By: JUSTIN ONEAL
Staff Writer
Warning: there are spoilers, you have been warned 🙂
In the world of anime(shortened form of animation), Betrayal is a common theme throughout anime of all genres. There is nothing like leading fans in one direction with a character, only to pull the proverbial rug out from under them and subvert their expectations with a twist that comes out of nowhere. Erased follows a 29-year-old aspiring manga artist, Satoru Fujinuma with an ability called “Revival” whenever something terrible happens, it freezes him back in time and prevents it from happening. Back in 1988, something terrible happened when three kids in Satoru’s area were mysteriously kidnapped and killed. One of them was his classmate named Kayo. Due to this, Satoru felt immense guilt over not doing anything when he still had the chance, wishing that he could have somehow done something to save her. One night, Satoru found his mother murdered, causing his ability to activate throwing him back to 1988 right before the murders took place. Using his ability in order to prevent the murders of his classmates.
Satoru has a chance to change things and goes out of his way to talk to Kayo. Generally sweet and heartwarming because this time was able to give Kayo so many things she never had beautiful parts of life she never got to experience. General friends, birthday parties, and exploring places she has never seen. Behind the scenes, writers put in the effort to really emphasize how special the relationship between Satoru and Kayo is; pushing them together every chance they get. Their relationship was the driving force that make the audience enjoy the anime deeply. Twitching their minds to believe Saturu and Kayo were meant for each other. The second half of the season is where it drastically takes a turn for the worst. With Kayo not associated with the plot, All the investments that Erased have was gone.
Kei Sanbe(the writer of Erased) likely acknowledge that he wrote himself into a wall, and went along with it. There were claims that Sugita Hiromi and Nakanishi Aya(the two other victims) were meant to have their own arc but with two episodes remaining in the season; was mainly impossible to establish two characters in a short amount of time. In addition of the low development in character, the massive time skip lost all the momentum that was building up leading up to the climax. Something that crossed the line for fans was a returning Kayo who is now happily married and has a baby. Because Satour goes out of his way to talk to Kayo, as result he was able to see the causes of his actions. The massive problem that fans have with this scene was the fact that Kayo didn’t marry Satour. Even with everything that Satour does for her, Fans saw this as one of the biggest betrayals in animes.
“When your murderer waiting, but your girl didn’t” erupted across platforms. Unfortunately Erased was only recognized for this scene itself. Some difficulty that writers of all media experience in their careers are lack of fans recognizing the true meaning of the plot. Erased wasn’t meant to be a romance anime between two classmates, it was about friendship. Satour in the hospital at the beginning of the anime shows this perfectly. Satour believes there’s no one concerned enough to tell, he is basically alone. But in the end, even being in a fifteen-year coma, there are large groups of friends for him. Without his friends, Satour wouldn’t be able to prevent the murders. It’s outrageous for fans to think Satour and Kayo are meant to be when Satour was a twenty-nine-year-old in a child’s body.
Agree or disagree, Erased was misunderstood by many. Not recognizing the true meaning of Kei Sanbe’s written. As result, Erased is known as one of the biggest betrayals ever when Erased wasn’t meant to be a romantic animated show.