Erased Anime Ending Explained: A Love-It-or-Hate-It Conclusion

One of the most acclaimed anime this year was ‘Erased.’ The anime provided fans with everything, being an emotional anime with some action and a somewhat unique storyline.

Fans loved the anime concept and were excited to see the ending, but that’s where it all went wrong, as many fans were disappointed with the anime’s simple ending.

The anime ended before the manga, making the ending not true to the source material, which had a perfect multilayered emotional finish. The ending felt unsatisfying and rushed. Others had a different problem.

They thought the characters initially seemed important were abruptly sidelined, leaving viewers disconnected from their emotional investment due to neglected character development.

In this article, I’ll explain to you precisely what happened at the end of the manga and the anime and what are the other reasons fans hate the anime version so much.

1. Erased Ending In the Manga

After he wakes up from a 15-year coma, Satoru goes through physical therapy, where he meets a young cancer patient, Kumi.

After meeting Airi, his memories of Yashiro—the murderer—and his life before the manga’s significant events are awakened. Around that time, Yashiro reappears in the scene with a scheme to frame Satoru and “kill” Kumi.

Satoru, Kenya, Sawada, and Sachiko devised a scheme to protect Kumi during their camping trip. With the final encounter on a bridge, it is discovered that Yashiro was only trying to lure Satoru out so he could kill him and had no plans of killing Kumi.

Satoru’s former teacher sets fire to the bridge after telling Yashiro how far ahead he has come. Yashiro accepts his fate of dying with Satoru, but he jumps off the bridge with Yashiro into the lake, where all the other characters are waiting.

2. Erased Ending In The Anime

The episode starts with Satoru having completed his rehabilitation and Satoru leaving the hospital.

As he leaves, some paparazzi try to take photos of Satoru, but Yashiro interrupts them. He also directly addresses Satoru, as opposed to watching from afar, as opposed to the manga version.

Later, Yashiro takes Satoru up to the roof, and Satoru reveals he remembers everything. He also says that Kenya and Hiromi know everything.

Yashiro tells Satoru that he has sabotaged Kumi’s surgery to make it appear as though Satoru killed her. He also asks him how Satoru knew his destiny. To make Satoru appear to have committed suicide, Yashiro plans to push him off the roof.

Yashiro pushes Satoru off the roof and gets ready to commit suicide as well. However, he finds out that Satoru had planned the entire event. The anime ends with Satoru surviving, Yashiro being taken into custody, and Kumi being saved.

3. Why is the anime ending hated upon?

While the jist is the same in both versions, the anime rushed its ending. The adaptation has only 12 episodes. Meanwhile, the manga is 44 chapters which makes it impossible for the animators to have the same pacing in both versions.

The pacing allows the manga to focus more on Satoru’s rehabilitation, to make the return of his memories more organic and to set up some of the key variables for the final confrontation.

The way Yashiro uses Kumi also differs greatly in the different versions. In the manga, Satoru believes for several chapters that Kumi’s life is at stake, and he works hard to prevent that. The anime, on the other hand, reveals that Kumi’s life is actually in danger during the final episode confrontation.

Even Netflix’s live action adaption was better than the animated version (which is very surprising), the series adaptation was created in 2017 and it was more faithful to the manga than the anime.

Not only did it provide more development for some of the characters and scenes, but it also improved the overall pacing a great deal because the episodes were longer and there was more time for certain plot elements to evolve.

Another reason fans weren’t fond of the Erased anime revolved around the romantic partner Satoru ended up with, or rather didn’t end up with.

4. About ERASED

“Erased,” also known as “Boku dake ga Inai Machi” in Japanese, is a mystery thriller anime that follows Satoru Fujinuma, a struggling manga artist with the power of “Revival,” and after a tragic incident, he’s sent back 18 years to 1988.

There, he realizes his time travel is connected to a series of abductions and murders from his childhood. Satoru must prevent these events to achieve justice and fix the present. The anime is a gripping tale of mystery, redemption, and the importance of protecting loved ones.

ERASED is based on a manga written and illustrated by Kei Sanbe. The manga was serialized from June 4, 2012, to March 4, 2016.

The anime adaptation of “Erased” was released in 2016, spanning over 12 episodes, and was produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Tomohiko Ito.