Future Diary - Mirai Nikki - Episode 1

Yukiteru Amano is a loner with little interest in actually spending time with people - he does, however, love nothing better than to observe and chronicle the world around him in a diary that he keeps.  That aside, Amano makes up for the gap in his life where friends would normally reside via an imaginary friend of his own construction, a supposed god of space and time who goes by the name of Deus Ex Machina.

When Deus Ex Machina promises to create an interesting game to be played, Amano thinks nothing of it - he's used to such conversations within his mind.  Even when he wakes up the next morning to find his diary already filled out with entries for the day ahead, Amano assumes that he'd simply done it while still half asleep... at least, he thinks so until all of the entries in his diary prove to be true, including those about a mass murderer on the loose in the area.

Such trifles aside however, Amano soon begins to enjoy his life where the future is always mapped out for him - it makes school tests a cinch, and avoiding the bullies that come from his academic success equally so.  This wonderful gift that has been bestowed upon him soon takes a sinister turn, as he discovers that he isn't the only owner of a "future diary" - others have it too, and at least one of them is out to kill him as part of the survival game initiated by Deus Ex Machina.  Much of this is learned by Amano's classmate Yuno Gasai, who seems to be dead set on helping him as she ensures that Asano sees off his first major threat - however, you just can't help but shake the feeling that there's something altogether more sinister about her...

All of this makes for a great opening episode of Future Diary, as it introduces its characters, concept and the direction the series is heading in an effortlessly entertaining fashion.  Admittedly, Amano does risk proving to be another weak and wobbly male anime protagonist, but this could well be offset by Yuno's "interesting" qualities, and between an awesome concept and high stakes to play for right from the start, I have very high hopes for this series indeed.