La traversée du temps

What an amazing film this was. Its funny, its heartwarming, its emotional during certain points and if you are in touch with your emotional side, there is a chance that you will cry buckets. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a Japanese animated film that dwells in high school life and all that comes with it, the crushes, the puppy love, the platonic friendship and friendship that soon blossoms into romance. To spice things up a bit, the creators incorporated time travel in the mix and gave it to our klutzy heroine Makoto and the end result is absolutely satisfying as it manages to hit all the right spots and tug your heartstrings. The animation is just gorgeous to look at. It reminds you of a Ghibli movie due to its breathtaking use of rich colors and lavish texture, the film itself almost comes alive with its near perfect animation. The voice work done is perfect as well, integrating it seamlessly into the film thus giving life to the colorful and cheerful characters on screen. While the Sci-fi part and the time travel stuff may not be ironed out to the highest level, I suggest you leave your Einstein mindset right at the doorstep and just enjoy the story that the film is telling. All in all, if you look at it, the film is a touching tale bursting with emotions and it just warms your heart in all the right places. Highly recommended.

Having watched the trailers on the net for Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (official English title: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), I've been looking forward to it for a while. With character designs by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the same guy who did those for Neon Genesis Evangelion, and animation by Madhouse, Tokikake (as it is nicknamed in Japan), is a great-looking movie. Lively and interesting backgrounds, lush colours and detailed animation, it's a joy to look at. Particular mention must be made of the time-leaping effect, which gives you a sense of breathlessness. The voice acting is extremely enjoyable, with the voice actors really managing to convey their characters' personalities, while endearing them to the viewer. The music is great, with a wonderfully wistful theme song "Garnet", provided by Hanako Oku. The direction is interesting, with some really nice shots effectively conveying the more important events and scenes. Overall, I really enjoyed Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, which is why it is such a mystery as to why it is only showing in one cinema house in all of Tokyo. With Gedo Senki generally failing to live up to people's expectations, were Tokikake shown in a few more cinemas, it could have the potential to be the surprise blockbuster of the summer. Definitely to be recommended over Gedo Senki as the anime movie of the summer.

"I wonder how someone was able to create such a beautiful painting, when it must have seemed that the world was coming to an end."

When high school student Makoto inadvertently discovers that she's gained the ability to leap (literally) backward through time, she immediately begins using it to her advantage - with little concern for how and why she's gained this mysterious power. No problem is too trivial to be solved by a little time travel, from pop quizzes to uncomfortable conversations. But, nothing in the past can be changed without consequence, and Makoto's frivolous use of her ability may result in one or more of her friends being lost forever.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is about as mainstream and accessible as anime gets. The characters are all pretty normal, likable, and relatable. There's a lot of humor in the first half of the story, while the last half is quite serious, heartfelt, and poignant. The animation and character designs are clean and smooth, and have a very modern appeal. The score has a lot of piano pieces that occasionally caught my ear in a very pleasant way.

I recommend this both to anime fans, and to those who aren't particularly familiar with eastern animation. The story is an entertaining mix of moments both somber and lighthearted, the characters are great, and the visuals were top-notch. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time isn't just a good animated movie, it's good by any standards.

The poster of this animated movie looks a little suggestive, but nope, it's actually a wholesome time travel movie which explores a little on the vestment of such powers to a klutzy individual, as well as relationships, and the perennial question of what would anyone do if you have the ability to go back into time, and make changes presumably for the better.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time tells a wonderful story centered on 3 friends, the tomboyish and clumsy Makoto Konono (voiced by Riisa Naka), and two hunks Chiaki Mamiya (Takuya Ishida) and Kousuke Tsuda (Mitsutaka Itakura). Theirs is a friendship formed after school at the baseball court where they spend quality time talking about typical teenage stuff. Things start to change however, when Makoto by accident gets the power to time travel, and in her own ditzy way, uses her new found abilities for "good" - directly for herself, or in some Emma like moments, to influence the outcome of relationships for her friends and play matchmaker.

And that's just scratching the tip of the iceberg. While it's animation style is kept simple and fairly straightforward, it doesn't compromise on the complexity of its storyline. Not that it serves to confuse, rather you'll be amazed by the amount of pathos the story contains, with its various subplots especially when the time travelling stuff kicks in. It has adult sensibilities in the treatment of the plot, and knows exactly when to hit the right emotional chords when warranted.

Although based on a book, the story here serves as a quasi-sequel of sorts which takes place some 20 years later, what I can say is that the love stories intertwined has its major one being able to touch like that in Be With You. I loved that movie, and watching how this bore some similarities, you can't help but feel the same emotions coming across in the same way, nevermind that the characters here are animated, as you can feel the pain, the love, and their despair. And that is something that I should say is difficult for the genre - they're not real persons on screen - but yet being able to evoke emotions and for one to react and empathize, definitely makes it powerful, and a cut above others. Something that our local animated films had failed to do in giving us cold characters and bastardized stories from folklore.

But it's not always all the time serious in tone or mood. The movie has light hearted moments, sometimes bordering on the slapstick, no thanks to the bumbling Makoto character. In a sequence, it was reminiscent of Chinese Odyssey starring Stephen Chow, where each time travel moment gets played ad nausem with different comedic effect. Undoing blunders as we see is not exactly Makoto's forte, and while she may be using her powers in a carefree way, with great powers come great responsibilities (sorry, can't resist that one!)

As usual, anyone can find fault with the time travel paradox which rears its ugly head in any time travel movie, but I would suggest that you park those thoughts aside, and enjoy the story that the Girl Who Leapt Through Time is telling. There are slight attempts at addressing it with its creation of totally new and different realities with each jump, but even then a major paradoxical flaw still exists. At its lowest denominator, the film reminds to seize the day like it's your last, do what's right, and don't be shy in telling someone how you feel about them.

The Best Animated Film of the recent Awards of the Japanese Academy, this film gets my vote of support too with its superbly emotional and touching tale, and with its similarities to that aspect of the film which I like to Be With You, it will be no surprise if this movie finds its way to my Top Ten of the year. Highly recommended!

Rarely do I buy a film on DVD without having either read up about it or seen it first. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was the first exception for me. For a dull anecdote, I walked through the store, saw it, and bought it, without knowing anything other than what was written on the back. When i got home, I didn't even start to watch it! But waited until after dinner to watch it, and to cut the already long story short, watching this movie was an experience! From the very first scenes I was grabbed. The artwork, I must say I adore, the scenery is beautiful. As for the storyline, sure, we've had time-travelling stories before, but there's never been one which after seeing it, made me want to watch it again (Seriously, as soon as it was over, I watched it again!) Cutting the even-longer story short again, I highly recommend this film, even those who are not lovers of anime might find themselves enjoying this film. Watching this movie was like an experience for me, and as odd as it may sound, I felt really warm inside after watching this. 9/10.