While Western audiences constantly look to science fiction to get a feel for what the future might look like, anime is often overlooked when they pull out their crystal balls. This is a shame because the talented forces behind one of the world's most popular artforms have an extremely distinctive outlook on what is to come.

From robot pocket cat children's shows to battling it out on Mars with the Judeo-Christian god, Japan's authors and artists have looked to the future with awe, hope, nuclear world wars, horrible space aliens, and giant, highly destructive mecha (that also make for very marketable toys). It's often bleak, terrifying or just strange, but it's always awesome. Here's a timeline of what humanity has to look forward to, if the anime-masters are correct.