When you think of time travel in any TV show, anime, or even movies, you know something is going to go wrong and ruin it, and they will have to go back again and fix it. But the anime Erased did it differently. This series is about a young Japanese man named Satoru Fujinuma, who can time-travel, but there is a twist. He only goes back a few seconds, and it’s usually when something bad happens.
In the first episode, he talks about his ability, and when he quickly goes back in time, he looks around, sees a truck that is about to crash, and stops it from happening. He has no control over this power, which he calls revival, and usually it’s small things like that. But then one day, he and his mom go grocery shopping, and she spots a known serial killer, but before she can report it, the suspect sneaks in and kills her, and once Satoru finds her, he is charged with her murder, accused by the attacker. His grief causes him to go back in time, 18 years, to his childhood to stop a classmate from getting kidnapped and murdered.
So I get that going back in time to save someone who died usually screws something up in the future, like something happens because someone who should have died isn’t anymore; it’s happened in enough shows like Supernatural, Flash, and several other shows. Although it does usually have an emotional reason behind it, I think Erased did it best because it was emotional after he realized who it was, what her life was like, and seeing her die over and over and keep getting sent back in time.
Eventually, he does come up with a plan that saves her, and there is a good ending and everything, but it also leaves unanswered questions, because once he saves her and goes back to his time, it’s not mentioned what happens to her. Don’t get me wrong, it was still an exciting watch, and I enjoyed it. I just needed a glimpse of her future.
Time travel seems appealing, but unless you are doing it for love, family, and for the greater good, it will just lead to heartbreak.
