ERASED

Episodes 1-2

There is a whole lot worth talking about when it comes to ERASED. Even the base premise is complex enough to fill an easy paragraph, what with Satoru's adult ennui, his Revival power, the bloody drama that sparks his return to childhood, and the kidnapping mystery awaiting him there. You'd think a show that juggles two distinct time periods, an additional supernatural time-traveling power, and a secret serial killer would come off as a little too busy, but ERASED manages that and then some. Not only is it satisfying as an immediate drama, it's also rich in relevant thematic undertones, and marvelously produced aside. I don't always find myself interested in anime's marquee shows, but if ERASED is destined to be this season's big hit, I am all for it.

ERASED's strengths begin with its stellar direction, courtesy of Sword Art Online/Silver Spoon director Tomohiko Ito. Ito's always been a talented director, but adapting poorly written light novels and slice of life manga haven't necessarily given him a chance to stretch his muscles; here, his gifts for tone and drama are put to use in elevating an already-acclaimed thriller. While the first episode nicely evokes the everyday doldrums of Satoru's adult life, the second is where the atmosphere really takes hold, as Satoru is transported back to a time when he was just an adolescent boy in a much larger world.

Shots framed below Satoru's eye level capture the audience in his new perspective, and a somber color palette covers the whole world in a snowy grey. The past is presented in letterbox format, heightening the sense of nostalgic unreality, and of being a passenger viewing your own life on the screen. But the sense of peace that might exist in Satoru's childhood is consistently undercut by shots framing characters through bars or from below, implying a sense of claustrophobia or being watched that's perfectly suited to a story featuring child kidnappings.

The music is also excellent at maintaining a strong atmosphere, with Yuki Kajiura turning in an uncharacteristically reserved effort. Though Kajiura has in the past been responsible for soundtracks as creative and beautiful as .hack//SIGN's, some of her more recent efforts have fallen into a fairly archetypal rut. Not so here - ERASED's soundtrack is full of unnerving slow strings and gently plinking keys, often feeling more like a creeping at the back of the skull than a full melody. Her music gracefully complements the show's strong incidental sound design, as sequences like Satoru's teacher taking attendance build into an uncomfortable echoing crescendo.

And all this aesthetic goodness isn't wasted, either; ERASED's narrative is winding and fascinating, hiding classic thriller hooks beneath a fundamentally melancholy shell. In his first time period, Satoru was basically regret incarnate, wasting his days delivering pizzas as he lamented his poor choices in life goals. Even his special power represented the regrets of the past, as he was literally just able to take back one tiny bad decision at a time. His first timeline was brought to life through wonderful incidental conversations and great character acting, with Satoru and his mother sharing a familial rapport far more believable than most anime relationships. Satoru's world feels sad and real.

When he's spun back to his early adolescence, Satoru finds the world both the same and different than he remembered. Seeing him treasure small moments with his mother feels that much more cutting for our knowledge about his unhappy future, and there's a desperate, almost pathetic nostalgia to his engagement with his decades-lost classmates. Doomed girl Kayo Hinazuki forms the sober counterpoint to Satoru's revery; while he longs to escape into the past, where things weren't so sad and complicated, Hinazuki writes cries for help about wanting to escape her own childhood. Each of them arrive at the performance of normality from opposite directions, and it seems likely that discovering the unseen cracks in his idyllic view of childhood will end up changing Satoru far more than his own efforts ever could. ERASED feels emotionally ambitious in spite of its understated thriller pacing; contrasting a broken childhood against the boy left empty by the adult world is a sharp and poignant idea, and I look forward to seeing what each of these characters could possibly learn from each other. ERASED could go in any number of directions, but here and now, it is a consistently excellent show.

Rating: A

ERASED is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.