Boku dake ga Inai Machi

Losing a beloved person would certainly leave any person stricken with grief and confusion: self-condemnation and thoughts of preventing such death are things that would cross anyones mind. Luckily in the case Boku Dake Inai Machi, or Erased in its english title, the protagonist Satoru Fujinuma finds himself able to travel back in time to prevent such tragedy from happening; furthermore, he is set back at the time where a fellow classmate died. This is not everything: the mystery surrounding the death of the girl also seems to be tied to that of his very own family. Erased is a psychological mystery anime that portrays ... human drama, yet sadly was very disappointing, being the characters and numerous plot holes the main culprits. However, it must be mentioned that it has a great direction in animation and a good buildup in the first few episodes, which arguably was enthralling, pulling viewers into the show.

~Story~

The main problem in Erased lies in the little problems that become apparent as the show progresses: these ultimately are magnified by many others, which will be depicted. The concept of preventing occurrences through time travelling has been explored in numerous other works, yet a problem with the anime is the fact that these are completely random, allowing the author to make any necessary changes in direction when necessary. This is not bad on its own, yet instead of using it as means to develop the characters in the story, it utilizes it purely to change the direction in the narrative, which was not done in a subtle manner. Regardless of said issue, it managed to create some tension in the story as viewers never really could correctly anticipate the course of the narrative.

As mentioned earlier, the protagonist is able to travel back in time to his 11-year-old self to prevent a certain death from happening, in a time in which one of his classmates died. However, it becomes soon apparent that the protagonist does not explore said option at all, and instead of going to the root of the problem, investigating the possible murder, he decides to protect Hinazuki, his classmate. Another complication is also associated with the mystery surrounding the murderer: it is very clear who it is, which is not a great issue on its own, but the anime does not offer any alternative that may leave viewers in doubt. In essence, this anime fails at being a good "mystery". The anime also presents human drama, yet was rather poorly portrayed because of the characters actions and all the events tied to those. These were often of very simple nature, such as parents beating their own child, deaths or betrayal just to name some. The main problem with these are that they're cheap, without ever sufficiently expanding on it in a satisfying manner. It must be said that it uses this to its advantage to create tension, but it is just that, tension and shock factor without any strong meaning behind it. In addition, the anime sets up a lot of things, time-travelling, possible consequences of his own actions, yet just never explores them in-depth.

The problems are further magnified by the pacing of the work, which is rather lackluster as well. The introductionary episodes are satisfying, yet as the show progresses, it quickly becomes apparent that important segments that contribute to the overall plot are either too rushed or information is omitted, whereas the more "mundane" moments are too much focused upon. In fact, the majority of the show is centered around Hinazuki and her problems - but to this later. This actually brings into play the positive aspect of the anime, the interludes between the different occurrences, which are generally well executed portraying insight into the characters and their emotional state: however, this doesn't affect the important points of the story. There are just so many improbable events in the story that it just looses any credibility it has, going from nonsensical behaviour of the characters, or just the sheer amount of centering on the violence exerted by a second party - victimizing for the sake of it is not good writing.

~Characters~

The major issue that brought the whole series down were its cast of characters: they didn't act according to their age, their motives/goals were either very lackluster or were just a mess, and ultimately the abrupt changes in behaviour to accommodate the direction in story. There is the 29-year-old Satoru, a typical otaku protagonist being mostly indifferent to society, and has the power to prevent deaths by sneakpeaking into the future. The main problem with this character is his incomprehensible and irrational behaviour he displays throughout the series, such as fleeing from a crime scene he didn't commit or even attempt on murder. In addition, his main goal of seeking the killer just shifts from finding the murderer to protecting his classmate - which in turn brings up the pedophilic tendencies the protagonist displays towards the minor. The anime develops a light romance, which includes Satoru constantly thinking of either being together with said person, or even imagining things when in the bathroom. This came out of nowhere, and just felt very off-putting for obvious reasons. Character development is present, yet is lackluster and limited by the actions of the character himself; rather than resolving the issues on his own, it gets resolved by a second party, which is understandable due to his physical appearance, yet could have been expanded on.

Then there is Hinazuki, a victim of child abuse, which throughout almost the whole series is treated as a mere plot device, rather than human being - it could be compared to seeing a soulless robot. Luckily enough, she gets fleshed out in which through subtle scenes her human side is displayed. Which is a nice change to the constant unnecessary abuse scenes. Other character of interest is the super intelligent psychoanalyst Kenya, who possesses an intellect far superior to that of Satoru despite being only 11 years old. He aids the main character in many instances, yet his motives behind why he supports the protagonist are rather lacking as well, as he apparently was smart enough to solve various issues. Finally, the last character of interest is the murderer: although he is portrayed to be a mastermind behind the scenes, avoiding detection over the span of several decades, he makes tremendous mistakes when the main character is concerned. He ultimately degrades to a simple one-dimensional villain with no convincing motive at all: furthermore, this also raises the question why said person took so many poor decisions and why he just didn't switch his killing target(s) when things became too heated and unfavourable.

The various interactions between the cast are handled poorly in most cases, be it the one dimensional evil parent or perverted manager, or the supporting cast whose poor choices leads viewers questioning their mental age; or just the fact that most act as passive observers. Because of the stale personalities of the cast and their changes in behaviour, the interactions between them feel unnatural: however, this mainly affects the main plot points. For the slice of life moments, these were often well handled by the studio - those were often the most enjoyable parts of the anime, which is a huge disappointment, as it is not the main purpose of the show.

~Animation and sound~

One thing that can be given credit to the studio is its direction and use of animation: this was well done, displaying the various themes the anime had to offer such as loneliness, isolation, happiness, you name it. Through the art it is able to portray the different emotional states as well as physical conditions of the characters; despite executing this well, it is rendered useless when the narrative constantly shows constant abuse, making these little detail utterly pointless, which is a waste of resources. An example would be the focussing upon the bruises of Hinazuki. As for the art style itself, I personally didn't like it and found it off in some situations, be it in the character design or the different facial expressions. The anime also tried to mitigate the problem regarding the mystery behind the killer by applying red eyes to suspects, yet this is a cheap alternative to creating tension, and when everyone is can have those eyes, it loses its purpose.

Concerning the soundtrack of Erased, it often uses the different compositions to its advantage to correctly portray the various atmospheres of the show, intertwining with the dialogue: piano, violins, xylophones, gloomy tones, you name it. There is fact a huge preference to classical instruments, which was a good choice. The opening and endings were equally well crafted, presenting the themes the anime had to offer with some pop tunes to it. As for the voice actors, these generally performed their tasks well, complying with the different personalities of the cast. This wasn't entirely the case with the protagonists, where no significant difference could be appreciated from his various emotional states.

~Enjoyment~

Erased had some potential, yet failed in executing the basic elements of the show, which was due to the little issues that ultimately snowballed into bigger ones - which is a shame, as its direction and usage of animation was befitting and well executed. I quite honestly did not enjoy the series at all, despite being intrigued by the first batch of episodes: the characters, lack of expansion upon key elements as the villain or time travelling gimmick are just a few of the many issues that made it a bad anime. It fails in providing a good mystery with cheap cliffhangers and shock factor to accomplish tension. It praises itself on being a human drama, but it equally lacks in said theme. Now I will admit I never have been a fan of drama, which made it more difficult to enjoy that genre. I personally do not recommend this anime, unless you aren't bothered by the above mentioned problems - which in turn, can make for an intriguing ride. Boku Dake Inai Machi is ultimately a show that feeds itself on cheap emotions and thrills.

Thank you for reading.

~ updated 03/24 ~
English is not my first language so I'm doing my best writing this review, sorry!

Spoilers of the first episodes ahead!

✧ Introduction/the story:
Someone travels through time to save a person he/she cares for. I've already seen this. Madoka Magica, Steins;Gate, Higurashi. No creativity in that aspect, and in the case of Erased it's even worse because the time travel has no explanation at all. This is not a deconstruction and does not present something we have not seen before. This would not matter if the premise was well executed, but this isn't the case either, let me explain why.

✧ The characters:
The MC is ... a cold, edgy guy that is good on the inside, I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it makes him cliche and boring. He is also terribly written, acting like the story needs him to act, he goes through traumatic situations as he goes to work every day. This would be excused if this was a fighting shonen, but we are talking about a seinen with mystery and drama. The main character even acts irrationally running out of his house when a neighbour saw him near the body of his mom and thought it was him who killed her, which is quite impossible too, why would he worry about being accused of homicide if there are some little things called inspection of the crime scene and evidence?, of course the MC has no absolutely no reason to kill his own mother, which poses the question: is the police brainless in this world or something?

In spite of having a 29 year old mind, he still acts like a child most of the time. The excuse given to the viewers is that he wants others to like him (which is kinda contradictory too, because on the first episode he's cold with everyone), for example, instead of asking for all the help he can when he travels to the past, he thinks he can do everything on his own, which is childish and illogical. Nevermind that he is only a bit surprised when he travels 18 years on the past, when he should be extremely confused and overwhelmed by the situation.

The other characters act like soulless robots too, especially the ones that talk to the MC about the murder of his mother like they were talking about the weather, they are also forgettable because most of them act like passive observers.

The actual kids doesn't talk or act like kids in this show, which takes away all the credibility. For example, there's even a little boy who suspects that the MC is up to something, and when he decides to talk with him, it's like he just read the MC's mind. We are talking about a 10 year old kid, not about a private detective.

✧ Satoru's power:
It's supposed that he "applies" his time travel powers to save his mom, but instead of focusing on that, he tries to save a girl he barely knew. Why would he care about her instead of worry more about his mom and his friend? I know the disappearance of the girl and the murder of his mom are kinda related, but there is not a direct factor between the two events, I mean, yes, he can save his classmate, but the kidnapper could abduct any kid they wanted and the events would end up being the same or simmilar.

Also, if the MC's mind applies the time travel like in the first episode, why didn't this happen when he saw her full of bruises? the time travel has no rules or explanation so the writers can make up anything that is convenient for the plot. You can see the inconstancy of his power only on the first episode.

✧ The script:
This anime also presents some themes through the dialogue, such as depression, or even existentialism, but never explores them properly, it feels like they were put there just to turn the dialogue into something "out of the ordinary"

The show also presents pretentiousness by showing how a girl is hit by her mom, which is not even necessary and it's shock factor, only there for people who get emotionally manipulated easily.

And no, the abuse is not there to delve into the psyche of the girl, it's just there to victimize her. These themes need to be explored with more delicacy and should not be thrown in your face like this. If you remove those scenes, the story would remain the same, just implying it with the bruises would have been enough, but no, you need to feel bad for a character about which you know literally nothing more than that she is a cute, but abused child. We can only conclude that this series also fails miserably on the psychological aspect.

Erased also fails as a mystery series, because the murderer ends up being really obvious and they don't give us the opportunity of using our minds or feeling excited about the mystery itself because the way that is developed is very hard-set and they never give it too much importance.

The drama on this anime is also forced and ridiculous sometimes, to the point that they want to convince us that a reason for a divorce could be something as improbable as an accusation of stealing a chocolate bar. And the viewers are supposed to take that seriously and feel bad for the characters. This was also an external excuse for the MC to have an ally.

✧ The villains:
Another aspect in which Erased fails with its writing, are clearly the villains, we have two villains, Kayo's mom and the murderer who killed Satoru's mother and the kids.

First, we're going to talk about Kayo's mom:
At first, the show never gives any reasons for the abuse and Kayo's mom even looks happy while beating her own child. You may say that these things happens in the real world all the time, but that doesn't make them realistic or relatable, because not only was the girl murdered by a psychopath, but she was also abused by her mom with no motives at all.
There's always a motive behind such acts in real life. For instance, does her mom have a mental illness? in other words, on why her mom hits her and not only on the act of abuse.
Then, when it's already late for delving into real problems or motivations, the show explains in literally two minutes the "reason" of her being a abuser, this is presented very superficially and in a way that her, Kayo's mom, ends up being victimized too.

Now, the main villain:
I'm not going to say who they are, but their "reasons" for killing little children are also very bad excused through a very morbid metaphor. We never get to know him enough to know his true motives.

People who are bad just because, are a big problem.

✧ Production values:
This anime has a very good animation with delicate shadows and a soft color palette that mix perfectly with the bittersweet feeling that the story wants to transmit. It's also very interesting how they put 2 voices on the MC to differentiate between his old mind and his young body.
The music is on point with the feeling of the characters and it mimetizes perfectly with the way that the characters interact.

The cinematic effect that shows the memories of the MC is very nice and interesting, but they could have taken more advantage of it. It doesn't fit the story altogether.

✧ Conclusion:
This anime is bad, it has poor theme exploration, it's full of conveniences, plot holes, fails on its psychological aspect and creating a good mystery, the tension and the drama are meaningless and the only good aspects are the production values.

With any established community there are traditions that take fruition from within it. And when it comes to the anime community that tradition can be seen with the ritualistic assignment of labels that is accompanied with every new seasonal lineup. Each season's catalog is cherry-picked through by the ascending masses to be filed away in neat little categories that're decided by whatever the common consensus is at that time. And it's thanks to this unspoken system that we get our "anime of the season," "hidden gems" and "BURN WITH FIRE" shows that, for the most part, seems to be what the general audience agree upon. ... But among these rank-and-filed titles, we always have at least one show that splits the community into opposing camps; with one side exalting it as the next best thing since sliced bread and the other side wanting its head on a stick. These contentious titles ignite the embers of flame wars across several forums and opens the floodgates for keyboard warriors to caps lock the hell out of each other. These are often the most "hyped" show for that given season and tend to remain that way long after its airtime. Ladies and gentlemen, Boku dake ga Inai Machi (or Erased) is without question that title for Winter 2016.

If I was to give a very brief overview of Erased it would be this: engaging 1st half, deplorable 2nd half.

Erased is the type of show that will get under many peoples' skins. There are titles, that upon a 1st glance, you could easily deduce that it will be no better than B-grade schlock, and then there's shows that genuinely get your interest. For most, Erased will be the latter. With a somewhat firm grasp on cinematography, color placement and all around competency in crafting a grounded setting, Erased upon initial viewing, appeared to be one of the most promising prospects from Winter 2016. It exuded this feeling of self-control over its actions that became quite easy to buy into. A reassuring appearance that it will be a smooth ride from start to finish. The reason these kind of titles are more bothersome as opposed to the shows that are instantly identified as bottom-rung, is that with lesser tier titles, there's no expectations set for it. When I view an "Akame Ga Kill" or "Asterisk War" level show, quality is the last thing that comes to mind. I know as a viewer that what I'm getting ready to watch will, at its very best, be easily digestible excerpts of things I've seen done far better. On the other hand, shows that allure me into anticipating something far more substantial carries with it a higher sense of investment. So when these titles fall under their own weight, it packs a bigger punch. As a viewer, there's nothing more disheartening to witness than untapped potential being flushed down the toilet. And like its namesake, Erased "erased" any chances of being herald as anything more than a novelty act.

Instead of reciting the synopsis I'll go right into addressing where Erased showed commendable effort and how it eventually unraveled into a hokey hogwash.

Time-travel as a plot device in any story can be a fickle thing to work with, the slightest overuse or tampering of it to alleviate inevitable conclusions can quickly result in audience backlash with the collective chant of "bullshit!" being ushered out in response. The best use of time-travel is really not using time-travel at all but there's a reason why it's still a compelling tool for writers to dabble with. It can open up scenarios and prospects that previously were made unavailable in the conventions of regular stories. So the reasonable solution for those instances is finding restraint in when and how time-travel is used in the confines of the narrative being presented. This was an area that Erased seemed to have covered relativity well. The main character can jump back in time a few minutes before something tragic happened, as stated by the synopsis. What made this use of time-travel welcoming was that despite this ability, he himself has no true control over these time jump occurrences; the option to jump at will is out of his hands. With this stipulation set in place, Erased found a reasonable limitation to work with. It eliminated the misuse of time-travel by the protagonist to retcon any events whenever the writer sees fit. But as you may have surmised by my statements regarding this show's 2nd half, this established restraint doesn't remain constant, and that spells the first major misstep of the show.

The second major catalyst that crippled Erased was its genre itself. Marketed as a mystery anime, Erased spent a great deal of time foraging through its settings and characters living in it. This is what indirectly set up the first half to seem so promising. There were layers of detail being caked onto the "mystery" story, which helps to better define it to the audience. Erased felt like a place not too far out of reach from our own world, thanks in no small part to the extra time dedicated to making the experience as cinematic as possible. With widescreen angles (Letterboxing) implemented in certain crucial moments, to off-kilter camera angles that helped express messages without the need for expository dialogue, everything the show was doing up to a certain point showed a level of quality not often seen in the anime industry. It was able to build suspense using music cues and proper lighting, giving life to its mystery through comprehensible visual motifs and proper use of color placement. The show expressed capabilities far more common in the world of cinema than what anime usually dabbles with. It's for reasons like these that many flocked to it, labeling it as one of the best without so much as to second guess their stance. And ultimately it's this that also fended off proper judgment for the far inferior 2nd half. The frenzy was too high for rationality to kick in.

While the quality of the show's visual and audible presentation remained relatively consistent, the same could not be said about the writing. When I mentioned the show's genre being a detriment, this is where that becomes apparent. With the primary genre being "mystery," one would think a great deal of time would be dedicated to making that aspect as foolproof as possible, but what we got was nothing short of underwhelming. To those unfamiliar with the purpose of a 'red herring' in a story, it's something or someone that's manifested and exists for the purpose of misleading the viewer from the truth. It's like the slight of hand trick practiced by a magician, while the real action is happening out of sight. A red herring isn't supposed to be your answer but rather a falsehood that takes on the shape of an answer. In a mystery story, red herrings are those clues that lead to a dead end, or the suspects surrounding the true culprit that detracts the viewer from the correct answer. At no time is a red herring suppose to be a final conclusion. Even when there is an attempt to subvert this fact, all that does is make what appears to be the "truth" to be nothing more than another red herring in disguise. So when Erased effectively missed this fundamental fact, it is nothing short of baffling.
In what was an attempt to curve the obvious fake out into the actual truth, Erased single-handily shot itself in the foot. These are the actions of a satire that pokes fun of the genre, not a show that is a part of it, which made the mystery of Erased to be an unintentional joke to those keen to this fact and an underwhelming reveal to those still infatuated with the show up to that point. No one walks out a winner, both cynics and fans alike lose in this situation. Had Erased place in some kind of deviation from the elephant in the room this wouldn't be a problem but poor planning sadly killed those chances. This anime was one script revision away from being passable.

Even if one was to view the show as a thriller (a very common excuse used by detractors that stand against the title's criticisms), it still doesn't hold much merit. A thriller, like its namesake would imply, is a genre that's supposed to "thrill" the audience with an exciting, often intense plot, where the tension feels ever-present and a sense of urgency is placed on the viewer for the character's well-being. It's wound up dread followed by cathartic release. A very textbook component that's the backbone of any successful thriller. That being said, it's hard to be "thrilled" when the narrative makes irrational decisions that quickly breaks immersion, or deflate any tension that was built up with an anticlimactic conclusion. You're supposed to be in a state of nervous anticipation as to the outcome of a storyline, not scratching your head questioning the leaps in logic of said outcome. If a convenient ticket out of every impending danger is offered to the characters, then how could their predicament be anything short of a temporary bump in the road? Without a proper end result to any build-up, the show is essentially leaving you mentally flaccid. When a show continuously makes decisions that negate risk or impending danger, then it ceases to lack consequence in the eyes of the viewer. A thriller with no substantial consequence is like a mystery with no red herrings; and wouldn't you know it, Erased ended up being insufficient in both aspects.

This half-baked writing also seeped its way into the visual presentation, as the show's ineptitude in handling its symbolism and motifs became quickly apparent. What is important to note is the proper usage of these elements in a story and not the actual meaning of said elements. In any form of grounded storytelling, symbolism and motifs are suppose to be implemented with finesse. They're placed there to add subtext to what is being presented at face value. They're things that don't necessarily need to be identified to properly understand what you're watching, but upon analytical inspection, adds a new layer of meaning to what is presented on screen or implied in the narrative. To put it in layman's terms, they're like brownie points for those that dig deeper into the subject matter they're presented with. That being said, when these literary devices are spoon fed to the audience, it defeats the purpose of their usage. At that point, it's no longer a praiseworthy effort, but something that's equally detestable with the likes of lazily implemented expository dialogue. It's the difference between letting the visuals and action speak for themselves, oppose to beating the audience over the head with the obvious answer (Yes MothersBasement, red = danger.. In other news, cows go moo). Something being symbolic doesn't inherently make it good, an aspect that Erased failed to comprehend.

And like a snowball effect, all these shortcomings kept on culminating into something far too glaring to be rectified. This brings us to the conclusion of the plot in the show's 1st half, which saw our protagonist Satoru muster everything in his power to protect Kayo. All of the show's efforts were slowly crafted around this plot. It was a gradual buildup to Kayo's revelation in the story. This brought with it the show's best efforts. Viewers were swayed into investing in this conflict, which became more gripping by each new episode. "Will Satoru finally save her?" "Would his efforts be in vain?"; these and many more questions were raised along with the stakes as things drew closer to its final destination. And after all the layers of suspense, all that attachment, all that investing... the conclusion quickly deflated in value by a poorly-realized, rushed solution that saw a character be re-written and patronized, while simultaneously removing one of the central focuses from the story entirely. So when one of the biggest investments for many viewers were removed from the equation, all these aforementioned issues that were initially dismissed, no longer had anything to hide behind. The shit was out in the open, it was just a matter of stepping back to finally realize it.

If I had to say what the biggest issue with Erased was it would be that all of the great aspects of it, all of the promises it made, and all of the standards that it set, was quickly counteracted by the occurrence of everything in the 2nd half. While the same issues were also there in the 1st act, it was never made apparent when the show pulled focus away from it. For every high point that Erased offered, an equally appalling low point balanced it out. It was a duality that kept it from being any better than where it ultimately ended up in the end.

Enjoyment: 6/10

For the first 6 episodes or so Erased was quite the enjoyable experience. I was invested in the conflict, I wanted to see the protagonist succeed, as well as uncover the mystery surrounding the killer. The show had my interest. But just as quickly as it drew me in, it lost me with the same speed. The 2nd half of Erased is nothing short of painfully mediocre to intellectually insulting. It was disappointing to see what it could have been, and how it turned out instead.

Overall: 4/10

Erased could have been great, what it did well it did exceedingly well, the potential was there in ample proportions. But almost like a countermeasure, when it faltered it didn't just trip a little before catching itself, no, when it fumbled, it pretty much fell down a flight of stairs, breaking every bone on its way down. So do I recommend Erased even with acknowledgment of this? Yes, I do. Despite what trouble it had, later on, the 1st half was enjoyable enough to still warrant giving it a try. You may not like the end result but there's enough inherent value here for the 12 episodes to be worth going through for yourself.

"Everything will eventually rot away. As long as the factor of time continues being the apex predator of the universe, the inevitable decay of all pain and memory is unstoppable." - Overpriced Mac computer

In the beginning of 2016 an anime with an absurd rating popped out of nowhere on Mal's top list.That anime was ofcoarse Boku dake ga Inai Machi.Being the tea-drinking gentleman that i am,i've disregarded it as the Oscars did with Edward Norton,but lately i've mustered some fate in humanity and decided to give the short 12 episode mystery a chance.


The story centers around ... a 29 year old pizzaman (sadly that is not Kenji the Enji) trying to become mangaka,while also having convenient time traveling powers given to him by the Magical Space Jesus,that only work when they are needed for the plot.
One day,while driving his fancy pizzamobile,he sees a speeding vehicle going towards a little kid and much like a certain protagonist from Yu Yu Hakusho he decides to be the hero.While managing to save the kid he also ends up being in a hospital.After being released his mom decides to live with him and on the next day in his absence she gets stabbed to death by a shady looking character wearing fedora.When he returns and finds her body some woman conveniently sees him and calls police.The police then assumes him as the prime suspect,but instead of clearing his name,he runs away from them,using his inexplicable time traveling powers given to him by the Magical Space Jesus to go back in time,precisely 18 years ago and find and prevent the killer from killing his mother.But to do so by his logic he must become someone else,he must become something else.That something is his 11 year old self,By doing that he assumes that if he prevents the kidnapping of a classmate of his - Kayo,he will exculpate his friend who was originally framed for the kidnapping and sentenced to death,leaving the real perpetrator free to kill his mom in the future.So he decides to get friendly with her until the day of her kidnapping,giving a weird uncomfortable pedo vibe.
But the thing is,it really didn't matter which kid would the killed choose to as his victim.Making the entire effort pointless if the wasn't convenient for the plot the killer to be someone that Satoru knows from 18 years ago.
Another thing thing i want to mention is that the emotional scenes in this particular "gem" are probably the worse i've seen in just about anything.I've laughed in every single supposed sad scene there was.

Characterization is probably the biggest flaw in Boku dake ga Inai Machi. The characters are irritating, flat, inconsistent, contrived, and they alone destroy any possibility of this being even a decent anime..
Every single one of them is a bland plot device which acts anyway the plot wants them to act and without a doubt will be forgotten in the next 2 months or so.You really can't tell which one is worse or best since they all suck.
But ofcoarse then most noticable one is the one with the most screen time.That ofcoarse is Satoru.He makes really illogical actions in just about every episode.
The other main character for the majority of the series is Kayo.For the sake of shock factor,she is abused by her one dimentional evil mother, a fact which all the adults around her are aware of,but are unable to do anything about. Child Protective services had attempted to deal with the situation but were unable to gain any concrete proof or even set up a meeting.
Due to this abuse, she's a social outcast at school, preferring to distance herself from other people, hoping that if she wears the mask of apathy long enough, it will become real. After school, she spends her time mostly alone at a local park until 6 P.M., to avoid going home and facing her mother.
The killer is an absolute copy of Mark Jefferson,except that his plans make no sense at all and unlike the charismatic Life is Strange villain,he is very predictable and his motivations are non-existent.
The rest of the characters's personalities can be deducted from their character designs alone.It was like they weren't real life people, with their own mindsets and ideas.
Although the ending wasn't bad,although extremely cheese and predictable,because of the poor character development it didn't manage to become paramount.

The animation as avarage as it gets for this damn age !Nothing more to be said.

The voice acting was as bland as the characters which in this case is a good thing.
The ost was pretty meh.It didn't make my ears bleed nor did it impress me,so it's between avarage and fine.

Although having avarage Sound and avarage animation,this anime had MAJOR phasing problem,rushing until the very end,failing to emotionally connect the viewer to the characters and some''genius'' mind though using monologues to the point of beating a dead horse.

Overall:
Boku dake ga Inai Machi is one of the dumbest show to ever take itself seriously. It is essentially a hackneyed amalgamation of cliches and overused plot devices that clumsily attempts to disguise itself as something greater.
Watch Boku dake ga Inai Machi if you have a weird Deus ex Machina fetish, but otherwise stay away. It does nothing new and it does nothing well. It doesn’t even fail in an interesting or original way, destroying any chance for campy "so-bad-it's-good" appeal. As a result, I can't think of a single positive thing to say about it, and I have no choice but to give it a 2.

Moral of this is.....
It's time to stop!It's time to stop!Ok?No more!Where are your parents!?Who are your parents ?I'm gonna call Child Protective services!It's time to stop !

For some actually good anime that revolves around Time travel i point you not towards Steins;Gate,because chances are that you've already watched it,but towards Noein.Not one of my personal favourites tho,but it did everything that Boku dake ga Inai Machi failed to do with flying colours.Even Crispin Freeman is in it.Who doesn't like Crispin Freeman ?Nobody!

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

Erased is a grippingly cinematic, but ultimately childish and half-baked attempt at an anime mystery drama that makes a mockery out of the serious themes it chooses to incorporate. However, that didn’t seem to stop it from taking the anime world by storm and soaring into the top FIVE on the all time MAL rankings while it was still airing. Yikes. This show is clumsy, saturated in over-convenience, and excruciatingly awkward at times, but it’s obvious that something about Erased really resonated with a lot of people. Let’s find exactly what makes this show popular and, more importantly, where it all went wrong.

Synopsis: ... Satoru Fujinuma, our protagonist, is a detached 29 year old Manga artist who possesses a special ability that he refers to as “Revival”, which causes him to be sent back in time several minutes before tragic accidents that occur in his general vicinity, whether he wants to or not. He will continue to be sent back in time until he stops the event in question from occurring. One day, tragedy strikes, but this time, Satoru is sent 18 whole years in the past. Soon, he realizes that the event he has to prevent is the abduction and killing of one of his classmates, the solitary and mysterious Kayo Hinazuki, which took place when he was a child.

If you couldn’t tell right of the bat after reading the synopsis, Erased was playing with fire from the very beginning. The use of time resets as a plot device carries great power in the context of a story, and with great power comes great responsibility. The problem with time resets is that if you don’t establish strict and appropriate rules and restrictions from the very beginning, it becomes nothing more than a transparently lazy deus ex machina whose properties bend and shape to the convenience of the plot. Nothing breaks immersion like some mystical superpower with no established boundaries that seamlessly drifts in and out of the plot for no discernible reason, only reappearing to solve otherwise unsolvable problems. This is a problem that Erased has, and it’s one of the main things that make the story so impossible to take seriously. Satoru’s “Revival” ability has absolutely no rules. It shows up for no logical reason, doesn’t show up in situations where it did before, contradicts the very short and insufficient explanation we were given of it, and the story can’t seem to decide if he has the ability to consciously trigger it or if he does not. It’s madness. Utter chaos. The foundation of this anime’s premise was so badly botched that it causes the world of Erased to come off as one that doesn’t have any rules, and that is far and away its biggest failure as a mystery drama. I don’t mean to suggest that Revival is the only aspect of this show that is overly convenient and lazy though; the anime is riddled with poor planning and lack of explanation. For example, people show up for no reason and out of nowhere at the best/worst possible moment on a consistent basis, like this is some sort of battle shounen. Erased’s writing is a disaster, plain and simple.

I could talk for a long time about the technical problems of Erased’s storyline, but it commits a sin that is perhaps even more egregious: The bastardization of a mature theme. Namely, child abuse. If you are going to incorporate such a serious and heart-wrenching topic into your story, fine; just make sure that you treat it with the respect that it deserves. Unfortunately, Erased utterly fails to do that. Instead, it merely shoehorns it in as a cheap, lowest-common-denominator way of tugging at our heartstrings. Erased chooses to make us feel bad for its characters not by fleshing them out with personality, but by having them be graphically beaten on camera for reasons that are completely unnecessary to the plot. This edgy, shock-factor bullshit is what cemented my dislike of this show. This is the kind of thing that doesn’t just impede my enjoyment of the anime, but makes me genuinely angry that the writers thought they could manipulate the emotions of the viewers so underhandedly. It’s completely shameless, and they should be embarrassed.

There’s one more aspect of this show’s plot that I can’t resist mentioning... *Sigh… Hear me out on this one. Maybe this is just me, but the entire premise of this show is fucking CREEPY. Seriously. There are some shockingly blatant pedophilic undertones in Erased. There are multiple instances where the protagonist, WHO IS 29 YEARS OLD, gets obviously aroused by the thought of a relationship (or more…) with Hinazuki, who is a child. If you think I’m joking, there is scene in the latter half of the show where Hinazuki is taking a bath and Satoru overhears her from the other room. He then gets a flustered/uncomfortable, flushed look on his face and thinks to himself, and I quote, “Get a hold of yourself. You’re 29.” WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT MAN??? That’s not a one-time thing either! That is a reoccurring gag throughout the show! Who the HELL thought that would be a good idea?! Is this some sort of underground fetish show or something? Was it made for people who fantasize about fucking children while they are also in the body of a child? Nobody is ever going to convince me that Satoru’s reoccurring and vague attraction to Hinazuki is not disturbing as hell. It makes my skin crawl, and more importantly, it makes the show even more impossible to take seriously. This is incorporating humor into your show GONE WRONG.

As bad as Erased’s plot is, even shows with bad plots can often be redeemed if they have a strong cast of characters. Well, Erased doesn’t have that. Not even close, in fact. Our protagonist, Satoru, is your standard white-knight archetype. If you don’t know what that is, it’s when a character is defined entirely by his desire to be morally righteous and help others. There is literally no other defining trait to this character whatsoever! The first episode makes it seem like they would make him deadpan or detached or, hell, SOMETHING in order to differentiate him, but no. Any individuality Satoru may have possessed in the first episode completely evaporates and is nowhere to be found from episode 2 and onwards. He’s just a walking, talking robot who spurns the plot forward with his soulless, mechanically predictable actions. At no point, except maybe in the first episode, did I care about this character, and that is a certain way for a show to fail.

Now let’s talk about Satoru’s love interest (Yes, I’m calling her that. This show knows what it did), Kayo Hinazuki. Kayo is a character that is able to single-handedly exemplify so much of what is wrong with this show, in the sense that she is not a real character at all; she is a plot device, just like the rest of the cast. Her sole purpose is to be used as a literal whipping post just so that justice-kun can swoop in to be her knight in shining armor and pretend he doesn’t want to get into those prepubescent pants. She is nothing more than an object the show utilizes to manipulate the emotions of the viewers; an artificially created victim who exists only to suffer some one-dimensional, interchangeable hardship rather than an actual character with a personality and interesting outlooks, dreams, or crises. Erased is lazy, deceiving character writing at its finest.

So at this point, if you haven’t watched Erased, you may be wondering that if everything I wrote in the above paragraphs is true, what is the appeal of this show? The answer, quite simply, is that the cinematography is very well executed and the directing is very engaging. The environments are always crisp and detailed, plus the shot composition is absolutely spot-on in most instances. There are notable exceptions, but I won’t get into that. As for the directing, Erased presents information to the viewer in a very streamlined, matter of fact manner. Scenes intended to be connected are always spelled out to the viewer through the use of flashbacks, and lots of creative transition sequences are used with narrative accompaniment between scenes. I prefer when shows leave it up to the viewer to deduce certain things rather than being spoon-fed, but for what they were going for, they did a good job. Erased looks good, is animated dramatically, and is easy to digest. Those are the factors that lead to its massive popularity, and frankly, those are the only aspects of the show that can’t be harshly criticized justifiably.

At the end of the day, Erased is just another overhyped anime written for edgy teens that uses cheap, manipulative tactics to emotionally affect the audience, fooling them into thinking it’s a well-written show when it obviously isn’t. It’s immature, terribly inconsistent, the characters are soulless plot devices, and its laughable use of the ultimate anime cliché “time resets” is just the icing on the cake. Erased is a bad show with good animation, and sometimes, that’s all a show needs to get popular.

Boku dake ga Inai Machi (ERASED) is an anime that capitalizes on emotional appeal. It incorporates plot devices that primarily targets the audience’s pathos and on a surface level achieves this very effectively. Unfortunately, these same plot devices are only contrived for the sole purpose of making the audience have the so-called “feels.” From a more logical perspective, they do not make any sense, and because of this, we are left with an inconsistent plotline that is riddled with flaws.

(Side note: minor spoilers from this point on.)

As one example, consider how Kayo was abused by her mother. Although I am sure the author meant to ... incorporate some level of realism into his writing, Kayo’s abuse was ultimately used as a way to draw the audience on an emotional basis. Since society frowns down upon all forms of child abuse, most people would accept it at face value and never question it. But let’s be honest for a second: none of it was explained. Why was the abuse occurring? Were there any specific triggers? Why didn’t anyone notice this if this has been happening for years? And so on.

Plus, was it really necessary to use child abuse like this? There are so many other ways that you could have elicited just as powerful of an emotional response and NOT use something controversial. Being heartbroken, amending broken friendships, taking a stand with your friends, etc. (all of which could have been implemented in the context of this show, by the way) could have just as easily done the trick.

Now aside from the emotional appeal, the rest of the plot doesn’t make any sense either. For something that is so fundamental to the plot, there is no explanation as to how Satoru gained the Revival ability other than the fact that he somehow magically has it. In a world that is governed by the natural laws of this universe, the Revival ability hardly seems remotely realistic and, as a result, it seems to serve no real purpose other than to force the plot along. On top of all of that, the Satoru’s Revival ability seemingly has no rules to it other than Satoru’s free will. Need to use it because you really don’t want to go to jail? No problem, Revival time! Don’t need Revival ever again because you said so? Okay adios, now it’s gone. Forever. Because of reasons.

As for pacing, it spans the entire spectrum: fast, slow, just right – it’s all there. Sometimes the show pulls it off just dandy. The first episode, for example, was crazy fast, but it still eked out the main gist of what was going on: Satoru’s weird mysterious power, the main characters, and so on. On the other hand, the last three episodes were fast too, but they were all crammed in a way that resulted in unsubstantial character development (e.g. Hiromi and Aya) even though it was clear from the first episode that the two of them played a significant role in the entire plot. Furthermore, all of this cramming eventually leads to important parts in the manga being left out – so, manga readers, beware!

Now onto the characters. Sure, Satoru is collected and analytical, but his personality is incredibly dry. A lot of the other characters did not stand out that much either, minus maybe the smart, attentive Kenya. But what I found most remarkable about the characters was that some of them shared deep, meaningful relationships. For example: Satoru and his mom, Sachiko. A true motherly figure, Sachiko not only takes care of Satoru but also his friends. She knows how he thinks and operates on a day-to-day basis. She knows when not to pry into her son’s life, and she respects him for who he is as a person. All of this is reflected in the short yet interesting dialogues between her and Satoru.

Unfortunately, some other relationships end up not being as strong as Satoru’s and Sachiko’s. Satoru and Kayo is one example of this. The middle 6 or 7 episodes were intentionally slowed down in terms of pacing so that the two of them could build their relationship from out of thin air to something deep. And for the most part, the show accomplishes this well. But in the last three episodes of the show, the show takes a complete U-turn, tossing out their entire relationship out the window. Now before you accuse me for being super butthurt or laughing at me because their “ship” sank, let me be clear: I would have no problem with this if this were executed well, but let’s break down what happens. To start off, Satoru’s been there for Kayo from the very beginning, so it really does not make sense how she would turn her back on him after Satoru reawakens. Sure, maybe the other-guy-in-the-picture had gotten to know Kayo when Satoru wasn’t physically around, but there was nothing in the anime that suggested such a thing. Just a minute of explanation and leaving things at the status quo wouldn’t be an issue. Satoru and Airi is another example, since the anime leaves out a huge chunk of their relationship in its adaptation.

Moving away from the characters and now onto the sound and the art. The artwork is animated by A-1 Pictures. They’ve also animated Shigatsu, AnoHana, SAO, and the whole spiel so it is done well. Sound is also great. The music was timed well to create an ominous mood when it was needed. Voice acting was decent too, although none of it was that exceptional.

In the grand scheme of things, ERASED is a watchable show and I wouldn’t mind recommending this to others. Emotional appeal isn’t inherently bad. Think about Clannad After Story, Little Busters! Refrain, and others – they all had their charm, and ERASED is just another show that falls into that category. However, basing an entire plot primarily on emotional appeal – that’s when things start to fall apart and become incomprehensible and illogical. That’s why ERASED isn’t a masterpiece – but it’s not downright horrible either.

Overall: C+

Author's Disclaimer: Please remember, this is my own personal opinion. I critique anime primarily on how the story is executed and how well-rounded the characters are. This review is not meant to target any other review but was intended to provide a more holistic analysis.

It should also be noted that this is a full-fledged review of the entire season.

Spoilers ahead!

Overall: 4/10
ERASED is the single most overrated anime I have ever come across. The fact that this is a 9.08/10 on MAL at the time of writing is unbelievable. Please completely disregard the reviewing credibility of those proclaiming this anime as a masterpiece and a 10/10 because it most definitely not.

Story: 3/10
This is the worst part about the show. The story was an absolute trainwreck that fails to be intriguing or interesting at any point. The mystery element of the show is absolutely dreadful as it was clear who was the killer from the start. This meant the suspense of the story ... was completely meaningless due to the fact that Yashiro was the only person that the show indicated the killer to be. It was the most obvious reveal for a poor excuse for a villain I have EVER seen. The last few episodes were also very anti climatic and rushed, with a last episode being the worst example of these problems.

Characters: 5/10
Now, the characters of ERASED aren't all that bad; but they're nothing special, either. I thought Satoru, Hinazuki and Satoru's mum were all decent characters, but I don't feel the same about any of the others. All of Satoru's friends were relatively uninteresting with no defining qualities and they remained quite one-dimensional throughout the story, blindly following Satoru in his quest to save children from loneliness with no real motives of their own.
Following this, Hinzauki's mother was the poorest character of them all, with her abuse of her daughter being justified through "oh she was a victim too". She also shows no motives for her abuse of Hinazuki but simply beats her as a plot device.
Yashiro is a close second to the worst character of the anime. The show spouted some mumbo jumbo shit expecting the viewers to buy the poor justification it gives to Yashiro's killing.

Sound: 7/10
I liked the OP and ED of the series and this was probably the aspect of the show I liked the most. The OP was riddled with imagery and meaningful aspects.

Art: 6/10
The art of the show was pretty average to be honest. I liked the style and some scenes had excellent use of colour but there were a few CGI shots that I felt to be out of place that detached me from the experience.

Enjoyment: 3/10
I looked forward to every episode of the show during the first 3 episodes but after that I started to easily notice the problems that the anime had and the lack of suspense in this "mystery" anime.

Hype can be a fickle thing when it comes to seasonal anime. At first it allows fans to get excited and anxious for the next episode, but majority of the time it ends up with many feeling somewhat disappointed with what they had been watching. This can be attributed to the fact that only one episode is released per week, and this week-long wait between episodes is a breeding ground for die-hard fans to praise a show as one of the best anime after only having seen a couple episodes. You only have to see the ‘Top Anime List’ on MAL to see that whenever ... you’re reading this, there’s probably at least one show currently airing that snuck its way onto the list, only to slowly drop off once hype dies down and reality sets in. At one point I was a victim of this mentality, but now after experiencing disappointment as a result, I see hyping up a show like this as asinine, often leading to impairments in judgement. Erased, a Winter 2016 anime produced by A1 Pictures is one of the best examples of this: before the halfway point of its runtime, Erased had managed to capture the #4 spot on MAL’s Top Anime List, a feat I have never seen any other weekly seasonal anime do. And as I am writing this it isn’t even in the Top 50 anymore, with many of its top reviews being negative; truly a fall from grace. So, looking back at show over a year since it ended, here are my thoughts on Erased:

*EDIT: SPOILERS ABOUND, BEWARE IF YOU LIVE UNDER A ROCK AND SOMEHOW HAVE NOT WATCHED THE SHOW YET*

The story of Erased follows Satoru Fujinuma, a struggling manga artist in his twenties living a rather dour life, having to work a pizza delivery day job to make ends meet. However, Satoru has a supernatural ability called ‘Revival’ that causes him to travel back through his own time, usually only by a couple minutes, allowing him to stop any accidents or disasters nearby. The catch is that Satoru’s time-travel ability works out of his control, being the setup for the premise of Erased. By the end of the first episode Satoru finds his mother murdered at his house, and is quickly framed as the prime suspect. This chain of events causes Revival to activate, sending Satoru 18 years into the past and back to his 10-year-old child self. Seeing this as a sign, Satoru uses this opportunity to prevent the abduction and murder of three young students at the hands of a serial killer, starting with the first victim, Kayo Hinazuki. The premise alone is nothing special and somewhat contrived from the start, but the way it is presented through great visual direction along with setting up an important mystery element in the murderer/serial killer leaves viewers eager to see how things will unfold.

Episodes 2-4 are what I consider to be the highlight of the entire show. It’s in these episodes where we see Satoru attempt to save Kayo’s fate through befriending her when no one else would. Kayo is cold towards everyone due to domestic abuse from her mother and her overall troubled life at home, so it’s no surprise that she does not care about Satoru’s attempts at friendship initially, but Satoru remains committed and continues to pursue her. The process takes some time but she slowly opens up to Satoru and sees him more like a real friend as time goes on. The 4th episode also leaves us with a cliff-hanger regarding Kayo’s safety; was Satoru successful in stopping Kayo’s fate? Or was all his effort still not enough to change the past? The character interactions, atmosphere and overall direction all worked well here, drawing more viewers into the world, the relationship between the two leads and Satoru’s goal. The supporting characters also get some shine on screen, with Satoru’s mother Sachiko and his teacher Gaku slowly getting more involved in the main plotline, as well as his friend Kenya who seemed to know more about the story than what a boy his age should have. Characters still need more development, questions still need answering and they could use some more exploration overall but from the great setup so far, it’s not surprising that fans were excited for the series and what would happen next. Sadly, this was the highlight of the show, meaning what would happen next would be when the series starts to fall.

It’s revealed in episode 5 that Kayo did in fact go missing, and Satoru having failed to change the past is brought back to his own time, still under suspicion of Sachiko’s murder and goes into hiding. He encounters Aira, his co-worker who believes him to be innocent and allows him to stay at her place. Aira was on screen with Satoru before the time-skip, even admiring him after seeing him save a child from being hit by a truck, but it’s here where her overall character is explored and, unfortunately, there’s not much to go into. Airi and Satoru have a conversation about how she can trust him and she reveals how her parents divorced over the theft of a chocolate bar, this being one of the dumber explanations in the show overall. Regardless, from using that awful example she states how she has conflicting thoughts when it comes to believing in people and their motives. This could have been an interesting concept if explored into, but that never happens, and that seems to be a common nuance I have with the show overall. It has these interesting concepts and elements that could have the series more interesting and deep, but they all end up being undeveloped, underwhelming and a waste of potential.

The writing only gets worse from here. Satoru activates Revival through sheer willpower and reverts back to his child form soon after he is found and arrested by police, and with this second chance he intends to do everything he can to stop Kayo from being kidnapped. His actions go so far as to ‘abduct’ her himself and attempting to murder her mother. Both of these actions are pretty ridiculous, especially when you consider that it’s a 29 year old man that’s doing this, not a child. Eventually he returns her to her mother, who reacts violently towards Satoru and Sachiko, going so far as to try and kill Sachiko with a shovel. Now it is obvious that Kayo’s mother is a loon that needs more than just counselling, but I find it annoying how she was previously shown to have gone through all the trouble of making sure her abuse wasn’t noticeable, given that she was shown to have almost struck her daughter while in the company of other people. Through poor writing as the plot progressed, she proved to only be a one-dimensional villain; a mere caricature that ultimately holds no merits. Unfortunately, she’s not the only one who turns out like this.

It is at this point where I see the story start to turn into shambles. Because of her mother’s actions, Kayo moves away to live with her grandmother and away from Satoru, and with that subplot finished, Satoru begins on working to save the lives of the other two abductees. So far the show was loved by many at this point because of the progression of Satoru and Kayo’s relationship and their individual development; Kayo learning to open up to others and Satoru never giving up on others. It was a cute friendship with hints of romance that swooned the anime community with its cute charm and visual guise. So when one half had left the show, it made many viewers feel like their investment had been somewhat wasted, myself included. However, there are more problems that stem from this change of focus, mainly in regards to the characters. The other two victims are Hiromi Sugita, one of his classmates, and Aya Nakanishi, a student from a neighbouring school and viewers learn next to nothing about either character. While Kayo was never the pinnacle of character development by any means, she mattered so much more to the overarching plot than Hiromi and Aya. It is so obvious that they are nothing more than replaceable characters to make Satoru look more heroic and likeable. Other supporting characters are also left lacklustre, with much of their rationale turning out to be, ironically, irrational. Kenya, one of Satoru’s classmates, is perhaps the biggest example of this, seeming to be a character that was far more intelligent than he initially led on. But he just ended up getting shafted by poor writing, like most of the other characters in the show. The best character by far is Sachiko, and the reason why is because all of her actions are completely logical as well as the fact that beyond episode 1, she is never really explored, thus never even having the chance to get screwed up unlike everyone else.

But there is one character that stands out from the rest by just how awful he was utilized, and that is the real culprit; the man that abducted Kayo 18 years ago, and in present-time killed Sachiko. That man was revealed to be none other than Gaku Yashiro, Satoru’s homeroom teacher. This revelation is made in episode 10 to Satoru minutes before his apparent death by being trapped in a frozen lake. This moment had any sense of shock or suspense completely absent because no one who watched this show was even surprised! The killer’s identity is so obvious that it destroys any element of mystery – which it was initially marketed as – and does not help the show in any possible way. It only takes a couple episodes to figure out who the killer is with the blatant foreshadowing, and even if by some chance you don’t realise it then, it’s simple process of elimination. Just ask yourself “Which characters look like the killer?” and there’s probably only one person that comes up. Another issue I have with the character is how he is presented as a mastermind for half the show, seemingly omnipresent and always throwing the blame to someone else. But towards the end, he turns into this incompetent idiot so drastically that it’s laughable. Gaku being caught as the killer is also incredibly stupid to the point where you legitimately cannot take the series seriously anymore. It’s as if his entire development jumped off a building ala Satoru in the last episode. Terrible

Matter of fact, the entire ending is terrible and leaves a sour taste in the mouths of even the most die-hard fans. From the lead up with Satoru being in a coma for 15 years, to the final moment where Satoru and Airi meet again, it is all so contrived and full of plot holes that makes me wonder just what the original writer was thinking. Satoru becoming a successful manga artist afterwards because he ‘found himself’? I call bullshit! It left so many questions unanswered and decided to go for a “happy ending” than anything realistic, sacrificing what was left of any good writing and revealing its true colours as a show that at its core, was just emotionally manipulative. Its comparable to a slap in the face to those who wanted to know more about the world and the people in it, but perhaps the biggest problem I had most of all was how it completely ditched the concept of Revival.

The very first thing that intrigued me about this show was the Revival ability. While I did care about other features of the show later on, I was always thinking about the concept of it and how it could be explained. Time travel is in no way a new concept when it comes to anime, and the notion for it in this case seemed to just be a simple plot device to move the narrative along, but with time, effort and proper focus, could have developed into something more substantial. But as the show went on, the potential for this slowly dwindled down to false hope. At first, Revival only activates when an accident happens nearby, but on the fourth reset he was able to trigger it by yelling “Go Back!” with no accidents nearby him (of course, this had to happen the minute after the police had found him). And then they have the audacity to say Revival no longer activates once the real culprit is caught. What was even the point? The time resets were only used when it was convenient with all kinds of ways to trigger them, losing any sense of consistency by the end.

When it comes to the visuals, Erased is consistently good with some breakout scenes here and there. The animation was done by A1 Pictures, a studio well known for their shows having a similar art style and while I can see many similarities to shows like Sword Art Online and GATE, Erased’s style feels more refined and unique. This is probably due to how the show tries to go for a more cinematic look; the animation techniques used really helped to intensify the plot and overall atmosphere. It has the kind of visual look similar to that of Mamoru Hosoda films, a kind of spectacle uncommon among the medium. The way Erased was also able to present character emotions, specifically Satoru’s internal conflict is certainly commendable; the kind of detail that is rarely seen in anime. However I do think the overall animation is somewhat overrated when it comes to symbolism. Both their handling and utilization of ‘red is dead’ and spider threads was glaring, almost transparent when attributed to the grounded storytelling the show bears. When these literary devices are dumbed down so much, it should not be praised. Spoon feeding symbolism to viewers like they are all children is just lazy.

Thankfully, Erased does manage to excel when it comes to its music. The soundtrack was composed by Yuki Kajiura, known for her great work on the music from Sword Art Online and Fate/Zero, but here her work feels somewhat unimpressive. Many of the tracks complement the variety of scenes they are in, but overall are fairly typical and generic, with one OST in particularly – Only I Am Missing – sounding more like a classic Ghibli track than otherwise. The OP and ED however, were definite standouts, with Re:Re being an upbeat catchy opening that was never skipped and the ending fitting the mellow undertones quite well. Both were well crafted and made the experience more enjoyable. The English dub overall was well done, with extra compliments for having Satoru sound the least anime-like of all the characters; a rare yet wise decision from the director. Not only was this choice helpful in making the story feel more special, but also helped make Satoru a more likeable and relatable protagonist. The sound effects were the most admirable part of the entire show, as throughout all 12 episodes it has some of the most technically proficient use of basic sound that A1 Pictures has ever produced: from the footsteps in the snow to the whistling wind. These little things made the most impact in my opinion as it further immersed myself into the story and overall experience.

And thus, these are my thoughts on Erased. It set the standard quite high in the beginning, but this turned out to do more harm than good in the long run. I would still recommend the show as it is an enjoyable watch and tells a heart-warming tale of a man trying to save those he lost in the past. But that in no way correlates to a good show. For every aspect about how visually stunning the show is, lies a handful of issues and problems in the writing. And when it slowly exposed these flaws it was as if the show was a snowball rolling down a hill, gradually picking up more plot holes and contrivances overall. But when it hits the ground, it breaks apart under its own weight, leaving hunks of snow in its place. Children still play with what is left, until it slowly vanishes and disappears from the ground. They’re all sad the snow has left but only for a short time, as they all see right on the horizon another snowball starting to make its way down the hill. And just in time for the next season too.

Boku dake ga Inai Machi (also known as Erased) is a show with all sorts of drama: murdering people for no real reason, generic child abuse by evil parents, and divorce over the alleged theft of a chocolate bar. Sounds engaging, doesn't it?

But it also has a comedic side, such as romcom blushing, by a guy in his twenties at a ten-year-old no less. And the running gag of "I said that out loud!" in every other episode. There is also debate on the merits of secret bases and their inherent manliness.

And let's not forget about the murder mystery. There's a killer out there and ... the narrative treats his identity as a big mystery, so the show proceeds to... do pretty much nothing with the idea. There is approximately one plausible candidate and narrative causality firmly points to him. The only tension is trying to figure out if he's a red herring because it's way too obvious already.


"But this show isn't about the killer's identity, it's about other things."

Then why does the show make such a big deal out of the killer's identity? Nobody sensible would blame Death Note for revealing the culprit early on because it's very openly a part of the premise, but here it's treated as a legit mystery. And when the time comes to learn the name, it is painted as the Big Reveal.

And it's not like the protagonist Satoru is really trying. He does very little to actually identify the culprit, instead spending his time in various elementary school romcom antics in the hopes that this will foil the killer's plans.

You see, Satoru also happens to be a time traveler with prior knowledge of the victims. How does he make use of this? By trying to continuously protect any and all potential victims. He throws history wildly off its course, making it impossible for him to predict anything. Common sense would suggest letting history unfold and hanging around nearby with binoculars or something. But nope, can't have that.


So if not the killer's identity, what is this show about, then?

Maybe the culprit's motive? Well, don't get too hyped. His motive barely counts as one. He doesn't have any real reason and is basically doing it for the laughs.

No, I'm pretty sure this show is about elementary school romcom. As stale as it is, the show gets even worse near the end when the romance aspect is put on the sidelines. Because after that there's just nothing left. Other than debating about secret bases, of course.

...You know, this guy is really in his twenties, but after going back in time he acts like a kid anyway. And no, it isn't a cunning facade, he just is that way. One of his classmates comes across as smarter than he does! It doesn't help that most of his classmates are bland and boring to the point I don't really care if they get murdered or not. In a similar burst of creativity, Satoru himself is a generic good guy defined by his desire to help others and has no other personality traits worth mentioning. Aside from liking a ten-year-old girl, of course.

Furthermore, the plot is a trainwreck both in logic and pacing. The protagonist's time travel powers operate when it's most convenient for the plot as a source of even more cheap drama. The last few episodes are so rushed that they crush whatever little characterization there was, romance included.


"But the feels!"

Meh. How am I supposed to find the abuse victim interesting when she is bland, emotionless and barely gets a decent line in the entire thing? Just like the abuser, for that matter. It comes across as a cheap grab for audience sympathy. At least give us some inner thoughts, analysis or commentary, something to think about. The abuse victim in particular desperately needs more lines and especially better lines. Now she's just standing there. The way it's now, it can't set itself apart from the countless other examples of child abuse in fiction. After a while you just grow jaded about these things and can't get "the feels" anymore. At least I can't.

And don't get me started on the chocolate bar. Nobody would get fired from their job and end up in a divorce because of the alleged theft of one measly chocolate bar. Why would he even need to steal the damn bar? Did they think this guy is a kleptomaniac or something?


The show also gives protips on how to conduct police investigations or run from the police for that matter:
Find a body? Run from the cops; that will prove you're innocent.
Obvious police trap? Walk right in.

The police arrested a guy with pretty flimsy circumstantial evidence and some leaps of logic. They somehow know the time the victim disappeared more accurately than evidence and testimony suggest. And boots are apparently the new fingerprints.

Also, get this: if an alleged pedophile kills some girls and one boy, clearly the only logical explanation is that he mistook the boy's gender and thus can't be anyone who knew him well.

...Wait, what?

I wanted to like this show; I really did. But it just isn't good. At all.

Conceptually, it's really interesting. I love time travel stories, so I was excited to watch this show. Unfortunately though, this is probably the worst piece of time travel media that I've ever watched. I seriously can't think of a single one that I dislike more.

I get angry just thinking about this show, just because of how hard they fumbled the bag. This anime could have been something great, but it is so far from that.

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Story: 4/10
The story is not good, frankly. It's good as a concept, but not in execution. ...
Every single moment that adult Satoru was on screen was so unbearably boring. Nothing interesting happens ever when he's on the screen. Even intense scenes like someone literally getting murdered become uninteresting in the adult sections of the show. That's what makes me so angry. There are so many things that are done well in the kid section of this show. So many great, memorable scenes and moments, but it's bogged down so hard when the show randomly pops back to 30 year old Satoru.
The mystery element of this show is abysmal. There is no mystery. It tries to be a 'who did it?' type of story, but with the most minimal effort possible put into it. There is one single person that the killer could be. From the second you first see him on the screen, I guarantee that you will immediately know who it is. It's so obvious that it almost insults the intelligence of everybody watching the show. I've genuinely seen children's cartoons with more complex mysteries. Usually that's something I can look past in an anime, but since the mystery is the entire focal point of the plot, it's pretty hard to ignore.
The ending to this show is possibly the worst ending to an anime I've ever watched. I genuinely can't put into words how much I disliked the last few episodes of this show. I don't even want to talk about it, it's that bad.

Characters: 3/10
There are no good characters in this show. None. The main character is possibly my least favorite MC ever. He's boring, he's underdeveloped, he has no emotion, and he is quite literally a pedophile. He makes the stupidest, most nonsensical decisions imaginable, and is pretty much the most unlikeable person in the whole show, even more so than the villain. The side characters are a little better, Kayo being the main standout. Her story is literally the only thing keeping me from putting this show at like a 2 or a 3. As much as I liked her story though, she still isn't a very good or complex character.

Art: 7/10
The animation is fine. Not great, but not bad. There are a few memorable scenes visually, but for the most part, it's kinda generic. I can't really complain about it though.

Sound: 6/10
The music is alright. The main OP was pretty good, but I can't really remember much outside of that. Not much to write home about.
The voice acting is not very good, especially when it comes to Satoru. There were a few scenes where I literally burst out laughing because of how unbelievably goofy he sounded.

Enjoyment: 6/10
As much as I disliked this show, I'd be lying if I told you that it wasn't an engaging and fun show to watch. It left me wondering what was going to happen next after each episode, although not always for the right reasons. The parts of the show when Satoru was a child were always super entertaining, a pretty stark contrast to the intense boredom I felt when watching every single scene when he's an adult.

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Overall: 4/10
There seems to be a large group of people on the internet who whole heartedly believe that this show is a masterpiece, and that just leaves me wondering... did I watch the right show? Did I watch an unreleased director's cut where he accidentally ruined the show or something?
There are so many things that I despised about this show that I barely even touched on. For example, remember when I said that the main character was a pedo? Because he is. He's a 30 year old man who travels back in time, falls in love with a child, and pervs on her several times throughout the show. It's super uncomfortable.
I could keep going for hours about all the things I hated about this show, but I think you get the gist of it. This show truly had great potential, and it shows in some of the great scenes that are buried under all of the garbage, but that potential was entirely and completely fumbled.

One of the worst shows that I've ever sat through.

Boku dake ga Inai Machi (which I will be referring to by its English title of "Erased" for the rest of this review) is an anime that dangles the lives of innocent children in front of its audience to evoke a reaction. It draws the viewer in with its interesting premise, attractive visuals and admittedly very good opening, but upon further inspection and analysis, it begins to unravel at the seams. Nevertheless, Erased managed to garner a very large fan base, and, as popular shows so often do, a significantly large hate following. I will attempt to be as objective as possible for the sake ... of producing a better review, but to clarify, if you enjoyed Erased, that's perfectly fine. Anyone is free to like whatever they want, but what should not be ignored for the sake of personal enjoyment is the actual quality of the material being discussed. And when it comes to Erased's quality, unfortunately, it is severely lacking. As a warning, this review contains some spoilers.

Satoru Fujinuma is a bitter, 29 year old manga artist whose career never took off. As a result, he spends his monotonous life as a pizza delivery man. However, what Satoru does possess is the incredible power of "Revival", allowing him to travel, according to him, from one to five minutes into his own past in order to prevent an accident from happening. Things quickly take a turn for the worse when Satoru's mother uncovers the truth on a series of murders that took place during his childhood, resulting in the killer from that time murdering her, only for Satoru to walk in on his mother's corpse and be framed for her murder. As expected, his time-travel powers activate, but, for seemingly unexplainable reasons, transport Satoru back to his childhood in 1988. He concludes that the way to prevent his mother's death must be somewhere in this time period, and quickly learns that it may be tied to Kayo Hinazuki, one of his old classmates who previously fell victim to the killer. In order to change the future, Satoru must now find a way to foil his mother's murderer by protecting Kayo, and eventually bringing the unknown perpetrator to justice.

Erased's premise was a large factor in influencing its rise to popularity, and while it does work, it is still laden with inconsistencies and lapses in logic. Satoru is seemingly convicted on the spot for the death of his mother, on what evidence? His neighbour saw him, in a quite obviously distressed state, mind you, lying in his hallway with blood on his hand, and as a result he goes on the run from the police. I can forgive Satoru for running away in the first place to an extent - he's just seen his mother's body, anyone would be horrified, and I cannot imagine that he would be thinking completely rationally at this point, otherwise he would most likely turn himself in and prove, through the sheer lack of evidence against him, that he had no part in the crime. He could even still travel back in time, the murder still took place, and that was what triggered the revival. What doesn't quite add up (another warning for you, real spoilers begin here) is that he continues to avoid the police after returning to 2006 at a later point in the story. For what reason? He's had more than enough time to recover from this incident, and, observing his behaviour in the past, he had recovered, and remarkably quickly. The revival power in itself is rife with flaws that I will discuss later, but while Erased's premise might have been intriguing and somewhat creative, but it seems like little thought went into it, and, perhaps most disappointingly, any potential it may have had was squandered by the rest of the show.

I'd like you to place yourself in Satoru's shoes. You have just witnessed the death of your only parent and been made out as the killer by a ghost of your past. Now your time-travelling ability has sent you back into the body of a child, something you previously never thought possible, and now have the monumental task of protecting multiple children, some of which you had absolutely no relation with, from the very same psychopath that slaughtered your mother, all with the constraints of a child's body, 1988's lesser technology, and a very strict time limit. This pressure would, by any means, absolutely ruin a person mentally, warranting a number of Shinji Ikari-level monologues, and undoubtedly result in some heavy psychological damage. But not to Satoru. No, the worst he suffers from is a couple of freaked-out expressions and the occasional perfectly calm crying fit. He immediately adjusts to being a child again, playing the part of an eleven year old boy with such accuracy that not even the far more intelligent adults around him notice a change. I can buy the 10 year old kids not noticing anything, save for one, who I can only assume was either an elementary school valedictorian or another time traveller locked in the body of a kid. Satoru is so quick to accept every bad thing that happens to him that any chance of him being an interesting protagonist that you root for throughout Erased's twelve episode runtime is completely lost, and he comes off as something of a Gary Stu, lacking any real flaws. Even failure to complete his mission doesn't stop our Satoru, as he can just jump straight back into the past and try again. Supposedly his power activates as a result of deaths happening around him, so please explain to me why he can't just activate this at will? Why doesn't he just run under a bus or something? There's nothing to say that doing so won't take him back to the starting point in 1988, because we have no idea why Satoru's in 1988 to begin with. Actually, forget what I said about him being completely flawless. There's one flaw Satoru does have, and it's a glaring one, which I unfortunately don't think was deliberate, not that it'd be any better in my book if it was. Kayo and Airi, Satoru's coworker, repeatedly ask him the same question: "Are you stupid?" To which I frequently found myself responding "Actually, yes he is." Satoru is an idiot. How he concluded that merely saving Kayo would be enough to prevent his mother's death in the future is beyond me, yet he completely devotes himself to it, even developing something of a romance with Kayo. Let me remind you that Satoru is not a child, but a 29 year old man, whereas Kayo is 10. The show seems to poke fun of this, with Satoru telling himself to get a grip, and that he can't think about these things, a problem he solves by continuing to think about these things. If Erased is trying to be funny, it fails because, shockingly, repeating the same unfunny joke again and again doesn't make it funnier, and if it's actually trying to develop a serious romance between these two characters, it's genuinely quite disgusting. It's a real shame too, because I was honestly thinking of congratulating Erased on making their relationship somewhat believable. It's built up pretty well, and some of their interactions might have been kind of charming, if I could only take my mind away from the fact that they're taking place between a 29 year old loser and a 10 year old abuse victim, which wasn't helped by the show constantly reminding me of it.

The most emotional part of Erased, and the part that its viewers fell in love with, was the Kayo arc, which takes up the majority of the show. Some suggested that once this arc ended, the show took a turn for the worse. It did, but in all honesty, even the first arc was nothing to write home about. Disregarding the potential immorality of Satoru and Kayo's relationship, the entire arc's emotional weight comes from, as previously mentioned, how sorry you can feel for an abused kid. Now, child abuse is horrible and shouldn't ever happen, obviously, but this is emotional manipulation at its most blatant. Of course I feel sorry for Kayo. Regardless of her actual character, which seems to be nothing more than a generic deadpan loli, she's going through real issues that traumatise people. However, when you realise that Erased is manipulating your feelings in such an obvious way and look past that aspect, it all begins to fall flat. When it can't affect you by throwing abused children at you and expecting you to cry, you're left to focus on the bland, uninteresting characters and the weak plot. The "twist" that happens about halfway through this arc is so obvious going in that any emotion it might have brought out of me was completely lost. Seriously, think about what Satoru was trying to do here, and tell me that it makes any sense that it'd work. Really shocking turn of events, guys. After this arc ends, everything becomes even more dull. It's not even trying to make you upset anymore, it just feels like it played its trump card way to soon and now has to tie up all the loose ends, complete with the uncovering of the true villain that I can't believe anyone didn't see coming. I won't reveal who it is, but let's just say that I'd hardly count it as a spoiler anyway, because of how obvious Erased makes it. It's done so that anyone who payed attention in earlier episodes can say "Ha, I told you so!" and think that they're really smart for figuring out the oh-so-puzzling mystery, which I just can't stand. If you have a tolerance for this kind of thing, more power to you, but it really rubbed me the wrong way.

What interested me about Erased before I watched it was the talk about its excellent direction. Unfortunately, upon sitting down and watching it, I was let down yet again. Erased's direction isn't "good", it's just "different". What I mean is that, while it definitely stands out among its seasonal brethren, what people are hailing as intelligent directing really doesn't add anything, and comes off as an attempt to look different for the sake of looking different. I'll admit, there were some shots that I really liked. Satoru's first entrance into his classroom really made him out to be an outcast, divided from everyone else, despite the show not really doing anything with this theme other than implying that Satoru fakes his feelings towards others or something, before dropping it altogether. There were memorable shots, that much is certain, but being memorable isn't necessarily the same as being good. Some of the angles and transitions are very cool, yes, but there's looking cool and then there's substance, and Erased seems to favour the former. One feature of the directing that I found completely obnoxious was the fact that it felt the need to make some things completely obvious. Yes, I am aware that this character is suspicious, that much is observable through their mannerisms and speech. You do not need to give them bright red eyes and hide their face in the shadows in order to prove to me that this character is suspicious. Giving a short mention to the animation, it's not bad. Better than that. For as same-y that some A1 Pictures shows can look, Erased's character designs are different enough to make them all stand out, the uses of colour for the most part are very nice, and, most importantly to me, I noticed some definite fluidity in the animation that I feel many shows lack. It's not breaking new grounds or anything, but it's a standard that I'd really like more anime to aim for.

Let's talk about that time travel power. Time travel is always dangerous ground to cover in any form of fiction, because of how hard it is to get right. I almost feel like congratulating Erased for taking this expectation and, stunningly, still managing to be a complete letdown. The origin of this power is never explained. Ever. Why can Satoru travel through time? How did he obtain this power, how long has he had it, how does he understand its limitations enough in order to tell us the rules in episode 1, but still become baffled when he is transported so far into the past? Furthermore, why does it send him to 1988? Why not just before his mother's murder? When he rescued the child from the truck earlier, it didn't send him years into the past to help with the truck driver's heart condition, so why? Never explained. Not a single line. This is important stuff - you can't just give this power no explained limitations when it's the main character's signature ability that moves the plot forward, and has the potential to remove all consequences from any action. The whole revival power is so poorly done that I could spend hours talking about it, but this review is long enough as is.

Erased wasn't devoid of quality. The visuals can be appealing sometimes, and if the horrifying implications of Kayo and Satoru's relationship were completely unintentional, then I can compliment it on building a relationship fairly well. Despite this, I can't ignore the countless flaws with it. Erased really isn't that different from your archetypal generic anime series, it just presents itself in such a way that it's harder to notice. But I noticed, and I hope that if you didn't, this review might help you figure it out too.

In conclusion:
+Visuals were unique and memorable, and occasionally intelligent.
+A believable character relationship, albeit squandered by gross implications.
- Pretty much everything else honestly, I'm not writing all this out again.

Thanks for reading, and please, form your own opinions on this show. If they differ from mine, cool. Enjoy Erased. It sure won't stop me from picking it apart, just like I won't stop you from having fun.

The Winter season of 2016 is nearing its end and one of the first series to come to a close is the widely popular ERASED, a series that literally everyone and their mother watched and it is thanks to this popularity that, as of now, it sits at the top of MAL's Top Anime list with a whopping 9.08! So is this show as great as people say it is? Well let's find out!

ERASED owes its popularity to a number of reasons. Reason one, it's a time travel story. It is an undeniable fact that the science fiction concept of time travel has been popular ... since its conception in Mark Twain's 1889 satire, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". Since then, the idea has boomed in almost every form of media, to almost any kind of story, thus earning it immense popularity that exists even today. Meaning, anything that is time travel related is sure to be eaten and gobbled up by audiences like a birthday cake. Anime hasn't escaped this either. Throughout the years we were given films and series like Steins;Gate, The Girl who Leapt Through Time and so on and these titles gain massive popularity mostly because of their premise and what they delivered. In short, everyone loves time travel.
Reason two, ERASED is a romantic mystery. And everyone loves those too. Satoru is an ideal character. Despite being a failure in life without many friends, he was a determined person who and this appealed to us. He chose to save his mother and a girl he barely knew to change the dark future and stop a mysterious killer. He expressed feats of bravery and spirit we could only ever hope to have through quick wit and action by attempts at foiling the killers plot. The story itself showcased the trials and tribulations of Satoru as he fought and fought against the dark force that he knows he must overpower to protect his friends and family while trying to save himself from being caught by the killer himself in the process. Does it make you feel excited? Of course it does. We're all suckers for this kind of thing.
And finally, reason three, and the most powerful aspect of this series, the audiovisual direction and presentation. I can talk all day about how fantastic ERASED is at its presentation. Through clever use of score, animation and cinematography, A-1 Pictures was able to create a truly compelling visual experience. You can tell, almost immediately, that there was heart put into the creation of ERASED. Captivating atmosphere, perfect pitches on ambience and tone, amazing timing of the score and use of the characters facial expressions. The voice acting was also superb and the two voice actors who were casted for Satoru did a great job conveying a single personality through two voices; an incredible feat in and of itself! Accompany that with a great OP song by Asian Kung Fu Generation and the mesmerizing ED ballad by Sayuri, it's no wonder the audiences are eating this thing up!

Now we put these three together and what do we have? ERASED, a time travel romantic mystery with great direction and main character! A series that deserves its lasting popularity!

...

...

...

Alright, now that all of that's out of the way, let's talk about why ERASED is garbage.

Like I discussed earlier, ERASED is a time travel story and it is true that people love these timeless tales of time. However, I never said ERASED was a good time travel story, much less timeless. Ugh. ERASED? Timeless? Boy, that'll be the day. Alright, let's get this rant underway.
Now, time travel stories all have their own sort of deal on how the actual time-traveling worked in their world, whether it be through a Delorean, an alien stopwatch, a cellphone powered microwave, literal "leaping" through time or waving your hand at nothing. In ERASED, we have this thing where the main character experiences backtracks every time something bad is going to happen to him or when he is in deep shit. The series calls it Revival but isn't there a more suitable name for it? Something like, I don't know, it's on the tip of my tongue-- DEUS EX MACHINA?? Now, hear me out, there's nothing wrong with this kind of time travel. We've seen it before in other stories, all working in different kinds of ways but if you're going to do this, at least EXPLAIN what you're doing. Because in all 12 episodes of ERASED, Revival has been nothing but a one-way ticket out of deep shit for the main character every time it's convenient for him. That's not to say that time travel powers that come out of the blue are bad. Let's take a similar method of time travel from the video game, Life is Strange. In the game, the main character can travel back in time anytime she wants with only the wave of a hand, however, there were always consequences, each of which the main character discovered through using her abilities. From what we got from the series, Revival is a flawless, unpredictable and cheap system made for getting shit done at pitch perfection and literally NOTHING ELSE. There's no sort of challenge for the main character thanks to this and any kind of explanation with regards to time travel or anything else about Revival is swept under the rug. And pretty much the closest thing we have to details about Revival is all intuition. Literally just guessing how it works happens to work in Satoru's favor. For a series that brags as a time travel story, its actual time travel is pretty shit.

Earlier, I discussed that ERASED was a romantic mystery. Yeah, a garbage romantic mystery. But let's split the two for a while and begin with the romantic. Like I said, Satoru was an ideal character. Aside from having the qualities of a romantic hero, he had flaws, interesting dialogue and an intriguing personality. But there was a reason Satoru was the only character I mentioned in my words of praise and I will start off the reason why with my biggest problem and disappointment with the series and that is Hinazuki Kayo. While she was introduced as this lonesome girl with a mysterious personality, the series decided to crush the potential of her character into dust and turn her into a plot device to encourage Satoru to keep acting. What gets on my nerves is this is the 2ND TIME A-1 Pictures has done something like this, only much much worse that other time. And what a shame, really, for someone with that much potential and intrigue to be remolded into some mediocre character constantly victimized to appeal to the viewer's emotions. Their relationship felt genuine enough to be friendship but constantly distracted itself with its entire 'knight in shining armor' act. Gotta protect that smile. The rest of the characters, including Satoru's classmates, Yuuki-san and literally everyone else save for Satoru's mother, Yashiro and possibly Kenya, are all flat, underdeveloped and were literally made for the background or to get Satoru to act or into some monologuing (Yes, I threw Airi into the list too. Fuck me, right?). To address the three I counted out, Satoru's mother expressed a kind of loving connection to his son and in a way that expressed her own feelings and how much she cared for him. Yashiro, the teacher, has a special relationship with Satoru, in which he is a figure he looks up to like a father and something else which I will not mention. And Kenya, who expressed sympathy towards Satoru's goals by his own beliefs but you can say the same for a few other characters in the series. The overall storytelling was mediocre with rushed pacing and half-assed subplots which were just all over the place. It's almost as though the writers had no idea how to tell their story. Sure, they had it. But it felt like they had no idea which direction they wanted to take. For example, Kayo's mother. Her conflict came out of nowhere and was resolved in a flash after seven or so episodes of hating her. That's a pretty dumb move if I've ever seen one. And that's just only one of them. Overall, just messy messy storytelling.

Now let's talk about the mystery and holy shit, does it suck.
Look, ERASED. If you're going to be a mystery, at least try to BE one. In your grand set up, you had it all, really. Mysterious kidnappings, a hidden culprit and a character determined to get to the bottom of this. But you were missing one little, teeny-tiny thing. It's called BEING A FUCKING MYSTERY. Satoru spent nearly all season connecting with Kayo and getting her as far away from the murderer as possible through the knowledge he gained. The show's first mistake, there was almost NO detective work done. What does 'detective work' mean? It means looking for clues, it means guessing, it means interpreting information and most importantly, it means HAVING SUSPECTS. Every clue and piece of information literally leads to only ONE GUY in the entire series and everyone and their mother knew immediately who the dickbag was. Where the fuck is the challenge there? Some of us even knew too early on who the culprit was! Hell, Satoru was even literally handed to him a list of suspects WITH THE CULPRIT'S NAME ON IT and what does he do!? He ignores it! Oh great! Just great! First we have no other character who could possibly fill the culprit's shoes and then you choose to IGNORE A LIST OF SUSPECTS. Well done, ERASED! Well fucking done! There's also the common excuse that Kayo's relationship was more important than the mystery as a whole but there are so many works that can handle both aspects and make them go hand-in-hand creating a truly genuine romantic mystery. Need an example? "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. It's, like, 5 bucks on Amazon.
As mentioned earlier, I have zero qualms with the art and animation as they were superb in creating the definitive atmosphere of ERASED. However, the series makes an attempt at being a metaphorical work and ultimately fails; that is, the obvious explicitness of the symbolism, conveying of themes, messages and whatnot. And these make for some pretty lame use of imagery and exposition that barely work to make its point (e.g. blue butterfly, the Last Supper shot, Airi's chocolate story, Yuuki-san's plane) or if it was trying to convey some inner meaning from them other than what the audience can see from a mile away (Spider threads). What weirded me out the most, though, was how the director kept making contradictions to the narrative. Putting tension where it doesn't belong and making the audience imply something that is completely false. To cite an example, Satoru conversing with Yuuki-san. When Satoru mentioned Kayo, suddenly, the scene became tense, Yuuki was in distress and from his body started shaking, as though he were trying to hide something. What the fuck even, ERASED. Here you are, trying to lead the viewer on when you explicitly said at the very FIRST episode that Yuuki-san was innocent, 100%. Why are you making an effort to make it look like he was the culprit!? WHY!?

As for the conclusion, it was as bad as one could imagine from a mystery without a mystery; a mess of conveniences brought about by, yours truly, "Unexplained Revival"-san and his colleagues, "plot convenience"-chan and "hand touch triggers memories"-sama along with special guest "retarded killer motivation"-kun.

So to sum it all up, while the appeal is evident and there is a very good reason for the series' popularity, as a narrative, it was underwhelming tale that was hidden under the guise of great audiovisual directing and animating; a strictly (and disappointingly) deplorable work that relied too heavily on a good story they had no idea how to tell.

4/10

Just binge watched this because everyone was hyping it so hard that it was through the roof. And honestly, i don't see what's good about this. This might be one of the most overhyped anime after SAO.

Minor spoilers ahead.

Art is good i guess. It's not outstanding or absolutely disgusting. It's just what most anime looks like. And i didn't pay much attention to the music, but it was pretty enjoyable.

I actually enjoyed the first 4-5 episodes. I thought it was gonna be something new and good. It was nice, but i was severely disappointed in the end. Main driving thing that is his powers ... are barely explained and barely touched. No one knows how does it work or how did he gain it. It's just there as a convenient plot device. The main antagonist is completely revealed at the start and they spend the rest of entire show trying to convince you that he's not the villain. Only to end in a rushed ending that leaves many things half assed.

Characters are barely introduced, it focuses on 2 characters so much that it's not even funny, sure we get a glimpse of other characters backgrounds here and there but it doesn't clear up anything. And they just leave one of those 2 characters they were focusing on after episode 8 or so only to show up at the end with someone else's kid. (it's like 5cm per second all over again)

Overall i give 4/10 for Boku Cucke. I would've given it 7 or 8 if it was not for the ending.

This is my first anime review, so please bear with my poor English. I usually didn't write any anime review, but this anime kinda "force" me to write it because it is too over rated. I will state the reasons one by one.

Story-3
Boku dake ga Inai Machi is about ......oh I am lazy to even write the main story, since this is an extremely popular anime in this season, I will skip explaining it. Long story short, this anime doesn't explain anything at all, like: why Satoru has that ability in the first place, Why the f*ck he can go back to past by shouting ... "GO BACKKKKK!!!!!!""??. Besides that, even though Satoru is an ADULT, he always acts like a child. When he saw his mother was killed and went to the past, he GOD DAMN put his priority at saving Kayo??! He just saw his beloved mother died in front of his eyes a few seconds ago!? "Eh, I have go back to my childhood, ok, I will try to save a girl that i have only met a few times instead of saving my mother or at least go to see my mother that just been killed just now."
And who is the killer? Let me see......his teacher, and......one one else? The only reason I continue to see this anime is because i want to know the identity of the killer, but really? Only one suspect? I pretty much knew his teacher is the killer since episode 3, and there is absolutely no other suspect that can let me think "who is the killer".
The thing that pissed me of the most is Satoru didn't tell anyone about his revival to anyone at all (exclude his teacher). I know this will be difficult to his mother or friends to believe, but Satoru did managed to save Kayo, this can be the best evidence to at least tell his mother or Kenya who are very smart. BUT NO, when he was trying to save Aya and other girl, he just said like detective game, instead of saying he came from the future.

Art-6
The only thing this anime is good at is art. But there are many scenes that they didn't put the animation colour quite well, like flash back. But the main reason I just put 6 mark is because they put the "black bar" to let you know that Satoru has went back to past, I personally think that those are unnecessary.

Character-2
Like I said in story section, Satoru acts like a child in the "past", but the conversation of all the kids are too "adult". Like, really, are they even children? Trying to solve crimes, saving people from child abuse. But more importantly, have you guys wondered when Satoru came to the "past", why his mother didn't noticed his personality changes? He "suddenly" become matured, try to save people, and his mother is like OH.

Enjoyment-5
This story first few episodes let me wondered who is the killer, but after a few episodes I already knew the killer is that god damn teacher!!! The killer in episode one appearance, that black hair, those eyes, that face, that suit, is not like Jun at all.

Overall-4
This anime is over rated. I guarantee after final episode, the rating of this anime will dropped because of the weird ending.

This is my first review in MAL. I usually just read other people's review but I just felt obligated writing one for this anime and its rather disappointing performance. Please do note that I only watch animes that are completed, so I really try to hold myself back when I hear something good came out.

*SPOILER

Story = 3

This was a hard decision, especially because 'til the 8th or 9th episode, I was lovin' it. For the story, we have a special guy, Satoru, who has a power to travel back in time (never explained how or why he has it, nor why is he the only ... one), done in a lot of films, books, novels, animes, or other series (hard to be original these days). It only drops to "how they deliver". As I said, the story was intriguing and kept me pumped... 'Til episode 9, where the main protagonist finally saves this one girl in the past to change the future. But wait... There are 3 kids to save? He only saved one and there's only 3 episodes left? As you'd expect, everything is rushed at that point and everything was just anti-climatic. I never read the manga so I'm not exactly sure whether it really was the way it happened there. But it's just really disappointing. So much build up, wasted down the drain. Which would explain how it had such a high score because episodes before 10 was, I have to admit, very thrilling. At that point, I wished it was 20-24 episodes to really flesh the whole thing out.

Art = 9

Beautiful art. Consistent and all that. It's how animation is supposed to be.

Sound = 7

Decent at most. Not bad but not exactly memorable either.

Character = 3

Another flaw. Character development is just really bad. As I said, it was never explained, why Satoru has a "superpower" and no one else does? What made him special? He had 5-7 total friends, yet only one guy was actually useful for the plot. But character development mostly focused Kayo, the first "plot" girl he saved (apparently he saved a lot other people before). And then they kept talking about "you have friends to help you" gimmick, though looking back, his friends were almost completely useless for the plot, except for that fat guy that invited the 2nd girl who needs to be saved (plot important), who also did not get developed at all, both the fat guy and the girl. Also they're 10 year olds. All of them, not just the supposedly "genius" kid, think like adults, so genius kid is not so genius. Lastly the main antagonist. Oh boy, he was so predictable. From 5th episode you'd know who the real "killer" is. He was acting too close and too weird, too chummy with the MC. In the end, he was developed as the "fake-good-guy-who-turns-out-to-be-bad-guy" type of character which is not really great these days, but worse, with missing motives. It was never explained why he wanted to kill those 3 children. He wasn't developed as a pedophile, nor a psycopath. He seemed pretty stable. Why kill? Why children? Why target lonely children? Why 2 kids from your school and target someone else from a different school?

Enjoyment = 3

It went from 9-10 to 2-4. By the end my feelings just rolled downhill, a very steep slow at that. Really disappointing.

Overall = 4. Decent

TLDR; Everything was great but after Kayo was rescued, the experience rapidly became sour. Too short. If it were longer, perhaps 20-26 episodes, it would have had much more room to develop both its plot and characters, it's great flaws that wasted its great potential.

Some say the plot devolved when the big reveal of the villain was made, other say the ridiculous ending is what made this series bad.

I agree with all the above and more, this show just couldn't string a along a story and had to stuff needless symbolism where it wasn't needed and made the plot so exceedingly obvious that it bordered insulting. For example the prominent use of red to show violence or hidden intentions was necessary at some points to contrast with the white winter scenery but most of the time it felt out of place and over saturated. As a result the ... tone felt inconsistent.

The time travel aspect was the worst part of all, it was used as a escape plan by the protagonist each time there was trouble and was immediately ignored in the ending. They completely forgot about the capabilities of this ability towards the end of the series.

A mystery needs to be abstract but plausible in order to be interesting.
This failed by all counts.
Skip this unless motivated otherwise.

Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (Erased), anime praised by many and hated the same way. Who is right?


Erased has an interesting starting point and the first episodes are extremely enjoyable due to a sense of nostalgic immersion. The Kayo arc is interesting and some kind of beautiful without a doubt, but then the problems of this story appear. Erased try to be a mistery thriller but it turns to be EXTREMELY PREDICTABLE, and the plot holes increase each episode we go further. Satoru's ability is never explained in the series and only activates itself when it's necessary. Many people take this ability just as an ... excuse to develop the story, but if you never explain this thing, the story will fall in inconsistency. And the conveniences, plotholes and flaws hve only started to appear.
Final episodes are so weird and you don't have a single clue of which purposes has the main villain to do what he does. In fact, the manga explains it and the final chapters are completely different. Overall the story is not horrible but it manages the time travel is a total mess, with many conveniences, turning it into a bad adaptation. With more episodes, this series could be much better, aka Angel Beats problem. And the characters are not any better.
Some characters are somewhat enough developed (like Satoru) but their behavior doesn't have any sense most of the time. For example, sometimes Satoru in the past looks Kayo (a kid) like he's in loe but he's a 29 years old man, trapped in a kid body, but he's still the same. Conversely, very important characters like the teenager girl and especially the teacher are not developed at all, what makes the story even worse. The children in the past tend to act and talk like adults which is very annoying and reveals a huge problem of characterization and are not developed at all too.

On the other side, the animation is fairly good with some beautiful scenes (that tree though) but the characters' desing (specially grown Satoru's) pissed me off a little. Otherwise, nothing wrong with the animation. More of the same with the sound, Yuki Kajiura is instantly a good score and this is absolute. The show has pretty damn good OP and especially ED too. Don't miss them.

I enjoyed this series at the beggining but when i finished it turned to be very disappointing because this anime had such a big potential. I was also disappointed because it was, liike i said, extremely predictable and had toomany flaws to enjoyed it properly.

Overall, Erased is kinda bad anime. Many people aclaim it as a masterpiece and it can't be further than that. I don't have any intention to offend anyone who truly like this show, but it's a great example of a hype train crashed. I'm glad to see someone trying something new, but it was very poorly laboured to give it enough credit.

"Do you recommend this anime?" Well, to be honest, a snail race woud be a better view.
If you liked Erased, take a look to:
- Steins;Gate, same time travel theme but without plot holes and well explained.
- Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, what a 12 episodes anime should always do.

What the hell? It was amazing (10/10 on par with Steins Gate kind of amazing) until the last two episodes. Trying not to throw any spoilers, but what happened pretty much took what most of the anime spent developing, stomped on it and threw it in the trash. Far more disappointing than the ending of Akame Ga Kill, this one was truly a slap to the face. I was totally hooked and loving it until the end, and now I dislike it enough to not be able to recommend it to anyone, and to rank it among one of the top three most disappointing animes ... I've ever seen. What were the storywriters THINKING??

I tried to wait until it’s over before shitting it properly, but the damn thing didn’t let me. It kept piling up bullshit, the fantards keep excusing them with more bullshit, it got all the way to no5 on MAL and no1 on Anime-Planet, and the topics I made on Reddit and MAL about its problems were deleted immediately, so nobody can have an opinion that differs from the damn circlejerk. This piece of shit that the anime community considered better than Legend of the Galactic Heroes was plain offensive on so many levels and I am here to tell you why.

1) TIME RESETS ... MAKE NO SENSE.
Just look how there is absolutely no consistency amongst them.

First & Second resets:
- Trigger before someone nearby gets killed
- The protagonist doesn’t need to know about the eminent death for the reset to happen
- The protagonist has no control over when it happens
- The reset sends you 5 minutes into the past
- If the protagonist fails, time moves on as normal

Third reset:
- Triggers after someone nearby gets killed
- The protagonist needs to know about the death for the reset to happen
- The protagonist has no control over when it happens
- The reset sends you 20 years into the past
- If the protagonist fails, time reverts to present, and he can try again until he succeeds
- Let’s not overlook the time paradox of managing to chance the day of death but everything else remained exactly the same, something which is impossible because of the butterfly effect. Also, we are supposed to believe when he returned to the present, his old self magically forgot everything, life went back to normal and played out in exactly the same way. Bullshit. And the fan boys still don’t accept it is nonsense, they now think the protagonist could always control time travel but was too afraid to use it consciously. Excusing bullshit with more bullshit.

Fourth reset:
- Triggers when everybody is fine.
- The protagonist wills it to happen. The fan boys were defending the show before this, saying it was great how he had no control over this power, since he can’t use it to his benefit and the tension is tenfold because of it. Well, so much for that.
- The reset sends you 20 years into the past but not at the same moment as in the second reset.

Fifth reset:
The problem with this one is that it doesn’t exist. We get to a point where the protagonist is in grave danger and yet no time reset triggers. Why is that when it fits several criteria from previous cases? I mean, yeah, he says that the fourth reset would be the last, but how did he know that? Did he read the script for what happens next? If he knows he lost the power, how does he know that???

Sixth reset:
Despite the protagonist reassuring us that there will not be another reset, he contradicts himself in the last episode by willingly going back in time and warns everybody of what to do so he can expose the killer. And guess what, he was in grave danger when it happened. Why didn’t it happen in the previous life or threat situation? Because shitty writing, that’s why.

The story never explains anything regarding time travel; it just throws it out there and then expects you not to give a damn when it’s vital to the plot. The fanboys kept saying that you should disregard it entirely, which is impossible since without time travel you have no story.

2) THE PROTAGONIST HAS NO STEADY MOTIVATIONS.
They change in every episode with no rhyme or reason, something the fan boys didn’t notice because he is a bland self-insert who can be anything and anyone at any given moment. I mean did you even see how generic his face is? Take all faces A1 Pictures animated from light novels and compare them. They are the exact same one, featureless face!

First & Second reset: He saves kids because he is altruistic
Never explained why he is, he was magically born that way.

Third reset: He wants to save his mother by manipulating the emotions of a little girl
A selfish reason, now he is magically no longer altruistic.

Fourth reset: He wants to save the little girl
He no longer cares about saving his mother, which by the way was never hard to save. He had 20 years of time to simply be around her when the fateful night arrives.

3) PLOT CONVENIENCES.
Many events happen seemingly by chance and end up affecting the plot considerably. No proper mystery or thriller should be so reliant on chance because it cheapens what it’s trying to accomplish.

Episode 1: The mother gets killed exactly when she finds out who the killer is. How nice for the killer to wait until he is revealed before deciding to walk in the house.

Episode 1: The reason the protagonist panicked so fast when he saw his dead mother, was because at that exact moment a neighbor came in and the police arrived outside. There is no way for the killer to have arranged it that way, since the neighbor was just passing by. Therefore, it was darn luck and not incrimination that made the protagonist panic, turning the whole thing into stupidity instead of an elaborate scheme.

Episode 3: The protagonist has birthday the exact same day as the girl he is trying to save. This is way too convenient and lazy writing for the sake of cheap feels. He already wants to save her; there is no reason to hammer it even further with more drama.

Episode 5: Airi appears out of nowhere and helps the protagonist when he is hunted by the police. The reason? She just believes he is not a killer. Ok…

Episode 5: Airi’s house is set on fire immediately after she finds out who the killer is. Again, the killer is waiting to be revealed before making his move.

Episode 6: The manager appears out of nowhere to help out the protagonist. The script just wanted him to be there for the sake of plot armor.

Episode 7: The protagonist is about to kill someone when a friend of his appears out of nowhere and stops him before it’s too late. The script just wanted him to be there for the sake of ruining tension.

Episode 8: The girl was hiding from her mother in the exact same bus that the person who wanted to kill her was hiding his equipment. From all the places in this universe, what are the odds of the target running to hide into the killer’s base?

Episode 11: The killer knew that the protagonist is alive but in a coma for many years, yet didn’t do anything to kill him, despite having the political power to do anything he likes. He just reappears when the protagonists wakes up, does his best to make him remember what happened, and THEN tries to kill him.

Episode 12: The killer out of nowhere is not only unable to kill the protagonist but he is also willing to save him and commit suicide if the guy he wanted to kill a few seconds ago is not alive. What the frack???

Episode 12: Airi appears out of nowhere under the bridge and is super friendly with a guy she just sees there. Dumb girl is dumb.

4) THE PROTAGONIST’S REASONING MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE.

He runs away from the police, thus incriminating himself for no reason. The fan boys excuse it as him panicking because of the murder of his mother, thus he wasn’t thinking reasonably. If that is the case, why is he STILL running away from the police after he returns to the present? He is calm now, and thinks reasonably. Hell, he spends half the episode playing with children out in the open for everybody to see, and then goes to chat in a public cafeteria full of people. Seems like he is not afraid of being seen, right? But when police officers arrive, he is running away again. What is this bullshit?

He assumes that he can save his mother by saving a little girl, the two of which have absolutely nothing to do with each other, just because he is at the time when the murders began. Well, thank goodness nothing else happened in the world that year, or he might have arbitrarily assumed he would have to do something completely different.

The fan boys excuse it as, if he stops the killer, he will save both at the same time. But how is this going to work? Just look at how no matter what he does, it will never have a positive outcome.
- He is not intimidating to keep a child killer away by spending time with the girl (in fact, this makes the killer double as motivated)
- He is not strong to beat up the killer in case he shows up
- Even if he scares the killer, this will not stop him from killing other children or his mother in the future
- Even if he saves the little girl, it will not prevent her mother from beating her all the time
- He is not trying to tell anybody about it, which over-complicated things for no reason. The fan boys tried to excuse it like nobody would believe him if he talked. Yet in later episodes pretty much EVERYBODY believes EVERYTHING he says and helps him out.
• His fellow students agree to hide the girl in a bus by simply believing his story
• They leave her there in the cold for three days, only for eventually telling his mother about it. She believes him as well, and lets her hide in their house thereafter.
• He then tells child support to come check out the mother, something nobody was doing for years. They also believe him and turns out it was easy to prove the girl’s mother was a bad parent.
• The mother’s mother is also magically thrown in the story and is the one that revels what a terrible mother her child is. All the protagonist did, was to tell her to go there when child support is talking to the mother. Something nobody thought of doing for years.
• So basically, he could have resolved the show’s entire conflict by episode 2 if he simply told everybody what is going on right away.
- He then moves to protecting other kids after the first is saved, which again makes no sense. He has no reason to assume the killer would go after the same people, in the same order, and in the same dates. He changed his actions for Pete’s sake, he could have gone after someone else with completely different methods or schedule.

5) THE MYSTERY ASPECT OF THE SHOW IS COMPLETE GARBAGE.
- The protagonist is doing absolutely nothing to find out who is the killer. He prefers to spend his time in a cringy romance between a 10 year old girl and a 30 year old man.
- Whatever the author thinks that can count as clues, is nothing more than hints dropping on the protagonist’s head by complete chance (the bus Hinazuki is hiding just happens to be the killer’s hideout) or through someone’s convenient infodumping (the meeting with the old man, or the teacher in the car). This destroyed any sense of mystery, since the protagonist didn’t use deduction to find clues. They were thrown at him with ridiculous convenience.
- There aren’t even many possible suspects for who the killer could be. It can either be someone from the cast we see all the time, or a complete stranger which would make the revelation BS (thankfully this is not the case). Now try to count how many people look like the guy we see in the first episode (male adult with no beard). There, it can only be THAT guy. What kind of a mystery is this where you know right away who the killer is?
- 10 year-olds in the 80s are somehow masterminds. They can psycho-analyze the protagonist (Hinazuki) and deduct he is hiding something (Kenya). He on the other hand can do nothing but stare like an oaf despite living in the freaking internet era. He is so useless, even little children are better detectives than he is.
- The killer was not revealed because of a mistake he did. He exposed himself and even went as far as soliloquize his evil intentions, like a Saturday morning cartoon villain.
- A mystery story is supposed to give you answers at the end. Yet you don’t get any explanation for why the protagonist has the power to travel in time. Magic space Jesus gave it to him just because.

6) FAKE TENSION WITH CLIFFHANGERS.
Every episode ends with a cliffhanger that makes the average viewer wanting to find out what will happen next. The problem here is that what follows the cliffhangers is a dud. It is always something anti-climactic or completely stupid. The show systematically tries to undo consequences or hide its plot conveniences with cliffhangers that are too obvious to spot when you marathon the show.
- Every time something horrible happens to the protagonist (fails to save the girl or gets captured by the police), a time reset occurs in the beginning of the next episode to undo all the tension.
- When the protagonist is clueless or about to do something really stupid, another character appears out of nowhere as an ally and helps him out with not much justification.
- When the killer gets in the bus where the girl is hiding, is followed by him leaving without even trying to find her because it was conveniently his lair, and not because he knew she was there.

7) VICTIMIZING GALORE.
A one dimensional evil parent hits while laughing her own child for forced drama.
- No fan boys, saying this happens all the time in real life does not make it any less forced.
- Let’s have the girl being bullied at school as well. No reason to assume the more victimizing they throw at you, the more absurd it becomes.

8 ) PLOT INDUCED STUPIDITY.

Episode 3: Everybody is either too dumb to do anything about it, or too blind to notice the domestic violence. Because a child full of bruises, the testimony of teachers and students, as well as a mother who is constantly running away from inspection, or swings shovels at people, is clearly not evidence.

Episode 5: People lose their jobs, ruin their marriages, and leave town because of a chocolate bar. But people who beat their children every day while laughing about it are left to do as they like.

Episode 5: Only complete retards open the door to a room they know it’s on fire.

Episode 10: You see someone getting in a room but never coming out, despite you standing right outside the whole time. How stupid do you need to be to actually believe the person teleported away?

Episode 10: A little child can’t slip through a jammed seat belt, when it’s easy even for an adult to do it.

Episode 10: The protagonist yells to the killer that he knows his future, something that the killer believes. Which is bullshit because if Satoru knew it, he would know the killer would try to murder him.

Episode 11: The killer does his best to make the protagonist remember he is the killer instead of killing him right away.

Episode 12: The killer magically changes his goal from trying to murder the protagonist, to saving his life and then killing himself.

9) PEDOPHILIA, AS THE PROTAGONIST IS SEXUALLY ATTRACTED TO A LITTLE GIRL.
No fan boys, just because his body is 10 years old, does not make his brain not 30 years old. And nobody knowing he is not really a child does makes him not pedo. Pleading ignorance does not pass in court.
Oh, sorry officer, I thought I could have sex with 10 year olds because I’m a time traveler.

10) ONE DIMENSIONAL EVIL CHARACTERS.
- The manager lusts over Airi, and betrays the protagonist just so he can have her for himself. The fan boys try to excuse it like he did what he thought was right, but all we see is him being a jerk who laughs idiotically and saves Airi because he wants to impress her and get in her pants.
- Letting us know Hibazuki’s mother was mistreated by her husband does not excuse her actions. She is one dimensional because her husband was one dimensional, the end.
- The killer loves to kidnap and murder little children, just because. He is also presented as a mastermind for half the show, always magically teleporting to people that find out who he is, and managing to throw the blame for what he did to someone else. But towards the end, he turns into a laughably incompetent idiot who monologues his evil plans to the protagonist and has no alibi for what he does. He also changes his reason for killing people, from making sure nobody will find out who he is, to magic spider webs only he can see being the reason he needs to kill certain individuals. Also, he does his best to be caught by making the protagonist REMEMBER he is the killer and not killing him while he is vulnerable.

11) AWFUL TIME SKIP.
Any hints of logic the show had, are completely gone when a time skip takes place in the last episodes.
- The protagonist falls in a coma and wakes up with amnesia, two of the most bullshit tropes only lazy soap opera writers would be using. Not only that but they are also completely meaningless. They are both dealt with in the same episode they appear in.
- The only major change made during the time skip was the kids he saved getting married, and everything else remained exactly the same. Because that’s how time travel works. Why would his mother be living in a different place when she is taking care of a comatose man, or the killer having a different lifestyle when he ran away from town and didn’t kill anyone?
- Why the hell did those kids marry each other? There was no damn chemistry between them! Three quarters of the show were spent on building a relationship between the girl and the protagonist, and the result is her getting married to a minor character she didn’t care about that looks like a girl? How did that happen?
- Every fantard was yelling netorare in the episode discussions for not getting the pedophilia ship they were hoping for. In fact, the show began decreasing in average score only because it made the fandom very butthurt.
- Not only the killer did not try to kill the protagonist while he was defenseless in a coma, but also does his best to make him remember. Where did his ingenious plans to keep his crimes hidden went to?

12) UNDEFINED FOCUS.
This show has no idea of what it’s trying to be about, leading to a complete lack of identity. This is evident in how the fanboys were gradually changing their opinion of the show, every time something was disappointing them.
- First, they said it was a time travel type of story. Something I proved it was very bad because it made no sense.
- So, they switch their opinion to, no it’s not about time travel but a mystery story about trying to uncover a killer. Something I also proved wrong, since there was absolutely no deduction made by the protagonist and the killer was obvious right away. I mean, yeah, the fanboys were still surprised with the obvious revelation because they were refusing to believe it would be so obvious. They still pretended it was amazing writing because it made it seem it was too easy to be him. This was self trolling caused by people who didn’t want to accept it was so easy after all.
- Then they say it was never a mystery but rather a thriller, where the protagonist is rushing to save kids from a killer before it’s too late. Again, I proved this was a lie since the constant time resets and the plot conveniences were destroying all sense of tension.
- Desperate to excuse it somehow, the fanboys were then saying it was a drama about people living miserable lives by being mistreated by their family or not getting what they want in life. Something I also proved it was the result of being stupid and not simply talking about it.
- Oh, and let’s not forget the usual double standards they were using all the time, saying how real the characters are, how the show makes them cry, and how amazingly interesting the mystery is. But when I proved the time resets are unexplained bullshit, they immediately say it is just a cartoon and you shouldn’t take it seriously. If that is so, why do you find them real and cry about it??? Why do you call the mystery amazing when it makes no sense???

See? They can’t even defend the show as something done right.

SO WHY THE DEVIL WAS THIS SHOW SO HYPED AND ADORED BY EVERYBODY?
Erased fails in everything besides emotional manipulation. It had a premise where a good hearted man tries to save his mother and a cute girl the viewers feel sorry for. As soon as both these issues were solved in episode 9, the interest in the show immediately evaporated and what followed was a bullshit killer revelation and a retarded time skip nobody could take seriously.

Basically, while the show was using forced drama and a sickening romance between a man and a little girl, everybody was blinded to its problems. The second those were dealt with, they instantly woke up and realized it was crap all along. The whole thing is yet another example of why crap like Sword Art Online become super hyped and loved by everybody while they air, and then are hated as soon as they are over. The anime community is a cesspool of immature people who can’t think straight and let emotions cloud their perception. And then some wonder why Donald Trump is so adored for all the ridiculous things he does. Faith in humanity, lost.

Long story short: Mishandling of themes, bad writing, tons of pointless moments in the plot and a complete trainwreck after the first few episodes.

Not even an entertaining trainwreck either.

It pulls the same shenanigan that Tokyo Ghoul does and 180's it's own set of rules that it laid out. I hear it cuts tons of stuff out of the manga also. It's probably best to just ignore it, the interesting ideas just get realised so poorly it's not worth the time.

There are a lot better shows you can get from this season but to me it's just a complete mess that should never have gotten to ... #4 on MAL.