TOKI WO KAKERU SHOUJO

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyToki wo Kakeru Shoujo
MANGA RomanceToki wo Kakeru Shoujo: Tokikake

REVIEWS

• 

  planetJane

  100/100
  A simply gorgeous romance film ultimately about the importance of responsibility and living in the present.

  The following assumes familiarity with the reviewed material. Spoilers below.

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  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a film that explores the power of love, its limits, the inevitability of time, the importance of clear communication, and the futility of living in the past.

  Girl's premise is interesting though not wholly unique (and indeed, the movie is in fact a sequel to the 1966 novel of the same name). Highschooler Makoto gains time-travel powers (which she later finds out are limited) after a particularly terrible day that caps off with her dying by being hit by a train. Inexplicably, she wakes up earlier that "same" morning. From here, she uses these abilities to fix mistakes, spend time with her friends (the brash Chiaki and the studious Kousuke), and generally avoid any serious consequences for her actions. The core of her selfish behavior is her desire to remain friends with Chiaki and Kousuke for, well, forever. Her resistance to change is a recurring point, and near the film's halfway point she begins abusing her time travel powers to avoid answering a confession made to her by Chiaki, who asks her out. Here is where things begin to genuinely unravel.

  Eventually, in the film's final third, Chiaki is revealed to also be a time traveler albeit one from a distant future. It's a very odd turn for what is up until that point a fairly standard 'teen romance but with some supernatural element' plot, but it ultimately works in the film's favor. Chiaki manages to bail Makoto out of getting Kousuke (and his girlfriend Kaho) nearly killed by the same train that clobbered her earlier in the film. It's only here, at Girl's end, where she begins to really face any consequences for her actions beyond inconvenience and awkwardness.

  Makoto and Chiaki only even begin to resolve the tension in their relationship in the film's closing moments, and by then it is inarguably already far too late, but importantly the film still treats these final scenes as cathartic, and they are. Whether or not Chiaki and Makoto can ever actually see each other again is beside the point, the tension between them is resolved, and that chapter of their lives is closed. It's a fascinating alternative to the usual unambiguously happy ending these kinds of films tend to showcase, because the films point it seems, is that, while we can't change what happened in the past, we can control how we react to it, and can control our future going forward. Love is powerful, but even Makoto and Chiaki can't stop the march of the clock forever. After all, "time waits for no one" (delivered in charming Engrish) is one of the film's recurring key phrases. Is it a touch fatalistic? Yes, maybe. But it's also liberating, there's no point in trying to constantly repair past mistakes, because ultimately, we all live in the present.

  If this all sounds rather dry or even preachy, it must be emphasized that Girl backs its themes up with visuals that are rarely short of gorgeous. The backgrounds (cobbled together from a number of real life reference-locations throughout Tokyo) are intricate, incredibly well-drawn, and perhaps due to being drawn from actual sources, feel like real spaces. This, combined with solid performances from secondary characters such as Makoto's younger sister, her aunt (who is heavily implied though never outright stated to be the protagonist of the original 1966 Girl Who Leapt Through Time novel), a teacher with a peculiar fashion sense, an aggravated mother of a small child Makoto runs into multiple times and so on, makes the world of the film feel bigger than just the three characters who sit at the center of its plot.

  The audio warrants more than a passing nod too. The soundtrack is fantastic--subdued and lilting until it needs to be dramatic and bombastic--as is the voicework, almost every character mentioned thusfar has a specific, unique, voice that is undeniably their own, even minor background characters, and when soundtrack, acting, and visuals come together you get a scene like the one near the end of the film, where Makoto bawls her eyes out in one of the most beautifully-animated cries this viewer has ever seen, sobbing uncontrollably as heavy, luscious strings swell in the soundtrack.

  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a film that does almost everything right. It has no major flaws and in the decade since its release has leant a touch of influence to everything from YuruYuri season finale episode "The Akari Who Leapt Through Time" to the similarly-structured and equally amazing Your Name. Truly, it is impossible to not recommend Girl. From someone who doesn't believe in must-sees, it comes damn close.

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• 

  anjalit21

  90/100
  “TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE”

  This was one hell of an awesome movie seriously. I liked it more than I thought I would.

  Overall Score : 9/10
  Story : 8/10
  Art : 8/10
  Sound : 9/10
  Character : 8.5/10
  Enjoyment : 9/10

  I would highly recommend everyone to give this a watch it’s worthy spending your two hours on and now I’m gonna TRY explaining why it is so good emphasis on TRY btw!

  “Life for 17-year-old Konno Makoto is filled with fun days at school and hanging out with her two best friends, Chiaki and Kousuke. But then she finds herself with an ominous ability to leap back in time. A truly strange ability that at first saves her life, but then allows her to not be late at school, to know the answers on any surprise exams and to avoid any troublesome mishaps. It is only when Makoto chooses to use this ability to avoid some of the more personal issues that arise with her friends, that events become both complex and painfully difficult — the simple gift that she began to take for granted suddenly becomes a troublesome burden.”

  First, the message of the movie was that “Time waits for no one”. At first it might seem like such a simple quote which we hear a lot of time in our life but it’s meaning is very deep which you slowly realize throughout the movie.

  Also it showed that we should never indulge in our selfish actions because we might be enjoying ourselves but without us even realizing someone else might be getting hurt due to our actions. And that’s what happened with our MC after getting the power to leap through time she didn’t think about her actions at all and just went ahead to enjoy herself and without her knowing things around her started changing, hurting the people badly in the process and even herself as more time passed. She didn’t use her powers for anything evil but yet her selfish actions hurt others and their feelings.

  When Makoto learns that her actions have bad consequences and are hurting the people around her badly she tries to amend them but amending is not going to be an easy task and she learns it the hard way. This is where Makoto develops a lot trying to amend what her actions caused and learns the big life lesson.

  The visuals and the OST were really amazing just playing at the right moments and even though I didn’t know the song before it just gave me an urge to sing along which I did for a fact and this happens rarely so you know...

  The animation style kinda reminded me of Wolf Children but really I don’t know if there is any connection or if it was just me!

  The characters are all so good, pretty relatable and realistic even the MC and the other two mains. I liked Makoto the most then Kousuke and then Chiaki. They all developed nicely especially Makoto, her development was the best.

  I really enjoyed the whole movie. The plot was interesting from the very beginning; it kept that way till the end and never got boring. Not spoiling but the ending scene after the reveal was really good so beautiful I loved it!!

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• 

  pointydelta

  83/100
  This 98 minutes flies by, and along the way manages to be more than a little moving.

  Here be spoilers.

  "I'm not looking back\But I want to look around me now" \- Rush, _Time Stand Still_

  Time travel is a very, very difficult thing to write movies about. Almost all of them get tied up in plot holes and difficulties and paradoxes. The very best keep it simple. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (henceforth TKS) is a very good time travel movie. It is also a very lovely movie about being young.

  I think TKS is a really good teen movie. What's a teen movie? It's the kind of thing that you would watch at a drive-in, or with a friend. You're bored, and you wanna watch a good movie. You don't gotta think too hard about it. It doesn't promise to be great. It has no pretensions to being very emotional, or philosophical. It's a movie that's made with what feels like ease, and its runtime zips by. The plot never gets hung up on brooding. Being good at that is really hard. Really, really hard. Hosoda is a past master at it.

  

  As if by accident, then, TKS ends up being a wonderful meditation on being a stupid teenager. The very loveliest of all the moments in this movie are the ones where it, just for a second, captures something really true about being 17. Those little bits sneak up on you, but they hit like sledgehammers.

  Let's go back a bit, though. Time-leap, if you will. Why and how is TKS such a good teen movie?

  "Looks like you're not using it for anything important." - Story

  The plot follows the standard time-travel movie cookie cutter. We're introduced to Makoto Konno. She obtains the ability to time travel for one reason or another. She misuses it for trivial reasons. She finds out the consequences of misusing time travel. With her last few time travels, she fixes everything she put wrong. That's all.

  And then Hosoda pulls something very clever out of his back pocket. He introduces another time traveler. This isn't your usual flourish. It's a very subtle one. Because that changes the dynamic a lot, even retroactively. It's never clear for how long Chiaki has known Makoto is time travelling, which instantly draws a veil of suspicion and supposition over most of the front half of the film in retrospect. And it changes the whole dynamic.

  

  Here's two things I want to point out. First, the easy and careful pacing. This movie never feels like it's in a rush to get anywhere. It's got space for humor all over. This movie does humor really pretty well. It's never gut-bustingly funny, but there's a pretty steady stream of jokes, from slapstick to visual humor, to a couple good verbal jokes. That contributes very well to the easy feeling of the whole movie, because the consequences of time travelling are really never that serious. Until, of course, they are.

  

  Because, second, the biggest moments sneak up on you. After a pretty funny montage of Makoto using her powers to avoid an embarrassment and nail a pop quiz - so far, so good - then she then uses it to duck out of a confession of love. And you know and she knows that she's made a terrible mistake the second she does. Because that's the problem with having an undo button on everything. How many scenarios where you have to confront something would you duck if you could? And how much the poorer would you be for that?

  Makoto herself realises that playing with people's feelings is wrong. She's also inept at doing it, which works wonders for selling the character - because of course it's not so easy to make people do the things you want. That's the real lesson this movie is trying to teach. Sometimes, you just can't fix things. All you can have is the confidence that next time you'll get another shot. Makoto never gets one, and the moment when Hosoda subverts the expectation of a completely happy ending is heartbreaking. Makoto smiles, but the tears in her eyes tell the truth: if she hadn't leapt back, she might have had a very different life. Those regrets lend a very sharp bittersweet edge to this movie, and make it more than just passable - they make it very good.

  One last note: the time-stop scene is exceptionally good. I am a sucker for when movies use absolute silence to emphasise a little moment (Akira, Your Name), and TKS executes beautifully. As the soundtrack gently comes back in it's astonishingly moving.

  "A painting I had to see." - Art, Backgrounds, Animation

  

  Art is pretty good, with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto of Evangelion fame lending his character design to believable real-world characters that don't stretch credulity all that much. I'm a pretty big fan of the way the characters are generally washed out and a little pastel, as opposed to brighter and more saturated backgrounds, which means that they fade away into the background. There's some good background work too, although there's nothing spectacular (except at the very end, where a glorious sunset ricochets off the water and into a million tiny lights).

  Where this series really shines is in the character acting of the animation. The simple character designs get a huge amount of life breathed into them by the excellent animators at Madhouse, feeling fluid and gentle, and very realistic. Hair is really good, as well. There's what looks to be a scene entirely for flexing how good Madhouse is at water wherein rocks skip gently across the surface of a river.

  

  The art always lends to the easy and careful impression that Hosoda's after, and it's nothing short of stunningly effective in that. But there's nothing spectacular, nothing truly special. Even the time travel sequences feel fine at best, and there's a small misstep with some pretty obvious CGI which doesn't look all that great.

  "Look in front of you when you're running." - Characters, Voice Acting

  Let's be honest: there's only one character that really matters in this movie, Makoto. Much like Marty McFly, we know a whole lot about Makoto very early, and there's a very strong sense of assertive character. Riisa Naka's performance has to anchor this whole movie, and it succeeds. There's never any real fireworks, but she's completely convincing in the role. Fundamentally, also, Makoto is a very believable character. It might be because Hosoda basically wrote a boy and then made them a girl, but she never feels anything less than fully realised. Her motivations are always very clear, and they range from the trivial (don't have an accident in cooking class) to the deeply human (avoid tricksy confrontations).

  

  The side characters (and all the others are definitely side characters) are fine. We never learn all that much about Kousuke or any of the girls. Chiaki deserves a special mention because Takuya Ishida, a novice with no other credits, sells what is basically a male version of a manic pixie dream girl very well. He's lazy, he's funny, he's laid-back. Kazuko ("Auntie Witch") deserves a mention, too, because she's a hat tip to the original novel.

  But Makoto's character development is deeply believable. She doesn't completely change, but she changes just enough for a real sense of character development across the whole film, and the ending is deeply cathartic. But she'll always, we know, carry the regrets of the decisions she made on that summer's evening. It's really quite moving.

  "Before I noticed, it was summer." - Music

  I don't have much to say about the music. Mostly it's fine to very good, although I did feel that the slushy strings in the climax were maybe slightly over the top. Really, it's subordinate to the lovely and fluid animation. Sound design is great - really crunchy, and the soundscapes are always fantastic for sure, but, again, there's nothing all that remarkable.

  

  The insert and credits song, Kawaranai Mono by Hanako Oku, is a very good gentle ballad on the order of a lot of Ghibli closers. It's used very well as an insert song, and, as it plays over the credits with a montage of shots from the movie, it's deeply cathartic.

  "These feelings I have transcend time.\I just want to meet you now." - Final Thoughts

  

  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is, as I said at the beginning, a basically perfect teen movie. But is it a perfect movie, full stop? No. It's too unambitious for that, too content with what it is. That's not a bad thing - it succeeds at everything it sets out to do. It's a heartbreakingly lovely meditation on young love and on the absolute necessity of living in the present, not the past or the future. It is tinged with regret and nostalgia and sadness. But at the same time, it is a tremendously vital expression of youth and joy. Hosoda is at the peak of his powers with this movie. It is just wonderful. But it is not exceptional.

  In the end, confrontation is the heart of this movie. And I can't say that it didn't make me confront life, at least a little better.

  And that's all you can ask, really.

  

  Time waits for no one.

  ---

  - Pointy

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