There is a lot of science fiction anime out there, and it blends so well with other popular types of anime like magical girl and mecha that it's practically everywhere. Anime that takes place entirely in a pre-technological period is fairly rare, so there's a lot of inspiration for those viewers searching for future predictions in their anime movies and shows.
Predicting future technology is one way that science fiction can either be heralded as ahead of its time or hilariously wrong. Hindsight is always 20/20, so here are a few sci-fi anime that accurately predicted the future. Sometimes it's a more general guess about a device or trend, but other times it's a very specific prediction about an important event.
6 Sailor Moon: Bluetooth And Smart Devices
That mini-computer of Sailor Mercury's doesn't look so strange these days. It's just a smartphone with a keyboard. At the time it was symbolic of her ingenuity and role as the brains of the Sailor Soldiers, but these days everyone has a watch, a pair of glasses, or some other stylish accessory that's also a computer. There was also a communication device that included a camera that showed the caller's face.
Fans who have an idea for detail will note that Mercury also used a pair of goggles to use with her mini-computer that had a wireless connection, a prediction of future Bluetooth use. The other, smaller devices that were also part of a package that included wands and watches don't look exactly the same, but it's pretty close, especially with programs like Facetime.
5 Sword Art Online: VR MMORPGs
Sword Art Online brought new life to both the science fiction and romance genre with some gorgeous artwork and a story that revolved around the trending world of MMORPGs and VR technology. The idea was similar to Ready Player One but with a more deeply immersive gaming experience with much higher stakes.
The real world can't do what the VR headsets in SAO did when it was released ten years ago, at least not yet. The popularity of the idea, along with the production of more affordable headsets in more middle-class homes, had prompted some serious investment and research into the development of VR and the day might be coming even sooner than we thought.
4 Akira: 2020 Tokyo Olympics
This one is eerily specific and probably wasn't even made with the attention of being correct but more as just part of improving the movie's immersion factor. There's a billboard in the background of one scene that's advertising the location of the 2020 Olympic Games as Neo-Tokyo. That's what came to pass, and we got to skip the war part.
The setting of Akira is Neo-Tokyo, the rebuilt version of the original Tokyo, which was partly destroyed in World War III. Other than this small technicality, the movie successfully predicted where the 2020 Olympics would take place.
3 Macross Plus: Virtual Idols
Sharon Apple wasn't the first virtual idol to appear in a sci-fi anime. However, she could be the most accurate when it comes to her appearance, her public image and the marketing campaigns surrounding her concerts, and how she was built and developed in the first place. There are a few scenes in the movie (which is also a four-episode miniseries) that show the actual technical specs along with less abstract concepts that bring the whole thing together.
Macross Plus doesn't just predict the rise of virtual idols but the social media they use to gain followers and connect emotionally with their fans. All that's left is the virtual replacement for emotional responses, which is one of this anime's prevailing themes.
2 Ghost In The Shell: Cyberattacks And Information Warfare
Most of the movie is about the main character, Mokoto, finding out who her real enemies are while determining the meaning of her own existence. In her world, conventional warfare, the kind that involves trenches and tanks, is obsolete. The biggest army in the world can't compete with a concise and perfectly timed cyber attack.
It's not just stopping the flow of information, but also twisting it, absorbing and understanding it, and replacing it with something else. Modern information warfare is based on this same concept from more than twenty years ago. Ghost In The Shell is about questioning reality, and every reality is based on the flow of information. Modern viewers might call it "fake news" or another version of Twitter.
1 Dragon Ball Z: Google Goggles
In the anime, these are called Scouters, and they are similar to the accessories we saw Ami Mizuno using in Sailor Moon but in an even more futuristic way. These always seem to be worn over one eye and can measure the power levels of enemies along with acting as a camera and communication device.
The designs might not exactly be what one would market in this timeline on Earth, cool with designer colors but maybe a little heavy on one side. On the other hand, Google Glass is still in its early stages and most of the complaints are about the design, so maybe there's no way to make these things look good. Another anime needs to come forward and make that prediction.