Best Anime Characters Who Can Manipulate Time

Key Takeaways

• Time manipulation in anime is an exciting ability reserved for the strongest characters, shaping worlds and defeating foes.
• Crunchyroll offers thrilling anime with time travel elements, showcasing unique ways characters wield time manipulation.
• Despite its power, time manipulation comes with drawbacks, requiring intelligence to wield correctly in iconic manga/anime characters.

Time manipulation is one of the most exciting abilities that only the strongest anime characters can use properly. Only a few anime characters have this unique ability that can help them defeat great foes and easily change their world for the better and in some cases to the worst.

anime

Anime fans can get lost in thrilling stories inspired by time travel and time manipulation abilities while watching some of the best anime on Crunchyroll or on any of their preferred platform. Anime creators came up with fun ideas to incorporate time manipulation into their stories and gave their characters this special magical or scientific power in a sometimes surprising but always engaging and highly entertaining way.

Updated November 29th, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter: Time-based abilities are always incredibly strong in any form of media, though they are also pretty difficult to understand as well, so there are pros and cons. Regardless, with anime characters in particular, time-based powers often completely destroy the power scaling of whatever they appear in, and for good reason. What danger is there really if you can just go back in time and make it as if nothing ever happened in the first place? There are many different ‘types’ of time-based powers though, which might surprise some people, so with that in mind why don’t we take an in-depth look at some of the most well-known and most powerful time powers in anime history?

16 Satoru Fujinuma

Erased

Starting things off with a very off-the-walls pick compared to a lot of the other characters we’ll be mentioning below, let’s talk about Satoru Fujinuma and his ‘Revival’ ability. Now, compared to just about every other anime character with time-based abilities, Revival is pretty hard to argue for since Satoru can’t actively control it. Rather, Satoru can usually tell when it’s about to trigger due to an ominous feeling of Deja Vu and then react to it accordingly.

With proper usage and adaptation to this ability, Satoru can pretty much prevent any event from happening, as he does so multiple times over the course of Erased. However, because the use conditions are so unpredictable and it’s an ability almost entirely out of Satoru’s control, it’s one of the weaker time-based abilities on this list.

15 Diavolo

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Next up is probably one of the most iconic time-based powers in all of history, King Crimson. King Crimson is the stand of Diavolo, the primary antagonist of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind. Now, anyone who has watched this season of JoJo or heard about King Crimson online knows that explaining how King Crimson’s time-based abilities work is incredibly confusing. Because of the ability itself and how it functions, actually explaining how it works usually leads to more confusion than anything else.

So, with that in mind, we’re not going to go too deep into it, just know that King Crimson gives Diavolo the ability to interact with and then erase up to a 10-second span of time as he chooses, typically removing the ’cause’ of an action but leaving the ‘effect’. AKA Diavolo can start to throw a punch, activate King Crimson, and erase the time where the punch would travel through the air and connect with his opponent’s face so that, when the ability is deactivated, it’ll seem like Diavolo’s fist just ‘instantly’ connected with the punch with no way to avoid it. Again, very difficult to understand at a surface level, just know that this ability is time-based and incredibly overpowered.

14 Mephisto Pheles

Blue Exorcist

Moving on now to someone whose title is literally ‘The King of Time’ in their universe, let’s take a look at Mephisto Pheles in Blue Exorcist. Mephisto is one of the Eight Demon Kings of Gehenna as well as the half-brother of Rin Okumura, the protagonist of Blue Exorcist. When it comes to his time manipulation abilities, Mephisto literally holds domain over both time and space, typically using this power to inform his past self of future events, stop time (albeit briefly), and even summon a variety of items with abilities related to time such as the Cake Cuckoo Clock or the Strongest Prison.

For the most part, Mephisto serves as a guide, a teacher, and a side character in Blue Exorcist, rarely fighting himself, so the full extent of his time ‘wizardry’ tricks is still pretty unknown. But, even the minor amount that has been shown is enough to prove to most that Mephisto is an absurdly powerful demon.

13 Subaru Natsuki

Re: Zero

Next is a character who isn’t commonly known as a time-manipulator, but Subaru Natsuki actually makes use of his time abilities better than most other characters, let alone isekai protagonists. Granted, they aren’t technically ‘his’ abilities, as his self-named Return by Death ability is actually an Authority given to him by the Witch of Envy. Still, the ways in which Subaru utilizes this ability are entirely unique to him, and it effectively becomes his own power with how intricately he begins to understand the pros and cons of this ability.

For the most part, Subaru uses this ability to return back to a ‘save point’ instead of dying, while still retaining all the memories leading up to this death. With this, Subaru can essentially learn ahead of time how events will go, how the people around him will act, and what each decision eventually leads to. When it all comes together and Subaru goes through numerous loops trying to figure out the best method of getting through it for everyone involved, the successful ‘run’ ends up almost looking like Subaru can see the future and is unable to fail and the show itself dives into the philosophical side of this, as it constantly explores the depths of Subaru’s mind as he’s forced to die over and over.

12 Toki Kozuki

One Piece

Toki Kozuki is such an interesting character in One Piece. For one, her Devil Fruit (The Time-Time Fruit or the Toki Toki no Mi) is one of the rare few Devil Fruits that seems to have no real combat application. This means that, overall, Toki could only really use this power to jump forward in time whenever needed. With this ability, Toki Kozuki lived for over 810 years, technically, as she kept jumping forward through time each and every time she got cornered by enemies or danger. From what readers/viewers can tell by Toki’s appearance and explanation of her DF ability, the Time-Time Fruit only allows their user to jump forward in time, never backward. Additionally, it seems like a maximum of 20 years is all the user can do in a single jump.

Lastly, the user jumps forward in time, but their position doesn’t change, so those who use it or those sent forward in time by the Toki Toki no Mi user must be careful of where they actually make the jump. Overall, as far as time-manipulation abilities go, Toki’s Devil Fruit comes with a lot of drawbacks, but ultimately this Devil Fruit is what led to Wano finally being freed from Kaido’s oppressive rule.

11 Homura Akemi

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Homura Akemi is one of the shiest yet bravest warriors in Puella Magi Madoka Magica who can also manipulate time. Thanks to her magical shield Homura can manipulate time and space and uses her special ability to defeat evil and save Madoka from a terrible fate.

Homura Akemi is also a strong anime girl with time manipulation skills that allows her to create dozens of time loops as well as allows her to pause and rewind time. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a dark magical girl anime series with some of the strongest evil witches in anime and has an emotional and sad but action-packed story.

10 Eri

My Hero Academia

My Hero Academia‘s young Eri has one of the most powerful Quirk in the anime with almost unlimited potential. Eri’s Quirk is called Rewind and thanks to it, she can rewind time and reverse the state of any living organism. Thanks to her special ability, Eri can not only easily manipulate time but can heal injuries and diseases or can even rewind time until someone is erased from existence.

Even though Eri’s quirk is very strong she still can’t use it properly and while she has now a better control over it, she still has a long way to go before she could safely manipulate time. My Hero Academia has some of the most powerful heroes and villains in anime and many of them are capable of manipulating time in one way or another.

9 Baraggan Louisenbairn

Bleach

Baraggan Louisenbairn was a strong and terrifying anime villain with a time manipulation ability. While Baraggan was an egotistical character he had impressive fighting skills and was a highly intelligent God-King. The former king of Hueco Mundo could easily manipulate time and used his special ability during many battles to defeat his enemies.

Baraggan was able to slow time around him including his enemies’ movements, so then he could attack in real-time and easily win the fight. Bleach‘s story followed the adventures of Ichigo who became a soul reaper and went on an epic adventure to save the world. It’s a fun and action-filled anime with epic battles, powerful warriors, and some of the funniest and laziest anime characters.

8 Rintarou Okabe

Steins;Gate

Okabe Rintarou was able to manipulate time thanks to science. He was the hilarious mad scientist of Steins;Gate who accidentally invented a special machine with his lab group that allowed them to send messages back in time and to even time travel.

While Okabe was a highly intelligent character he was also eccentric and would first misuse his invention until he was faced with serious consequences. Okabe would end up going back in time hundreds of times while watching her dear friend die over and over again. Steins;Gate is one of the most iconic classic sci-fi anime about time travel and follows the adventures of Okabe and his team.

7 Makoto

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Makoto is probably the most famous anime character with time manipulation abilities that even non-anime fans recognize. She’s a young high school girl who learns that time waits for no one thanks to her special ability that lets her leap through time and visit the past whenever she wishes to. Her time traveling ability seems to be one that she inherited and is something she was born with.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a charming and inspirational anime movie about Makoto who feels lost and not sure what to do with her life when her high-school years are coming to an end. Soon she discovers that she can travel back in time and through various adventures, she soon learns life-altering lessons.

6 Dio Brando

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

Dio Brando is one of the most violent and power-hungry characters in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Unfortunately, he’s also a sadistic character who doesn’t care about others, and thanks to his powers he often gets what he wants. He’s even capable of stopping and re-starting time at will which benefited him and his dark ambitions many times.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has a unique story with surprisingly diverse characters including some of the most iconic blind anime characters. The anime follows the Joester family, who all have unnaturally strong psychic strength. Fans can follow these powerful characters as they go on various adventures and fight against evil.

5 Dimaria Yesta

Fairy Tail

Dimaria Yesta is one of the most powerful war-maidens in Fairy Tail who comes from the Mildian line. She was chosen by the God of Time, Chronos himself to be his vessel. Chronos gifted her with the ability to control time in the form of God Soul which proved to be more than useful during many of her dangerous adventures.

Fairy Tail is one of the most fun magical fantasy anime with fantastic characters, great stories, epic battles, and two of the best anime cats ever created. The story follows Lucy and her wizard guild’s adventures.

4 Tokisaki Kurumi

Date A Live

Tokisaki Kurumi is one of the most fascinating and powerful anime characters ever created. While she starts as a villain she eventually becomes one of the main protagonists in the story. While her main power is shadow manipulation she’s also capable of manipulating time. When she combines her unique abilities she can even create a perfect clone of herself.

Date A Live is a funny action anime about a young boy named Itsuka who meets a spirit girl. Soon he learns that this mysterious girl almost wiped out humanity in the past, and now he has to date her if he wants the human world to survive.

3 Dialga

Pokemon

Dialga is one of the most famous Legendary Pokemon thanks to its many appearances in the Franchise’s movies. This ancient deity is not only capable of controlling time but also one of the members of the creation trio of Sinnoh since Dialga represents time itself.

Pokemon is one of the most popular shows with iconic anime poses and it’s about Ash who goes on an epic journey to become the most powerful Trainer. The stories follow his and his favorite Pokemon, Pikachu adventures as they battle new creatures and make new friends while traveling the world.

2 Saiki Kusuo

The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K.

Saiki Kusuo is one of the most powerful anime characters with immense psychic abilities. He was born with his powers and is still unable to fully control them that’s why he has to wear a special device on his head. He’s even capable of manipulating time and traveling back and forth in time. He used his time manipulation abilities on multiple occasions to help friends and to save his parents’ marriage.

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. is one of the most feel-good anime series with one of the most introverted and stylish anime protagonists. The story follows Saiki who tries to conceal and hide his psychic abilities because he just wants to live a normal life. However, thanks to his quirky friends he has to use his secret abilities way more often than he’d like.

1 Julius Novachrono

Black Clover

Julius Novachrono is one of the most powerful magic knight captains who is also a strong time manipulator. He wasn’t born with this unique magical ability but learned how to activate it and control it over time. He can not only speed, slow, or stop time but can reverse the flow of time or even steal and store it. Thanks to his immense time manipulation abilities he was even able to escape death itself.

Black Clover is a fun adventure anime filled with epic and magical battles. The story follows the adventures of two young boys who are called Asta and Yuno as they go on a journey and compete for the role of Emperor Magus.