It tells the tale of Makoto, an ordinary high school girl who lives a normal life with her two friends, Chiaki and Kousuke. One day, while delivering papers to a room, she slips, falls, and lands on a walnut-like object, and later in the day when she gets run over by a train, she just wakes up to earlier in the morning. Turns out that Makoto has somehow gained the power to leap through time and can travel backwards at will, which she of course uses to mess around and fix her previous mistakes. However, all things come with coincidences, and Makoto will soon face hardships which will change her forever.
Let's get right into my main problem with Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, the main character. Makoto, to put it bluntly, is a complete and total idiot and remains so throughout the entire movie. Even after the character development she goes though, she's still an idiot, just a mature idiot. The choices she makes are irrational and it takes her forever to pick up on a major detail that a lot of people watching this chances are would be able to guess easily. Not to mention that she has an absolutely terrible voice actor, whose loud and annoying voice does not help her character at all. I'm not exactly sure who my least favorite anime character is, but Makoto would definitely make the top 5 if I were to ever create that list. Fortunately the side cast is a lot better, despite the fact that most of them don't get much development. Every scene in this movie is about Makoto and no one else, and she pulls down the whole movie.
The story of Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, for the most part manages to be one of its pluses. The majority of the movie is slice-of-life and is just Makoto messing around with her powers and the several problems that pop up. The first half of it is comedy which is somewhat entertaining and the second half turns into a drama as more problems pop up. For the most part it works out very nicely. The drama works out very good and it doesn't feel too mood-whiplashy once it starts, a problem I find with most stuff that starts out light-hearted but ends as a drama.
However, in about the last thirty minutes, everything is finally explained, and I'm still not sure whether to applaud the creator of this for managing to completely surprise me with a twist that came out of nowhere or complain that it, well, came out of nowhere with literally only one line that barely hints at it before. It's definitely a sloppily done twist and is completely changes the character of the person who revealed this twist. It all leads up into a very interesting last half of the movie as everything is fixed using the magical plot device known as deus ex machina (well, okay, maybe it wasn't totally pulled out of nowhere, but they still obviously had no clue how to end it and just pulled something out that still somehow makes sense) and it leads to an ending I am rather lukewarm on (they don't even kiss, what the fuck?). This movie could've used another thirty minutes to allow everything to sink in more and perhaps explain a few of the rather glaring plot holes that are left.
Animation-wise everything is nice as well, it's a movie, and all anime movies look nice. Well, okay, perhaps it looks a pinch choppy at times, but everything else is fine. The character designs are fine, the backgrounds are fine. The music, while I can't remember any of it right now, I do recall was fine, and the ending theme was good if I remember right.
Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo Final Rating
Story: Entertaining for the most part, but final twist comes out of nowhere leading to a sloppily done ending- 7.
Characters: Makoto is very very annoying, but the rest of the cast is decent- A low 6.
Sound- Decent music, Makoto has such an annoying voice-A low 7.
Art- It's a movie, so of course it's good-9.
Overall, I like Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, I really do. I won't call it overrated and it is certainty worth the watch, just beware of a few problems with the plot and characters. Overall, I give this show a 7, and I do recommend you watch this.
