Miraj Nikki

Okay, I admit, my girlfriend has good taste...

Long before we became a couple, she was telling me I should watch this series, as it was something really good.  

Now, even though it is outside my "field" of mecha series I usually watch... she was totally right.

This is also the first post I will return to the old format of plot, what I liked or not, and such, like I tended to do a few years ago...

Plot (from Wikipedia)

Yukiteru Amano is a 14-year-old shy, daydreaming loner who observes life and jots down the events on his cell phone. His only friends are Deus Ex Machina, the God of Space and Time, and his assistant Muru Muru. Deus transforms Yukiteru's phone into a Future Diary, capable of predicting the future up to ninety days. Yukiteru discovers he and eleven others are part of a survival game orchestrated by Deus. The aim of this game is to eliminate the other diary holders, the winner succeeding Deus as god and can prevent the Apocalypse. Yukiteru finds himself protected by Yuno Gasai, a charming but psychopathic classmate who obsessively stalks him after they promised to go stargazing together a year before.
Two major players they encounter are terrorist Minene Uryu, who wants to destroy all religion after her parents died in a faith-fuelled war; and Keigo Kurusu, a police officer who wants to end the game. Later, Kurusu betrays Yukiteru and Yuno when he discovers his bed-ridden son is suffering from a terminal illness. He assassinates diary holder Karyuudo Tsukishima and frames Yukiteru and Yuno. Minene turns to detective Masumi Nishijima, exposing Kurusu's crime. In his shame, Kurusu eliminates himself from the game.
John Bacchus, the city's mayor and designer of the Future Diaries, tries to manipulate Yukiteru's debt-ridden father Kurou into stealing his son's diary. Kurou fails, unintentionally murdering his ex-wife Rea, and is then assassinated by Bacchus' men. Yukiteru vows to win the game and resurrect his parents. He and Yuno target the remaining diary holders, Minene, Bacchus, and Kamado Ueshita who runs an orphanage. Meanwhile, Yukiteru's astute friend Aru Akise, and Nishijima investigate the discovery of three corpses in Yuno's house, two being her parents, and the third identified as being Yuno Gasai, bringing her identity into question.
Kamado's diary, which can give others substitute diaries, is connected to a supercomputer, giving everyone in the city Future Diaries as part of Bacchus' plan to help humanity evolve. Yukiteru and Yuno, Minene, Nishijima, and Yukiteru's friends storm Bacchus' headquarters. He seals himself in a bank vault owned by Yuno's parents, her fingerprints the only way to access it. Minene sacrifices herself to destroy the vault but fails, only for Aru to witness Yuno access the vault and kill Bacchus. Wanting answers, Aru confronts Deus who reveals the boy is an artificial human designed to observe the game and keep it in balance, but confirms there is a conspiracy around Yuno.
Yukiteru murders his friends and then Kamado. Aru battles Yuno, destroying her diary but discovers she has a spare. Realising the truth, Aru shows a text to Yukiteru before Yuno decapitates him. As the days to the Apocalypse approach, Yukiteru and Yuno consummate their relationship. However, Yukiteru reveals Aru's suggestion that Yuno originates from another timeline and she immediately turns on him. Muru Muru, the true mastermind behind the game's course, confirms Aru's theory. Yukiteru died and Yuno won the game in another timeline but discovered not even the power of a god could bring back the dead. In her sorrow, Yuno went back in time, creating an alternate timeline, murdering and replacing her other self.
Yuno and Muru Muru go back in time again, creating a third world, pursued by Yukiteru and Minene, kept alive by Deus as a wild card and imbued with a portion of his power. Both parties battle to protect or kill the third world's Yuno and her parents. Yuno, unable to kill Yukiteru, traps him in a dream world where she doesn't exist, and then attacks her alternate self. Yukiteru remembers Yuno, escaping his prison aided by the second world's Muru Muru, and stops Yuno. Though Yukiteru asks Yuno to kill him so she can live, she instead eliminates herself and dies in his arms. Yukiteru becomes god and is dragged to the second world by Muru Muru.
Ten-thousand years later, a mournful Yukiteru has done nothing with his godly powers. However, the interdimensional walls are broken down by the third world Yuno, who possesses the first world's memories courtesy of an atoning Muru Muru. Yukiteru and Yuno reunite as gods of the second world and eternal lovers.

What I liked

* The intesity of the series, coupled to the almost girl-like lovestruck puppy attitude of Gasai.  And the way she can pronounce "Yuki"
* The motivation of the other survival game players and why they entered the game, some nobler then others, but most as part of a traumatized past
* the short Muru Muru clips after the end credits, they are bloody hilarious

What I didn't like

* the second opening and ending themes, weak compared to those from the early parts of the season.
* The alternate timeline Yuno arc, and how Yuki suddenly changes very harsh over a few minutes after the death of his parents to a cold hearted killer and manipulator.

Conclusion

While the ending might feel rushed a bit compared to the build up, this was a truly enjoyable series.  Noshi was right, and I can understand her fandom for it completely, even though it isn`t my genre.

Recommended to watch, mind you you will probably find it under it's english name "Future Diary".