Director: Ito Tomohiko
Writer: Kishimoto Taku
Music: Kajiura Yuki
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Psychological, Seinen, Supernatural
Simulcast: AnimeLab, Crunchyroll, Daisuki, FUNimation
Brought to you by Silver Spoon director and Haikyu!! series composer, comes the mystery thriller manga adaptation of Boku dake ga Inai Machi, titled ERASED for western release. With an effective team in manga adaptations, the outcome for this series in its first episodes is praiseworthy and sets high standards for the rest of its run.
A strange phenomenon that Satoru calls “Revival” plagues him; should something with life threatening consequences occur, he would be sent back one to five minutes before it does and make it so that the event is avoided altogether. While this continues to be with him through his days, a murder happens so drastically the Revival sends him back to his elementary school days. Now, it is up to him to solve the case so many years back that troubles him as well as prevent the murder that is bound to happen.
As a mystery series, this series is doing spectacularly. Clues are left here and there and we follow through them with our focus character Satoru; distinguishing mental voice overs using his older voice to follow his train of thought and his child voice to see and understand how much different and complex his situation is. The direction follows through with this in episode 2, with numerous bars placed cleverly in frames to show Satoru’s disconnect and separation that not only he feels as someone with Revival, but also the disconnect he had as a child. Kajiura Yuki’s soundtrack not only heightens the thriller aspect with her musical forte but also the emotional scenes which only make this series even more excellent. With such control and presentation of this series, Erased is an excellent work to behold and is one of THE series to watch of Winter 2016.
Episodes 1 to 3 can be viewed at AnimeLab (AU/NZ), Crunchyroll, Daisuki and FUNimation (US). Do give it a look see and enjoy this excellent series.