I am terrified to discover that there are Gasai stans out there.
The Yandere is not your waifu! What is wrong with you?
She's a very compelling character, but I don't think you're supposed to fall in love with her, unless you have a death wish!
This is one of the few anime where the main couple is confirmed to fuck.
In keeping with the trend, anime labeled "romance" prevent their main couple from having a successful romance, where young teens who are busy murdering people can still get together.
* grumble *
And with a set of Twelve Diary Keepers, you have to ask who the favorite is. I think I liked Seventh best of the intermittent keepers. (I'm disqualifying the recurring Fourth and Ninth from this contest. They were also great.)
Special shoutout for Akise's gay infatuation with Amano. Special anti-shoutout to the way they played it coy for the whole show up until the kiss, leaving people who are allergic to get romance to justify it to themselves by pretending he only did it to drive Gasai over the edge.
Amano is a little bit of a wimp. But that's fine; his nervousness in the face of having to kill is perfectly normal and serves as a great comparison toward Gasai's willingness to go in axe-first.
Death Games are fucked up. It's worth acknowledging that.
Gasai won't be winning any Best Girl contests, but she might just win the most sympathetic Worst Girl contest.
Also, it has the stones to say it's going to make you root for the Yandere, which is shocking.
Now, there's no way that Amano and Gasai's love can not be fucked up. But even so, you want them to have some happiness.
But in the end, it all makes sense, and that's great.
People praise _Bakemonogatari_ for its interrogation of the Tsundere stereotype and what it would take to make a person behave like that. _The Future Diary_ does something similar for the Yandere.
So, let's get serious: despite having Amano as the alleged narrator, this is really Gasai's show.
We as the audience are left asking, <what's up with her?> It's not immediately clear if she's crazy in a real way, or just in whatever way is convenient for the plot.
I appreciate that the streaming delivery (on Hulu, at least,) kept the post-credits shorts. So many of these get cut off in this day and age.
So, what's my takeaway?
I really enjoyed it. The stakes started high and just for higher. They ratcheted up the tension without ever breaking suspension of disbelief, even when we got to the time travel and godly powers level.
This is 50% happy ending delivery and 50% fan service (of the return to the characters you love sort, not the panty shot sort. Well, mostly.)
The Third World Gasai is having déjà vu and memories that don't make sense.
She goes on a quest to the spirit realm and retrieves the fragment of Second World Gasai's memories, then breaks through the dimensional barrier to be with Amano again.
But are there OVAs?
Of course.
On called simply _The Future Diary OVA_ predates the series and is basically a <we should totally have an anime> proposal covering a few scenes from the first few episodes. Nothing noteworthy.
You want _The Future Diary: Redial_
We see all the diary keepers in the third world, living decent lives. Better than they had in the second world, anyway.
And we see God Amano, sitting in the void after ten thousand years, pining for the love he lost and cannot ever have again.
Amano rejects the false world and breaks free to confront Gasai. He tells her to kill him so she can be the God of the second world. But she can't do it and kills herself instead, leaving Amano the winner.
Well, "winner".
God Gasai confronts her younger self. But the younger Gasai is still innocent, and hopes that her mother will recover from her depression. She has not yet given in to despair.
God Gasai hesitates just long enough for young Gasai's parents to arrive and protect her.
Causality ripples in a way that helps the Future Diary users.
Twelfth's vigilantism let's him catch Third.
Sixth's parents aren't killed and her cult doesn't go evil. Fifth's parents don't join.
Eleventh sees the end of the game in his prototype diary and tells Deus.
Ninth calls Fourth to warn him about his son's heart disease.
Gasai would fall for anyone who allowed her to cling to them. Amano would fall for anyone who protected him.
Clearly the right way to solve this is to seal him in an illusionary world where she doesn't exist.
Amano interferes to report Gasai's parents' abuse of her to the police.
But God Gasai arrives to take her own place, and she's grabbed some insurance: Amano's parents.
Ninth and Amano flee with young Gasai.
Ninth tells Amano he's better make up his mind who he wants to save.