- Katagiri Airi
“Boku dake ga Inai Machi” or “Erased” is another addition to the growing number of time-travel anime. This anime caused a huge uproar to MAL users when it started, it only took the first episode to drop it at rank 25 at the all-time anime rankings and it continued climbing the ladder every week. Its popularity is not limited on MAL; it is also famous on various anime sites. I’ve read an article in goboiano.com with a caption stating that the first episode of “Erased” is what every anime should strive for, and I truly agree in that. Episode 1 is like the prelude to climax already, it feels like you’ve already watch half of an anime series. With all that said, “Erased” is not just about its pilot episode, the whole story itself is magnificent! Now let’s get things started.
STORY: 9/10
Part of being human is having regrets. And through having regrets, you’ll wound up thinking wishful things like “if I had done this” ”if I had done that.” Still, we cannot turn back the time. Life is not as considerate as a digital game; it has no save points and your only choice is to move forward. However, “Fujinuma Satoru” is different. He got an out of this world ability that most humans would want to have; he can undo his previous actions for a better outcome. He sometimes goes back between one to five minutes in time whenever something bad is about to happen. In that short amount of time, he searches for something that is amiss to prevent the worst-case scenario. As grand and heroic as it sounds but this entire feat is not through his will, it just happens automatically and he sometimes gets the receiving end of the incident he prevented. He named this phenomenon as “Revival.” Now let’s go for the plot. “Fujinuma Satoru” is a 29 years old striving manga author and he’s been living his life in peace when a life-changing event happened; his mother got murdered and he is the prime suspect. Amidst the confusion, his “Revival” triggered. Then, he finds himself more than five minutes back in time, he returned to 18 years from his past. It is the time where he has to face his greatest regret, the time before the disappearance of his fifth grade classmate; “Hinazuki Kayo.” Now back in his 11 years old body, “Satoru” deduced that preventing “Kayo’s” demise might be the key in changing the future. Thus begins the tale of a prince’s struggle in saving his princess, the great story of resisting fate.
ART: 7/10
The character design and facial expressions are ok. The background is well-done if you take a better look at it, one example of it is ”Satoru’s” footprint on the snow at the beginning of episode 10.
SOUND: 6/10
The background music is good and appropriate for the scenes. The ending song is ok. What has to notice is the opening song, it is freaking awesome! The song’s title is “Re:Re:” and it is sang by “Asian Kung-Fu Generation.” It’s a pretty lame band name and it is my first time hearing about them but damn! That song is just too great that it even gave me an earworm.
CHARACTER: 8/10
The characters were great. Truth be told, there were a lot of fans who got disappointed in “Erased’s” character developments. Just like what I have mentioned above, it started at rank 25 and continued rising till rank 5. But, when episode 11 got out, I saw its rank went down for the first time. Right now it’s on rank 10. Well, as for me, the character developments were fine. It’s appropriate and realistic for how the plot proceeded.
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
I got my Steins;Gate syndrome back! My feeling in watching “Erased” is similar to how I felt when I first encountered “Steins;Gate.” These two anime were awesome and they both tackles time travelling. In addition, both don’t show any preview for the next episode that it got me feeling like “What the f**k!” “Are you f**king serious!” every time an episode ends and I feel like wanting more. Well, you won’t feel this way now that it’s done, you can watch it non-stop. What is adding more to the excitement in “Erased” is the thrill in figuring out who the culprit is; this serves as the main engine for boosting the enjoyment in watching it.
My overall score for “Erased” is 9. One last push and I might have given it a perfect score, too bad that push never came. Still, I can’t deny that it truly is a masterpiece and it surely did leave a mark in the history of anime. I bet the talks about “Erased” won’t die anytime soon and its legacy will continue to amaze people. If you haven’t seen it yet then you better start now to understand the difference between great and crap animes. Well, that wraps it! See you on my other reviews!
