Review: Erased (Boku dake ga inai Machi)
- abbyeste
- Mar 21, 2016
- 7 min read
Today, folks, I will be reviewing an anime called Boku dake ga inai Machi. Or Erased, for those of you who are like me and butcher the other name. Now, of course, this review is biased. Keep in mind that my personal enjoyment of the anime will have some effect on how I review this series.
Let's begin with the general information: Erased started as a manga. I believe it has 44 chapters so click here to check it out. Since I haven't read the manga, I will be reviewing the anime. It began airing in January 2016, and it's still airing as I am typing this review. (You can find it on CrunchyRoll, etc.) Currently there are 11 episodes out.
SYNOPSIS: The story follows a guy named Satoru, who has this weird power where he's able to go back in time for a few minutes to stop something bad from occurring. Suddenly an event happens, sending him 18 years into the past to prevent the kidnapping of a classmate.
GENRE: Mystery, Drama, Elements of Thriller, Elements of Supernatural
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW:
Plot: If you're looking for a show that is full of twists and turns- this is the show for you. The plot doesn't follow a linear pattern, but it's not confusing. Certain non-linear stories can be difficult to follow at times, but with Erased, they make it very clear when the jumps in time are occurring. In terms of pacing, I didn't really notice moments that were too slow or too fast. I thought that the moments that were very fast were there to create suspense and to move the plot forward, and the slower moments were there to make you focus on the dialogue or smaller actions/reactions that were important to the plot/character. And probably the best part of the plot: there is no unnecessary exposition! Oh yes, that's right. The creators actually let you figure it out for yourself rather than explaining in immense detail the setup and characters.
Character: I'm not really going to get into the nitty gritty detail of each character for the spoiler-free review but I will expand more past this spoiler-free part. I'm mostly going to talk about the main protagonist, Satoru. Satoru is a 29 year old guy living in Japan. He's supposed to be an aspiring manga artist, but honestly, I didn't really catch that until I bothered to read the synopsis half-way through. (It may have just been me that didn't pick up on that until later on.) I really like Satoru's character. Satoru is nothing like me at all, but nonetheless I find myself understanding him and connecting with him as a character. The situations the writers put him in make you feel for the guy and it's what makes you want to root for him for the rest of the series.
Animation: I am not an animation expert whatsoever. But as someone who's watched a whole lot of anime in a very short amount of time, you start to notice the differences in animation quality. I can tell you with confidence that Erased does not waste a single frame. Every shot is important, and you can tell they pay close attention to details. Erased is as much of a visual story as it is an audio one. Put plainly: beautiful colours, smooth movements and transitions, and a meaningful opening.
In short, this is the kind of series that will make you sad that the episode is over. That's not to say that this series is for everyone- if you're sensitive to implications and images of child abuse or violence then you will not enjoy this series. If you're watching for the element of "supernatural" in the series- you shouldn't watch it because the series focuses more on the mystery as opposed to Satoru's time powers. If you're looking for romance- I urge you to look some place else. While it does have small cute moments and if you look close enough you may find implications of romantic feelings, this series will not satisfy your craving for reverse harem.
I would rate this series a 9.8 out of 10. However, as this series is not finished airing, this rating is subject to change.
REVIEW & DISCUSSION:
I would hardly label myself as a hardcore TV or film critic, or a hardcore critic in general- but I love to watch and read people's breakdown and analysis of series, scenes, and openings. There is one in particular that I like by the Youtuber, Mother's Basement, that you can find here, in which he does analysis of one scene from episode 2. You may or may not watch it, but I can certainly tell you that after I watched it I started to do a lot more thinking when it came to the story telling of Erased.
I mentioned in the spoiler-free review that Erased doesn't waste a single frame. I can't remember where I heard this saying from, but I think it's pretty well known and it goes: you shouldn't be able to understand a movie just by listening to the dialogue. If you understand that entire story just by listening to the dialogue then what's the point of watching the movie? Why not just listen to an audiobook or podcast and be done with it? Movies and TV are meant to be visual stories. The dialogue helps, of course, but every frame is supposed to create mood or tell you something about the plot or character.
My point is: Erased does a beautiful job of telling a visual story. It has great dialogue, sure, but it is its ability to tell you what is happening or going to happen through a few seconds of animation that is what makes this series a must-see for me. I'll share a few examples with you:
1.The Red Eyes: A simple, yet effective way of telling the audience this person is up to no good. During the moments before or after something terrible has happened, the character that did or is going to do the act has red eyes. For example, Hinazuki's mother had red eyes before she was about to hurt Hinazuki. Another example is the man who kidnapped the girls, who we now know is Yashiro Sensei, has red eyes multiple times in the series: after Satoru's mother's murder, after Satoru is arrested, and just when Satoru figures out who he really is. I personally find the red eyes effective with Yashiro because we've only seen him as a trusted figure, as someone with regular eyes, and the red eyes show us another side of him, like an evil alter-ego.
2. Satoru's Thinking Process: Any other show would either show miscellaneous shots or a series of black and white flash backs while a voice-over is playing that explains what the character's theory is or the information they're piecing together. But I find with Erased, that I am part of Satoru's thinking process. I am figuring it out alongside with him because the images accompany what he's saying. Miscellaneous shots are useless, and can feel detached from what the character is saying. Black and white flash backs, while they can be effective depending on how you do it, can sometimes be too close to what the character is saying. What I mean by this is that why would I want to hear a character explain what is happening if I can just watch exactly what they're saying on the screen? I find this series has a good balance of doing flashbacks but using them in a way that you're not watching a reenactment of what happened but rather using the clues from the flashbacks to string together what the character is thinking.
3. Symbolism: One symbol that is used during the first few episodes is the blue butterfly. I know they use it when Satoru is going back in time to fix something, but the one specific time I remember it used is during the first episode. Satoru sees a blue butterfly as he's on his scooter delivering pizza. I was reading through a few sources, and apparently a butterfly in Japanese culture is supposed to symbolize the "souls of the living or dead". One source said that "many Japanese believe that following a butterfly will help unlock a mystery in life or solve a problem driving a person crazy." This makes sense because Satoru was saving that little boy's soul from being hit by a truck, and he had to figure out the "mystery" of who needed to be saved.
Other pieces of symbolism during the most recent episode were the hamster story and the strings. The hamsters themselves don't symbolize anything meaningful in Japanese culture, however the story itself is very meaningful. Hamsters are not known to be very strong and thus are fairly easy prey. I don't think many hamsters are smart either, although don't take my word on it. In short, like hamsters, children are easy prey. The drowning of the hamsters, of course, are referring to what happened in the earlier episode with Satoru. Overall, the very brief story told us very morbid information of Yashiro and referred to earlier events. The string story was pretty self-explanatory, but the imagery and the connection to the string imagery at the end was so powerful.
This last piece of symbolism that I read off a post of Tumblr has to do with Hinazuki's child's name meaning "future." I can't find the post, but if I do, I'll link it. It goes on to say that the moment that Satoru's and the baby, Future's, hands meet is when Satoru's memories come back. Because he's connecting with his future? Eh? Eh? And so from then on he's more determined to walk and what not. Eh? Eh? And so when he meets with Yashiro he knows exactly what kind of crap he's trying to pull!
IN SHORT,
I have a lot to say about this series and I have even more! Alas, I will spare you. If you've watched Erased, tell me what you thought about it and whether you agree or disagree with me in the comments below.
Let me know what you'd like me to review next!
