The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

**The Girl Who Leapt Through Time** is a 2006 adventure, drama, romance, comedy, romantic comedy, science fiction

   Japanese anime film.  It was directed by Mamoru Hosoda, written by Satoko Okudera, musically composed by Kiyoshi Yoshida, cinematography by Yoshihiro Tomita, edited by Shigeru Nishimiya, distributed by Kadokawa Herald Pictures, and produced by Takafumi Watanabe, Yuichiro Saito, and Studio Madhouse.  It was based on a Japanese novel of the same name which was written by Yasutaka Tsutsui.

## Plot

At Kuranose High School in Tokyo, Japan, Makoto Konno discovers a message written on a blackboard and inadvertently falls upon a walnut-shaped object. On her way home, Makoto is ejected into a railroad crossing when the brakes on her bicycle fail and is hit by an oncoming train, but finds herself transported back to the point in time when she was riding her bicycle right before the accident. After entering the Tokyo National Museum to meet with Kazuko Yoshiyama, she explains to Makoto that she has the power to "time-leap", to literally leap through time. At first, Makoto uses her powers to avoid being late, getting perfect grades, and even relive a single karaoke session for several hours, but soon discovers that her actions can adversely affect others.

Consequently, Makoto uses most of her leaps frivolously, to prevent undesirable situations from happening, including an awkward love confession from her best friend Chiaki Mamiya. Makoto realizes that she has a numbered tattoo on her arm indicating the limited amount of times she can time leap. Using her remaining time leaps, Makoto attempts to make things right for everyone. When Chiaki calls Makoto to ask if she has been time-leaping, she uses her final time leap to prevent Chiaki's call. In the meantime, Makoto's friend Kōsuke Tsuda and his new girlfriend, Kaho Fujitani, borrow her faulty bike. Makoto attempts to stop them, but because she had just used her final leap, she is unable to rescue them from the train.

A moment later, Chiaki freezes time, telling Makoto that he is from the future. He explains that the walnut-shaped object is a time-traveling device, and he used it to leap through time hoping to see a painting that is being restored by Kazuko, as it has been destroyed in the future. While walking with Makoto in the frozen city, Chiaki also explains that he stayed longer in her time frame than he originally planned. Consequently, he has used his final leap to ensure Kōsuke's existence and has stopped time only to explain to Makoto what the results will be. Having revealed his origins and the nature of the item that allowed Makoto to leap through time, and now unable to return to his own time period, Chiaki must leave. Makoto then realizes that she loves him.

True to his words, Chiaki disappears once time resumes. Initially distraught by Chiaki's disappearance, Makoto discovers that Chiaki's time-leap had inadvertently restored her final time-leap: Chiaki had leaped back to the time before Makoto used it. Makoto uses it to safely leap back to the moment right after she gained her powers, at which point Chiaki still has one remaining time-leap, and recovers the used up time-travel device. Makoto explains her knowledge of everything and shows the device to Chiaki. Makoto vows to ensure the painting's existence so Chiaki can see it in his era. Before Chiaki departs, he tells Makoto that he will be waiting for her in the future. When Kōsuke asks her where Chiaki went, she says that he went to study abroad, and that she made a decision about her own future.

## Why It Rocks

1. Incredible animation.
2. The movie is able to get us to like and sympathize with the main heroine, Makoto Konno, very early on, due to the unrelentingly crappy day she's having.
3. Great voice acting in both sub and dub.
4. The series is somehow to have a plot about time travel without bringing up a tone of questions that it can't answer by the end.  Very few movies, tv shows, or video games that deal with time travel are able to pull this off.
5. Amazing soundtrack.
6. The story is mostly lighthearted with its time travel story, but can get a little bit heavy into the drama later on when when Makoto finds out that her time travel antics are affecting not just her life, but the lives of everyone around her, too.
7. Very appealing art style and character designs.
8. Makoto is also very relatable and believeable.  In most cases, a teenager, (or hell, most human beings in general), who acquires the power to travel through time probably would do everything that she does, and mess things up for everyone.
9. Excellent comedy.
10. All of the side characters are also well written.  While none of them are as interesting as Makoto herself, they're all believable, likeable, and they just feel real, down to the most tiny of details.
11. Incredible pacing.

## Reception

**The Girl Who Leapt Through Time** has an 88% critic rating and a 90% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 3.8/5 on Letterboxd, a 7.8/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDB), an 8.35/10 on MyAnimeList, an 83.65% community approval rating on Kitsu, and a 4.2/5 on AnimePlanet.