A story is never the same once time travel or the multiverse are introduced. Both concepts can be confusing even when broken down in layman's terms, but that doesn't stop multiple anime from joining the bandwagon. As if anime wasn't crazy enough, having characters travel through time and parallel realities just adds more for the audience to keep up with. While some series choose to have a single episode with one or both concepts mixed in, others are completely wrapped up and centered around them.
A common occurrence that happens across these anime is when characters meet their future selves, which can go from very convoluted to awfully convoluted. Either way, it's interesting to see how the meeting affects the present or the characters themselves – and how the universe somehow doesn't implode from the cross-over.
9 Hime-chan No Ribbon: The Power Of The Ribbon Can Be Used For Time Travel
In the 1992 anime Hime-chan No Ribbon, the protagonist Himeko is gifted with a magical ribbon from a Princess hoping to find a successor for her Kingdom. The plot is mainly centered around Himeko's adventures and her budding romance with the character Daichi, but there is one episode where Himeko decides to use the ribbon for her own personal gain.
Using it to travel three years into the future, Himeko hopes to see how she's doing and if there's anything she can learn from her future self, but unfortunately, there's nothing much to her future self and she returns to the present disappointed.
8 Actually, I Am...: Nagisa Receives Much Needed Advice From The Future
Among the wild antics that happen in Actually, I Am, also known as My Monster Secret, one scene includes an alien and time travel. The character Nagisa is a small alien hidden inside a human girl's body. Her goal is to be the peaceful bridge between the humans and her species, but her mission appears hopeless until her future self comes around to shake things up.
At first, acting as a villain to replace the present Nagisa, the future Nagisa challenges the present Nagisa to fight for what she believes in. She eventually reveals that she never intended to replace the present Nagisa, and needed to give her more encouragement to ensure success for their shared goal.
7 Dragon Ball Super: Present Trunks Is Jealous Of His Future Self
Although he doesn't immediately realize who the older man is before him, younger Trunks is not a fan of his future self in Dragon Ball Super. At first, he's scared of his older self after Future Trunks attacks Goku, but after he realizes his future self means no harm, young Trunks warms up to him like a brother.
This past and future self-relationship is one of the few healthy and good ones out there, but there is a bit of jealousy when younger Trunks starts to see how close his older self is to his crush Mai.
6 Sailor Moon Crystal: Mamoru Learns He's Been Guided By A King
In order to protect Earth, the heroes from Sailor Moon Crystal travel to the future where they meet the King of Crystal Tokyo, King Endymion. To everyone's surprise, he introduces himself as Mamoru's future self, in addition to explaining that Queen Serenity is Usagi's future self and the young girl Chibiusa is their future daughter. A voice in Mamoru's head had been guiding him in the right direction all throughout the journey. It's in this moment when he and the King meet that he understands it was his future self aiding him all along.
5 Fate Stay Night: An Angry Older Shirou Concocts A Convoluted Plot
The protagonist of Fate Stay Night, Shirou Emiya is a good-hearted young man who aims to save as many people as he can. Archer, one of the Holy Grail's competitors, opposes Shirou's benevolent ways, at odds with him for most of the anime. It's not until later that Archer attacks Shirou with the intent of killing him, revealing he is an older version of Shirou from another timeline.
In Archer's past, he was the very optimistic and honest Shirou. In spite of his noble nature, he was used by others and made to commit heinous deeds. Growing up, Archer blames his naive past self for what happened to him. So when he's summoned into the Holy Grail War, he plots to kill his past self in an attempt to undo his harsh past.
4 Dragon Ball Super: The Secret Behind Goku Black
Throughout the "Future Trunks Saga" in Dragon Ball Super, the human race is threatened by a powerful foe who looks identical to Goku. As the plot develops, the main characters meet Zamasu, who is the apprentice of the Supreme Kai from Universe 10. While Zamasu cares about protecting the universe, he harbors a deep hatred for humans and their chaotic mistakes.
He joins Goku Black in the mission to destroy all humans and learns that the villain is none other than Zamasu himself from the future. The future Zamasu used Super Dragon Balls from Universe 6 to switch bodies with the Goku from his timeline, then traveled to the past to destroy all the humans, eventually with the help of Zamasu.
3 Fairy Tail: Lucy And The Gang Save The Future With The Help Of... Lucy
During the Grand Magic Games in Fairy Tail, the main characters are faced with someone who looks like Lucy's twin and introduces herself as the Lucy of the future. This Lucy is distraught from the loss of her friends after a large-scale attack from dragons, and her presence in the present time is to prevent that from happening again. Lucy guides the heroes in the quest to stop the dragon attack before it starts. Sadly, this Lucy doesn't make it, sacrificing herself to protect the present Lucy.
2 Fairy Tail: Future Rogue Doesn't Like Present Or Future Lucy
In the same arc that introduces future Lucy, a Rogue from the future is also introduced. Like future Lucy, future Rogue has traveled from the future to stop the dragons from destroying everyone and everything, but his strategy is much more aggressive than future Lucy's.
Explaining that it was in fact Lucy's fault that everyone lost their lives since she closed their doorway into the realm – which was the only weapon to defeat them – Future Rogue attacks present Lucy which leads to future Lucy's demise. Future Rogue becomes an antagonist in this arc, much to present Rogue's great disappointment.
1 Noein – To Your Other Self: Yuu Hates Himself, And His Other Self, And His Other Other Self
Noein is heavily based on the idea from quantum mechanics that there's an infinite number of alternate realities that reflect one another with differing decisions and end results. The young protagonist Yuu is introduced to this idea too after his best friend Haruka is revealed to be the only hope for a military group from another dimension. Yuu travels through the parallel realities following his older self, the two aiming to protect Haruka from any harm.
Older Yuu has a disdain for his younger self because when he was a child his reality's Haruka was killed, and he blames himself for her death. The present Yuu hates his older self for his cold-hearted nature, and they both hate another Yuu for his evil intentions within the plot.