The time skip is one of my low-key favorite tropes in anime series. An important rule in storytelling is to always tell the story of the most interesting time in a character’s life, but who says a life can’t have multiple interesting moments? Furthermore, do you really want to watch a character doing mundane choring for years until they get to that next interesting moment? No. You want to get to that next meaty bit to see who sleeping with who, who grew that manly beard, or whose biceps now really pop when flexed. This is where a well-placed, fan fiction-ruining time skip comes in.
Best Anime With Time Skips
Naruto
Naruto features a time skip in between Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Sasuke has run off to follow his evil destiny in full and Naruto goes off to train with Jiraiya. From there, it picks up two years later with everyone a little bit taller and a lot bit stronger.
A time skip also happens again at the end of Shippuden and moving into Boruto. After this, the world war has ended, everyone is mostly married off and the story follows their children who are now roughly the same age as Naruto was at the beginning of the series.
Dragon Ball Z
The Dragon Ball series as a whole has a few time skips to it. The original Dragon Ball skips from when Goku was a child to his adult married life with children at the beginning of Z. You then watch a time skip happen again after the defeat of Cell in which Goku’s son Gohan grows from a adolescent to a teen. Both non-canon GT and canon Super also feature a time skip in which Gohan is grown, married, and with a kid similar to Goku at the beginning of Z.
Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne
This series is unique with its time skips. The main character, Rin, is an immortal. This means time has very little meaning to her. As such, almost every episode is a time skip of a varying length. You will see that Rin remains the same, but everything around her changes wildly.
Toppa Tengen Gurren Lagann
Often, time skips are reserved for those long-running shounen shows, but when done right, they can add a lot to a series. A big demonstration of this is with Gurren Lagann. The time skip both signals an end to a major fight, and heralds in the part two of the series in which Simon is now an adult and the whole core group has changed. It also shows a major rise to the top as Simon has gone from an underground dweller to full on into space.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
Jojo is, for the most part, nothing but time skips. Every time you change to a new part, chances are good that a large amount of time has passed. The series starts with Jonathan, the second part follows Jonathan’s grandson Joseph, the third part follows Joseph’s grandson Josuke. While it doesn’t keep following that grandson is now the main character plot line, time skips still happen. It is just that they are shorter in length as by Part 4 they are, for the most part, in the present.
One Piece
Like most shounen anime series, you should expect at least one time skip in One Piece because of the nature of its genre. You do get one right after the Marineford War. The time skip comes after a series of devastating defeats for Luffy and his crew which prompt them to all go their separate ways. It is not a “breaking up of the band” affair, though. It is more so they can all undergo separate training that we don’t have to watch. Two years later, they come back together stronger and in a whole new world.
Death Note
The time skip in Death Note takes places after a major win for the main character. Afterwards, it jumps forward a few years in which he is now an adult and working for the police force that investigates his serial killer antics.
From the New World
As a coming of age series, you watch the main characters go from young children to full adults by the end of the series. From the New World has a handful of time skips in which show the characters changing, forming relationships, and also discovering the horrific truths of their world. By the end, they are definitely not the same people they were at the beginning.
Anohana
The time skip in Anohana functions a little differently than other series. It is a drama series about a death of a childhood friend. This means the series jumps back into their childhood from the present in which they are messed up teens. The episodes jump back and forth frequently to help show you why the characters ended up the way they did.
A Lull in the Sea
The time skip in A Lull in the Sea serves as a severing point in the series. It happens after a pretty unique event that leaves the group all chopped up from each other. Some of them age, but some of them don’t due to particular reasons.
Kemono no Souja Erin
Erin is a series about the titular character growing up in a world that is always on the cusp of war. The interesting bit about this series is that it features several time skips in which you learn more about the world as the character would. In the beginning, you see the world as a child would see it. By the end, you understand the world as an adult would.
Orange
This series is all about regrets. Essentially it is one big exploration of what would you have done differently if you could. As such, the time skip is a little odd in this one. It starts with them all as adults, then switches to when they were in high school. There is also a time skip sort of ending which doesn’t fit the typical use of this trope as well.
Steins;Gate
Steins;Gate is a show about time travel, so of course there are time skips. However, the majority of the show is trying to fix the various problems caused by time travel. As such, the series may return to what classifies as the present, but will have everything different like time has passed because they went into the past.
Major
Although it is a show about baseball, Major remains one of the better coming of age stories and time skip series ever made. It follows the son of a major league player on his way towards becoming one himself. As such, the beginning of the series focuses on his father, then the focus shifts to the son as he goes through little league, high school ball, minors, and eventually major league. Even if you re put off by sports in anime, this series has top tier character development and drama.
Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan starts with a time skip in which the main character has his whole world destroyed, joins the military, and the series picks up again when he is about to graduate. However, there is a more notable time skip in Season 3 that utterly unravels what you think you know about the world.
There are plenty more anime series with time skips out there for sure. If you think any others are deserving to be on this list, let fans know in the comments section below.
