Story:
Our protagonist, Makoto, is having a bad day. She woke up late. She flunked a quiz. She got into an accident while trying to cook tempura, another student was tossed into her, sandwiching her between two other students for a while and she heard strange sounds when turning in some questionnaires only to find no one in the next room. Things take their worst turn when her bike's brakes fail and she's tossed in front of an oncoming train. That's when she finds herself back in the past a couple minutes before the accident. Her aunt tells her that it was a time leap, but Makoto doesn't believe such a thing is possible until, after some experimentation, she discovers how it works. She puts on a cricket uniform with celery in the lapel and leaps through time and space in search of adventure.
Actually, she uses her new found power to do better on tests, perform better at baseball, have fun and, most importantly, avoid slightly awkward situations. Yeah, our protagonist is neither smart nor creative. At first, she's having a lot of fun but then she learns that her actions are having consequences, as actions are liable to have. Yeah, about half the film is made up of Makoto using her powers to mess around in relatively innocuous ways and the other half is comprised of her trying to fix things that go wrong. Honestly, it's pretty boring. You keep expecting something interesting to happen with it, but it never does. There is one genuinely dramatic moment, but it doesn't even last ten minutes. The main romance is kind of stupid and doesn't make a whole lot of sense given the circumstances presented.
Characters:
Our cast is bland. Really, really bland. None of them are particularly interesting, but none of them are obnoxious or terrible characters either. There's just nothing that makes them distinguishable from other characters we've seen thousands of times, if not more. Makoto is an idiot who gains a really amazing ability but can't be bothered to think of anything to do with it aside from playing around. Her friends are the generic nice, reliable guy and the generic off-putting guy with a good heart. Then we have all the secondary characters like the supportive friend, the shy girl and so on.
Art:
The art is really good with nice detailed backgrounds and character designs that, though simple, look good. The time traveling effect is appropriately strange and is also well animated.
Sound:
The voice acting is competent. None of the actors give really exceptional performances, but none of them do badly either. They all do decently. The music is also okay. It doesn't really stand out in the slightest either positively or negatively.
Ho-yay:
There is no ho-yay in this. 1/10.
Final Thoughts:
The Girl who Leapt through time is a hard film to discuss. Not because it's complicated but because it's tedious and generic. It's a story about time travel where the time travel is never used in either an interesting or a creative way. It's like a mystery story where the detective solves minor mysteries that don't really have any impact. Sure, you can do it but you're going to have to have really strong characters to pull it off. Not the rather generic cast you get in this. That being said, there's nothing really wrong with the film. In the end my rating is going to be a 5/10. It's average. If the concept of a girl traveling through time to make her everyday life better appeals to you, check it out. If you want something more compelling out of your time travel stories, stick to Steins;Gate, Back to the Future, The Time Machine, or any number of other stories. Tomorrow, film festival week ends with a look at a certain film involving cyborgs.
