Time travel is one of the most romantic elements of a sci-fi love story. The impossibility of it symbolizes the sometimes very irrational nature of love. Romance thrives when beloved characters fight in a world where love isn’t just chemicals in your head, but a tangible super power.
Erased was my introduction to anime with time travel, specifically the kind where someone has to save his loved one’s life from coming danger. Satoru is a manga artist and a pizza delivery guy who for an unknown reason (as it always is with these stories) gains the ability to travel moments back in time in order to save someone from an oncoming disaster. Then in a shocking turn of events involving murder and betrayal, Satoru is transported back in time to his 6th grade self with the mission to save his classmates, one stoic female in particular, from an unknown kidnapper and serial killer (spoilers ahead!).
Time travel in Erased can be described as a side-kick who helps save the day at the last minute (Think of Robin retrieving the noble “Shark Repellent” for Batman hanging out of a helicopter). Satoru is indebted to the mysterious time travel force he calls “revival”, but at the same time is quite frustrated with how it leaves him to fend for himself when he is in compromising situations. One would think if time travel were possible that he would be a little more gracious to his muse-like guide.
At the end of the grand adventure centering around a guy going completely out of his way to protect a girl, Satoru is struck with quite the turn of bad luck. The hopes the audience has for Satoru and the darling Hinazuki are trampled when Satoru is thrown into a decade long coma while she marries his best friend. This is where time travel seems to just be a cruel mistress in the world of romance. Not only does Satoru lose his wonder years of life, he loses any chance that the girl he saved would become his forever companion.
But this turn of events begs the question, is the story trying to convey that doing the right thing for its own sake is more important than winning the girl’s love? Or perhaps time travel has shown Satoru a stroke of love in teaching him a valuable but expensive life lesson. Believe it or not, Jesus preached on such matters, too, saying,“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Satoru’s self sacrifice is done in the spirit of this teaching.
Orange uses the time travel idea, too, and is one of the loveliest romances that I’ve seen. It hits right in the feels of regret and shame, very representative of the values of Japanese culture. Here, time travel plays a mysterious and gentle role. The characters get to set the rules of the game, which strengthens and highlights the power of a common goal.
Orange is the story of a young school girl Naho and her companions befriending a troubled transfer student Kakeru. Naho isn’t too keen on being particularly friendly to the boy, but after she receives a letter from her future self warning her about Kakeru’s coming successful suicide. When Naho starts realizing that the letters are indeed predicting the future, Naho takes action and becomes driven to save Kakeru’s life. (More spoilers ahead!)
I am also very appreciative of the fact that in this anime, the gender roles have switched. It’s the girl (and friends) trying to save the boy from death. Time travel is tender and loving and gives plenty of room for character development and a somber tone. Here, time travel is calling out that love is more than being “in love.” Agape (godly love) and Eros (romantic love) are equal players in the game of protection and sacrifice.
Suwa shows the greatest love for his friend by giving up his romance for Naho in order to save Kakeru’s life. While some may see this as a tragedy, I see it as a beautiful expression of true brotherly love. In this day and age, emotional sacrifice is hard to come by, and I believe we must relentlessly celebrate it when we find it. This represents the spirit of what Jesus is saying in John 15:13. While Suwa didn’t lose his life, he lost part of his heart when he gave up his future wife. Jesus is trying to encourage us to see the value in other people’s lives even if it means sacrificing our own.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Lastly, one of my fondest anime of all time is Your Name. Time travel in this story is portrayed as an outpouring of the Shinto gods in honor of love and innocent devotion. Here, the mystical force has more of a familiar loving face that hears the prayers of our lead characters. Time travel is a partner character.
Your Name is the story of young love and coming of age- with a twist. Mitsuha lives in a sleepy spiritual village. Taki lives a fast high life in Tokyo, the kind of life Mitsuha wishes she had. When Mitsuha’s wish to the gods to become an attractive Tokyo school boy, Mitsuha and Taki meet under uncomfortable and unexpected circumstances.
Let’s not leave out the wonder of the visuals that added so much to the character development of the time travel kami. As the viewers watch the glowing of the dancing comet, the flow of the ribbon in Mitsuha’s hair, and the twinkle of the sun on the crater lake, the audience feels a sense of nostalgia and redemption. Even when all hope seems lost, the captivating art keeps hope alive—hope that the mysterious time travel gods will bestow their grace upon young lovers.
Time travel is quite the hard element to pull off. Since science fiction has made time travel a mainstream character in movies, TV, and books, it has become a part of the culture of this world. Sometimes, time travel is used for the purpose of exploration and learning—food for the thinkers. Recently, the industry has used time travel as a vessel to carry love that has yet to be directly expressed, entertainment for the feelers. And yet, time travel can only play a supporting role in portraying the true depth of the nature of love. But that’s the power of it—even time travel has to take a back seat to the glory of love.
- TangleCast 46: The Abridged Episode - 01.22.2019
- 12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 10: The Ancient Magus Bride - 12.23.2018
- Interview with “Samurai Dan” at Kumoricon 2018 - 11.13.2018
I don’t really watch sci-fi
Orange and Your Name (Kimi no na wa) are good sci-fi stories for people who aren’t fans of sci-fi, because they’re really romance stories with sci-fi elements. Orange is a shoujo, one that’s very emotional and known to make lots of people cry. Your Name is a good balance of comedy and romance, and has its tearful moments, too!
🙂 yeah I can be emotional sometimes
It’s definitely an acquired taste.
🙂
I felt like I actually went through time travel when I went to San Francisco a couple years ago. The state is a few hours behind where I normally live.
(in actual time)
That’s true for me as well when I visit home from college. Time is a strange thing!
Lol
Erased was awesome and Steins:Gate was good but time travel as a plot device is rarely appealling to me. I feel it encourages the ideas that somehow we can mess with the narrative of our lives, as well as others by altering something in the past instead of learning from it. I also think time travel requires too many intellectual acrobatics. Paradoxes or even multiverse parallel time lines create issues of logic.
I think the appeal of time travel in shows is that it does stretch logic. People like to have their brains exercised with paradoxes. By nature a paradox is illogical and unfamiliar, so it stimulates the senses in ways other forms of story telling can’t. I think time travel can be a learning tool because it shows how to apply a concept after learning the lesson. I think time travel can also show attributes of God’s character in that it gives the user grace to “fix” something that by the laws of nature cannot allow. It’s saying that there is a higher power then nature, it has an empathetic side, and is going to use its transcendence for good- that’s a pretty good description of God!
Man, I so enjoyed Erased! To me, Revival seemed less like an ability since the MC couldn’t control it; it was something that happened to him. At one point, he even utters a desperate cry very close to a prayer begging to be sent back. And while he lost a lot, I also felt a sort of grace operating there, as he meets up with the younger woman who had been supportive in previous timelines and gets a new chance to build a friendship all over again. Also, I kind of shipped them. 😉
Second chances are so powerful! I shipped them too and I was quite sad when they didn’t get together! Ah well, there is always fan fiction!
ERASED.
When the girl he saved is married, the MC smiles, crying tears.
He really sacrificed his life not for his own desires but for only her happiness.
You are right. And I think that’s what makes the show so much more beautiful, he didn’t want to get anything out of it because he loved her. We don’t see that a lot in our reality.
Erased was my real introduction to anime, too! I subscribe every word. I keep coming back to the story: to be an adult and a child at once, wide awake, mature, competent and conscious, but open, simple-minded, hopeful, desiring to be a hero. “Your name” was great, and I loved the delicacy and humanity with which the contrasts and the similarities of the main characters were portrayed. And I haven´t seen Orange, so I skipped those paragraphs when reading and I´ll come back when I´m done.
I think time travel is perfect to illustrate vocation and how some things (like love itself, or sin) trascend time: the time traveller is called to have a role in a particular situation, to discover it and to carry it to the end, and great things depend of him or her fulfilling that role. And as our vocation has to do with love in a particular, specific way, and be a sign and sort of a channel for others (like Satoru and Taki), these stories resonate with us. Thank you for the review!
While Steins;Gate is more sci-fi and less romance, I’m still heavily reminded of how Christina used science (Einstein’s Theory of Relativity) to speak romantically at a certain point in the story. Also I think the overall story of Steins;Gate has some virtues to speak of in romance (more so love in general), so I’m a little surprised that it wasn’t mentioned at all, but still a really cool post!
I’m not sure if the author has seen Steins;gate, actually! Buttt, I will draw your attention toward an article I wrote about time travel and a more applicable topic, as this article does, but one which does emphasize Steins;gate: https://geekdomhouse.com/the-problem-with-time-loops/
I never heard of Erased before. I’ll check it out! I loved Your Name. I got to watch it last year with some friends. It caught my attention off the shelf and I hosted a jello party. We were crying and yelling throughout the movie. 🙂 I bought the Orange manga recently at the San Japan convention this year though. I thought it looked interesting, haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
Jello Party! That sounds awesome fun! You will love watching Orange. It’s a great emotional ride.