ERASED finished with the remains of its dignity intact, forcing us to survive through just one final scene with Satoru’s supervillain nemesis before heading towards the end. Most of the show’s thematic threads were at least nodded to here, and there were a number of pretty scenes to counterbalance the weight of Yashiro’s ridiculousness. The show fell apart fairly close to the end, so it’s kind of ending on a low note, but in retrospect it’s obviously a reasonable production – it just hit its highs very early and its lows very late. In the end, the biggest lesson I find myself drawing from ERASED is to stop letting myself trust fans of source material. The fans always lie!
You can check out my review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.
Touching the murderbaby’s hand restored his memories!
Pretty much the only way it could go, though. Human connection
Misato, the girl who used to be a jerk, was the one who proposed fundraising activities to pay for his expenses
Satoru’s friends urge him to let them help him
“You were our hero back then, Satoru”
“You believed in me then and told me the truth. That’s why I believed in you.” Pulling in all the thematic threads. Good stuff!
And then he remembers Airi
“I have friends I can trust.” The hand again
Yashiro challenges him on how he knew what was going on
Yashiro’s planning to implicate him in the death of Kumi
“You’re an adult now.” Hm
“I want to take the bull by the horns and live”
“Life is filling up what’s missing in you”
“In that one moment, you were my father. You filled the hole inside me”
“You let me live for fifteen years, because you needed me. I was your reason to live.”
“I beat you, Sensei.”
He couldn’t deny his connection to Satoru
And Sensei saves him
“I think that time went by excruciatingly slowly for you”
“You feel like you’re alive because I’m around”
“In this world, the only person who knows the real you is me”
So they, uh, perfectly predicted his plan? Cool stuff
“‘Believing’ is really a term of hope of wanting to believe.”
The town without him is his treasure
And Satoru becomes a successful mangaka this time
AW DANG INSERT ED TIME
Meeting up with old friends
“I don’t have the courage to take that first step.” Reading his old essay
Being inspired by the courage of a hero, and then being saved by those inspired friends
Good sense of snowy atmosphere here at the end
And of course, at the very end he runs into Airi
” In the end, the biggest lesson I find myself drawing from ERASED is to stop letting myself trust fans of source material. ”
What did they tell you? I didn’t seem to see many manga readers hyping it up beyond expectations.
Though to be fair, while an original source material reader (including me) might want to believe the core strengths of a material is strong enough even if the medium change, unfortunately some strengths really doesn’t translate well between mediums. ERASED’s strength from the manga (the thriller aspect) is just one of those things.
Anyway, I do think the shortened confrontation between Yashiro and Satoru compared to the manga is a good thing. Even if the result still feels hammy, not that the original was better (in the original, he still keeps killing after “killing” Satoru. I’m not paying attention to much of his monologue in the manga, but I remember the phrase “We’re the same.” Are you kidding me?)
The final scenes isn’t changed as much, though subtle changes really brings to a front how the anime really wanted to put forth the theme of trust and believing others. Like how Misato, the girl who Satoru unknowingly hurt, is one of the people who tries to help Satoru the most.
The clincher is the difference between the final phrase. The final phrase of the manga is “The future is always a sheet of blank paper. Only my will can leave footprints on it.” The final phrase of the anime is “I never stopped believing.”
It’s much stronger thematically as a result, though it doesn’t seem to realize (or do, but cannot do anything about it) that the killer twist is basically shooting the theme itself in the foot. The end result is one of those things where I wish they had the freedom to dramatically change the narrative choices.
Also, from what I understand, there were quite substantial changes towards the end. So fans of the source material might have had reason to say what they did, but that was still lost in adaptation, at least partially. I’ll have to check out the manga myself to get a better idea.
A lot of the fans probably only read up until around Yashiro’s reveal (which, at the time, was where the scanlation was at) and most probably thought it was cool. Including me, at first (although it’s still accompanied by massive disappointment at the choice). This is like Death Note x Detective Conan x Steins;Gate or something – it’s the sort of thing that gets people up. Plus, considering the director’s experiences, I don’t think it’s a surprise that the show could play so well to the hype that it takes until the last three episodes for people to question it.
But anyway, I don’t think it’s entirely the fans’ fault due to scanlation not up to date while spoilers simply cannot convey quality of execution, plus the director being who he is, I can’t really blame anyone in eating up the hype. Their good impression at the beginning was greatly fanned by the anime’s execution. As for me, I haven’t watched it since episode 4 and haven’t read it since the chapter where Airi unlocked Satoru’s memory – so I guess I’m not entirely eaten up by the hype? Hurray for busy schedules I guess.
It’s also probably affected by how you enter in contact with the story. Had I read the manga first, possibly in a binge, I wouldn’t have had the time to think too hard about Yashiro being the culprit for example. Those things tend to impact you more if you take everything in one sitting. On the other hand, watching the anime week by week meant you had time to mull it over and the obviousness of the revelation passed through more easily, making it lamer when it actually happened.
Considering how much the 10th episode infuriated me, the fact that, even after the lame Yashiro-sensei stuff they had to tie up here (in a most predictable fashion), I was STILL moved by the ending tells me that this actually was a decently made show. Would I recommend it to others? Yes, with a few caveats.
A like how they recapitulated everything in the end and allowed the theme of “trust” to resurface. Yashiro was essentially the anti-thesis to that, which they were able to overcome through communal effort. So I guess the only reason why he’s there in the first place is to underscore that sense of community and belief. There has to be a solid object of disapproval for the hero to vanquish. It’s a little cliche, sure, and the method of vanquishing that evil was definitely questionable. I mean, really? Roll off the roof and expect the killer to save you?
Past that, everything folded up very nicely. I’m such a sap for waiting for that last scene where he’d bump into Airi. The articulation of his facial expressions is, again, a showcase of the strength of subtlety. A moment where Satoru is both relieved, delighted, and inspired at the sight of the woman who first believed in him. I think that was probably the best way to end the show.
ERASED still, at least I believe, turned out to be a good series, especially in a time in which most anime that comes out isn’t good. I think after a little while, once the bad taste of episode 10 is diluted a bit, ERASED will feel like a very bright light in a time of bad writing.