V Reviews - Erased... a review of a loved/hated anime

When you went through anime forums around this time last year, you might've noticed the hype surrounding the anime Erased. The further along the series went, the more praise it got. This caused it to end up in the top 50 best anime ever while it was still airing.

But boy, did that change with the last three episodes. After the anime finished airing, the praise turned into bile and it hasn't stopped to this date. Try to speak any positive of Erased, and an angry mob will follow you to the end of days.

I was living under a rock around that time last year, so by the time I personally heard of Erased, the hate train already started and I carefully stepped back and let it pass.

But next to all the hate it garnered over the past year, it also still got praise from many people, including notable reviewers like Chriss Stuckman. And that kind of confused me.

Is the hate granted? Is the praise granted? There was one way to find out. So I dug in with a magnifying glass and searched for what went wrong with "Boku dake ga Inai Machi", better known as "Erased".

Problem is that there is SO much to talk about, I'm gonna have to split this up in two parts to keep it somewhat readable. The first part is the regular review (backstory, main story, characters, art & sound). The second part is going to cover what went wrong.

V Reviews - Erased (Pt. 1)

Let's rewind this clock to the very beginning... the Backstory

"Boku Dake ga inai machi" roughly translates to "the town with me erased", which was shortened to "Erased" in the west (which I'll keep using further on for clarity's sake).

Erased is a seinen thriller manga created by suspense mangaka Kei Sanbe. It's NOT a mystery manga (Keep that in mind)!. Kei has been writing thriller and horror manga ever since 2001 and started his craft as an assistant for the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure manga. Of all his stories, Erased is the first that received the anime treatment (AND live action treatment at the same time).

But in 2016, that is just what happened. A1-Pictures animated the manga into a 12-episode series and WB Japan released the live action movie.

I'd love to post twitter and website here, but his website has been down for a while now and he removed his original twitter account (maybe when the backlash started?).

Story

The story starts in May of 2006.Satoru Fujinuma is a man down on his luck. Due to his lack of empathy, he's become estranged from his childhood friends and is failing as a manga author (he can't put emotions on paper). So he has to survive by being a part-time pizza delivery guy.

One day you'll find the job of your life...
and then you become a pizza delivery guy instead.

But he has one thing that does make him special. He has an ability that when he's in the environment of a tragic accident or murder, he relives it in a constant loop. This so that he can prevent the accident or murder from happening. The downside on this is that this is triggered automatically, so he always has to figure out what the situation is and how he can prevent it from happening. If not, history loops again and he has to relive that moment over and over again.

Loop-de-loop

In one such moment Satoru saves a kid from being run over by a delivery truck, but in this process Satoru end up getting injured. He wakes up in a hospital bed, but at his bedside is his colleague Airi, who saw the entire thing happening and now thinks he's a hero.

Weird to wake up to... though not bad.

In another "rewind" moment his mother and him prevent a child kidnapping/murder from happening. But as a direct result of this, the two of them become the target of this serial killer. This because Satoru's mom (Sachiko) thinks she knows the culprit from somewhere and it may have to do with a serial murder case that happened when Satoru was 10 years old.

The next day after returning home, Satoru finds him mother in his place; murdered in cold blood. But the landlord also drops in and sees Satoru with bloody hands and a shocked face. She wrongfully concludes that Satoru is the murderer. Seeing that he has to catch the real murderer and no time to explain things, Satoru flees. But the moment he's about to get caught by the police, his Rewind ability kicks in.

Yeah, I don't think she's asleep...

At first he thanks his ability so that he can prevent the murder of his mother. But soon after that he's in shock... Because time went back further than ever before. He's suddenly 10 years old again and he has to relive his own childhood.

Yes, or as they call it: the 63rd year of Shôwa

Satoru now has to uncover what actions are going to save his mother from being murdered in the future. And he quickly concludes that saving the serial murder victims in the past will be a key element in changing his future and will hopefully save his mother.

The rest of the story focuses on Satoru slowly trying to change himself while trying to save the murder victims. He can no longer sit by idly. He has to become more pro-active.

Characters

	Satoru Fujinuma: Main character. A man struggling with his emotions and is slowly becoming bittered by this. Is sent back in time when his mother is murdered and realizes he needs to change himself in order to save all "future" murder victims from getting killed.
	Airi Katagiri: Colleague of Satoru. Is the only person in the present time that believes in Satoru's innocence This because she saw Satoru's Rewind powers in action and knows he's a good person in heart.
	Sachiko Fujinuma: Satoru's mom. A former reporter and a woman with a incredible sense of intuition (she's often called a demon by Satoru due to her ability to figure everything out way too fast). This sharp intuition is also the root cause of her getting killed.
	Kayo Hinazuki: The first of the three murder victims in the past. Lives in a broken home with an abusive mom and has slowly lost all hope in humanity. She kind of likes Satoru because he acts "fake" (just like herself), but is unable to show it.
	Kenya Kobayashi: Childhood friend of Satoru. Grew apart from Satoru after a common friend got murdered in the serial murder incident. But in the revisited timeline Kenya is growing fond of Satoru's pro-active behavior. He helps Saturo in the process of saving the serial murder victims.
	Hiromi Sugita: Childhood friend of Satoru and one of the serial murder victims in the past. He's a typical guy with feminine looks (a "trap"). During the process of saving Kayo, Satoru tries to involve Hiromi as much as possible, to keep an eye on his wellbeing as well.
	Gaku Yashiro: Homeroom teacher of the kids and the closest thing Satoru has as a father figure.

Art

During my Ace Attorney review, I talked about A1 Pictures B-team of animators. Well, this is clearly the A-team. There's honestly not that much I can remark about it, since it's all-around good. The environments are really well-drawn and realistic.
From the entire series, the most noteworthy scenes should be those involving Satoru and Kayo going to the "Christmas tree".

Are you, are you coming to the tree?

A fun thing to notice is the change in aspect ratio when it concerns present time vs the past. Present time is the regular 16:9 we see in widescreen tv series. But the past is in 21:9 (movie aspect ratio).

Sound

Sound is quite good as well... which is not a surprise if you look at who actually directed the music: Yuki Kajiura. Yuki is the person behind the epic soundtracks of Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero and Sword Art Online (one of the few good things THAT anime can offer).

But since this is less on an "epic" scale and goes more for the feels, the soundtrack feels more held back than in the previously mentioned series. Don't misunderstand me: It's not a bad OST. It's still worth listening to. But you're not going to remember much from it after a sit-through.

The Opening is by Asian Kung-Fu Generation, which is always nice to listen to.

My personal opinion

I personally liked the anime. It's no masterpiece and certainly doesn't deserve a ranking as high as it does right now. But it's still a worthwile watch if you like a good thriller with some drama elements.

Don't watch this for the mystery aspect, because it's not intended to be a mystery. It's all about survival.

I'm giving this a careful 7.5/10.

In the second part, I'm going to dig a little deeper and cover both what the series got right, and what it did wrong. Just to try and filter all of the hate into a constructive narrative. For that second part, click here

Until then, V out.

V Reviews Ace Attorney (TV) - I object to this anime!

I make no secret of it. I'm a big fan of the Ace Attorney (Gyakutan Saiban) games ever since its first European release on the original DS, back in 2006. The series has always been a good mix of point-and-click adventure games with visual novels, all while having a good dose of humor and suspense.

I was part of the crowd that clung onto the fan translation of AA3 due to Capcom not being straight on whether or not it was going to receive an English release; I was one of the skeptics on the portrayal of Phoenix in the Apollo Justice game (but eventually got swayed), I'm one of those who desperately wants Investigations 2 and "Dai Gyakutan Saiban" to be released in the west and so on and so on. So yeah, big fan.

And through all the years of being a fan, I have been secretly wishing for an anime adaptation of the original trilogy. So you could call me excited when Capcom and A1-pictures announced that they would have an anime adaptation of the first games back in early 2016. But sadly enough, my experience with this anime can be formulated in the five stages of grief.

Stage 1: Denial

The first few episodes aired and I kind of liked it. The animation was a bit "off" at times, but I tried to have an open mind to it. Even though I felt some things were missing, I was still excited to see this favorite game series being animated.

The music and voice acting was good enough. It's obvious enough that the music is adapted form the much beloved OSTs of the games. So for a lot of fans it's the first time hearing these themes outside of the video games. But for some reason nothing really stands out.

Also, the desperation of Capcom to make sure the subs of the anime reflect the translated game text often has hilarious results.

That moment you hear "miso ramen", but read this...

Stage 2: Anger

Because I felt things were missing in all of the episodes, I bought the Ace Attorney Trilogy remake for my 3DS and played all through it again. And I suddenly realized what was missing. Entire chunks of the game were cut.

And not just any chunks, but almost every part that included character development was gone, especially when concerned to Miles Edgeworth. In the second and third case of the first game, we were exposed to the dark side of Edgeworth. He's a prosecutor who stops at nothing to win his case, with lying and manipulating both witnesses and evidence. But in the anime he was reduced to a generic rival character with no real charisma. If you only would only watch this anime, you would never understand why Edgeworth has become one of the most iconic game characters of game history.

The fourth case adaptation was a mess. Manfred Von Karma is easily one of the most threatening villains in the entire franchise. In the game, he went as far as physically assaulting you just to steal evidence that could potentially be used against him! He's a real threat. But here he's just... an cartoonish bad guy with 0 charisma.

The threat of the game vs the "face of evil" of the anime

Stage 3: Bargaining

After the end of the first game adaptation, I was trying to bargain with myself: Maybe the second game adaptation will be better. And when they handle the third game, the experience of the animators will have improved so much, that it will get better without a doubt. I mean, Godot is the most iconic antagonist of the entire franchise. They wouldn't ruin that one, right?

Stage 4: Depression

Why did they remove the fifth case of the first game? Why remove the opening case of the second game? Why did they add in a fluffy filler episode that added NOTHING of story to this. Why?

Anybody want to tell me why we got a mushy "Edgeworth looking for his dog" story instead of "Phoenix gets his head bashed in" story?

And then the total number of episodes was finally confirmed. There's no way to add in the third game in here. This anime is a failure, man. Failure. This is horrible. Why create an anime if this is the way it's being handled. Who directed this? Come on! Couldn't they at least LOOK at the other team that animated the promo video for Spirits of Justice? THAT one is amazing compared to this! Seriously, it's available on Youtube. Just watch that.

We wanted a good anime to advice to our friends who like the character, but have no idea where to begin in the gaming franchise. This is not the anime we wanted...

Stage 5: Acceptance

Now that a few months have passed since the final episode has aired, I can only say the following: Forget this anime exists. While this is not a good adaptation of the games, it does not reduce what the original Ace Attorney games stand for.

And right now, at least there's one thing less on my mind... Now I'm no longer secretly hoping for an anime adaptation of my favorite games. If THIS is how game adaptations are being handled in the anime industry, I'd rather not see any anime of video games at all.

Final verdict

I give this anime a 5/10. It's not horrible per sé. And if you have never seen anything of the Phoenix Wright / Gyakutan Saiban franchise, this isn't THAT bad. But overall, I can't really recommend it either. There are just so many better anime to watch all together.

If you want to catch up on the best anime of 2016, this is one you can easily skip.But if you DO want to check it out, it's available on Crunchyroll for free streaming.

Next time, a more positive review.

Until then, V out.