Friday, May 23, 2014

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: A Late Thursday Review


Considering that this review is going up a bit later than expected, I decided that there's no better subject for an anime to review than time travel.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a film released in 2006 based on the book of the same name, with animation by Studio Madhouse. As the title suggests, it is about a girl who leaps through time. Literally; she travels back in time by jumping, leaping, falling, etc. But now I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's start from the beginning.

The story centers around a Makoto Konno, a highschooler living in the Shitimachi area of Tokyo with her parents and younger sister. One day at school, she finds a strange object lying on the ground and comes into contact with it, though nothing notable appears to happen. Later that day, while biking down a steep hill on the way home, her brakes fail and she is sent flying through the air directly in front of a train, only for her to suddenly appear back on the hill before her near-collision. From here, Makoto explores this ability to leap through time and how it can be used in her life, learning more about herself and her relationships with those around her in the process.

The film is both well animated well acted, with both the Japanese and English dubs doing a good job of capturing the personalities of each of the characters and the animation ranging from either decent or quite beautiful depending on the scene. The story itself is very good, particularly in regards to Makoto's interaction with her friends and family; the relationships appear very genuine and it's very easy to empathize with Makoto as a protagonist.

All in all, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a very good anime film that I would recommend everyone check out, especially if you're a fan of either the sci-fi or slice-of-life genres.

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