Anime Like Time After Time
If you loved Time After Time's Drama and Sci-Fi & Fantasy storytelling, these anime deliver a similar experience — selected for art style, narrative depth, and emotional impact. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks
Mr. Mercedes
A demented serial killer taunts a retired police detective with a series of lurid letters and emails, forcing the ex-cop to undertake a private, and potentially felonious, crusade to bring the killer to justice before he can strike again.
Continuum
The series centers on the conflict between a group of rebels from the year 2077 who time-travel to Vancouver, BC, in 2012, and a police officer who accidentally accompanies them. In spite of being many years early, the rebel group decides to continue its violent campaign to stop corporations of the future from replacing governments, while the police officer endeavours to stop them without revealing to anyone that she and the rebels are from the future.
The Day of the Jackal
An unrivalled and highly elusive lone assassin, the Jackal, makes his living carrying out hits for the highest fee. But following his latest kill, he meets his match in a tenacious British intelligence officer who starts to track down the Jackal in a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe, leaving destruction in its wake.
Reacher
Jack Reacher, a veteran military police investigator, has just recently entered civilian life. Reacher is a drifter, carrying no phone and the barest of essentials as he travels the country and explores the nation he once served.
The Institute
When 14 year old genius Luke Ellis is kidnapped, he awakens at The Institute, a facility full of children who all got there the same way he did, and who are all possessed of unusual abilities. In a nearby town, haunted former police officer Tim Jamieson has come looking to start a new life, but the peace and quiet won’t last, as his story and Luke’s are destined to collide.
Coroner
Jenny Cooper investigates unexplained or sudden deaths in the city of Toronto. Fierce and quick-witted, Jenny is a newly-widowed single mother with secrets of her own to unearth.
Black Sails
The pirate adventures of Captain Flint and his men twenty years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island.” Flint, the most brilliant and most feared pirate captain of his day, takes on a fast-talking young addition to his crew who goes by the name John Silver. Threatened with extinction on all sides, they fight for the survival of New Providence Island, the most notorious criminal haven of its day – a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers, a place defined by both its enlightened ideals and its stunning brutality.
More Anime Like Time After Time
Tales from the Darkside
Tales from the Darkside is an anthology horror TV series created by George A. Romero, each episode was an individual short story that ended with a plot twist. The series' episodes spanned the genres of horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and some episodes featured elements of black comedy or more lighthearted themes.
The Flash
After being struck by lightning, CSI investigator Barry Allen awakens from a nine-month coma to discover he has been granted the gift of super speed. Teaming up with S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry takes on the persona of The Flash, the Fastest Man Alive, to protect his city.
Fantasy Island
This contemporary version of the classic drama series delves into the “what if” questions that keep us awake at night. Each episode tells emotional, provocative stories about people who walk in with a desire, but end up reborn to themselves through the magical realism of Fantasy Island.
Agatha Christie's Marple
The adventures of Miss Jane Marple, an elderly spinster living in the quiet little village of St Mary Mead. During her many visits to friends and relatives in other villages, Miss Marple often stumbles upon mysterious murders which she helps solve. Although the police are sometimes reluctant to accept Miss Marple's help, her reputation and unparalleled powers of observation eventually win them over.
Goosebumps
A group of five high schoolers embark on a shadowy and twisted journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle – while also unearthing dark secrets from their parents' past.
Tales from the Loop
The story of the town and people who live above “The Loop,” a machine built to unlock and explore the mysteries of the universe – making things possible that were previously relegated only to science fiction.
Travelers
Hundreds of years from now, the last surviving humans discover the means of sending consciousness back through time, directly into people in the 21st century. These "travelers" assume the lives of seemingly random people, while secretly working as teams to perform missions in order to save humanity from a terrible future.
NOS4A2
A young Victoria "Vic" McQueen discovers she has the power to unlock portals that help her find lost objects. As she delves further into this hidden universe, she encounters many other "inscape travelers" - some benevolent, and some who have been corrupted by their power. When Vic encounters Charlie Manx, an immortal who stays that way by feeding off of the souls of children, she makes a sworn enemy of Manx.
Scream: The TV Series
What starts as a YouTube video going viral, soon leads to problems for the teenagers of Lakewood and serves as the catalyst for a murder that opens up a window to the town's troubled past. Everyone has secrets. Everyone tells lies. Everyone is fair game.
The Purge
Set in a dystopian America ruled by a totalitarian political party, the series follows several seemingly unrelated characters living in a small city. Tying them all together is a mysterious savior who’s impeccably equipped for everything the night throws at them. As the clock winds down with their fates hanging in the balance, each character is forced to reckon with their pasts as they discover how far they will go to survive the night.
Ripper Street
A drama set in the East End of London in 1889, during the aftermath of the "Ripper" murders. The action centres around the notorious H Division – the police precinct from hell – which is charged with keeping order in the chaotic streets of Whitechapel. Ripper Street explores the lives of characters trying to recover from the Ripper's legacy, from crimes that have not only irretrievably altered their lives, but the very fabric of their city. At the drama's heart our detectives try to bring a little light into the dark world they inhabit.
12 Monkeys
The provocative story of Cole, a time traveler from a decimated future in a high-stakes race against the clock. Utilizing a dangerous and untested method of time travel, he journeys from 2043 to the present day on a mission to locate and eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will all but annihilate the human race.
Why These Anime Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Time After Time (2017): Drama and Sci-Fi & Fantasy themes, comparable animation style, and similar narrative pacing. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface anime most likely to resonate with fans of Time After Time.
See full details for Time After Time (2017)