The genre of time travel is a vastly underexplored genre when it comes to anime. Even when the topic is explored by anime, science is almost always given up in favor of the usual anime shenanigans. Even when time travel anime are created, they often follow the same path — go to the past, fix a mistake, return to a better future.
Understandably, while some fans enjoy watching anime that have similar plot lines, there are others who crave something different. So for those fans who are interested in watching time travel anime that have unique twists to them, they can have a peek at these fantastic anime.
10 InuYasha: School Girl Doesn't Want An Evil Demon To Wreak Havoc In Feudal Japan
Teenager Kagome Higurashi is inadvertently dragged by a demon five hundred years in the past. She is now in the Sengoku period, and ends up with a magical jewel inside her, which was the demon’s true target.
Eventually, the jewel breaks into multiple pieces. A harried and desperate Kagome enlists the help of Inuyasha, who is part human and part dog, to collect all the piece of the jewel before the demon can get them.
9 Iroduku: The World in Colors: Girl Is Sent Back In Time & Is Suddenly Able To See Colors
Hitomi Tsukishiro's grandmother makes use of a magic spell and ends up sending her back in time to 2018 when her grandmother (Kohaku) was a school-going student. Hitomi is confused at first, but her grandmother assures her she will find her purpose soon enough.
True to Kohaku’s words, Hitomi ends up in artist Yuito’s room. Seeing his paintings instantly lights a fire within her and floods her black and white life with his own colors (quite literally).
8 Meiji Tokyo Renka: Teenager Travels To The Meiji Period & Becomes A Ghost Hunter
One fine day, high schooler Ayazuki Mei finds herself opening her eyes in what appears to be the Meiji Period. The magician who transported her takes her to Rokumeikan. There she meets several notable figures of Japanese history, who explain to her the dynamics of this world.
Turns out, Ayazuki is a Tamayori, a rare type of person who can see the Mononoke (ghosts). Together with these men, she takes up her newfound responsibility of cleaning ghosts from the Meiji Period.
7 Occult Academy: A Girl From The Past & A Boy From The Future Work Together To Stop An Alien Invasion
Aliens invade the world in 2012, taking over it completely. Time travelers are ordered to travel to 1999 to find and destroy the one key that was prophesized to bring about the destruction of humankind.
Teenager Maya (from the year 1999) is convinced by time traveler Fumiaki (from the year 2012) to help him find and destroy the key. Despite not trusting his intentions completely, Maya agrees to help him. With the help of Fumiaki’s special cell phone, the duo must quickly find the key before it’s too late.
6 Drifters: A Warrior Travels To An Alternate Timeline Where Historic Japanese Warriors Are Alive & Kicking
Toyohisa Shimazu belonged to the Japan of the 1600s, but one day after winning an important battle, he is pushed into a world unlike any he has seen before.
This land is populated with Toyohisa’s heroes, all of whom should have been dead! To make matters worse, it seems like magic and supernatural creatures are the norm here. He is soon dragged into the war and politics of the world, and eventually, the future of that world lies in the hands of a small group of individuals known only as Drifters.
5 Sakurada Reset: Girl-Boy Duo Help People But End Up Getting Sucked In An Evil Conspiracy
Thanks to his photographic memory, Kei Asai is the only person who is immune to Misora Haruki’s ability to reset time by three days. The two decide to join their hands and form the Service Club to help people from their town.
Their adventures start off innocently, but with every person they help, the duo realizes that something more sinister is going on in their quiet little ocean-side town.
4 Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon: Time Traveling Demon Girl Is Raised As Human, But Is Unable To Escape Her Past
Half-demon Towa from feudal Japan suddenly finds herself in modern-day Japan, where she is adopted by a kind man who raises her as a normal human girl. A decade down the line, her life as a human turns upside down when she finds people from her timeline knocking on her doorstep.
Among them is Setsuna, her twin sister, but for some reason, she has no memories of Towa. Thus begins Towa’s journey of restoring her sister’s lost memories.
3 Buddy Complex: School Boy Travels To The Future, Only To Be Caught In A Mecha War
One fine day, high school student Aoba Watase is attacked by a futuristic-looking mecha robot, and he is saved by a girl named Hina. She then takes him seventy years into the future in order to avoid his death.
But it’s not like the future is any better – Aoba finds himself piloting a mecha, caught in the middle of a fearsome battle happening between two sides. Who are these people, why was he inside a mecha, and what will Aoba do with his newfound life now?
2 Thermae Romae: Roman Inventor Copies Modern Japanese Inventions To Sell Them Back Home
An architect from ancient Rome, called Lucius Modestus, suddenly finds himself in modern-day Japan. The time travel machine, or rather a time hole, connects bathhouses from ancient Rome to today’s Japan.
Mesmerized and often overwhelmed by everything he sees, Lucius wastes no time taking heavy “inspiration” from everything he sees in Japan. He then goes back to his time and recreates the very things he saw in order to gain a name for himself among his people.
1 ERASED: Man Travels To His Kindergarten Body To Solve His Mother's Murder Case
Satoru Fujinuma is a 29-year-old who is capable of time skips, although he’s never been able to control them. One day, he travels years back in time in the body of his child self. Now, he’s tasked with just one job: to find out who killed his mother, so that he can finally free himself of being wrongfully accused of her death.
However, not too many doors open for children looking to solve murder mysteries, which proves to be a tough nut to crack for Satoru.