Future Diary, vol. 1
By Sakae Esuno
Rated OT for Older Teens, 16+
Tokyopop, $10.99
Future Diary takes a couple of manga themes and mashes them up in an interesting way, combining the Japanese love of cell phones, the survival-game trope, and high school angst to create a clever suspense story. It’s like the Twitter version of Battle Royale.
The main character, Yuki, is shy and unpopular. He doesn’t associate with the other kids at school, so they think he’s aloof, but of course he really is lonely. His cell phone is his constant companion, and he keeps a running diary of everything that goes on around him, but it’s just that: A bland recital of facts. Yuki is such a zero that he doesn’t even appear in his own diary.
Alone in his room, Yuki does conjure up two imaginary friends. One is Deus ex Machina, the king of time and space, who arrives in a giant bubble complete with a series of levers which he presumably uses to control the universe. The other is Muru Muru, Deus’ servant, who looks and acts like a little girl, except that she seems to be wearing underpants and chaps.
You can already see that this manga has serious crack potential.
Somehow, it turns out, these friends are not entirely imaginary. Furthermore, Deus is one of those gods who loves to play with his subjects. He uses his powers to alter Yuki’s cell phone so that it records Yuki’s diary for the next 90 days, so that Yuki will know everything that will happen around him in advance, allowing him to ace tests, dodge beatings from bullies, etc. There is just one catch: if the cell phone is destroyed, Yuki will die instantly.
Well, actually there is more than one catch. After Yuki has a few days to enjoy his newfound powers, the dark side of the game emerges: There are actually 12 people with phones that tell the future, and they must fight each other to the death. The sole survivor will take Deus’ place as god of the universe.
This story moves fast, and Yuki faces five of his fellow “players” in this first volume alone. As in the best of these stories, they are not only different from one another but present themselves differently to Yuki: Several claim to be his protectors, but we know that in the end game they must turn on him.
The most intense relationship so far is between Yuki and his classmate, Yuno. Yuno has had a crush on Yuki for some time, and her diary is all about him. She is also stronger and smarter than him, and she pledges that she will be his protector. Yuki doesn’t have much choice but to go along with her, although her devotion strikes him as creepy. As the bombs, knives, and bullets fly, though, Yuki comes to an important realization about himself.
The story moves fast and the art seems hurried too, almost sketchy in places. Esuno does achieve one thing that is key in a manga like this: Clearly differentiated characters whose designs quickly convey their personalities. This helps make the book move quickly as well. Of course, some of those personalities are false, but nothing in Future Diary is too subtle. It’s nice to see that the manga features two strong women, although one is unambiguously evil and the other must turn out to be a villain as well.
It’s tough to write a book in which people can see the future, because you quickly run into logic problems. Esuno dodges this a bit by severely restricting what each character can see, which also makes the book more interesting. Esuno violates one of the rules of the game almost as soon as it is set up: The characters can change their futures, but a player whose cell phone gets a “Dead End” message is supposed to die, unambiguously, within 90 minutes. Yuki is somehow immune to this rule, which dilutes the urgency a bit. The first time this happens, it is presented as an anomaly, but when it happens again it starts to seem like a cheat.
That’s a minor quibble, though. Despite one cringe-inducing scene of violence toward the end, this is great escape reading, with plenty of action and an interestingly twisted premise.
Yuki’s survival of the derad end prophecies has nothing to do with him/ If you read it again on both occasions its Yuno that saves him. Since her diary is only about him in 10 minute intervals, she knows how and when the dead end will occur and takes action to stop it.
If she wasn’t around to save his but he would be dead, since his diary dosent reveal anything about himself, and everything about what’s going on around him.
Their two diaries seem to be rather unique in that respect, in that when they’re together they become pretty much unstopable. Hence his ability to survive the dead end prophecies. This is reinforced in later volumes when things take an extremely darker twist.
Volume 1 is fairly light hearted, but the other volumes end up making Higurashi look like a kiddies fairy tale hehe
Cell phones cause cancer.
They do when they’re attached to Yuno
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