Throughout ERASED, we get a more than obvious killer whom we could figure out by the third episode. Because of this, the anime lacks many elements of suspense and surprise, elements crucial to psychological anime. The characters throughout the show were rather interesting however they lack significant development. The main character Satoru is just acting nice in an attempt to save the people from murders. He's also rather childish despite being a 29 year old adult in a 11 year old body even though he was supposed to hide his age. Hinazuki's mom is just a typical child abuser who had a bad past and Hinazuki is the typical girl who ends up being thankful to Satoru for getting her out of the situation. Satoru's friends also were just blindly supporting him for no apparent explanations and for some reasons act not their age but even more calm and mature than even adults for some reasons. The actions were often made to perfect the scenarios. There are no conflicts between friends, no questions asked, just trust, which is the most significant them in the anime. Airi uses the comparison of his dad stealing a candy to reason why she trusts Satoru, something I personally find illogical. The lack of doubt among the characters bothered me so much that I wanted to forget the fact that this is actually a psychological mystery anime about this guy who was accused of murder trying to prevent murders at certain moments.
The overuse of plot conveniences and plot holes are another thing that drawsback this anime. Throughout the anime,we do not get answers for many things. Surely this leaves a lot to interpretation but when important things like how does the time travel ability work. What determines how long Satoru travels back in time? There were also many points when things just somehow happen without any explanation of the planning behind it. Though not everything necessarily in story needs to be explained, the plot is filled with an overwhelming number of conveniences and plotholes that it weakens the story significantly.
Another main factor I found very disturbing is the overuse of common cliches. ERASED has used some of the most typical cliches of emotional appeal ever. These are made even worse with all these characters being completely one-dimensional. Sure, there are scenes that might make someone tear up a bit. But with all these cliches piling up used in many other anime with the addition of complete lack of real character development, it makes me quite troubled to see how overrated this anime is and how susceptible the mass is to emotional appeal.
Overall though,I find this show decently enjoyable but not so much. The overall predictability and the lack of doubt have ruined its potential for being this amazing psychological mystery masterpiece. This show is good for people who want a easily follow-able story and don't care about the typical cliche and one-dimensional characters in a sub-par anime, but it is in no way a true mystery that allows one to utilize his/her brain power.
