Tag Archives: ERASED

ERASED – Episode 8

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Looks like ERASED may truly be out of the woods at this point. Not only was this episode very strong, but it was strong in a way the show hasn’t consistently been, and really needed to express more of. This episode was understated and warm, focused largely on articulating the specificity of Hinazuki’s feelings, and it went a very long way towards giving the show a necessary emotional grounding. Satoru’s an alright character, but he can often feel more like the protagonist of a genre vehicle than an individual; he’s goal-oriented in a way that makes him feel too much like a narrative force. But Hinazuki is a person with a variety of feelings, and this episode gave her a chance to express them. I really enjoyed this one, and I hope the show stays at least close to this strong through the end.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

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Winter 2016 – Week 7 in Review

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This week in anime was a week in anime. We’re entering that stretch of the season where shows often become kinda tough to write about – they’ve established a firm rhythm and personality at this point, but they’re not quite into the leadup to the climax, and so episodes can oftentimes just be described as “pretty much like the last episode, I guess.” Even a show like Konosuba, one of this season’s most inconsistent wildcards, is now at least becoming steady in its inconsistency. There were some slight dips and slight rises among individual shows, but everything is at the moment falling within the margin of error of its existing expectations. That doesn’t mean things are impossible to talk about – that just means I have to work harder to find good points of interest. So sit there and appreciate my hard work as I run this week down!

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ERASED – Episode 7

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ERASED is back in action. After a couple of outsourced episodes that saw the show falling into “solid but unremarkable thriller” territory, this one brought the show home both in terms of staff and quality. Satoru’s childhood material is just inherently more compelling in its mood and genre space than his adult stuff, but on top of that, this episode was also full of great individual shots and a wide variety of clever cuts. ERASED’s best episodes capture a sense of nostalgia that feels far more true-to-life than the adolescent nostalgia that is anime’s usual stock-in-trade. You can really feel the crisp February air in this show, or smell the melting snow. Its aesthetic strengths are what raise it above genre territory, and I really hope they hold strong to the end.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below!

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Winter 2016 – First Half in Review

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And suddenly, six weeks have passed. Fortunately for me, it’s actually hard to pretend the winter season has rushed by; not because the shows themselves have proceeded slowly, but because I live in goddamn New England, and so every day is an interminable march of suffering through sub-arctic temperatures and mocking snow. I hate winter, and I’d rather live in a place where it doesn’t exist, but for the moment I’m stuck here. As far as anime goes, this has actually been a perfectly reasonable season.

This seems like one of those seasons where, to an even greater degree than normally, the show quality just drops off a cliff after the second tier. In an ordinary season, there are a decent number of shows I’m not watching that people in a general sense are still enjoying – things that don’t appeal to me genre-wise, or whose writing or art style don’t gel with me, or some other quirk of preference. But this time, it seems like nearly everyone I know is watching the same shortlist of anime, and then there’s just a vast desert of nothing. But this actually doesn’t affect my viewing habits at all – I never tend to find more than half a dozen or so shows watchable, and as far as that small crop goes, as long as I have two to three shows that seem genuinely good, I’m satisfied. But it’d be far too mature of me to just say “I’m enjoying a fair number of shows for a variety of reasons,” and besides, we’ve got traditions to uphold. So let’s start at the top and ruthlessly rank this season’s claimants to the throne!

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ERASED – Episode 6

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This week’s ERASED wasn’t a highlight, but it was still a strong episode, and perhaps most importantly it was the series’ most thematically cohesive episode yet. ERASED has been a show that more often than not rides wholly on execution to carry its general thriller narrative, but this episode connected Airi’s past to Satoru’s current circumstances and the overall climate of fear pervading this show, making a compellingly uncertain case for trust in the face of danger. In spite of being another outsourced one, this episode also worked well enough aesthetically – the red eyes remain a bit much, as I talk about in my review, but otherwise there was a solid sense of understated menace running through most of these scenes. ERASED is holding strong.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

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Winter 2016 – Week 5 in Review

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I hate to say it, but this was not a good week in anime. Everything beyond Rakugo Shinju and ERASED has been kinda iffy this season, but this week, not only did ERASED put out its worst episode by far, but both Dimension W and KonoSuba were so bad that I’m probably dropping them until further notice. I was already sort of on the edge with both of those shows, and it honestly wouldn’t take that much to convince me to give KonoSuba another episode, but when half the shows you’re watching disappoint you, it’s not a good scene. ERASED in particular was a real disappointment – the show’s existing issues of overselling dramatic peaks and just being too much of a boilerplate thriller took over entirely this week, leaving me with an episode that felt more silly than dramatically effective. But that said, there were also highlights to make up the difference, and I can always use the time saved to work on more Current Projects! Let’s start at the top and RUN ‘EM DOWN.

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ERASED – Episode 5

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ERASED finally had an episode where its weaknesses sadly overwhelmed its strengths. That likely comes down to the fact that this was apparently an outsourced episode – left to a new studio with very few credits to its name, it’s very easy for ERASED’s delicate balance between atmosphere and theatrics to lean into either melodrama or monologue-heavy doldrums. So I guess the good thing about this episode is that it reminded me how difficult it is to actually pull off a show like ERASED when it’s working? That’s an awkward silver lining, but I’ll take it.

You can check out my oversized review over at ANN, or my episode notes below!

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Winter 2016 – Week 4 in Review

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Things are still settling to some extent here in the fourth week, largely due to the fact that a full third of my current watch group consists of comedies. Comedies are tricky, and comedies are inconsistent, and comedies have much less of a tendency to settle into a reliable groove than most genres. So while Rakugo and ERASED continue to be excellent week after week, this time Konosuba was pretty terrible, while Dagashi Kashi was actually consistently funny. Other than that, I’m beginning to lose patience with Dimension W – the show is reasonably watchable, but absolutely nothing beyond that, possessing virtually no personality and being more interesting as a demographic artifact than an actual piece of media. Grimgar, on the other hand, is all personality, personality to a fault, and that actually makes it my third-favorite show at the moment. All that and more in this week’s Week in Review! Let’s RUN ‘EM DOWN!

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ERASED – Episode 4

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ERASED remained relatively consistent this week, offering way too many cute moments with Hinazuki just in time to drop the hammer. I knew it was coming, but man, that birthday party was just a step too far. He gave her fuzzy mittens, ERASED. HE GAVE HER FUZZY MITTENS.

The rest of this episode was more dedicated to articulating the weaknesses of Satoru’s position, which I certainly appreciated. Though the show can get over-the-top in its overt dramatic peaks, the ways it’s reflecting on Satoru’s issues are actually quite subtle, and come through more in the overall context of the story than any overt lines. It’s a good place to be.

You can check out my full writeup over at ANN, or my notes below!

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Winter 2016 – Week 3 in Review

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The season’s shows are still jostling at this point, jockeying for position and demonstrating which of their early strengths they can maintain and as-of-yet not quite imploding. Rakugo Shinju and ERASED are the easy top contenders, but beyond that, it’s a mixed field of shows that are either imbalanced, lacking in ambition, or somewhat inconsistent, but all still more or less worth watching. It’s probably not the generally strongest member of this pack, but Grimgar is actually the one I have the highest hopes for. The show’s weaknesses are loud and frustrating and obvious, but its strengths are very unique, and that appeals to me more than something like Dimension W’s straightforward but somewhat flavorless polish. But the overall crop still makes this easily the best season since last spring, so I’d say this is a good place to be. Let’s RUN ‘EM DOWN!

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