It would be too boring without her.
Summary:
- Yuno Gasai is the character who carried Mirai Nikki on her shoulders.
- The show is overly edgy and feels like a trainwreck.
- Yuno Gasai doesn't help salvage it but makes it even more insane, which makes it entertaining.
- It's a guilty pleasure, looking at Yuno's gradually increasing craziness and anticipating new stuff from her.
- And it's the only reason some of us kept watching the show.
The girl that cemented the yandere stereotype in the minds of the anime lovers. The girl that ruined the pink hair color for lots of us. The girl who was the reason why we kept watching Mirai Nikki (Future Diary) — it's Yuno Gasai. Without her, the show just wouldn't work.
Released in 2011, now this show is considered the perfect product of its time. it's edgy and overfilled with gore to the point it becomes hilarious if you're not 14. It has razors and bombs and a variety of questionable weaponry used in quite creative ways — and Yuno Gasai. The story is a trainwreck, the main character is a wimpy kid, Yuki, who Yuno is obsessed with, and Yuki himself has no idea why, but she simultaneously keeps him alive in this world and puts him in danger.
He's just a kid!
No, we're too harsh with Yuki. He's just a normal guy who ended up pulled into the madness that Mirai Nikki is, forced to play a part in a survival game where everyone (sans Yuno) wants to kill him, as all these 12 people are the candidates for the title of God of Time And Space. And, yes, Yuki cries, and he's pathetic, but who can blame him? We'd feel the same, really.
But we can't be too harsh with Yuno. She's the reason people watched the show back then and why they still do. She's a selfish character with a broken soul and horrendous past which probably should have given her depth and justified her aggression, but, like everything in Mirai Nikki, it feels like a trainwreck. Yuno just alternates between blushing, screaming "Yuki!", and killing. Rinse, repeat, enjoy.
We're free from cringe
The problem is, that we do enjoy this cycle. Because at some point it becomes even somehow interesting: in what way will Yuno once again put Yuki in danger? In what way will she turn him against his friends? In what way will she once again show her obsessiveness?
At some point, she starts doing crazy things just to be crazy, and the show transforms into a circus with seemingly no script. And you'll just shrug, because it's Yuno doing Yuno things.
Despite her being very facepalm-inducing, she is the reason why Mirai Nikki remains somewhat entertaining. Even now. Not that we recommend you to watch it, but it's a staple of its era.