Something that almost always ends up being a big deal in manga is a timeskip. While that’s often the case in all media, manga, especially, tends to completely change the trajectory and tone of its stories when the author uses a timeskip, and the results almost always succeed at taking a story to even greater heights.
Timeskips always have a way of redefining a series, and some manga did a particularly great job of encapsulating that idea. In many cases, a manga will go through a timeskip as a means of shaking up the status quoone last time for its final story arc, but more often than not, it will be used as a symbol of how the cast is supposed to have matured from certain events and that the story will have gone through a similar growth, as well.
Whatever the case, there are many manga that have excelled at using a timeskip to its fullest potential, making them stand out despite the popularity of this trope.
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10 Magi: The Labyrinth Of Magic Completely Changed Its World For Its Final Arc
By Shinobu Ohtaka
Release Year | 2009 |
Number Of Volumes | 37 |
Where To Read It | Viz |
Following a series of climactic battles that changed nearly everyone’s allegiances, Alibaba’s soul returned to his body after three years, and he found out that not only were his friends all missing, but that in his absence, Sinbad had essentially taken over the world and caused technology to advance to a futuristic state. This sudden shift in Shinobu Ohtaka’s Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic forced Alibaba to quickly adapt to things as he prepared to deal with King David, and it made for a lot of great tension and great writing as the series entered its final arc.
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9 Animal Land‘s Timeskip Highlighted The Massive Stakes Of Its Final Arc
By Makoto Raiku
Release Year | 2009 |
Number Of Volumes | 14 |
Where To Read It | Unavailable |
Another manga that had a big timeskip for its final arc is Makoto Raiku’s Animal Land, one of the many incredible manga that will never get an anime adaptation. Following the tragic death of Monoko, Animal Land skipped ahead five years, when a teenage Taroza has amassed a massive army of animals to fight Giller’s chimeras and take control of the Tower of Babel to unite all animal cries and end the survival of the fittest that defined their world. The timeskip finally brought Animal Land to a point where the author could fully explore the dark and poignant themes that had always been present in the manga, and it made the final arc feature some of the best writing in his entire career.
8 Vinland Saga Found Its True Identity With Its Timeskip
By Makoto Yukimura
Release Year | 2005 |
Number Of Volumes | 27 |
Where To Read It | K Manga |
A timeskip will often be used to solidify the type of story a series is truly meant to be, and one manga that perfectly exemplifies that is Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga. Following Askeladd’s death and Thorfinn being robbed of his revenge, Vinland Saga moved forward one year to when Thorfinn, now left without purpose, is forced to contemplate what he should do with his life, leading to him becoming a man who seeks peace as the only option at all costs. Vinland Saga‘s timeskip completely changed its genre, but it’s clear that it was always meant to be a more philosophical story, and it’s been all the better because of it.
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7 Attack On Titan Fully Committed To Its Political & Moral Ideologies
By Hajime Isayama
Release Year | 2009 |
Number Of Volumes | 34 |
Where To Read It | K Manga |
After Eren and his friends learned the truth of their world and reached the ocean, Attack on Titan skipped ahead four years and fully brought the conflict with Marley into the forefront, and from there, the series became far more open with the political rhetoric and discussions of morality that had been present from day one. That change in genre and tone redefined Attack on Titan as it entered its final story arc, and that helped give it one of the biggest and most impactful endings of any manga in the past decade.
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6 Fist Of The North Star Doubled Down On Its Biggest Selling Point
By Buronson & Tetsuo Hara
Release Year | 1983 |
Number Of Volumes | 27 |
Where To Read It | Unavailable |
A timeskip doesn’t have to reinvent its story, and a perfect example of that is Buronson and Tetsuo Hara’s Fist of the North Star. Following the death of Raoh, Fist of the North Star moved forward enough years for Lin and Bat to become adults and join Kenshiro, now heartbroken by Yuria’s death, as he continues to fight against the evils of their post-apocalyptic world wherever they may be. It was essentially the same sort of story as before, but there was no need to change such a winning formula, and the decision to explicitly make Kenshiro a messianic figure made for some excellent writing in the story’s second half.
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5 Fairy Tail Completely Reversed Where The Heroes Stood In The World
By Hiro Mashima
Release Year | 2006 |
Number Of Volumes | 63 |
Where To Read It | K Manga |
Timeskips became fairly common among the biggest manga of the 2000s and 2010s, and one noteworthy example came from Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail. Following the massive cliffhanger of Acnologia seemingly killing all the principal cast members, Fairy Tail skipped ahead seven years to reveal that everyone had secretly survived and had been frozen in time by Mavis Vermillion, and they returned to find that Fairy Tail had become the weakest guild in the nation, and they were now seen as losers. It was a complete reversal of Fairy Tail‘s status quo, and seeing everyone work to restore their name made for one of the manga’s best story arcs.
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4 Naruto‘s Timeskip Finally Let The Characters & Story Grow Up
By Masashi Kishimoto
Release Year | 1999 |
Number Of Volumes | 72 |
Where To Read It | Manga Plus, Viz |
Each of Weekly Shonen Jump‘s “Big Three” had a timeskip at some point, and the first to do so was Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto. Part 1 of Naruto ended with Naruto leaving to train with Jiraiya so he could one day bring Sasuke back, and two in-universe years later, Naruto and his friends returned as young adults with new powers and the newfound responsibility to both find Sasuke and defeat the looming threat of the Akatsuki. This era would be referred to as Naruto: Shippuden, and it served to set the tone for what the franchise would be like for years to come, even after the end of the original series.
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3 One Piece‘s Timeskip Finally Made The Straw Hats Major Players In The World
By Eiichiro Oda
Release Year | 1997 |
Number Of Volumes | 107 |
Where To Read It | Manga Plus, Viz |
The second of Weekly Shonen Jump’s “Big Three” to have a timeskip, and arguably the most iconic of the three, was Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. With their defeat at Sabaody Archipelago and the death of Ace making it clear how weak they all were, the Straw Hat Pirates spent two years training and mastering new abilities, and when they finally reunited, they were more than ready to survive in the New World. One Piece‘s timeskip did a great job of solidifying the Straw Hat Pirates as major players in the world, and over a decade later, it easily remains the most iconic era of the franchise.
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2 Bleach Used Its Timeskip To Show Ichigo’s True Character
By Tite Kubo
Release Year | 2001 |
Number Of Volumes | 74 |
Where To Read It | Manga Plus, Viz |
The last of Weekly Shonen Jump‘s “Big Three” to have a timeskip was, of course, Tite Kubo’s Bleach. After defeating Aizen at the cost of his spiritual powers, Bleach skipped ahead 17 months to show Ichigo living his life after losing his Soul Reaper abilities. The Lost Agent arc thus ends up focusing primarily on uncovering what truly makes Ichigo who he is, after bringing him back to his starting point, before he awakened his Soul Reaper powers. While fans generally disliked the arc for its villains, none of Bleach’s contemporaries at the time were engaging in that sort of serious character writing, and it helped make Bleach’s post-timeskip content stand out before the series moved to its final arc.
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1 Dragon Ball Wouldn’t Be What It Is Today Without Its Timeskip
By Akira Toriyama
Release Year | 1984 |
Number Of Volumes | 42 |
Where To Read It | Manga Plus, Viz |
While it may sound obvious, perhaps the most important timeskip in manga history happens Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball. After Goku defeated Piccolo and married Chi-Chi, Dragon Ball moved ahead five years when Goku, now a father, found out he was an alien and had to defend the planet from his warmongering brethren. This resulted in Dragon Ball becoming a sci-fi epic that always made its battles as big in scale as possible, cementing its place as one of the most influential series of all time and inspiring countless successors. That change helped make Dragon Ball one of the biggest manga franchises of all time, and it’s easy to see why it’s one of the best manga timeskips of all time.
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