Yukiteru Amano likes to imagine himself as an observer. He spends his days keeping a diary on his cell phone, but not about himself, about everything that goes on around him. At home, he spends his time conversing with his two imaginary friends, Deus Ex Machina, the God of space and time, and Murmur, his assistant. However, one day he discovers his friends are not so imaginary when they imbue him with the power of a diary that tells the future and forces him into a bloody survival game with godhood on the line.
Future Diary is one of those series that doesn’t sound awesome until you actually watch it. Then it thrusts you into a bloody thrill ride complete with obsessive girls and eccentric killers. Looking to capture some of that majesty? Then give these anime recommendations a whirl.
Anime Like Future Diary
For Fans of Obsessive Yandere Women
School Days
In a stroke of fate, Makoto Itou noticed Kotonoha Katsura on the train ride to school. Too shy to ask her out, he finds himself encouraged by his classmates Sekai Saionji who also has a crush on Makoto. What should have been blissful school days soon turns sour as a love triangle forms and both women find themselves unable to live without Makoto.
Don’t be fooled by how normal and slice-of-life-y School Days starts off, over the course of the series you will watch the male protagonist become a man slut and his dalliances slowly drive normal girls insane, similar to Yuno from Future Diary, although she might have went crazy all on her
Elfen Lied
Lucy is a special breed of human known as a Diclonius, born with short horns and psychic powers. Kept locked away for study in a government facility, Lucy uses her power to stage a bloody jail break, but sustains a head injury and falling off a cliff, she is rescued by two college kids. Riddled with amnesia, her new friends are about to be pulled into a vicious new reality.
You like pink-haired beauties that kill people without any real moral confliction about it? Like the moral dilemmas of a person that looks on? Then Elfen Lied is a good follow up to Future Diary. However, it doesn’t really contain any particularly deep intrigue to the story line.
Guilty Crown
After being ravaged by the Apocalypse Virus, Japan has fallen under control of the GHQ, an independent military force dedicated to the restoration of order. However, a guerrilla group called Funeral Parlor seeks to put an end to their despotism. After a fateful run in with a key member of Funeral Parlor, weak and anti-social Shuu Ouma finds himself with a powerful new weapon, the ability to pull out manifestations of a person’s personality to wield as weapons. Now he must make use of it in order to free Japan once and for all.
Although Guilty Crown is less wildly violent than Future Diary, it does have quite a few similarities to it. Both main characters feature similar personalities and conflictions and are accompanied by a pink-haired girl that would do almost anything for them.
For Fans of Unravelling the Mystery
Eden of the East
On an event known as “Careless Monday,” Japan was hit by a series of missiles in a terrorist act that fortunately did not harm anyone. Months later as the attacks are all but forgotten, Saki Morimi goes on a celebratory trip to America. There she falls into unexpected trouble with a man named Akira Takizawa, a man that appeared before her completely naked. Drawn into the mystery around him, Saki’s life is changed forever.
While not violent like Future Diary, Eden of the East captures the same intriguing mystery of people trying to unravel what is going on. You follow unique and well-animated characters as they go deeper into the rabbit hole and find the important plot points. Both main characters also come with a special cell phone, but in Eden of the East, it only comes with a bunch of money on it.
Another
Ever since 1972, class 3-3 in Yomiyama North middle School has had a strange tradition of pretending that one of their students did not exist. When Kouichi Sakakubara transfers into the class, he finds himself drawn to a girl that no one seems to notice. Not paying heed to the warnings of his classmates, all hell is about to break loose.
Another and Future Diary have two things in common – absolutely brutal deaths and a mystery that you are eager to see what comes next. While Another maintains more of a gothic vibe, you watch the people around the main character meet some seriously grizzly ends.
Chaos;Head
One day Takumi Nishijou hears about the brutal New Gen murders that have been occurring around the city. Although thinking it doesn’t involve him, strange events begin to go on around him that has him struggling to separate illusion from reality.
Serial killers, stalkers, a loner main character, paranoia, and a reality that can be easily bent – all of that can be used to describe both Chaos;Head and Future Diary. The relationship between the two main characters is extremely similar with the common themes of a good old murder mystery are present in both.
For Fans of Survival Games
Btooom!
Unemployed and living with his mother, Ryouta Sakamoto’s only real achievement is being the top player in Japan of a video game called Btooom! However, one day he wakes up on an island with nothing but a small green crystal embedded in his hand. He soon finds out that someone wants him and others players to play Btooom! for real if they want to live.
Both series are about survival games. In Future Diary, they have special diaries, in Btooom, they have special bombs. While Future Diary has some more supernatural elements like time travel, Btooom stays more on the real side. The real differences lies in the main male leads, Yukiteru is morally conflicted, but Ryouta is not quite so caring.
Danganronpa
Hope’s Peak Academy is an elite high school where those accepted are given special titles that showcase their skills. This year, only fifteen were accepted, and one of them was the completely normal Makoto Naegi who got in on sheer luck. The students are thrilled to be in such a prestigious school. That is, until they are trapped inside the school by principal and bear Monokuma who tasks them with killing one of their peers and not getting caught by the others in order to escape. However, if they are caught and found guilty in a trial, they will be executed instead.
While the characters in both series are supremely different, both Future Diary and Danganronpa excel in creating unique characters that are an absolute pleasure to watch. However, the major similarity is that all these people are forced into playing a game that involves killing others if they ever want to escape.
Deadman Wonderland
Ganta Igarashi is pumped up for his class trip to the prison amusement park where inmates fight for the public’s amusement. However, when all his classmates are viciously murdered by a mysterious man in red, Ganta gets blamed for the crime and thrown into the very amusement park he was so excited to visit.
Both series feature a young protagonist that discovers they have a special power, then proceeds to violently fight others with similar powers in order to survive. Like Future Diary, Deadman Wonderland is stylishly violent with moral dilemmas abound. Unfortunately, Deadman Wonderland doesn’t really give a satisfying conclusion.
Did we gloss over one of your favorite anime recommendations for Future Diary? Tell us about it in the comments section below.
