Boku dake ga Inai Machi – 11

When Satoru was almost killed I expected him to survive and I thought that it was likely going to result in him getting pulled out or time travel. What I didn’t expect was a time skip. Satoru was indeed pulled out of the car; however because of the incident he was put into a coma for fifteen years. All the while Sachiko was once again proving she’s likely the best mother in anime; what with her not only taking care of him all those years but even going out of her way to exercise his limbs so that that his muscles aren’t dead from underuse. This isn’t in the episode but there was a point where doctors attempted to convince her to pull the plug on Satoru and her answer was a short and resolute “Fuck you”. Well we are back in a new future and with it we have a massive change in characters and the narrative. A large part of this episode was dedicated to Satoru attempting to regain his now scrambled memory. A nice touch to the episode is that his inner monologue is now narrated by his child self rather than being narrated by his older self. Another nice touch was removing Satoru from the opening. Showing that he hasn’t quite regained his standing. What is likely to scorch many a viewer was the revelation about Kayo who is now happily married and with a child. I admit that even myself am not entirely unscathed by the revelation; especially when the series hinted heavily at them becoming an item. Though personally it makes sense that Kayo wouldn’t wait for a guy she knew only for a short period during childhood and while I don’t look at it this way, it removes the thought that Satoru “won” Kayo. I am sure there are those who could look at this as a Genji Monogatari situation if Kayo ended up becoming Satoru’s wife so at least that notion can be tossed aside and we can see that Satoru truly is just happy to see her living a full life.

Due to hearing that this episode diverged quite a bit from the manga, I made it a point to read up on how the manga dealt with the events in this episode and I can confirm that the anime has more or less gone anime original. Is that a bad thing you wonder? Well truthfully I am uncertain. The manga does expand upon questions of what went on while Satoru was in a coma and the process of him reclaiming his memory is a much more gradual process than the almost instant revelation at the end of this episode. One particular thing I wish was kept was Yashiro’s backstory which a small part was given during this episode’s opening but their is much more to his past. If you are interested then you can read chapter chapter 32 of the manga as it is dedicated to detailing his past. Another thing I wish they hadn’t changed was the change of having Yashiro prevent the photographers from deframing Satoru instead of Airi. Airi encountering Satoru was a big part of helping him regain his memory though I believe the reason it was left out was because it also caused him to slip into a coma again for another year. That and Airi hasn’t had much of a presence in the anime series. But as I said before, this doesn’t mean I think the manga did it better. It is true you get more detail and a more gradual recovery from Satoru but it’s very uneventful. When watching this episode I was already getting impatient with Satoru as it really was just a waiting game of him realizing what the audience already knows. The manga is ten thirty page chapters which are mainly about Satoru recovering his memory. It is long, drawn out and I found myself getting bored as I read. This is good moments in this but if animated I could certainly see people getting frustrated with the almost agonizingly slow pace. I can only imagine how manga readers felt as each monthly chapter moved the plot along at a snail’s pace. The anime pretty much trimmed the fat and gave us the cliffs notes on what happened though the final confrontation is different.

We missed a small cat and mouse game between Yashiro and Satoru as they prevent him from taking another victim and skip right to a head on conflict which is a little bit of a shame. But we do have tension as Yashiro gets closer to Satoru as a friend to likely keep an eye on him. I find it engaging as it tempts the situation of Yashiro saying something to trigger Satoru’s memories or the potential possibility of him deciding to silence Satoru for good. The anime’s pacing is faster and more to the point, perhaps too fast. So you may understand my indecisiveness in deciding which handled the story better. On one side you have a fast to the point version of events which leaves out the finer details and on the other you have a far too slow version which gets boring at points but has far more of a build up. I guess the deciding factor on which approached it the best will be the next episode of the anime as I certainly have no idea what Satoru has planned considering he revealed that he has his memory back to the killer when he’s in no position to fight back. That isn’t the only thing the next episode decides as I have said once before on the finale of Madoka. This last episode is what decides Erased/Boku Machi’s status for the future. Either a must watch classic every anime fan needs to see or it being that show that was really good up until the ending. An ending can change your entire outlook on an anime and I certainly hope that this one doesn’t disappoint.