Quick Review #113: Boku dake ga inai machi - Autumn 2017

Title: Boku dake ga inai machi / 僕だけがいない街

Rating: 5 / 10

Recommended for: 

Those who like time-travel or time-loop stories with a suspense element

* Disclaimer: I have not read the manga nor watched the anime or real-life movie versions.

* Potential spoilers ahead!

Liked:

- The child actors especially Uchikawa Reo and Kakihara Rinka who played Satoru and Kayo respectively were very impressive. Coupled with the fact that the childhood arc was quite concentrated in the earlier part of the drama, it further accentuated the impact of their acting as compared to the adult arc which were very scattered and comparatively disconnected until the last few episodes. I especially liked the friendship formation phase of Satoru and Kayo as it was heartwarming yet bittersweet at the same time.

- The beautiful snowy scenery in Hokkaido during the childhood arc was such a joy to admire.

Disliked: 

- The suspense was quite a letdown since it was too obvious from the start who was the culprit. Going by the rule of "the most unexpected person closest to you is the most suspicious", it was a no brainer that the teacher of Satoru's class was the one who had the biggest advantage of being able to execute the scheme of killing children. As such, the part until Satoru reached the answer was quite yawn-inducing. Even the confrontation at the end finished on a weak note.

- As mentioned above, the adult arc didn't feel so engaging to watch because it was so disconnected and that the constant time travel disrupted the slow of the story. This also made it difficult for me as a viewer to enjoy the performances of the adult actors so they didn't really leave a deep and good impression on me. I wouldn't say that the adult actors didn't do well but it was more of their characters not growing on me and the story arrangement didn't work in their favour.

- The length of the drama could be shorter. Despite the fact that each episode was about 30 mins or lesser, 12 episodes still felt too dragged out and the suspense/excitement factor was inevitably lower due to the length of the drama. The ending also felt underwhelming as the ex-teacher's fate was not clearly indicated and there wasn't any gratification felt about nabbing the culprit. To begin with, since I'm not a fan of stories about time travel and repeating the experiences in life, I would have preferred this drama to have half the number of episodes so that the pace of the storytelling could be faster.