The best location for a mystery is often a small town with a lot of secrets, and even more so if it’s located on an isolated island. The island of Urashima is an island far off the coast of Japan. It’s a peaceful place but the peace comes at a price. A series of tragedies occurred in recent past and the island effectively cut itself off from the world. The daughters of the three great families have taken it upon themselves to reopen Urashima despite each being restricted by the archaic traditions. The true catalyst for that change comes from a man who washes ashore with no memory. He doesn’t even know his name. He simply knows he’s come from the future to save the girls, the island, and the future of mankind.

The two stories are absolute mysteries at their core. Enigmas abound. You have the time travel and parallel world angles in both stories as the hero travels back and forth in an attempt to set things right. We have girls, who each become the focus of the plot at one point or another. We get the sense that each of these girls would be a conquest if these were playing out as dating sims. The fun of both of these anime lies in that we don’t exactly know what the goal of the protagonists is at the beginning and even at several episodes still are really clear. You have to be patient because the story could make a turn in a direction that you haven’t even thought of -- and isn’t that what mysteries are all about?

Rintarou Okabe is a mad scientist, his words not ours, who sets up a lab above a TV shop in Akihabara. He sets about creating “future gadgets” with lab members Mayuri Shiina, a cosplayer and waitress, and Hashida Itaru, a “super hacker,” again, his words not ours. The lab’s greatest invention is the “Phone Microwave” which seems to only succeed in turning bananas into a gelatinous green puddle. Their greatest discovery happened by accident when they realized that the phone microwave can send emails to the past. We are then beset by conspiracies with paramilitary organizations, soldiers from the future, and scientific research organizations like CERN (one that actually exists).

The stories of Steins;Gate and Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YUNO have a few things in common. The first is multiple timelines. We know whenever you change the past the future gets really confusing. A dark side is also present in both of these anime. You have some very dark themes of death, suicide, and frustration. The hero in both shows tries multiple times to reset the future to save someone from death in his timeline. We again have girls. The girls in Steins;Gate don’t seem like conquests for Okabe (at least in the anime) as opposed to YUNO where you really get that part of the story is the hero winning the love of each of the girls in different timelines. We don’t have to do a big sell job for Steins;Gate, it’s a modern classic, but we do think if you haven’t seen it and like YUNO you should definitely check it out.

Satoru Fujinuma has a unique ability to time travel. He uses the power, which he calls Revival, to save lives when he sees an accident occur. The 29-year-old is a struggling manga artist who makes ends meet by delivering food. A loner is a good target, especially when you need to frame someone, and when someone close to him is killed he goes on the run and finds his Revival skill sends him 18 years into the past. He finds his 29-year-old mind in the body of his 11-year-old self and a possible connection between the disappearance of one of his classmates and the murder in the present. Satoru need needs to summon all his experience in his desperate attempt to save his friend’s life in the past and his family in the future.

Boku dake ga Inai Machi does have a couple of commonalities with Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo. The first and main thing the story has in common is the protagonist’s ability to slip back in time and attempt to make a change in the timeline. Takuya Arima my only be changing things a few days at a time but the ability to affect the timeline is the goal. The stories both have high stakes. YUNO and Boku dake ga Inai Machi each have mysteries to solve. YUNO has its cabal of corporate and political intrigue while Boku dake ga Inai Machi has a much simpler who-done-it format.

Re:Zero has definitely been one of the most popular isekai stories in the last several years. It’s the story of Tokyoite Subaru Natsuki and his life in an unfamiliar fantasy world. He unfortunately learns quickly that he can die, but not really die. He can die the most horrible and painful death only to wake up back in time on the day of his previous death. Subaru finds himself struggling to make his way in the new world. After doing a favor for a beautiful girl named Emila he is offered a place in her household where he can live a life of leisure or he could work alongside two maids. Interestingly enough he chooses to be her servant and devote all his energy to making the young woman’s dreams come true. The task is complicated by royal rivalries, conspiracies, and death cults.

The biggest thing these two shows have in common is a character that can travel back in time and adjust the timeline multiple times. Takuya Arima has it easier in that he doesn’t have to die, but it doesn’t mean it’s any less traumatic. Arima often has to see the people he loves killed, repeatedly, until he can set things right. Subaru often has to deal with seeing his loved ones killed as well but he has to go through the pain of dying in order to reset the world. We like both series because of their takes on time travel and holding to the idea that even with time in your control you can’t control everything.

The story of Ushinawareta focuses on Sou Akiyama and the members of the Astronomy Club. The club’s purpose may be the study of Astronomy, but its members often find themselves doing various tasks for the student council that you can kind of call peacekeeping missions between the other clubs. The interesting part of the story is when Kaori Sasaki confesses to Sou Akiyama and then is killed in a tragic accident. We, the viewer, are then shocked when she shows up at school the next day and everyone goes on as if nothing ever happened. The second hint happens when a tremor hits the school and when the club goes to investigate Sou finds a naked girl soaking wet on the floor. The girl is a mystery, claiming she has no memory other than she is a transfer student. She begins class the next day and quickly finds herself a part of Astronomy Club. We could explain more but that would be giving a lot of the mystery away.

Okay, one hint: one of the key parts of the story has to do with time travel. We also have one of its characters given the ability to re-live periods of time and alter the timeline. The story moves a bit slower than others on this list but is compelling nonetheless. We recommend you give this one a chance especially if you like Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YONO.

The near future is filled with amazing technology and much of that technology comes from Rebuild and programmed by Derrida Yvain, the son of the founder. When Derrida and his friend and fellow engineer discover a flaw in the company’s latest security droid, the Autonomous Machine DZ, they become targets of sinister forces in the company. These same forces have already killed his father. Derrida somehow survives an assassination attempt only to awake from cryogenic sleep 10 years later and discover a world war has broken out. The Autonomous Machine DZ is the root cause. He remembers that on the night when he was nearly killed, he had given the patch code to Mage, Nathan’s daughter, and knows that if he can get that code he might be able to stop the war. Did we mention that he has learned a skill that allows him to travel back into the past and get one attempt to affect the future? I know you’d think that makes it easy for him to set things right, but you’d be really surprised how difficult it is.

RErideD has a couple of key things in common with Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YUNO. We have sinister corporations in both stories. The corporations are both attempting to hide the truth about something while at the same time profiting from it. We also have a lead character that has the ability to have more than one chance to get things right by adjusting the timeline. The story of RErideD may be a little confusing but the complexity is what makes it worth the ride.