(L+CR) Boku Dake ga Inai Machi - ERASED [Manga comparisons forbidden]

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

I'm going to compare and analyze the appearance of four men and their likelihood of being the same person. I'm putting it under spoiler because a few images are taken from the opening, which portrays characters that have yet to be properly introduced in the anime and might contain more info than what the story so far has shown.

Spoiler for Four similar men:

Here are four men who might or might not be the same person. They all have similar appearances and yet have subtle differences. For both you could make an argument based on the unreliability of character design in anime.

It could be that they are similar because often anime characters can really only be distinguished by their hair and paraphernalia, or it could be that the small differences are due to the inevitable variations that distinguish drawings of the same thing when done by humans.

On the top left we have the only man who so far has a name: Gaku Yashiro.
He's Satoru's and his classmates' homeroom teacher in 1988. He's been teaching them since May 1987 at the very least.

On the top right there's the man who was prevented from abducting a child in 2006, a man who recognized Sachiko and was likewise recognized by her. Sachiko later concluded that he was the real culprit in the serial murder case from 1988, or that he was closely connected.

On the lower left there's a man wearing a raincoat who appears in the opening. I believe he's the same man who very briefly appears standing in front of Kayo's house near the end of episode 2, since it looks like they wear the same raincoat.

On the lower right there's a shot taken from the opening of the man who killed Sachiko in 2006.


Let's start from the two who we are giving for granted that they must be the same man, those from 2006. We believe they must be the same person because on the verge of death Sachiko looked up toward her killer and thought: "I was right". Why would she think that, if that man was not the one who she recognized the day before?

However there are quite a few noticeable differences. The hair or at the very least the hairstyles are not a perfect match. Sachiko's killer has trimmed sideburns and somewhat shorter hair, while the other man has long locks and disheveled hair.

The killer has noticeable wrinkles, in this and other shots. The fact that he does while neither 1988 Gaku nor 2006 Satoru do suggest he must be at least in his forties if not fifties (this would rule out any 1988 kid unless they are time travelers). You cannot see any wrinkle in the other man from 2006 except for a close up of his eye, this might be however simply due to the fact he's rarely seen up close.

The man who supposedly was going to abduct the girl in 2006 is also almost always shown with signs that indicates he hasn't shaved in a while. This adds up with the other signs of sloppiness which seem to be in contrast with the tidy outlook of Sachiko's killer.

It may be that he simply adopted that outlook during the failed abduction as a way to disguise himself. But one then would wonder why would he think that a murder requires no disguise or a different disguise.

There's then what I believe is the most important particular: the killer wears glasses. This suggests the killer is myopic just like Satoru.
Now the other man from 2006 also wears glasses, but those are sunglasses and clearly a different model, which are most likely used to hide his appearance. If that man was myopic he wouldn't have recognized Sachiko from that distance, so either he's not the killer or he owns two different pair of glasses that correct his eyesight, one of which has shaded lenses.


Now about Gaku Yashiro. His hairstyle is more similar to the one of the sloppy man from 2006, but he wears a suit and he has an air of confidence and a tidy outlook just like the killer.

He however does not wear glasses. It may be possible that he became myopic with age, however I believe that developing nearsightedness after 29 years is very rare, not impossible, but unlikely. Alternatively it may be that Gaku is wearing contact lenses, but if he was used to wear contact lenses in 1988 why wouldn't he still wear them in 2006?


Lastly there's the man in the raincoat. His hairstyle matches almost perfectly Gaku's. However the raincoat gives him a completely different outlook, he seems more like a detective than a teacher. His expression also seems to match more that of the sloppy man from 2006 rather than the confident smile that both Gaku and the killer are usually seen with.


So what can we conclude from all this? Well, nothing with 100% certainty. I don't think it can be excluded with absolutely certainty that they are all the same person or even four different men.

However, personally, the more I look at them the more I believe that the sloppy man and Sachiko's killer from 2006 are not the same person. I have no convincing explanation for Sachiko's last thoughts apart from supposing that she couldn't see nor think clearly at that moment.

As for the man in the raincoat, I think he's very likely the sloppy man that Sachiko recognized, And I lean more toward Gaku Yashiro being one and the same with them rather than being Sachiko's killer.

First off, I think one should note that a LOT of people have two corrective glasses, one for outside and one for indoors. Generally it's a choice between this and transition lenses that change under UV light. And a smart killer would certainly take steps to disguise his appearance if he's going to be seen in public as he takes a kid. And many men who wear suits don't always wear them. In other words, there is a high probability that at least one of the outfits is a disguise. Furthermore, the importance of disguising one's appearance and the type of disguise appropriate for the situation would certainly change with location and time. A guy walking around outside a grocery store outside of business hours would be likely to dress highly casual, while in the evening around the time people get home from work a guy wearing a suit walking to or from an apartment would be practically invisible.

Additionally, again concerning eyes, almost everyone's eyes change slightly over time. It's hardly rare for a person who either had perfect eyes or close enough to have no problem without them to gradually deteriorate over time. And it's also not all that far-fetched to say that a person might be fine with contacts in his twenties but find them uncomfortable or a waste in his forties. Not to mention that both glasses could be faked to mildly discourage the connection to a guy with 20/20 vision. I agree that we can't say for sure whether the people shown in the opening, the kidnapper, the killer and the teacher are all the same, but I would argue that they're plenty close enough to one another that they could easily be disguises, and a careful killer would most likely be good at that.

[Stark700]

Episode 4:

Spoiler:

That. Was. Awesome. I loved how Satoru's mother intervened to stop Kayo's mother from smacking her daughter.

Also, I'm glad to see the budding closeness between Kayo and Satoru. The two has such an unique chemistry in this timeline imo. He's even coming to visit her now and walking to school. The development of their relationship is significant so it's really nice to see the series focus on that with the narrative dialogues. As usual, I think the music tone complements fairly well for this series. Happy to see Satoru's friends treating Kayo kindly as well. That surprise party~ The cliffhanger kinda worries me though as she does not show up to school...

[revive4563]

Yeah, of course Happy ending doesn't come so easily as expected. But it's hard to see in this anime. And even daily episode like this isn't boring at all.

Kayo who cried at birthday party was so cute.

[ookamigirl]

He's still trying to save Kayo.
His mom is really pretty cool.
Fujinuma keep saying everything that's on his mind..
And that fateful day arrived...
So far everything is fine.. let's hope it stays that way.

[HandofFate]

Satarou sure got game lol.

[Kanon]

Satoru and Kayo are so adorable together that it makes me completely forget about the age factor. The same goes for Satoru, who often needs to remind himself he's actually 29 years old.

I started getting worried when Satoru realized he was once again repeating the same stuff, and sadly, my fears were proven right. Preventing Kayo from getting abducted on March 1st isn't enough of a change. We're dealing with a serial killer, and he won't stop just because one of his targets became harder to get to. I actually thought another kid might disappear in Kayo's stead, but it looks like the killer really wants to start with Kayo.

The teacher was pretty cool in this episode, helping the kids plan a surprise party for Kayo. That makes him a lot less suspicious.

[blakstealth]

Are you fuckin kidding me right now? I was tense as hell watching this whole entire thing, and this is how it pays off? Him never seeing Kayo again? man, fuck. I can't do this every week ;_;

[KnightShade]

i laughed.

i cried.

i cheered.

and then i felt despair.

all within 24 minutes of watching this episode. this may just end being the best anime i've ever watched.

[blakstealth]

I want to think that she was just finishing up Satoru's present and overslept. Please, for the love of the lord. Let it be that. Please.

[DXMichael]

Gosh darn it...whhhyyy does this anime play with my feels like this! :'(

The episode was perfect, I have no complaints at all. All I can really say is never before has my heart beat so fast during the entire episode, it was constant MC getting his shoes on, running to her house, knocking at the door, and then...a short pause...I-Is she there? Oh thank God she is, the door opened and there she was! I'm so happy yaaay! Then we see them together and it's just adorable, I got goosebumps from just seeing Kayo smile and look happy with him. Then the same thing happens and so on so forth, but that ending was just like Gaahhh! Come on! Don't do this ;.;

Satoru is doing this more than to change the past now, he's actually starting to like her and it's nice watching a young couple gradually begin to realise that about each other, oh er, I mean, he's technically 29 but...you know

[Kaoru Chujo]

Excellently done. But I'm still not sure my heart (physical or emotional) can stand this. I loved the way it was played as a tragedy: you kept suspecting this would happen, from his excess confidence after midnight, if nothing else. From fear to hope to joy to despair. Nice trajectory. If I can stand it.

Why didn't he immediately rush out the door of the classroom and go to Kayo's place?

I still suspect the teacher, as well as the boyfriend/husband. What and who did Satoru's mother know that Satoru didn't? The murderer of his mother let Satoru pass by after the deed. We learned in this ep that mother was not averse to skulking around, and definitely knew where Kayo lived.

[aohige]

The direction of the anime has been absolutely fantastic.

But... at this rate they need 16 episodes to do the whole story.
At this point I have no idea how in the heck they're going to fit the rest of story in 8 episodes.

[EroKing]

[RDNexus]

Where has this episode stopped, Manga-wise?
I feel I need to go spoil myself with the Manga right away.
By the way... I'm still trembling... Dear goodness!!!

[Hakuro]

Wow this episode was amazing as always, this series is getting better and better.

This time Satoru do everything he can to save Kayo and avoid death - liberating the teacher for now from any suspicion - and finally making her happy staying away from all the pain and sadness.

Then everything turned dark at the end, I know what is going to happen - as a manga reader - but watching it is really different, has more impact specially for the music and how the studio is managing to end each episode in a great way full of mystery.

[Jan-Poo]

So the chances that Kayo just happened to be picked by the killer are very low now. It's hard to think that she wasn't specifically targeted. But why her of all the people?

Satoru has definitely caused a change, at the very least the crime book in the future will no longer state that Kayo died at 10. She was no longer isolated, and she became conspicuous enough at school.
It also looks that the abuse stopped, mainly thanks to Sachiko I think.

It's interesting how the episode shows what various people were doing at the time when supposedly Kayo got abducted in the regular timeline.
Jun Shiratori was close but we see he was picked up by his father on his truck, Kenya was playing soccer by himself at home, Gaku was at school, Kayo's mother was walking somewhere, Her boyfriend was drinking somewhere. However this doesn't mean much since Satoru's meddling might have made the killer decide to postpone his assassination plan.

The fact that Satoru lost his gloves was mentioned again, apparently he thought he left them in the hideout even then, and he broke the rule that he agreed upon with his friends in order to retrieve them.
The teacher called Kenya to the staff room, after they already talked there the day before. They wouldn't be so mysterious if it was just about Satoru's and Kayo's birthday right?

I didn't realize until now that the woman in the OP next to the man in a raincoat is Kayo's mother, but it's become quite apparent now. Maybe her role in this story hasn't ended yet.


That whole deja-vu sequence was very odd. Could it be that Satoru had already gone through a revival of his childhood? He seems to have forgotten a lot of important things. So far we were led to believe that he and Kayo were barely acquainted, but it turns out they had some kind of a date before.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by xrick

Where has this episode stopped, Manga-wise?
I feel I need to go spoil myself with the Manga right away.
By the way... I'm still trembling... Dear goodness!!!

The episode ended exactly where volume 2 ended.
It will be total 8 volumes. (7 published)

[Kenju of the Right]

Could it be that Satoru had already gone through a revival of his childhood? He seems to have forgotten a lot of important things. So far we were led to believe that he and Kayo were barely acquainted, but it turns out they had some kind of a date before.

^No it wasn't a date, Satoru went there alone the first time, and happened to meet Kayo there because she also likes that place, so the same sequences happened

[RDNexus]

Originally Posted by aohige

The episode ended exactly where volume 2 ended.
It will be total 8 volumes. (7 published)

Thanks for the intel. Gotta go check it ASAP

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by Kenju of the Right

^No it wasn't a date, Satoru went there alone the first time, and happened to meet Kayo there because she also likes that place, so the same sequences happened

I know, but it became "some kind" of a date.