Honestly, the promo art did not interest for me. It was only after reading some season previews that I started taking notice of this series due to its premise.
Basically, a boy is suddenly thrown into a deadly game where the participants have diaries on their mobile phones that can predict the future (in some way). They have to use this power to eliminate the other participants and become the last one standing to be granted some god-like powers.
What's interesting is that each person can see into the future in different ways. In Yukki's case, his diary observes things in his surroundings. Yuno's dairy, on the other hand, is a creepy stalker-like observation of Yukki. These 2 combined covers a lot of weak spots, but is still narrow in scope, so they acquired the help of a detective whose diary predicts crimes. The best way to describe this series would be Eden of the East + Reverse-Death-Note, where each Death Note has a different limitation.
I'm loving some of the direction of this series thus far. Some visual weirdness mix with good amount of suspense and action. Camera angles and mise-en-scene are great, though not on the same level as Penguindrum or any Shaft production yet. Drawing and animation above average, with some good action sequences like the scene with the guy seemingly being sucked into a black hole of sorts and all the explosions in episode 2.
The humour is the only thing that seems a bit off, but perhaps they downplayed it in favour of the suspense because of the nature of this series. I also see some potential in this becoming a live-action movie, though they would probably have to change the middle school kids to high school kids just to avoid some controversy. Speaking of which, middle Yukki is a little annoying and whiny. I can stand Shinji (from Evangelion) because they have him a deep psych, and some really twisted, and desperate thoughts, but Yukki is just a little to shallow at this point. His character needs some work, but meanwhile, creepy Yuno is what has me hooked to this show.