Genre: Seinen, drama, fantasy, thriller
Dub?: Yes
Available on: Netflix
Rating: TV-14
Seasons/Parts: 1
Episodes: 12
Overall Score: 10/10
Summary: A 29 year old man lives a quiet and peaceful life working at a pizza place when he is experiencing a strange phenomenon he calls 'Revival'. When 'Revival' happens, Satoru Fujinuma is brought back into the past where he must prevent an incident from happening.
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MAJOR PLOT POINTS OF THE "ERASED" ANIME SERIES.
Immediate spoiler: Satoru is blasted into the past after he sees his mother dead; but instead of a few minutes into the past like he's used to happening, it's 18 years prior and he's now 10 years old, and trying to prevent one of his classmates from her abduction and subsequent murder that happened that year.
The concept is so entirely badass and it as just as interesting as it sounds. Time travel can be a messy thing and this show mostly ignores a lot of the issues with it, though. (Not all of them however! Some events can't be changed that easily... this show is not as cute and slice of life-y as it likes to let on in the first couple of episodes).
This show definitely deals with some dark themes so be aware of that before watching. It details a lot of physical abuse specifically.
This short 12-episode show is chock full of content, and nearly every single episode ends on a cliffhanger. It reminds me of Death Note in the regard that every episode is extremely plot heavy and no detail is wasted — you really have to pay attention or you'll miss important details.
I don't know about y'all, but I feel like i'm pretty good at predicting things. The case was true for this show, because i literally predicted The Big Twist™️ from episode ONE. My boyfriend (who watched it with me) didn't believe me the entire time but I stuck by my theory and when they had the big "A-ha/oh shit" moment, i just started laughing and told him he shouldn't have doubted me.
This doesn't mean that this show was easy to predict, in fact it gives you very very little clues and I was going off pure instinct alone, but regardless of if you guess it or not, the twist is pretty unreal. (I'm not going to spoil it though)
This show is overall very good, extremely binge-able, and like i said it never has a dull episode. It has plenty of wholesome moments to counterweight the sad stuff too, and the ending (unlike Death Note) is very satisfying, cute, and wraps everything up very nicely. I definitely recommend it!
