My memories of my life in elementary school are hazy, including memories of that incident… Was I made to forget them?
No, I don’t think that was the case.
When I remember something about it, other memories come to me, one after another. However, there’s still lots of things that I can’t remember.
I’m now sure of one thing: I shut up my memories of this incident myself. It wasn’t that Mom and the adults made me forget. I forbid myself from remembering.
I wanted to forget. I didn’t want to remember...
...who did what to who.
Boku Dake ga Inai Mach, Erased or The Town Where Only I am Missing written and illustrated by Kei Sanbe, is a currently publishing manga series that had begun in 2012, serialized by the magazine Young Ace. Young Ace is known for other popular mangas such as Summer Wars and Blood Lad. Erased currently has an animated show, produced by Aniplex (which is famous for many popular shows, like Fullmetal Alchemist and Natsume’s Book of Friends) and made under A1-Pictures, a studio that has worked on very well known animated shows, like Black Butler and Fairy Tail. The animated adaptation is still airing and is the highest rated anime of the season. The comic, which is what I will be reviewing, NOT the animated show, has an incredible average rating of 8.78 on MyAnimeList.net, the biggest Japanese animation and comic online database, and a spectacular rating of 4.36 on GoodReads.
The protagonist of Erased, Satoru Fujinuma, is a seemingly normal 29-year old who works a part time job at a delivery service while making comics on the side and trying to reach his dreams of becoming a famous comic author. However, Satoru has a supernatural ability. He has the ability to turn back time and prevent catastrophes from happening. However, he is not able to use it by choice. He is forced back in time, at random moments, to do “re-runs”, often a few minutes before the event, where he must find the cause of the disaster before it happens.
One day, Satoru finds himself tangled up in a terrible ‘accident’, and is framed for murder. Suddenly, he is sent all the way back in time to February 1988, 18 years ago, when he was in elementary, a month before the disappearance of his classmate, Kayo Hinadzuki, who, in the present, had gone missing in the March of 1988, and was found murdered in the woods after the winter snow had melted. Her case was never solved.
Satoru soon learns that preventing Kayo’s murder from happening may change his sticky situation in the present and does everything in his power to help, but he also learns that in this world, you can’t trust anyone.
When it comes to reading comics, I’m often times very picky about art, and I most likely would not have picked this book up if the storyline did not seem interesting. The art, though it may seem average when you first see it, gains charm the more the reader looks at it, adding to the personality of the characters. All of the characters are very charming, unique and mysterious.
When I first read Erased, I instantly fell in love with the bravery and courage of Satoru Fujinuma, the calmness of the levelheaded Kayo Hinadzuki, the dedication and determination of Sachiko Fujinuma, and the mysterious air and cleverness of Kenya Kobayashi. The suspense of Erased keeps readers at the edge of their seat and the charming characters can make anyone smile or cry.
Erased is a beautifully executed and suspenseful must-read for all that love mystery, murder, and time travel.