Summary

• The Tatami Galaxy explores alternate realities and teaches acceptance of the past.
• Summertime Rendering offers expertly crafted mysteries in a time travel setting.
• Erased is a gripping murder thriller where the protagonist goes back in time to save a friend.

Traversing time is one of the most popular tropes in fiction, and anime is no exception. With the amount of stories revolving around the same theme, you'd expect there to♛ be repetition. While there are certainly flops, most stories keep on finding new ways of keeping the trope fresh.

From wholesome coming🅠-of-age stories to psychological thrillers and Isekai, there's a seemingly infinite numbe🦄r of good shows to choose from.

8 𒉰 The Tatami Galaxy

Going Back In Time For A Cooler College Life

Have you ever regretted the past, and wished you could change it? The protagonist of ജthis amazing series got a♒n opportunity to do so, wanting to change his dull college life.

Unlike the thrilling mysteries and converging timelines that most other shows have, The Tatami Galaxy beautifully expꦯlores how different actions can lead to greatly varied outcomes, and how our fantasies and reality do not always align. The show uses time travel as a trope to teach you to be more accepting of the past, and to focus more on the present.

7 🍃 Summertime Rendering ༺

Mystery With Mythology

One of the biggest appeals of the time travel genre is mystery, and Summertime Rendering has some of the most expertly c🐽rafted, thrilling ones seen in any time travel media. It's difficult to explain what makes the show such an amazing ride without spoiling it all. Each mystery is delicately written, with each detail adding something to the story.

The story follows Shinpei returning to his childhood hometown, only to realize that his childhood friend has been killed. Chaos then ensues when said childhood friend returns as a sh🥂adow, and time loops occur to figure out just what is happening on this isolated island.

6 🔴 The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya

Keeping A Highschooler God In Check

The Mela🥀ncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya explores a world where a teenage girl, the titular character Haruhi Suzumiya, plays the role of God. The thing is, she doesn't know that it's her will that shapes reality. She creates the S.O.S 🔯Brigade to find all things supernatural, consisting of an esper, a time traveller, and an alien trying to keep Haruhi in check, so her unstable mind does not create any dangerous situations for the world.

Th🌌e Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is a movie that explores a timeline wher𝔍e Haruhi never existed, and focuses more on Kyon and Nagato.

One such dangerous situation occurs in the Endless Eight arc,🐲 where Haruhi's desire for a never-ending summer break creates a time loop where summer keeps repeꦰating itself. Unlike most other interpretations of time loops, the protagonist is not entirely aware that time is repeating.

The eight full episodes of the same sequence of events being animated in different ways portray time loops in a way that shows just how disorienting and ♏fr🥀ustrating they can be for the characters experiencing it.

5 Erased

Going Back In Time To Save Your Childhood Friend

Erased is a murder thriller that immediately hooks you in. It follows Satoru, who has an ability that le🌼ts him go back in time before a catastrophe occurs, giving him a chance to stop it. When his mother gets into a fatal accident, instead of being sent back an hour or two to help it, Satoru is sent back in time 18 years instead.

The show then follows Satoru in the body of his elementary school self tryiඣng to save the life of a former classmate who was murdered 18 years ago. If you're any fan of mystery thrillers or time travel, Erased is absolutely a must-watch.

4 Link Clicꩲk

Pictures Really Do Make You Travel Back In Time

An ability as useful as going back in time doesn't have to be saved for grandiose goals. Sometimes, helping others (and earning a quick buck doing so) is enough of a reason to bend the laws of reality. Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang do just that, using photos to go back ꦗin time, working at Qiao Ling's Time Photo Studio.

Cheng Xiashi can go back in time by going inside pictures t🎃aken at the time, while Lu Guang can telepathically communicate with andܫ guide Cheng Xiaoshi.

However, sometimes helping others isn't as simple as you want it to be. Link Click follows the Time Photo Studio as it meets various clients and goes back in time to solve problems, anywhere from ꧃unresolved conflicts between people to finding the culprits behind heinous crimes.

3 Re:Zero

Returning By Death

Re: Zero isn't a traditional time travel anime; there's no science involved. It's an isekai where the protagonist, Nats👍uki Subaru, returns to a save point upon meeting death.

This seemingly simple premise snowballs in complexity when you put other ele🧔ments of a magical world in it. Subaru has no other powers; he can only use the information gained from r🐟eturning to the past to fend off enemies that can kill him and all his friends with a single look of their eye.

2 Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

An Idol Android Saves The World

In terms of complexity, Vivy might have the most out of the box plot in this list. The show follows Vivy, an android created with the sole purpose of singing to a𓂃n audience. Despite people not wishing to listen to her songs, Vivy would've lived a normal life as an idol robot, if not for a certain event.

For some reason, an android, Matsumoto, came from the future and asked for Vivy's help in🍌 saving the world from ruin. What ensued next is a tale across centuries with Matsumoto popping up out of nowhere whenever a catastrophic event is about to occur, and Vivy hel🔯ping him stop said event.

1 ♔ Steins;Gate

The Perfect Time Travel Anime

If we're talking time travel, no 🌳series co🐭uld even come close to Steins; Gate. The series follows Okabe Rintaro, or the self-proclaimed mad scientist Hououine Kyouma, as he battles his fated enemy, the Organization. All of this seemed to be Okabe's delusions, nothing more than escapism.

However, as it turns out, all of this does end up being true. Okabe and his group accidentally create a time machine that can send messages to the past, changing the actions of all those affected by t𒆙he message. This ends up creating extremely intricate timelines, with Okabe 🍬alone being able to guide the world.