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Boku dake ga Inai Machi, one of the most popular anime and manga at the moment, is a story about a young man, aged 29, who hasn't found much success writing manga and instead works part-time at Oasi Pizza Delivery (he, of course, delivers pizza). Nothing special so far, EXCEPT, he sometimes experiences something bizzare. When someone's life is in danger or when something wrong is on the verge of happening while he is around, he turns back in time a few seconds/minutes earlier, so that he can spot the abnormality and eliminate the danger. The phenomenon is called "rerun", although in the anime i ... heard it's called "revival" (I haven't watched the anime), and it's involuntary.
So far it looks promising, and it really gets you curious. The first chapters of the manga deliver. Satoru is very analytical as we are introduced into the action. He seems somehow bored of reality and the so-called "reruns" have already become common for him. However, after his mother is murdered by an unknown person that is linked to the past, Satoru experiences another "rerun", only this time he is sent back 18 years, when he was only almost 11 years old. He's still his 29 year old self, trapped inside a child's body, and he must solve a bizzare case of child kidnappings that caused the death of 3 children in his school and lead to his mother's death 18 years later.
The art of the manga looks really good and the story sounds really, really promising. The idea is intriguing and while the first chapters really get you into the story it only goes downhill from there, at least for me. I'll talk about several aspects that I disliked.
First of all, the most annoying one, is that Satoru seems like a normal 10/11 year old kid after he's brought back in time. From the analytical guy that we were introduced to, we suddenly get a 10 year child that seems lost in all this mystery (the whole story is indeed mysterious, but after a while I honestly stoped caring about who's the kidnapper and what really happened). Instead of doing some actual detective work, he befriends Hinazuki Kayo, the first child that was kidnapped, in an attempt to keep her from being alone (the reason why she was kidnapped so easily in the first place). He then suddenly starts getting excited at the thought of meeting her and having a birthday party together, and stuff like this. Like, what is going on here? If I started reading from those chapters I'd have assumed he's a normal kid. Especially compared to Kobayashi Kenya, his class mate and friend.
Now, to the next thing, Kenya. He's simply too smart to be believable at just 11 years. And "smart" isn't exactly the right word. He simply knows what people are thinking and "little" 29 year old Satoru isn't able to hide his thoughts. Very intelligent, yeah, I can believe that, but a great reader of human reactions and hidden thoughts when he's only 11? Not so much. After all it's just a little flaw, but if you compare the 11 year old Kenya with the "11" year old Satoru, Kenya seems miles ahead in all categories you can think of. After all it's not such a big flaw, but the fact that Satoru simply becomes a kid amplifies it for me.
As much as I like his mother, she figures out what's happening with Satoru just by looking at him (honestly everyone is more aware of everything in this manga than Satoru, who actually comes from the future and supposedly knows what is going on). And while it's funny in the beginning, it gets repetitive and there's really no explaination to it. Mother intuition too strong? Maybe. Definitely not a huge flaw, just pointing that out.
Finally, the few hints that exist regarding the criminal's identity are all pointed at one character. Sweet, innocent, little Satoru obviously notices nothing and when he actually discovers that the said person has a ton of candies in his car he just laughs about it. Of course, we know nothing about the criminal's identity and the fact that hints towards a certain person exists doesn't mean they actually are (in most detective stories it's usually the opposite, or maybe it's all just mind games and the person actually is the criminal, who knows?). But at least show a little doubt Satoru? I personally would've been creeped out if I found a ton of candies in the car of someone with a child kidnapper running wild.
Further details of the story I do not know, because I only read 26 chapters and I unfortunately dropped out. It was disappointing, at least for me.
Overall the idea is interesting, but the execution fails. From a promising detective story it turns into a "pseudo", or I don't know how to call it, child romance. It's not a horrible manga, and maybe it gets interesting later? who knows, but since I couldn't get past chapter 26 it's definitely not among the best in my opinion. It's a 6 from me. With all the hype around it it's at least worth trying and after all this review it's just my personal opinion.