So before I begin, I want to make a few things clear. First, I'm going to be calling this Erased because I may invoke the title quite a bit during this post and its Japanese title is roughly 5 times the number of words. I put the Japanese title in the first paragraph simply so you can look it up or so you understand it's an anime without having to run into the movie that comes up if you search Erased. Secondly, while I see that the criticisms I bring up and try to counter are fairly common among detractors of the show, the majority of my counters are going to be in response to the Digibro video Erased was never THAT good, so if you want a little bit more context, I suggest watching it to get a better sense of where I'm coming from. Finally, the purpose of this post is not to change anyone's opinion of the show. If you dislike it, I have no problem with that, if you like it, so do I, let's be friends, if you think it's perfect, let's discuss that and see where you're coming from, and if you hate it so much that you want to see it burned to the point that no amount of backups will allow others to watch it, that's a really extreme reaction but you are allowed to have it.
So this post is going to be talking about three main criticisms, which I am labeling "It's not a MYSTERY!", "The kids aren't as smart as you think", and "If you wouldn't wait, why should she?" What these specific criticisms are will be the main topic of this post.
The first of these "It's not a MYSTERY" is fairly easy to understand if you have a decent idea of the context surrounding it. If you've seen some videos like Glass Reflection's review of the show, you'll notice a common thread among critiques of some aspects of the show lie in the misunderstanding of what the show is and what it's trying to achieve. Specifically, a lot of people think that this is a Mystery show when it's actually a Suspense show.
What's the difference? Well, a mystery show is a show that, on a fundamental level, has a mystery that it presents that can be solved by both the characters of the show and the audience that are viewing it. Generally speaking, not everyone is intelligent enough to play chess with Sherlock Holmes so not everybody will be able to solve the mystery on a first viewing, nor would everybody enjoy such a thing. However, a good mystery show will leave clues to what the reality about the mystery is so that either an audience can figure it out in one go if they're observant enough or will pick up on the clues on repeat viewings.
A suspense show, on the other hand, is somewhat different. While a suspense show will generally have mystery elements, a suspense show poses a mystery, not as a logical problem or puzzle for someone to solve but rather as a means of setting up a premise and causing drama. Because drama, in a lot of shows, is usually harder to establish without a mystery than with one. It can be done but it's usually easier to show off a scandal or a problem that gets everybody's panties in a bunch rather than having something plainly spelled out.
While this distinction of Mystery and Suspense seems relatively minor, it actually explains some of the stuff that many people criticized and sheds a different light on it. For example, plenty of people noted that the reveal of the final villain that was killing children was rather obvious from a theming perspective and because there really weren't any other suspects, would be detriments to a mystery show but, in a suspense show, part of the drama that is invoked comes not from knowing only what the characters do but rather it comes from knowing what they don't and seeing how the show will play out with that information in mind.
In a mystery show, Satoru not really trying to solve the mystery with deductive reasoning would be a detriment. However, as a suspense show, his behavior makes a lot more sense. He's not a detective, nor is he particularly smart. He isn't as intelligent as Sherlock Holmes or Shinichi Kudo and he's not in the role that they are either. Those two are trying to solve a mystery that is present by solving a crime that has already taken place. Satoru, on the other hand, is not in a position to be solving the mystery but, rather, his hindsight on the events that he's been taken back to and his adult brain in a child body role in the show allow him to take steps to prevent the crime from occurring rather than trying to figure out who did it. Really, to Satoru, who did it is of secondary importance since his only real motivation is to prevent his mother's death. And, the context he's given states that if he prevents the three child murders he can save his mother. In a child's body, he wouldn't be able to do anything even if he did know who did it, not just because children are seen as less credible in court but also, as far as the time he's been taken back to is concerned, no crime has been committed yet.
While knowing who did it would certainly help Satoru's game plan in saving Kayo, Aya, and Hiromi since knowing who did it gives him an edge in terms of schedule and ability to read the enemy, knowing who did it really only matters when he comes face to face with death at the culprit's hands. Until that moment, no perpetrator and no crime are his goals and, so long as he achieves that, it's irrelevant.
The second criticism which is brought up a lot is titled "The kids aren't as smart as you think." Specifically what this refers to is the notion a lot of viewers have that the main children the show surrounds are far more intelligent than children tend to be on average. On a surface level, you can see where they're coming from. However, delve more deeply and you start to see cracks in this idea.
So first, I want to disregard Satoru from the equation because, ignoring his general level of intelligence, the fact that he has information from at least a decade into the future means that he has an edge in deductive capability and foresight that the other children simply do not have. Because Satoru knows all of what's going on, he knows things are happening and he just needs a prevention plan.
After that, the only character this argument really applies to is Kenya Kobayashi, who grows up to be a lawyer if that gives you an idea of how intelligent this kid is. While it's unclear if he became a lawyer in the main time before the rewrites, the fact that he's a lawyer at all suggests a level of intelligence that has to remain constant, since there's no brain altering events happening on his end.
And, even in his case, while he's certainly capable of preplanning and logical inference, his social skills are less than normal, being rather blunt in comparison to everyone else, and being a really terrible liar and actor. These are shown on a number of occasions but the most notable one is after Kayo is sent away to a foster home, Satoru, Kenya, and by extension their group of friends, try to get Aya hanging out with them so she's less likely to be murdered off screen. However, Satoru and Kenya both fail despite the fact that they're the first ones to act on the matter. It isn't even until Kazu states how manly he is that she eventually obliges their request, boy does that sound bad out of context.
Of the other main characters who get a lot of focus, I'm going to start focusing on Kayo Hinazuki right now because I get the impression that a lot of people think she's a lot smarter than she came across to me and I want to highlight why this may be because unlike Satoru's hindsight, Kenya's potential, and Aya's good grades, Kayo seems to me like the kind of girl who gives off the impression she's intelligent but isn't.
Before I go any further, I want to clarify what I mean by intelligent. There are many different types of intelligence and some are a lot easier to tell than others. For example, one can easily say Aya is intelligent because she gets good grades at her school, sounds solid on paper but that is only one type of intelligence, known as book smarts to some people who don't have it. Then there's Kenya's intelligence which is logical reasoning, something everybody has to an extent but generally more logical people are more logical because they are less likely to let their emotions get the better of them, which is the case with Kenya for the most part. There are other types as well, such as strategic thinking, tactical mind, emotional intelligence, the ability to read a situation, and the ability to simplify the complicated. In fact, there are enough that I could make an entirely separate post on the topic, and I might but for now, let's focus on Kayo.
Kayo does not exhibit any traits that I would associate with intelligence. To clarify what I mean I'm going to point out a small number of things she does and why some may think they're intelligent but they're really not. Let's go over them a little bit. Also, spoilers and I'm not listing these in any order other than my ability to recall them:
- One particular moment that struck a chord with some people was when Kayo was standing out in the snow and Satoru decides to befriend her for the sake of his goal. In this situation, Kayo frequently calls Satoru an idiot and is acting rather cold and distant.
- While these traits would seem intelligent in a different show and a different character, Kayo's character has context that they do not, and neither do we at that moment in time. First, I want to point out that while Kayo is calling him an idiot, I don't think she's actually insulting his intelligence. While he's definitely not portraying himself the best he can, what I think is more likely is that Kayo is socially awkward due to having no friends and an abusive mother. Having an abusive mother would also make her outwardly quite cold and distant, not out of an innate intelligence but rather because she's afraid to be vulnerable. Think about it, if your caretaker started attacking you out of nowhere, yelling profanities at you, and making you sleep outside, do you believe you'd have the ability to trust outsiders who, for all you know, are going to hurt you worse due to lack of familiarity? This is also the reason Satoru has to work harder than normal to gain her trust and friendship; it's not because of an intelligence-induced superiority complex and it's not because she has overly high standards either, she's not really old enough to have either of those things. Instead, she's locked herself away and is keeping others out to keep herself as protected as she can. This is also the reason Kayo is much kinder and gentler as an adult despite having a similarly stoic outward demeanor.
- Another moment which is far less memorable but still noteworthy is when Kayo gets accused of stealing money and is found to actually have it in her bag.
- One way to interpret this is that she didn't defend herself because she knew it wouldn't help. And, while I'm sure she came to that conclusion, the reason may be very different. While an intelligent person would think "I shouldn't defend myself because I could incriminate myself further" and would potentially plead the 5th, Kayo's thought process seems to be more "I'm not defending myself because it won't do any good." She knows she's the target of the accusation but she also doesn't know what the others are thinking. Rather, she's taking what she knows about her mother and applying it to that bully girl who seems to have it in for her. Also, again, because she's socially awkward, she may not have even had a reaction anyway, she may have just not expressed her emotions and stayed quiet because she didn't know what's going on. A bit less likely, perhaps, but still noteworthy.
Most of the other stuff that occurs with Kayo isn't even her own doing. For the most part, she's participating in Satoru and Kenya's plan to protect her for a number of reasons but the main ones seem to be that she's more protected with their plan than without and because they know what's going on better than she does.
As for the other kids, most of them aren't really demonstrating any intelligence above that of a 9 or 10 year old. Aya gets good grades but she does so little in the actual show that it's hard to know what her strengths are as a person and she's not even present for the finale so it's hard to tell what happened with her. Kazu boasts about how manly he is and how he strives to be a manlier person but, for the most part, he's just hyperactive, or at least outspoken. Osamu looks nerdy and is also deaf to context, he just really likes RPG's. Hiromi doesn't really do much either.
Edit: ^ Is why you research before you make a blog post.
The third criticism which I have seen the least amount of exposure with is "If you wouldn't wait, why should she?" This will require a lot more context because this title is probably the most vague out of the three. Also, explaining it will require even more spoilers, though minor ones I suppose.
Okay, so toward the end of the show, Satoru had effectively protected all three of the potential victims. Aya and Hiromi are under constant surveillance and Kayo was taken away to a different part of the country to live with a more stable nuclear family. However, when Kayo's bully, Misato Yanagihara, leaves Satoru's sight, Satoru has an "OH SHIT!" moment where he believes that she may now be in danger since everybody else was saved. Once he follows her, he ends up being met by Gaku Yashiro who sent her away intentionally to pull out the one who's been thwarting his plans. Sure enough, Satoru fell for it and they go for a ride in the car. The car gets put into a freezing river, and Satoru is supposedly dead.
Jump to the next episode and it's revealed that Satoru is not dead, just comatose and, once he starts showing signs of waking up, his mother, who was taking care of him the whole time, sends him to the hospital where he can get proper care since they know definitively that he's okay and waking up. Once he does, three people visit him, Kenya, who is now an active lawyer, and Hiromi and Kayo, who are now married.
Kayo and Hiromi's marriage is a subject of debate apparently because everybody wanted Kayo to end up with Satoru. Now, obviously the people who wanted this see that it didn't happen but one argument I've seen in defense of this criticism is that she could've waited for Satoru to wake up. Let's break down the logistics of this since this seems to be a teachable moment.
First off, is the question of whether or not Satoru was ever even going to wake up. We as the audience knew on some level that Satoru would have a certain amount of plot armor but to the rest of the characters, he's just an ordinary guy, who happened to predict and prevent the murders in question. So, putting yourself in Kayo's shoes, someone you presumably have romantic feelings for is comatose and the possibility exists that they'll die before they wake up. If you were in that position, would you wait?
While everybody loves the romance story of how your one true love was separated from you and waited either until you reconnected or until they died, reality isn't so simple and most people are not that dedicated. More than likely, if you were presented with a comatose crush who may never wake up, you'll wait for a while but it's only a matter of time before you eventually move on.
Of course, if we assume Kayo was infatuated, we could assume that she did wait a while and simply moved on due to lack of hope. Remember, he was out for a long time, enough time that Kayo could've waited a majority of it and still give up early enough to marry another man.
Then there's the issue of whether or not she even felt that way about him in the first place. Now, there's no question that she has fond memories of him come the end of his coma, he simultaneously saved her life and gave her a happy family, she has no reason to hold any disdain or apathy toward him. However, given her age at the time, she might have had a small crush on him, if we're being generous, but such a thing would fade after years of no exposure. Even if she always remembers him and is forever grateful to him, that doesn't really mean she wanted to be his romantic partner.
The simple fact of the matter is that, while such a story may have occurred in another timeline, the validity of such an outcome is no better or worse than the validity of any other outcome, whether she ended up with Hiromi, Kenya, Kazu, or even someone we've never even seen onscreen before. Hell, even her being single up to that point due to college would've been viable.
If you have critiques of this show, they are welcome and encouraged. I myself don't really think of this as a masterpiece either. However, I think if you look at the show with the perspectives I present, the show's flaws will be a bit more tolerable.
That's all for now. Have a wonderful day.
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