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

[Draco Spirit]

That was a great end to a great show.

The last two episodes were a nice change of 'scene' so to speak. You felt like the world had gone on turning while he been in a coma (which was a narrative theme) and the fact his original love interest went off and had a happy life while he was out cold (a highly realistic, but often unused plot device) was cute, as was her adult characterization. The MC was clearly a important friend, but not her lover.

And then the narrative lose end of pizza delivery girl being his true love...CUTE! In her episode focuses she acted like equal and partner despite the whole age gap thing. Nice to see her found her again after finding himself so to speak.

Mum looked weird, but man she was well written.

9/10

[Kenu]

Originally Posted by Mister Twit

Not a surprising or meaningful ending, really. I felt like the 2-minute part with his mom was the only strongly-written scene of the episode, while the rest was just a string of hammy, lethargic cliches.

Plus nothing at all about the revival thing was explained. That's kind of important; without that, none of this would have happened. It tainted the entire series and made the Airi scene into some incredibly meaningless nonsense.

It's too bad, this series was great when it looked like it was going somewhere. Now I'm just left with a feeling like "that's it?"

Yeah, that's a shame it wasn't explained.. I guess it's one of those things that could be left to interpretation of sorts. Satoru did explain what it did to Yashiro and how his power came to manifest itself to avert Yashiro's actions.

I guess they could have added more to Airi's story if it was missing and go for another 3-4 episodes.

In any case, given it's a short series I'll go and read the source material and enjoy that also.

[Ryuuoh DeltaPlus]

Man I REALLY LOVE this series!!

It has a lot of suspense, the characters are awesome, and it wrapped up everything nicely!!

Though I'm a bit curious on one thing:

Did Nakanishi Aya end up with anyone in the group? Cuz I ship her hard with Kazu

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by Ryuuoh DeltaPlus

Man I REALLY LOVE this series!!

It has a lot of suspense, the characters are awesome, and it wrapped up everything nicely!!

Though I'm a bit curious on one thing:

Did Nakanishi Aya end up with anyone in the group? Cuz I ship her hard with Kazu

Doesn't seem to be any confirmation, but it looks like he was sitting next to her at the get-together, so could be.

[sikvod00]

So how would everyone rate the general VA work in the show? Aoi Yuuki knocked it out of the park as usual for me, but everyone's performance was at least 8/10. Chinatsu Akasaki was also great and hearing her again near the end was heartwarming. Shinnosuke Mitsushima took a little getting used to, but I grew to love that generally monotone voice lol. He had the least "anime" (read: exaggerated) voice, but I preferred that and it makes total sense considering the circumstances.

[kj1980]

I wonder how many got the reference of the "pedestrian priority" sign that was shown in the early episodes of Bokumachi

There's actually a reason for this: it's an old Japanese urban legend that this sign was based on a photograph of a man trying to kidnap a little girl. Nothing substantiated, but it does look that way, with the eeriely waviness of the sign and the little girl seemingly being "pulled" into abduction against her will.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by sikvod00

So how would everyone rate the general VA work in the show?

I was quite impressed with Takayama Minami who voiced Sachiko. Turns out she's best known for playing Conan.

I thought it a bit intrusive to list the details of her marriage and divorce at the top of that page though.

[Romanticide]

Loved the series, though i wish it had been a longer show, and they'd cute out the OP and ED to give more of a ongoing effect to it.

[chi4ko]

The greatest love story ever told.

On a more serious (not really) note: at the end of the day, this is a story about salvation. Satoru is a time-travelling Jesus who saves his friends and even erases (lol) the sins of his enemy, so that they never happened.

[Akito Kinomoto]

The foreshadowing in episode 1 was too obvious to the point where the only real surprise is how far back in time Satoru goes, but not obvious enough to where it can hit harder for it. The foreshadowing and reveal on Yashiro is stuck in a similar situation, and Hiromi and Aya were easily saved to the point of superfluity. The brief shot of Kenya talking to Yashiro late night at the faculty office was also never addressed, but it's a good thing Kenya wasn't colluding with Yashiro since an obvious big bad and a traitor among the heroes is one cliche too many to take seriously

It's also a good thing the show never overextended itself to its side characters. ERASED is definitively Satoru's story and the juxtaposition of an older voice in a younger body and vice-verse does a great job of illustrating his thought process. Meanwhile the side characters have enough life in them to give them a pulse, but without the dramatic weight that would make anyone question "why care about them?"

But the most impressive thing is how seamlessly the show blends mystery-thriller with slice of life, and not just a school club sleuthing for clues when they're not drinking tea. It's impossible to divorce Satoru's "normal" life from the mystery since he's essentially working undercover to unravel it, and it's futile to separate the mystery from his "normal" life because in pursuing this culprit, his outlook on life has to change to approach others more, to be more active, and so on. And the sentai hero appearing in a few scenes Marvelously reflects that change

Another Marvelous thing about ERASED is the use of red. It symbolizes the pain Kayo is going through when the situation with her mother is revealed, it makes her design stand out, and it highlights someone's eyes when they're close close to the concept of "death." It's kind of morbidly cool how the brightest color in the show represents its darkest hour

I'm going to give ERASED an A-

Did I also mention ERASED is a superhero story in disguise?

[hoshino_crimsonwings]

Probably one of the best anime and best endings I've ever seen. 10/10

[SuitUp]

Up to ep. 9, and, even having read the manga before watching, I still feel strongly about the characters, and feel fucking sad when watching Kayo's atruggle
That said, I still disagree (as I did when I read the same manga chapter with the same implicaction), with Kayo's mother being deserving of any amount(however small it may be) of sympathy from the viewer, since being a battered woman does not excuse her treatment of her daughter at any level, and does nothing to garner my sympathy, especially when she's portrayed a hateful bitch through and through, if anything makes my blood boil even more.

[Peanutbutter]

Finally finished the entire manga. (should be okay posting here since it's already broadcasted ya?)

Spoiler for comments just in case:

I can appreciate the direction the manga took, it's very original, kept the mystery feel though the final conclusion went by too quick in my opinion. Though if the end route was Kumi's, I would have thrown the book and burn it, if I was really holding one.

I also have understanding of the Airi ship now. It's far stronger in the manga then in the anime (though it is too convoluted to have Satoru saw a "oh-so-developed" 12/13 years old Airi, got the key to his memories and then with sleeping for another year.)

I prefer the approach in the anime, with Kayo's baby, non-existent in any timeline before, to give him back the memories. Its more meaningful compared to her appearance in the manga that really did nothing but sunk the Kayo ship. Lastly, Kayo in the manga doesn't look as good as the Kayo in the anime.

The anime adaption does have its merits, focusing on the Kayo ship rather than Airi's, noting the material they didn't adapt from the manga. The last 2 episodes, were most likely, had to go ahead before the mangaka finalized his concept, but at least the main points went through, like the conversation in the final showdown, Satoru's entry on the class journal and the Airi meetup at the very very end.

Another example was Kenya's role, it was diminished at the end, but this is where the manga further expanded it. I'm okay with it mostly.

So, in conclusion, both anime and manga have its pros and cons, if you have the time, go through both.

[EroKing]

[Mr. DJ]

Really loved this show, though I think it needs a OVA or two to fill in some gaps that were left out.

[Harbinger]

Yeah, since the Anime is over, I think we can talk about the Manga. I'll put inside a spoiler tag if you do not wish to read it.

Here's my thoughts on the manga compared to the Anime.

Spoiler for Spoilers from the manga, duh!:

I started reading the manga after episode 11, just before the end of the Anime. Let me tell you that the Manga is much less obvious about the killer. Seriously, the manga had very little hint. You didn't instantly accuse the teacher... well, I already knew who it was, but the manga was much less obvious.

I LOVE the anime --- Episode 1 to 10. I liked episode 11 and 12, but they felt lackluster. In the Manga, we actually spend a little more time with Pizza Girl. The magazine that had the date of which Kayo and the 2 other victims belonged to our MC. He dropped it when he was with her, while saving some kids. I felt that this scene was important to understand why Pizza Girl trusted him. She knew he was a really good guy since he saved kids, twice, in front of her.

There's only a few differences from episode 1 to 10. The major difference is after he wakes up from the coma. They simply had no time to fit everything into 2 episodes. They went with an Anime only hospital thingy.

The conclusion was much more satisfying in the Manga. I was legitimately curious to see what the killer would do. It wasn't some bull "I can't live without you, stay with me! thingy. The teacher was actually defeated.

Anyway... Anime was best for episode 1 to 10. Manga had a superior ending!

[EroKing]

[Dengar]

Wow

I heard about the hype surrounding this. And I wasn't as skeptical about it as with most overhyped animu, but dayum. I binge watched it and it gave me a shit ton of emotions. How did it do that? D:

[Gundamx]

Gaiden chapter out

Spoiler:

Basically, it was Satoru mother who force Kayo to move on.

Kayo visit him in hospital everyday while ignoring her life
She feared that Kayo will destroy her life because of Satoru, so she move away with him to different hospital without telling Kayo let her can focus on her life instead of Satoru who might never woke up again.

[Guardian Enzo]

That should really be in the manga thread.