The 14 Best Anime Like ERASED

Themes in common: -Altering Time to Prevent Tragedy -Connection Across Time -Mystery and Self-Discovery Makoto Shinkai's renowned film is a must-watch for anyone, but fans of ERASED might find it particularly intriguing. Taki and Mitsuha are living two very different lives - Mitsuha is an isolated country girl, while Taki is working hard to make it in the big city. What's more, the two of them exist on different time lines - Taki is living a few years in the future. The two get to know each other when they begin mysteriously swapping bodies, a process that brings them so close together that they fall in love. But there's a catch - not only do they exist on different timelines, Mitsuha's timeline has actually ended - a meteor wiped her town off the face of the earth. To save Mitsuha, Taki is going to have to make some changes to the time-space continuum.

Themes in common: -Morality and Justice -Psychological Cat-and-Mouse Game -Supernatural Involvement in Crime Just like ERASED, Death Note is a dark supernatural anime that centers around revealing a seemingly ordinary citizen as a serial killer. The big difference is that in Death Note, the story is told from the criminal's perspective. When Light Yagami receives the titular notebook, he discovers that he can eliminate anyone whose name he writes down. He decides to use this ability to take out criminals, hoping both to rid the world of crime and catapult himself to godlike status. Meanwhile, a brilliant but reclusive detective named L is doing everything in his power to stop him.

Themes in common: -Child Protagonists in Danger -Psychological Thriller Elements -Protective Motives and Friendship If you liked ERASED for its depiction of children working tirelessly to save themselves and their friends from adults who they thought would protect them but who really wish them harm, you'll probably get a kick out of The Promised Neverland. The residents of Grace Field House think that they're living as idyllic a life as a group of orphans can, but they quickly find out that that happiness is a lie. Their beloved caretaker is actually sending them off to be made into meals for a powerful race of demons. When Emma discovers the terrible truth, she decides that she'll do whatever it takes to not only escape herself, but to make sure all of the other children in Grace Field House get out, too.

Themes in common: -Conspiracy and Intrigue -Impact of Altering Events -Time Travel to Change the Past Rintaro Okabe is a "mad scientist" who spends most of his time inventing random things. One day, he invents a device that allows him to send messages backward in time. This unexpected development gives him the opportunity to save his freind from a terrible fate - which isn't too far off from Satoru's time-traveling feats. Steins;Gate takes things a little further than ERASED does - rather than just trying to save one person as Satoru does, Okabe is trying to take down a massive conspiracy. If you're looking for something a little more complex and scientifically minded than what ERASED had to offer, this might be your next new favorite.

Themes in common: -Second Chance at Youth -Personal Growth and Redemption -Consequences of Reliving the Past ReLIFE follows Arata Kaizaki, a part-time worker in his late twenties. Thanks to trauma sustained while working at a black company, his life is going nowhere. As a last-ditch effort to get his hands on some cash, Arata agrees to participate in the ReLIFE program, which promises to help get him back on track by making him take medicine that will transform him into his high school self, and allow him to repeat a year of his childhood. While Kaizaki can't imagine how this will help him, he's happy to do it because it means getting his expenses paid for the year. While Satoru repeats his childhood for the far more dramatic purpose of saving his friend's life, he's still attempting to fix something using methods that are more or less the same.

Themes in common: -Coping with Loss of a Friend -Supernatural Elements -Emotional Resolution and Healing Losing a childhood friend is a painful thing to go through no matter what, but things get infinitely more complex when the supernatural enters the picture. While Satoru travels back in time to try and undo his childhood friend's brutal demise, Jinta Yadomi and his friends have no such option for dealing with Menma's accidental passing. What they do have, though, is Menma's ghost. Her spectral presence helps them to process their grief, heal, and move on. Both anime tell emotionally resonant stories about a difficult topic, but Anohana does it without ERASED's thriller vibes.

Themes in common: -Letters from the Future -Preventing Tragedy -Interpersonal Relationships and Emotional Growth When Naho starts receiving letters from her future self, she doesn't take them seriously at first. It quickly becomes apparent that she needs to start following their advice if she wants to stop her friend Kakeru from taking his own life. With the help of her friends, who are receiving similar letters, Naho works to prevent the worst possible ending for Kakeru. Unlike Satoru, Naho doesn't personally travel back in time to save her friend, but she does take advantage of the existence of time travel, making for a show with a similar theme, if a slightly different feel.

Themes in common: -Time Travel with Painful Consequences -Fantasy World Setting with Psychological Elements -Death as a Trigger for Time Reversal If you watched ERASED and found yourself wondering how the premise would play out in an isekai setting, you might want to check out Re:Zero. After Natsuki Subaru is transported to an alternate universe, he discovers that he has a strange ability - he can travel back in time. However, this ability is only triggered when he loses his own life. While the process allows him to save others' lives and deal with the chaos of living in a magical world, it also causes some serious pain.

Themes in common: -Focus on Crime Solving -Moral Philosophical Themes -Dystopian Society In a world where a person can be judged as a criminal before ever doing anything wrong, it's the police bureau's job to punish or dispose of those people. Akane Tsunemori is a new recruit who begins the series overwhelmed by the responsibilities of her job - but as she gains competence, she's also beginning to understand the gaping flaws and terrifying conspiracies behind the system. Meanwhile, a criminal who can't be accurately read by the system is trying his hardest to take it down. Both Psycho-Pass and ERASED are focused on people who are trying to solve crimes. While both of them feature some gripping action scenes, the meat of the story is the introspection about the true nature of criminal behavior. Psycho-Pass is more sci-fi than supernatural, but regardless of the difference, if you liked one you'll probably like the other, too.

Themes in common: -Time leap ability to alter the past. -The protagonist is striving to save loved ones. -Gang-related conflicts and the quest to change Tokyo Revengers, like ERASED, delves into the perils and potentials of time travel as the main character, Takemichi Hanagaki, gains the ability to leap back to his adolescent years. Similar to Satoru in ERASED, Takemichi's journey is driven by a desperate bid to prevent a tragedy involving someone he cares deeply about. While Satoru seeks to thwart a serial killer to save his classmates, Takemichi confronts gang violence in a bid to rescue his friends and change the course of their doomed futures

Themes in common: -Adult Mind in a Child's Body -Crime and Mystery Solving -Darker Underlying Plot Threads Want to watch another anime about an adult inhabiting a child's body as he tries to solve crimes? Then you should watch Detective Conan, an anime about an investigator who is given drugs that transform him into a seven-year-old child. In spite of his small stature, he continues his detective work while hiding his true identity. While this anime is typically more light-hearted than ERASED is, it is a crime show and it does have its dark and disturbing moments.

Themes in common: -Dark Themes Beneath a Deceptive Appearance -Time Manipulation to Alter Fate -Characters Facing Grave Consequences for Their Choices On its face, Puella Magi Madoka Magica might not seem to have any connection with ERASED - one is a magical girl series, and the other is a psychological thriller. But Madoka is a lot darker than its cutesy art implies. What's more, one of its central storylines involves a character who repeatedly travels through time in the hopes of engineering a future where her best friend survives.

Themes in common: -Exploring Alternate Timelines -Search for Self-Fulfillment -Consequences of Choices on Life Paths If you're interested in time travel but don't really want to deal with the whole murder mystery thing, you should check out Tatami Galaxy. This series follows a college student whose life goes off the rails when he befriends a mischevious classmate named Ozu, who continually goads him into humiliating himself or committing misdeeds. Thanks to a meeting with the self-proclaimed god of matrimony, he's catapulted back in time, and given a chance to lead the fun college life he's always wanted - but does he have as much control over his life as he hopes to, or will his life take another turn for the painfully strange?

Themes in common: -Time Travel for Personal Growth -Supernatural Abilities Impacting One's Life -Emotional Healing through Extraordinary Experiences Iroduku: The World in Colors, is a Fall 2018 anime about a teenage witch named Hitomi who can no longer find joy in her magical abilities, or in her life in general. To try to help her with her depression, Hitomi's grandmother sends her backward in time to her own childhood, in the hopes that a younger version of herself can help Hitomi see things in a more positive light. While it lacks ERASED's tense, dark mood, it does possess similar themes.