Did you ever think “I wish … had gone differently”? Even if it’s just “I wish I hadn’t been late and gotten scolded because my alarm clock broke?”
Well, think about it. Let’s say your alarm clock worked; can you say with certainty you'd still been on time? If you can, what about other consequences? What else had gone differently? Because something, at least, would have gone differently. The Butterfly Effect is still in effect.
I’m just jumping into the midst of things, however. I’ll try to keep it short from here on out. Please forgive any spoilers--I try to keep them as low and few as possible, but it is a bit hard to describe a movie of approximately one hour forty without spoiling even the smallest thing.
Makoto can leap back through time--or more like skip through time, because the time she can revert certainly isn’t an era or two. One time, that ability saves her life. When she starts to play around with it, though, the mentioned Butterfly Effect steps into the foreground, though, and starts creating not only chaos but also heavy drama.
Sure enough “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” might not be an intriguing title, and remind more of an InuYasha ripoff than anything else… though it is everything but. Heroes and heroines leaping through time might not be a new idea, but it’s rarely been used like this before. “Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo” is not about leaping through time, making friends, defeating foes, and returning or not. It’s an anime movie about young innocence, loss, love, and how wishes don’t always turn out the way they’re meant to. Little is generic in this whole movie. Instead, it surprises with a solid storyline, heavy drama with the right amount of tension, and a good number of twists for a movie, especially towards the end. Not to mention a strong message that perhaps not everyone might relate to, but that certainly had me thinking.
The main problem with the storyline is that the end may be slightly disappointing, as some things stay unexplained. There are no huger plot holes, and the storyline is satisfying enough for me--short of a masterpiece, but satisfying--but IMHO a few minutes more could have made for more closure, as quite a few things stay unresolved. It might add to realism, but it is just as sure to piss more than a few viewers off.
If the storyline in itself doesn’t make the story very good, however, then our well-rounded bunch of characters certainly do. The characters are well designed with excellent development for a movie, and there’s nobody introduced just to disappear off the screen minutes later--everyone leaves an impression, and each character has their role in the overall development of the story. If I were to nitpick, Makoto (the protagonist) seems a bit flatter than many of the ‘side’ characters; but that is a small flaw, as she is still well-developed and quite easy to empathise with. Character interaction is natural, as is the dialogue.
Technically, I can’t complain either. The animation may not be entirely up-to-date, but is above average. In terms of art, the character design may stay plain yet is comparably realistic, and the amount of detail especially in the background art is something to behold. The music only helps to get across the atmosphere as well; there’s no instance where the tunes stand out for the wrong reasons.
“Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo” may not have full closure, and it is quite sad at times. Nonetheless, it is probably very enjoyable if you want something with drama, plenty of emotion, good character development, and the potential to make you think. It might not be Ghibli’s level, and neither is it for those looking for superpowered action and adventure, but it is a solid movie that holds its place well IMO. Don’t let yourself be fooled by a boring title.~
PS: If this review looks familiar to you, I've written pretty much the same for this archive's double "The Girl That Leapt Through Time". So, no, I'm not plagiarising myself, I merely was too lazy to rewrite this entire thing.
PPS: One of the two archives for this movie only has >600MB files (which require plus membership). If you find yourself unable to download, switching the archive might be a good idea.
Double archive: http://anime-access.com/anime/T/The_Girl_That_Leapt_Through_Time_%28Movie%29
PPPS: If you have a small-size file but still find only plus download options, wait a bit and refresh the page--it's been happening over and over the last days, but it always worked itself out somehow. *shrugs* (
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