The award winning The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is ‘a feast for the eyes as well as the heart’, as the DVD blurb claims. Wonderful animation, brilliantly drawn characters and backdrops, time travel, action, lots of touching and funny parts- what’s not to like?
Makoto is a school girl who, after an accident, discovers that she can travel in time. The first part of the film deals with her discovery of this and using it to her own gain- correcting minor mistakes and mishaps in her past. She never comes close to joining the dark side with such power, but finds that her changes however small can have a greater and harmful effect for the future/present and her friends. However, there is another leaper and her leaps are limited, and soon her choices become extremely important.
This much adapted version of the Japanese novel (there has been other series and movies since the novel was written in the sixties) is one of the best, perfectly suited to the medium and today’s generation. There are questions raised about power, friendship, choice, and love, but the film never becomes preachy or sentimental. One of the best anime of the year.
As Always, feel free to leave your comments on the movie- where does it rank in your recent anime list?
The Spac Hole 