Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (Erased): Season 1/ Episode 11 “Future” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Overview

The episode doesn’t pick up right where the last one left off, but 16 years later and we get to see some of the effects of Satoru’s past work.

Episode Summary (with Commentary)

It has been 16 years since Yashiro tried to drown Satoru, but ultimately he had failed to kill him. All he did was place him in a coma and now the young man is awake. However, his memories are gone and, to frustrate the viewer, we aren’t given a single clue of how he got out of that car. Did Yashiro have 2^nd thoughts about killing such a grand foe? Could Satoru’s friends, or his mother, possibly have saved him? Hell, could Kayo’s mother have maybe come out of nowhere and saved Satoru as a means of redemption? As of this episode, such a question remains unanswered.

But what is known is that Kenya has become a lawyer, Hiromi a doctor and the father to Kayo’s baby, and thanks to Satoru’s mother, it seems he may make a full recovery. Unfortunately, though, it seems Yashiro has been keeping tabs on him ever since he went into a coma and with Satoru coming out of said coma, he decides to reintroduce himself. All the while, we are told about this Spider Thread Story [1] and how Yashiro has always found pleasure snapping the wire. Something we see as Yashiro takes Satoru onto the hospital rooftop, where Satoru is doing rehab, and Satoru reveals his memories have returned in full and he knows who Yashiro really is [2].

Things To Note

[1]: In the episode we are told a story in which this human in hell is given a thread from the heavens to climb out of hell and on his way he kicks down other people who were damned and, eventually, on his way out the thread snaps and sends him back to hell.

[2]: We are shown that Satoru’s memories have become quite fuzzy. Now, as for whether it is just surrounding Yashiro’s attempt to kill him, all the storylines which now are erased due to Satoru’s changes, him being a pizza delivery guy and all that, or perhaps something else completely, well that is unknown. However, we are told Yashiro has done quite well for himself by marrying a city councilman’s daughter, and he has thus far assumed his father-in-law’s position after the man died. Which, one is going to assume, should be of natural causes since Yashiro seemingly was going to swear off murder after Satoru.

Highlights

Getting to see all of Satoru’s work wasn’t in vain was a big plus. For with us seeing Kayo happy, and surprisingly with Hiromi, it means that Satoru’s near death experience was worth it.

The Spider Thread story I found quite entertaining and it made an interesting basis, alongside the hamster story, for how Yashiro became the psychopath he is. Also, his rise to a prominent place in society, while not dug into too deeply, also brought quite a bit of intrigue for who knows how he got to that position and just pondering it makes me curious. Especially since it seems Kenya and Satoru’s mom’s old friend maybe in the process of trying to take him down.

Low Points

I badly desired to know who, or what got Satoru out of that car. I doubt it was Yashiro for then likely Satoru’s mom would have issues with him or praise him for saving her son. So there is this question of who got him out, how, and maybe even why?

On The Fence

At the end of the episode Satoru reveals he knows what Yashiro did, meaning he tried to kill him, and considering he can barely walk and is still mostly wheelchair bound, this seemed sort of stupid. That is, unless he and Kenya have something already planned as a failsafe.