Many people have a moment they wish they could return to in order to do just one thing differently. Sometimes it's just to say good-bye to someone who won't be coming back, but maybe it's for a larger purpose, like to save a life. For Satoru Fujinuma, that moment is in the winter of 1988. Despite the fact that eighteen years have passed, Satoru still can't forgive himself for what happened, as he just goes through the motions of having a life with the occasional appearance of a strange power he calls “revival.” It allows him to briefly travel back in time in order to prevent a tragedy, a skill presumably brought about by his extreme guilt over not having saved Kayo. Since he rarely goes back more than a few minutes, he doesn't think of somehow using this power to go back to 1988, but after the past comes to find him in 2006, causing the death of his mother, Satoru finds himself once more a child, back in the days before Kayo's murder.

Of course this time there's even more at stake – he knows that if he fails to save Kayo, two other kids will die, and then his mother eighteen years in the future. Since he's being framed for her murder, his own life is at stake as well. Fortunately, Satoru retains his adult memories and thoughts despite being in his fifth grade body – he's both observing his past and actively attempting to change it. This contradiction can be seen in the conflicts between his ten-year-old self's emotions and those of his adult self: Kayo makes him blush as a child, while his adult self is horrified that the attraction even passed through his mind. Other issues, such as the child logic and taste in food, also get jumbled up between his two co-existing selves, and while they don't precisely thwart his attempts to change the past, they do force him to think on his feet in a way he wasn't anticipating.

These first six (of twelve) episodes jump between 2006 and 1988, making for two separate casts tied together by Satoru himself. There are more characters in the past, many of them existing just to make it difficult for us to solve the mystery of the murderer's identity. The 1988 characters are also bleaker – the winter landscape of Satoru's hometown is mostly gray and white with touches of red, making Kayo in her bright red wool coat, which appears to be a deliberate homage to Little Red Riding Hood, stand out all the more. Kayo herself is being abused by her mother, and the bruises are stark on her pale skin, although there's a clear effort made to hide them. It's worth mentioning that in my research (which was in no way exhaustive), it did not appear that public school teachers in Japan are mandated reporters of child abuse as in America. (The only school charter I found that mentioned it was for a private Evangelical school.) While the drabness may seem contrary to the way we usually picture the 1980s, its immersion is aided by the serious nature of the story itself.

One of the most interesting characters is only present in 2006, Satoru's teenage co-worker Airi. Airi stands out because she seems to be that rare character who has read the script and knows what isn't being said. I don't mean this to imply that she has psychic knowledge of events, but rather that she doesn't take things at face value – Airi knows that there's something off about the situation and the people involved. Her inclusion in the cast gives Satoru hope, because if someone is willing to believe in him, then maybe there really is a chance that he can eventually fix the events of winter 1988.

Aniplex of America's release, although at its usual high price, does have some good extras. The show has been dubbed into English, and while there are times when it feels as if Ben Diskin is trying to mimic the cadence of Shinnosuke Mitsushima's adult Satoru, he has very good delivery, and all of the English performances are well-done. (It is worth mentioning that in one of the commentaries, director Alex Von David mentions that he had Diskin record while sitting in a chair, as if he really were observing rather than participating.) Von David also wrote the dub script and mentions that he watched the show as it aired on Crunchyroll, so it's clear that a lot of thought went into the production. Two episode commentaries, with von David, Diskin, and Cherami Leigh who plays Airi, are included as extras, and while they are very low-key compared to Funimation's variety, they're also pretty interesting. There is also a twenty-track CD of background music written by Yuki Kajiura and two booklets, one containing a manga about just before Satoru revived back in 1988 (referenced in episode two) and some of manga author Kei Toma's notes, with the second detailing character information and clues. I would suggest saving that one until after watching the episodes. The box and booklets have what at first appear to be white covers, but upon closer inspection you can see shiny images drawn on them, a tribute to the series' English title.

ERASED's first half is both an interesting mystery and a tense story about trying to change a history that seems etched in stone. The way that Satoru's power seems directly tied to his guilt over not saving Kayo has some interesting implications for the future, and while we don't know who the killer is, there are at least enough hints to start figuring things out. Satoru's quest won't be an easy one, but perhaps there's a reason why we so clearly saw the graffiti in one episode saying, “Impossible is nothing.”