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Boku dake ga Inai Machi, or "Erased" has caught the attention of many throughout the community. And like many other titles, this means that the anime has attracted a very polarized crowd. I came into watching this anime trying my best to watch without any expectation or so called "hype" for it, and at the end of such a rollercoaster, I feel obliged to right about it.

(tl;dr at the end of review)

Here it is.

Story:
The story revolves around a 29 y/o protagonist who experiences random occurrences of time travel, he calls these "Revivals" and claims that it only occurs when something bad is about to happen. ... After the inciting incident our protagonist is sent back to his 11 y/o self to track down and to change the regrettable future.

There are other titles that have used this concept of time-travelling and changing the future. However, the difference this time is that these time-travels happen randomly, to the viewer's eye anyway. Although this didn't affect my enjoyment whilst watching, thinking back, this aspect of randomness acts like an easy undo button for the writer. That being said, the writer still does a great job of fleshing out stakes and engaging the audience, keeping them guessing for the most part.

In addition, there is also a trade-off that is apparent within the writer's work, the trade-off of pacing to accommodate for information or development. Whether it's the writer or the studio's fault, pacing is rather lackluster at times throughout the anime. However, this does not take away from its satisfying ending to our protagonist, even if it's not-so-satisfying for our other characters.

And so we move on to our characters

Characters:
*has revival* If there's anything to change about the anime, it's this aspect. Characters were not fleshed out as much as I'd like, making it hard for us to care even when the stakes are so high. In addition, I believe the story was brought back to when they were around the ages of 10 and 11 as a cheap way to win our emotions because they're just kids compared to if they were in their adolescence, which makes even less sense when these 10 or 11 y/os think like they're already young adults (not including our protagonist) having very significant trust issues.

Many of the characters had so much potential but we, as viewers, never get to see that potential achieved which kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

Art:
Art was very obvious to the studio behind the anime, Studio A-1. High quality animation and cinematic, fitting to the story and the theme.

Sound:
Voice-acting was great, suited characters, couldn't ask for more.
OST was average, nothing special but still helped with ambience and the theme of the anime very much.
OP/ED songs take a while to grow on you, but it's very enjoyable once it has. (I prefer the ending song a little more than the opening,)

Enjoyment:
The anime left me awestruck right after I watched it, only after sitting down and thinking about it when I started to notice little things which make me really hesitant to give it a perfect score.
Since I'm sure everyone has wished they could change their future, even just once, the ending for me really made me appreciate what the writer has done, and even though it has its flaws, its safe to say that it was a rollercoaster and a pleasure to watch.

tl;dr not a must-watch, but you should still watch it. SPECIALLY, if you're in a mood for mystery and feels

Thanks for reading my first review guys. :)