Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (ERASED) Review
As an introduction to my reviews I will be separating my reviews into 4 subcategories, Story, Characters, Music, and Personal Enjoyment receptively. Today I delve into the anime that everybody had the chance to, and most likely did, enjoy this Winter 2016 season being Boku Dake ga Inai Machi AKA ERASED. So without further ado let's jump right into it!
*SOMEWHAT SPOILERS*
Story:
Satoru Fujinuma lives a boring life, working part time for a pizza shop and trying his best to become a successful manga artist. Satoru has the ability to turn back time, usually about 5 minutes or so, to fix something that has gone amiss. He calls this phenomenon "revival". When Satoru winds up in the hospital after saving a young childs life with revival he finds his mother, Sachiko, at his home to help take care of him after his hospitalization. After a weird revival occurs with his mother events of the past come back to haunt him. When Sachiko digs deeper into an abduction case from Satorus childhood she winds up biting more then she can chew. Upon arriving home Satoru enters his house only to find his mother murdered, and to make matters worse he is the prime suspect! After running from the police, Satoru opens his eyes to find himself back in 1988 as an elementary school student once again! To fix the future he must stop a killer on the loose that in his original timeline took the lives of three other students! To stop the crimes of the past and future Satoru must befriend Hinazuki Kayo, a lonely girl who was the victim of the original timelines killer. Eventually through his ways other children come to his aid in the form of his old friends, but mostly from the observant Kenya. Together with them, Satoru trudges forward to stop the killer and to help everybody he can along the way. ERASED likes to stay calm throughout its entirety, leaving cliff hangers, but delivering everything needed in brilliant pacing. Under the direction of Tomohiko Ito, ERASED takes its convoluted story and unravels itself before your eyes, pulling you in at the first episode and not letting you out until it is over.
Characters:
Satoru Fujinuma:
Satoru is a bundle of misplaced emotions from a 29 year old inside of an 11 year olds body. Though he has many moments of being calm and collected like his mental age, he also has his fair share of child like moments. Satoru is developed awkwardly, as he should be, but amazingly. He transforms from his monotone hued self into a friendly and successful person who values what he has in life. Through his, what can be presumed, final revival Satoru learns many things. He gains friends, trust, relationships, and lessons from his second time as a child and takes them for what they're worth, ultimately making him what he aspired to be in his original timeline.
Hinazuki Kayo:
Hinazuki Kayo is the most remarkably devolped character I have seen in a while in my personal opinion. You can grasp her mental state from start to finish and are ultimately beyond happy with how her life turns out. She turns from a beaten and lonely child into a heart warming and caring soul. She picks up on Satorus "fake" behavior and quickly recognizes why he acts that way, as she does the same thing herself. She also helps turn Satoru into the man he eventually becomes. Kayo, as cheesy as it sounds, resembles a butterfly. She transforms over the series from a cold child who isolates herself and into a loving mother, wife, and friend. I could talk about this character forever but I'll leave it on the note of the park scene from episode 2. If you want an in-depth analysis of said scene go check out Mothers Basements take on it, you might find out a lot more then you thought it was:
Kenya Kobayashi:
Kenya is an observer. Throughout the entire series you can see him thinking. Whether Satoru is up to something, whether the truth is being told or not, what he should do to help.Kenya helps Satoru decide on what it is exactly that he should do and guides him the right direction of helping people. If he wasn't there to help Satoru I don't think anybody would be. Kenya plays a pivotal role in helping Satou realize who he is and what exactly he wants, and without this revolution in Satorus mind he would have never found the resolve to confront and ultimately beat the killer.
Sachiko Fujinuma:
Sachiko is the ultimate mother figure and is the main reason for the series to have even happened. Without her death Satoru would have never been given the chance to go back to 1988 and stop the killer who took the lives of three children away. She helped Satoru mature and was pivotal in giving him the motivation to work as hard as he could for what he wanted. Without Sachiko there would be no ERASED and I was blown away with her character and how well she helped the plot move into place.
Airi Katagiri:
Airi was personally one of my favorite characters in this series. It's a shame she didnt receive more screen time and character development. Airi is the co-worker of Satoru and watches him save a childs life. In the hospital Airi says "I feel like if you say the words over and over, it'll actually happen somewhere along the line." These words are very important to Satoru and Kayo winds up saying almost the exact same thing to him. Airi is the only one who trusts that Satoru is not the killer in the original timeline and is ultimately the one who laid down the foundation for Satoru to go back and make his life the way he wants.
Gaku Yashiro:
Yashiro is Satorus teacher and one of the most pivotal members of the cast. Along the long journey Yashiro is constantly helping Satoru and his friends. Wether it's rescuing Kayo from her home life or giving Satoru and Sachiko a ride home. He is especially important as after Kayo is saved from her mother Satoru begins to see him as a father figure only to find out that he is the killer. Finding out the truth behind Yashiro was a huge moment to Satoru as the man he looks up to is found to be a murderer. This actually helps Satoru grow though as the speech he gives in the final episode on the rooftop proves. Yashiro was a grade A villain and fit perfectly into the series as not at the same time.
Music:
ERASEDs opening is Re:Re performed by Asian Kung Fu Generation. The op of an anime can either have absolutely no meaning towards an anime or a whole butt ton of it. This op happens to be the latter. With implications that point to the ending, the theme of time, and the different characters and their affect of Satoru. This OP was one of my favorites this Winter 2016 season. The ending, however, is the true victor of ERASED. Sore wa Chiisana Hikari no Youna by Sayuri fit perfectly with the melancholy mood of Kayo skipping along. To me the ending provided a feeling of absoluteness, like she is content with the surroundings and what Satoru has accomplished for her and the others. The OST of ERASED was produced by none other then Yuki Kaijura who has produced masterpiece after masterpiece over the years and this was no exception to her greatness. As far as music goes for Boku Dake ga Inai Machi A+!!!
Overall Impressions:
Firstly I have only 2 complaints with this series. 1. The original timeline. What happened with it? Like really, I wanna know. Please. 2. Airi. Where did her screen time go? where did her development go? Where did her character in general go? I wanted more from her and was left with pretty much nothing which was honestly a huge dissapointment. Other then that I thoroughly enjoyed watching this series and would highly reccommend it to anybody interested in anime. A-1 Pictures did great with this show and only makes me want to see more from them. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (ERASED) is currently licensed by Aniplex of America(NA) and is available for legal streaming over on Crunchyroll! As a beautiful story with brilliant characters and breath taking scenes, ERASED takes the cake for best anime of Winter 2016 for me and if you haven't jumped on the wagon and watched it yet go do yourself a favor!
Thanks for reading!
Colton