Being erased from this world means I wasn’t in this town

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Well howdy folks. Good to be doing a full review again, been awhile hasn’t it. Well for this review, I’ve chosen the most hyped – or hated show (this being based off of MAL review community) of the season; Erased or better known as Boku dake ga inai machi (trans; The town where only I’m missing). And for the record, I’m coming in at a different angle. So let’s get started as to why this series gets people hot under the collar.

Hole view:

The story follows 29 year old Satoru Fujinuma. A struggling mangaka, and your local friendly pizza delivery guy. That’s not the only thing Satoru has. He has the power to time-travel back in time by 5 mins. He calls this power ‘revival‘ (in the manga he calls this rewind, but that’s beside the point). By going back in time, he can alter or change the tides of ones fate. And if he fails.. then he gets another shot at it, till he gets it right. By chance he ends up being framed as a murderer and uses this power to go back in time. The problem is he ends up… as a kid. His mission is to alter his own fate, well as another; Kayo Hinazuki.

Straight off the bat, you can see the major problem with the premises. And that is the power of revival or time travelling. The power of revival has no explanation or any major rules to it what so ever. Like how did he obtain it, is it triggered by emotion or circumstance(s)?. The actual triggering is never explained, only a blue butterfly (nicely done) gives a visual clue to Satoru that a ‘revival’ moment is coming. The only rule that it has, is contradicted – in the first episode. The power can also be seen as a plot device, however the power is not the main focus of the story. The other problem that besets the show is; cause and effect, in other words the butterfly effect. What is the consequences of using said power?. It never explains or explores the powers fully. And that is just the first problem.

The other major problem the story has is the amount of plot conveniences. For instances *spoiler alert*; when his mother deducts who the killer is all them years ago, rather than tell the police. She ends up getting murdered herself. Which is the main trigger for Satoru to go back in time. Are the plot conveniences a necessity?, unfortunately yes. With only 20 minutes and 12 episodes. The show is without a doubt hamstrung in these restrictions, it doesn’t have the time to explain everything in minute detail – which is what most mystery genre excel in. Essentially it has to spoon feed you the answer. Rather than letting the viewers working out the answer. If it was stretched out to 24 or 25 episodes, then criticism levied at it is justifiable.

The main running theme through out the show; child-abuse. The show certainly puts of a lot of emphasis on child abuse (for the most part). Even graphically showing that one of the characters (Kayo Hinazuki) getting a major beating from her mother. Despite the showing some bruises on her, initially. That would have been enough to imply domestics are happening. So was it worth showing the abuse at the hands of her mother?. It certainly wanted to tug at the emotions, or ‘feels’ and to garner victimisation on to a character. And it achieves that at some level, since child abuse is a very serious subject and it should be handled delicately. However some would say this effect is used as cheap shock value, or underhanded emotional manipulation. Really? I say.

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The show is without a doubt hamstrung in these restrictions, it doesn’t have the time to explain everything in minute detail

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The other themes that I found running are more nuanced and subtle which are; nurture, environment, a slight touch of existentialism and social appearance. And they are some way correlated to the characters, which will be explored in the next section.

Characters:

Satoru Fujinumua is the MC. The story not only revolves around him, but is also seen from his point of view – as seen with his inner monologue. A cynical, world-weary, aloof, detached person. Who has very little to no friends. Working as a struggling mangaka and a pizza delivery guy, he seems to enjoy working on his own – but feels unsatisfied. Airi tries to break his stoic, cold demeanour towards others, in hopes of him opening up. Coupled with a strained relationship with his mother. His adult life in general is in the mire. When he had the chance of going back to the past, he knew this would affect his adult life in the future.

This is where I found the nuances of the two said themes. In his adult life, Satoru has little support, in terms of friends & family. These two are crucial in one’s life, as they are pillars of support and growth. They create the foundation as to how far you will go in life. Because he didn’t have that initial foundation or lacked a pillar, he found himself where he was in life. Unsatisfied and detached from the rest of society. So when he became a murder suspect, he had literally no one to turn to. When his powers kicked in and went back, he took the chance to kill (no pun intended) two birds with one stone. Better his own life and save the victims.

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His adult life in general is in the mire. When he had the chance of going back to the past, he had a chance in changing what would affect his adult life in the future

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As a child, he had far more support and growth. The amount of support he got from his mother is unbelievable. She was his rock, every decision he made his mother supported and aided him. Compare that to his adult life. Where things are taken for granted in his adult life, he cherished the time spent with his friends and mother as a child. This created a very loving, supportive environment. Something he lacked in his previous life. The emotional growth really came from the interaction with Hinazuki. However the catalyst for this will be mentioned later. Regarding Hinazuki.

Kayo Hinazuki the leading lady. Not much is shown or seen once her arc in the series is over. But what is important is the series main focus on her, since she was the first victim of the child murders. Coming from an abusive home, Hinazuki had or made no friends. This is due to the mental conditioning her mother placed on her. To hide the bruises on her body and to avoid being detected that she is being abused by her. This lead to Hinazuki having a cold, distant, emotionally stunted personality – broken in other words. This however changed when Satoru made the effort, to befriend the lonely Hinazuki. Being ostracised from her peers, and her mother. The show clearly wanted the viewers to feel that Hinazuki is a victim. But with Satoru’ help she warms up and starts to feel emotion, something that Hinazuki has never felt before. Her emotional growth is credited to Satoru.

What’s really interesting about the two is this; both parallel each other. Both feel alone, when Satoru is around people, whilst Hinazuki is without. Both are raised by a single parent (Hinazuki’ mother boy friend doesn’t count), both are socially detached. But this is where the differences are shown. Satoru comes from a loving, stable environment. That encourages growth and fundamentally gives support. Whilst Hinazuki is diametrically the opposite, she comes from an environment that is unstable, abusive, unwanted and unloved. Where support or growth isn’t an option to be had. As seen when she breaks down when she sees the plate of food given to her; one showing tender love and care, the other abuse and neglect.

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The show clearly wanted the viewers to feel that Hinazuki is a victim. But with Satoru’ help she warms up and starts to feel emotion, something that Hinazuki has never felt before

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The two mothers of the show are really something. Both are diametrically the opposite of each other, as stated in the way they bring up their off-springs. Sachiko Satoru‘ mother is the biggest star to come out of the show. Her guidance and support are crucial to Satoru. Being a victim to the child murderer. She played an important part in his re-living of his child-hood. Unlike Akemi Hinazuki‘ mother. Who is selfish and uncaring towards Hinazuki. The show depicts Akemi as a struggling mother and we should feel sorry for her. Unfortunately this wasn’t shown in the best light and handled really badly. Also I did get the distinct feeling that the Hinazuki household comes from an impoverished / below the bread line background. Also her mother came off as cartoon-ish in terms of her behaviour towards Sachiko.

Now this is interesting, Jun “Yuuki” Shiratori is framed as the child murderer. Now why is it that he was convicted as the murderer?. It’s really simple, it boils down to social standings and appearance. Yuuki is usually hanging around young kids, so the perception of him is that he is a loner, a weirdo and has no friends of his age. In contrast that to the killer. Where “his” position is that of; high standing, well-respected, well liked by his peers and society in general – he got away with murder literally. In essence social attitude and perception is the main reason Yuuki got convicted.

I don’t get why Airi gets a lot of stick. Sure she is a supporting character, and has little development. But some reviewers are really taking the whole candy bar incident to a whole another level. It’s not the fact that her parents divorced over that; it’s the principle of theft. Not the item itself. It could have been any item (of value) stolen and the result would still be the same. Also, this is where she doesn’t get the credit; she is the main catalyst for Satoru’ emotional growth.

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The two mothers of the show are really something. Both are diametrically the opposite of each other, as stated in the way they bring up their off-springs.

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As for Satoru’ other friends. Kenya is the only stand out support character. He is intelligent, which tells me that he comes from a well to do family. This further supports my assertion that growth and nurture is a running theme since he knows Shakespeare. Come on for a 10 year old?. The rest are just merely plot devices and do their jobs decently.

Art & Sound:

The art is really crisp and fluid. A-1 really went all out on this one. The sheer amount of detail in cinematography, camera direction, facial close-ups were all stand out. The colours used in certain situations created the right atmosphere and tone; either it being a warm family meal, to being abused, to having some hidden malice. I really couldn’t complain, as you can really tell where the budget went. If the characters told the story, the colours sold the story.

The characters designs themselves are well designed too. What really stole the show for me was Satoru’ VA Shinnosuke Mitushima. And this being his first leading role. His deep, contemplative voice really resounded. It gave weight to the inner monologue of Satoru. And I think that is what made me like Satoru.

Re;Re by Asian Kung fu Generations is really enjoyable. And when you have Yuki Kajira composing, it really adds the gravitas to the shows production. I really did like the opening for episode 11. It had a nice gag to it, considering that the show refers to someone going missing.

Personal Enjoyment:

“Rocco’ this reads like a psychology thesis more than a review” – well as The pantless anime blogger correctly stated, the genre that Erased is; mystery, seinen and psychology. Yes the show is pegged as psychological – the angle which I came at. The problem with that, is the genre is buried underneath seinen and the so called “mystery” in the show. Or that the subject has gone over everyone’ head. It does little to point anything out, and when it does it drops the ball with it. Case in point with the killer – his whole existence is in question. The show does next to nothing in explaining his motivations, or reasoning. It just drops some weak explanation about some Syrian hamsters he killed as a child. And we, the viewers were expected to accept that out right as a solid explanation?.

The problems of Erased is very clear once you see past everything. The pacing, the plot conveniences, plot devices, support characters – do exactly that support, but lack any form of development. With such a limited amount of characters, what really harmed it more is the poor build up to the reveal of the killer. The show does very little in trying to conceal who the killer is. Even with a supposed red herring thrown in. It does nothing. It makes it too obvious. As stated above the mystery suffers from lack of time. Or rather it doesn’t develop the mystery enough, with such a small cast. On top of that, it has a rather lacklustre ending.

The show had so much potential, and it really wastes it. Each of the genres clash with each other, but work as separate components. The positives still out way the negatives. For just entertainment value, the show shines. For anything else it drops the ball.

For this I’ve given Erased:

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Grade: B-

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I hope you peeps enjoyed reading the review, it certainly came at a different angle – one which I hope has conveyed it to you. It is one of the longest one I have written to date. If so, feel free to leave a comment down below. So thank you again for sitting and reading this review. Till then I’ll catch ya’ next time ; ).

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