Satoru Fujinuma is a
young manga artist struggling to make a name for himself following his debut.
But, that was not the only thing in his life that Satoru was feeling frustrated
about…he was also living with a strange condition only he was able to
experience. - REVIVAL A strange phenomenon where one is transferred back to the
moment right before something life-threatening occurs. This continues to happen
until the cause of the threat is erased. It is as if somebody is forcing Satoru
to stop it from happening
Sounds kind of “eh” right? The descriptions never really do
the show justice I’ve found. Let’s dive into it shall we?
Minor spoilers ahead!
“I’m scared to get to
the heart of my own mind.”
The show opens with Satoru stating this internally as his
editor in chief tells him that he must put more of himself in his work if he
ever wants to become a better manga artist. As he walks back to his dead-end
job at a pizza parlor I notice that the character design of Satoru is very
specific: He’s tall and lanky, he has glasses, and a sort of “woe is me” look
on his face all the time. He’s immediately portrayed as someone who is more of
a reactive force in his life rather than a proactive one. Strangely enough, I
found myself being able to relate to him. Depending on what age you are, we’ve
all had moments in our lives where we’re working at a dead-end job just to keep
the lights on and the fridge somewhat full. It’s not what we want to do for the
rest of our lives, no that dream we proclaim to the world and hope that through
our talent and will it’ll come to fruition. Satoru has sort of reached the more
stoic, dead part of the journey: the loss of hope that his dream will ever come
true. He has sort of become his own worst enemy and has become a
self-defeating, hopeless person.
We get a feel for how Satoru uses his “powers” within the
first ten minutes or so of the show. He’s out on a delivery and the scene sort
of interrupts with this flash and brief change of color, suddenly we’re
presented with the same information that we just saw only there’s a more urgent
feel to the situation. Satoru is looking around for anything out of place, and
we’re placed in that same frantic situation as our protagonist. The pacing of
the scene was fast and progressive, like everyday life; you really had to pay
attention to find what was out of sorts. Satoru finds what was out of place and
he, while complaining the entire time, fixes the problem and tragedy is
averted. He doesn’t necessarily “embrace” his powers, he’s more like “I guess
I’ll do this because I’m here.” The show really does focus on Satoru’s lack of
ambition for his own life, again being more reactive than proactive.
Luckily, we’re not just faced with Satoru’s less than
enthusiastic view all the time; we get a refreshing counter to his character in
Airi Katagiri. Katagiri is not only spunky and adorable (waifu material guys),
she’s also presented as very driven and smart for her age. She’s a high school
student that works in the pizza parlor with Satoru, Satoru just doesn’t
understand her (surprise) but after she witnesses what he does to avert the
tragic situation as previously mentioned; she seems to be much more interested
in him. She flat out tells him that he doesn’t really open up to people and
she, unlike him, has hope in her dreams—which she didn’t tell him what they
were because she said “It’s not like we’re close or anything.” The show
presents us with tantalizing cliffhangers as we don’t really know what her
dream is, we have to earn it like Satoru.
Another cliffhanger that is presented is the case of the
“abductions” that we hear about throughout the show. When Satoru was in fifth
grade, two of his classmates were abducted and brutally murdered. His mother,
Sachiko, did her best to try and make Satoru forget what happened.
Surprisingly, I didn’t fault her for this. Fifth graders aren’t really supposed
to deal with adult situations so she did what she thought was best for her son.
Sachiko is a wonderful character, you wouldn’t think that she was Satoru’s
mother as she is presented relatively younger (not that 52 is old mind you) and
not showing signs of aging. But that’s not what makes her wonderful, it is
suggested that she knows about her son’s supposed “powers” even if she doesn’t
understand it she still accepts him and listens to him.
This is presented very well in a scene where Satoru has
another “revival” as they are leaving the supermarket. She doesn’t shun him or
say “oh you’re just imagining things,” she actually stops and looks around with
him. In a surprising turn of events, she’s the one that prevents the event from
conspiring so I’m left to wonder if maybe she has some sort of higher than
average observation skill or a similar power to Satoru’s.
What’s always on the back of the viewer’s mind is the fact
that Sachiko knows more than what she is letting on about the abductions. She
drops hints throughout the episode but nothing proves it more than the scenes
following the supermarket. She’s torn about telling Satoru the truth about the
abductions, it shows in her face and in her demeanor. She feels guilty about
not believing a young Satoru about something that deals with the abductions,
what that is I won’t say as it will spoil the story. She attempts to reconcile
this, to tell Satoru the truth about everything. She attempts anyway
.
.
It’s not until Satoru is faced with an impossible situation
that we really see if he’s going to start to become a proactive force in his
life. The episode ends on a tantalizing cliffhanger that left me wanting more.
Will Satoru finally stop being reactive and play a part in his own life? It’ll
be interesting to see how this character develops.
Overall the show starts off strong and ends strong, one
could find a trope or two but it’s not an episode breaking thing. I’m very
curious to see how the character of Satoru develops and learn more about
Katagiri. The universe is very appealing, and the pacing definitely fits the
show—not slow and explanatory, but fast and unforgiving like life is. All in all,
I give this a four out of five stars, and I can’t wait to see what happens
next.
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