Before I begin to talk about this episode, let me soapbox a little about the English title for this series. The English title for this series is ERASED and I really dislike it. It has a rather lazy feel to it and sounds like it was designed to be noticeable instead of having any connection to the story itself. After all this story is not about Satoru trying to erase his past but rather change it for the better. You could argue it could stand for Satoru erasing the current present but that stretching it. The English translation of “Boku dake ga Inai Machi” is “The Town Where Only I am Missing” which is obviously referencing Hinazuki’s essay from episode 2. I feel that’s a better title than ERASED but I understand that it’s not very marketable. So what could be a better title? I am hardly the best at naming things but maybe something like say “String Theory”? There is a theory that could relate to time travel known as Cosmic String Theory and the nature of things being made up of strings instead of particles does seem to match the stories themes of connections to the past and people. However I am absolutely no physicist so the above could be completely misunderstood. I just feel that there could be a better English title for this, even if I struggle to find one. If any of you have a good name, feel free to put it in the comments below.
Well that’s enough of that. First the good news, Airi is not dead! She was saved from the fire thanks to the timely intervention of Satoru and..the manager. I guess it’s nice to show that he’s not a complete villain by having him rescue Airi and even letting Satoru go. But his timing is a little convenient. I can buy Satoru arriving on time but the manager also happening to be around is very suspicious. I mean was he staking out her house just in case? He shows up right on time just to take all the credit and we do know he has a connection to our red eyed glasses friend. Perhaps his timing wasn’t just coincidence? But well maybe he’s just a creepy stalker. After that Satoru is now accused of arson and murder, and Airi is determined to help him no matter what. Which is rather unfortunate considering the episodes end. Airi still proves herself an excellent character, telling Satoru to not get discouraged and see thing through till the end.
We have a new suspect to the list, hinted by the red eyes that seem to appear on various people. Sachiko’s co-worker and freelancer investigator. I am not sure what to make of this guy yet. He’s suspicious in how he was the final person Sachiko talked to about finding out who was responsible for the murders. He’s a likely person to rat her out to the murderer. Or murderers in this case. I am fairly certain that this case is the work of multiple people. That being the reason why the red eyed glasses man’s name wasn’t in the list of suspects on Sachikos friends computer. Our glasses man looks to be the one to cover things up but he doesn’t resemble the abductor featured in episode 1. There could be two or three people involved in this, and I am still betting the teacher in the past is one of them.
Things couldn’t look worse, Satoru is in handcuffs and getting escorted to prison. This episode actually looked to foreshadow this as we have Satoru earlier helping kids fix a paper plane which bring a resemblance to Yukki. And of course we have onlookers immediately assume that he could be a potential pedophile. That’s the problem with being a man sometimes, if you act remotely nice to a kid then people automatically assume you are a pedophile. Of course, we have certain individuals to thank for that social prejudice, don’t we? It does bring a parallel though, as Yukki was branded just the same. He also see him recognising the red eyed glasses man amount the police and there’s a familiar blue butterfly that seems to signal another time travel trip.
Satoru…
Hououin Kyouma
Marty McFly
You’re using the wrong context for the title. I don’t blame you though. I would’ve probably thought the same thing if I hadn’t read the manga. As someone who has read the manga, the context of the title hasn’t been shown yet in the anime. When the time comes, the title will make a lot more sense.
What’s in a name? Tbh most anime have pointless names, AnoHana, Ai Mai My Strawberry Eggs, that other series you’re reviewing that’s titled in german.
Names are just a denominer to assign to a thing, the main problem with a name is when it seems unrelated to what is referring to, being in some way an insult or gross thing or being hard to remember which could be said to most things in a language you’re unhabituated.
IMO this name in particular could be a spoiler, kinda like Metroid Prime [guess what the final boss is].
True but the thing that concerns me is in how newcomers would see that title. ERASED doesn’t sound like a time travel mystery show. It sounds more like the kind of title you would give a second rate B-movie. The first thing you do when checking out an anime is look at the title and a title like that does not inspire confidence.
That said, one of my favorite visual novels is called Muv-Luv so I am not really one to talk.
Well tbh I almost got to see Btoom! because I liked the title. But like with movies I have the habit to at least a sentence of what is about. This series mainly got me with it sounding exactly like the premise of the Butterfly Effect. (I think even the creator may have had the same mind set considering there’s a butterfly shown every time he has returned to the past).
At the same time my counter example will be the title “The Thing” or Rambo, since in both cases they turned out to be things I didn’t expected with those titles.