The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (時をかける少女) is a short sci-fi novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka published in book form in 1967. First published in English by Alma Books, and combined with another short story titled The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of, in 2012.
Yoshiyama Kazuko is a 3rd year middle school student coasting through her idyllic life. Little does she suspect that her life will change. She and her two best friends, Kazuo and Goro, are tasked with cleaning a science lab at school on a Saturday after classes. As they take out the trash she returns supplies to a storage room. She believes someone else is in the room and in an attempt to flush that person out she encounters a chemical concoction that smells of lavender. She wakes up in the schools infirmary, with her friends worried about her. The following days she feels out of sorts, almost like she is floating. A few nights later she is awoken by a minor earthquake. Nothing is damaged but a fire breaks out next to Goro's house. Late to school, due to the excitement of the night, she runs into Goro, as he is late too. They run to cross the street while the light is changing only to face an out of control truck about to run them over. Kazuko wishes as strong as she can that she were still in her bed. When she thinks her intentions are futile she wakes up to her alarm going off. Shaken by what she can only assume was a vivid dream, she heads off to school. She makes it to school on time but the realistic visions she experienced disturb her. When she finds out that its the day of the earthquake instead of the day after her reality takes on a new light. She realizes that she jumped back in time and is willing to use this to prevent the tragedies she foresaw. Her friends were skeptical at her claims but are proven wrong that night when the earthquake and fire she told them about hit. With her strange power confirmed she wants nothing more than to be rid of them. Even though it meant she was able to save her friends life the following morning. With their help, Kazuko tries to find out why she has this strange ability and how she can get rid of them.
If you are familiar with the anime but not the original source material, you may be scratching your head reading the synopsis. Hosoda Mamoro's 1996 anime adaptation is a sequel to the original novella. The anime follows Kazuko's niece at least 2 decades later as she undergoes a similar experience. Kazuko, unlike her spunky niece of the future, is cautious and bothered by her sudden ability to travel time. Once she has confirmed of it's existence she does everything she can to be rid of the ability. She feels stressed at the prospect of having to relive days she has already gone through. In contrast, her niece revels in the power and uses it to entertain herself endlessly. Even though their approach to the ability is different their experiences are almost identical in the end. Both are accidentally given a special ability from an advanced future society and have to understand what that means to them. Being very light on the science fiction aspect, the story works to detail the internal dialogue the main character has in her struggle with a reality that presents its self in a new and unexpected way. Once that knowledge is accepted she then has to struggle with that reality changing again, loosing something that has become very important in the process.
I was aware of the stories plot from watching the widely popular (in Japan) 1983 film adaption, so the novel was not a surprise for me. The 1983 movie does differ from the novel but a version released in 1997 does a better job sticking with the source material. This is however for young adults and is quite simplistic in dialogue structure and character development. The book is roughly 160 pages in length, 100 or so of them being The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The second novella included in this specific publishing, The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of, is also aimed at young adults and follows a girl on her mission to overcome her fear of heights. I ended up reading the entire book in about 2 hours. So it's not a terribly complex and time consuming piece, but I do need to begin reading more of Tsutsui's works, which some are available in English.
Yoshiyama Kazuko is a 3rd year middle school student coasting through her idyllic life. Little does she suspect that her life will change. She and her two best friends, Kazuo and Goro, are tasked with cleaning a science lab at school on a Saturday after classes. As they take out the trash she returns supplies to a storage room. She believes someone else is in the room and in an attempt to flush that person out she encounters a chemical concoction that smells of lavender. She wakes up in the schools infirmary, with her friends worried about her. The following days she feels out of sorts, almost like she is floating. A few nights later she is awoken by a minor earthquake. Nothing is damaged but a fire breaks out next to Goro's house. Late to school, due to the excitement of the night, she runs into Goro, as he is late too. They run to cross the street while the light is changing only to face an out of control truck about to run them over. Kazuko wishes as strong as she can that she were still in her bed. When she thinks her intentions are futile she wakes up to her alarm going off. Shaken by what she can only assume was a vivid dream, she heads off to school. She makes it to school on time but the realistic visions she experienced disturb her. When she finds out that its the day of the earthquake instead of the day after her reality takes on a new light. She realizes that she jumped back in time and is willing to use this to prevent the tragedies she foresaw. Her friends were skeptical at her claims but are proven wrong that night when the earthquake and fire she told them about hit. With her strange power confirmed she wants nothing more than to be rid of them. Even though it meant she was able to save her friends life the following morning. With their help, Kazuko tries to find out why she has this strange ability and how she can get rid of them.
If you are familiar with the anime but not the original source material, you may be scratching your head reading the synopsis. Hosoda Mamoro's 1996 anime adaptation is a sequel to the original novella. The anime follows Kazuko's niece at least 2 decades later as she undergoes a similar experience. Kazuko, unlike her spunky niece of the future, is cautious and bothered by her sudden ability to travel time. Once she has confirmed of it's existence she does everything she can to be rid of the ability. She feels stressed at the prospect of having to relive days she has already gone through. In contrast, her niece revels in the power and uses it to entertain herself endlessly. Even though their approach to the ability is different their experiences are almost identical in the end. Both are accidentally given a special ability from an advanced future society and have to understand what that means to them. Being very light on the science fiction aspect, the story works to detail the internal dialogue the main character has in her struggle with a reality that presents its self in a new and unexpected way. Once that knowledge is accepted she then has to struggle with that reality changing again, loosing something that has become very important in the process.
I was aware of the stories plot from watching the widely popular (in Japan) 1983 film adaption, so the novel was not a surprise for me. The 1983 movie does differ from the novel but a version released in 1997 does a better job sticking with the source material. This is however for young adults and is quite simplistic in dialogue structure and character development. The book is roughly 160 pages in length, 100 or so of them being The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The second novella included in this specific publishing, The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of, is also aimed at young adults and follows a girl on her mission to overcome her fear of heights. I ended up reading the entire book in about 2 hours. So it's not a terribly complex and time consuming piece, but I do need to begin reading more of Tsutsui's works, which some are available in English.
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