Boku Dake ga Inai Machi is an anime that is sure to keep you at the edge of your seat and desperately wanting more as you watch each episode unfold. It's a supernatural mystery story, following Satoru Fujinuma on his mission to discover the answer to a murder that happened 18 years ago. He never expected to be involved, but when he finds himself accused of being a murderer, he ends up transported back into the past when he was a child. Will he be able to solve the mystery of what happened to his classmate Kayo Hinazuki, who was mysteriously murdered? Can Satoru change the past with his time travel ability he deems "Revival?" And is the past really something you should mess with?

First and foremost, Boku Dake ga Inai Machi and Kimi no Na wa. are both supernatural stories about unexpected abilities. While Mitsuha and Taki have their ability to switch bodies, Satoru has his to travel back in time. Both anime use that ability to change the characters' lives in ways they would never have expected possible. More importantly, though, both anime have a theme of changing the past to try to change the future. The present world both characters begin in has problems that seem too big to be overcome and defeated because they are already out of control - but what if the past had been different? That's the question both Kimi no Na wa. and Boku Dake ga Inai Machi try to answer as the male protagonist fights to change the past - and thus the future - for the girl he grows to care for.

Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo is another story about time travel. Makoto Konno is a high school girl with an extreme supernatural ability; she can literally "leap" through time and change events, rewriting the past the way that she wants to. When she first discovers this power, Makoto uses it haphazardly to play and change the past, redoing things she doesn't like the outcome of and experimenting with the extent of what her ability can do. However, the more she changes, the more she sees the Butterfly Effect coming into play. She can't change just one event without many others also changing beyond her control! Everything she does has consequences she could never have imagined, and she has to learn to use her power with that in mind...

Kimi no Na wa. and Toki wa Kakeru Shoujo are both coming of age stories with the supernatural element of time travel. Thus in both films, the teenage protagonist(s) must learn how to control their newfound power while dealing with the usual struggles of life that teenagers have, like questions about the future and romance with their peers. These characters become motivated to try to use their abilities for good, but with how complicated time is, it proves difficult to control so they have a lot to struggle through to reach their goals.

These themes of becoming adults while trying to use forces beyond their control to shape the future of their world for the better tie Kimi no Na wa. and Toki wa Kakeru Shoujo together. And an added bonus, if you enjoy the art style and animation of one, you'll likely enjoy the other as well!

Yuu Otosaka has a very big secret in Charlotte - he has the ability to control people by going into their minds for five seconds at a time. And he has been abusing it his whole life to get whatever he wants! Eventually, though, Yuu is caught by Nao Tomori and convinced to transfer from his prestigious high school (that he cheated his way into) to Hoshinoumi Academy - a special school for kids with supernatural powers. Specifically, Yuu ends up on the student council after being coerced thereby Nao and ironically tasked with finding students who abuse their powers like he did. The more challenges they face, the more Yuu learns about his power, and that what he has been able to do is only the beginning.

The most obvious thing that Charlotte shares with Kimi no Na wa. is the supernatural ability to switch bodies. While it happens at random to Mitsuha and Taki and is beyond their control, Yuu is able to do it himself (though only for a very limited time). More than that, though, what these stories have in common is showing the struggles of teens that are growing up with supernatural abilities that they don't understand. Being special is not always what someone wants, especially a confused teenager, and these two stories show the price that they must pay for the abilities that these teens never asked to have. For better or for worse they have to learn to live and deal with them, and Kimi no Na wa. and Charlotte shows how.

Sakasama no Patema is about an underground world full of an elaborate tunnel system. Patema is a girl of royal blood who lives there and spends a lot of her time exploring the tunnels much to the chagrin of those trying to keep track of her. When exploring one day in the forbidden area of the tunnels, she falls into what seems to be a bottomless pit - only to wind up on the surface! Saved from falling into the sky by Eiji, a young man from the nation of Aiga, Patema learns that the surface people believe that those like her are sinners that deserve to fall into the sky. Eiji disagrees and goes against the standards of his society to befriend her despite all the odds stacked against them.

Both Kimi no Na wa. and Sakasama no Patema both tell the story of two teenagers from very different worlds who are brought together by unexpected circumstances and still find a relationship together. The difference between Patema and Eiji's world is vaster than that between Taki and Mitsuha, but the idea is the same. Despite the different ways they have been brought up, and the different lifestyles they currently lead, a serious relationship sparks between them. Together, they learn to coexist with each other - and with society - despite all the odds.

Taki and Mitsuha could have never imagined meeting one another, let alone the circumstances of their meeting. Eiji and Patema are the same. Patema barely knew anything about Eiji’s world other than what she had seen in one picture after all! That story of an unlikely relationship between two opposing worlds is what makes Sakasama no Patema and Kimi no Na wa. similar films to enjoy.

Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo is a story about a magical adventure. Asuna Watase seems to be having an average day when suddenly she finds herself attacked by a mysterious creature on her way to her usual place to hang out. Luckily for Asuna, she is saved by a boy named Shun, who claims to be from the country of Agartha. The two bond together over Asuna's mysterious, cackling radio, and while Asuna promises to see Shun the next day she doesn't realise that he will die that very night. The next day, when she returns to her clubhouse she meets Shin, Shun's younger brother and the two are attacked again! It's the beginning of an adventure that will lead Asuna beneath the earth to a realm she never knew existed to finish the mission that Shun started. But what exactly will they find?

Like Kimi no Na wa., Hoshi wo ou Kodomo tells the coming of age story of two teenagers who are brought together through mysterious circumstances. In both stories, the teens are forced to grow up faster than they should due to the circumstances that surround them - in Kimi no Na wa., because of the comet, and in Hoshi wo ou Kodomo, because of the real dangers in Agartha and the quest Asuna finds herself on. These events illustrate the fragility of life. The world could end at any moment, through a disaster like a comet. And life is short, as illustrated by the Land of the Dead. The main characters look death right in the face - and it changed them, and their relationships, forever.

Yamaboshi Academy has five students that just can't seem to fit in with everyone else in Kokoro Connect. Taichi, Iori, Himeko, Yui, and Yoshifumi all have very unique personalities and interests, and when they can't find a club to join, they make their own - the Student Cultural Society. However, things start to get pretty strange when Yoshifumi and Yui switch bodies temporarily and unexpectedly!

The strange phenomenon doesn't stop there as all five members of the Student Cultural Society find themselves switching bodies at random, without pattern or warning. Suddenly these five unlikely friends that previously shared nothing more than that they were different from everyone else are learning more about one another than ever before. And that sort of intimate knowledge draws them closer together than anything else ever could have - while simultaneously threatening to tear them apart when secrets and histories are brought to the surface.

Both Kimi no Na wa. and Kokoro Connect centre around the idea of teenagers that switch lives and bodies, regardless of background and gender. They may know each other in Kokoro Connect, but they don't start out as very close because they are nothing more than classmates. But just like in Kimi no Na wa., the phenomenon of switching bodies and sharing lives brings them a lot closer together and builds very unique relationships. And of course, in both films they learn more about each other than ever would have been possible in normal relationship - even if they never chose to have this kind of experience. Kimi no Na wa. and Kokoro Connect keep the experience of how hard being a teenager and discovering oneself really is at the centre of their stories, with the added supernatural element of body switching to make the stories unique from other coming of age films.