Erased Season 1 Episode 1 Recap

Satoru Fujinuma is a 29-year-old manga artist. He submits his work to an editor, but the editor gives it back to him. He says he doesn’t think the story will reach the readers. Satoru leaves the office and reads his work one more time. Then he tears the papers and throws them away. “If only I did things differently then,” he tells himself. He goes to his other work at the pizza store. He and a coworker, Katagiri Airi, get on their motorcycle for another delivery. Satoru looks around for inspiration for his manga. He pays attention to even the little things. Just after he passes by a truck, his motorcycle enters what looks like a portal that takes him back a few minutes. “It’s happening again,” he says. He looks around and realizes he has seen the same student about to cross the street a few minutes ago. “Something is going to happen again. Something bad. It always does,” he says.

When the light turns green, he drives off once again. He looks around to find out if something seems off. He sees the truck he passed by before. The driver has lost consciousness. Satoru turns in the other direction and moves close to the truck window. Satoru realizes the truck might hit the student if it doesn’t stop. He tries his best to wake up the driver. Luckily, the student sees the truck coming. Satoru continues to wake up the driver, but it’s too late for him to avoid an oncoming car. Satoru gets thrown off a motorcycle and wakes up two days later.

Airi sits beside him when he wakes up. She says the truck driver died of a heart attack at the wheel. Satoru calls that phenomenon “Revival.” He usually returns between one and five minutes and experiences the same scene. It’s right before something bad is about to happen. He tells himself it’s like someone is forcing him to prevent it. Satoru goes home and puts the key in the keyhole. He removes the key when he realizes the door isn’t locked. He tells his mom, Sachiko, to keep the door locked because they’re not in the countryside.

Sachiko will be staying with him for a while. While watching TV, Sachiko remembers an incident in their neighborhood. She tells Satoru that they all tried their best to make the kids forget about it. Satoru visits a bookstore. He remembers a wave of kidnappings and murders when he was in fifth grade. Two of the three victims were from his class, and the suspect who was arrested was someone he knew. Jun Shiratori was the suspect on death row. He was a friend of Satoru’s, and he used to call him Yuuki.

When he goes grocery shopping with his mom, he experiences another revival. He looks around to find if anything can lead to something bad happening. He asks his mom to look around because he feels something strange. “You’ve said something like this before,” Sachiko says. Sachiko looks around and sees a man holding a girl’s hand and walking away. The man notices Sachiko. He lets go of the girl’s hand, gets in his car, and drives away. Airi sees Satoru and hands him a book given by the pizza shop manager. Airi introduces herself, and Sachiko asks her to come over for dinner. When Satoru asks his mom what she noticed earlier, Sachiko says it was an attempted kidnapping. Then she takes it back and says she’s just joking. They‘re unaware that a man is watching them from inside a car.

Sachiko comes home and thinks she has seen the man’s eyes before. While Sachiko’s deep in thought, she doesn’t notice a man opening the door. The man stabs Sachiko, so she falls to the floor. She tries reaching for her phone, but the man takes it away. Sachiko grabs the piece of paper near her and holds on to it. When Satoru comes home that night, he sees his mom lying in a pool of blood. He tries waking her up. When Satoru takes the paper her mother is holding, he notices a man at the door. The man closes the door and then runs away. When Satoru follows him, their neighbor sees Satoru has blood on his hands. He runs after the man, so he doesn’t have time to explain himself. He has lost the man and realizes he was set up. Satoru realizes he’s the prime suspect in his mother’s murder. The police spot him, and there’s nowhere for him to run. Satoru wishes the revival would happen at that moment. He closes his eyes, and the revival happens before the police get to him. When he opens his eyes, he is in front of his school again in 5th grade.

Our Thoughts

If Sachiko had called the police to report the attempted kidnapping, things would probably be different. It was a good thing that the little girl was safe after that. We think that maybe it was the kidnapper who killed Sachiko. He could be watching them and was only waiting for Sachiko to be alone.

We have a few more questions about Satoru’s ability. When did he start experiencing it? Can he control it if he wants to? He experiences the revival before something bad happens. So, what makes him think he can still save his mom when she’s dead? If the revival will save Sachiko’s life, why did it take Satoru back to when he was in 5th grade? Why didn’t it take him back just before the murder happened? We still have many questions, but we know that these questions will be answered slowly.