Mirai Nikki Episode 18

Blog views are currently skyrocketing. I don’t know why, but I’m not complaining! Still, is it too much to hope for a few of the hundreds who supposedly view this blog to leave a comment? You know, just to prove you’re real? 😛 I also got added to a fair few people’s friend lists on A-P, which I’m guessing came from here… don’t have a clue who most of you are, but I’ve returned the favour anyway! Always good to make new contacts. 🙂

A lot happened in the previous episode of Mirai Nikki, but it was the cliff hanger ending with Yuki’s mother’s death that stuck in my mind. So I started the episode, excited to learn more about what had happened and what effect it would have on Yuki… and had to wait about half the episode to find out, as the first half consisted of a flashback to Yuki and Yuno’s school life before the survival game began.

Not much of the early stuff was plot relevant, as far as I can tell, so in summary: Yuki wants to confess to a girl in his class using a love letter, but Yuno finds out about it and tries to steal the letter. Hilarity ensues as she chases Yuki around a shopping centre, dressed up in a creepy bunny costume, inadvertently scarring a young child for life in the process. Yuno fails to recover the letter, but Yuki’s confession is turned down by the girl anyway.

As is usually the case with these lighter-hearted moments in Mirai Nikki, however, it is all linked into the main story line in the end. We see Yuno return to her home, enter the creepy room and greet her parents – still dead, but less decomposed at this time. It is revealed that they’ve been dead for a month – and we finally learn how it happened.

It seems they had unrealistically high hopes for Yuno, and when she failed to live up to their expectations, they locked her in a cage and starved her. So one day she drugged them and put them in the cage, thinking they’d treat her nicely if they understood her pain. Instead, they continued to shout and verbally abuse her, until they eventually died.

We then see her ‘dreams for the future’ school survey, the one where she agreed to become Yuki’s future bride. With her parents dead, this ‘future’ really is her only reason to carry on living… and the reason behind her obsession with the boy.

Back in the present, Yuki has redecorated his room, sticking up pictures of his mother on all his dart boards. First thing that springs to mind is the similarity between this scene and the ‘wedding’ photo copies that were put up all around him when Yuno abducted him… the second thing is that I hope he doesn’t wake up one morning and throw a dart at them like he used to without thinking. 😛

We learn that Yuki has already approached Deus, requesting he bring her back to life. But the god can’t do it – by now he’s in really bad shape, and has no more power over the current causality continuum. But Yuki is reminded that there is still a way to save her: all he has to do is become a god himself! And so for the first time, Yuki has a reason to seek out and defeat other diary owners aside from to ensure his own survival…

Yuki’s diary informs him that detective Nishijima suspects his father of his mother’s murder… and moments later that same father has the nerve to stumble through the door to his house! He’s slightly wounded after being attacked in the dark, which he assumes is related to his debts. Yuki patches him up, then directly confronts him about the murder. Instead of admitting or denying his guilt, Kowardly Kurou asks the boy whether he has any evidence… what a douche bag.

Yuki doesn’t have any evidence, of course… but luckily for him, his father carelessly leaves a pawn shop claim stub in plain view. When Yuki asks about it, he acts suspiciously, hiding it quickly. Yuki comes to the conclusion that this will lead him to the evidence he needs, and decides to recover the item from his father (with the help of his diary) when he goes to fetch it.

The next day, we see Nishijima interviewing Yuno about the identity of the third skeleton in her house. However, she gets up and leaves without saying a thing. The police make no move to stop her, but it seems they’ll be able to identify the body soon enough from DNA evidence anyway…

The same morning, Yuki oversleeps. He misses his father leaving the house, and his diary predicts that taking his usual route to the shopping district would mean he’d arrive too late to grab the item. He changes this future by taking a shortcut, arriving just in time to see his father (now carrying a long, thin bag… wonder what that could contain?) get into a taxi. Using his diary again, he finds out that Kurou is headed for the temple.

The shrine is an important place for both the father and the son – it’s where the infamous promise to go star gazing was made, back when the Amanos were still a happy family. When Kurou makes it to the top of the stairs, he is followed soon after by Yuki, who immediately steals the bag from him. He then opens it… but instead of some murder weapon, he finds a telescope.

Yuki’s father admits to his crime, and says he only wanted a little time to prepare himself and to apologize to his ex-wife. Both crying at this stage, the two make up, arranging plans to start again once his prison sentence is over. Touching stuff… or it might have been, if it hadn’t been so rushed… I found Yuki’s sudden switch from “I’ll make you pay for killing my mum!” to “I forgive you, worthless excuse for a father!” a bit ridiculous. Stuff like that takes time, surely!

Kurou doesn’t have much time left, however. As the two turn to leave the shrine, side by side, they are approached by a suspicious looking man… who stabs Kurou without warning. Yuki’s father dies instantly. All this makes Yuki even more determined to become a god, so he can bring back both parents and live happily ever after. But first, he has to deal with a whole group of suspicious looking men that come out of hiding to surround him…

Far from his usual pathetic self, the very angry Yuki massacres his assailants almost as easily as Yuno would have done. Of course, Yuno herself is never far away from him, and shows up to take care of the last of them. She gets him a drink to calm him down… but he’s beyond that.

Manic, and still holding the knife that killed his father, the same knife he himself used to kill one of the attackers, Yuki turns that knife on Yuno, informing her of his decision to become god. Which of course means he’ll have to kill her, too. She just smiles at him though, telling him that she’s willing to die for him at any time – he’s her sole reason for living, after all. In the end, Yuki can’t go through with it, and drops the weapon.

According to Murmur, Eleventh was behind Kurou’s death, which isn’t that much of a surprise. So he could well be the next big villain, setting aside Eighth for later. I suppose they’ll have to deal with Minene eventually too, just when they were starting to get along… Either way, Yuki finally going on the offensive should make things more interesting!