Mirai Nikki Episode 20

I decided to get GotWoot’s non-speed sub version again this week, since I figured I wouldn’t watch it or post about it until the weekend anyway. This release came with karaoke for the new OP, allowing me to see the proper lyrics at last! I knew after about the second time I heard it that the theme was entirely in Engrish, but with such high speed and dodgy pronunciations, the only line I interpreted correctly was ‘Do you kill your friends?’. 😛

Continuing straight from where ep 19 left off, Eleventh takes advantage of the distraction created by Aru’s revelation to fire at Yuno. He misses, however – Yuki pulled her out of harms way! Aru can’t believe he’d still want to work with her, not knowing her true identity, but Yuki doesn’t care.

The scene then changes, and we see Aru waiting near the giant pit outside Yuno’s house. He wishes he could have convinced Yuki to part with Yuno… guessing he knows something else about her? Elsewhere, Minene swears she’s going to kill Eleventh and become god. The mayor and Eighth are shown heading somewhere by car, their confrontation with First and Second clearly over for now. Finally, we see Nishijima struggling to decide whose side he should be on… he sends a map showing the location of Eleventh’s guards to Minene by email, but claims he’s only paying her back for her cooperation so far, and that this is the last time they’ll work together.

After the OP, we see Minene sneak into a building in Sakurami University, where she finds an enormous supercomputer! Shortly afterwards, both Eighth and Eleventh show up. Eleventh explains his plan to hook up the server diary to this computer (named HOLON III), so that everyone in the city may have a blog account and become an apprentice user! Minene doesn’t like the sound of this, and throws a grenade at the mayor… which he catches and throws back at her. His diary is SCARY. Minene’s is also useful when it comes to making a quick getaway though, and she escapes the building unharmed. Outside, Nishijima sees and reports the explosion to the other guard teams.

Getting out of the building is one thing, but the surrounding area is now full of guards searching for Minene, and Eleventh’s diary allows him to send them to all the right places! Fortunately, Nishijima has since changed his mind about whose side he’s on, and he helps her find a safe hiding place while sending the guards off in another direction. Minene asks the detective why he decided to save her… and his response was not what I was expecting.

This scene… hilarious stuff.

Inside the computer room, Eighth finally reveals the location of her server diary – she’s been wearing it underneath her apron the whole time!

While Minene and Nishijima flee, the detective asks her for an answer to his proposal, but she wants to get back to business. Still, he persists. Eventually, Minene promises to do anything he says if he can destroy HOLON. But while this development has been largely comic relief up to this point, she thinks to herself about their relationship, wondering why she got so flustered when as a terrorist she knows she must live alone.

And so the attack resumes! Minene uses flash grenades to gain access to the building again… but the same tactics don’t prove as effective once inside, as Eleventh’s guards are now wearing goggles (again the result of Eleventh’s diary predictions)! They soon overpower her, but just as she is about to give up she has flashbacks… guessing we’ll learn her story in the next few episodes, but right now we only get a few hints.

Defeated, Minene prepares to detonate a bomb, aiming to blow herself up along with the guards who captured her. Instead, Nishijima comes to her rescue! Not only does he take out the guards, he also successfully blows up the super computer! Now safely away from the building, Minene pauses to wonder why her actions were so easily predicted by Eleventh, while Nishijima was able to do whatever he wanted… her train of thought is interrupted by the detective, however, when he reminds her that they’re now engaged. 😛

Before they can kiss, however, Nishijima receives a message on the radio reporting a robbery… this act is only one of many events that begin to occur as the population of Sakurami suddenly find they have future predicting abilities… yep, the server diary is now connected to the computer, which hasn’t been fully destroyed as it comes in three parts (hence the name HOLON III, I’m assuming).

In godland, Murmur seems pleased by the events that are currently unfolding. Deus (in very bad shape at this point), seems less happy. At this point, it is clear that Murmur is interfering with his plans, though exactly how or why is a complete mystery. The god tells her he wants to rest, and encases himself in some sort of time/space ball. Inside, he starts devising a plan to regain control… while he still can.

Now on the run from both the hoards of apprentice users and Eleventh’s seemingly omnipotent diary, Nishijima and Minene are eventually found by Kousaka, Mao and Hinata! They’re now apprentice users, and were asked to help out by Aru (who couldn’t be there himself as he was investigating something else). Kousaka’s diary is a slightly better version of his original, predicting both his ‘brilliant moments’ and those of the people around him. Hinata’s keeps a record of interactions with her friends… while Mao’s is all about Hinata’s ‘journey to womanhood’. 😛

They are able to locate the remaining two HOLON units with Kousaka’s diary, and also learn that they must destroy both at the same time. Kousaka doesn’t want to work with Minene though – he remembers the time she blew up his school. Minene is honest with him, saying she may end up killing a lot more people on this mission, and tells the others they needn’t come along.

Outside, Nishijima asks Minene why she spoke that way to the others. She says they shouldn’t have to follow someone who’s going to die, and tells him not to come either. Unsurprisingly though, the detective decides to stay by her side. Additionally, the next morning as they prepare to put their plan into action, they are joined by Kousaka and the two girls. Kousaka brought a ‘secret weapon’ with him – a telescope, which he intends to use to spy on enemy diaries. But while the rest of the group ridicule his idea, Minene is hit by a sudden realization…

…then all of a sudden, she’s in front of Deus. They both have questions for each other, but just as Minene is about to ask hers, Deus slices her in half with his hand… or does he? Minene falls to her knees in shock, only to find that she has no visible wounds, and Deus continues their conversation as though nothing happened. We don’t find out what they asked each other, or what Deus did to her just yet, but I’m assuming the latter is to do with his ongoing feud with Murmur.

Minene and Nishijima enter the North Tower, where one of the HOLON units is supposedly located on the top floor. The other three take the South Tower. But Eleventh knows they’re there, and even knows they’ve split into two groups, and leaves squads of armed men guarding the lift exits on the 20th floors of both buildings. However, when the doors open, the lifts are empty!

Minene has worked out Eleventh’s diary power, and gotten Deus to confirm her suspicions – he can use it to read other people’s diaries, including those of the apprentice users! That’s not all either, apparently Eleventh was the one who came up with the idea of future diaries to begin with, and built them along with Deus! Clearly he spent a lot of time talking to his ‘imaginary friend’ before the survival game started, maybe even more time than Yuki. 😛 This explains why his own diary is so powerful… but as the empty lifts just proved, even Za Watcher has a weakness!

What is this weakness? It only lets him read what’s written in their diaries, so if they delete and re-write the entries themselves, he has no way of knowing whether the info is accurate or not! Eleventh’s worried face once he realized they were onto him didn’t last long, however… and sure enough, as Minene and Nishijima reach the end of a corridor (with him still going on about marriage the whole time), they walk directly into a trap! Eleventh isn’t stupid – he designed his diary and knows its weaknesses, so compensated for them with his secretary’s apprentice diary, which records the mayor’s own actions.

Minene’s right hand becomes a black hole, which I’m assuming means it got blown up… at this rate there won’t be much of her body left that they can show uncensored! Immediately afterwards, Nishijima is shot. 😦 They are able to escape the corridor and take cover, but it’s clear that the detective is very badly wounded. Any chances he may have had of survival are ended when a couple of guards approach and start firing at them, and he shields Minene. Meanwhile, in the other building, Kousaka’s group have also been captured and are being held at gunpoint.

Then, who should show up and take out the guards attacking Minene but Yuki! He claims to have followed her group there, using them as bait. He then orders Yuno to cause havoc while making her way up to the top of the building, and she happily obliges. She also takes a few civilian hostages, which according to Yuki are an integral part of their plan, and Eleventh’s biggest weakness! Which is where this week’s action-packed episode ends.