The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

One of the better directed anime films, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was a work of genius. The film starts by only giving glimpses of the characters and the setting. In the meantime the credits role in between these scenes. You get the feeling you are watching a big budget drama film. The movie will fool you over and over again.

The Plot of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Leaping Through Time

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time starts out a bit slow. Makoto Konno is a very clumsy high school girl. She is not smart, but not dumb either. She is average. She has two male friends which she plays baseball with, Chiaki Mamiya and Kōsuke Tsuda. Makoto goes to put up note books from her class. She stumbles into the science room after hearing a noise and falls onto a shell of some kind. On her way home her brakes on her bicycle stop working and she hits a RR crossing guard. She is thrown from her bike and the train hits her. She wakes up a few feet before the train tracks and is still alive. This is where she begins to notice she has the ability to leap through time. Literally, she leaps through time. To activate this ability she has to get a running start and leap. Once she learns of this, she goes back through time (only to recently passed months) to fix mistakes such as a bad grade or a clumsy mistake.

All the while she tells her aunt, Kazuko Yoshiyama, about her ability to leap through time. Her aunt works as an art restorer at the Tokyo National Museum in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Kazuko suggests that Makoto may be hurting other people while changing her own past. Makoto starts to take notice of this when a classmate is given her misfortune in cooking class. She also uses this to escape a love confession from Chiaki. But she does not only use it for herself, but to help out her friends. She is able to get Kōsuke a girlfriend, Kaho Fujitani, whom has been in love with him for a while.

By the end of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Chiaki asks Makoto if she has been using this ability. To escape from him asking this, she uses her ability for the final time. Doing this causes her friends Kōsuke and Kaho to get into the train accident meant for Makoto. As she is weeping she realizes things suddenly change and Chiaki saved the two from dying. He explains that he is from the future and cam to see a painting, ironically the one Makoto's aunt is restoring. He had lost his device in the school and found it used up by Makoto. She asks him why he can not go back and he explains he used his last time to save Kōsuke and Kaho. The ending is a bit intense so I will not even begin to ruin it for you.

The Characters of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

The Three Friends

The characters in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time are very realistic. There is no magical powers, or odd hair coloring, or strange monsters. The characters feel as if they could be very real. The dynamic between the three friends makes it feel as if the writer was putting personal experiences in the film.

Makoto is the main character of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and like I said, she is very clumsy. She is your average high school Japanese student. She doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Chiaki is more of the comedic relief of the group. He is also an average student. Kōsuke is the smart student in the group. He is a very respectable person and remains calm at every situation.

The Painting of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

The Painting

Makoto's aunt is restoring a painting throughout The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. This is the same painting that Chiaki comes back in time to see. During the film setting is the only time which this paintings whereabouts is known. In the future it is destroyed and he was unable to see it. The painter is unknown, but the painting itself is strange and relaxing. A mixture of brown colors with a slightly hidden face and four blue orbs.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is definitely one of the better anime films I have seen. It tops most Miyazaki films. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is not at all what you expect, it far exceeds any expectation. This should definitely be on the shelf of any Otaku.

Overall Grade 10/10

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