ERASED

Episode 4

Satoru set up a whole bunch of rules for himself regarding his heroic journey into the past. Most of these rules related to his new friendship with Hinazuki, and how it would end up saving her. Become friends with Hinazuki, and she'll no longer be a target of the serial killer. Invite her to your party, and she'll have a reason to stay alive. Keep her safe past X-Day, and the future will be changed. Change just one thing, and that will inevitably lead to a better tomorrow.

For most of this episode, Satoru isn't punished for embracing these arbitrary beliefs. His attempts to get closer to Hinazuki generally work, and when he isn't able to personally get his way, his mom steps in to help him. Satoru's friends help him find time alone with his “crush,” and his pushy demands don't seem to bother Hinazuki. A trip to the local museum presents some temporary anxieties, as Satoru realizes his current journey is actually overlapping significantly with the events of the past; but then his friends arrive, and Satoru assures himself that the path of history has been changed. And when X-Day passes and Hinazuki waves a fond goodbye after the birthday party, Satoru feels certain that he's fixed at least one thing.

Of course, Satoru's actions don't actually mean much. Keeping Hinazuki safe for two more days might have “changed history,” but history doesn't short-circuit because one child did one thing differently at one moment. Things will undoubtedly be different in some ways, but attending Satoru's party didn't make Hinazuki's abusive mother go away, or make the killer suddenly get cold feet. Satoru's powers are in truth far weaker than he'd like to believe.

The contrast between Satoru's assumed confidence and his actual weakness is clear in how this episode presents him relative to the world, and also a strong reflection of the show's underlying thoughts on every person's journey. Satoru acts with utter confidence in this episode, from his belief in his own potential to absurd lines like “when it comes to saving a friend, there are no gains or losses!” Satoru wants to believe himself powerful, but through scenes with his mother, general classmates, and Hinazuki, we consistently see that he's just as powerless as anyone. From the very first scene, Satoru's mother is easily able to see through his lies, even though he's ostensibly a twenty-nine year old man - and when Satoru makes his silly speech to Hinazuki's mother, it's again his own mom who rescues him. When Satoru tries to call a jealous classmate on the way she looks down on her peers, she rightly chastises him for trying to look cool, seeing right through his ostensible maturity. And when it comes to Hinazuki, Satoru sees himself as a savior in a way an actual adolescent boy very well might.

The problem with Satoru is that even as an adult, he wasn't an adult. He'd pursued one dream that hadn't panned out, and had since then lived in stasis, playing out days without truly committing to his own future. When Satoru's mother says that he “shows motivation in everything he does,” it's a wincing blow - you get the impression that these younger days might very well have been the last time Satoru had a solid grasp on his future, or even on his present. Satoru's time in the past is nostalgic partially because it's not a return to the past - even his adult self is uncertain, immature, hoping to believe in a world more simple than the one he's been presented with. And thus the rules, and the fervent, desperate insistence that “I can change a lot through my behavior” or “with this one day, I definitely changed history.”

This episode is almost cruel in its inconsistent support of Satoru's revery. The show still has a tendency to go over-the-top for the dramatic moments (with the musical score in particular getting a bit too overbearing for several of this episode's heavy sequences), but other scenes, like Satoru and Hinazuki's birthday party, feel painfully sincere. Satoru initially set up his quest as a mission to survive through X-Day, and it seemed like the show was actually going to support that thriller conceit - but in the wake of this fast-paced episode, all bets are off. Will it take another redo for Satoru to grasp the difficulty of his goals, or can he still salvage this future? And is framing the future as something that can be “fixed” even a valid idea, considering how consistently this show rallies against the idea that things will turn out the way we want them to? In spite of some slight tonal hiccups, ERASED remains gripping and full of difficult questions.

Overall: A-

ERASED is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.