Couple things I wanted to clarify about the Kayo situation (TLDR at the bottom): *This alone did not make the ending bad!* Which is why 90% of the video isn't even focused on that. I still would've had my complaints about the ending with or without it. All it was is simply the straw that broke the camel's back. But since that's all anyone wants to talk about, I want to address that properly here, since I feel like I didn't explain it well enough in the video, and I've been getting a lot of comments misunderstanding my point lol. --- This isn't bad because the hero doesn't "get the girl" in the end. It's because of the WAY it was executed. Satoru and Kayo's relationship, whether it be platonic or romantic, is still the emotional core of the show. That's what the show dedicates the majority of it's runtime to, and whether you like it or not, that's what the show spends a lot of time developing. They ARE the heart of the show for most of it. This is why it felt disappointing after she left. Because now the main emotional core of the show is now missing, but there are still 4 episodes left. And while many of you simply weren't interested in the romance aspect, (which is fine!), it confuses me that some people seem to deny that it ever existed. Really? So Satoru saying that he wasn't going to hang out with his friends because he had a date with her, and them both blushing as a result, was just a friendly friend thing that friends do. Everyone around them freaking out over them being a couple and none of them denying it. The constant hand holding and blushing. Satoru straight up accidentally saying that Kayo was pretty in the middle of class, them falling asleep together alone in the bus, Satoru's mum asking "am I being a third wheel here" and Satoru straight up saying "yes". The Christmas tree scene where they saw the two foxes circling around them and wondered if they were a couple, looked at each other, and then moved away from each other out of embarrassment. The literal first scene they ever met where she suddenly placed her hand on his and makes his heart skip a beat. The show constantly insinuates that these moments have romantic intent, even to the point of other characters spelling it out. These weren't here for no reason. You could easily remove a lot of this and you'd still have the countless emotional scenes they had that were platonic, and the show would still work. But they put it all in regardless. Platonic relationships can still exist, and if that's what this was nobody would have a problem with it. BUT THIS WASN'T THAT. The show was VERY unsubtle about all this and was pushing for it HARD. So if you watch all this and still think that it was completely non-existent you'd have to be dense as a neutron star, or are being willfully ignorant for the sake of the argument. Again, it's fine if you personally weren't interested in this, but you can't really blame people for getting mad at the outcome when the writers themselves were the ones who were pushing it. They teased it for 90% of the narrative and then dropped a timeskip where she got married to a random side character she never talked to and had a baby with them. It really isn't that difficult to see why anyone would be upset by this. It does not make them "bigoted" or "unable to accept that a woman can make her own decisions". It just means they bought in to what the show was clearly pushing for, and got disappointed when it turned around and gave it a non-sensical answer. --- Going back to the actual ending, if their intentions at the end were for Kayo breaking the cycle of abuse and for her to live a happy life by ending up with Hiromi... why did it not set it up that way? If your intention was for the two victims to end up together, then let them actually talk to each other throughout the show and let THEM have chemistry while cutting out any potentially romantic scenes between Satoru and Kayo. If this is what happened, it would've worked. But the end result comes out of nowhere and the pay-off doesn't match the set up at all. THAT'S why it doesn't work. Because they were paying off something that never existed, while destroying the setup that DID exist. And why is it that the only possible way for Kayo to show that she's happy is by having a baby?? There are a million different ways you could show that she broke the cycle of abuse WITHOUT destroying previous setup. It wasn't the only option! "The show isn't about the romance though, it was about Satoru trying to save her" Even if it wasn't what the show was all about, it was still a very significant part of it. So let's switch the genres to demonstrate my point. Let's say you had a romance show where the romance was mostly what it was all about. But you also had a very interesting psychological thriller aspect to it. It's still a romance overall, but the psychological thriller sub-plot is constantly being developed throughout the series and it gets more and more interesting. People start getting invested in it. The show pushes that aspect more and more, and it becomes really obvious what it's gonna do in the end and everyone's looking forward to that happening, and just as it's about to reach it...! It turns around in the end and gives it the stupidest possible answer you could think of. In my book, if people were to be upset by this, they'd be justified. You could go "well it was never supposed to be a psychological thriller overall, so you can't complain", but that aspect is STILL THERE. It feels unnecessary because why would you introduce that aspect in the first place if you didn't intend to follow through with it. They didn't HAVE to give it a weird answer. In fact it would've been easier if they went with the predictable answer and everyone would've liked it more. But instead they... didn't? It took more effort to give it the stupid answer instead of the predictable one that was more interesting and satisfying, leaving everyone befuddled as to why. A lot of the counter-arguments for this are from the characters point of view and not from the writers. "You can't expect KAYO to wait 15 years, that's unrealistic" "SATORU never wanted to get with her, his main goal was to save her and that's what he did in the end, so it's a happy ending" Completely missing that that isn't the point. These are not real people who are making their own decisions independently from the writer. The writer CHOSE for them to do this, because the writer is in control of everything that happens. Nobody is blaming Kayo the character for not waiting 15 years, we're blaming the writer for putting her into that situation. We're not asking for her to wait 15 years and be miserable, we're asking for the coma to not happen in the first place so she wouldn't need to!! And for the people saying that the coma was necessary, it really wasn't. Revival literally could've just brought him back to the present and filled in his memories, and there'd be no problem. But even if they did have to write the coma, you can't defend the writer saying "what else was he supposed to do in this situation" when the writer themselves is the one who created the story. If they write themselves into a wall and are forced into doing something dumb, they still made that happen! And again, they didn't even NEED to end up together in the end. All they had to do was NOT destroy the previous set up. This is why in my rewrite (which you would see if you watched the video), they don't even end up together. She simply shows up and is happy, and Satoru cries knowing that he changed her life for the better and that's it. What is so hard about that ending. There's literally no downside to it. It delivers the same point but without detracting from all the previous setup. If you somehow think this is worse than the original ending, then please explain to me why! TLDR: The main criticism with this is the way it was handled. The writers should've known what they were trying to do and stuck with it. Not try and do one thing only to do the opposite in the end.
can’t believe i fr read all that but i agree. satoru being out in a coma really wasn’t necessary in my opinion and there are better ways the ending could’ve been executed. i don’t blame the writer but I do think there were better things they could’ve done. though, i genuinely liked the ending where satoru confronted the teacher and such. honestly i didn’t really wanna watch an hour long video on it but I enjoyed reading your comment. 👍
@Zhxst_ That's what the TLDR is for lmao What I said in the video wasn't enough because people kept misinterpreting it, so I made this comment to explain everything in proper detail.
The only problem with your ending that I have is that the bomb threat feels like it comes out of nowhere, I think there should be some scenes where the teacher shows some skills in chemistry or something similar.
I totally agree with the bomb, because it's way too much out of character. Because in his core he is a killer who is drawn towards victims that can't defend against him. There is a sense of sadism within his personality because he enjoys to have power over someone or something. This is also why his killing of the mother was sloppy in comparison, because he did it, due to sheer panic and fear, that she might get behind his identity.
Also... WHAT isn't he falling again in the cartoony and nonsense of his plans???? How did nobody saw him? How did he put the bomb? Why isn't him exploding the bomb?? Why is him in the breach still ._.
Being abused does not excuse you abusing a child when you are an adult. That is a simple fact. We can understand what brought you to that point but it still means you are not fit to be a parent because it is way easy for you to relapse. I have seen it often enough that the best the abuser should hope for is visitation days and maybe reluctant forgiveness 20 years later but still having to stay somewhat out of their child's life for the most part.
You can't use your suffering to justify causing another to suffer. You also can't use your suffering to justify not moving forward. We all suffer, we all die, push beyond your own short sited selfishness and become to person the world needs you to be.
I feel like if her goal was to make her more sympathetic, it would have worked better to intermix moments in which she is caring and loving with cruel and violent periods when she's frustrated and immediately being remorseful afterwards, just for the circle to repeat. I think it would have clued in the audience much, much earlier that she has her own emotional traumas and psychological issues which would made the reveal that she suffered similar abuse less of an asspull and hint at complexities in her, also explaining why Kayo didn't snitch on ther mom before.And the resolution should have been, that her mom acknowledges her abuse, if you want even let her break down now that she is faced with the reality of the situation and voluntarily Kayo to go into foster care while she herself commits herself into a psychiatric hospital. This way, we see the mom taking responsibility for the situation and making an active step to become better. This way, we can at least have some sympathy with that. Even if she was victimized before, she is not the victim in this situation and we can at least have a semblance of respect for her for actually acknowledging her abuse and taking steps in the right direction. Thats why Endeavors Arc worked in My Hero Academia, despite him being a domestic abuser as well. He acknowledges all of his mistakes, giving us explanation but no excuses, he not asking for forgiveness and instead working towards self-improvement. And he is willing to remove himself from his family so that they can heal.
@@shizachan8421 Yeah, it is what makes me, not exactly respect Endeavour himself, but his decisions. He faces the fact he has been an awful parent and an awful person (not the same as being an awful hero) for too long and to let wounds heal he needs to show that he is willing to walk the mile. He is still a bit sloppy I think. He has too much pride, but he also seems aware of that and was gradually trying to fix that aspect of himself as well last time I read the manga. This is the difference between someone writing a story and understanding how these kind of relationships operate and someone that _thinks_ they know how these kind of relationships operate. Sure, this *is* fiction so some leeway is expected, but this story tries to pull a twist for no reason. There was no need for a sudden twist to keep us engaged. So this sudden personality shift comes very much out of the left field.
Having Yuuki saving Satoru sinking in the car is the most genius writting the writer didn't do. It is bcs of his courage (yuuki) he still plays with kids and stand by the river even when ppl suspect him that he can save Satoru. It's much better than Satoru getting into a coma for 15 years.
@@139G20 I actually got excited thinking Kenya was Yuuki. But then I looked him up and I don’t even remember this character. But Yh if this Yuuki and Kenya both saved Satoru. It would be cool for Kenya too since he wants to be a hero like Satoru. Plus the points you made for Yuuki.
Y'all if you want a better ending, read the manga Also, the time skip is symbolic of Satoru's previous future. While, now, he lost so much time, it isnt much different from the other timeline, where he wasted away without much direction in his life. The difference is, now, he has friends, a meaningful career, and people are alive.
the live action version has the opposite problem of this anime. it lengthened out the ending to make it better and more impactful by stretching it to the needed 3 episodes long but it had the same runtime so they had to rush the entire beginning of the show. moral of the story watch both
The live action has such a cool ending that neither the manga nor the anime has, but the beginning and middle are kind of boring, it's just that amazing ending full of emotion out of nowhere.
I haven't seen the live action one yet, would you recommend watching the first 8 episodes of the anime and then jump onto the last 3 episodes of the live action, to get an overall satisfying story?
damn my comment blowing up did branden read it on his stream? also i am not sure what way is best to go about it as the live action does have much less stylish effects then the anime which is sad so id recomend fully watching both, anime first
when will yall realize that satoru was crying when he saw kayo 15 years later, that he was actually happy. he wasnt sad that she had a child with someone who wasnt him, he was relieved and thankful that she was still alive after all these years. also bro was like a 30 year old in a child’s body… shipping him with an actual child just feels off
He didn't say that's why he was crying also she was in her 20s at the time and he went through childhood twice. That's different from growing up linearly.
See, I felt like, based on Kayo's reaction when her mom starts crying with her grandma, that we're supposed to see the mom as selfish and crying out of self-pity instead of remorse
Also, the ending showed that Satoru sacrificed everything for Kayo to live a normal life, with or without him. It's selfless love in it's harshest form, and I think the ending's better for it, because Satoru is so graceful about it. It's a higher payoff than the typical, expected romance
Exactly how I felt when watching that scene with Kayo's Mom. I never saw it as this "oh it's okay because she was abused too!" It was very clear from Kayo and Satoru's reactions that you were not supposed to sympathize with her. And I agree with the ending too. I was shocked to find out Satoru not getting with Kayo was such a big deal to people. It was very satisfying to me to see that after everything he had done, she was able to live that life that she always deserved to live. Satoru can live knowing that he truly did achieve everything he set out to achieve.
I feel like that scene was still a bit more complicated, and that it was a genuine reaction from Kayo's mom in that she felt some mix of sadness and relief. The way I saw it was that Kayo's mom didn't want her child and was the victim of abuse as well and so had been abusive when stressed out, I was unsure on if she actually regretted hurting her kid though.
@@soullesstaschenrechner1768 I'm not much of an artist, but I'd be willing to donate to see that! May not got a lot, but I'm sure other people would be interested too!
Yeah as much as I like the original ending, I do like this rewrite a lot also. I saw the original ending as a reflection of what Satoru went through to save his friends, but this is sweet also. Now Satoru gets to live his full childhood again, Aya and Hiromi get more screentime, Kenya gets to fulfill his promise to be a hero, and Kayo’s happiness is shown in a less shocking way
Bro i dont get why people dont get that kayo wasn’t meant to be with satoru. It’s just to show that his actions and sacrifices had results and kayo wasn’t just stuck in the past waiting for him, he didnt do all those things to get a girl but to be a hero. Idk why when there’s a boy and a girl their immediately shipped
@@MinglesLingles It’s more like the relationship between the two of them took up like 75% of the screentime, it looked like the anime was really pushing and focusing on their relationship, and then it’s suddenly thrown all out the window in like, what, an episode? So that’s why for many people the ending isn’t very satisfying, or fulfilling.
@@icardian yeah but dont you see how pedo like you sound for saying that 30 year old man who was wholesomely trying to save this 12 year old girl was in a situation where he had a relationship with a child? so what if he risked his life to save her, she left and he was a coma why should she wait for him shes not a psychopath and im pretty sure hes not a pedo
@@icardian Thank you for saying this; it always pissed me off; stories aren't meant to be realistic they are meant to be narratively satisfying and if you are going to build a relationship that has clear romantic implications but then have the female lead get with someone who had never shown any interest in like the last chapter of the story then you are a bad writer
I just want to clarify a scene; You're not supposed to be sympathetic to the mom, I believe Satoru or his mom calls out the fact that she's faking to each other but not to anyone else, we know she's faking to save herself. they don't peruse it further because they did what they wanted and needed to do, they saved kayo and that's why its a happy moment, she's safe and wont be around her mom anymore. comforting the mom is for the sake of the grandmother who was feeling guilty.
@@Audreys_Cloud except the kayo one. the point of him going back in time was to save her (and the other kids) not for him to date her in the future. He wanted her to live. Just cause she's a girl doesn't mean they automatically like each other, it could be platonic. Not to mention he was literally a ADULT in a child's body, so even ASSUMING they liked each other is weird af.
@@MarcelineTheStar And when he was back in his adult body she was a dult as well, what is your point? It speaks volumes when the killer is more devoted to you then the chick whose life you saved multiple times. And don't give me the bullshit about 'Oh! In the manga his mother told her to move on, which is even greater horseshit, yeah, gee! Thanks mom for telling someone else to give up on me while you yourself are not willing to do so, hypocrite.
I preferred his ending. And liking someone does not necessary need to be sexual. Especially at that point of time when they were both in children's bodies. No need to equate both and be unnecessarily creeped over it
@@MarcelineTheStar Agreed. Even though Satoru and Kayo developed great chemistry, the biggest thing on Satoru's mind at this junction in the show is whether Kayo lived or not. Sometimes people who taking a liking to each other are just not meant to be due to circumstances. Plus, it takes away the realistic element from the show for a 11-year-old primary school student to stay committed for 15 years. Their dynamics after Satoru woke up as intended in the manga feels the most natural to me.
in the "gradual decline" section , you're not supposed to feel bad for Kayo's Mom. The show does explain why she became abusive, but it doesn't expect you to feel bad for her. In that scene, Satoru is meant to have the same mindset as the audience when he says "I wasn't buying it; If anything, She felt sorry for herself"
Heres the problem though: without that dialogue, the scene itself is presented in a way that portrays the mother as somebody deserving of sympathy. I mean what’s the point in adding the flashback of the mother’s own experience with abuse if the audience is supposed to not feel sympathy?
@@matalinoe4059it was meant to be more like as the watcher you could pick your own opinion, with us most likely swaying towards the protagonists thoughts (like duh satorus mom is gonna feel that way for Kayos sake and as a fellow mother, and her mom is going to feel that way because well that’s her mom)
This is a late reply sorry, but anyways while i partially agree with you, he did mention this during that section in the form of a caption. He basically says the scene is still pushing too far into the sympathy route, and even with the idea that were not supposed to agree as viewers, it just comes across poorly Personally i think thats somewhat realistic though, people tend to have sympathy where they shouldnt and it felt pretty real to me. So im in the camp of not minding that scene but i dont think its for the same reasons
The reason I don't like the ending myself is that since our main character knew about his power from the start, it implies that he used it before to save people, thus when you think about him going into a coma, it means he didn't only sacrifice his childhood, but also all the people he had saved prior to the story, and his mom's life, he saved her from the death of course, but for the past 15 years she's had to take care of him in a coma, worrying he might never wake up and basically wasting all her career, happiness, and health, she suffered despite being a great person all throughout the story, she did not deserve either of the endings. The hero himself essentially for all his efforts is rewarded nothing but a debatably worst outcome for a lot of people throughout his life, the ending just isn't satisfying.
EXACTLY!Im not bothered by the fact that he didn't end up with the girl as much as i was that he basically lost all his childhood and 20s pretty much in a coma, while everyone else managed to lead a happy life(save for his mom) I guess im not as selfless as others, but i dont think i would make such a sacrifice myself
@@Vardanix2468he already experienced his childhood lmao (did yall forget about his revival ability) And also he’s the one that wanted them to move on, he was clearly happy about he results he got from his sacrifice
What are you talking about? Satoru's life was a blessing, not everyone can live their life twice, yes, he wasted it, but he had already lived it before, there wasn't much difference between both lives, in both they had dreams that they never achieved, and with a stable job.
Your rewrite is almost everything I EXPECTED to happen while I was watching the show. Especially the Revival-ception. Seriously, why not? Why couldn't that be possible?
I didn't realize that people didn't like the ending. I personally was ecstatic when Kayo walked in with her baby because that means that she lived! She has a life and a happy one! At that point, I was more worried that Airi wasn't going to show up again. Also, I probably liked the ending because I didn't ship Kayo and Satoru past the friendship stage mainly because I felt as though his protectiveness of her read more as "I can't let this CHILD die again" rather than anything romantic.
anime community find 2 people helping eachother and ship them instantly and will scream NTR if the other partner go with someone else even tho they were never stated they're in a relationship in the first place or cheating you can see the author intention is to showcase the MC achieve his mission of saving the girl +she got a happy life afterward but ofc the meme of mc get ntr is everywhere when it was aired lol
@@karkar3647 I 100% agree BUT they definitely should have not put these weird ass comments in Satoru's head... "You're 30, she's just a child" he said to himself, making us feel like he has romantic feelings + is aware that how non moral it is but choose to allow himself to have romantic moments anyway. It's been years since I watched it but it angers me to this day. If they didn't put it, it wouldn't have changed anything except it not being creepy, and people shipping it less (because they didn't see the messed up) thus feeling betrayed less. I would have liked it so much if as a kid she was set out to have feelings for Hiromi, so you could see that she actually got what she hoped for, thus there was happiness for her. And Satoru was happy about it like he is in the actual anime but from the beginning. It would have fixed everything, especially the absolutely no chemistry problem, because even if he hadn't returned it yet as a kid it would have made sense that their relationship only grew from there, but they barely talked to each other as kids so it felt off when it was his baby she was holding. Still ! I was like both of you really happy they made this decision in the end, I feel like they were trying to make up for it. Would have been even better if he didn't en up with an actual 17 years old tho... 😢
@@laobozu549 he is a 30 year old in a child's body but he still has some moments that he acts like a child because of his body, like him being embarrassed when Kayo thanks him, because their bodies have the same age Edit: typo
I think people really didn't like the anime ending mostly because it was rushed. Not because of the dating bit. I remember the manga's ending was a lot better because half the show was in the past stopping the murders, the other half was in the present catching the guy. It was a proper really good thriller type thing.
I personally believe had they not rushed the ending for the sake of fitting everything into 12 eps and instead followed the manga more from the hospital onwards, we’d have had a much better ending in general and would’ve had a lot more payoff and I still don’t get why they didn’t have Kayo return to school in the anime and help satoru alongside Hiromi and Kenya and for people that complain about Kayo “moving on” we do have an answer in the manga’s 5th volume in that after Satoru falls into his coma Kayo is more than willing to wait for him to wake but it’s Sachiko that wishes for her to not spend all her time waiting for something that may not happen for a long ass time and well it doesn’t for a long time and I think it’s what satoru would’ve wanted, but there is essentially the official answer Apologies for anyone that took the time to read this
@@jkterjters oh it does but I mean at least there’s a reason that actually fits and doesn’t feel forced, it does feel perfectly in character for sachiko and I love it for that, the same volume goes in on the fact Kenya spent years trying to get justice following anything he could and I love that
Agreed. After I aquired the manga volumes and finished reading I felt that the anime really missed quite a bit. I would love to see many of those scenes animated. I also wish some of sanbe kei's earlier works would get English releases. Either way I'm definitely tracking down the other two series that made it overseas.
You know, I honestly expected Kenya to be the killer. He'd be a parallel to Satoru, both being kids in the same class. He might've killed several of the girls without overpowering them, but rather luring them to their deaths, which is something their classmate could do. He was shown to be incredibly smart. And his hair color change would throw the audience off and make them suspect the teacher, thus leading to an incredible twist.
@@alexfernandez882 right! Kenya was so suspicious at the start for no reason. I Honestly believed it was a group effort instead of soley 1 person. But then as you said it became very obvious
im going to be blunt, this is quite possibly the greatest video analysis I’ve ever seen. The way you explained everything so logically with a touch of humor was absolutely perfect and I haven’t seen any other UA-camr do this the same way you did in this video. Good job. Also your Erased ending was very good.
It wasn't meant to be a love story. It is true that they made people who watched the show emotionally invested, but love and naivete don't last forever. This part is realistic, it was about him helping others because he wanted to be a hero and change the future to save his mom.
I have to agree, the main character wasn’t in love with her. He wanted to save her, and seeing her making a life for herself made him happy (that’s how I interpreted the scene since we didn’t get his thoughts). I think that was a lot more impactful about what a good guy he was that he tried so hard to save her and expected nothing in return. Makes him a solid hero protagonist
True, it is understandable how most may convey it being romance but the series mainly follows the Hero's Journey concept of saving others at any cost. It is a selfless endeavor.
exactly !! he wasn't in love, he cared about her as a friend... plus, if he was actually in love, that would be rly weird bc,,, he was mentally an adult when he went back in time i rly liked that they gave her a happy ending and he didn't get anything from her by helping save her
I came in knowing that it’s ending was disappointing, but at some point I was like “I love this, the ending can be awful, but I’m enjoying this right know and nothing will change that”
@@mistypeaks1375 It certainly puts you in a different headspace when you know something you watch has a supposedly bad ending. The surprise of a bad ending is so much more impactful when you knew absolutely nothing. Another show that does this "surprise twist" ending and is bad is Wonder Egg Priority, although the whole thing only takes one episode, so atleast it's over quick.
I personally didn't feel satisfied by the ending, but that's because the loose ends are tied up *too fast.* Yashiru probably killed way more than 3 kids in the original timeline and preventing the three known murders wouldn't prevent future murders. Yashiru obsessing over Satoru for 15 years prevented all the murders and created an opportunity to stop Yashiru once and for all. If the show had just one more episode in its order to work with, it could work in one or two more scenes reminding the audience what Revival looks like to an outside observer before the final confeontation.
I think a good analogy for the end is (if you've played dnd) is when the dungeon master railroads the party to a specific ending after a months-long campaign. They think they're being clever, but they are so blinded by their vision that the end becomes far worse than improvising a proper ending.
Ok you got me crying with that ending when Kayo shows up on the rewriting. Also the bridge scene was genius, simple but serves the purpose. Also the friends helping with the bomb was really well put, you managed to use all the characters in a way that makes sense.
I think people forget the fact that Satoru had the mind of an adult while being in a child’s body. Like even if he was acting like a child, it would have been weird to see Satoru and Kayo together in the present because Satoru was basically an adult already when he became friend with Kayo. Their "relationship" just wasn’t meant to be even if it was cute seeing them together.
Mostly agree and i found it weird but at the same time satoru became more childish for whatever reason, still a bit odd but it makes it more understandable for me
Problem was show sent mixed signals. They wanted to have their cake and eat it, like putting scenes that clearly implied more than just being the best friends ever, but didn't wanted the weird implications of them all being together in the end. That was mistake in execution all the way where no matter what, it will lend people to think it was misleading in a direction or another.
I personally think it worked because he had a child's brain so he's naturally going to crush on a girl of his age. You can see it in his involuntary blushing and reminding himself of his age
@shrisiva4016 no he had the mind of a 30 year old the time he spent with her was when she was 10,he never spent any time with her while she was grown up so that means if they had gotten together it would mean he had feeling for a 10 year old the whole time and I'm seeing people trying to say that okay? Even he said no to that and shit of any ideas and feelings he had for her immediately by reminding him self that he is 30. Atleast in the end with the pizza girl she was 20 which is okay and far better than him getting eith the girl he spent most of his time with while she was 10
I think I interpreted kayo’s baby scene entirely different than you did 😅 I viewed it as the creators showing that she moved past her childhood and being a good mom unlike her mother, stopping the cycle of abuse that her mom had been a part of. And I actually really liked that she moved on and wasn’t treated as a prize for the mc to acquire in exchange for saving her life. I think if she had waited for him, it would’ve felt really out of character for her, and I like that satoru was genuinely happy for her bc it made me like his character even more. (And if they had gotten together, it would’ve felt at least a little icky to me given all the weird age stuff they have going on.) That was the only part of the ending that I really liked and hearing it boiled down to a “thrown out ship” kind of annoyed me lol. The goal of the time travel wasn’t to get satoru a gf, it was to get kayo a happy, fulfilling life, like you pointed out with that absolutely heart wrenching breakfast scene. And the baby scene was to show that satoru succeeded. It felt like the one part of the ending that was good payoff to me, or last mediocre payoff lol (Edit: typo)
Exactly, they cannot think of a female character as a human , but a trophy the hero should win. She was finally happy in her life , and people we are judging such good writing for a character like her. She found a home and family who loved her . Also it shows that u cannot give affection t ok a female character without them repaying that with a relationship at the end. Even though a 10yo and a 20yo are worlds apart. they didn't have chemistry, people just misinterpreted compassion, kindness with that just because kayo is a female character. The only problem the show has the rushed ending and the rushed revel of the killer , they really wasted the potential of the teacher and the MCs dynamic with eachother.
exactly. and to add on to that, i think satoru was crying out of relief that kayo was even still alive after those 15 years. & i really dont think he had any romantic feelings for her. & honestly i couldnt even say she had feelings for them. like ya they had their moments, but kayo was an abused child who hadn’t received love for anybody. i dont think she even knew how to romantically love someone
Yeah, that's the only part of the ending that I think is perfectly written. People who complained because the MC 'didn't get the girl in the end' seriously need to touch grass. If your only motivation for helping any female person in your entire life is 'getting a cute gf', I think you might need some serious help. Kayo lived a happy life, ended up with a nice husband (seemingly not someone abusive) and a kid, and seemed to be enjoying all the life that would've been unfairly taken away from her. And the MC didn't just save a life with no consequences. He basically lost his entire youth and sacrificed his health to save her. It's a beautiful tale about human kindness and the value of life, and people reduced it all to "boohoo no cute gf boohoo" Now, that is not to say the ending is good. Far from it. The teacher, who always seemed so intimidating, smart and cunning, felt like a complete husk of a character at the end. I never understood what he was trying to do or why, and it always seemed very stupid to me how everything turned out. Especially the rooftop scene. Ugh. But Kayo's ending is the whole saving grace. behind the entire ending. It's what made Erased an 8 and not a 6 for me.
‘@@Corredor1230 i agree. had kayo “waited” for satoru for those 15 years, the ending would’ve been completely garbage & honestly they would’ve ruined the entire point of kayo and satoru’s story
To do Erased properly would've required at least 25 episodes. I believe this was a noitaminA series, so they were given 12, which is already one more than the usual 11. They could've chosen to adapt it over 2 cour, as even the minimum of 22 episodes would have worked, but they chose not to. It was never going to pan out, well, and I think most contemporary viewers could see the disaster on the horizon, whilst hoping it wouldn't come to pass.
I thought 12 episodes is considered the norm. From the many anime I've seen its usually 12 per season, sometimes 13 and sometimes (although slightly less common) 11. If it's a packed season there will usually be 24 or sometimes 25 episodes, I don't think I've seen more than 1 anime with 22 episodes. Then again it could just be what we watch.
@@Demon-D-King noitaminA seasons have (traditionally) been the odd 11 episode format, which is why those that run 2 cour are often 22 episodes. But it isn't set in stone and you have series that have run over that limit.
@@Demon-D-King It's actually an anime-specific programming block that screens on FujiTV on Friday mornings around 12.45am-1.15am. It's been running since 2005, with Honey & Clover as the first show. Last season's noitaminA show was Call on the Night. This season it is the Urusei Yatsura remake. Erased replaced The Perfect Insider and was replaced by Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. Multiple studios make shows for the block. There have been other programming blocks for anime (NOISE and Anime no Chikara come to mind) but noitaminA is the only one that has continued unabated.
@@BlueSkyBS Woah, that's a lot to learn. I do know Call of the Night though and I'm pretty sure it had 13 episodes (for the first season). Still thats very interesting.
Umm i don't know know if you have read the manga but the real reason why Yasuhiro does that is because of his big brother who for some reason reason isn't included in the the anime . Let me explain, Yasuhiro's big brother physically abused him and forced him into convincing his friends (girls) to come to their house after which he proceeded to sexually abuse them and during once his brother accidently killed one of the girls which resulted into Yasuhiro killing his big brother . Once again i have absolutely no idea why this was removed from the anime
Yeah. His motivations there made more sense. Also, the final confrontation was actually a real confrotation. To me it seemed like the production just cutting corners to have a 12-episode series instead of like 15 or 20. Though, if they were already willing to change a lot of stuff, removing the context that made it makes sense in the manga, they should have change a lot more like in this re-write in order to not loose the momentum of the pace they themselves set up.
I always thought that the mother crying at the end of all of this was to show just how deplorable she was. Maybe this was just me but I saw that she wasn’t crying for what she did but because of the situation she had been placed in
Personally, I would've been on board to see Satoru saving the other 2 kids in their own separate arcs instead of it being a side quest. Or maybe even, as those kids disappear from the killer's radar, he moves on to a different kid (the twintailed girl for example). It felt to me like the serial killer wasn't much of a treat as Kayo's abusive mother and that is pretty dumb considering in the main timeline this man got away with murder... you'd think he would be smarter than he actually ended up being.
He was smart but he wasn’t as manipulative as I really felt like he should be, after all, he has all this influence on the class and even satou or how ever you spell his name yet he only uses that to HELP him, also the fact that the only death explained was kayo kinda made me mad because clearly he was trying to kidnap ayo, but how did she die, how was she found, and how did he frame her death on someone else?
Brandon, remember, that almost every anime follows this concept: Short Hair girls always gets rejected or chosen by a different man. The MC always chooses the long haired no matter what the other girl does or what he has in mind.. There are a lot of shows that the short haired girl is more interesting in anyway (story, character build up, etc.) But the majority of Japan's writers always finds a way on pinpointing that the long haired girl is supreme.... Or this is just me complaining that the girls I like always get rejected and I am just mad
@Malice That is true, no matter what girl to choose, a good story is more important, yes, there are times when sometimes the waifu you're rooting ends up being you know "rejected" and ends crying and you get mad or what emotional breakdown your experiencing (a good example is Rem from Re:Zero), as long as she supports the MC and makes the plot more interesting then who cares about the girl he gets in the end as long as it gives a happy ending... This is my best way to interpret your message and sorry for misunderstanding if this actually incorrect.
Think positively, the short haired girl is yours now Honestly i dont like the mc romanced the character i like Becaus im not into ntr, and ey I love short haired girl, elegant manners and bust- And buff men-
Anime like Video Girl Ai and Kokoro Connect would beg to differ. Then again who ever "wins" is based around the author's preference, I've seen just as many girls with long hair "lose" and last ditch cut their own hair to be short as a last ditch effort to "win" than the later. This whole short hair girl must lose thing is pretty circumstantial, with childhood friends well yeah they tend to lose a lot since a new girl comes in and swoons the MC. But the short hair girl things is rather confusing as it really is left up to how the author decides to draw the other girls interested in the MC and if the heroine herself has long hair.
@@ronaldtanola2609 The problem is, getting the right girl can mean getting the best ending out of it. Not all the time, but having so much build up to a relationship with two characters, only to throw it away and not even give a good ending for it because plot twist has to happen....yeah no, that's not a good writing decision at all.
I don’t get why ppl are mad he didn’t end up with Kayo. Yeah they were cute as kids but expecting someone to wait 15 years for their childhood interest is insane. Maybe her and Hiromi bonded over their shared experience of losing someone important to them and became close. It’s just stupid to get made that someone didn’t wait for another person that they weren’t even sure would ever wake up. It’s mostly a pretty realistic anime in terms of how people are and I feel the ending kept that up.
While that's true, the problem was that the show was very clearly shipping them together. It would have been fine if they were just very good friends, but they made it a point to push them close together, make it look like there's some kind of cute love budding with how they're a little shy when they got too close, only to then turn that all around right at the end made it extremely jarring.
Uh maybe but that is what the show was intending at first. Also, wouldn't you wait 15 years for someone that basically saved your life? ( from abusive mom, trash family etc ). It would make sense even if you're going for a more realistic approach, imo.
I do agree with the ending concerning Kayo. I mean if you look at it even more, it's basically two people who had their lives stolen getting together to experience a life they were robbed of which I personally thought was good. Yet here's the thing..not once did I give a damn if the MC got the girl because in my personal opinion..that shouldn't have been the focus. The story was of a young man saving a life. That was the true focus for me and I felt it was satisfying. As for the villain..uh...could have been handled better.
I personally liked the ending as well... not sure if I agree with the time skip but it makes sense since the MC was in coma and we follow the MC's story. Sure it would have been nice to see the other characters but its realistic in the sense that when someone falls in coma and suddenly wakes up... its literally a time skip. I know the manga handled it better but the anime did a good job and i've watched it like 10 times... still same reaction as the first, so good!
Yeahhh me too, I personally enjoyed it more when Satoru didnt end up with Kayo, and was sort of confused why others hate that outcome so much. I was honestly getting tired of the "omg you saved her now she HAS to marry you", it's honestly getting old lmao
@@sophiemanrique1000 Without the timeskip we either would have seen the years between then and now shown in high speed mode, with some key events getting shown, or the series would have needed 12 more episodes to play out everything that happened when Kayo and the others didn't get killed. Also, the title of the series is "The town where only I am missing", right? Without the coma timeskip, that title would have made zero sense. Due to Satoru's efforts the situation changed from several kids missing and later his mother, to only him missing from their daily lives. So it's not like this video seems to suggest, the writer put himself in a bad plot situation, this was planned from the start.
The fact that I don't remember anything between the end of Kayo's arc and the rooftop scene is quite telling. I watched it as it was coming out and I thought that it was genuinely one of the best things I've ever seen. Your idea about giving MC a meaningful choice made me imagine an episode where he's thinking over the consequences of giving up his childhood and relationships, spending a day with his friends doing a ton of fun things... and then still going through with saving his mom and the kids with tears in his eyes. This story could have indeed been one of the best ever.
As someone who read the manga is not that the ending ruined the anime, but that the anime sacrificed the ending, and the runtime it needed, to make the rest of it better, it's the unfortunate result of having to deal with seasonal cours. If it could've been on air for 16 or 18 weeks it would be a different story.
I really like how Erased tackled dark and difficult subjects like child-abuse and did it really well. Yeah the main villain was a bit of a let down, but the emotions when Kayo finally gets the help she deserves was quite something.
I personally liked the ending. After all that long journey he had to go through, they reminded us of the girl that helped him from the beginning existed. It really emphasises how sometimes perhaps what you’ve always needed was right beside you all along. If he stayed with Kayo, it would still be an imperfect ending because that would be completely forgetting the girl that helped him from the beginning. Perhaps this was the best, possible and correct ending.
Regardless, it makes no sense. Whether she ended up with him or not, why put her with a character she spoke zero words with.. and put him with a girl he had no chemistry with. Just leave him with nobody, he didnt need ti end up with anyone. And they didnt need to put her with an existing character. They could have just had her with a random character or just not like him anymore…
@@beelzemobabbity Have we watched the same show? they had interactions and bonded. He wanted to be a hero and she wanted to help those who face injustice.
@@Grim_Bud compared to the time spent with who most people thought was going to be the love interest.. she had nothing. Shes in a little of the beginning, but the whole time i thought she was way too young and thought he was older so I didn’t ship it in the slightest. Then she comes back at the end, which is even weirder because in that universe where he was in the coma.. THEY DIDN’T have the ONLY impactful interaction that they did have. So there is even less
@@beelzemobabbity The same could be said about the interaction between Kayo and Satoru as the feelings between children often develope diferent as the interaction between adults or teens, as some child who suffers abuse would develop admiration and came to see the one that saved or helped her as nothing more than a hero or a great friend instead as a love interest, and some small interarctions between people who are more mature or more experienced can develop romantic feelings (Note that Airi offered him support and belived him when he was in one of his lowest moments and that he saved her even if he could be caught), BTW i liked the anime a lot yeah I felt the ending a bit bad but overall I liked more that end
@@mileniumshadowvn6652 they clearly liked each other is the problem, they had moments of mutual like that came naturally. She didn’t like him right away, she came to like him after he gave his time to her. The other, he never seems to show any blushing or anything twords her until the plot says so. It felt unnatural to me, personally. But its up to the person if they like certain pairings more. For me it wasnt really the relationship that made me dislike the ending as much as the red herring and villian
From what ive heard their is whole arc after the timeskip in the manga. I also believe the girl he ends up getting with got a lot of her screen time cut. From what i understand they basically knew they didnt have time to finish the series so they decided to just adapt the one arc they did have time for really well instead of rushing through it all which is why the weird ending decisions happened
The criticism that the relationship with Kayo doesn’t turn into anything in the end is really just personal preference, and I think the story is better off the way it handled it. It emphasizes the fact that Satori didn’t do all this stuff for himself, he did it for others, and it didn’t benefit him at all to do so. That’s just the kind of guy he is. His power of revival might as well be the manifestation of his willingness to go out of his way to help complete strangers, and that personality trait has been one we’ve been shown throughout the entire show. And it also helps that the ending doesn’t reinforce the trope many anime follow where characters with trauma blindly fall in love and dedicate their whole lives to the person who saved them, which may happen sometimes but overall is unrealistic. The other criticism of the villain and the ending is warranted I think, but that’s one point I wholeheartedly disagree with.
Yeah it has always been about being a Hero. The ending and timeskip parts were actually hopeful parts. I dont think the ending is bad AT ALL It fulfilled so much Satoru inspired the secret base friends to be heroes Mom still loves him all these years Even the villain has been scarred by this hero boy who seemingly knew everything that he was planning. Everyone else gets character development and fulfill their dreams.
It says a lot when the killer is more devoted to you then the actual chick you spent so much time saving. It was a shit ending, especially after they spent most of the show pushing those two together and building such amazing chemistry. But if I were to state everything wrong with that scene, then I would just be repeating the video, watch part 5 again to see why the ending was actual shit.
@@williamtimonen6814 He was a 10 year old physically at that time, and when he was back in his old body it would have been a 20 with a 20. Lemme guess you are one of the morons who get a confused look on their face when they look at beast girl and robot from Invincible?
@@imaran1303My opinion won’t change by listening to the same argument I disagreed with the first time a second time. If my having a different opinion on it bothers you enough to comment on it, at least bring a new point to the table or some more convincing argument.
The first Red flag for me was when the show tried to give sympathy to kayo's mother when she literally killed her own daughter in the previous timeline
Yes Azula's character build up to that moment was very well done, but they literally had 3 seasons to work with. Sadly, Erased only had 12 episodes.... so I think that would have a lot to do with how they handled the abusive mom. Not saying it can't be done, but I really wonder if they were granted 24 episodes, or even 16, if they could have ironed out a lot of these things better than they did originally, including the ending. 🤔
i swear watching the "What Would I Do Differently?" section made me forget it was that, and that it was just a proper recap of another story (a wonderful one) this whole video was amazing
I never understood the obsession with bittersweet endings, especially when they're far more bitter then sweet. Happy endings shouldn't just be "An American ending" or "A Hollywood ending" you're seeing the characters you're invested in triumph and therefore you triumph with them. I like such endings...
Feel good endings are nice, but when written poorly like this it fails to really ingrain itself into the audience’s mind Simply put, it lacks the lasting impact
@@insaneplay2260 My favorite ending in cinema history is the ending of the 1998 Les Miserables and it was a very well written happy ending. It ends where Javier handcuffs himself and throws himself in the channel in front of Jean, metaphorically and literally taking Jean's crimes onto himself and drowning them lol
After watching this entire video, I thought it was great. It does a very good job of explaining why people were disappointed by the ending. As for me, ERASED is among my favorite anime ever made. It's ranked 4th for me out of the near 150 anime I've seen. I'm saying this mostly to explain why the ending didn't bother me at all. I was so emotionally invested in the first 8 episodes that even after the story fell off, I was still able to enjoy it. This isn't to say the ending is good though because it isn't. Even the manga handles the story a lot worse near the end, as even though it's handled significantly better than the anime, it still can't hold a single candle to the rest of the story. The only thing the manga truly fixes then is giving us more about Kenya and Yashiro's characters while making Yashiro's plan far less dumb. This is all to say that your ending is easily the best of these three, and I truly wished that we got to see that version instead for the anime adaptation. Again, this video was great.
26:49 =The narrator forgot that Japan is ridiculous in their Detective skills. The minute a witness says you did it, and the detective goes "yup", no matter how nonsensical the reasoning is (no murder weapon, no motive), you are still screwed as they will still pin it all on you...
This video was very cathartic to me, I still vividly remember how excruciatingly disappointed I was watching the end of Erased. I think, while your suggested ending may not be perfect, it's LOADS better than what we got in the show, and it's that reorganization of the timeskip, and more focus on the other characters, and better understanding of what is and isn't the story's focus/purpose, that I think was terribly missing from the original show. Excellent video!
This is why restraining the anime with only 12 episodes is a problem I always have with recent animes. The first 8 episodes were actually sticking to the original quite well so they were good. Then the climax happened and...oh boy. The entire final battle of wits could have made this anime a 20 episode series. But they just had to cut and butcher the hell out of it...
The funniest thing. How Kayo's mom sees _her_ mom and is like "Wait I got hit by my parents too what the hell am I doing?" As if she JUST realised the cycle of hatred was turning, and the hamsters inside were starving.
The way you started describing that premise gave me goosebumps. The whole thing was an intense mystery thriller up until the last few episodes where it just ruined everything for me
for me i was severely abused by my mother, fairly similar to the series i actually cried at 13 to a home cooked meal, i cried when people treated me like a human being. i did try to forgive my mom for years, but i can't forgive someone that doesn't try to change. she also wasn't abused. i've had many try to excuse what she did or somehow justify it. honestly it does upset me. theres no reason to treat your child like a punching bag, to tell them you wish they were never born and find ways to torture physically and mentally. i was mute for years, it messed me up socially and she messed with me making me thing that if i told anyone they would be on her side and it made me feel more alone. she did that by using anyone telling her about stopping the abuse to fuel her rage and use that knowledge of me looking for help against me. I've had people say she was probably stressed as if thats somehow okay. I even had a mother say maybe my father abused her, which is so disgusting to blame anyone else but the abuser. My father didn't abuse her, at max her mom punished her but even she said my mother was abusing me to extremely lengths ( she cracked my skull at one point) it just disgust me to try to defend her and all the people that would tell me " well shes your mom so you've got to love her. you only have one mother" yes but she's also my abuser. Also just cause i was abused doesn't mean i will abuse. I'm 28 and learned martial arts at a young age. mainly to protect myself and people i would one day care for. I got really strong and even was a pro boxer for a little, overall i'm not the type to start a fight or be violent at all. I know what its like to be helpless, powerless, unwanted and alone. i would never do that to someone else. I've been with my fiancee for 10 years, i appreciate her deeply. I also appreciate my father, he gave me hope every weekend when i got to see him. Without that hope i doubt i would have been strong enough to not off myself. I was really depressed and in dark places for most of my childhood. My father said he saw her abusing me at the age of 3, he tried to fight for me but the lawyers would tell him it was a losing battle since shes the mom. he told me he wished i would forget, but was over a decade of abuse, i couldn't want anything, think anything, say anything without being beaten to a bloodly pulp. personally i like the darker aspect to the mother cause it's a real depetion of how dark some people truly are. and i didn't like the trying to justify someone that didn't care about their child dying.
We need more depictions of abusers, especially women, who aren't just continuing a cycle or whatever. Characters who are fully fleshed out evil and violent human beings, though of course not acting like that 24/7, are a very realistic portrayal of the world but we rarely see them. I love every writer who goes out of their way to write a villain's backstory and make clear that nothing which they experienced justifies it.
Your mom for sure was advised in some way to make her so bad. No one is born an abuser, something happens in your life to make u that way. I'm not excusing your mom, it is inexcusable, but I you weren't there to see how she grew up, she or whoever you talk to about her childhood, might not even fully realize how abused they really are because it was normal for them. Or she is in denial, doesn't claim it cuz it would imply she's not a great person, odk. But she didn't get love and security she needed as a child, and it turned her into a person that sees abuse as an option
@@nicoledoubleyou this is such a bad take. Here's the thing, every single person is influenced by their environment to be basically anything as a person. It's only treated as relevant to this extent with people harming other people though, as if they didn't have good experiences they refused to respond to in a different direction.
The 15 year timeskip felt like a huge missed opportunity to tell more story, like they were too lazy to come up with anything further, so they time skipped him back to adulthood. I was hoping something crazy would have happed after the timeskip, like, while he was in a coma for 15 years, his mom got married to the killer. That would have have been a huge plot twist and a way to circle around to the start of the story, with saving his mom.
I think the time skip was just a way to push airi and satoru together without any other background information. “ lLike here’s your ending and we’re not going to make the main character get with the only other character that makes sense. Oh yea, I forgot to mention the fact that that character has a kid with someone she’s never spoken to during the whole story”
@@meow2841 I never said they get together, you've now relayed to me that you are illiterate. you do realize that its more of him gaining his memory as a kid than his actual consciousness?
A couple of thoughts: One, I think the kayo baby scene was rightly controversial, but overall the right decision, and corrects a previous mistake that was made, though it does overcorrect a bit. What I mean is, I think the whole relationship plot was a bit odd in the first place imo. It wasn't egregious, but a couple lines were a bit off putting, hinting to some off feelings mc may have had towards kayo. If that chemistry wasn't there the baby scene wouldn't be controversial at all, as the viewer would have no emotional attachment to MC's and Kayo's romantic relationship. I think it was a little bit of a blunt introduction, but I digress. Two, the mother scene was handled perfectly and added much more realism and immersion. It's a bit of a give and take. At first, it took away the immersion. You think they are going to try to force this contrived sympathy cop out. While watching the scene, I was thinking "That's bullshit, how are they buying this" and then immediately, MC goes "that's bullshit, how are they buying this" which is then followed by Kayo not buying it either, and the implication that the teacher knows as well, and MC's mother simply comforting the grandmother but still realizing that it's an act. But in the end, her getting comforted doesn't matter, she lost. She lost full custody of her daughter, which was what she was so desperately trying to preserve. Three, the villain could have been much more fleshed out without revealing his identity any earlier. If a clear motive was seen more easily, one that exposed the killer's personality, it would have been much better. Yes, realistically, the killer being a clear cut psychopath who simply enjoys killing is probably the most likely scenario. But is it the most interesting one? No. I don't give a shit about a couple of hamsters, the half assed philosophy shit was the lamest villain motive ever. Four, the timeskip doesn't just take momentum, it takes emotional investment as well. I cared about these characters, but they threw the epilogue in in-between the build up and climax, which is absolutely insane. I might care a bit more about the conclusion if it had real stakes. Sorry, but I'm not that attached to the cancer girl, and at this point I don't really care if the MC is arrested. He'll it would have been more interesting than what actually happened. Things felt more hopeless when they were little kids trying to figure they're way out of the grasp of a highly intelligent villain, rather than group of highly intelligent adults outsmarting a clinically insane villain. It made no sense. Five, I think the writers forgot MC's abilities. He keeps predicting futures that he hasn't lived yet lol
I don’t think they wanted you to feel bad for the mom. It was to show the cycle of abuse and give her a “reason”. None of the characters said they should forgive her or show her some understanding, but it IS sad. She was abused and she chose to continue the cycle. Now seeing her mom take on the blame and recalling what she has done to her daughter, she cries. The characters can only see her crying to her mother like a child and it would be sad to anyone to see anybody like that.
I love (and I mean LOVE) watching these kinds of video essays, analizing shows and movies, going through the nuances of what makes something work or not and so one... and thus I watch a lot of them. What I didn't expect was rewrite to this scale and quality. I have to salute you. This is awesome. It's truly inspiring seeing somebody not just pick apart things but actually write a little since this gives me a lot of hope that someday I myself might be able to write something in the future and not just pick apart what others wrote.
i dont necessarily think its ending was ruined ive watched the anime before reading the manga. when i watched the anime, the ending seemed to perfectly slide into place. the adaptation did well. the manga just carries it in its own route, which is better, but i dont think it results in the anime ruining its ending.
that final moment with the villain was so bad then they went and put the joker batman relationship and i was like "no stop no you cant have thhat after a timeskip wtf is going on" XDDD
OMG that scene where Kayo bursts into tears over the breakfast, it hit me like a truck (a hard-hitting EMOTIONAL truck) back then when I watched Erased in 2016. Fast forward to today, le me watching this video, and yet again, I cry alongside her. What a powerful scene man.
I loved the ending, but maybe I am a sucker for happy endings. *spoilers* The fact that Kayo and Hiromi, two of Satoru's classmates who originally died, ended up having a future (they even named their child "future"!!) because of Satoru's selfless actions was straight up beautiful to me! I never shipped him and Kayo, he wasn't doing it to "get the girl" but instead to be a hero and save everyone, that's the kind of person he is. It's weird when people get caught up on that and not see how beautiful and satisfying this ending is. And not only did he save innocent children, Yuki from wrongful imprisonment, AND HIS MOM FROM BEING MURDERED, he gained long lasting friendships and fulfilment in his adult life, so that his new reality is so much more full of happiness and love than his original one. I agree with you that I wish there were more episodes to tell this story but as it was I loved it!
I like your ending, but instead of a bomb threat, you should make it so that Yashiro is about to throw Misato off the bridge or perhaps jump off with her so as to be the sinner and allow him to tell the story. In the revival the kids somehow manage to catch/save her, but Yashiro loses his grip and falls down alone. As he falls, he thinks back to the hamsters he used to drop into water for them to drown before being swallowed by the water below himself. Meanwhile, Misato realizes that people do care enough about her to save her just as the kids did. The police could probably fish Yashiro out, not sure whether he should be alive or dead, but I feel like it's a pretty good outcome either way.
Definite improvement but I’d still have the Kayo’s mom scene before the culprit is revealed scene since it helps establish trust with the protagonist. Also I’m not going to judge the coma part too seriously when the show already has a lot of time travel back and forths.
I remember reading the Erased manga and was always confused by why his memories of the original timeline started fading after he finally stops his teacher from killing. I did like that they found a way for him to need glasses again
13:35 : I don't think it's a sudden 360. Kayo's eyes reminded her mom of Kayo's dad. She viewed Kayo as a stand in for her abuser and took out her anger on her.
Brandon, I'm not gonna lie. I haven't watched erased. But I trust your videos a lot to know what to watch. So, for the sake of a better experience, I'll come back on Monday to see the full video after I watched the whole series. See you in two days. Edit: Wow... That was definatly one of the best anime I've watched. BUT. I do see why the ending might have been disapointing. The first 9 chapters were awesome. Every move Satoru made was carefully thought and the pace was excellent. The way the anime expressed how much he missed out for not beliving in his friends and mother was impresive. One of my favorite moments was when he realized he also had great momments with his mother while eating. I love when the appreciation for everything our family has done is shown on screen. I value my mother and father a lot for everything they have given to me, and that scene reminded me to be grateful about it. The plot of trying to save Kayo was super intresting, not knowing how every decision is gonna turn out really stresses you and fills you with hope. And the moments they shared together are also fantastic. The ninth episode really feels like an ending to the whole arc. The problem is that they made it a little longer. The final three episodes feel super rushed, like they had to cram it as much as they could. The days stop meaning something and out of no where the villan is revealed. Some of the friends didn't had the development they could've had. Like that girl from the other school or the girl that was isolated because of the money incident. But this are a lot less to blame. The real problem is the villan. The proffessor who didn't do anything suspicious until episode 10 all of a sudden starts showing a lot of strange things, and like, so in your face is not even funny. I mean, a case full of candy. Really? That's litteraly screaming "please look at me, I'm suspicious". I thought it was so obvious that it wasn't him, but I guess I was wrong. I didn't need motivation for a child killer, but the way it's treated is not really satisfying. Satoru lost 15 years of life because of him, and it's not resolved great. There's not enough anger in him, or sadness that the one that replaced the father he didn't have betrayed him. It wasn't given enough time to be thought out. But the rest is soooooo good tho. The music, the themes, the characters, the messages, everything. I see why he said that even if the ending is kinda bad and rushed it's worth looking at this series. I always liked the message of doing whatever you can to help, probably because of growing up with spiderman as my favorite hero. It's an important message I think would make the world better if everyone tried to follow it. And the other friends were also great. The way Kenya tried his best to be like Satoru now that he started acting was pretty wholesome, and inspiring. People always seem to be looking at what is happening, but very rarely anyone does anything to stop the things that are going bad. I think that's why I kinda saw myself a little in him. Being aware of things that seem out of your reach to solve is painful, and it happens more than I would like to admit. Even though I always try to do something about it, it sometimes seems I just can't help them at all. I think that pretty much covers my thoughts on the anime. I will now look at this review to see how many things I agree with. See you in like an hour. Edit 2: Ok, so pretty much what I said, but explained way better. I didn't mention the shipping stuff in my original comment because I did felt the romance was just a side dish to the story, BUT, I felt so betrayed when I saw she had a baby with one of his friends that I actually said "Oh wow, I see why anyone would say this is bad". The self-sacrifice stuff is also something I originally tried to address but couldn't cause I didn't manage to exprese my thoughts in a correct way, but Brandon pretty much said everything I wanted to say about that. I do feel a happy ending would've been a much better ending to the anime instead of the bittersweet one we got, cause it did appear to go in that direction at the start. But yeah, Brandon already explained everything amazingly, so I won't say much about it. My takeaway from this vid is that it made me watch a show that has an amazing story. Once again, Brandon's recommendations are fantastic and I truly belive his analysis should get more views. I love your videos and I'm really impressed by the quality everytime you upload. I will eagerly wait for the next one as I listen to the fantastic ending this series has. P.D: Bread eating stream when?
I felt betrayed too when she had a baby with someone else, but then I thought about it. 15 years are a long time and it was never clear If he would ever wake up from his coma. After that I was a little bit less annoyed.
One of the major points- which I think is more preferences of storytelling- could have been fixed if all they did was not have Satoru not end up with anyone at the end. Kayo still has her baby, still goes on and lives her life, and when Satoru wakes up, she regails him of the name of the baby- his own- or how she wants him to be the godparent/ social parent so that her own child could have someone so protecting and loving like Satoru in their life. (Obviously not trying to say that's all Satoru would be good for, ect, nor that it's not the job of the parent. Just talking about their bond above all else and the pivotal personality trait Satoru holds.) The point of Satoru having to end up with Kayo to make the story work because of their childhood together is a preference, but overall negative criticism that I do not agree with. Especially when Satoru's whole story is doing these things selflessly, to help others around him regardless if he could be hurt in the process. To turn back on that and "reward" him with Kayo would be reducing both of their characters, as well as the overall plot beats of the show. Your other points are very good, and I agree. Especially about the abusive angle with the mother and generational trauma.
Despite the ending, I still love the twist reveal of the killer a lot. Throughout the show hints are dropped that while suspicious are explained away or seem reasonable and so when it happens it’s not a ‘what I didn’t see that coming’ but a ‘wait they really are the killer? Please don’t let it be true’ (at least that was my reaction). I very much appreciate your breakdown of the ending as I always just assumed it was because of the whole ‘squeeze 2 volumes into like 2 episodes’ thing so I’m glad you went to explain it much deeper.
The episode 9 abuse made total sense. Lots of abusers apologize, even feeling legitimately sorry in that moment, only to regress almost immediately. It's a really common and well-known thing that happens in cycles of abuse. This also plays on other people's desire to see people do better. "If she's really sorry, . . ." But then she relapses. Which makes total sense. The woman is obviously not stable. Plus the whole stuff about them not showing her being loving - we only got shown how she treats her daughter *now* (well, in the fictional 80s). It was a bit rushed, and they probably should have done more to build up to that moment, but it's not too far afield from what actually happens all the time in these situations IRL.
I loved that It is implied that Satoru and Airi end up together. Idk maybe its because I actually paid attention to their conversation at the beginning about continuing to believe. Airi helped Satoru through the worst times of his life; lost his mom, is being pursued by the police, got ratted out by his boss. Airi was the only one showing sympathy for him, and she genuinely cared for his safety. Kayo and Satoru was different; he cared for her because he wanted her to survive- not because he wanted to end up with her in the end. In the manga he cries tears of joy because he is appreciating that he saved her and she made something with her life.
I don't think it was implied they ended up together, it was more implied that Misato and Satoru got together (hinted at by the blush Satoru has when she walks in) also, the age gap is very, very significant. I'm 17 and I couldn't imagine dating a 30 some year-old. It's just gross. Both at different places in their lives.
@@tacobellabeanburrito i mean at that point I think she was older than 17 because he meets her much later than he does in the first timeline, but still the age gap is too much imo
33:15 tbh I didn't mind as much because all of the "cute moments" were between a literal child and a grown adult if you use critical thinking, like just because you didn't get the clichéd over used "she waited for her freind" (who's technically waaaay older than her) plus he never actually liked her
The thing is, the anime had taken changes from the manga that completely takes away some of the characterization from Airi, that they might as well have made an original ending making Kayo the love interest.
your ending would make me cry two times if it was the actual ending. Something about the car driving away with the poem and them all happy together just seems so.. happy
I wasn't as upset about the ending as I was with the insanely predictable plot the killer reveal had to be a joke by the author because he made that shit so obvious.
26:54 I believe that Japan has an above 99 percent conviction rate, so I think that no matter what Satoru would have said to exonerate himself, he had an almost guaranteed sentence. Shit, I'd run away too if I know getting arrested was an almost guaranteed all-expense-paid trip to the slammers for an unmarked period of time.
The manga builds up an actual big ending, where the killer targets kumin to get to satoru when him and his mother go to a summer camp. This ends in quite an impressive last scene on a burning bridge. I wonder if that’s a metaphor. This also gives Kenya and the detective a bigger purpose in the ending instead of just… the safe landing from the building…
I'm probably one of the many that actually felt SO happy when Kayo showed up smiling with her kid, not even realizing until 10 seconds later, *OH! SO, THIS IS THE SCENE THAT MADE PEOPLE RAGE!* , lol I never paid too much attention to the seemingly "romantic childhood" and thought it's just a fond memorable memory for Kayo (which she definitely needed considering her household circumstances). I was too focused on how will Satoru's actions affects the future, I didn't thought about that possibility. Not to mention there's also Airi waited in the future, so I perceived that Kaya only saw Satoru as her hero rather than romantic partner.
People who saw Kayo X Satoru as the end goal and complain about it to this day don't know what this story is really about. It's always been about being a hero. Selfless sacrifice is always the best trait a hero can have. He even inspired his friends to come up with plans to catch the villain by the end. It went full circle and people just ignored that.
@@raseruuu3742 I don't even know why these people watch a show if all they can think about when watching is what kind of ships they want, like wtf is wrong with these people.
I knew nerds were going to mald over Kayo not ending up with MC when I first saw Erased. The ending pacing is still off but Kayo having a happy life was the entire point, and ofc some losers can't reconcile that can mean not married to the MC. Pizzagirl already showed she could care above and beyond for MC when he was a fugitive NEET, she deserves happiness too.
haven't read the manga but apparently Satoru's true romantic interest was meant to be Airi based on other's comparison reviews between manga/anime/live action, but their interactions were always cut to fast track the whole-time travel rescue of kayo. So, the way that i would change the story so that the person important to him in the present is not brushed aside and made irrelevant is as follows; Anime wise, establish that relationship between him and Airi early on, flesh it out and have Airi provide Satoru more support in finding clues to help him change the past each time he fails. bring the Misato's whole isolation issue earlier. this should give the story enough substance to logically pace and end the season by successfully saving kayo and seeing her drive away. cue to post credits and Misato is dead. Up until now Satoru's revival only ever sent him back to the future when he failed to save someone, otherwise he lives his actions back to the present. So Misato's death triggers his return to the present. But because the past has changed, his mum is now alive. Instead, the guilt of directly sacrificing Misato to save Kayo becomes the foundation for a second season. and gives the story time to potentially flesh out the other victims. For potential S2 plot points, the actions of S1 means his friends are now closer as adults, meaning the time he would've spent with Airi has now been "erased" and is more distant to her as a result. Events of S1 would mean Gaku would be eyeing for an opportunity to get back at Satoru, as revenge or obsession. And i would make it so that Satoru choosing to try mend what was erased with Airi instead of sticking with Kayo is what causes Airi to become the present-day victim triggering Satoru's second trip to the distant past, this time to fix Misato's death that he directly caused.
Expanding on this train of thought... As the show did try and fail to emphasize how important Airi is to him, i would focus less on the past victims at this point and instead focus on how his successful saves causes the changes in the timeline to make him more and more distant to Airi for S2, and Gaku more and more obsessed with him. in fact, it would be better to have gaku reveal himself during one of the present murders, because "a guy killing the girl he's supposedly failing to court makes a much more compelling motive than a total stranger killing in front of a witness", and Gaku is no longer right in the head at this point. Satoru realizes that because no murders have occurred in the past, he can't exactly convict Gaku for a murder he has not yet done. Another sudden realization hits that previously, there were always 3 missing victims no matter who he saved. except the last time he checked, there was only one remaining in the future news article. meaning Gaku had stopped looking for new victims and began focusing on him for some time now. and this meant that after he saves the last victim there will be no more chances to regain the future that he lost. Remembering the time Airi was supporting him through his mother's death and looking for clues to help him change the past, he realizes that the last victim was consistently last in all timelines at the exact same time, date and cause of death. meaning if he were to let things play out and alert the police to the time and place, he can trap Gaku red handed for a future with Airi. Otherwise, he can save the last life and potentially miss his last chance to reconnect with Airi. However, since the Japanese name of this story is "the town where only I am missing", i do feel it was always intended for satoru to go into a coma. As you mentioned, moving the final confrontation with gaku into the past like the bridge scene would make it flow better. maybe have satoru be the one to climb under the bridge to remove the bomb during the rerun, so the shockwave could cause him to fall into the river afterwards, causing the coma. this would also tidy up his awakening as a proper epilogue to show the results of his meddling in the final timeline. it would also provide more time for the audience to move away from the whole Satoru x Kayo ship, and back onto the original planned ship the author intended for. The final scene could be as simple as his friends asking what he wants for his first meal after waking up, in which he nominates the place he used to work at in the original timeline. Thinking all hope is lost, the delivery girl knocks on the door and enters. Prompting Satoru to look up and smile.
The thing, the only person who mattered in that scene (Kayo) was not moved by this. Which shows that she doesn't forgive nor believe her. For me what ruined Erased was how dirty they did my boy Satoru only for us to expect that this was some sorta happy ending. His motivation is: He was psychotic, the dude KILLED hamsters when he was a kid. The strings? Figments of his imagination. He is insane, that is the entire point and motivation to his murders, it is actually insanely simple.
I honestly think your review went into such great detail and was really good. I like your thought out ending and probably would have been more satisfied with it
your rewrite made the series so much better, low key haven’t been able to sleep because of the “cannon ending” but now I have a better ending that doesn’t leave me feeling empty that I can just say is my head cannon and the other ending never existed, thank you so much like ong.
Couple things I wanted to clarify about the Kayo situation (TLDR at the bottom):
*This alone did not make the ending bad!* Which is why 90% of the video isn't even focused on that. I still would've had my complaints about the ending with or without it. All it was is simply the straw that broke the camel's back. But since that's all anyone wants to talk about, I want to address that properly here, since I feel like I didn't explain it well enough in the video, and I've been getting a lot of comments misunderstanding my point lol.
---
This isn't bad because the hero doesn't "get the girl" in the end. It's because of the WAY it was executed.
Satoru and Kayo's relationship, whether it be platonic or romantic, is still the emotional core of the show. That's what the show dedicates the majority of it's runtime to, and whether you like it or not, that's what the show spends a lot of time developing. They ARE the heart of the show for most of it.
This is why it felt disappointing after she left. Because now the main emotional core of the show is now missing, but there are still 4 episodes left.
And while many of you simply weren't interested in the romance aspect, (which is fine!), it confuses me that some people seem to deny that it ever existed.
Really? So Satoru saying that he wasn't going to hang out with his friends because he had a date with her, and them both blushing as a result, was just a friendly friend thing that friends do.
Everyone around them freaking out over them being a couple and none of them denying it. The constant hand holding and blushing. Satoru straight up accidentally saying that Kayo was pretty in the middle of class, them falling asleep together alone in the bus, Satoru's mum asking "am I being a third wheel here" and Satoru straight up saying "yes". The Christmas tree scene where they saw the two foxes circling around them and wondered if they were a couple, looked at each other, and then moved away from each other out of embarrassment. The literal first scene they ever met where she suddenly placed her hand on his and makes his heart skip a beat.
The show constantly insinuates that these moments have romantic intent, even to the point of other characters spelling it out. These weren't here for no reason. You could easily remove a lot of this and you'd still have the countless emotional scenes they had that were platonic, and the show would still work. But they put it all in regardless.
Platonic relationships can still exist, and if that's what this was nobody would have a problem with it. BUT THIS WASN'T THAT.
The show was VERY unsubtle about all this and was pushing for it HARD. So if you watch all this and still think that it was completely non-existent you'd have to be dense as a neutron star, or are being willfully ignorant for the sake of the argument.
Again, it's fine if you personally weren't interested in this, but you can't really blame people for getting mad at the outcome when the writers themselves were the ones who were pushing it.
They teased it for 90% of the narrative and then dropped a timeskip where she got married to a random side character she never talked to and had a baby with them. It really isn't that difficult to see why anyone would be upset by this. It does not make them "bigoted" or "unable to accept that a woman can make her own decisions". It just means they bought in to what the show was clearly pushing for, and got disappointed when it turned around and gave it a non-sensical answer.
---
Going back to the actual ending, if their intentions at the end were for Kayo breaking the cycle of abuse and for her to live a happy life by ending up with Hiromi... why did it not set it up that way? If your intention was for the two victims to end up together, then let them actually talk to each other throughout the show and let THEM have chemistry while cutting out any potentially romantic scenes between Satoru and Kayo. If this is what happened, it would've worked. But the end result comes out of nowhere and the pay-off doesn't match the set up at all. THAT'S why it doesn't work. Because they were paying off something that never existed, while destroying the setup that DID exist.
And why is it that the only possible way for Kayo to show that she's happy is by having a baby?? There are a million different ways you could show that she broke the cycle of abuse WITHOUT destroying previous setup. It wasn't the only option!
"The show isn't about the romance though, it was about Satoru trying to save her"
Even if it wasn't what the show was all about, it was still a very significant part of it. So let's switch the genres to demonstrate my point.
Let's say you had a romance show where the romance was mostly what it was all about. But you also had a very interesting psychological thriller aspect to it. It's still a romance overall, but the psychological thriller sub-plot is constantly being developed throughout the series and it gets more and more interesting. People start getting invested in it. The show pushes that aspect more and more, and it becomes really obvious what it's gonna do in the end and everyone's looking forward to that happening, and just as it's about to reach it...!
It turns around in the end and gives it the stupidest possible answer you could think of.
In my book, if people were to be upset by this, they'd be justified.
You could go "well it was never supposed to be a psychological thriller overall, so you can't complain", but that aspect is STILL THERE. It feels unnecessary because why would you introduce that aspect in the first place if you didn't intend to follow through with it. They didn't HAVE to give it a weird answer. In fact it would've been easier if they went with the predictable answer and everyone would've liked it more. But instead they... didn't? It took more effort to give it the stupid answer instead of the predictable one that was more interesting and satisfying, leaving everyone befuddled as to why.
A lot of the counter-arguments for this are from the characters point of view and not from the writers.
"You can't expect KAYO to wait 15 years, that's unrealistic"
"SATORU never wanted to get with her, his main goal was to save her and that's what he did in the end, so it's a happy ending"
Completely missing that that isn't the point. These are not real people who are making their own decisions independently from the writer. The writer CHOSE for them to do this, because the writer is in control of everything that happens.
Nobody is blaming Kayo the character for not waiting 15 years, we're blaming the writer for putting her into that situation. We're not asking for her to wait 15 years and be miserable, we're asking for the coma to not happen in the first place so she wouldn't need to!!
And for the people saying that the coma was necessary, it really wasn't. Revival literally could've just brought him back to the present and filled in his memories, and there'd be no problem.
But even if they did have to write the coma, you can't defend the writer saying "what else was he supposed to do in this situation" when the writer themselves is the one who created the story. If they write themselves into a wall and are forced into doing something dumb, they still made that happen!
And again, they didn't even NEED to end up together in the end. All they had to do was NOT destroy the previous set up. This is why in my rewrite (which you would see if you watched the video), they don't even end up together. She simply shows up and is happy, and Satoru cries knowing that he changed her life for the better and that's it. What is so hard about that ending. There's literally no downside to it. It delivers the same point but without detracting from all the previous setup. If you somehow think this is worse than the original ending, then please explain to me why!
TLDR: The main criticism with this is the way it was handled. The writers should've known what they were trying to do and stuck with it. Not try and do one thing only to do the opposite in the end.
jesus christ that's alot to read man T v T
can’t believe i fr read all that but i agree. satoru being out in a coma really wasn’t necessary in my opinion and there are better ways the ending could’ve been executed. i don’t blame the writer but I do think there were better things they could’ve done. though, i genuinely liked the ending where satoru confronted the teacher and such. honestly i didn’t really wanna watch an hour long video on it but I enjoyed reading your comment. 👍
iant reading allat
@Zhxst_ That's what the TLDR is for lmao
What I said in the video wasn't enough because people kept misinterpreting it, so I made this comment to explain everything in proper detail.
Couldn't agree more. I hated the way they ended this.
The only problem with your ending that I have is that the bomb threat feels like it comes out of nowhere, I think there should be some scenes where the teacher shows some skills in chemistry or something similar.
Waltuh
I totally agree with the bomb, because it's way too much out of character. Because in his core he is a killer who is drawn towards victims that can't defend against him. There is a sense of sadism within his personality because he enjoys to have power over someone or something. This is also why his killing of the mother was sloppy in comparison, because he did it, due to sheer panic and fear, that she might get behind his identity.
Also... WHAT isn't he falling again in the cartoony and nonsense of his plans???? How did nobody saw him? How did he put the bomb? Why isn't him exploding the bomb?? Why is him in the breach still ._.
Thematically and true to character wise? I agree. Practicality of making a bomb? Not that hard tbh
@@unironic1184 this is what I came here to say
Being abused does not excuse you abusing a child when you are an adult. That is a simple fact. We can understand what brought you to that point but it still means you are not fit to be a parent because it is way easy for you to relapse.
I have seen it often enough that the best the abuser should hope for is visitation days and maybe reluctant forgiveness 20 years later but still having to stay somewhat out of their child's life for the most part.
is not an excuse but it is what it is... humans will be human , the way our psyche works is fvcked
111 👍 and 1st 💬
You can't use your suffering to justify causing another to suffer. You also can't use your suffering to justify not moving forward. We all suffer, we all die, push beyond your own short sited selfishness and become to person the world needs you to be.
I feel like if her goal was to make her more sympathetic, it would have worked better to intermix moments in which she is caring and loving with cruel and violent periods when she's frustrated and immediately being remorseful afterwards, just for the circle to repeat. I think it would have clued in the audience much, much earlier that she has her own emotional traumas and psychological issues which would made the reveal that she suffered similar abuse less of an asspull and hint at complexities in her, also explaining why Kayo didn't snitch on ther mom before.And the resolution should have been, that her mom acknowledges her abuse, if you want even let her break down now that she is faced with the reality of the situation and voluntarily Kayo to go into foster care while she herself commits herself into a psychiatric hospital. This way, we see the mom taking responsibility for the situation and making an active step to become better. This way, we can at least have some sympathy with that. Even if she was victimized before, she is not the victim in this situation and we can at least have a semblance of respect for her for actually acknowledging her abuse and taking steps in the right direction.
Thats why Endeavors Arc worked in My Hero Academia, despite him being a domestic abuser as well. He acknowledges all of his mistakes, giving us explanation but no excuses, he not asking for forgiveness and instead working towards self-improvement. And he is willing to remove himself from his family so that they can heal.
@@shizachan8421 Yeah, it is what makes me, not exactly respect Endeavour himself, but his decisions. He faces the fact he has been an awful parent and an awful person (not the same as being an awful hero) for too long and to let wounds heal he needs to show that he is willing to walk the mile.
He is still a bit sloppy I think. He has too much pride, but he also seems aware of that and was gradually trying to fix that aspect of himself as well last time I read the manga.
This is the difference between someone writing a story and understanding how these kind of relationships operate and someone that _thinks_ they know how these kind of relationships operate.
Sure, this *is* fiction so some leeway is expected, but this story tries to pull a twist for no reason. There was no need for a sudden twist to keep us engaged. So this sudden personality shift comes very much out of the left field.
Having Yuuki saving Satoru sinking in the car is the most genius writting the writer didn't do. It is bcs of his courage (yuuki) he still plays with kids and stand by the river even when ppl suspect him that he can save Satoru. It's much better than Satoru getting into a coma for 15 years.
Oh my World YES! Him being the one who saved him, regardless if Satoru ended up in a coma or not, would've been soooo perfect
This is head cannoning tho, and this wouldn’t make sense. We never get introduced to him in the past, that was be so jarring and out of nowhere.
@@fawn5866 we did tho
Y’all Have biased arbitrary reasons for not liking some thing, even though your attention did not divert for one second
@@139G20 I actually got excited thinking Kenya was Yuuki. But then I looked him up and I don’t even remember this character.
But Yh if this Yuuki and Kenya both saved Satoru. It would be cool for Kenya too since he wants to be a hero like Satoru.
Plus the points you made for Yuuki.
Y'all if you want a better ending, read the manga
Also, the time skip is symbolic of Satoru's previous future. While, now, he lost so much time, it isnt much different from the other timeline, where he wasted away without much direction in his life. The difference is, now, he has friends, a meaningful career, and people are alive.
How's the ending in the manga
@@fearless126if u wanna know, just read it.
yeah please explain the ending in the manga. i wanna know is it worth reading?
@@blueice5408 it’s 100% worth reading, I don’t really think it’s that easy to explain, or it’s too late in the night for me to form cohesive thoughts.
@@blueice5408 I'm late but is is 1000% better then the anime
the live action version has the opposite problem of this anime. it lengthened out the ending to make it better and more impactful by stretching it to the needed 3 episodes long but it had the same runtime so they had to rush the entire beginning of the show. moral of the story watch both
The live action has such a cool ending that neither the manga nor the anime has, but the beginning and middle are kind of boring, it's just that amazing ending full of emotion out of nowhere.
I haven't seen the live action one yet, would you recommend watching the first 8 episodes of the anime and then jump onto the last 3 episodes of the live action, to get an overall satisfying story?
damn my comment blowing up did branden read it on his stream? also i am not sure what way is best to go about it as the live action does have much less stylish effects then the anime which is sad so id recomend fully watching both, anime first
I acctually watched the live action befor the anime and lemme say it’s the first time I’ve ever liked a live action anime
@@oliviamorales9406 watch both
when will yall realize that satoru was crying when he saw kayo 15 years later, that he was actually happy. he wasnt sad that she had a child with someone who wasnt him, he was relieved and thankful that she was still alive after all these years. also bro was like a 30 year old in a child’s body… shipping him with an actual child just feels off
He didn't say that's why he was crying also she was in her 20s at the time and he went through childhood twice. That's different from growing up linearly.
@@youcantbeatk7006 what they mean is that satoru was a 30 year old he went back in time and kayo was like 10
Welcume to anime (jobless recanation)
But she was like 28 at the end so..
@@skillpat1827 Think of the 28 year old children!
@@youcantbeatk7006 he went through it three times lol
See, I felt like, based on Kayo's reaction when her mom starts crying with her grandma, that we're supposed to see the mom as selfish and crying out of self-pity instead of remorse
Also, the ending showed that Satoru sacrificed everything for Kayo to live a normal life, with or without him. It's selfless love in it's harshest form, and I think the ending's better for it, because Satoru is so graceful about it. It's a higher payoff than the typical, expected romance
Exactly how I felt when watching that scene with Kayo's Mom.
I never saw it as this "oh it's okay because she was abused too!"
It was very clear from Kayo and Satoru's reactions that you were not supposed to sympathize with her.
And I agree with the ending too. I was shocked to find out Satoru not getting with Kayo was such a big deal to people. It was very satisfying to me to see that after everything he had done, she was able to live that life that she always deserved to live. Satoru can live knowing that he truly did achieve everything he set out to achieve.
@@MissBrieBiscuit same! Just watched this for the first time and really show what true love is and what real friends are
I feel like that scene was still a bit more complicated, and that it was a genuine reaction from Kayo's mom in that she felt some mix of sadness and relief. The way I saw it was that Kayo's mom didn't want her child and was the victim of abuse as well and so had been abusive when stressed out, I was unsure on if she actually regretted hurting her kid though.
@@MissBrieBiscuit still if anyone why not the fucking blond kid with kayo
Honestly the ending you made was like a whole other show. I enjoyed the thought a lot, and I'd actually be interested in seeing that animated!
Same
Yea
I am an artist and I ll be glad to animate it I just need a team XD
@@soullesstaschenrechner1768 I'm not much of an artist, but I'd be willing to donate to see that! May not got a lot, but I'm sure other people would be interested too!
Yeah as much as I like the original ending, I do like this rewrite a lot also. I saw the original ending as a reflection of what Satoru went through to save his friends, but this is sweet also. Now Satoru gets to live his full childhood again, Aya and Hiromi get more screentime, Kenya gets to fulfill his promise to be a hero, and Kayo’s happiness is shown in a less shocking way
As someone who was abused almost just like her, that food scene HIT HARD. They wrote that so well.
Hug.
Hug.
Hug.
Hug.
Doubt.
" your killer waited 15 years for you but your girl cant " i laughed out loud
Bro i dont get why people dont get that kayo wasn’t meant to be with satoru. It’s just to show that his actions and sacrifices had results and kayo wasn’t just stuck in the past waiting for him, he didnt do all those things to get a girl but to be a hero. Idk why when there’s a boy and a girl their immediately shipped
@MinglesLingles it's because people felt mislead by having their relationship of most of the show.
@@MinglesLingles It’s more like the relationship between the two of them took up like 75% of the screentime, it looked like the anime was really pushing and focusing on their relationship, and then it’s suddenly thrown all out the window in like, what, an episode? So that’s why for many people the ending isn’t very satisfying, or fulfilling.
@@icardian yeah but dont you see how pedo like you sound for saying that 30 year old man who was wholesomely trying to save this 12 year old girl was in a situation where he had a relationship with a child? so what if he risked his life to save her, she left and he was a coma why should she wait for him shes not a psychopath and im pretty sure hes not a pedo
@@icardian Thank you for saying this; it always pissed me off; stories aren't meant to be realistic they are meant to be narratively satisfying and if you are going to build a relationship that has clear romantic implications but then have the female lead get with someone who had never shown any interest in like the last chapter of the story then you are a bad writer
I just want to clarify a scene;
You're not supposed to be sympathetic to the mom, I believe Satoru or his mom calls out the fact that she's faking to each other but not to anyone else, we know she's faking to save herself. they don't peruse it further because they did what they wanted and needed to do, they saved kayo and that's why its a happy moment, she's safe and wont be around her mom anymore. comforting the mom is for the sake of the grandmother who was feeling guilty.
Also to be clear the rest of your points are great and pretty accurate.
@@Audreys_Cloud except the kayo one. the point of him going back in time was to save her (and the other kids) not for him to date her in the future. He wanted her to live. Just cause she's a girl doesn't mean they automatically like each other, it could be platonic. Not to mention he was literally a ADULT in a child's body, so even ASSUMING they liked each other is weird af.
@@MarcelineTheStar And when he was back in his adult body she was a dult as well, what is your point? It speaks volumes when the killer is more devoted to you then the chick whose life you saved multiple times. And don't give me the bullshit about 'Oh! In the manga his mother told her to move on, which is even greater horseshit, yeah, gee! Thanks mom for telling someone else to give up on me while you yourself are not willing to do so, hypocrite.
I preferred his ending. And liking someone does not necessary need to be sexual. Especially at that point of time when they were both in children's bodies. No need to equate both and be unnecessarily creeped over it
@@MarcelineTheStar Agreed. Even though Satoru and Kayo developed great chemistry, the biggest thing on Satoru's mind at this junction in the show is whether Kayo lived or not. Sometimes people who taking a liking to each other are just not meant to be due to circumstances. Plus, it takes away the realistic element from the show for a 11-year-old primary school student to stay committed for 15 years. Their dynamics after Satoru woke up as intended in the manga feels the most natural to me.
Tbh, I didn't know the ending was hated until way later after I watched it
Yeah
Same here
Same
I had no problem with the original ending. I think it all chalks up with "he didn't get the girl at the end" which i find to be a dumb reason.
@@yderga8707 I also find that reason to be dumb because it's not a romance anime
in the "gradual decline" section , you're not supposed to feel bad for Kayo's Mom. The show does explain why she became abusive, but it doesn't expect you to feel bad for her. In that scene, Satoru is meant to have the same mindset as the audience when he says "I wasn't buying it; If anything, She felt sorry for herself"
"those tears were born of self-pity"
Heres the problem though: without that dialogue, the scene itself is presented in a way that portrays the mother as somebody deserving of sympathy.
I mean what’s the point in adding the flashback of the mother’s own experience with abuse if the audience is supposed to not feel sympathy?
Nah, I ain't buying that. The music in the scene tells otherwise.
@@matalinoe4059it was meant to be more like as the watcher you could pick your own opinion, with us most likely swaying towards the protagonists thoughts (like duh satorus mom is gonna feel that way for Kayos sake and as a fellow mother, and her mom is going to feel that way because well that’s her mom)
This is a late reply sorry, but anyways while i partially agree with you, he did mention this during that section in the form of a caption. He basically says the scene is still pushing too far into the sympathy route, and even with the idea that were not supposed to agree as viewers, it just comes across poorly
Personally i think thats somewhat realistic though, people tend to have sympathy where they shouldnt and it felt pretty real to me. So im in the camp of not minding that scene but i dont think its for the same reasons
The reason I don't like the ending myself is that since our main character knew about his power from the start, it implies that he used it before to save people, thus when you think about him going into a coma, it means he didn't only sacrifice his childhood, but also all the people he had saved prior to the story, and his mom's life, he saved her from the death of course, but for the past 15 years she's had to take care of him in a coma, worrying he might never wake up and basically wasting all her career, happiness, and health, she suffered despite being a great person all throughout the story, she did not deserve either of the endings. The hero himself essentially for all his efforts is rewarded nothing but a debatably worst outcome for a lot of people throughout his life, the ending just isn't satisfying.
EXACTLY!Im not bothered by the fact that he didn't end up with the girl as much as i was that he basically lost all his childhood and 20s pretty much in a coma, while everyone else managed to lead a happy life(save for his mom)
I guess im not as selfless as others, but i dont think i would make such a sacrifice myself
@@Vardanix2468he already experienced his childhood lmao (did yall forget about his revival ability) And also he’s the one that wanted them to move on, he was clearly happy about he results he got from his sacrifice
What are you talking about? Satoru's life was a blessing, not everyone can live their life twice, yes, he wasted it, but he had already lived it before, there wasn't much difference between both lives, in both they had dreams that they never achieved, and with a stable job.
Your rewrite is almost everything I EXPECTED to happen while I was watching the show. Especially the Revival-ception. Seriously, why not? Why couldn't that be possible?
I didn't realize that people didn't like the ending. I personally was ecstatic when Kayo walked in with her baby because that means that she lived! She has a life and a happy one! At that point, I was more worried that Airi wasn't going to show up again. Also, I probably liked the ending because I didn't ship Kayo and Satoru past the friendship stage mainly because I felt as though his protectiveness of her read more as "I can't let this CHILD die again" rather than anything romantic.
anime community find 2 people helping eachother and ship them instantly and will scream NTR if the other partner go with someone else even tho they were never stated they're in a relationship in the first place or cheating
you can see the author intention is to showcase the MC achieve his mission of saving the girl +she got a happy life afterward but ofc the meme of mc get ntr is everywhere when it was aired lol
@@karkar3647 I 100% agree BUT they definitely should have not put these weird ass comments in Satoru's head... "You're 30, she's just a child" he said to himself, making us feel like he has romantic feelings + is aware that how non moral it is but choose to allow himself to have romantic moments anyway. It's been years since I watched it but it angers me to this day. If they didn't put it, it wouldn't have changed anything except it not being creepy, and people shipping it less (because they didn't see the messed up) thus feeling betrayed less. I would have liked it so much if as a kid she was set out to have feelings for Hiromi, so you could see that she actually got what she hoped for, thus there was happiness for her. And Satoru was happy about it like he is in the actual anime but from the beginning. It would have fixed everything, especially the absolutely no chemistry problem, because even if he hadn't returned it yet as a kid it would have made sense that their relationship only grew from there, but they barely talked to each other as kids so it felt off when it was his baby she was holding.
Still ! I was like both of you really happy they made this decision in the end, I feel like they were trying to make up for it. Would have been even better if he didn't en up with an actual 17 years old tho... 😢
@@laobozu549 i feel that kenya not being used much is a wasted potential
@@laobozu549 he is a 30 year old in a child's body but he still has some moments that he acts like a child because of his body, like him being embarrassed when Kayo thanks him, because their bodies have the same age
Edit: typo
I think people really didn't like the anime ending mostly because it was rushed. Not because of the dating bit. I remember the manga's ending was a lot better because half the show was in the past stopping the murders, the other half was in the present catching the guy. It was a proper really good thriller type thing.
I personally believe had they not rushed the ending for the sake of fitting everything into 12 eps and instead followed the manga more from the hospital onwards, we’d have had a much better ending in general and would’ve had a lot more payoff and I still don’t get why they didn’t have Kayo return to school in the anime and help satoru alongside Hiromi and Kenya and for people that complain about Kayo “moving on” we do have an answer in the manga’s 5th volume in that after Satoru falls into his coma Kayo is more than willing to wait for him to wake but it’s Sachiko that wishes for her to not spend all her time waiting for something that may not happen for a long ass time and well it doesn’t for a long time and I think it’s what satoru would’ve wanted, but there is essentially the official answer
Apologies for anyone that took the time to read this
I was about to say something similar to this!
I mean I get it but it still hurts like shit
@@jkterjters oh it does but I mean at least there’s a reason that actually fits and doesn’t feel forced, it does feel perfectly in character for sachiko and I love it for that, the same volume goes in on the fact Kenya spent years trying to get justice following anything he could and I love that
@@LuckyLuna19 honestly its insane how many people never found this out, doing gods work haha
Agreed. After I aquired the manga volumes and finished reading I felt that the anime really missed quite a bit. I would love to see many of those scenes animated. I also wish some of sanbe kei's earlier works would get English releases. Either way I'm definitely tracking down the other two series that made it overseas.
You know, I honestly expected Kenya to be the killer. He'd be a parallel to Satoru, both being kids in the same class. He might've killed several of the girls without overpowering them, but rather luring them to their deaths, which is something their classmate could do. He was shown to be incredibly smart. And his hair color change would throw the audience off and make them suspect the teacher, thus leading to an incredible twist.
Same
In mystery novels they call that a "red herring"
I was between him and the teacher for the first 3 episodes, then it became too obvious
@@alexfernandez882 right! Kenya was so suspicious at the start for no reason. I Honestly believed it was a group effort instead of soley 1 person. But then as you said it became very obvious
So I could be the only naïve person who never saw it coming..
(It was one of my first animes to have noticed anything 'obvious' for everyone else)
im going to be blunt, this is quite possibly the greatest video analysis I’ve ever seen. The way you explained everything so logically with a touch of humor was absolutely perfect and I haven’t seen any other UA-camr do this the same way you did in this video. Good job. Also your Erased ending was very good.
Imagine discovering your killer was willing to wait but your girl wasn't... This line hits 🤣🤣
It wasn't meant to be a love story. It is true that they made people who watched the show emotionally invested, but love and naivete don't last forever. This part is realistic, it was about him helping others because he wanted to be a hero and change the future to save his mom.
36:00
I have to agree, the main character wasn’t in love with her. He wanted to save her, and seeing her making a life for herself made him happy (that’s how I interpreted the scene since we didn’t get his thoughts). I think that was a lot more impactful about what a good guy he was that he tried so hard to save her and expected nothing in return. Makes him a solid hero protagonist
@@audreyulrich9214 cleary you didn’t watch the video at fucking alll LOOOL
True, it is understandable how most may convey it being romance but the series mainly follows the Hero's Journey concept of saving others at any cost. It is a selfless endeavor.
exactly !! he wasn't in love, he cared about her as a friend... plus, if he was actually in love, that would be rly weird bc,,, he was mentally an adult when he went back in time
i rly liked that they gave her a happy ending and he didn't get anything from her by helping save her
I came in knowing that it’s ending was disappointing, but at some point I was like
“I love this, the ending can be awful, but I’m enjoying this right know and nothing will change that”
Same, the studio gave their best and I like the anime despite the ending it had
@@mistypeaks1375 It certainly puts you in a different headspace when you know something you watch has a supposedly bad ending. The surprise of a bad ending is so much more impactful when you knew absolutely nothing. Another show that does this "surprise twist" ending and is bad is Wonder Egg Priority, although the whole thing only takes one episode, so atleast it's over quick.
Idk I thought the ending was lit
I personally didn't feel satisfied by the ending, but that's because the loose ends are tied up *too fast.*
Yashiru probably killed way more than 3 kids in the original timeline and preventing the three known murders wouldn't prevent future murders. Yashiru obsessing over Satoru for 15 years prevented all the murders and created an opportunity to stop Yashiru once and for all.
If the show had just one more episode in its order to work with, it could work in one or two more scenes reminding the audience what Revival looks like to an outside observer before the final confeontation.
I think a good analogy for the end is (if you've played dnd) is when the dungeon master railroads the party to a specific ending after a months-long campaign.
They think they're being clever, but they are so blinded by their vision that the end becomes far worse than improvising a proper ending.
Ok you got me crying with that ending when Kayo shows up on the rewriting. Also the bridge scene was genius, simple but serves the purpose. Also the friends helping with the bomb was really well put, you managed to use all the characters in a way that makes sense.
I think people forget the fact that Satoru had the mind of an adult while being in a child’s body. Like even if he was acting like a child, it would have been weird to see Satoru and Kayo together in the present because Satoru was basically an adult already when he became friend with Kayo. Their "relationship" just wasn’t meant to be even if it was cute seeing them together.
You said exactly what I wanted to say. The true ending sucked too tho bc instead of kayo they put him with a 17 year old
Mostly agree and i found it weird but at the same time satoru became more childish for whatever reason, still a bit odd but it makes it more understandable for me
Problem was show sent mixed signals. They wanted to have their cake and eat it, like putting scenes that clearly implied more than just being the best friends ever, but didn't wanted the weird implications of them all being together in the end. That was mistake in execution all the way where no matter what, it will lend people to think it was misleading in a direction or another.
I personally think it worked because he had a child's brain so he's naturally going to crush on a girl of his age. You can see it in his involuntary blushing and reminding himself of his age
@shrisiva4016 no he had the mind of a 30 year old the time he spent with her was when she was 10,he never spent any time with her while she was grown up so that means if they had gotten together it would mean he had feeling for a 10 year old the whole time and I'm seeing people trying to say that okay? Even he said no to that and shit of any ideas and feelings he had for her immediately by reminding him self that he is 30. Atleast in the end with the pizza girl she was 20 which is okay and far better than him getting eith the girl he spent most of his time with while she was 10
This must be some sort of miracle, I could have sworn Brandon would never upload again in my lifetime
it, it was only, it was only 3 months dude. wtf is wrong with you? terminal leprosy?
I think I interpreted kayo’s baby scene entirely different than you did 😅 I viewed it as the creators showing that she moved past her childhood and being a good mom unlike her mother, stopping the cycle of abuse that her mom had been a part of. And I actually really liked that she moved on and wasn’t treated as a prize for the mc to acquire in exchange for saving her life. I think if she had waited for him, it would’ve felt really out of character for her, and I like that satoru was genuinely happy for her bc it made me like his character even more. (And if they had gotten together, it would’ve felt at least a little icky to me given all the weird age stuff they have going on.) That was the only part of the ending that I really liked and hearing it boiled down to a “thrown out ship” kind of annoyed me lol. The goal of the time travel wasn’t to get satoru a gf, it was to get kayo a happy, fulfilling life, like you pointed out with that absolutely heart wrenching breakfast scene. And the baby scene was to show that satoru succeeded. It felt like the one part of the ending that was good payoff to me, or last mediocre payoff lol
(Edit: typo)
Exactly, they cannot think of a female character as a human , but a trophy the hero should win. She was finally happy in her life , and people we are judging such good writing for a character like her. She found a home and family who loved her . Also it shows that u cannot give affection t ok a female character without them repaying that with a relationship at the end. Even though a 10yo and a 20yo are worlds apart. they didn't have chemistry, people just misinterpreted compassion, kindness with that just because kayo is a female character. The only problem the show has the rushed ending and the rushed revel of the killer , they really wasted the potential of the teacher and the MCs dynamic with eachother.
exactly. and to add on to that, i think satoru was crying out of relief that kayo was even still alive after those 15 years. & i really dont think he had any romantic feelings for her. & honestly i couldnt even say she had feelings for them. like ya they had their moments, but kayo was an abused child who hadn’t received love for anybody. i dont think she even knew how to romantically love someone
I agree with you completely
Yeah, that's the only part of the ending that I think is perfectly written. People who complained because the MC 'didn't get the girl in the end' seriously need to touch grass. If your only motivation for helping any female person in your entire life is 'getting a cute gf', I think you might need some serious help. Kayo lived a happy life, ended up with a nice husband (seemingly not someone abusive) and a kid, and seemed to be enjoying all the life that would've been unfairly taken away from her. And the MC didn't just save a life with no consequences. He basically lost his entire youth and sacrificed his health to save her. It's a beautiful tale about human kindness and the value of life, and people reduced it all to "boohoo no cute gf boohoo"
Now, that is not to say the ending is good. Far from it. The teacher, who always seemed so intimidating, smart and cunning, felt like a complete husk of a character at the end. I never understood what he was trying to do or why, and it always seemed very stupid to me how everything turned out. Especially the rooftop scene. Ugh. But Kayo's ending is the whole saving grace. behind the entire ending. It's what made Erased an 8 and not a 6 for me.
‘@@Corredor1230 i agree. had kayo “waited” for satoru for those 15 years, the ending would’ve been completely garbage & honestly they would’ve ruined the entire point of kayo and satoru’s story
To do Erased properly would've required at least 25 episodes. I believe this was a noitaminA series, so they were given 12, which is already one more than the usual 11. They could've chosen to adapt it over 2 cour, as even the minimum of 22 episodes would have worked, but they chose not to.
It was never going to pan out, well, and I think most contemporary viewers could see the disaster on the horizon, whilst hoping it wouldn't come to pass.
I thought 12 episodes is considered the norm. From the many anime I've seen its usually 12 per season, sometimes 13 and sometimes (although slightly less common) 11. If it's a packed season there will usually be 24 or sometimes 25 episodes, I don't think I've seen more than 1 anime with 22 episodes. Then again it could just be what we watch.
@@Demon-D-King noitaminA seasons have (traditionally) been the odd 11 episode format, which is why those that run 2 cour are often 22 episodes. But it isn't set in stone and you have series that have run over that limit.
@@BlueSkyBS Ah I see, you specifically referring to that studio. That makes sense, I don't know much about noitaminA.
@@Demon-D-King It's actually an anime-specific programming block that screens on FujiTV on Friday mornings around 12.45am-1.15am. It's been running since 2005, with Honey & Clover as the first show. Last season's noitaminA show was Call on the Night. This season it is the Urusei Yatsura remake. Erased replaced The Perfect Insider and was replaced by Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. Multiple studios make shows for the block.
There have been other programming blocks for anime (NOISE and Anime no Chikara come to mind) but noitaminA is the only one that has continued unabated.
@@BlueSkyBS Woah, that's a lot to learn. I do know Call of the Night though and I'm pretty sure it had 13 episodes (for the first season). Still thats very interesting.
"Imagine discovering that your killer was willing to wait, but your girl wasn't" LMAOOO
Umm i don't know know if you have read the manga but the real reason why Yasuhiro does that is because of his big brother who for some reason reason isn't included in the the anime . Let me explain, Yasuhiro's big brother physically abused him and forced him into convincing his friends (girls) to come to their house after which he proceeded to sexually abuse them and during once his brother accidently killed one of the girls which resulted into Yasuhiro killing his big brother . Once again i have absolutely no idea why this was removed from the anime
wow, i would've never guessed that ngl
Yeah. His motivations there made more sense. Also, the final confrontation was actually a real confrotation. To me it seemed like the production just cutting corners to have a 12-episode series instead of like 15 or 20. Though, if they were already willing to change a lot of stuff, removing the context that made it makes sense in the manga, they should have change a lot more like in this re-write in order to not loose the momentum of the pace they themselves set up.
I always thought that the mother crying at the end of all of this was to show just how deplorable she was. Maybe this was just me but I saw that she wasn’t crying for what she did but because of the situation she had been placed in
Same. It just showed how sorry she was for herself. It seemed so obvious to me that she was a complete piece of shit when she cried.
Personally, I would've been on board to see Satoru saving the other 2 kids in their own separate arcs instead of it being a side quest. Or maybe even, as those kids disappear from the killer's radar, he moves on to a different kid (the twintailed girl for example). It felt to me like the serial killer wasn't much of a treat as Kayo's abusive mother and that is pretty dumb considering in the main timeline this man got away with murder... you'd think he would be smarter than he actually ended up being.
He was smart but he wasn’t as manipulative as I really felt like he should be, after all, he has all this influence on the class and even satou or how ever you spell his name yet he only uses that to HELP him, also the fact that the only death explained was kayo kinda made me mad because clearly he was trying to kidnap ayo, but how did she die, how was she found, and how did he frame her death on someone else?
Brandon, remember, that almost every anime follows this concept:
Short Hair girls always gets rejected or chosen by a different man. The MC always chooses the long haired no matter what the other girl does or what he has in mind.. There are a lot of shows that the short haired girl is more interesting in anyway (story, character build up, etc.) But the majority of Japan's writers always finds a way on pinpointing that the long haired girl is supreme....
Or this is just me complaining that the girls I like always get rejected and I am just mad
@Malice That is true, no matter what girl to choose, a good story is more important, yes, there are times when sometimes the waifu you're rooting ends up being you know "rejected" and ends crying and you get mad or what emotional breakdown your experiencing (a good example is Rem from Re:Zero), as long as she supports the MC and makes the plot more interesting then who cares about the girl he gets in the end as long as it gives a happy ending... This is my best way to interpret your message and sorry for misunderstanding if this actually incorrect.
I've never heard this rule, but looking back on the various animes I've watch...holy crap ur right
Think positively, the short haired girl is yours now
Honestly i dont like the mc romanced the character i like
Becaus im not into ntr, and ey
I love short haired girl, elegant manners and bust-
And buff men-
Anime like Video Girl Ai and Kokoro Connect would beg to differ. Then again who ever "wins" is based around the author's preference, I've seen just as many girls with long hair "lose" and last ditch cut their own hair to be short as a last ditch effort to "win" than the later. This whole short hair girl must lose thing is pretty circumstantial, with childhood friends well yeah they tend to lose a lot since a new girl comes in and swoons the MC. But the short hair girl things is rather confusing as it really is left up to how the author decides to draw the other girls interested in the MC and if the heroine herself has long hair.
@@ronaldtanola2609 The problem is, getting the right girl can mean getting the best ending out of it. Not all the time, but having so much build up to a relationship with two characters, only to throw it away and not even give a good ending for it because plot twist has to happen....yeah no, that's not a good writing decision at all.
Ppl getting mad about her not waiting 15 YEARS since they were kids always makes me chuckle..
I don’t get why ppl are mad he didn’t end up with Kayo. Yeah they were cute as kids but expecting someone to wait 15 years for their childhood interest is insane. Maybe her and Hiromi bonded over their shared experience of losing someone important to them and became close. It’s just stupid to get made that someone didn’t wait for another person that they weren’t even sure would ever wake up. It’s mostly a pretty realistic anime in terms of how people are and I feel the ending kept that up.
Also mentally hes like 30 years old lol. I didn't even know people felt this way about their relationship. I never shipped them at all.
While that's true, the problem was that the show was very clearly shipping them together.
It would have been fine if they were just very good friends, but they made it a point to push them close together, make it look like there's some kind of cute love budding with how they're a little shy when they got too close, only to then turn that all around right at the end made it extremely jarring.
BECAUSE ITS FICTION.
Don’t care trash anime
Uh maybe but that is what the show was intending at first. Also, wouldn't you wait 15 years for someone that basically saved your life? ( from abusive mom, trash family etc ). It would make sense even if you're going for a more realistic approach, imo.
For me the ending felt good. The goal of the mc was completed, just cause you save a lady doesn't mean they fall in your arms.
I do agree with the ending concerning Kayo. I mean if you look at it even more, it's basically two people who had their lives stolen getting together to experience a life they were robbed of which I personally thought was good.
Yet here's the thing..not once did I give a damn if the MC got the girl because in my personal opinion..that shouldn't have been the focus.
The story was of a young man saving a life. That was the true focus for me and I felt it was satisfying.
As for the villain..uh...could have been handled better.
I personally liked the ending as well... not sure if I agree with the time skip but it makes sense since the MC was in coma and we follow the MC's story. Sure it would have been nice to see the other characters but its realistic in the sense that when someone falls in coma and suddenly wakes up... its literally a time skip. I know the manga handled it better but the anime did a good job and i've watched it like 10 times... still same reaction as the first, so good!
Yeahhh me too, I personally enjoyed it more when Satoru didnt end up with Kayo, and was sort of confused why others hate that outcome so much. I was honestly getting tired of the "omg you saved her now she HAS to marry you", it's honestly getting old lmao
Right! For real!
@@sophiemanrique1000 Without the timeskip we either would have seen the years between then and now shown in high speed mode, with some key events getting shown, or the series would have needed 12 more episodes to play out everything that happened when Kayo and the others didn't get killed. Also, the title of the series is "The town where only I am missing", right? Without the coma timeskip, that title would have made zero sense. Due to Satoru's efforts the situation changed from several kids missing and later his mother, to only him missing from their daily lives. So it's not like this video seems to suggest, the writer put himself in a bad plot situation, this was planned from the start.
The fact that I don't remember anything between the end of Kayo's arc and the rooftop scene is quite telling. I watched it as it was coming out and I thought that it was genuinely one of the best things I've ever seen.
Your idea about giving MC a meaningful choice made me imagine an episode where he's thinking over the consequences of giving up his childhood and relationships, spending a day with his friends doing a ton of fun things... and then still going through with saving his mom and the kids with tears in his eyes. This story could have indeed been one of the best ever.
As someone who read the manga is not that the ending ruined the anime, but that the anime sacrificed the ending, and the runtime it needed, to make the rest of it better, it's the unfortunate result of having to deal with seasonal cours. If it could've been on air for 16 or 18 weeks it would be a different story.
This is literally the best Raid Shadow Legends ad I've ever seen and it half-convinced me to give it a try. Good job Brandon
Props to you for basically rewriting a whole entire anime from start to finish and even including story boards
I thought using the spider thread story to explain Yashiro's motives was just a more complex way of saying that he was schizophrenic.
That’s funny as fuck lol, but if the rebirth was possible I’m sure schizophrenia is possible
I really like how Erased tackled dark and difficult subjects like child-abuse and did it really well. Yeah the main villain was a bit of a let down, but the emotions when Kayo finally gets the help she deserves was quite something.
I personally liked the ending. After all that long journey he had to go through, they reminded us of the girl that helped him from the beginning existed. It really emphasises how sometimes perhaps what you’ve always needed was right beside you all along. If he stayed with Kayo, it would still be an imperfect ending because that would be completely forgetting the girl that helped him from the beginning. Perhaps this was the best, possible and correct ending.
Regardless, it makes no sense. Whether she ended up with him or not, why put her with a character she spoke zero words with.. and put him with a girl he had no chemistry with. Just leave him with nobody, he didnt need ti end up with anyone. And they didnt need to put her with an existing character. They could have just had her with a random character or just not like him anymore…
@@beelzemobabbity Have we watched the same show? they had interactions and bonded. He wanted to be a hero and she wanted to help those who face injustice.
@@Grim_Bud compared to the time spent with who most people thought was going to be the love interest.. she had nothing. Shes in a little of the beginning, but the whole time i thought she was way too young and thought he was older so I didn’t ship it in the slightest. Then she comes back at the end, which is even weirder because in that universe where he was in the coma.. THEY DIDN’T have the ONLY impactful interaction that they did have. So there is even less
@@beelzemobabbity The same could be said about the interaction between Kayo and Satoru as the feelings between children often develope diferent as the interaction between adults or teens, as some child who suffers abuse would develop admiration and came to see the one that saved or helped her as nothing more than a hero or a great friend instead as a love interest, and some small interarctions between people who are more mature or more experienced can develop romantic feelings (Note that Airi offered him support and belived him when he was in one of his lowest moments and that he saved her even if he could be caught), BTW i liked the anime a lot yeah I felt the ending a bit bad but overall I liked more that end
@@mileniumshadowvn6652 they clearly liked each other is the problem, they had moments of mutual like that came naturally. She didn’t like him right away, she came to like him after he gave his time to her. The other, he never seems to show any blushing or anything twords her until the plot says so. It felt unnatural to me, personally. But its up to the person if they like certain pairings more. For me it wasnt really the relationship that made me dislike the ending as much as the red herring and villian
Can we acknowledge how his version of the show is so much better than what happened, just a round of applause for him because that was great.
33:28 I'm impressed ppl find this as cute knowing Satoru is still a young adult in the body of a kid, and shipping him with a kid is beyond creepy.
From what ive heard their is whole arc after the timeskip in the manga. I also believe the girl he ends up getting with got a lot of her screen time cut. From what i understand they basically knew they didnt have time to finish the series so they decided to just adapt the one arc they did have time for really well instead of rushing through it all which is why the weird ending decisions happened
The criticism that the relationship with Kayo doesn’t turn into anything in the end is really just personal preference, and I think the story is better off the way it handled it. It emphasizes the fact that Satori didn’t do all this stuff for himself, he did it for others, and it didn’t benefit him at all to do so. That’s just the kind of guy he is. His power of revival might as well be the manifestation of his willingness to go out of his way to help complete strangers, and that personality trait has been one we’ve been shown throughout the entire show. And it also helps that the ending doesn’t reinforce the trope many anime follow where characters with trauma blindly fall in love and dedicate their whole lives to the person who saved them, which may happen sometimes but overall is unrealistic. The other criticism of the villain and the ending is warranted I think, but that’s one point I wholeheartedly disagree with.
Yeah it has always been about being a Hero.
The ending and timeskip parts were actually hopeful parts.
I dont think the ending is bad AT ALL
It fulfilled so much
Satoru inspired the secret base friends to be heroes
Mom still loves him all these years
Even the villain has been scarred by this hero boy who seemingly knew everything that he was planning.
Everyone else gets character development and fulfill their dreams.
It says a lot when the killer is more devoted to you then the actual chick you spent so much time saving. It was a shit ending, especially after they spent most of the show pushing those two together and building such amazing chemistry. But if I were to state everything wrong with that scene, then I would just be repeating the video, watch part 5 again to see why the ending was actual shit.
@@imaran1303 Yes! That amazing chemistry between a 20 year old and a 10 year old.
@@williamtimonen6814 He was a 10 year old physically at that time, and when he was back in his old body it would have been a 20 with a 20. Lemme guess you are one of the morons who get a confused look on their face when they look at beast girl and robot from Invincible?
@@imaran1303My opinion won’t change by listening to the same argument I disagreed with the first time a second time. If my having a different opinion on it bothers you enough to comment on it, at least bring a new point to the table or some more convincing argument.
The first Red flag for me was when the show tried to give sympathy to kayo's mother when she literally killed her own daughter in the previous timeline
No Yashiro killed kayo the mother just made it easy for him.
Yes Azula's character build up to that moment was very well done, but they literally had 3 seasons to work with. Sadly, Erased only had 12 episodes.... so I think that would have a lot to do with how they handled the abusive mom. Not saying it can't be done, but I really wonder if they were granted 24 episodes, or even 16, if they could have ironed out a lot of these things better than they did originally, including the ending. 🤔
i swear watching the "What Would I Do Differently?" section made me forget it was that, and that it was just a proper recap of another story (a wonderful one)
this whole video was amazing
I never understood the obsession with bittersweet endings, especially when they're far more bitter then sweet. Happy endings shouldn't just be "An American ending" or "A Hollywood ending" you're seeing the characters you're invested in triumph and therefore you triumph with them. I like such endings...
Feel good endings are nice, but when written poorly like this it fails to really ingrain itself into the audience’s mind
Simply put, it lacks the lasting impact
We call them "Disney endings" I never saw it as "An American ending"
@@insaneplay2260 My favorite ending in cinema history is the ending of the 1998 Les Miserables and it was a very well written happy ending. It ends where Javier handcuffs himself and throws himself in the channel in front of Jean, metaphorically and literally taking Jean's crimes onto himself and drowning them lol
The movie ends shortly after, with Jean walking down the Paris streets, realizing he's free for the first time in his life, and he smiles.
After watching this entire video, I thought it was great. It does a very good job of explaining why people were disappointed by the ending. As for me, ERASED is among my favorite anime ever made. It's ranked 4th for me out of the near 150 anime I've seen. I'm saying this mostly to explain why the ending didn't bother me at all. I was so emotionally invested in the first 8 episodes that even after the story fell off, I was still able to enjoy it. This isn't to say the ending is good though because it isn't. Even the manga handles the story a lot worse near the end, as even though it's handled significantly better than the anime, it still can't hold a single candle to the rest of the story. The only thing the manga truly fixes then is giving us more about Kenya and Yashiro's characters while making Yashiro's plan far less dumb. This is all to say that your ending is easily the best of these three, and I truly wished that we got to see that version instead for the anime adaptation. Again, this video was great.
They cut a lot of the villains backstory from the manga. His motivation is more involved with his brother abusing him to become a killer
26:49 =The narrator forgot that Japan is ridiculous in their Detective skills. The minute a witness says you did it, and the detective goes "yup", no matter how nonsensical the reasoning is (no murder weapon, no motive), you are still screwed as they will still pin it all on you...
The changes you talked abt with the rewrite were peak.
This video was very cathartic to me, I still vividly remember how excruciatingly disappointed I was watching the end of Erased. I think, while your suggested ending may not be perfect, it's LOADS better than what we got in the show, and it's that reorganization of the timeskip, and more focus on the other characters, and better understanding of what is and isn't the story's focus/purpose, that I think was terribly missing from the original show. Excellent video!
This is why restraining the anime with only 12 episodes is a problem I always have with recent animes. The first 8 episodes were actually sticking to the original quite well so they were good. Then the climax happened and...oh boy. The entire final battle of wits could have made this anime a 20 episode series. But they just had to cut and butcher the hell out of it...
Absolutely right
Bro, I completely forgot how it ended (since I watched it a few years ago) until halfway through, and I got pissed off all over again.
The funniest thing. How Kayo's mom sees _her_ mom and is like "Wait I got hit by my parents too what the hell am I doing?"
As if she JUST realised the cycle of hatred was turning, and the hamsters inside were starving.
The way you started describing that premise gave me goosebumps. The whole thing was an intense mystery thriller up until the last few episodes where it just ruined everything for me
for me i was severely abused by my mother, fairly similar to the series i actually cried at 13 to a home cooked meal, i cried when people treated me like a human being. i did try to forgive my mom for years, but i can't forgive someone that doesn't try to change. she also wasn't abused. i've had many try to excuse what she did or somehow justify it. honestly it does upset me. theres no reason to treat your child like a punching bag, to tell them you wish they were never born and find ways to torture physically and mentally. i was mute for years, it messed me up socially and she messed with me making me thing that if i told anyone they would be on her side and it made me feel more alone. she did that by using anyone telling her about stopping the abuse to fuel her rage and use that knowledge of me looking for help against me. I've had people say she was probably stressed as if thats somehow okay. I even had a mother say maybe my father abused her, which is so disgusting to blame anyone else but the abuser. My father didn't abuse her, at max her mom punished her but even she said my mother was abusing me to extremely lengths ( she cracked my skull at one point) it just disgust me to try to defend her and all the people that would tell me " well shes your mom so you've got to love her. you only have one mother" yes but she's also my abuser. Also just cause i was abused doesn't mean i will abuse. I'm 28 and learned martial arts at a young age. mainly to protect myself and people i would one day care for. I got really strong and even was a pro boxer for a little, overall i'm not the type to start a fight or be violent at all. I know what its like to be helpless, powerless, unwanted and alone. i would never do that to someone else. I've been with my fiancee for 10 years, i appreciate her deeply. I also appreciate my father, he gave me hope every weekend when i got to see him. Without that hope i doubt i would have been strong enough to not off myself. I was really depressed and in dark places for most of my childhood. My father said he saw her abusing me at the age of 3, he tried to fight for me but the lawyers would tell him it was a losing battle since shes the mom. he told me he wished i would forget, but was over a decade of abuse, i couldn't want anything, think anything, say anything without being beaten to a bloodly pulp. personally i like the darker aspect to the mother cause it's a real depetion of how dark some people truly are. and i didn't like the trying to justify someone that didn't care about their child dying.
Im sorry that you had to went through all that
We need more depictions of abusers, especially women, who aren't just continuing a cycle or whatever. Characters who are fully fleshed out evil and violent human beings, though of course not acting like that 24/7, are a very realistic portrayal of the world but we rarely see them. I love every writer who goes out of their way to write a villain's backstory and make clear that nothing which they experienced justifies it.
Your mom for sure was advised in some way to make her so bad. No one is born an abuser, something happens in your life to make u that way. I'm not excusing your mom, it is inexcusable, but I you weren't there to see how she grew up, she or whoever you talk to about her childhood, might not even fully realize how abused they really are because it was normal for them. Or she is in denial, doesn't claim it cuz it would imply she's not a great person, odk. But she didn't get love and security she needed as a child, and it turned her into a person that sees abuse as an option
@@nicoledoubleyou this is such a bad take. Here's the thing, every single person is influenced by their environment to be basically anything as a person. It's only treated as relevant to this extent with people harming other people though, as if they didn't have good experiences they refused to respond to in a different direction.
Damn sorry man
The 15 year timeskip felt like a huge missed opportunity to tell more story, like they were too lazy to come up with anything further, so they time skipped him back to adulthood. I was hoping something crazy would have happed after the timeskip, like, while he was in a coma for 15 years, his mom got married to the killer. That would have have been a huge plot twist and a way to circle around to the start of the story, with saving his mom.
I think the time skip was just a way to push airi and satoru together without any other background information. “ lLike here’s your ending and we’re not going to make the main character get with the only other character that makes sense. Oh yea, I forgot to mention the fact that that character has a kid with someone she’s never spoken to during the whole story”
@@fwfailed airi and satoru don’t end up together , satoru ends up alone with his friends at his side that trust him more then anyone
@@CcWooCc they did, not sure if you actually watched it so it makes sense that you said that.
@@fwfailed they dont get together there is a 12 year age gap are you ok????
@@meow2841 I never said they get together, you've now relayed to me that you are illiterate. you do realize that its more of him gaining his memory as a kid than his actual consciousness?
The ending to this anime is the biggest “WHA-“ moment I’ve ever had in my life. Absolutely out of left field, 14 year old me was PISSED.
A couple of thoughts:
One, I think the kayo baby scene was rightly controversial, but overall the right decision, and corrects a previous mistake that was made, though it does overcorrect a bit. What I mean is, I think the whole relationship plot was a bit odd in the first place imo. It wasn't egregious, but a couple lines were a bit off putting, hinting to some off feelings mc may have had towards kayo. If that chemistry wasn't there the baby scene wouldn't be controversial at all, as the viewer would have no emotional attachment to MC's and Kayo's romantic relationship. I think it was a little bit of a blunt introduction, but I digress.
Two, the mother scene was handled perfectly and added much more realism and immersion. It's a bit of a give and take. At first, it took away the immersion. You think they are going to try to force this contrived sympathy cop out. While watching the scene, I was thinking "That's bullshit, how are they buying this" and then immediately, MC goes "that's bullshit, how are they buying this" which is then followed by Kayo not buying it either, and the implication that the teacher knows as well, and MC's mother simply comforting the grandmother but still realizing that it's an act. But in the end, her getting comforted doesn't matter, she lost. She lost full custody of her daughter, which was what she was so desperately trying to preserve.
Three, the villain could have been much more fleshed out without revealing his identity any earlier. If a clear motive was seen more easily, one that exposed the killer's personality, it would have been much better. Yes, realistically, the killer being a clear cut psychopath who simply enjoys killing is probably the most likely scenario. But is it the most interesting one? No. I don't give a shit about a couple of hamsters, the half assed philosophy shit was the lamest villain motive ever.
Four, the timeskip doesn't just take momentum, it takes emotional investment as well. I cared about these characters, but they threw the epilogue in in-between the build up and climax, which is absolutely insane. I might care a bit more about the conclusion if it had real stakes. Sorry, but I'm not that attached to the cancer girl, and at this point I don't really care if the MC is arrested. He'll it would have been more interesting than what actually happened. Things felt more hopeless when they were little kids trying to figure they're way out of the grasp of a highly intelligent villain, rather than group of highly intelligent adults outsmarting a clinically insane villain. It made no sense.
Five, I think the writers forgot MC's abilities. He keeps predicting futures that he hasn't lived yet lol
I don’t think they wanted you to feel bad for the mom. It was to show the cycle of abuse and give her a “reason”. None of the characters said they should forgive her or show her some understanding, but it IS sad. She was abused and she chose to continue the cycle. Now seeing her mom take on the blame and recalling what she has done to her daughter, she cries. The characters can only see her crying to her mother like a child and it would be sad to anyone to see anybody like that.
I love (and I mean LOVE) watching these kinds of video essays, analizing shows and movies, going through the nuances of what makes something work or not and so one... and thus I watch a lot of them. What I didn't expect was rewrite to this scale and quality. I have to salute you. This is awesome.
It's truly inspiring seeing somebody not just pick apart things but actually write a little since this gives me a lot of hope that someday I myself might be able to write something in the future and not just pick apart what others wrote.
The sponsor segment was so goofy, I watched the whole thing 😅
i dont necessarily think its ending was ruined
ive watched the anime before reading the manga. when i watched the anime, the ending seemed to perfectly slide into place. the adaptation did well.
the manga just carries it in its own route, which is better, but i dont think it results in the anime ruining its ending.
I agree with this message
@@eghoseisiramen1892 :D
well we can have wrong opinions but the ending was sucked really ass HARD! it’s like you ignore everything wrong with something
@@RavenL1337 they didnt ignore anything
the ending fully did wind up the story
that final moment with the villain was so bad then they went and put the joker batman relationship and i was like "no stop no you cant have thhat after a timeskip wtf is going on" XDDD
OMG that scene where Kayo bursts into tears over the breakfast, it hit me like a truck (a hard-hitting EMOTIONAL truck) back then when I watched Erased in 2016. Fast forward to today, le me watching this video, and yet again, I cry alongside her. What a powerful scene man.
I loved the ending, but maybe I am a sucker for happy endings. *spoilers* The fact that Kayo and Hiromi, two of Satoru's classmates who originally died, ended up having a future (they even named their child "future"!!) because of Satoru's selfless actions was straight up beautiful to me! I never shipped him and Kayo, he wasn't doing it to "get the girl" but instead to be a hero and save everyone, that's the kind of person he is. It's weird when people get caught up on that and not see how beautiful and satisfying this ending is. And not only did he save innocent children, Yuki from wrongful imprisonment, AND HIS MOM FROM BEING MURDERED, he gained long lasting friendships and fulfilment in his adult life, so that his new reality is so much more full of happiness and love than his original one. I agree with you that I wish there were more episodes to tell this story but as it was I loved it!
I think when people see the main female and male character spend time with each other they start shipping them
@@qwertykeyboardisgoodThere's 9 episodes dedicated to a relation being built in between them;
man i give my life up for a bitch and she has a kid with one of my best friends, the hospital is getting aired out on the spot😭
@@qwertykeyboardisgood bro 90% of the show is building a relationship between them. then they throw all of that way in an instant. Its stupid
@@qwertykeyboardisgood litteraly 90% of the show is making the relationship between those 2 but the killer seems to love him more
I like your ending, but instead of a bomb threat, you should make it so that Yashiro is about to throw Misato off the bridge or perhaps jump off with her so as to be the sinner and allow him to tell the story. In the revival the kids somehow manage to catch/save her, but Yashiro loses his grip and falls down alone. As he falls, he thinks back to the hamsters he used to drop into water for them to drown before being swallowed by the water below himself. Meanwhile, Misato realizes that people do care enough about her to save her just as the kids did.
The police could probably fish Yashiro out, not sure whether he should be alive or dead, but I feel like it's a pretty good outcome either way.
i feel like that fall would absolutely rupture an organ or two, maybe he’s just barely alive so he can get just punishment?
Definite improvement but I’d still have the Kayo’s mom scene before the culprit is revealed scene since it helps establish trust with the protagonist. Also I’m not going to judge the coma part too seriously when the show already has a lot of time travel back and forths.
The coma part is why this story has its name.
The amount of Saiki BGM used for this video caught me off guard 😭 U made my day
I am so happy I found this channel, omg I am dying with how funny this is.
Also, yeah! Love your version alot more! You did a fantastic job
After he saved her life he was rewarded with a coma 💀
I got chill from just the explanation of what could've happened.
I remember reading the Erased manga and was always confused by why his memories of the original timeline started fading after he finally stops his teacher from killing. I did like that they found a way for him to need glasses again
13:35 : I don't think it's a sudden 360. Kayo's eyes reminded her mom of Kayo's dad. She viewed Kayo as a stand in for her abuser and took out her anger on her.
34:50 "Imagine discovering that your own KILLER was willing to wait, but your girl wasn't"
😂😂😂
Brandon, I'm not gonna lie. I haven't watched erased. But I trust your videos a lot to know what to watch. So, for the sake of a better experience, I'll come back on Monday to see the full video after I watched the whole series. See you in two days.
Edit:
Wow... That was definatly one of the best anime I've watched. BUT. I do see why the ending might have been disapointing. The first 9 chapters were awesome. Every move Satoru made was carefully thought and the pace was excellent. The way the anime expressed how much he missed out for not beliving in his friends and mother was impresive.
One of my favorite moments was when he realized he also had great momments with his mother while eating. I love when the appreciation for everything our family has done is shown on screen. I value my mother and father a lot for everything they have given to me, and that scene reminded me to be grateful about it.
The plot of trying to save Kayo was super intresting, not knowing how every decision is gonna turn out really stresses you and fills you with hope. And the moments they shared together are also fantastic. The ninth episode really feels like an ending to the whole arc. The problem is that they made it a little longer.
The final three episodes feel super rushed, like they had to cram it as much as they could. The days stop meaning something and out of no where the villan is revealed. Some of the friends didn't had the development they could've had. Like that girl from the other school or the girl that was isolated because of the money incident. But this are a lot less to blame. The real problem is the villan.
The proffessor who didn't do anything suspicious until episode 10 all of a sudden starts showing a lot of strange things, and like, so in your face is not even funny. I mean, a case full of candy. Really? That's litteraly screaming "please look at me, I'm suspicious". I thought it was so obvious that it wasn't him, but I guess I was wrong. I didn't need motivation for a child killer, but the way it's treated is not really satisfying.
Satoru lost 15 years of life because of him, and it's not resolved great. There's not enough anger in him, or sadness that the one that replaced the father he didn't have betrayed him. It wasn't given enough time to be thought out.
But the rest is soooooo good tho. The music, the themes, the characters, the messages, everything. I see why he said that even if the ending is kinda bad and rushed it's worth looking at this series. I always liked the message of doing whatever you can to help, probably because of growing up with spiderman as my favorite hero. It's an important message I think would make the world better if everyone tried to follow it. And the other friends were also great. The way Kenya tried his best to be like Satoru now that he started acting was pretty wholesome, and inspiring. People always seem to be looking at what is happening, but very rarely anyone does anything to stop the things that are going bad. I think that's why I kinda saw myself a little in him. Being aware of things that seem out of your reach to solve is painful, and it happens more than I would like to admit. Even though I always try to do something about it, it sometimes seems I just can't help them at all.
I think that pretty much covers my thoughts on the anime. I will now look at this review to see how many things I agree with. See you in like an hour.
Edit 2:
Ok, so pretty much what I said, but explained way better. I didn't mention the shipping stuff in my original comment because I did felt the romance was just a side dish to the story, BUT, I felt so betrayed when I saw she had a baby with one of his friends that I actually said "Oh wow, I see why anyone would say this is bad".
The self-sacrifice stuff is also something I originally tried to address but couldn't cause I didn't manage to exprese my thoughts in a correct way, but Brandon pretty much said everything I wanted to say about that. I do feel a happy ending would've been a much better ending to the anime instead of the bittersweet one we got, cause it did appear to go in that direction at the start. But yeah, Brandon already explained everything amazingly, so I won't say much about it.
My takeaway from this vid is that it made me watch a show that has an amazing story. Once again, Brandon's recommendations are fantastic and I truly belive his analysis should get more views. I love your videos and I'm really impressed by the quality everytime you upload. I will eagerly wait for the next one as I listen to the fantastic ending this series has.
P.D: Bread eating stream when?
update us!
I just watched the whole thing after this vid came out lmao
@@linkedwinters I edited the original comment now. If you are still interested in it, you now can read it :D.
I felt betrayed too when she had a baby with someone else, but then I thought about it. 15 years are a long time and it was never clear If he would ever wake up from his coma. After that I was a little bit less annoyed.
111 👍
One of the major points- which I think is more preferences of storytelling- could have been fixed if all they did was not have Satoru not end up with anyone at the end. Kayo still has her baby, still goes on and lives her life, and when Satoru wakes up, she regails him of the name of the baby- his own- or how she wants him to be the godparent/ social parent so that her own child could have someone so protecting and loving like Satoru in their life. (Obviously not trying to say that's all Satoru would be good for, ect, nor that it's not the job of the parent. Just talking about their bond above all else and the pivotal personality trait Satoru holds.)
The point of Satoru having to end up with Kayo to make the story work because of their childhood together is a preference, but overall negative criticism that I do not agree with. Especially when Satoru's whole story is doing these things selflessly, to help others around him regardless if he could be hurt in the process. To turn back on that and "reward" him with Kayo would be reducing both of their characters, as well as the overall plot beats of the show.
Your other points are very good, and I agree. Especially about the abusive angle with the mother and generational trauma.
Despite the ending, I still love the twist reveal of the killer a lot. Throughout the show hints are dropped that while suspicious are explained away or seem reasonable and so when it happens it’s not a ‘what I didn’t see that coming’ but a ‘wait they really are the killer? Please don’t let it be true’ (at least that was my reaction).
I very much appreciate your breakdown of the ending as I always just assumed it was because of the whole ‘squeeze 2 volumes into like 2 episodes’ thing so I’m glad you went to explain it much deeper.
The episode 9 abuse made total sense. Lots of abusers apologize, even feeling legitimately sorry in that moment, only to regress almost immediately. It's a really common and well-known thing that happens in cycles of abuse. This also plays on other people's desire to see people do better. "If she's really sorry, . . ." But then she relapses. Which makes total sense. The woman is obviously not stable.
Plus the whole stuff about them not showing her being loving - we only got shown how she treats her daughter *now* (well, in the fictional 80s). It was a bit rushed, and they probably should have done more to build up to that moment, but it's not too far afield from what actually happens all the time in these situations IRL.
I loved that It is implied that Satoru and Airi end up together. Idk maybe its because I actually paid attention to their conversation at the beginning about continuing to believe. Airi helped Satoru through the worst times of his life; lost his mom, is being pursued by the police, got ratted out by his boss. Airi was the only one showing sympathy for him, and she genuinely cared for his safety. Kayo and Satoru was different; he cared for her because he wanted her to survive- not because he wanted to end up with her in the end. In the manga he cries tears of joy because he is appreciating that he saved her and she made something with her life.
I dunnooooo... the age gap there is a lil crazy imo
I don't think it was implied they ended up together, it was more implied that Misato and Satoru got together (hinted at by the blush Satoru has when she walks in) also, the age gap is very, very significant. I'm 17 and I couldn't imagine dating a 30 some year-old. It's just gross. Both at different places in their lives.
@@tacobellabeanburrito i mean at that point I think she was older than 17 because he meets her much later than he does in the first timeline, but still the age gap is too much imo
@@tacobellabeanburrito tell that to good old Leonardo decaprio
oh hell naw airi is literally 17 😐 yall are weird
Next Review: Sword art online
Where he rewrites the entire story only keeping its concept
I would actually love this
and after couple of years he will make his own anime
33:15 tbh I didn't mind as much because all of the "cute moments" were between a literal child and a grown adult if you use critical thinking, like just because you didn't get the clichéd over used "she waited for her freind" (who's technically waaaay older than her) plus he never actually liked her
The thing is, the anime had taken changes from the manga that completely takes away some of the characterization from Airi, that they might as well have made an original ending making Kayo the love interest.
that line just hits "imagine your killer is willing to wait but not your girl" holy that got me rofl XD 34:50
your ending would make me cry two times if it was the actual ending. Something about the car driving away with the poem and them all happy together just seems so.. happy
i cant believe this is happening. a brandon upload
He uploads more frequently on his second channel
@@Noah-nk5og he still doesn't post that often on there, and its only really just clips of his streams
I LOVE the ending you came up with! Especially what you did with Misoto. Great job!
I wasn't as upset about the ending as I was with the insanely predictable plot the killer reveal had to be a joke by the author because he made that shit so obvious.
26:54 I believe that Japan has an above 99 percent conviction rate, so I think that no matter what Satoru would have said to exonerate himself, he had an almost guaranteed sentence.
Shit, I'd run away too if I know getting arrested was an almost guaranteed all-expense-paid trip to the slammers for an unmarked period of time.
The manga builds up an actual big ending, where the killer targets kumin to get to satoru when him and his mother go to a summer camp. This ends in quite an impressive last scene on a burning bridge. I wonder if that’s a metaphor. This also gives Kenya and the detective a bigger purpose in the ending instead of just… the safe landing from the building…
I'm probably one of the many that actually felt SO happy when Kayo showed up smiling with her kid, not even realizing until 10 seconds later, *OH! SO, THIS IS THE SCENE THAT MADE PEOPLE RAGE!* , lol
I never paid too much attention to the seemingly "romantic childhood" and thought it's just a fond memorable memory for Kayo (which she definitely needed considering her household circumstances). I was too focused on how will Satoru's actions affects the future, I didn't thought about that possibility. Not to mention there's also Airi waited in the future, so I perceived that Kaya only saw Satoru as her hero rather than romantic partner.
People who saw Kayo X Satoru as the end goal and complain about it to this day don't know what this story is really about. It's always been about being a hero. Selfless sacrifice is always the best trait a hero can have. He even inspired his friends to come up with plans to catch the villain by the end. It went full circle and people just ignored that.
@@raseruuu3742 I don't even know why these people watch a show if all they can think about when watching is what kind of ships they want, like wtf is wrong with these people.
I knew nerds were going to mald over Kayo not ending up with MC when I first saw Erased. The ending pacing is still off but Kayo having a happy life was the entire point, and ofc some losers can't reconcile that can mean not married to the MC. Pizzagirl already showed she could care above and beyond for MC when he was a fugitive NEET, she deserves happiness too.
haven't read the manga but apparently Satoru's true romantic interest was meant to be Airi based on other's comparison reviews between manga/anime/live action, but their interactions were always cut to fast track the whole-time travel rescue of kayo.
So, the way that i would change the story so that the person important to him in the present is not brushed aside and made irrelevant is as follows;
Anime wise, establish that relationship between him and Airi early on, flesh it out and have Airi provide Satoru more support in finding clues to help him change the past each time he fails. bring the Misato's whole isolation issue earlier. this should give the story enough substance to logically pace and end the season by successfully saving kayo and seeing her drive away.
cue to post credits and Misato is dead. Up until now Satoru's revival only ever sent him back to the future when he failed to save someone, otherwise he lives his actions back to the present. So Misato's death triggers his return to the present.
But because the past has changed, his mum is now alive. Instead, the guilt of directly sacrificing Misato to save Kayo becomes the foundation for a second season. and gives the story time to potentially flesh out the other victims.
For potential S2 plot points, the actions of S1 means his friends are now closer as adults, meaning the time he would've spent with Airi has now been "erased" and is more distant to her as a result. Events of S1 would mean Gaku would be eyeing for an opportunity to get back at Satoru, as revenge or obsession. And i would make it so that Satoru choosing to try mend what was erased with Airi instead of sticking with Kayo is what causes Airi to become the present-day victim triggering Satoru's second trip to the distant past, this time to fix Misato's death that he directly caused.
Expanding on this train of thought...
As the show did try and fail to emphasize how important Airi is to him, i would focus less on the past victims at this point and instead focus on how his successful saves causes the changes in the timeline to make him more and more distant to Airi for S2, and Gaku more and more obsessed with him. in fact, it would be better to have gaku reveal himself during one of the present murders, because "a guy killing the girl he's supposedly failing to court makes a much more compelling motive than a total stranger killing in front of a witness", and Gaku is no longer right in the head at this point.
Satoru realizes that because no murders have occurred in the past, he can't exactly convict Gaku for a murder he has not yet done. Another sudden realization hits that previously, there were always 3 missing victims no matter who he saved. except the last time he checked, there was only one remaining in the future news article. meaning Gaku had stopped looking for new victims and began focusing on him for some time now.
and this meant that after he saves the last victim there will be no more chances to regain the future that he lost. Remembering the time Airi was supporting him through his mother's death and looking for clues to help him change the past, he realizes that the last victim was consistently last in all timelines at the exact same time, date and cause of death. meaning if he were to let things play out and alert the police to the time and place, he can trap Gaku red handed for a future with Airi. Otherwise, he can save the last life and potentially miss his last chance to reconnect with Airi.
However, since the Japanese name of this story is "the town where only I am missing", i do feel it was always intended for satoru to go into a coma.
As you mentioned, moving the final confrontation with gaku into the past like the bridge scene would make it flow better. maybe have satoru be the one to climb under the bridge to remove the bomb during the rerun, so the shockwave could cause him to fall into the river afterwards, causing the coma.
this would also tidy up his awakening as a proper epilogue to show the results of his meddling in the final timeline. it would also provide more time for the audience to move away from the whole Satoru x Kayo ship, and back onto the original planned ship the author intended for.
The final scene could be as simple as his friends asking what he wants for his first meal after waking up, in which he nominates the place he used to work at in the original timeline. Thinking all hope is lost, the delivery girl knocks on the door and enters. Prompting Satoru to look up and smile.
@@Cykk0 I agree with you
The thing, the only person who mattered in that scene (Kayo) was not moved by this. Which shows that she doesn't forgive nor believe her. For me what ruined Erased was how dirty they did my boy Satoru only for us to expect that this was some sorta happy ending.
His motivation is: He was psychotic, the dude KILLED hamsters when he was a kid. The strings? Figments of his imagination. He is insane, that is the entire point and motivation to his murders, it is actually insanely simple.
I honestly think your review went into such great detail and was really good. I like your thought out ending and probably would have been more satisfied with it
your rewrite made the series so much better, low key haven’t been able to sleep because of the “cannon ending” but now I have a better ending that doesn’t leave me feeling empty that I can just say is my head cannon and the other ending never existed, thank you so much like ong.