If you're looking for a cute love story with emotional lessons, this slice of life Anime checks all the boxes. I don't know if I'm just emo or if this is a really sad movie, but the main character gets launched off of her broken bike into an oncoming bullet train and just before she is liquidated she teleports back in time.
It's kind of like the butterfly effect, but cute.
How? Well, apparently her Aunt knows that time leaps often happen to adolescent girls. She wants to make her life perfect by time jumping whenever she wants, but learns she has a limited number.
She loves a boy Chiaki but there's a huge twist! Someone else can time travel!
Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is there a girl who leapt through time 2?
A: There is a book in Japanese titled "Zoku Toki o Kakeru Shōjo" but there in not a movie release.
Q: What happened to the girl who leapt through time?
A: Spoiler Alert: She almost loses her best friends to the train that almost killed her and runs out of time jumps. The boy she loves confesses that he is a time traveler and that they can never be together. She jumps one more time and spills her heart to him in the past.
Q: What did the text say in the girl who leapt through time?
A: It's a text message from Kosuke telling Makoto that he is going to borrow her bike.
Anime Review
There's also an amazing Manga to enjoy from VIZ for readers like myself. You can check out 50 pages for free here or use a service like Crunchyroll or BookStar to read online.
To start off, I would like to express my upsetting utterance to Makoto Konno. No, no, not directly to the writer nor the production team. In fact it was a fine piece — more on to that later. I was disappointed with Makoto’s follinies. More like: The Girl Who Played With Time.
I mean, she was the main character, the girl who leapt through time, and her characterization was important on how the story will unfold itself. As a writer, I understand it, I swear…
But still!
Well, only one thing to say about the writing: it was effective.
It infuriates me, especially to what she did and how my boy Chiaki sacrificed himself for his friends, particularly for Makoto. She tried to fix it, which is the big irony in Makoto’s actions. But to be fair, she cannot see how things would play out despite her power in time leaping.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was a classic didactic piece as the creators’ idealism took the concept of the irony in time.
Originally, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, was a 1967 light novel written by Yasutaka Tsutui. Years later, a loose film sequel was animated and produced by Madhouse in 2006 where a highschooler, Makoto Konno, accidentally gained the power to time leap and used it to her full benefit thinking that she can control the outcome of events.
With this endowment, she was able to control time travel at her own will… or was it the time leaping power that controlled her? Thinking about it, she was driven by her emotions rather than wit; to satisfy her simple whims. Her decisions always include the thought that she can leap back in time to redo things or relive the experiences.
So, it is critically safe to say that Makoto’s emotions were aroused by the time leaping power and were controlled by it that led to several plot twists for important characters and events: like how things do not reoccur despite her time leaping.
The characters and plot review
As I said earlier, Makoto’s personality upsets me but to put myself in her shoes, I sort of understand her. She was naive and time is a luxury. Give a child a tub of ice cream and toys, and she will abuse the satisfaction.
But pushing that aside, Makoto’s Auntie Witch, Kazuko, did not lack in guiding her decisions. Auntie Witch was actually a perfect partner for a character driven by emotions. She looked at things rationally that might shake up the main character’s decisions. However, it was still Makoto’s impulsive feelings that won instead of pondering about the wise words of her Auntie.
However, Makoto’s disregard of her Auntie’s words is also the weight of Makoto’s characterization over Kazuko’s words. The story would have played out differently and not as thought-provoking as the film is as it is.
Kousuke and Kaho’s death was an expected plot twist, honestly: to create a bigger impact on Makoto’s consequences. (I mean, one of her friends needed to die to make her mistakes sink into her even though she could have just gone back in time where she switched positions with Sojiro and fix it then just avoid the unlucky ruckuses she will encounter for the rest of the days because she already knew what would happen). In respect, although the death might not have been that impactful, her friends’ death added the right weight and atmosphere for the film.
And I won’t forget how orderly the storyline is. Very witty.
Sojiro, the guy Makoto switched positions with when she learned the consequences (poor guy), being tormented and bullied was a necessary element to the story seeing that it slowly shows the result of Makoto’s folliness with time leaping. His tormenation led him to losing his mind and grew hate towards Makoto that affected Makoto’s personality later on.
My heart goes to Sojiro and Chiaki. Sojiro, if Makoto did not switch positions with him, he could have been the hero instead of being tormented; Makoto could have gotten a new friend. On the other hand, my boy Chiaka, who sacrificed his remaining time to leap, wanted to stay. Although his leaving was not as impactful as it should have been. Rather, it left a lot of unresolved questions for the audiences.
Animation critique
It was a 2006 animation and many animated films were released with quality visuals, while The Girl Who Leapt Through Time has a realism animation visuals. Although it suited the supposed vibe for the film, it was also a bit plain and unattractive. The beautiful scenery could have been justified with a little more detail in it.
Also, the animation style shadowed Chiaki’s face. He looked like some sort of a villain or a mad man.
A lesson learned
The story was definitely a slow-burn. The plot twist happened so fast at the end that it left a lot of gaps in the storyline (the painting and Chiaka’s ability to stop the time, and a little more information about Chiaka’s whereabouts; also Chiaka and Makoto’s love), but the lesson painted was clear: time waits for no one.
But in understanding, it was also more important to lay out Makoto’s characteristics and how small things will unfold into something bigger when the variables are changed.
