Story:
Our main heroine is Makoto. A generally outgoing and bombastic girl who enjoys playing baseball with her two friends, Chiaki and Kousuke. One day while dropping off notebooks in another classroom Makoto hears a sound coming from the Science room. She enters the room but no one is there. She tries to leave out the other door but it is locked. She notices something on the ground, goes to pick it up, but is startled by some sort of shadow. She falls done on the object. Later on while riding home on her bike, her breaks stop working and she is unable to slow done before the train stop. She is flipped over and hit by the train; only that's what should have happened. Instead she finds herself transported back a few moments before the accident.
She later finds out from her aunt that she can "leap through time." Makoto believes that time travel is not possible. But she tries to do it again, and is successful. She then uses the power to redo certain aspects of her past; to make her life easier by doing so. But she eventually finds out that her endeavors of self-happiness have caused others around her pain. Some of which she is not able rectify.
Art:
Being as the animation is done by Madhouse, you can expect high quality. Most of the backgrounds are detailed in appearance and portray a realistic environment well. The character designs are simplistic but do not look ugly. They aren't unique by any means, but they do fit.
Sound:
There is no background song I would say is amazing or is able to be played on it's own. But the music is suitable for the scenes and is not ear-numbingly annoying either. The ending song for the credits was quite enjoyable though. Probably the best song overall. The voice actors were able to display the emotions of the characters nicely. Despite not having many roles under their belts; I think they did an exceptional job.
Characters:
There is a diverse cast here. Most of the main characters receive a good amount of development. As the situation around them changes; so do the characters. While some of the side characters aren't very fleshed out, there is enough to them for you to understand the jest of their personality. Given the run time of the film; I wasn't expecting to see much development from the less important characters. But I feel that what we got is enough.
Enjoyment/Overall:
Having enjoyed Wolf Children so much; I expected to get as much enjoyment out of this film. While I feel that Wolf Children is slightly better, this film is still a great time travel flick. Is there better time travel stories? Yes. Is Steins;Gate better? Yes. But I still feel that this movie is very enjoyable. Mamoru Hosoda is a great director and I hope to see more from him in the future.
