The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an artfully crafted piece of recent Anime history. The story is a well-written web of events based on the idea that the main character gains the ability to jump through time, so she tries to use this ability to make the world “better”. Throughout the events she changes she learns that when something is better for one person it’s usually worse for another. Time is not something to be messed with, even if on very minor levels.
The art is very well done, but may be a little disconcerting to fans of more mainstream anime as it uses mid-black line shading as opposed to the full-black line shading that is more prevalent in anime art styles. Mid-black line drawing can be more realistic in ways because it doesn’t separate the characters from the background as much, but it gets limited use in anime because of the fact that anime tends to lack subtlety.
Kiyoshi Yoshida’s composing for the soundtrack of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was also superb. It fit into the scenes excellently and did a great job of shifting your emotions to relate to the characters feelings in each scene. Most people don’t actually think about it, but music is one of the most important parts of visual medias like anime. Ever tried watching Cowboy Bebop on mute? It sucked, didn’t it? Cowboy Bebop had an excellent soundtrack that backed the action in the show perfectly, but without it there it feels hollow and uneventful.
Makoto Konno, a Shitamachi student in Tokyo, one day discovers she has the power to time-leap when she has an accident that hurls her from her bike into the path of an oncoming train. In such a situation there is no doubt she should have died, but suddenly she wakes up a few minutes earlier where she instead crashed into a lady further up the road. At first Makoto is somewat bewildered with her newfound ability and uses it excessively to avoid being late for things and to get perfect grades on tests. However, things begin to turn bad as she discovers how her actions can adversely affect others. Along the way Makoto goes to her aunt, Kazuko Yoshiyama, for advice and she hints that she herself had done something similar in the past; Kazuko is actually the main character of the novel, The Little Girl Who Conquered Time which was the basis of this movie.
People who gain the ability to leap through time only have a limited number uses which is counted by a strange tattoo on their arm. Makoto eventually learns that one of her friends, Chiaki, had left a strange item in the science lab, which is what caused Makoto to gain this new power. Chiaki actually came from the future to see a piece of art that was destroyed before his era–the only era it’s whereabouts were known was the era Makoto lived in. Makoto’s other friend, KÅsuke, was taking the place of Makoto’s accident. In order to save him, Chiaki had used up his only chance to go back to the future. Makoto, who secretly loves Chiaki, also uses up her final chance to leap to help Chiaki gain his chance once more. Chiaki also loves Makoto, and is also upset when he must leave Makoto’s time.
Podcast: Download (7.8MB)
