When tragedy is about to strike, Satoru Fujinuma finds himself sent back several minutes before the accident occurs. The detached, 29-year-old manga artist has taken advantage of this powerful yet mysterious phenomenon, which he calls "Revival," to save many lives.
However, when he is wrongfully accused of murdering someone close to him, Satoru is sent back to the past once again, but this time to 1988, 18 years in the past. Soon, he realizes that the murder may be connected to the abduction and killing of one of his classmates, the solitary and mysterious Kayo Hinazuki, that took place when he was a child. This is his chance to make things right.
Boku dake ga Inai Machi follows Satoru in his mission to uncover what truly transpired 18 years ago and prevent the death of his classmate while protecting those he cares about in the present.
(Erased Ending Theme :: Not the original, but still awesome)
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Every anime season has the shit, the self-aware shit, the okay and then the amazing. Erased happens to fall into the latter with what is in my opinion an outstanding performance of story writing topped off with a bad ass ending song- a great contestant to Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Ranked #14), with Erased placed only two spots higher (Ranked #12).
As always, spoiler free up ahead.
Perhaps the most outstanding thing about this anime which most fail to do with a 12 episode time constraint is to have full closure at the end, in a way that nothing is rushed with no hole left open (looking at you, Akuma no Riddle) or a feeling of it feeling unnatural. Ending an anime is the hardest thing to do as part of directing, writing, drawing, and voice acting. Having to close a character's book in a way that not only makes sense but is also in the best interest of the viewers is a challenge that I see so many anime (or frankly, even in books) fail to perform decently at that it feels like the norm became to just leave a cliffhanger or open-ended ending, or just leaving an ending where everything that happened previously actually didn't happen because the writers were afraid of taking a few wrong steps, killing off people's waifus, and leaving some people upset (again, looking at you Akuma no Riddle).
Erased doesn't do that. Erased actually alludes to their own title as part of the explanation, and even foreshadows that explanation in earlier episodes of what the title "The Town Where Only I Am Missing" means. Done so in a brilliant manner as well, because of how things turned out, to which I leave the people who plan to watch this later to delve in for themselves.
As with any psychological anime, the writers attempt to trick or mislead you into speculation of who is the real bad guy, or what the bad guy is going to do in spite of our protagonists (Monster/Death Note make a good example of that). Unfortunately due to the simple fact that there is a time constraint, they don't have much time to fiddle with that concept of musical-murderer, to which eventually the audience will eventually determine themselves who the killer is leaving us to speculate how things will go down. Credit where it's due, the writers do throw in curve balls to confuse you and make you think hey, maybe I'm wrong or wow, I'm probably right.
The characters in this story all hold meaning to the closure that comes in the end. The anime makes it very clear who matters and who doesn't matter by limiting their dialogue or just not giving them as much screen time. They don't waste time for petty jokes or what have you for the simple means of creating a dull character that plays a singular comedic or 'moe' role (I'm sure we all have an example lingering in our minds), and each character holds a very important role for the closure this anime succeeds so highly in.
That said, no character is dull. Every character that matters will see growth, decline, and everything inbetween as they meet through troubles and bonds. Our main character Satoru holds this pivotal example as he goes on his mission to prevent the death of his classmate, over and over again.
The animation however, is not one of the high standards in this anime. It's by no means bad, but it's not the "Garden of Words" good neither. There are some very beautiful scenes that work figuratively such as dark lighting when referring to a bad guy, bright colors when in happy situations, and the such. Of course, mediocre artwork is sometimes purposely done in order to convey certain feelings- or to corner certain feelings away- for certain situations. Mediocre artwork is also not broadened across the entire anime, there are a few very beautiful scenes that sprout every now and again when they are meant to be around, but by no means is it permanent. Think of it like Clannad whenever you're taken into the other world with a lot of lights. Scenes like that are very beautiful, but are a rarity.
To me, the animation isn't really important because the story it has to offer is written extraordinarily well, so I can overlook things like weirdly animated lips on certain characters, which really put me off from watching Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso for a while. It's just not my thing to actually see lips I guess. Maybe it's too realistic for me. All I know is that it was a mistake to skip out on Shigatsu for that, and it would've been the same grave mistake had I done it again to Erased.
This anime has a beautiful story to offer with one of the best closures I've ever seen in for something with only 12 episodes. The story flows smoothly and nothing feels rushed or out of place the whole time. And due to the time constraint, they didn't waste time on any of the episodes which constantly kept you on your feet, asking yourself "who" is who, "what" will happen next, "why" is this happening, and so on. Well deserved that this anime is placed 12th after just airing and finishing yesterday. It truly was a pain to wait weekly for each episode to come out.
[size=x-large]TL;DR - Should You Watch Checklist[/size]
Can you live without amazing art (SAO/Garden of Words standard)?
Do you like an amazing story?
Do you like it when an anime doesn't back up on what they've done on previous episodes to make a Disney ending? (In other words, do you like an anime with good closure?)
Do you like it when some characters are ignored for the sake of making other characters more developed and interesting?
Do you enjoy speculating who the bad guy is and how things will turn out?
Do you enjoy it when a character references the title?
If you said yes to 4 or more out of the 6, then it's definitely worth it. Don't put this anime off anymore and start watching when you can, because due to how popular this anime is, you will be seeing spoilers soon. Don't let that ruin you. Otherwise, you probably won't enjoy this sort of anime especially given the nature of the genre. It's best if you watch something like Ghost Hunt or some Slice of Life loli anime.
