The Girl Who Leapt Through Time tells the story of Makoto Konno, an ordinary high school girl having a really bad day. Her luck, however, takes a most grateful turn for the better as Makoto suddenly discovers she has the ability to jump back in time.
I was a little nervous about watching this anime because anything with time travel usually leaves me with a huge headache and tangled questions. Fortunately that was not the case here. I wasn't confused once.
Writers Yasutaka Tsutsui (novel) and Satoko Okudera (screenplay) developed the story so that none of the time travel was confusing, but it was always fun. In their version of time travel, Makoto literally leaps back in time arriving in a not-so-graceful body roll. It never failed to pull a chuckle out of me as I started to wonder how Makoto never got a head injury from all the times she would roll into things.
The pace of the story itself never felt rushed, which can be a difficult thing to do with time travel. It can be all too easy to rush into the climax of the story, the "Everything has gone wrong" moments, but Tsutsui and Okudera kept their control and developed the story as it would happen realistically. We see Makoto's confusion and denial of her ability progress into excitement and confidence and then slowly creep into desperation and anxiety. None of it felt slow, fast, or out of place; and that not only enhanced the experience of watching the film, but it also helps the viewer develop a connection to the characters.
Because the focus of the story lies in Makoto's time traveling, there is ironically not a lot of time to develop the backgrounds of the characters to the audience. The writers and director (Mamoru Hosoda) can only show a peek into Makoto's ordinary life before focusing on how it changes into anything but. This can pose as a problem because the main goal of any writer to get their audience to believe in the characters and care for them. After all, if the audience doesn't care for the characters, it doesn't matter what the adventure is, it will always fall flat.
Watching the film it didn't feel like I've known the characters all my life, but Tsutsui and Okudera did make me care for them. They are just ordinary kids and so when things start to go wrong, you feel it. I found myself yelling at the screen as things went from bad to worse. To top it off in a nice fantasy bow, Tsutsui and Okudera gave us a surprising twist! Honestly I didn't see it coming.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time 4 out of 5 stars.
