Anime Hajime Review: Boku Dake ga Inai Machi

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Boku Dake ga Inai Machi. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

The year is 2006. Satoru Fujinuma (voiced by Shinnosuke Mitsushima) has a unique ability. Whenever a life-threatening event is about to occur, he can go back in time to prevent it. Although, he’s only ever been given five minutes at the most. He calls the phenomenon "Revival".

Although using his abilities as best he can, Satoru carries a lot of guilt. He wonders who he could’ve saved if only he had acted. One such instance occurred during his childhood. Three of his former classmates were murdered. Particularly the death of Kayo Hinazuki (voiced by Aoi Yuki) has sat the worst with him.

Despite a conviction, Satoru believes the true killer is still out there. In fact, that person may be much closer than he realizes.

Satoru’s mother, a former journalist, notices an odd event. An event similar to what happened two decades ago. Unfortunately, she is killed before she can talk. The perpetrator then tries pinning the crime on Satoru.

Unsure how Satoru can clear his name, an unprecedented Revival occurs. Instead of going back a few moments, he returns to the year 1988. Right before the murders took place. Now ten-year-old Satoru (voiced by Tao Tsuchiya) has a chance to save his friends. And in the process, stop the elusive killer.

Series Positives

Satoru (Child)

Whenever I go into a mystery series, I get a hesitant, yet palpable jolt of anticipation. This genre, when done right, leads to some of the best examples of storytelling. When you mix in themes of loss, tragedy, and heartache, it’s a recipe for something amazing. Think of it as a firework.

Combining the right amount of powder and chemicals, you can produce something breathtaking. Yet one screw up and the whole thing blows up in your face. The same is true for the mystery genre. It’s easy to screw it up.

Satoru (Adult)

A plot can twist and turn and get lost within itself. Faster than you can say “wait, what”, every sense of intrigue dissipates into oblivion. What you’re then left with are confusion and wasted time. There’s something particularly annoying to a bad mystery. It’s like an insult to your intelligence rather than a challenge for it.

Every time I come across this genre, I can only hope. Too often that hope turns to disappointment. Now take Boku Dake ga Inai Machi. Here, the exact opposite happened. This series was great. And by great, I mean, wow this was really good.

Kayo

With this show’s time hopping aspect, I need to set a few ground rules. That way we can avoid confusion and I don’t have to go into a ton of detail explaining myself. Since I don’t want to get into the specifics of time travel, I’m going to go as simple as I can.

Satoru’s eighteen-year Revival created two timelines. The first being his adult self, the adult timeline, set in the year 2006. The second being his kid self, the child timeline, set in 1988.

The events of the child timeline had direct results on the adult timeline. Yet there were still sudden shifts between the two. These weren’t separate universes. But the switch was so dramatic it’s easier, and less spoiler-ish, to think of them as separate.

Time travel’s confusing. To this series’ credit, this plot mechanic never went overboard.

The Story

Boku Dake ga Inai Machi’s story was twofold. It was part classic “who done it”. And another part prevention. This series is a case of both sides being well done. But one was done much better. Let’s start with the secondary of the two.

When the story jumped to the adult timeline, it was in the “who done it” stage. This was also the main angle of the final few episodes. As well as the ultimate end game. Who was the real killer? So, the actual mystery part of this show was the weaker of the two.

Yet, it was the nature of this series that made this so. Not the events themselves. This side of the plot had deep connections to Satoru’s actions as a kid. Its eventual payout is a direct byproduct of the child timeline.

If that makes you think these moments wouldn’t be that interesting, reconsider. Don’t brush these aside.

Whenever the show was in this phase, the tension was high. Actions affected the unknown. Anything that happened was happening for the first time. No guidance. No insight. No room for error. Not to mention, no hope for a happy ending if something went wrong.

The events of the adult timeline took place following the murder of Satoru’s mother. It was a blatant reminder of the lead’s failure. His actions in the past only altered a few insignificant details. The tragedies still came to be.

Of course, one should expect this. Any key changes could only have come from the past. And the child timeline is where this show’s true power stemmed from.

Boku Dake ga Inai Machi managed to do something I’ve never seen before. It was something I never thought I’d see. Other anime that have tried this have failed in spectacular ways. This show made me care about characters after the fact.

I’m not talking about the 1988 victims. We had not meet beforehand. Until they got introduced they were just a painful memory for Satoru. No, who I’m referring to now is Satoru’s mother, Sachiko (voiced by Minami Takayama). Her death was the catalyst for this story. And we got to know her a little bit before hand.

Sachiko didn’t leave much of a first impression. From what we could tell, she was a decent mother. She did the things you’d expect. But something about her said she only had a workable relationship with her son. Not the strongest. So, when she died, yeah it sucked. Yet since there were other things happening, this moment felt like a step to the next big event. Which, in this case, was the Revival to the child timeline.

As the story continued, you start to realize that initial perception was wrong. Sachiko’s murder didn’t suck, it was horrifying. She wasn’t a sacrificial pawn for the good of the story. She was a major piece you didn't want to lose. It was no longer a nice bonus if she got saved. Satoru needed to save her. 

In fact, that was what made Boku Dake ga Inai Machi so good. It gave us characters to care about.

During the child timeline and prevention side of this show, two characters stood out.

The first was Kayo. She was the first of the three victims from 1988. And the one Satoru carried the most guilt over. If he had saved her the first time he may have prevented all this from happening. Satoru could even pinpoint the exact moment where he could’ve made a decisive action.

If you don’t want to give Kayo a huge hug by the end of this show, what kind of soulless monster are you? Actually, you don’t need to think about it. This show will give you the answer.

What Satoru was trying to prevent for Kayo was a fate crueler than cruel. Kayo, in the first go around, never knew happiness. And Satoru’s attempt to save her wasn't smooth sailing. But he did give her something.

Kayo was able to experience a life that wasn’t full of sadness. Speaking of sadness, there was one moment in the show that broke my heart.

Due to Kayo’s circumstances, she learned how to endure. That wasn’t good because she had a lot of strength that a child shouldn’t need to have. She was caring a lot that would break anyone. And there came a point when she did break.

Moving on because I’m starting to tear up as I'm writing this. The second character who left an impression was Satoru himself. If any future storyteller wants to learn how to do a character arc, this is how you do it.

At the start of the show, Satoru came off as a prick. He was jaded, pessimistic, and didn’t have the most uplifting outlook on life. Except unlike other characters with these qualities, he had a reason.

Satoru still held with him the guilt from his childhood. Those events weren't his fault and he knew that. But we’ve all had those thoughts where we consider the things we could’ve done. How could we have changed our actions to prevent something we had no way of predicting? We all do this even if we accept things were out of our hands.

So, while this fueled Satoru’s adult thinking, it didn’t stop him from doing the right thing. Since he was a kid, he used his Revival ability to help where he could. Then after returning to 1988, he took the chance to make things right. Come hell or high water, he was going to save everyone.

Over the course of the series, Satoru’s actions became more dramatic. He knew small changes weren’t good enough. He needed to make big steps to get the future he wanted. He also needed to make genuine steps. Not half assed ones. Because of this, he grew as a character. Comparing who he was at the end of the show from the beginning, the difference is night and day.

The story of the child timeline gave so much more meaning to Boku Dake ga Inai Machi. This made it more than a decent mystery series. It added tension. It added a bit of fear. It also added a lot of hope and triumph. Leading to an ending that was right for this show.

Series Negatives

Before I say anything more, the strength of Boku Dake ga Inai Machi’s story is over powering. It makes what I’m about to mention easy to ignore. Or at least it got to that point. When first seeing it, this was a stylistic decision I can’t help think was misguided.

During the child timeline, the whole frame went widescreen. You can see it in the pictures throughout this review. This was one hundred percent unnecessary.

I get what the series was going for. The child timeline looked like a film reel. This gave the story more of a playback feel. Everything was in rewind. And I’ll give this show these two things. One, it achieved the desired effect. Two, it was an instant tell when the story jumped between timelines.

I won’t say this was useless. I will say it was pointless, though. There was zero need to keep the frame in this aspect. The series already did plenty to establish time.

I mean for one, Satoru was a kid. Certain people were alive. The setting was in a small town rather than the big city. Sure, it may take a second longer to piece it together. But it wouldn’t have been too much to handle. Besides, the series had something as effective as two obnoxious black bars across the screen. Brightness.

Whenever in the child timeline, everything was much darker. The visuals had a noticeable gloominess. Even when the sun was out, the setting was gray. It looked older. Almost as if the events we were seeing were taking place twenty years in the past.

In comparison, the adult timeline was much crisper. Everything was more vivid and smoother. There was no doubt some kind of switch had occurred.

What Boku Dake ga Inai Machi did you can get used to. The story is engaging enough to keep your attention off it. But since you saw it once, you’ll never be able to unsee it.

Then there was one other small problem. This show had a tendency to give too much information. We sometimes knew things Satoru didn’t. Certain meetings. Certain camera shots. Certain facial expressions behind our lead’s back. Some of these moments were justified. Sometimes Satoru was about to learn what we just saw. Or you could logic how he would come to learn something. Regardless, this isn’t a positive.

A key component to some of the best mystery stories is how information gets discovered. The ideal situation is when we know as much as our main character at all times. Whenever this is askew, leaps and conveniences are more likely to occur.

That didn’t happen here. But I can’t express how much this bugs me whenever I see this.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed this one. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi was great.

The story and characterizations were on point. Together they created an experience that will take you through several different emotions. Each one strong and meaningful. This is a hard series to put down.

That said, there are a few aspects that are tolerable. And in some cases, ignorable. But they shouldn’t be encouraged. So, there’s that.

If you’re looking for a series to lose yourself in, Boku Dake ga Inai Machi is a perfect choice.

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