There are more of them than you thought.
Time travel is hardly an underrepresented genre in anime. Of course, everyone has heard of series like Steins;Gate and Tokyo Revengers.
However, there’s way more to the genre than just that, and the mechanics are often completely different. If you want a fresh take on the genre, try one of these five anime.
Sagrada Reset
Sagrada Reset (Sakurada Reset) is a very dialogue-heavy supernatural mystery series. It adapts a series of light novels by the same name, and follows two teenagers, one of whom can reset the world to a previous state while the other retains all the memories.
The anime can be hard to get into at first, especially considering its non-chronological storytelling. That said, once you start actually following what’s happening, it becomes a great and emotional character drama — and it’s well worth watching.
Natsu no Arashi!
Natsu no Arashi! (Summer Storm!) is a coming-of-age romance story of Hajime Yasaka, who meets a girl named Sayoko Arashiyama. He falls in love with her, but here’s the catch: she’s actually a ghost who originally died during World War II — and they travel together to the past multiple times.
With an unusual setup, a ton of references and the classic visuals by studio Shaft, the anime is surprisingly fun to follow. It’s also more light-hearted than time travel anime usually are, although it does have its fair share of dramatic moments.
Nobunaga Concerto
What would you do if you were suddenly transported into the past you don’t know much about, because you slacked on history lessons? And on a whim, accepted the offer of a historical figure to switch places, only to find yourself in a position you know even less about?
Nobunaga Concerto follows the adventures of Saburou, who takes the place of Oda Nobunaga during his youth and tries to navigate things from there. The anime combines surprisingly deep and thoughtful moments with absurd and bizarre comedy, and somehow, it just works.
In Search of the Lost Future
If you want something like Steins;Gate, but with school clubs and a generally lighter tone, consider In Search of the Lost Future (Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete).
The anime has been called “Steins;Gate-lite” by many, and while some plot beats are the same, the strongest point of it is actually the character interactions.
Fire Tripper
Fire Tripper is a 50-minute OVA adaptation of a short manga by Rumiko Takahashi. She’s mostly famous for series like InuYasha and Urusei Yatsura, but a lot of her other works have been adapted into anime as well.
For its incredibly short runtime, Fire Tripper performs an impressive feat: it writes a fairly convoluted time travel plot. The best part? In the end, it actually works, and there are no immediate plot holes — which is unusual for the genre.