×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
EP. REVIEW: ERASED [2016-01-15]


Goto page   Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Catsplay



Joined: 24 Sep 2015
Posts: 381
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 10:22 am Reply with quote
Watched the first two episodes of Erased last night not knowing what to expect and was blown away. I haven't been this hooked into the mystery aspect of a show since Lost. Just everything here is top notch, the production values, character interactions, somber tone. The main character is also super relatable. Looking forward to this each week as my anime of the Season.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
JR-1



Joined: 02 Oct 2012
Posts: 70
Location: Southeast Asia
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 10:23 am Reply with quote
As someone who have read the manga, it's amazing how a great production can really elevate a source material (incidentally, this is also how I felt with last season's big hit, One Punch Man, but this is even more so). Some might disagree, but I was initially shied away from the manga by the first volume's slow pacing, while the first episode of the anime feels very gripping from beginning to end. After this adaptation now the manga feels like a rough draft to me.

The only thing I'm wary of is how they'll handle the ending, since the manga is not yet finished, but since I think the latest chapter already provided a sort of emotional and thematic closure even though there's no plot closure yet, I'm optimistic it will end well enough, if not better.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
MasterGhost



Joined: 29 Nov 2011
Posts: 125
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 10:30 am Reply with quote
I must agree with this review. This is looking to be one of the best, if not the best show of the season.

One thing though, that Nick didn't mention in his review, is with the humor within the two episodes. I genuinely thought some of the more comedic moments (especially in Episode 2) were excellently written, funny, and balanced out the drama well.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 10:37 am Reply with quote
This is the discussion thread for ERASED.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime
yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 10:41 am Reply with quote
There are already four threads about this show. Perhaps they can be consolidated?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Animechic420



Joined: 25 Sep 2012
Posts: 1724
Location: A Cave Filled With Riches
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 10:47 am Reply with quote
This series has me reminiscing about the time I was in grade school.

Lots of annoying times. Confused

The anime itself at times acts like a go-to for what to your tell kids to look out for. Also makes me wish I can go back in time and rewrite myself.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
Posts: 3679
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:04 am Reply with quote
Episode #1-2:

I can't recall a lot of movies or TV shows that dealt with going back to one's childhood and (re)viewing the world without the rose-tainted Glasses of Innocence. Kudos for this show for going that direction, and doing it quite well, so far.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
chito895



Joined: 22 Jan 2015
Posts: 512
Location: Lima, Peru
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:04 am Reply with quote
I'm really liking this show so far. I love the little details and conversations (especially the discussion about those very well known RPGs) that happen while Satoru's trying to figure out what's going on. And it's great how the whole epiaode was framed: that movie-like black bars make me feel that I'm watching the show with Satoru by my side while he is explaining every single part of his life.

The execution looks solid, and every single part of the show looks beautiful, especially the scene in the park: a dark, snowy scenario where the only spots of color are Kayo and Satoru, it was beautiful. I also am loving how Satoru's 29-year-old mind interacts with the feelings of the 11-year-old Satoru, which are effectively taking away the moments of tension.

I wonder if Satoru's friend from the future, Airi, will have more connections to the overall mystery or if she's only going to be a point of comparison between her and her dialogues in episode 1 (which aren't many) and Kayo and her own personal thoughts.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:05 am Reply with quote
JR-1 wrote:

The only thing I'm wary of is how they'll handle the ending, since the manga is not yet finished, but since I think the latest chapter already provided a sort of emotional and thematic closure even though there's no plot closure yet, I'm optimistic it will end well enough, if not better.


animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2016-01-08/erased-boku-dake-ga-inai-machi-anime-to-portray-ending-of-original-manga/.97329

Dunno if you've seen that yet, but apparently they're just going to spoil the manga ending in this anime. I'm sure that's gotta' be frustrating for manga-reading folks, but I'm all for at least one series to wrap itself up properly.

Now, as for the episode itself: Loved it. Loved it to pieces. I might watch it again, just for kicks!

I don't know what it was about this episode exactly, but it felt very film-like in terms of quality (though the black bars took a bit of getting used to). Maybe because we're just more used to seeing saturated colors in anime in general? Also, aside from the music, something about this episode felt a little...Madoka esque? Especially the bit at the end where he's resolving to not let Kayo get kidnapped.

My only minor complaint is the music for the opening. I love me some Kung-Fu Generation, and I happen to also really love this particular song. But...for this kind of series? Just seems off. Really off. Though I like that the opening hints that we might not be permanently stuck in '88. I wonder if it's going to progress in shifts--like, every time Satoru makes proper progress in the past, it's going to fling him back to the future where some, but not all of the disasters are fixed, and we'll just be doing the time warp (again!) back and forth across the series. Or we could just stay in '88. Should be interesting to see Satoru just be in a kid's body.

Something else I really appreciate is the apparent intelligence of our main lead. I know in the US it's drilled in us from like, day one, that if you see someone with unexplained bruises or writing poetry about wanting to "leave", that it's warning signs for abuse and/or depression. I was expecting, given how most other "dramatic reveals" in anime tend to progress, that it'd be dragged out for at least another episode until Satoru had his revelation. So it's nice to see a protagonist put two and two together and come up with four, for once. ^^;

But yeah. Loved this episode. I sure hope the rest of the series can keep up with such a promising start!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ArgentiumTea



Joined: 09 Jul 2013
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:07 am Reply with quote
Im really enjoying this show, I love it. The animation is amazing too.
I get a steins gate feeling when I watch this anime and I love it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Utsuro no Hako



Joined: 18 May 2012
Posts: 1032
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:34 am Reply with quote
whiskeyii wrote:
Dunno if you've seen that yet, but apparently they're just going to spoil the manga ending in this anime. I'm sure that's gotta' be frustrating for manga-reading folks, but I'm all for at least one series to wrap itself up properly.


More likely the manga is close to wrapping up and the two will be timed to end around the same time. The audience can choose which version they want to experience first.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5406
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:39 am Reply with quote
I know that there is quality and potential in ERASED, but, just like episode 1, I am giving episode 2 only 4 stars. I want ERASED to become awesome and fall in love with it, but to me it is not quite there yet.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:48 am Reply with quote
Utsuro no Hako wrote:
More likely the manga is close to wrapping up and the two will be timed to end around the same time. The audience can choose which version they want to experience first.


The Japanese audience, at least.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Alabaster Spectrum



Joined: 02 Sep 2015
Posts: 528
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 12:08 pm Reply with quote
I feel like the only person who isn't just absolutely blown away by this show. It might have something to do with the fact that I've mostly been watching high budget/concept Netflix shows for the past little while and sticking to movies and OVAs when it comes to anime but the show just feels kind of like...okay. The cinematography is existent but I'm not seeing anything particularly remarkable about it and the production values have held up for the first couple episodes, but I don't particularly feel it's especially beautiful looking. Different from most TV anime nowadays on account of the manga's art style and rather subdued look of the character design that isn't just going for the bishoujo look, but I mean again I watch a lot of older anime and what not so that's nothing particularly special too me.

The story also just kind of feels like it could end up being one of your typical overly weepy/sentimental J-Dramas trying to invoke nostalgia (never lived in 80's Japan, doesn't have any sort of impact on me seeing it depicted other than that's interesting) and going straight for that sort of emotional appeal that just doesn't work on me at all in the end and while the mystery aspect is at least intriguing I figure that's going to somehow fade out of focus for the usual sort of teen on teen sappy romantic melodrama that tends to plague Japanese media and while popular with many just does absolutely nothing for me.

It's generally been a good couple episodes in a pretty drab season coming off of a really shitty couple of years for anime (which I see no reason why it won't continue that way which is what has driven me more and more to Netflix series), but like I don't know I guess because of what I've been spending my time on lately it just doesn't come off as anything particularly outstanding or special yet. Not once have I felt like it's going to blow me away, it's just kind of a good noitaminA show with promise.

About the look of the show, I'm just not seeing the stunning beauty others are either. It's like they're seeing movie quality animation where I'm just seeing first couple episodes with a budget that's still on schedule tier TV animation or something and there's a disconnect there. I mean it doesn't look bad, just kind of alright and like it's avoiding the typical anime art style for the most part. It still looks kind of like your standard A-1 show though really. I see people saying A-1 shows have these absolutely amazing levels of animation quality to them all the time though and rarely agree that they have anything other than above average visuals at the start of most of their shows though (anything past episode 3 and all bets are typically off) so that's nothing new. The only scene that really stood out to me was the snowy scene in the park one, but even that to me is just like a cliche standard of J-Drama at this point and something the anime has been emphasizing in it's promotion for a while now so that's no surprise it'd look a little glossier. Again I don't know, just not that blown away by any of this like others, but it's a show worth following at least.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
gpanthony



Joined: 18 Dec 2013
Posts: 241
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 12:21 pm Reply with quote
Utsuro no Hako wrote:
whiskeyii wrote:
Dunno if you've seen that yet, but apparently they're just going to spoil the manga ending in this anime. I'm sure that's gotta' be frustrating for manga-reading folks, but I'm all for at least one series to wrap itself up properly.


More likely the manga is close to wrapping up and the two will be timed to end around the same time. The audience can choose which version they want to experience first.


I've read up to the most recent chapter and I think the story should be finished in 2-3 more chapters. Probably ending with 45 chapters, so I think the anime and manga can both finish in March.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page   Next
Page 1 of 30

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group