The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - RePost

Toki o Kakero Shojo or The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a 2006 Madhouse production that is a sequel of sorts to a novel turned manga/live action movie of the same name by Japans top sci-fi writer Yasutaka Tsutsui. Tsutsui is also responsible for the original version of Paprika which Madhouse also turned into an anime. This movie takes place 20 years after the original and follows the main character Makoto Konno as she gains the ability to 'leap' through time. Makoto’s aunt experienced the same thing as the main character of the original story.

    Makoto, who is pretty clumsy, oblivious and simple, has one of the worst days at school. At the end of the day, as she is delivering tests to a science storage room, she is startled by an unknown person in the room. She ends up slipping backward but before she lands she goes on an out of body trip through the fabric of time. As the trip ends she finds her self hitting the floor and all of the tests landing on her. On her way home she discovers that the brakes on her bike are broken when she tries to stop for an oncoming train. At the exact second the train would hit her she finds herself further up the hill, having just crashed into a female shopper. She has successfully leapt through time to avoid being killed by the train.

    In shock and disbelieve she goes to talk with her aunt, the only person she feels can be a confidant. Her aunt mentions something about leaping through time, but Makoto thinks it is just in jest. Later in the evening she decides to test this time leaping theory and literally throws herself forward, which does cause her to go back in time. Now that she knows how to do it she begins to play with it in order to satisfy her every desire. She leaps to pass a test, she leaps to sing more songs at a karaoke outing, she leaps to eat more food, and when one of her best friends asks her to go out with him, she leaps to try and avoid the question. Only her aunt knows about what she is doing and asks her if she had ever thought that while she is making her life better, what about those around her. This opens up her eyes to the fact that things are going wrong with everyone else and every time she tries to fix it, the problem changes but does not go away. She discovers that she has a limited number of leaps as well and as she tries to fix more mistakes the combined weight of the problems she is avoiding are compounding into one terrible event. Now, as time is literally running out, she has to try and stop from loosing either of her two friends.

    As with any theatrical Madhouse project, the animation is beautiful. The characters and backgrounds are amazingly well drawn and steeped in reality. The story is very well written and deals with very intelligent ideas. The main theme is the idea that one can not change destiny and to attempt to do so will only cause more problems. In the beginning I thought the movie was just a nice light hearted slice of life story and that there wasn't any sort of plot to it. That it was just going to amble on and Makoto would learn some life lesson and everything would be ok in the end. Instead I was literally on the edge of my seat during the second half of the movie as her new world of play began to crumble around her. The movie, while very dramatic, does have many great comedic moments, the best is her leaping to sing more karaoke. Every time she leaps she ends up in the target time by rolling into it. Her taking the idea of literally leaping through time is probably due to her dense intellect and she convinces herself that the only way she can trigger the ability is by running and jumping forward.

    The movie was recently released on DVD in America and had very limit theatrical releases. This movie has taken the reigns as my number one anime movie of all time, bumping Tenchi Muyo In Love 2 from that spot. This is a movie for a large audience, with much to offer. It has romance, comedy, drama, sci-fi and suspense and can find a home in many peoples DVD collection.