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EP. REVIEW: ERASED [2016-01-15]


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danpmss



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 780
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 9:44 am Reply with quote
They kinda rushed this part (not as much as the first chapters tho), but the result was pretty consistent imo
I dunno why it had some negative criticism about the chocolate of all things, as pride is something ridiculously important in Japan, and to bring shame to your family members with something like stealing accusations is a huge offense that often destroy families in there (happened with the uncle of a nisei friend of mine), but surely the atmosphere kinda broke a little, compared to the last episodes (the manga handled way better, even the cliffhanger).

Still 4/5 material just like episode 1 (instead of 5/5 like the rest), which is great.


Last edited by danpmss on Fri Feb 05, 2016 10:18 am; edited 1 time in total
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3447
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 9:47 am Reply with quote
kotomikun wrote:

I'm not defending episode 5 here, because it was pretty sloppy, but: he ran away in the first episode, because he was literally caught red-handed by a screaming neighbor. Also because if you found a bloodily murdered family member 10 seconds ago, you're probably not thinking straight. He originally time-jumped back while running away, and was sent back to that point in episode 5. And he probably doesn't want to deal with police interrogation when his actual goal is to go back in time again, especially since he doesn't exactly trust their judgement with this sort of thing.


Yeah and that's why I didn't mind it at first, but for Satoru this isn't just after he discovered his mom death body, this is like a month after with all the time traveling stuff. He really should have all his head now and can just go forward and tell them. They'll take him to the station but that'll last at most one day and then release him, they have literally nothing on him except that the neighbor saw him next to his dead mom, which is again the most obvious things to do when you find a death body.

As far as japan crime system, yeah there are false conviction. But it's low in japan compare to everywhere else, and the example given in the link was from I think 20-30 year ago, not 2006. And like the link says they have exceptionally high conviction rate once they press charge, in large part because they only press charge when they have bullet-proof evidence, which they absolutely do not in this case.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3768
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 10:13 am Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
kotomikun wrote:

I'm not defending episode 5 here, because it was pretty sloppy, but: he ran away in the first episode, because he was literally caught red-handed by a screaming neighbor. Also because if you found a bloodily murdered family member 10 seconds ago, you're probably not thinking straight. He originally time-jumped back while running away, and was sent back to that point in episode 5. And he probably doesn't want to deal with police interrogation when his actual goal is to go back in time again, especially since he doesn't exactly trust their judgement with this sort of thing.


Yeah and that's why I didn't mind it at first, but for Satoru this isn't just after he discovered his mom death body, this is like a month after with all the time traveling stuff. He really should have all his head now and can just go forward and tell them. They'll take him to the station but that'll last at most one day and then release him, they have literally nothing on him except that the neighbor saw him next to his dead mom, which is again the most obvious things to do when you find a death body.

As far as japan crime system, yeah there are false conviction. But it's low in japan compare to everywhere else, and the example given in the link was from I think 20-30 year ago, not 2006. And like the link says they have exceptionally high conviction rate once they press charge, in large part because they only press charge when they have bullet-proof evidence, which they absolutely do not in this case.


I'm not sure I would say bullet proof but yeah, it's not like it's every time. Though the one 20-30 years ago, the guy is still fighting his conviction, and the guy didn't even know what was on the confession he signed.

Now this is also fiction and since we know at least two innocent people who had the murderer's crimes pinned on them despite claiming innocence, it is reasonable for Satoru to not just trust the cops accept his innocence. Considering there is a Representative involved, I'm sure they could "find" some evidence. Well plus he didn't have a alibi and he accidentally (though apparently it was true in the manga) established motive in saying he had a fight with his mom. So you have motive, opportunity, and the means (the kitchen knife used as the murder weapon) which I believe would be enough to take it to trial at least.

I looked up wrongful conviction rates. Since countries don't publish wrongful conviction rates (for obvious reasons) and it is impossible to know how many are wrongfully imprisoned, I fail to see how you could say it is lower than other countries (crime however is extremely low). That article I linked mentioned that the convictions resting on false confessions was estimated to be 10 percent. In the US, about 4.1 percent of convictions to death row are found to be innocent, though the exact number is not possible to know. Now I won't say Japan has higher wrongful conviction rate, but they certainly don't have a lower rate and it is a serious enough problem that I would not unhesitatingly turn myself in even if I were innocent.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2652
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 11:49 am Reply with quote
Evaunit02berserk wrote:
Hiroki not Takuya wrote:
However, I did think it was a little much not to show the face of the baddie with the manager, as if it'd kill the story to reveal him now.
Yes, it would actually kill the story pretty heavily. Its a pretty big twist who he actually is...
Thanks, I guess I'll just have to wait. My point was more that it seemed pointless to show the presence of the baddie if revealing who it was would spoil the show. We already know baddies are lurking and they showed us one in the first episode so that tidbit seems not to add anything to the story. Since you obviously know, feel free to correct me on that but now I'm getting interested because if there was a point to Ep5, the writer is heavily hinting there are several baddies and not just one. I just want to see Kayo rescued after all the drama of the previous episodes.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3768
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 1:15 pm Reply with quote
Hiroki not Takuya wrote:
Evaunit02berserk wrote:
Hiroki not Takuya wrote:
However, I did think it was a little much not to show the face of the baddie with the manager, as if it'd kill the story to reveal him now.
Yes, it would actually kill the story pretty heavily. Its a pretty big twist who he actually is...
Thanks, I guess I'll just have to wait. My point was more that it seemed pointless to show the presence of the baddie if revealing who it was would spoil the show. We already know baddies are lurking and they showed us one in the first episode so that tidbit seems not to add anything to the story. Since you obviously know, feel free to correct me on that but now I'm getting interested because if there was a point to Ep5, the writer is heavily hinting there are several baddies and not just one. I just want to see Kayo rescued after all the drama of the previous episodes.


In addition it also showed one of the bad guys, specifically the one whose face was obscured, was a Representative, showing one of the criminals had a fairly high position in the government and used to it perpetuate his and his accomplices' crimes. Probably why they got away with it so long
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Uokel



Joined: 28 Jul 2013
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 10:55 am Reply with quote
To bad they didn't show the part in the manga were he noticed the killer was still around after his mom died and in turn went to chase him which is the reason he ran out of his apartment. Only noticing it was a set up after.
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Sahmbahdeh



Joined: 05 May 2015
Posts: 713
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:34 pm Reply with quote
Ok, what the hell, Erased? That was by far the worst episode yet, by a long shot. The direction and music were either underdone or overdone, the second half of the episode was rushed and the plot points were ridiculous. Airi's parents were divorced because of a goddamn candy bar? That's her dramatic backstory and sole reason for trusting someone suspected of murder? What? And then Satoru acted like an idiot the entire episode, completely misreading every situation and acting without any common sense. I expect much better from this show. Hopefully this was a one-time fluke. 2/5.
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chex mix



Joined: 28 Mar 2015
Posts: 415
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 5:57 pm Reply with quote
It seemed like Satoru was acting like a dumbass because he kept expecting to get sent back to the past again, like "any minute now, any minute now" so he really wasn't paying attention to what was going on at that moment. But yeah, directorial fail, because it should have been expressed more clearly if that was in truth the case.
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_Cyphon_



Joined: 16 Nov 2014
Posts: 996
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 8:42 pm Reply with quote
I don't seem to share the negativity present in a lot of viewers here. Honestly, if a show screws up one episode I'm ok with it. You can't expect a show to be perfect every single episode, especially if you compare it to a lot of the other failures present every season. If I'm angry at anything, it would be how Airi opened the door even though she saw smoke coming from under it. Just jump out the window come on.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11577
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 9:38 pm Reply with quote
Sahmbahdeh wrote:
Airi's parents were divorced because of a goddamn candy bar? That's her dramatic backstory and sole reason for trusting someone suspected of murder? What?

I surprised that everyone seems to have taken that story at face value, as that they divorced because he possibly stole a candy bar. What she was trying to get across to him was that this seemingly trivial thing exposed an existing rift in their marriage in that his wife was not only unwilling to believe him about something trivial, but also would not support him or his sense of his own reputation (even though it's a small thing, I'm innocent and won't let you say I'm guilty), because she was more concerned with her own reputation. If she did not trust him on a matter like this, she would surely not stand by him when it really counted.

I think Airi was trying to say that she wanted to believe and support him even over something truly major, where her mother couldn't even do so over something minor.

Having said all that, it wasn't the most eloquent way to get that point across, I do agree. I can sort of handwave it as she's 17, her life metaphors still need work, but I really have to lay the awkwardness of it at the writers' feet.
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Wingbeats



Joined: 23 Feb 2015
Posts: 272
Location: Boise, Idaho
PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2016 1:49 am Reply with quote
I know Ep 5 was a bit of a step down, but I still enjoyed it when Airi punched that guy in the face. Glorious.
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Alabaster Spectrum



Joined: 02 Sep 2015
Posts: 528
PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 7:34 pm Reply with quote
The discussion and chatter about this show is so much more down to Earth and my tempo compared to MAL it's not even funny. Like here it's just another well received solid seasonal show where people actually talk about the show and going ons in it and even share some criticisms or theories. There it's AOTS this, AOTY that, ZOMG GREATEST ANIME OF ALL GODDAMN TIME and yet for all the bluster and accolades nobody is actually damn well talking about it really. Just...what a difference, staggering even.
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danpmss



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 780
PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 8:23 pm Reply with quote
Alabaster Spectrum wrote:
The discussion and chatter about this show is so much more down to Earth and my tempo compared to MAL it's not even funny. Like here it's just another well received solid seasonal show where people actually talk about the show and going ons in it and even share some criticisms or theories. There it's AOTS this, AOTY that, ZOMG GREATEST ANIME OF ALL GODDAMN TIME and yet for all the bluster and accolades nobody is actually damn well talking about it really. Just...what a difference, staggering even.


MAL forums are way more popular and less controlled than ANN's.
It's just natural to ANN not have so much cancer (unless the review is polemic in the eyes of the fanbase, like Fate Stay Night last year) lol
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2652
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 1:39 pm Reply with quote
If it turns out that Satoru is really a schizophrenic killer, I'll flip tables, but I wonder if his father may be the Councilman/killer? A little farther out there is if Airi's father is related to Kayo's mother or became that way because of Satoru's time-jump (new "are you stupid" remarks)? I think Ep6 was fairly solid with a lot of twists.
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Knoepfchen



Joined: 13 Dec 2012
Posts: 698
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 6:53 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
As Satoru described a cynical old manga plot he once wrote, about a grim reaper who tries to make up for a mistake but only makes things worse, Airi chided him for his negativity. “The stuff about hurting other people is just the grim reaper's impression,” she said. The future is always full of possibilities. And Satoru returned this positivity to the last, telling Airi as he's dragged away that he is glad he trusted her. Satoru's thoughts of childhood heroes resolve in “isn't it hard fighting all on your own?” Either we all trust together, or we all fall apart.


But wasn't it more layered? Sitting under the bridge analyzing the need of trust and getting all fuzzy-feely, we see the toy plane drifting by in the river, lost to the boys Satoru made it fly for earlier in the park. Only wanting to help, he made it better in the short run (it actually flew), but worse in the long run (after it was done flying, it fell into the river and is ruined now). While (at least for the time being) no-one has died who didn't die before Satoru tried to change things, this feels pretty representative of the dangers his meddling can entail. He is clearly aware of that, and he doesn't reach the conclusion of trust = good all on his own. He only comes up with his "I'm glad I trusted you" line after pondering what a "hero" might say in his situation, which matched his emotional immaturity beautifully.

At the moment, I'm starting to wonder if he will be able to save everyone or if he will have to realize that making the plane fly for a while is all he can actually do. Which is interesting, even if it's an unlikely outcome.

This was a much better episode than last week, but not quite back to where we were before. With the butterflies already there, I'm hoping we will go back in time next week.
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