Mirai Nikki: Redial (OVA)

Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 07 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 15 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 32

At long last, I can finally talk about the manga ending.  About damn time.

OP: “Kyouki Chinden” by Yousei Teikoku

Mirai Nikki - OP3 - Large 01 Mirai Nikki - OP3 - Large 02 Mirai Nikki - OP3 - Large 03
Mirai Nikki - OP3 - Large 04 Mirai Nikki - OP3 - Large 05 Mirai Nikki - OP3 - Large 06

Well, now we know why Asread elected not to animate the epilogue from the manga.  It took a while to get here, but this was always the place Mirai Nikki seemed likely to end up  .As expected, it all had to do with that “next project” announcement at the end, and what “Redial” amounts to is a fleshed-out version of that epilogue – or rather, how it came to pass.  What’s interesting is that there’s a Redial manga, too (this OVA shipped with it), but the anime only tangentially overlaps it – the content of the OVA is mostly anime-original, even if the two more or less line up philosophically and end up at the same place.

Mirai Nikki has, in fact, become something of a cottage industry in its own right.  In addition to Redial there’s also two short mini-series – the back-story oriented “Mosaic” manga and the “Paradox” manga which re-tells the story with Akise as the protagonist.  But it’s Redial which most closely intertwines with the original series, and it does manage to give the anime a measure of completeness that seemed lacking in its absence.  Which ending you prefer is entirely up to you, but what can’t be argued is that this is closer to the ending that Esuno Sakae himself intended.

I won’t attempt to rehash the incredibly complex story of Mirai Nikki, as I assume you’ll have seen the anime or read the manga if you’re watching this OVA.  Materially, Redial most differs from the original series in tone.  We’re seeing a very different Gasai Yuuno here (which is the whole point), a girl who hasn’t been warped and twisted along with her family into a sick tangle of psychotic rage.  And Redial focuses heavily – with varying effectiveness – on the slapstick comedy surrounding this Yuuno and her friends in the Third Universe we briefly saw in the original series.

Additionally, we see some of the other diary holders in quite different contexts here.  Little Reisuke acts as Akise’s sidekick in a sort of comic detective duo.  Hirasaka Yomotsu runs a souvenir shop promoting his exploits under his super-sentai alter ego.  Tsubaki is still a Priestess, only this time crushing hard on Akise.  Kousaka, Hinata and Mao, meanwhile, are something like more exaggerated versions of themselves.  Akise, Minene and Bacchus interact with Deus, who’s still looking for a permanent replacement for himself in this world – Bacchus more or less acts as a buffoon, offering suggestions that inevitably lead to his own deification, Akise remains in his observer role and Minene pops back and forth from minding (and breastfeeding) her two kids.

Plot-wise there’s nothing here that differs much from what’s hinted at in the anime finale.  Yuuno is plagued by memories of a boy she doesn’t know, but remembers.  Meanwhile the dead Third Universe’s Yuuno’s memories are trapped with “her” Murumuru inside a celestial prison of this world’s Murumuru’s design, and Yuuki remains isolated in the Second Universe with only his Murumuru for company, 10,000 years and counting, just as we left him.  The whole point of all this, more or less, is that Yuuno’s love for Yuuki is strong enough to break through the prisons of time and space, and she’s not going to rest until she gets to him – which she does, with some help from Minene (probably the funniest moment of the OVA comes when an exasperated Murumuru scolds Minene to “Pick a side and stick with it!”), quite literally shattering those walls.   And that brings the story full-circle, to that last manga panel – the one the anime so conspicuously omitted from the end of the TV series.

I think Redial amounts to an unusual OVA in that it’s most certainly canon, and might even be argued to be indispensable for an authoritative adaptation of the manga.  It’s not particularly exceptional in that it’s very much an extension of the TV series itself, and mostly contents itself with depicting a lighter side to the Mirai Nikki universe.  It’s fitting, I suppose, that like the series that it so obviously uses as a jumping off point, Evangelion, Mirai Nikki is a story that its author continues to reinvent.  The ending is a dynamic rather than a static thing – but unlike Anno Hideki I think Esuno-sensei has never wavered in what he wanted the ending to be in essence.  And Redial, without question, brings the anime closer to that essence.  It may not be brilliant or a game-changer as a stand-alone entry, but it performs an essential role in completing the transition of Mirai Nikki from page to screen.

Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 08 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 09 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 10
Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 11 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 12 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 13
Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 14 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 16 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 17
Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 18 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 19 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 20
Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 21 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 22 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 23
Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 24 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 25 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 26
Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 27 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 28 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 29
Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 30 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 31 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 33
Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 34 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 35 Mirai Nikki - OVA - Large 36

ED: “Happy End” by Faylan

Mirai Nikki - ED3 - Large 01 Mirai Nikki - ED3 - Large 02 Mirai Nikki - ED3 - Large 03
Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

6 comments

  1. i

    I never watched the anime because I had read the manga just before it aired and didn't feel the need to go through it again.

    But this has to take biggest WTF ending of all time. That said it sure fit this nutty show and was certainly entertaining. Proof that plot holes don't matter when an manga is this bold and ridiculous.

  2. Plot holes are the point, methinks. I think Esuno basically decided to take every asspull and trope people complain about in series like this and make a series based on them.

  3. A

    Correct, and I think very few people notice or realize this.

    The OVA was a nice closure in and of itself, almost a gift for the fans who stuck with the roller-coaster series.

  4. p

    My only questions is: what the hell took them so long?

    The last episode of Mirai Nikki aired on April 2012. Airing this epilogue of an OVA (which I liked, especially because it meant more of my favorite girl, Minene) 15 months after the airing of the last episode makes zero sense from a marketing perspective. Were they waiting on the mangaka to come up with materials for them to work on? Or is there some other reason?

    Hell, I enjoyed the Mirai Nikki TV show, and am a bigger fan of the original manga, and even I forgot that Asread studio teased a "next project" at the end of the last episode of the show.

  5. Well, this was released along with a manga volume by the same title. So even though the story details are different, I suspect the primary purpose of the OVA was to help sell volumes of that volume. I think boosting manga sales has been more important than BD/DVD sales for the Mirai Nikki adaptation since the beginning.

  6. P

    its a gift! i love it xD… after the last min of the last episode Yuno appears calling "Yuki" & then huh? thats it? i read the last chapter in the manga, after that im satisfied.. after a year i forget about the upcoming ova thank God i remember it & i miss the couple too, yuki & yuno and im happy watching them again after a year, its so touching i almost shed tears & i can feel the loneliness of yuki lol.. too bad they didnt kiss again xD (i wanna kiss Yuno instead 😀 LOL)

    hehe i love this kind of epic/love anime the Yuno x Yuki thing really excite me

Leave a Comment