Anime Review – Erased (Boku Dake ga Inai Machi)

With the end of the Winter 2016, I decided to cover the only seasonal I stuck till the finale: Erased.

Ok NOT the live-action drama.

The Tale

Introducing Satoru, a 29 year old aspiring manga artist. Unfortunately the career is not working out to well, but life seems quite normal. Turns out that when an accident occurs, an uncontrollable ability titled ‘Revival’ rewinds him moments before it takes place; so he can prevent it. While many happenings resolve rather quickly, this one was drastically different. Satoru is suddenly transported 18 years into the past after his mother was murdered, only to find out that her death was tied to a serial killing during this past timeline.

The Characters

While the story is a little generic, what kept me going was the similarities I had with Satoru. He’s always interacting people including those he wasn’t close to, albeit the circumstance he’s in. The cast contains about 10 characters, but they could have shortened the list by toning the grandiose down. Change serial killings to just murder of a single friend could bring the list of characters down and could still be interesting and easier to keep up with. I almost forgot to mention one of the biggest flaws to the show: the villain. He has an incredibly unrealistic motive that makes you want to say “Are you serious”, but I wasn’t bothered by it too much. I did enjoy the suspense though. The villain was reveal during the last half of the 10th episode

The Aesthetics and Tunes

The art or rather the animation is skillfully executed, as expected from A-1 pictures. I found that still images from this show were bland, but most likely on purpose to fit the mood of Erased. The OST is comprised of… the ending song played on a guitar, the ending song played on chimes, and… oh what’s this? oh, it’s just the ending song on the piano. I’m not saying it’s a bad song, but they could have done more. Well because the ost is comprised of solely the ending theme, you can’t separate the anime and the song. They’ll always be tied together… forever.

The Afterword

There is really no downside to adding one more show into your library, but in this day in age there is. Watching a seasonal when the season is over means you don’t experience the talk. It’s like a trend that comes and goes. Erased is a show that knows how to captivate it’s audience, but like everything is not perfect. An enjoyable experience nonetheless and would highly recommend to novice anime viewers. If you enjoyed Erased and are looking for more, Case Closed AKA Detective Conan should do you well… other than its lengthy 800 episodes and 20 movies.