Thanks to shonen anime, the time skip has become a time-honored tradition in anime. Rather than show every detail of a long period of time where characters need to grow, they can simply skip the boring parts and get back to the story with the characters having completely developed and changed.
At this point, it isn't even just shonen anime that relies on this. Tons of other anime can sneak this in. Sometimes they're short--all of a few months or a year, while other times they can be a decade or more. In these cases, it's often less about people being stronger and more about showing the setting of a story completely transforming into something new.
11 Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Jumps To Four Years Into The Future
Much of Gundam 00’s first season involves Celestial Being displaying their absolute military superiority over the rest of the world. They execute military interventions on every fight without question, and there’s nothing anyone else can do about it.
But by the end of the second season, the world has obtained fake GN drives that allows them to keep up. The second season takes place four years in the future, where Celestial Being has to pull themselves together after a narrow victory against the world’s military might that left the team shattered.
10 Lupin III Jumps To Five Years Into The Future
Each of the Lupin eras is noted by the color jacket that the main character is wearing. The so-called Red Jacket era takes place five years after the Green Jacket era, which is specifically dated as ending in 1972.
The first episode specifically talks about the group having split apart for that time period, with all of them being gathered together thanks to a mystery invite to luxury cruise ship.
9 Death Note Jumps To Six Years Into The Future
The time skip that Death Note deals with might be the most damaging of all, as the post time-skip part is seen as weaker than the other part of the story. The series jumps ahead six years after Light manages to defeat L once and for all.
After this, Light convinces himself he actually isn’t the owner of the Death Note, and in the meantime, a pair of L’s proteges take over the case to find Kira.
8 Fairy Tail Jumps To Seven Years Into The Future
All the best people in Fairy Tail traveled to Tenrou Island for their usual S-Class Exams. This made it all the more problematic for the guild when Acnologia appeared and destroyed Tenrou Island...and seemingly all their strongest mages.
However, a special magic spell protected all of them for seven years straight. They emerged to a world where a new guild, Sabertooth, has arisen to become the most powerful guild in the land. Meanwhile, Fairy Tail has to climb their way up from the bottom, as even powerhouses like Natsu have been left behind after seven years of being gone.
7 Gundam Build Fighters Try Jumps To Seven Years Into The Future
The original Gundam Build Fighters let it’s main characters go on to become the strongest, with even Sei managing to win the World Tournament in Gunpla Battle. By the time Fighters Try starts, it’s been seven years. Most of the cast has moved on, but a new cast forms a Gunpla Battle Club at Seiho Academy and aim to win the All-Japan Gunpla Battle Championship.
Though the main characters have changed, this is very much set in the same universe, with characters like Mr. Ral and Tatsuya Yuuki having major importance to the cast. At the same time, even the main character’s Gunpla was actually built by Sei and left at Seiho Academy’s Gunpla Battle Club.
6 Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Jumps To Seven Years Into The Future
Gurren Lagann’s first major arc ends with the defeat of Lordgenome, the Spiral King. It was with his power the Beastmen forced humanity underground while they lived in the city of Teppelin.
The second arc begins seven years later, with humanity finally allowed to come above ground and live on Earth again. In time, they build their own city—Kamina City, named after the man who inspired Simon, the legendary hero.
5 Dragon Ball Z Jumps To Seven Years Into The Future
One of the first major time skips in anime history, Dragon Ball Z takes place seven years after the previous series. In that time period, most of the main characters have gotten complacent and stopped training.
Goku seems to have maintained his strength, but characters like Krillin and Yamcha have fallen off, making them next to useless when they have to do battle with Raditz. This was also enough time for Goku to have had a kid, and Gohan would wind up being one of the more important new characters introduced in the series.
4 Dragon Ball GT Jumps To Ten Years Into The Future
While Dragon Ball Super takes place not long after the Buu Saga, it’s entirely different for Dragon Ball GT. This story takes place an entire ten years after the Dragon Ball Z storyline. This time around, yet again many of the characters have fallen into complacency.
The younger Saiyans have aged into being teenagers, with Goten now a shameless girl chaser and Trunks running Capsule Corporation. The older Saiyans...are largely the same, though Vegeta grew a mustache and Goku managed to be turned back into a kid again.
3 Nanoha StrikerS Jumps To Ten Years Into The Future
A time skip on the level of Dragon Ball Z. The first two Nanoha series take place close together and the main characters are all young girls that aren’t even in Junior High yet. The third Nanoha series however takes place ten years in the future, with Nanoha and her friends now adults. It’s a massive change to the series, as the former rookie is now old enough to be supervising her own team.
The story doesn’t even take place on Earth, and by the time it ends Nanoha also has adopted a young child along with her “best friend” Fate.
2 Mobile Suit Gundam AGE Jumps To Twenty Five Years Into The Future
Gundam AGE takes place across one hundred years, and uses the same characters for that entire time span, following one main character: Flit Asuno, and his children. The second generation begins twenty-five years after the first, with Flit in his late 30’s and his kid Asemu trying to live up to him.
The third generation takes place another twenty two years in the future, following Asemu’s kid Kio. Even still, Flit’s importance to the main storyline cannot be understated, with him borderline becoming an antagonist.
1 UQ Holder Jumps To Eighty Years Into The Future
UQ Holder almost didn’t qualify since it doesn’t seem like it’s focused on the same characters. But not only does it rely on those characters, the entire story is literally just a continuation of Negima. One of its main characters was a main character in Negima, and it seeks to answer the question of how Negi and the rest of the cast were able to defeat the Lifemaker, the ultimate enemy.
With that being said, the story takes place eighty years later, and follows Negi’s grandson, Touta Konoe.