Anime With Non-chronological Episodes

Why make it so confusing???!!! It’s already bad enough that some anime series have its plot that is entirely hard to follow and even more so for simpleton viewers like yours truly. Then they have to take it to the next level and suddenly show it out of order! Like, WTF???!!! Why make life so complicating???!!! As if our misery in trying to understand what is going is already bad enough, they want us to do some mental gymnastics and play 4D chess, huh??! And so listed below are the anime series that have its episodes shown in non-chronological order.

Anime: Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu.
Comment: Perhaps the most famously infamous series to have its episodes order all over the place except for one episode (episode 12). Luckily the next season didn’t follow this format. Though, that freaking Endless Eight arc literally killed it for many people.

Anime: Peach Boy Riverside.
Comment: This is the most recent anime that has its episodes shown in this confusing manner. Worse, it was announced they intentionally wanted to show in this shuffled manner. If that wasn’t bad enough, there was another version which showed the actual broadcasting order but only aired exclusively via the dAnime Store streaming platform. Good thing from all of this? I didn’t watch this show. Phew.

Anime: Princess Principal.
Comment: Among all the animes listed on this list, this steampunk spy thriller is my favourite one. Due to the standalone style of each episode, the cases are quite independent and episodic of each other didn’t bring much headache. Even if you want to piece the timeline in chronological order, many of the episodes still stand independently. However not all the episodes are topsy-turvy as 5 of the episodes are shown in legit order (episodes 4, 9-12).

Anime: Rental Magica.
Comment: Another anime that I didn’t watch so I can’t comment much. They only thing I can say is that not all the episodes are also shown out of order and those in actual chronological orders include episodes 4, 16-20.

Anime: Hidamari Sketch.
Comment: Surprise! I didn’t even know this art themed anime was actually shown out of chronological order. Perhaps it is the random skits of each episode that are so independent of each other never made me think much about it. Because each episode title has a date in it, you can pretty much put the pieces of the puzzle together and watch it in order. But I doubt that would make any difference. This is the longest anime with non-chronological episodes as it has 3 seasons and various OVAs and specials under its belt. Though, no new episodes or seasons since it last aired in 2013. Oh sh*t! That’s like almost 10 years ago!

Anime: Jinrui Wa Suitaishimashita.
Comment: Weird show. Although its non-chronological feature is not very obvious, the parts that are shuffled are mainly the story arcs within the season. This means if you watch an arc that lasts for a usually a couple episodes, those episodes in that arc will not be jumbled up. But still, making this already weird and confusing series to be even weirder and more confusing. Truly, the anime industry has not declined, right???!!!

Anime: Touka Gettan.
Comment: Yet another anime I didn’t watch. But unlike other animes on this list that have no clue in which episode is to be expected, this one has a particular ‘method’. That’s right. The series shows its entire season backwards. The last episode is shown first, so forth, so forth and until the final episode which is actually the first episode of the series. So with this systematic order, you could say that this is a chronologically non-chronological anime?

Can We Get Some Order, Please?
This list is not meant to be exhaustive but there’s so much I can find. Yeah, the more I try to find, the more confused I got so I’m just going to leave it here for today. Of course you would notice that there are some seemingly non-chronologically styled anime series not mentioned here especially the popular retro, Baccano. While this anime has several stories that are not told in chronological order, however you still need to see the broadcasted episode order for the entire series to make sense. It is the in-story that is skipping around and not the airing order. Get what I’m trying to say? This means shows like Mawaru Penguindrum that relies heavily on flashbacks to progress the plot are not counted. The same can be said for other series like the Monogatari Series and the Kara No Kyoukai movies. They come in different seasons that are not in the chronological order but within that same season their episodes are in order, so it definitely doesn’t count.

Then there is Boogiepop Phantom and Boogiepop Wa Warawanai. I didn’t see this one and trying to think if it fits here confused the hell out of me since both series have episodes intertwined with each other although all the episodes are independent of each other and sometimes shown from different individual perspectives. I got so confused so I just left it out. So we have seen that some animes work with this type of style as long as the stories are not following a huge linear format and it becomes dependent on the overall narrative. It is enjoyable when it is seamless and unnoticeable. Hence non-chronological formats are mostly for the shock and surprise factor. The moment it starts to get confusing, that’s when they already lost me. My life is already messy and chaotic, I don’t need more confusion to further f*ck it up.