Top 10 Time Travel Anime
#10: “Buddy Complex” (2014)
A Sunrise mecha series that isn’t Gundam? A secondary character called Dio? A plot that incorporates travelling to the far future? We’re not sure which is more hilariously shocking, all we know is that the end result is a harmlessly entertaining giant robot jaunt that any fan of the genre can pick up and finish within a day. After being hurtled through time by a mysterious woman, boy out of time Aoba is instructed to seek out a pilot known as Dio, all in order to stop the war between two warring factions. Make all the JoJo references you want, but it still doesn’t take away from the show’s bright spots.
#9: “Orange” (2016)
Turns out that not everything to do with time travel has to be doom and gloom, sometimes the chance to start fresh and alter the regrets of the past can translate into a beautiful serenade filled with all the slice of life goodness you could want. Upon receiving a letter from herself ten years in the future, Naho is instructed to not only keep an eye on a new transfer student, but to carefully consider her choices so she doesn’t grow up to regret what could have been. Que the floodgates.
#8: “Nobunaga Concerto” (2014)
Who’s ready for the ultimate lesson on Segoku period Japan? After making an off-hand comment that history has no impact on his life, high schooler Subaru is launched back centuries into the past, where he finds himself encountering the one and only Oda Nobunaga, and due to a slight resemblance, inadvertently takes his place. From there, it’s a matter of survival, as Subaru has to use his general knowledge to ensure his cover isn’t blown, while also getting a front-row education as to some of the period’s most defining moments.
#7: “The Tatami Galaxy” (2010)
Top 10 Best Anime Series of ALL TIME
Normally anything to do with this mini-masterpiece would get it launched right to the top, but considering it’s particular brand of time-travel is less literal and more of an episodic restart, it can’t overtake some of the others on the list. That being said, any chance to discuss Masaki Yuasa’s arguable opus, we’re going to take. Having wasted his college years as an outcast, Watashi is given the chance to repeat his education, leading him to go down multiple paths, each of which offer new perspectives, life lessons, and failures, but in doing so enrich him, allowing him to take that next step towards unlocking a true happy ending!
#6: “Charlotte” (2015)
Ever wanted to see what would happen if the guys behind Angel Beats tackled time travel and adolescents with superpowers? After the titular comet leaves a bunch of adolescents with unbelievable abilities, the cynical Yuu is sent packing to an institution where he and others can be sheltered from the outside world. As you might expect, things do not go as planned. With nefarious organisations gunning for their powers, as well the deaths of his loved ones, Yuu’s only option is to hijack the past, make some corrections…and essentially doom himself in the process.
#5: “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” (2006)
Top 10 WORST Anime of All Time
One of the truly great modern anime flicks not to be created by Ghibli, it just goes to show that in the hands of great storytellers, even something as generic as “be careful what you wish for”, can be turned into art that will have you weeping by the end. Upon discovering that she can literally jump back hours to the past whenever she chooses, teenager Makoto turns it to her advantage by making everyday a medley of fun…at least until she starts to see the drastic consequences that can come from the smallest of alterations. Be warned, the feelings are fluttering with this one.
#4: “Puella Magi Madoka Magica” (2011)
Magical girls, witches, a wish-granting demon in the shape of an adorable, talking rabbit-cat, after having to wrap our heads around all of that, introducing time travel might sound like a step too far, and yet Homura’s many trips to the past turned out to be the hidden cog that held this genre-destroying series together. Once a fragile young thing with no confidence to speak of, Homura’s desperate wish leaves her with the power to traverse back to the moment she met her precious Madoka, all in an effort to change their eventual bloody fate. Let’s just say it’s a good thing she’s got an infinite supply of restarts.
#3: “Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World” (2016-)
Top 10 Coolest Travel Destinations for Anime Fans
You’d think being able to reverse a mistake by hopping back via a time-travelling out of body experience would make for a great perk. Not if you’re Subaru, whose newfound gift as an isekai protagonist allows him to return to a certain point in time…but it can only activate upon death. And since this is a fantasy world filled with all manner of killers and monsters, the dude ends up dying a lot. You can see why he’d have a hard time enjoying his newfound surroundings when he’s constantly hit with one bloody demise after the other, only to have to start the whole damn thing from scratch.
#2: “Erased” (2016)
What if you were given the means to save an innocent from meeting a gruelling end? For Satoru, this came in the form of Revival – a means of taking his conscious back through time into the body of his child self, granting him an opportunity to save his old classmate Kayo from the abuse of her tormented mother, as well as the sinister machinations of an unknown serial killer with a fondness for kids. While the shifting between the past and present is more of a tool to tell a truly engaging mystery than anything else, it’s still one of the best incorporations we’ve seen in an anime’s narrative!
#1: “Steins;Gate” (2011)
The undisputed king of anime’s sci-fi scene, Okabe and company’s discovery of an unorthodox means to send messages to the past not only opened the doors to an exhilarating thriller that perfectly balanced the physics lingo with hopping timelines to try and elude death itself. When this gets going, it just doesn’t stop. So much so that, combined with the endearing nature of our genius misfits, you won’t even question how the paradoxical quandary that is time travel can be broken with nothing more than a microwave and a phone. Okabe’s just that good.
