Erased, known in Japan as Boku dake ga Inai Machi, is a fantasy/thriller created by Kei Sanbe. On December 15th, Netflix released the live-action version of the manga. There is also an anime adaptation of the manga that was released in 2016 (and is currently available on Hulu and Crunchyroll).
Erased is one of my top anime and manga series, so I was very excited to see how they handled a live-action adaptation. I mean, there was a movie, but I’ve never seen it. Plus, movies generally don’t do an entire series justice. Everyone knows that.
If you haven’t seen the anime or read the manga, for one, you totally should, but let me give you a quick synopsis: the story is about Satoru Fujinuma, a 29 year old, struggling manga artist who also works as a pizza delivery driver. He sounds pretty average, except for a special ability (which he calls Revival) he possesses that sends him back in time before a tragic incident can happen, allowing him to prevent it by figuring out what is out of place/wrong.
Following a strange Revival, Satoru’s mother is murdered. Trapped in a corner and desperate to save his mother and find out who killed her, Satoru’s Revival sends him back 18 years, to when he was in elementary school. He realizes that in order to save his mom and fix the future, he must prevent the serial murders of three children that happened the first time he was in 1988.
This live-action adaptation does a great job of keeping to the original source material. There are many scenes that are word for word out of the pages of the manga. However, the anime had made some changes that I actually liked. Certain things that happened in the manga, while entertaining, felt unnecessary. Watching those things happen in the show were nice, again, because of showing their effort to stick to the source, but even then I found myself thinking, “this would have gone a lot smoother if they did it the way they did in the anime.” Maybe that’s just me.
The actors all do a great job. Yuuya Furukawa, who plays adult Satoru, Reo Uchikawa, who plays Satoru as a child, and Jin Shirasu, who plays adult Kenya Kobayshi, in particular, are amazing. I felt Yuuya Furukawa was spot on with his portrayal of Satoru, even the parts where he was just the narration were the embodiment of the character. Reo Uchikawa seriously blew me away though.
That kid is talented. Any scene that he got upset or emotional punched me right in the feels. Jin Shirasu did a great job, but the best part was simply being able to see Kenya get the screen time he deserved. That was really the only thing about the anime that I didn’t like them cutting out because Kenya had so much unexplored depth. Kenya is an incredibly important and awesome character who finally got his screen time to shine and Jin Shirasu definitely made that shine what it deserved to be.
All of that being said, if you haven’t read any manga or watched an anime before, then it might not be as great to you as it was to me. There are definitely some mechanics (such as the time travel/timeline change stuff) that aren’t as “realistic” as some viewers prefer. There are also times where people freeze in a scene that seems…abnormal. Like when Satoru is arrested but the police freeze in place to give he and Airi time to say some encouraging words to each other. Would the police actually just pause like that in real life? No. But is it EXACTLY what happened in the manga? 100% yes.
OVERALL SCORE: 8 / 10
Erased is currently streaming on Netflix.
As perfect as the show is in regards to representing its source, I don’t think it’s set up in a way that allows it to fully captivate an unfamiliar audience. By that I mean, an audience unfamiliar with how anime and manga are. If you do watch anime and/or read manga, though, then I highly recommend it. If you don’t, then I still recommend it, but you don’t need to, like…prioritize it over anything.
