A manga story, set as a prelude to the film, is the basis of the film, but the film is not a movie version of the book. Instead, the film is set as a continuation of the book in the same setting some twenty years later.
Plot:
Makoto Konno, a girl attending high school in Tokyo’s shitamachi, gains the power to go back in time and re-do things (the time-leap) when she gets involved in an accident at a train crossing one day…
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Review:
“The Girl Who Leapt through Time” is anime of rare pedigree. Director Mamoru Hosoda, the Ghibli refugee originally slated to helm Howl’s Moving Castle, Gainax’s master character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and longtime Ghibli art director Nizo Yamamoto coming together at Madhouse to adapt a story by Paprika author Yasutaka Tsutsui? Sounds like it should be absolute magic… and it very nearly is.
The Girl Who Leapt through Time has more in common with some of the best shoujo manga than Tsutsui’s other recently-animated work Paprika. The maturity, the gravity, and the deep symbolism of the latter has been replaced here with the wistful buoyancy that only the Japanese seem to be able to associate with high school. The winding, narrow streets of suburban Tokyo haven’t looked this gorgeous since Whisper of the Heart.
The good news is that the rest of the film is so much fun that this seems likes a minor concern. The characters, Makoto and Chiaki in particular, are so lovable that spending time with them is a joy. Makoto, with all her high-spirited but thoughtless energy, feels like Sana-chan from Kodocha grown up. Chiaki feels like a shoujo version of Ichigo from Bleach. Voices supplied by live action teen actors Riisa Naka (from the Japanese drama version of My Boss, My Hero) and Takuya Ishida (Night Time Picnic) lend just the right amount of realism (I much prefer this approach to voice acting over the use of traditional seiyuu). Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s sumptuous linework takes simple curves and makes them so compelling, we’d be content if the characters did nothing but sit there.
As Makoto jumps, she learns more and more about what the people around her are really thinking, and how much of a self-absorbed bubble she’s been living in. The lessons she learns about herself and her friends are heartwarming and triumphant. If only the conclusion could have taken the ball and run with it, we could have had a masterpiece. But instead, we’ll have to settle for “great.” Like Makoto, we’ll just have to deal with it.
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My review:
It is very interesting, unique and touching story about friendship, love, and decisions. In the story, Makoto is a very simple kind of girl with her two friends that is always playing catch after school, but after the incident, that give her the ability to leap through time. She has been altering everything making their friendship fail. And in the end she’s the one who suffers most because as she changes one thing it affects everything around her. Everything she did is not as good as she thinks it is.
The morale of the story is that, as written, “Time waits for no one.” That time is irreversible, inevitable and it continuously moving on that can’t wait for anything. There are things that should need to be fix from the past, however you cannot go back to alter something, but instead you can decide whether live with the past or change the present to make the future desirable.
The animation is somewhat fair. But the plot makes it a perfect movie. I just can’t help but acknowledge the movie. It may have less visual effects but as it portrays the story, it is understandable. Although, I’m just a bit confused if the setting only happens in a day or two. And one thing, why does she always blasts in the garbage or in the wall, why can’t she just leap and land safely? Just wondering though.. anyway, for the rating I give 5/5…
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