History Manga / Erased

* OutsideContextProblem: [[spoiler: Yashiro, understandably, did not account for crossing paths with somebody who can send their consciousness back in time and change the past in a world with no other fantastical elements. As he muses to Satoru over how the latter stopped his plans when he tried to drown him in 1988, he says it was like Satoru had seen the future. During their final confrontation in 2005, Satoru confirms that off-hand comment as truth and Yashiro believes him.]]

* ArcWords: Kayo frequently says "Are you stupid?" to Satoru, even as she warms up to him. [[spoiler:He says it to himself when he realizes Yashiro is the killer, and how obvious it was.]]

* TheButterflyEffect: While not mentioned by name, the first episode of the anime shows a blue butterfly shortly before Satoru's jumps. This butterfly reappears at the end of Episode 6, before Satoru forces his own jump back.

* MatureWorkChildProtagonists: The manga is a {{seinen}} psychological crime thriller in which the adult protagonist gets sent back in time to live as his child self again. As such, much of the story focuses on the elementary-school aged protagonist reliving a crucial part of his childhood trying to protect his classmates and hunt down a murderer.

* AdultFear:
** The whole child kidnapping-murder scenario on its own, though the specific idea that [[spoiler:your child's charming and charismatic elementary school teacher could be a serial kidnapper and murderer]] is ''unsettling'', to say the least.
** [[spoiler:Finding your only son in an abandoned car, submerged underwater, with the pretense of attempted murder. Not to mention taking care of him in vegetative state for 15 years, not know if they'll ever wake up.]]

* BittersweetEnding: The resolution of the 1988 arc ends with this. [[spoiler:Yashiro manages to escape and his attempt to kill Satoru leaves the latter in a coma. And while Kayo, Hiromi, and Aya all go on to survive into adulthood, in the fifteen years since his accident, Yashiro's crime spree continued unabated, despite Kenya's, who was now a lawyer working with the police, best efforts to track him down. Yashiro would ultimately be arrested once he's finally caught. Downplayed in the anime, where Yashiro says he didn't commit any crimes in the intervening 15 years.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Kenya becomes suspicious of Satoru because Satoru's behavior and personality suddenly become much different in February 1988. He likens it to a mask covering up the "real" Satoru and eventually confronts Satoru over this. [[spoiler:While Satoru doesn't reveal the truth about revival to Kenya, he's at least able to assuage Kenya's fears and enlist his friend's aid in saving Kayo.]]

* BittersweetEnding: The resolution of the 1988 arc ends with this. [[spoiler:Yashiro manages to escape and his attempt to kill Satoru leaves the latter in a coma. And while Kayo, Hiromi, and Aya all go on to survive into adulthood, in the fifteen years since his accident, Yashiro's crime spree continued unabated, despite Kenya's, who was now a lawyer working with the police, best efforts to track him down. Yashiro would ultimately be arrested once he's finally caught.]]

** The term "revival" is written in kanji as 再上映, normally read "''saijouei''" and referring to a rerun of a film. Fittingly, the anime depicts the past in Satoru's memories as if it were on a film strip, and toys with the AspectRatio: the "present day" scenes take place in fullscreen (16:9), while the scenes after Satoru travels back in time to 1988 are in cinematic ratio (2.39:1).

** While the manga has a different final showdown and so lacks a lot of that subtext, it provides plenty of its own: [[spoiler:As aforementioned under BaitAndSwitch, there is an internal monologue in which Sachiko expresses how happy she was to see Satoru waking from his coma, but an unspecified amount of that monologue is implied to apply to Yashiro as well. The monologue contains phrases like, "When I lost Satoru, everything I saw seemed dull and faded"; "The image of your sleeping form was never far from my mind's eye"; after Satoru woke up: "I'm not alone anymore. My tears of joy wouldn't stop"; and after having seen Satoru go out into the hospital yard for the first time: "The way you looked as you breathed in the fresh air once more and were bathed in the sun's rays… you looked mighty and saintly in these eyes." After we have definitely switched to Yashiro's viewpoint, he goes onto say that he was "mesmerized", and then, "When I saw you, a feeling of elation that had eluded me for over a decade filled me up from within"; "Only you, the one person I couldn't kill in the past, gave me two things. Elation and trepidation." He also says "I've awoken with you. The impulses I've kept locked inside have begun to stir", referring to the fact that he stopped killing children after Satoru went into a coma, but regained his desire for it after Satoru woke up. In a later chapter, while narrating how killing people made him feel alive, but then Satoru appeared and purposely got in his way, he says "Satoru… How you stimulated me", and then "You're the one person who's given me joy in this life."]]

An AnimatedAdaptation by Creator/A1Pictures aired from January 8 to March 25, 2016 and ran for twelve episodes. Website/{{Crunchyroll}} is streaming the anime, which can be [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/erased viewed here]].

An AnimatedAdaptation by Creator/A1Pictures aired from January 8, 2016 to March 25, 2016 and ran for twelve episodes. Website/{{Crunchyroll}} is streaming the anime, which can be [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/erased viewed here]].

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Kenya becomes suspicious of Satoru because Satoru's behavior and personality suddenly become much different in February 1988. He likens it to a mask covering up the "real" Satoru and eventually confronts Satoru over this. [[spoiler:While Satoru doesn't reveal the truth about revival to Kenya, he's at least able to assuage Kenya's fears and enlist his friend's aid in saving Kayo.]]

* AddictionDisplacement: Yashiro keeps a huge amount of hard candy and lollipops in his car's glovebox after kicking a smoking habit. [[spoiler:Or so he claims, because the next time he offers candy to Satoru, it's ''definitely'' not candy.]]

** The term "revival" is pronounced "revival" in English (as dictated by the furigana and the anime), but is written in kanji as 再上映, normally read "''saijouei''" and referring to a rerun of a film. Fittingly, the anime depicts the past in Satoru's memories as if it were on a film strip, and toys with the AspectRatio: the "present day" scenes take place in fullscreen (16:9), while the scenes after Satoru travels back in time to 1988 are in cinematic ratio (2.39:1).

** While the manga has a different final showdown and so lacks a lot of that subtext, it provides plenty of its own: [[spoiler:As mentioned under "Bait-and-Switch", there is an internal monologue in which Sachiko expresses how happy she was to see Satoru waking from his coma, but an unspecified amount of that monologue is implied to apply to Yashiro as well. The monologue contains phrases like, "When I lost Satoru, everything I saw seemed dull and faded"; "The image of your sleeping form was never far from my mind's eye"; after Satoru woke up: "I'm not alone anymore. My tears of joy wouldn't stop"; and after having seen Satoru go out into the hospital yard for the first time: "The way you looked as you breathed in the fresh air once more and were bathed in the sun's rays… you looked mighty and saintly in these eyes." After we have definitely switched to Yashiro's viewpoint, he goes onto say that he was "mesmerized", and then, "When I saw you, a feeling of elation that had eluded me for over a decade filled me up from within"; "Only you, the one person I couldn't kill in the past, gave me two things. Elation and trepidation." He also says "I've awoken with you. The impulses I've kept locked inside have begun to stir", referring to the fact that he stopped killing children after Satoru went into a coma, but regained his desire for it after Satoru woke up. In a later chapter, while narrating how killing people made him feel alive, but then Satoru appeared and purposely got in his way, he says "Satoru… How you stimulated me", and then "You're the one person who's given me joy in this life."]]

** While the manga has a different final showdown and so lacks a lot of that subtext, it provides plenty of its own: [[spoiler:As aforementioned, there is an internal monologue in which Sachiko expresses how happy she was to see Satoru waking from his coma, but an unspecified amount of that monologue is implied to apply to Yashiro as well. The monologue contains phrases like, "When I lost Satoru, everything I saw seemed dull and faded"; "The image of your sleeping form was never far from my mind's eye"; after Satoru woke up: "I'm not alone anymore. My tears of joy wouldn't stop"; and after having seen Satoru go out into the hospital yard for the first time: "The way you looked as you breathed in the fresh air once more and were bathed in the sun's rays… you looked mighty and saintly in these eyes." After we have definitely switched to Yashiro's viewpoint, he goes onto say that he was "mesmerized", and then, "When I saw you, a feeling of elation that had eluded me for over a decade filled me up from within"; "Only you, the one person I couldn't kill in the past, gave me two things. Elation and trepidation." He also says "I've awoken with you. The impulses I've kept locked inside have begun to stir", referring to the fact that he stopped killing children after Satoru went into a coma, but regained his desire for it after Satoru woke up. In a later chapter, while narrating how killing people made him feel alive, but then Satoru appeared and purposely got in his way, he says "Satoru… How you stimulated me", and then "You're the one person who's given me joy in this life."]]

* FoeRomanceSubtext: Between Satoru and [[spoiler:Yashiro]], especially in the final episodes of the anime adaptation. [[spoiler:Yashiro becomes incredibly obsessed with Satoru after getting his plans repeatedly foiled by him, and even names him after his beloved hamster Spice for his tenacity. He spends ''fifteen'' years waiting for him to wake up from his coma, all while having numerous chances to kill him, but never being able to get himself to do so, gives him {{Longing Look}}s from afar, and is clearly shown to be unable to move on with his life at all when Satoru is not around in contrast to Satoru's friends. The final confrontation between them in the finale further establishes that Yashiro's only reason for living now is because of Satoru, who tells him "[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything they filled each others' holes"]], and that he is the only one in the entire world who knows the real Yashiro, which Yashiro tearfully agrees with. Yashiro even tries to [[TogetherInDeath commit double suicide with Satoru]] in the climax until he discovers Satoru survived the fall thanks to his friends. It even gets lampshaded by Satoru at one point when hearing Yashiro describe his delight at finally succeeding in trapping Satoru, who unknowingly asks him if he's talking about a lover which causes Yashiro to admit the situation is similar to a romantic one]].
** While the manga has a different final showdown and so lacks a lot of that subtext, it provides plenty of its own: [[spoiler:As mentioned in Bait-and-Switch below, there is an internal monologue in which Sachiko expresses how happy she was to see Satoru waking from his coma, but an unspecified amount of that monologue is implied to apply to Yashiro as well. The monologue contains phrases like, "When I lost Satoru, everything I saw seemed dull and faded"; "The image of your sleeping form was never far from my mind's eye"; after Satoru woke up: "I'm not alone anymore. My tears of joy wouldn't stop"; and after having seen Satoru go out into the hospital yard for the first time: "The way you looked as you breathed in the fresh air once more and were bathed in the sun's rays… you looked mighty and saintly in these eyes." After we have definitely switched to Yashiro's viewpoint, he goes onto say that he was "mesmerized", and then, "When I saw you, a feeling of elation that had eluded me for over a decade filled me up from within"; "Only you, the one person I couldn't kill in the past, gave me two things. Elation and trepidation." He also says "I've awoken with you. The impulses I've kept locked inside have begun to stir", referring to the fact that he stopped killing children after Satoru went into a coma, but regained his desire for it after Satoru woke up. In a later chapter, while narrating how killing people made him feel alive, but then Satoru appeared and purposely got in his way, he says "Satoru… How you stimulated me", and then "You're the one person who's given me joy in this life."]]

* BaitAndSwitch: Chapter 37 starts with Sachiko narrating her love for her son and how happy she was to see [[spoiler:him waking up from his 15-year coma,]] only to switch to [[spoiler:Yashiro's words of happiness over seeing Satoru, his escaped murder target of particular fascination, awake again.]] It's done in a way where it's not clear when the switch actually takes place.