Anime Review: Erased

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This wasn’t just an anime about time travel. It was about pain, missed chances, and the desperate hope to rewrite a past that still bleeds into the present. From the very first episode, it hooked me..

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We are introduced to Satoru Fujinuma, a poor manga artist who has a peculiar weight on his shoulders he has a phenomenon which he terms as Revival, where he is taken back to the time leading to a disaster and given an opportunity to change the situation, to prevent it. However, suddenly his life is taking a shocking twist: his mother is killed and Satoru is accused. Instantly, his Revival places him not mere minutes, but eighteen years back in the past--back in childhood in 1988. Back to the time when a row of kidnappings rattled his hometown.

That change came as a blow to my breast. One minute you are in his depressing now, the next you are a ten-year-old running in the snow, but having the mind of an adult. Here we find Kayo Hinazuki, a quiet withdrawn classmate who has bruises under her sleeves. Satoru does not look at her like a child would- like someone who is aware of what is about to happen and is desperate to prevent them. Each word, each look, each little disruption in the routine seems a thin thread that is able to change everything.

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What is so clever about Erased is that it makes you feel the burden of those small decisions. It is not the issue of catching a killer, it is the issue of empathy, it is the attempt to save a person who is being attacked by the invisible monsters in his or her house. The snowy sceneries are nearly symbolic, cold, mute, concealing the dark side of it. And the tension… it does not release. Despite the smiles and the laughs, you still can never shake off the creeping fear that things still can go back to the past.

However, this anime is very human in spite of the mystery. It is a story of friendships which blossom out of the blue, the sweet-sad memories of childhood, and the terror of knowing that you are going to fail when you need it the most. In some scenes I caught myself holding my breath, and in my mind I was saying, don t leave her alone. Not this time.” By the end of the story when it comes to the final confrontation the emotional reward is a heartbreaking and healing one.

Erased is not flawless, there are scenes where it loses its pace, but it is hard to deny its emotional core. It is suspenseful but not hollow and also touching but not sentimental. Rolling the credits, I sat in silence and contemplated my own life and how I wished I could have saved people in my life, things I wished I could have said.

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Thumbnail is designed by me on pixelLab and other images are screenshot from the movie