Future diary

Future Diary, like Battle Royale and Gantz before it, belongs to the forced-fight-to-the-death subgenre of manga, full of capricious puppet masters and bloodthirsty school girls. Yukiteru is a sweet-natured loner who spends most of his time with his cellphone diary and his imaginary friend, the troublemaking deity Deus Ex Machina. The problem is that this trickster god is quite real and out of boredom has created a "game" in which mortals find that their cellphone diaries can predict the future and must use them to fight to the death. Oddly, the only contestant who seems to be bothered by this is Yukiteru. Of the others, his new friend, Yuno, finds it romantic since she's utterly in love and thrilled to protect him; Takao was already a serial killer; and Minene is cheerfully using it as an excuse to blow people up with improbable amounts of explosives. Esuno's art is sprightly, sweet and deceptively innocent. So much so that Minene, a murderous goth lolita gone wrong, is so disturbingly cute that it somehow rebounds and makes her even scarier. Perfect for teen readers who want their fights to the death less gory or who just really like cellphones. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved