Mirai Nikki Episode 19

It has been a busy week, but I’ve managed to keep watching anime in the evenings even if I haven’t had the energy to post about it here/on TSR afterwards. 😛 Cutting down on my ongoing series seems to have been the right decision though, as I’ve only just about kept on top of the ten shows I’m still following…

So in this episode, we learn the identity of the final diary owner, Eleventh. Turns out he’s the mayor! A position he can use to his advantage in the survival game, as seen in the opening scene, where he tearfully convinces the rest of the City Hall that Mother’s Village should be closed down. While he claims this is to ensure the safety of the children living there, due to the facility’s links to the tower bombing, it is obviously meant as an attack on Eighth.

After the OP, the diary owners meet in the Causality Cathedral… all except Yuki and Yuno. Apparently they’ve been skipping these meetings and haven’t been seen or heard from in five days, which Eleventh tries to use as an excuse to remove them from the game. Deus doesn’t have long left, after all. The god seems to agree…

Before Deus can erase their existences, however, they both decide to show themselves. Better late than never! Yuki seems noticeably different – much more confident. The first thing he does on arrival is to address Eleventh by name, thus revealing his identity to Minene and Eighth. Now that everybody apparently knows each other’s identities, the silhouettes are removed, and the mayor’s advantage in the survival game is severely diminished.

When Eleventh asks how Yuki uncovered his identity, the boy reveals that he simply sat in the City Hall lobby for five days, taking in all the information and using it to fill his diary with predictions about pretty much everything going on in the city. Including the fact that Eleventh’s speech resulted in the closure of Mother’s Village… a fact that clearly angers Eighth.

After the meeting, we learn that Yuki’s new found confidence was mostly an act… he was following a script written by Yuno! She believes that Eleventh’s plan is to capture Eight’s server diary – Mother’s Village is government funded, so if it gets closed down then all its assets become city property. With the diary in his hands, he could simply destroy Eighth, or (more likely) use it to create apprentice users of his own.

The last thing they want is for Eleventh to become even more powerful, so Yuno reveals a second plan, one that involves forming an alliance with Eighth! Yuki isn’t sure he’ll be able to do it, but Yuno soon convinces him…

Elsewhere, Minene and Nishijima meet at a cafe to exchange information. The detective is of course shocked to hear that the mayor is a diary user, and to make matters worse, he’s been reassigned as one of the man’s own bodyguards! With Yuki intending to take Eleventh down, who will Nishijima side with?

He refuses to answer this question when Minene asks it, and the topic switches to the identities of the corpses found at Yuno’s house. Two of them are indeed Yuno’s parents, while the third still remains unidentified at this time. However, the police investigation of the family has turned up another plot twist – Yuno’s parents were unable to have children, meaning of course that she was adopted! Nishijima has given Aru the task of investigating her past in more detail.

On a steep cliff overlooking a road, the alliance of First, Second, Eighth and her multiple apprentice users get ready for their attack on Eleventh.

Their plan is for Yuki and the apprentices to confront Eleventh, using his diary and tear gas canisters to deal with any resistance. Once the mayor and his underlings are pinned in place, the others will all attack at once. What could possibly go wrong?

Taa-kun doesn’t trust Yuki, but his diary has the ability to copy other people’s diaries (makes me wonder what weird plagiarism/stalker activities he was up to on his blog before he became an apprentice :razz:), so in order to appease him, Yuki allows him to copy Yuno’s diary. That way, he’ll be able to tell in advance if Yuki plans to double cross them. Orin, on the other hand, remembers Yuki from the Sacred Eye incident, and thinks he’s a good person. They get into a discussion about Eighth and her reasons for fighting – turns out that she herself has no interest in becoming god, it’s the orphans in her care that want to see her win.

Eleventh’s car approaches, and it’s time to put the plan into action! Several apprentices stand in the road, creating a blockade and forcing the car to a halt. Gas surrounds them, forcing his security to leave the car… after which they are quickly cut down by the allied forces. All except Nishijima, who stays inside with the mayor. Bacchus himself seems more confused than worried by the attack – he wonders aloud why First would attack him like this, given the info he’d have been able to pick up in the City Hall… Then, he proceeds to activate some sort of jamming system from his car.

Outside, the battle continues, with Orin coordinating the apprentices (her diary allows her to predict what will happen to all the residents of Mother’s Village). Taa-kun keeps a close eye on Yuki’s activities, but sees nothing suspicious. However, the top of Eleventh’s car suddenly opens up to reveal the jamming device he activated… and the apprentice diaries are rendered useless once again.

This unexpected development leaves Eighth’s team disorganized and vulnerable… but it turns out that this was what Yuki and Yuno wanted right from the start! The boy suddenly pulls out a gun and starts shooting down apprentices, while Yuno makes quick work of Orin (guess she got a bit too close to Yuki for Yuno’s liking) and Taa-kun. Yuki promises to make the world a better place for them all once he becomes god, his way of justifying his actions I suppose.

Eighth runs towards the road, where she is picked up by Nishijima and Bacchus. Yuki and Yuno grab the mayor’s escort car, which was abandoned since the rest of his bodyguards are now dead. Yuki can drive? Meh, whatever, car chase! He passes his diary to Yuno so that she can keep an eye on the future while he keeps his on the road – it predicts that they’ll catch up with Nishijima and take out the car’s tyres, so things are looking good for the pair! That is until Yuno scrolls down further to see another entry… it states that Aru will show up suddenly and reveal the identity of the third body! This revelation leaves her visibly worried.

So yeah, car chase time! Not the best animated one I’ve seen, but still awesome. Yuno leans out of the window and takes shots at Eleventh’s tyres, as predicted in the diary, but the car dodges the bullets using moves that surely aren’t physically possible. They suspect Eleventh is using his diary (known in Engrish as ‘Za Watcher’) to predict the attacks, much like Yuki’s own diary… and we know full well that Yuki’s diary’s main weakness is the lack of information provided about himself! With that in mind, Yuno aims at the mayor through the rear window. This proves ineffective, however – whatever Eleventh’s diary ability is, it gives info on more than just his surroundings.

Time to change tactics again. Yuki draws level with Eleventh’s car and crashes into it sideways, grinding it against the roadside barrier. They refuse to stop, however, and eventually the barrier gives way… and both cars drop quite a considerable distance onto another road below. This being anime, nobody was injured.

Yuki and Yuno are the first to leave their car, making their way to Eleventh and pointing a gun on him. Before Yuno can pull the trigger, however, Aru shows up on a motorcycle with Minene just as predicted… you’d think they’d wait a minute or two after seeing the situation! Surely removing Eleventh is in everyone’s best interests? No, apparently some things are more important than killing one of the most dangerous players left in the game.

After stopping by the forensics lab, Aru and Minene tracked them down using police radio (nice to know that an attack on the mayor and the dangerous driving that followed didn’t go unnoticed :razz:). They’ve finally found a DNA match for the third body – from a sample taken from Gasai Yuno’s umbilical cord, which they found at the orphanage she was adopted from. So if the real Yuno is dead… who is Second!?

An interesting twist, especially since we only found out about ‘Yuno’s past in the previous episode. Was that really even her past? Who knows, other than Second herself… and even she may have buried it deep in the back of her mind.