2013.
I really enjoyed the original series, but the ending of ep 26 felt awfully rushed and left me craving for more - I mean, you can't just open up a whole alternative world in the last episode of your series and then just show like 50 seconds of it.
That's why I was very pleasently surprised when I found out that this OVA existed: It achieves everything the final episode didn't, and even though the OVA's ending also felt kinda rushed, it still gave a very good sense of closure to the series.
Most of the important characters make their appearence in this alternative world, and especially . this alternative, pure version of Yuno is interesting - living a "perfect" live (especially in comparison the one the original Yuno had to go through), but still feeling strangely empty. like something very important to her has just been missing her whole life.
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Ight. So like. I can't say much about this without spoiling it, but I'll try to say why I didn't like it without spoiling it much.
Basically I liked where the series ended. The ending of the main series was were it felt right. It ended on a somber and bitter note which made sense for the main character's arc and the way the story was going. The ending of the main series was a great and fitting ending for the story.
This OVA continues forward past that ending and presents a new ending with a wholly different tone. I'm not a fan of the direction this . OVA goes with it and I felt like the ending presented to the original series was more fitting.
It feels to me like the ending in this OVA spits on and undoes the ending the main series left on that I felt was the perfect place for it to end. However, it's not like this ending is non-canon or something. The main series' ending did set this up so it's not like this OVA just comes out of the blue.
Even though I disliked the new ending it gave, it was nice seeing the characters again and seeing where they were at so it wasn't an entirely bad experience for me.
Overall it depends entirely how you felt about the main series' ending. If you liked where it left off than this OVA will probably disappoint you. If you were unsatisfied or upset with the main series ending this OVA might be exactly what you wanted.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5 What did you think of this review?Nice 0
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About a month ago I was at the pub with a buddy of mine. I met him last year at University but he's apparently been a mega weeb since middle school. Unlike him, I'm actually kind of new to anime, only picking it up about a year ago due to boredom during quarantine. (which was a great choice as it quickly became one of my favourite forms of entertainment.) As conversations with a long-time weeb usually go we end up talking about anime, primarily anime he reminisced over. This is when he brought up Mirai Nikki.
"So it was this anime about a guy who . gets a diary that can see into the future, but eleven other people also get diaries too and they have to kill each other, the last man standing becomes the next god of time" he explains
"what the fuck? sounds kinda wacky. I've never heard of it." I reply a little uninterested as I assumed it would be another shitty Shoenan he was trying to convince to watch. Despite my new love for anime, watching 80 episodes of an overpowered guy punch stuff is not my cup of tea.
"Yeah man, from what I can remember it was a bit of a gory psychological thriller, kinda mind fucky too"
Now I'm interested "oh?" I say in response.
"YEAH, and the other main character is some insane Yandere chick whose diary is literally just about him. The show is gets fucked up as shit as he slowly gives into her"
Oh? a show about a descent into insanity, now that's up my alley
And with that I was sold, the next day I decided to watch it and man what can I say. I loved the Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) in fact it's one of the best animes I've seen in a while. The series was a great slow descent into insanity with a slam dunk of an ending, a bitter ending that was fitting for the show showing that in the end, no matter what trauma you might have faced or how good your reasons are you will always have to face the consequences of your actions. Easily a 9/10 for me.
WARNING I'M GOING TO SPOIL THE ENTIRE ENDING OF THE ORIGNAL SHOW. If you haven't seen it please watch it first, trust me it's a banger. However please don't watch Redial Thank you
I loved the ending of Mirai Nikki. Yukki and Yuno, after slaughtering everyone around them are left with just themselves in a dying world. However one of them inevitably has to die or the world simply ends. Yukki knows now that even if he were to become a god, can't undo his wrongs and bring everyone back from the dead, making his reckless killings no longer in the realm of the ends justifying the means, but turns them into killings of pure selfish greed. However, with the flawed character that Yukki is, he won't or can't acknowledge that, and instead hides behind the idea of "saving Yuna" and his own past ignorance as an excuse. Yuna on the other hand, can't be saved, she still clings onto Yukki with every fibre of her being. She can't and won't let go, in fact, she would be willing to do it all again. To subject Yukki to all the pain the game had on him, to slaughter everyone in her path all over again just to get a little more time with Yukki. Funny enough It is revealed that she already has. This isn't the first time the game happened, in fact, it happened once before. However last time, being the final two they both decided to die together but fate won't have that. Yukki happened to die just a second before her, making her the new god. Unable to go on without Yukki, she roles back the clock to do the game all over again. Not to have Yukki win, but to spend just a little more time with him. So she roles back the clock onto the third cycle of the game.
This time, however, Yuna knows there is no way for them both to win or die together, so she attempts to kill Yukki, become god again, and selfishly rewind the clock, playing the game again, endlessly. Yukki of this world defies this end, not because he wants to save the world, but because of his own selfish desire to save Yuna.
This leads them to a final battle in the third timeline. Yukki set on saving Yuna. However, he's not alone, Minene (the ninth) comes in clutch as a "half-god" to aid him, not to save Yuna but to defeat her.
(I'm not gonna explain to much as how Minene comes back because that would turn this into a 5-page long literature review. but basically the time god was like "aw shit somethings kinda wrong here, hay only likeable and least flawed player, ima stick my hand in your chest give you half my power or some bullshit. If you are about to die or shit hits the fan from the game so you can fight the Yandere chick" I'm not complaining, she's easily the best character in the show so I was kinda rooting for her from the start)
a Big fucking battle happens, and for the first time in the show, Yuna breaks from her unending insanity and spills the hardest truth on Yukki. Yukki would have fallen in love with anyone who let him hide behind them, it just happened to be her. And that she would have fallen in love with anyone who let her cling onto them. It's the hard reality, they weren't meant for each other, they might not have ever loved each other for who the other truly was. they only loved how they could suffocate themselves in ignorance and their own selfish needs within each other. With each other, neither of them can grow as people and they will do nothing both drag each other down into madness.
Despite the 26 episodes Yukki never seems to grow as a person and for the most part, neither does Yuna. Yukki attempts to convince Yuna to kill him so she can turn back the clock and go through with her plan, feeding into her mad desires. In his own flawed morals, this is saving her however all he is doing is dooming her to an endless cycle. In the end, Yuna somehow sees the inevitability of her repeated actions, sees how none of this will ever lead to Yukki's happiness and in every timeline, he will die sad, and with regret. Seeing this she kills herself, making Yukki the new god of the world they just left behind. However it's already too late, the world they left behind is already destroyed with everyone Yukki ever cared about being dead, and due to his own guilt and inability to move on he is now doomed to it never being able to build a new world, remaining alone with nothing but his regrets for the rest of time. Arguably a fate worse than death. truly a dark, terrible, tragic amazing ending.
(side note, I just wanted to add this in, the ending isn't all tragic. remember how I said Minene ended up being alive and helped Yukki in the final battle, well she survives the battle and decides "fuck it, the old world is destroyed and I lost everything I loved there, ima lives here instead" She ends up meeting this worlds version of detective Nishijima who she fell in love with during her time playing the game in the last world. He falls in love with her and one of the last seines is them having a family together years later. So at least one good character got a happy ending.)
Now, let's move on to Redial. It takes everything I just praised the ending for, and throws it out the window. Apparently, some people didn't like how the only character to get a happy ending was the only character who actually grew as a person through the show and wanted our flawed awful protags to get their happily ever after. Which I suppose is fine if you do well, I'm actually really fucking easy to please. Going into it I didn't see a need to have a happier ending but was like "hm ok, this is Mirai Nikki we're talking about, even though it's not needed at all I'm sure they'll make it fulfilling, maybe this world Yuna, since she isn't a Yandere this time will end up with this worlds Yukki."
But no, they didn't do that, not at all. Basically, the first half is just shitty fan service, most of which doesn't make sense, both in that, it doesn't fill the theme of Mirai Nikki and also that half of it is plot holes and doesn't make any fucking sense.
Yuna is on some dumb shit beach with this world's version of Yukki's friends during the game. First off, this makes no sense, Yukki only met them during the game and the only reason they met Yuna during the game is that Yukki introduced them to her, not only that. one of them was LITERALLY created before the game for the second cycle of the game thus this guy wouldn't even fucking exist in this world. The ending of Mirai Nikki literally showed that third Cycle Yuna would have a separate friend group. But whatever, fine, ill deal with it, you wanna bring the old characters back that's fine. Except have the episode is just them fucking around, and them doing a "where are they now?' with some the other diary holders. Again, this is fine, some of it doesn't make any sense, like why would the cult leader be the same age as all of them, wasn't she like 5 years older in the original show. "Whatever," I think to myself, but the episode is quickly running out of time so they better do something quick.
Apparently, the time god is like "ALMAO I'm not gonna pick a new god, fuck it we will see what happens" but why! We literally know what happens when a time God isn't in a world, that was the whole fucking point on why Yukki was doomed to a wasteland. Whatever, I think again.
So for some reason, Yuna is getting some of her memories back and is like "damn I don't know who, but I was toxicly in love with someone" Despite the fact that it already was established in the first ending that this Yuna is an entirely another person from the original Yuna and wouldn't hold any memories at all or even feel the last Yuna had. Like I get in the first ending she had the scene where she was like "I feel like I'm forgetting something" but still feels like a massive stretch.
Somehow she ends up in the god realm or some shit to get "her" memories back, and Murmurs like "yo, no way, you ended the world twice get the fuck out of here" which is the only thing anyone says in redial that makes sense. But BOOM, LOOK ITS OUR FAVOURITE CHERECTURE, MINENE and she's here to fucking help Yuna get her memories back? WHAT why? Why would she do this, she literally only helped Yukki in the last world so they could kill her. She knows what the old Yuna is like and how she is willing to sacrifice a WHOLE FUCKING PLANET OF BILLIONS OF PEOPLE TO LITERALLY GET AN EXTRA YEAR WITH YUKKI. Which mind you was filled with nothing but pain and misery.
Evangelion reference, and guy who shouldn't even exist Fuck knuckles Magee appears, somehow with all of his memories from the last him, and tries to stop her. I'm like, ah she gonna lose, this guy beat her multiple times in Mirai Nikki, and this Yuna isn't even a crazy Yandere. But no, she kicks his ass. but ndui uiabufbeuwb9ubauobd how? and he's like "ah yes, I hate you, you killed everyone i cared about and know your the destroyer of not one, but two worlds, but lmao you go get your man hun"
Time god comes in and is like "nah let her do it and become yandere again it'll be love or something"
She gets her memories back, her memories of killing Yukki's friends, kidnapping Yukki, scaring Yukki, causing nothing but pain for Yukki, her realizing this and killing herself for Yukki and the old Yuna basically returns. Literally throwing everything Yuna's ending in the original out the window.
The god of time is like "ight, ima smash time and space so you can go see Yukki in the other timeline where hes the god, fuck it, your the new god of the third world. Its not like we spent an entire series learning why that's not a good idea and why this should never happen again."
And what do we get from this. 30 seconds, yes, 30 seconds of Yuna and Yukki together again. out of this entire 30-minute episode because they did nothing but waste time for 80% of it. and 19 percent was a bullshit battle that i didn't care about. This isn't even the same fucking Yuna, GOD I FUCKING HATE REDIAL. but hay, i guess this toxic couple can love each other again but most impotently, the fanboys favourite yandere is back, and that's really all that matters right?
Its like they assumed their audience would be like
"OH YAH EPIC" I scream in my room as I grip my body pillow of Yuna holding a knife. slipping into my fantasies of me to having sadist Yandere girlfriend
however, not everyone is a masochistic teenage boy, who obsesses over Yandere Anime girls.
After watching this I really questioned what demographic they expected to watch their R-rated gore psychological thriller show.
Redial takes this amazing ending and basically kills it. Redial takes place after the ending of the initial anime and basically, mistakingly attempts to have things end in a happy, wholesome "YAY everything turned out fine, no one has to face the repercussions of their actions" kind of way. It takes away what made the ending great. Yuki and Yuno were awful flawed people who slaughtered everyone around them so they could get their happy ending, enemy, bystander, and in the end even the ones closest to them. Moreover, a happy ending that was impossible. No matter what they did, no matter how many they killed, no matter how many times Yuna sets back the clock, they would never get their happily ever after, they were doomed from the start. Yuna had to die, and Yukki had to face the consequences of his actions and spend the rest of eternity in a broken barren wasteland of a world which they sacrificed selfishly to achieve a dream that they both knew would never come true. Their fates were locked from the beginning, they will never end up together and it would only cause endless pain and countless deaths for them to keep trying. As depressing as it is, shown in the end, it would be better for the both of them if they never had even met each other.
It's a bitter, cold ending and it was perfect for the dark story that Mirai Nikki was. In my mind, redial never happened, or isn't canon. As said it's full of plot holes and removes any and all dark, and depressing aspects of Mirai Nikki's ending. It's solely made for those who despite the masterpiece of an ending wanted Yuna and Yikki to be together in the end and get a happily ever after. Which mind you Retail doesn't even do in a good or failing way. I hated Redial so much I put more work into this review than I've done with some of my term papers. Do yourself a favour and don't watch Redial. Watch Mirai Nikki and once you hit the ending, stop so you don't have to see this complete disappointment and story ruiner of a supposed sequel.
