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Future Diary Cover
Cquote1

 "What are you scheming?"

"An interesting game."

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Mirai Nikki (literally Future Diary) is a dark Manga about the asocial middle-schooler Yukiteru "Yuki" Amano, who obsessively keeps journals. One day, he finds that his imaginary friend Deus Ex Machina, the lord of time and space, has made his cell phone diary able to predict the future. After getting over the initial shock of having a supernatural cell phone, Yuki enjoys his newfound powers until he comes across a diary entry stating his exact time of death...

After taking out his would-be murderer, Yuki is invited to a gathering with ten other people, where Deus explains that they are now in a Battle Royale for the position of God. Some of the diary holders have personal reasons to claim the throne; others are psychotically insane. And soon enough, young Yuki finds himself without any true friends or allies aside from a curiously Yuki-obsessed participant, his classmate and the local School Idol, a beautiful girl named Yuno Gasai...

The common traits of all twelve diaries are as follows:

  • All diaries predict the future. Each diary does so in a different fashion, based on how the owner used it before they were selected.
  • Each owner is assigned a number from 1 to 12, and until their identity is discovered by the other owners, is only referred to by that number, Yukiteru, for example, being called the '1st.'
  • The diaries can take any shape or form, but the most common by far are cellphones.
  • Should a diary owner do something differently or influence events so that the results turn out differently from a diary prediction, the diary changes accordingly. In short, the futures set by the diaries are not set in stone.
  • Most importantly, a diary is its holder's future. If it is damaged beyond working order by whatever or whomever, the diary's owner will cease to exist.

Mirai Nikki also has two spin-off manga. The first is Mirai Nikki: Mosaics, focusing on the ninth diary holder Minene Uryu and expounding on several of the minor characters. The second is an Alternate Timeline spin-off, Mirai Nikki: Paradox, in which Aru Akise replaces Yuki as the main character.

The manga was licensed by Tokyopop, and released in the United States as Future Diary; 10 of its 12 volumes were released before the US branch of the company went under. An animated adaptation aired between October 2011 and April 2012 with a pilot OVA released beforehand.

A .live action drama called Mirai Nikki: Another World began airing in Japan on April 1st, based in alternate world featuring a familiar plot but with a new cast of characters. Most are expies of the original characters with some differences. Arata Hoshino takes Yuki's place, a Lazy Bum of a college student who has no interest in his future. That is until he receives a limited release cell phone from his friend Rui Moriguchi which happens to have the Future Diary's powers. Now stuck in his own survival game, with his own version of Yuno for company.

Compare and contrast Death Note, which also features a "notebook" as a centerpiece. Also compare and contrast "Kamen Rider Ryuki" which also features a "There Can Be Only One" style royale amongst 13 individuals. See also Devil Survivor, for the counterpart "Laplace Mail".

Definitely not to be confused with Yume Nikki.

Character sheet for this series is now open for business.


The manga features the following tropes:[]

  • The Abridged Series: By the guy who brought you the Higurashi Parody Fandub, found here.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Yuno is typically armed with a variety of kitchen implements, but the damage she does with them is out of this world.
  • Abusive Parents: Yuno's parents, Saika and Ushio, drive this Up to Eleven. They were originally nice to her, but soon gave her only enough food to barely survive to condition her into an "elite" person and imprisoned her in a small cage at the tiniest infraction. The depths of their insanity are particularly exemplified in how they kept and posted for her view detailed statistics on each such infraction, from talking back to coming in late, which is why she eventually reversed the situation and kept them captive in the cage, waiting for them to turn back into doting parents. They never did, so she never let them out and they starved to death..
    • It's revealed later on however that Saika was the abusive one while Ushio wasn't around to stop it making it Parental Neglect in his case. The anime also portrays Saika as being not all there and mentally unstable like Yuno as well.
  • Akashic Records: One of the tools used by Deus.
  • All Deaths Final: However, this can still be worked around -- and eventually is — by going to an Alternate Timeline where they are still alive.
  • All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game": Actually an in-universe example: since the diaries all give the DEAD END of the user, it forces the user to change tactics in order to avoid it. However, there are unwritten portions that are found within the diary, and, when given the option, the user can take that hidden option, such as when Yukiteru decides to open a suspicious door in Yuno's house that causes every Diary to be rewritten and even surprises Deus.
  • Alternate Timeline: Paradox. Eventually, the entire plot of the main series moves to one.
    • It's shown that the 3rd world is less of a Crapsack World than the 1st world because all of the events that made the main characters' lives crap and motivated them to turn evil never happened. Almost everybody (including Yuno) lives happy, normal lives.
      • Note that this is mostly because the game was scrapped once the Mayor read 2ndWorld!Yuki's diary and talked with Deus to forget about it. Since the game, and thus the diary creations did not happen, the 12th, 8th, 7ths and 3rd did not die due to the events that ocurred because of them. The commotion stopped the 6th's parents from dying, which prevented the Ometaka cult from degrading, and consequently prevented the corruption and death of the 5th's parents, which also led to him being a normal person. Minene got Kurusu (the 4th) to check his son ahead of time, so his son was saved, eliminating his reason for his Face Heel Turn IF the diaries had been made. God!Yuno's death ended the struggle, which caused 3rdWorld!Yuno's mother to show she still loved her family. This led to 3rdWorld!Yuno being a normal girl. The rest is inherent to the world however, as Hinata and her father (the 10th) reconciled, Yuki's parents never divorced and thusly, he did not grow up thinking himself a failure. This ostensibly led to him developing the confidence to becoming a couple with his original crush. The only thing that didn't change was that 3rdWorld!Minene was still a terrorist at large.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: The American release changes the cover of the volumes from white to black, adds a skull to the title, and throws in the tagline "Every Text Could Be Your Last".
  • A Lighter Shade of Black/Anti-Hero: Yuno and Yuki. For a good portion of the series, they're the only Diary Users with no desire to become God and are simply trying to survive, although Yuki changes his mind after his parent's deaths. Minene also qualifies after her Heel-Face Turn.
  • Anyone Can Die: Given that it is a battle royale for godhood, this is to be expected.
  • Art Evolution
  • Artificial Human: Akise.
  • Attempted Rape: Tsubaki orders her servants to gang rape Yuno, the same way they did to her for years, as a way to draw out Yuki and kill them both. Yuki manages to destroy her diary before anything happens.
  • Ax Crazy: Yuno, literally.
    • This pretty much sums up the majority of the cast, really.
    • In Chapter 57, there is Mur Mur's true form.
  • Babies Ever After: The epilogue depicts 3rd World Ai (7th) and 2nd world Minene (9th); the first of which is pregnant and the second of which has two babies... who have apparently inherited part of Deus' power which was in her.
  • Back From the Dead: Minene, as of chapter 54.
  • Badass Normal: Akise Aru manages to outwit a number of journal holders. He definitely earned his title of the strongest Non-Diary holder in his Spin-off, Paradox, where in one fell swoop, he seduces the 6th, befriends the 5th, and allies himself with one half of the 7th and one of the 8th's followers, all without use of a diary. This because he got bored of following Yuki's path, and so decided to Screw Destiny.
    • Later, he obtains a secondary diary from the 8th, allowing him to scry the actions of diary holders and fool their predictions. He ends up losing it in the chapter following its debut, however.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted in Chapter 52 after being played straight for the rest of the series.
  • Batman Gambit: Given that it's a series about people who can predict the future trying to out manipulate each other, this is bound to show up.
  • Battle Couple: The 7th. Yes, the 7th is two people - Ai Mikami and Marco Ikusaba. Yuki and Yuno gradually become this as well.
  • Beware the Nice Ones
  • Big Bad: Mur Mur. She used Yuno's desire to be with Yuki against her, in an attempt to have the Diary Game replay endlessly for her own entertainment..
  • Big Damn Heroes: Yuki pulls this off early on against The 6th, when she was about to have her minions gang-rape Yuno.
    • In Chapter 54 Minene saves Yuki from falling off a cliff he was climbing.
  • Big Entrance: 12th (Yomotsu Hirasaka) does this when introducing himself to the 1st, 2nd, and Sixth in a manner that imitates the Power Rangers thanks to giant explosions going off in the background, a deranged entrance speech, and a five man group colored in 5 different colors doing ridiculous poses.
  • Bishonen: Yuki and Akise.
  • Bodyguard Crush: Both Akise and Yuno towards Yuki.
  • Body Horror: If your diary is destroyed, you die in a manner that appears as though a black hole spontaneously generates in your chest. It's much more noticeable in the anime.
  • Book Ends: In the first chapter, when Yuki almost stabs Yuno, she tells him "You didn't stab me, that's not the future." In the final chapter, Yuno considers stabbing Yuki, but stabs herself instead, saying "I can't stab you, that's not the kind of future it'll be."
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: At the end of chapter 23 when Yuki asks Yuno why she can't leave some luggage. She says she can't because of important things like "underwear, towels, meds, and a bunch of other stuff". The "other stuff" is shown to the viewer as the skeletal heads of her parents.
  • Break the Cutie: A rare male example when it happens to Yuki after both his parents die. He breaks even further and ends up killing most of his friends himself.
    • Just about any flashback involving Yuno.
    • There's also Tsubaki, Marco, Ai, Yukki's friends to one and another degree...
  • Bullying a Dragon: Tsubaki and Akise each plant a "Take That!" Kiss on Yuki to spite the notoriously Ax Crazy Yuno. Neither one survives.
  • Came Back Wrong: The reason why bringing people back after being God doesn't work. See Suicide Pact on this page for more details.
  • Cell Phone: Apparently back then many Japanese keep their diaries on cell phones rather than on journal/network servers; a usage not followed elsewhere.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Remember that girl at Tsubaki's temple? She shows up later as the female half of the 7th.
  • Chess Motifs: Only in the beginning, when a DEAD END is compared to a Checkmate. This is why it was such a big deal that Yuki survived; it wasn't meant to be possible.
  • Class Is in Room X-01: Averted. Yukiteru and Yuno are both in class 2-B initially, and they end up in 2-C and 2-D respectively and their new school. While that can still be considered somewhat lazy, it looks like this was a deliberate aversion.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Yuno towards Yuki, and Akise towards Yuki in a male version.
  • Crapsack World: You know it's this when the Ax Crazy Yandere and religion-hating terrorist are two of the more sympathetic characters.
  • Creepy Child: The 5th diary owner, Reisuke "Let the massacre begin!" Houjou.
  • Cry Cute: Whenever Minene's childhood and her parents' death is brought up, expect the terrorist bomber to at least shed a few tears.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Most characters have this.
  • Dating Catwoman: Nishijima and Minene in Mosaics, though the criminal is the main character.
  • Dead-Man Switch: Minene rigs one of these up to herself when she holds up the school.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: Yuno is impersonating herself.
    • Minene does this as well, killing a rookie police officer and taking her place so she could get close to her target
  • Disappeared Dad: Yuki's dad, as his parents are divorced.
    • Hinata's dad is mostly absent from her life due to his obsession with his dogs and disappears altogether when he's killed.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Yuno chains Yuki up and feeds him herself, Yuki refuses to eat. It doesn't help that she's in her underwear and sitting on his lap. The following conversation occurs:
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 Hinata: He doesn't want it!

Yuno: Nah, he's pleased with it.

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  • The Dulcinea Effect:
    • Yuki is shown to act this way towards Tsubaki, quickly trusting her and wanting to protect her. Granted, some of this is probably due to the fact that she looked to him like a beautiful Damsel in Distress that is one of the few sane people he had seen recently. Too bad he's very wrong.
    • Akise is shown to act this way towards Yuki in the Alternate Timeline spin-off Paradox. He just met Yuki, yet quickly decides to use Mur Mur's wish she promised him to save Yuki and comes to the conclusion that he's going to fight in Yuki's place, allowing Yuki to become God.
  • Distressed Dude: Yukiteru spends the better portion of an entire issue chained to a wall.
  • Drum Bathing: Near the end, Yukiteru and Yuno take a bath in a oil drum together.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: Akise texts a message to Yuki even though Yuno just cut off his head. See the whole scene here.
    • The anime makes it a bit less awesome but a lot more realistic by having her just slash his neck instead of decapitating him.
  • Dysfunction Junction: The whole cast is messed up in the head.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending
  • Easily Forgiven: Yuki forgives people a little too easily, especially his crazy girlfriend.
  • Ecchi: The series occasionally delves into this, mostly with Yuno.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: Deus ex Machina threatens this if Yuki doesn't buck up and start killing people. Though since he's on his way to a deific grave and the condition for saving the world is "get me replaced before I die", he may or may not have an actual choice in the matter.
  • Enfante Terrible: Reisuke, A 4-year-old child with a picture journal, comes to kill the main characters.
  • Expy: Yuki shares a number of character traits with Shinji, especially in the beginning. Both are timid and lonely but unable to connect with the people around them even if they really want to and forced to fight even though they really don't want to. Both seem to want their father back in their lives, but both end up betrayed. The main difference seems to be that Yuki has his mother and Yuno, the latter being something of a mixed blessing.
    • Deus himself looks a bit like an Eva in some panels of the manga.
    • Akise is an expy of Kaworu from the same series. The parallel is at the same time taken further than expected with the revelation that Akise is an Artificial Human created by Deus, just like Kaworu is an Angel, and harshly subverted when Deus denies that Akise's love for Yuki is genuine and an example of Akise's "free will", while it's commonly accepted that Kaworu's love for Shinji, born from his free will, was what made him disobey his orders. Ironically, Akise's seiyuu in the anime is the same Kaworu's.
  • Exty Years From Now
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Yuki, as far as Akise is concerned.
  • Everyone Calls Him "1st": The diary owners are all referred to by the order in which they were given their diaries. Most of the diary holders don't even get any other name most of the time they are mentioned. Particular mention goes to The 10th (not called by his real name until his murder is being investigated) and The 12th (his real name isn't even mentioned until his diary states his death).
  • Evil All Along: In chapter 50 Akise claims that Yuno is the actual villain, who used Yuki, and plans to drive him to the brink of despair and kill him in order for her to become God.
  • Eye Scream: Minene gets a dart through the eye and then receives a cool eyepatch!
  • Face Heel Turn: Yukki, Yuno, Fourth, Mur Mur. Considering the very nature of the survival game, it would probably be wiser to list the exceptions.
  • The Faceless: Twelfth
  • Fan Service: Primarily of Minene, although Yuno and Tsubaki warrant honorable mentions, though the contexts for those two are disturbing enough to barrel straight through to Fan Disservice territory.
  • Fan Disservice: At some point one sees a pale, beautiful and somewhat curvy young girl laying naked on the floor, her long hair spread underneath her, nervously waiting for someone else. She is Tsubaki Kasugano, the future 6th Diary Holder, and she's actually terrified instead of just nervous - because she's about to be gang-raped by the male members of a Religion of Evil that keeps her prisioner; the real leader has convinced them that they should have sex with her to cleans themselves off sin. It's even worse in the anime, which expands on the whole deal: there are scenes where a half-nude or completely nude Tsubaki is seen being violated by the cult members while she has a corpse-like stare, one where she's sitting on the floor with semen on her thighs, and a completely anime-only one where she's seen being injected with drugs so she won't escape, plus another where she's not only naked but looking downright emanciated due to the drugs and confinement, staring at her captors with Broken Tears rolling down her face.
    • For worse, we soon get to see Yuno with her blouse and bra ripped open and her miniskirt falling off her hips... due to her clothes being forcibly ripped/taken off her. Not only that, but she's screaming in terror and squick and is about to be gang-raped by the same male followers who repeteadly violated Tsubaki for years. And they do it under Tsubaki's orders, as she has become a crazy Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds due to all the trauma of having been a Sex Slave and has lost a hand to Yuno herself. Again, the anime makes it even worse: there's a whole close-up to Tsubaki ripping open Yuno's shirt and bra (rather than a mere panel), and by the time Yukiteru shows up to save her she actually has been stripped to her panties.
    • Yukki and Yuno's sex scene is beautifully drawn (and animated), but neither of the people are out of middle school and one of them is... unstable. Plus, she starts reaching for an axe right after the fact and chases him around in her underwear while wielding said axe.
    • Yuno in her underwear... with her parents' skulls.
    • For no Tsubaki or Yuno-related examples... At some point, the very curvy and pretty Minene is seen chained to a wall while only in her panties. Problem is, the one who did it to her is Yomotsu, who then rips out her already damaged eye.
    • In the anime, the very pretty Ai Mikami wears her boyfriend Marco Ikusaba's school jacket plus her school skirt... after having been gangraped. And even more: there's a close-up to her lovely breasts as she gives Marco a half-naked Cooldown Hug to keep him from killing himself out of the guilt he feels after he wasn't able to protect her from the rapists and having killed them all when he found out about what they did.
  • Food as Bribe: In the last chapter of Mosaic Akise uses Minene's hunger to get her to compete in a beauty pageant with the incentive that she can use the prize money to buy herself food. He keeps it up by deliberately eating food in front of her as a constant reminder to why she's competing.
  • Four Philosophy Ensemble:
    • The Cynic: Minene
    • The Optimist: Yukiteru
    • The Realist: Yuno
    • The Apathetic: Akise
  • Gainax Ending: The epilogue most certainly counts. 1st world Yuno commits suicide because she can't hurt Yuki. This leaves Yuki as God of the 2nd world, only he's so depressed about it he doesn't do anything and lives in a vacuum for 10,000 with only Mur Mur for company. Then Yuno breaks the walls of time and space with a hammer. It turns out 3rd world Yuno inherited 1st world Yuno's memories. Then, 3rd world Deus invites the two to become his successor. Presumably this is because they've both already won the game once each. Both get a Happy End from this.
  • Gambit Pileup: Scry vs. Scry meets I Know You Know I Know meets Death Note.
  • Girl with Psycho Weapon
  • A God Am I: Played with - despite all appearances, none of the characters believe themselves to be God or have Godlike powers. They are competing for his position, but each has their own, unique, reason for wanting the position and power, very little to do with their ego. Not to say the reasons are good...
    • Mur Mur however plays it straight.
  • God Is Evil: He may have some damn significant justification, but any God that tells a 4-year-old to kill (semi)-innocent people earns this title.
  • Godiva Hair: Minene
  • Gratuitous English: Akise agrees to give Hinata his diary provided she can guess which hand he's holding a coin in. LEFT OR RIGHT?
  • Grotesque Cute: Particular mention should be given to Yuno, Reisuke, and Mur Mur.
  • Heel Face Turn: Heel Face Door Slam: Remember Yukkii's father? The guy that only came back into Yukkii's life to steal and then break his cellphone so that his debt will get paid off? Remember how he took Yukkii's parachute to escape, leaving his son to die? Remember when he stabbed and murdered his ex-wife to avoid going to the police? Well, he had just spent the entire day praying for forgiveness and buying a telescope to watch the stars with his son. He promises Yukkii to turn himself in...right before he gets stabbed in the stomach, while his son watches. Door slam, indeed.
  • Heroic BSOD: Yuki suffers a pretty nasty one complete with paranoia fuel, of the Kill'Em All variety.
  • Hidden Eyes
  • Hope Spot: Minene blows herself up to open an armored door. It doesn't work. It's not all bad though, since she survives and saves Yuki later.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: An unfortunate byproduct of Yuki's taking a level in badass.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Yuno, believe it or not. In later arcs, after Yuki swears to avenge the deaths of his parents, Yuno offers to die for him when the time comes.
  • If It's You It's Okay:
    • In the Alternate Timeline spin-off Paradox, Akise maintains that he isn't gay - he only feels this way about Yuki. This is also Akise's reason to Screw Destiny in chapter 48 of the main storyline. He states directly to Deus' face that he loves Yuki which is why he meddles with others' plans beyond the will of Deus.
    • In the main storyline there's Mao, who's not-so-secretly in love with Hinata - she can't stop looking at/thinking about/lusting after/recording in a diary Hinata's impressive bust (for a 14-year-old).
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Yuki with his darts. Also Yuno with a gun.
  • Infant Immortality: Averted. Reisuke Houjou, the four-year-old fifth diary holder, dies horribly.
  • Ironic Echo: In the manga, Minene outs Yukiteru as The First by reading the look in his eyes when she pieces together the clues leading to his identity. Later on, Yukiteru manages to avoid running on one of her landmines by reading her in the same way.
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 Yukiteru: You said it yourself! The eyes have it! *cue Eye Scream*

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  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Yuno's mother, Saika. After she imprisons her and her father, Ushio, in the cage she kept her in, Saika angrily yells at her and curses the day she was born, revealing her as a heartless bitch who showed no remorse for the pain she put her poor daughter through.
  • Just Hit Him: Double Subverted in chapter 23 of the manga and episode 12 of the anime. After the flash grenade explosion, when Yukiteru and Kurusu regain consciousness, Kurusu grabs Yukiteru and actually starts to beat him up... but then either throws him or lets him fall down, with Yukiteru conveniently landing right next to the dropped gun.
  • Kill'Em All:In the second world, literally everyone - except Yukiteru (god) and Mur Mur - dies. Even *after* killing every character with a face (except Minene, who bails out to world#3), the world simply ceases to exist. Which by that stage is probably euthenasia. Of course, in world #3, all the characters live happy lives.
  • Knife Nut: Yuno prefers the ax, but she knows her way around knives too.
    • Yuno wanted to meet Yuki's mother but she was worried that him mom wouldn't like her. So she brought some tools with her just in case, and by tools she meant a duffel bag filled with knives.
  • Lamarck Was Right: Minene's children can fly.
  • Lonely At the Top: Yuki wins the survival game and spends 10,000 years as the god of the empty space of the 2nd world.
  • Lotus Eater Machine: Yuno traps Yuki in one because she can't kill him in the 3rd world. This was more of a subversion or playing with the idea of a Lotus Eater Machine used as Fridge Horror. While the Machine is utilized, Yukiteru is VERY aware he's in one as he's flat out told so and Yuno does nothing to mess with his mind or memories. So it's more like a very pleasant jail in which he can have anything he wants than a true Lotus Eater Machine.
  • Love At First Sight: Yuno fell in love after her first conversation with him. To be fair, that talk took place right after she had killed her parents and thus she was very vulnerable.
    • In Paradox, Akise falls in love with the wounded Yuki at first sight.
  • Love Makes You Crazy/Love Makes You Evil: Yuno. She was sort of crazy/evil already though, given how she killed her parents. It's also a sure thing that her non-biological parents were the ones who drove her insane in the first place.
    • Later on Yuki gets a little crazy for Yuno.
  • Mad Bomber: Minene.
  • Mad Love: The only plausible relationship you can have with an utterly Ax Crazy Yandere.
    • Yuno and Yukiteru are the gods of this trope.
  • Made of Plasticine: People are often sliced completely in two with absurd ease.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Happens with almost Death Note-esque frequency. A particularly disturbing mention must be given to Yuno in Chapter 49. Akise has stabbed Yuno and left her for dead and is trying to reach Yuki before he kills the 8th and Hinata/Mao/Kousaka. Yuno, bleeding to death on the ground, calls Yuki and tells him that her diary told her that they were going to betray and kill him. Yuki, in the middle of a mental breakdown at the time, believes her and shoots Hinata. Yuno, on the other line, starts laughing her butt off, while a shot of her diary reveals that Yuki's friends weren't lying. She didn't want them to have him.
  • Master of Disguise
  • Meaningful Name: The kanji for "Gasai" (seen here) means "my wife".
    • Not to mention Juno "the goddess of marrige" which according to the Master Wiki is pronounced "Yuno." Coincidence?
      • The fact that Juno was the most possessively jealous Yandere goddess helps a lot. Also, Yukiteru's own name is a corruption of "Jupiter".
    • Heck, all the diary holders have names that associate them with some Roman god or goddess.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: The conflict between the diary holders has resulted in a total body count that numbers somewhere in the hundreds. Most of the diary holders have no reservations against killing countless innocent bystanders in pursuit of each other, and even the 1st, Yuki, ends up crossing his moral boundaries.
  • Moment Killer: Nothing gets in the way of a marriage proposal like learning that the Big Bad has succeeded in his plan when you thought you'd foiled it.
    • Yuno invariably kills her own moments. Usually by doing something completely insane.
  • Mood Whiplash: The relationship between Yuki and Yuno constantly and abruptly switches between "Aww aren't they such a cute couple" and "What the hell is wrong with that girl?!"
  • Moral Dissonance: In the later chapters, Yuki's plans to win the game involve having Yuno murder the 8th's children so they can seize her diary, and later, murder innocent bystanders in order to cause a huge stir and put the 11th and his diary at a disadvantage. Somewhat justified by Yuki's desire to become a god at all costs after having had his parents killed. In his defense, he did keep a list of the people he killed so that he could remember to resurrect them all later. Of course, that would only work if he was truly able to bring them back.
  • Mummies At the Dinner Table: Yuno keeps her parent's corpses in a cage and talks with them. Later, she chops off their heads and carries them around with her.
  • Mundane Utility: In the grace period between Yukiteru getting his diary and Deus announcing the game, Yukiteru uses it for things like cheating on a test.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Both Yuno and Akise (in "Paradox") are willing to do this and much more in order to keep Yuki for themselves.
  • Mythological Theme Naming: Each of the Diary Holders' names have some connection to a Roman god/goddess (with Minene being connected to two). Most of the gods or goddesses that they're associated with are a part of the Dii Consentes, the twelve gods and goddesses that were held in the highest regard, but we also have John Balks (Bacchus) and Yomotsu Hirasaka (Pluto).
    • Also, the three "main" characters in Mirai Nikki (Yukiteru, Yuno, and Minene) intentionally form the Capitoline Triad (Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva).
    • For reference, the diary holders are associated as follows:
      • Yukiteru -> Jupiter
      • Yuno -> Juno
      • Hiyama -> Vulcan
      • Kurusu -> Mercurius
      • Houjou -> Ceres
      • Kasugano -> Apollo
      • Marco/Ai -> Mars/Venus
      • Kamado -> Vesta
      • Minene -> Minerva (and Neptune)
      • Tsukishima -> Diana
      • Balks -> Bacchus
      • Yomotsu -> Pluto
  • Nay Theist: Minene. Until she became a diary holder she only attacked religious targets, due to losing her parents in a religious struggle as a child. Her attitude comes off as justified, in a Straw Man Has a Point kind of way, when you think about it. Her beliefs are basically that if there is a God, he is unworthy of reverence because he is clearly indifferent to human suffering — if not outright malevolent. The whole backstory bekind Mirai Nikki is that Deus, who to all practical purposes is God, considers the best solution to the problem "I'm dying and I need to choose a replacement" to be "pick a dozen random psychos and encite them to kill each other until only one survives, and it's A-Okay to kill as many innocent bystanders in the process as you want, too!"
  • Necromantic: Yuki becomes a rare protagonist version after his parents die. He decides to win the game to bring them back to life. It won't work.
  • Nobody Poops: Subverted in that Yuno mentions taking care of Yuki's "potty breaks" when she kidnaps and holds him hostage and she later has to pee in a corner in front of Yuki while they are hiding out.
  • Non-Action Guy: Until he Took a Level In Badass, Yuki didn't do much fighting. Yuno was usually the one to kill their enemies The 7th diary holders and especially Marco eventually called him on it.
  • Off with His Head: It's how Akise dies in the manga.
  • Official Couple: Yukiteru/Yuno, Marco/Ai, Nishjima/Minene, & a bit surprisingly, 3rdWorld!Yukiteru/Wakaba. Also, in the anime Kamado Ueshita and John Balks are unambiguously shown to be a couple in the 3rd World.
  • Only Sane Man: Yuki starts off as this, but then loses it when his parents die.
    • The 8th is relatively sane. She doesn't have the will to kill. Her children, on the other hand, do. The only reason why the kids are fighting though is because they want to protect the woman who raised them from the other diary holders.
  • OVA: The manga was given an 8-minute one in September 2010 that rapidly covers the first several chapters.
  • The Plan: In a series about dueling future readers with magical diaries, you need to do this to get anything done. Thankfully, due to the... unstable nature of the future(With up to 12 people actively changing and screwing with it), there are no plans which are durable enough to get to the Roulette stage of gambitting.
  • Plot Induced Stupidity: Without this, the plot would be stupifyingly complicated. As it is, though, the main character often only checks his diary just before or after an event. Even though it is initially described as being able to see 90 days into the future, it is very rare for anyone to even bother to read more than a little bit ahead. Vaguely justified in that the future is constantly changing whenever any of the diary holders does anything at all while knowing the future, so anything more than the immediate future would be pretty useless.
  • Please Dump Me: Chapter 56 has Yuno doing everything she can to get Yukiteru to hate her.
  • Poisonous Friend: Yuno is about as poisonous a friend as her body's volume of plutonium.
  • Pre-Climax Climax: Yuno and Yuki, doubling as Their First Time..
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality
  • Quit Your Whining: Kousaka calls out Yuki after he murders his friends.
  • Rape as Backstory: Tsubaki. Also Ai and Marco's backstory, He interrupts an attack on Ai
  • Reality Writing Book: Mirai Nikki features journals which contain the future entries of characters, allowing them to see what they'll experience in the future, and react to them. The journals change as they do things. Most of these journals take the form of diaries entered into cellphones, though one woman has hers on a scroll.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mar gives Yukiteru a healthy dose of this during every encounter they have. He says that Yukkii and Yuno will never beat him and Ai simply because Yukkii is a coward that let's Yuno fight all of his battles and never gets his own hands dirty. This occurs the first time after they haveki just knocked Yuno down and right before Mar throws Yuki from a balcony.
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  Yuno: What we did… was pretend love. Both of us were only using each other. You were using me to survive. And I was content letting myself being used… I would’ve been fine with anyone as long as I could emotionally depend on them. And you were fine with anyone as long as he or she would protect you.

Cquote2
    • Which would make both Yukkii and Yuno a case of Becoming the Mask as their experiences together sparked genuine and mutual love.
  • Redemption Equals Death:
    • Yuki believes so, and as he asks Yuno to kill him and becomes God he thinks to himself that it's his atonement for killing all those people.
    • Yuno from the 1st world stabs herself and dies. Her memories are transfered to the 3rd world Yuno.
  • Red Shirt: The policemen and the orphans.
  • Reset Button Ending An inversion on the usual good-to-bad, in that the 'second world', in which the story takes place, ends, and they create the 'third world', in which everyone - including most of the diary holders - live happily ever after.
  • Sadistic Choice: In Chapter 55, Yuno forces one of these on Yuki after they, Minene and Mur Mur jump back in time. Either Yuki hands over the 3rd world's Yuno to be killed, or 1st world Yuno will kill Yuki's parents.
  • Sakurami Is The Center Of The Universe: JustifiedDeus Did It.
  • Screw Destiny: These are people with future-predicting diaries fighting to become a god. Of course this is going to happen.
  • Scry vs. Scry: The entire premise.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Yuno. Subverted by the revelation that she was actually adopted, so it wasn't her biological parents she killed.
  • Shades of Conflict: A combination of Black and Gray Morality And Evil Versus Evil
  • Shipper on Deck: Yuki's mom seems absolutely intent on getting Yuno "closer" to her son. Chalk it up to values dissonance.
  • Single-Target Sexuality: Yuno's crush with Yuki. Also Akise, both in the spinoff Paradox as well as in the MAIN storyline.
  • Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Yuno's Yandere behavior can be this at times, especially when combined with Yuki's facial reactions.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Yuno's nickname for Yuki should be written as "Yukkii" if you go off the katakana for it, though Tokyopop writes it as "Yuki" instead. Most scanlations stick to the former.
    • More notably, the Eleventh's name is romanized as John Balks in most of the scanlations, but Tokyopop romanizes it as John Bacchus.
    • That cute little girl in the Causality Hall, ムルムル? Most translations and webpages romanize it as "Muru Muru" or "Murumuru", but the opening for the series reads clearly "Mur mur" (in two lines) in the background behind her. Any relation?.
  • Spanner in the Works: Minene near the end of the manga, by Deus' own intervention.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Yuno. In one of the more disturbing chapters, right after the hero and audience think she's not so bad, the girl drugs the hero and chains him to a chair. Of course, this is after we learn that she killed her parents that abused her..
  • Stab the Scorpion: Happens a ridiculous amount of times in the series.
    • One chapter ends with Yuki looking as if he's going to abandon Yuno when Akise reveals that she's not the real Yuno. Next chapter reveals that he let go of her hand so that he could push to the ground to avoid gunfire from the 11th Diary Holder.
    • Subverted later in the twin towers when Minene points her gun at Yuki. Turns out there was just a mook behind him. She then explains that she will kill him if the plan fails and nearly does. Ends up truly being Double Dubverted once she doesn't go through with shooting him and instead helps him to reach 11th.
  • Stalking Is Love: This series loves playing ping-pong with this trope. The current status of it seems to be "Stalking is love, but only because you're as crazy as her now."
    • In chapter 57, Yuki states that he fell in love with Yuno because "she was always by his side."
  • Suicide Pact: 1st world Yuki and Yuno decide to do this, as neither could stand the thought of killing the other to become god. Subverted in that Yuno fakes her death, attempting to bring Yuki back to life by becoming god. Unfortunately, in the Future Diary universe, it is possible to bring a person back from death but the god's power can only bring back the body, not the soul of the person. All the god gets is an empty shell should they attempt it. Yuno is not pleased at this last bit of news, to say the least.
  • Superpower Lottery: The Future Diaries. There are vast differences in their ability to predict, each with its own weaknesses.
    • The 1st's is one of the strongest but still has the weakness that it doesn't predict his own actions.
    • On the other hand, The 2nd has the weakest diary, only predicting one person's actions.
    • Then there is The 5th who can only make three predictions a day.
    • The 4th's can only predict crime cases.
    • Let's not even get into the 8th's Diary and what it does and gives to Akise.
    • The undeniable winner of the lottery is The 11th who can see other diary users' diaries.
  • "Take That!" Kiss: Tsubaki plants one of these on Yuki when she thinks she's defeated him and Yuno. Unfortunately for her, Yuno doesn't like that one bit.
  • Taking the Bullet: Nishijima takes a grand total of eight bullets for Minene and dies. If both of them had survived, Minene would have married Nishijima and gave up being a terrorist. Tear drops...
  • Taking You with Me: How the 12th wants to finish the 6th. Yuno kills him.
    • Also when Yuno was fighting Kurusu and his goons in the hospital.
      • Subverted in the fact that Yuno probably didn't know that the grenade she used was only a flash bang. Nobody ended up dying.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Oh, so much. "Yuki! There's a mine 1 meter in front of you! Go to the left!" Doesn't sound ridiculous, until you realize that he's sprinting forward, and Yuno's shouting directions to him. And it's commented that he's a good runner, too.
    • The anime makes this more believable: "Yukki! To the left! ... Now the right!"
    • Texting is also a free action. Most of the diary holders have lightning-fast thumbs.
  • Tears of Fear: Yuki, especially in the beginning.
  • Their First Time: Chapter 52. Twisted later, as Yuki confronts Yuno on Akise's message and she goes Ax Crazy.
  • There Are No Adults: Vastly averted. Although the two main characters are school age, others are not, and the school-aged kids' parents end up central to the plot. Read: dead most of the time.
  • There Are No Therapists: Considering most of, if not all the characters, can be classified as mentally unstable if not out right insane you think half the cast would be in an asylum by now.
  • There Can Be Only One: God has apparently decided that if he's going to die anyway, he might as well see people fight to the death first. And what better way to chose a successor?
  • Together in Death: Yuno averts this, while Marco and Ai played it straighter.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Tsubaki, did you just kiss Yuki in front of Yuno?
  • Too Soon: Tokyopop changed the name of the Twin Towers to "The Double Tower Building" in volume 9. It doesn't help that it is attacked by the series' resident terrorist bomber.
  • Took a Level In Badass: After his father is killed, Yuki retaliated against his would-be assassins using the knife which took his father's life, his darts and blocking gunfire directed at him by using a meat shield (another one of his would-be assassins.
    • Yuno takes a level during the fight with the 7th, when Yuki's praise gives her the motivation to block half a dozen thrown knives in an instant.
  • Tsundere: Mur Mur pegs Minene as one as she watches the Dating Catwoman antics between her and Nishijima. While Minene insists that she's not going to follow some "shojo manga formula", she can't seem to shake Nishijima off of her, culminating with him proposing, getting her uncharacteristically flustered.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The 8th. She is a gigantic, Pillsbury Doughboy-like woman roughly three times the size of the children she takes care of. No one seems to notice this, beyond a one-shot joke.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Yuki calls Yuno on her claim that she locked and chained him up in her room and tried to kill his friends because she loved him.
    • In Chapter 50, Kousaka calls out Yuki on his cowardly decision to kill all of his friends rather than face the Awful Truth they were trying to tell him. He is later called out on this again, this time by Yuno of all people. This time it sinks in.
  • Why Can't I Hate You?:
    • Chapter 56 has an inversion. Yuno desperately tries to get Yuki to hate her so that she can kill him with no regrets, up to and including killing his parents in front of him.
    • Played straight when she finds out that she still loves him. She goes even crazier than before.
  • World of Cardboard Speech: Yuki gives one of these speeches to Yuno, telling her he loves her and that she is irreplaceable to him. He vows to save her, all while climbing up a sheer cliff with his bare hands.
  • Yandere: Yuno isn't just an example, she's the poster girl and goddess
  • You Are Number Six
  • You Don't Want to Die a Virgin, Do You?: Yuki and Yuno, who are both virgins before Chapter 52.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: Deus.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Chapter 54 comes across as an epilogue, until the last two pages in which Minene comes back to save Yuki.

The anime features the following tropes:[]

  • Action Prologue: Kinda. "Horror Prologue" would be more accurate.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The anime has been adding in scenes from Mosaic.
    • The 3rd also got a bit more screentime to better illustrate his presence in the first episode.
    • It's also been eliminating a lot of the Fridge Logic from the original manga (Such as averting the Talking Is a Free Action described above) and adding content between scenes from the manga (such as Yukiteru's futile attempts to inform Kurusu about the dead bodies in Yuno's house.)
    • More of the eliminated Fridge Logic also includes changing a room filling up with concrete into a room filling with gas.
    • In the anime adaptation of Yukiteru's and Yuno's second battle with 7th there is an added scene of Yukiteru's father asking Yukiteru to give him his cellphone and promising to buy him a new one after his debts are erased, indicating that he didn't know that breaking the phone would kill Yukiteru. In the manga it wasn't made clear whether he knew this or not.
    • Also expanded is the 7th's past together, with a story from their high school days, leading to Rape as Backstory for Ai and Interrupted Suicide for Marco. It also adds more to Marco's reason for not leaving Ai in the tower, despite him also being injured.
    • The anime also expands on Yuno's family situation and the reason why her mother's depression led her to take such abusive measures. Apparently Saika felt she couldn't fulfill her role as a wife to her husband Ushio for being unable to conceive a child, and felt neglected herself as she had trouble dealing with his long work hours and business trips. He also either missed or ignored her phone calls to him while he was away. Coupled with this was the fact that she also felt like a terrible mother to her adoptive daughter as well; she believed that neither of them loved her or wanted her in their lives. She demanded so much of herself that she started pushing equally high demands on Yuno as well, taking out her own feelings of inadequacy on Yuno in the form of abuse.
    • The time spent in the third world in general, from the other characters' lives to the fight scenes between the last survivors of the second world, is expanded upon.
    • There's also more expansion on Tsubaki aka the 6th's backstory: After one learns about her somewhat happy early life with her Good Parents and what followed after their murders, it's explained that the exact reason why Tsubaki is a Sex Slave is that Funatsu, Manipulative Bastard that he is, after murdering the Kasuganos to usurp the Cult, managed to convince the Omekata cultists that if the men had sex with Tsubaki, they would be fully cleansed of their sins. Some of the rapes were also fully animated, plus the loss of Tsubaki's Tragic Keepsake; and last but not least, Tsubaki is also seen being injected with drugs so she will not escape.
  • All There in the Manual: Mur Mur's extra segments.
  • Altum Videtur: The opening features a rapid firing-off of Roman gods' names.
    • Fridge Brilliance: They are the names of the Dii Consentes, the twelve Roman gods and goddesses that were considered to be the highest deities, just toss in Bacchus and replace Neptune with Pluto (or not, since Minene Uryuu also references Neptune). Each of the diary holders is named/associated with one of the gods, so by being participants in Deus' game, they are already considered potential gods!
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: A new scene is added with Yukiteru's mom bonding with Yuno over naked baby pictures.
  • Art Shift: Weirdly done with some Medium Blending at the end of episode five in Mur Mur's ending segment with the 12th; the art is suddenly some crudely made clay figures in stop-motion, with some slightly bizarre 2D animation spliced in between.
  • Bland-Name Product: Kousaka's phone, which is shaped like and obviously is an iPhone, is apparently an iBone.
    • In a scene where Yuki is buying drinks, he attempts to get some Dr. Papper.
  • Censor Shadow: A fairly obvious one once Yuno starts smashing heads in the fourth episode.
    • There's also censor steam in episode 20 when Minene showers.
  • Conspicuous CG: So far, a two-second appearance in the opening credits is pretty much the only time Deus has used hand-drawn art. There are some bits of architecture and a few objects in the opening credits as well.
    • The ferris wheel scene in episode 3 switches jarringly from CGI to traditional animation depending on whether the audience is viewing the car from the outside or inside.
    • 10th's dogs are CG in several shots.
    • Episode 19 also has CG cars.
  • Death Is Cheap: The Stinger for the first episode has Mur Mur attempt to deliver the 3rd's diary, only for him to err on the side of caution and destroy a phone that seems to be monitoring his criminal activites in painstaking detail before she can properly explain the natures of the diary or the game. This happens several times and she rewinds time to reverse his death every time.
  • Depending on the Artist: The anime features a noticeable different artstyle than the manga's, the characters look slightly older than their manga counterparts, also many expressions taken directly from the manga are more extreme: Yuno's shots in particular got a tad more lustful towards Yukiteru, and crazier towards everyone else.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: The anime shows The Third carrying out one of his murders and teaching Yuki and Yuno's class before the point at which he was originally introduced in the manga. Minene also shows up early in her disguise from Mosaic.
  • Gainaxing: There's a lot of attention paid to Yuno's chest in Episode 3.
  • Gratuitous English: Pretty much all of the second opening is this.
  • Gratuitous German: The opening song's chorus has "Ein, zwei, drei".
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Disregarding the first few episodes, the episode titles all seem to be related to the natures of the different diaries--so generally cell phone-themed, but "Handwritten Input" for the 6th and "Voice Memo" for the 12th also appear.
  • If Jesus, Then Aliens: When Mur Mur tells Reisuke that he's been chosen for a Future Diary, Reisuke says to her "If there's a God, it's not strange for there to be aliens, right?" and refuses to participate in the game until she shows him an alien.
  • Lethal Chef: In the first Stinger of the anime not taken from the manga, Murmur manages to send Yukiteru and Rea to the hospital with her miso soup.
  • Magical Security Cam: Justified in that it's employed by the universe's god. The bigger mystery is why he's watching Yukiteru sitting on the toilet.
  • Meet Cute: Minene and Nishijima in the tenth episode in the anime version, which only vaguely alludes to their true first meeting.
  • Nobody Poops: Averted even earlier than the manga; both Yukiteru and Minene are shown using the toilet.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: There is a little in the OVA ending music. It's also applied liberally to the series' opening song.
  • Pixellation: Used to censor any outstanding examples of gore.
    • The DVD/Blu-ray releases, however, remove this. It's not pretty.
  • Smurfette Principle: when the five Twelfths are shown, there is only one female - who wears pink.
    • She also happens to be the most muscularly built, for some odd reason.
  • Spit Trail Kiss: Tsubaki's Forceful Kiss got upgraded to this just for extra levels of Squick.
  • Spoiler Opening: And how! Luckily, at the same time it's also very vague; it's (almost) all stuff you'd have to already know about for it to seem significant. The imagery of Yuno fighting herself spoils the fate that there are two of her.
    • The second opening is also very much a Spoiler Opening, but for a slightly different reason: Faylan's lyrics are absolutely filled with huge spoilers of the story.
      • Also, shots of the 11th Diary owner are shown before his appearance and identity are revealed in the story.
      • And, if you try to analyse the coloring, anything colored blue (after the title drop) in the second opening is destined to die/cease to exist. It includes all the diary owners except First, Second and Ninth, Yukiteru's four friends, explosion flames that represent Ninth's terrorism, and the candle flames that represent the Eightsh's foster children. By contrast, Ninth is grey-colored, Yuno has her hair tinted with real color, and Yukiteru who is the nominal winner, is the only fully colored one at all.
  • The Stinger: Comedic sketches and bits of trivia not shown in the show proper close episodes of the anime.
    • Also, the final scene of the anime after the credits, which leaves the whole ending rather ambiguous. Rather than include the whole epilogue where Yuno manages to break through the wall of space-time to see Yukiteru, the last message on Yukiteru's phone changes from "Yuno died." to "Yuno came to see me." This is followed by an announcement of another new project for Mirai Nikki, so who knows what they're planning on now.
      • Fridge Brilliance it may not be noticed immediately but take note that the final pages of the manga is described as actually not part of the series proper but rather a new chapter on its own making this more or less a cliffhanger.
  • Surreal Theme Tune
  • Tears of Blood: The first visual of the opening credits.

The live action drama features the following tropes[]

  • A God I Am: Deus.
  • Alternate Universe: Hence the title.
  • All Deaths Final
  • Ax Crazy: The new Yuno, although not as much as her other self. That could change, though.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Yuno.
  • Expy: Most of the characters are expies of the manga cast, most notably Yuno is pretty much the same characters minus the pink hair and now nineteen.
    • Averted in Arata's case. He is meant to be like Yuki, but actually has friends, is very apathetic, takes a surprising interest in Yuno and takes a stand against the serial killer.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Arata's father Kurou, a fellow diary holder, is stabbed by the serial killer, to save him son.
  • Lazy Bum: Arata.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Episode 2 has shown Yuno has these traits, forcing Arata to tie her up temporarily.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Yuno, as expected.
  • There Can Only Be One: It has not been said how many diary holders there are in the drama but the rule still stands that the last person standing shall be the winner.
  • You Don't Look Like You: Deus appears in the show as a talking, purple, sun-shaped emoticon. Although this may be a mere representation since he is God.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Rui's sister.