The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo) is a 2006 sci-fi anime film that is produced by the studio Madhouse. It is directed by Mamoru Hosoda, who also created and directed Summer Wars and the recent Wolf Children.
Konno Makoto is a relaxed high school girl who spends her days away playing catch with her friends Chiaki Mamiya and Kousuke Tsuda. One day, she discovers she can time leap and uses this power to make her life a bit easier. She ends up changing a lot of things for her personal convenience. However, things are not as simple as it seems and her travels start having some unforseen consequences.
While time-travel is getting used in fiction more and more, there always is room for innovation. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time isn't exactly new, but makes a fresher use of this plot point than many other movies released since it aired. The ways Makoto uses her power are petty, but they end up generating bigger and bigger consequences as time goes on.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time also portrayals themes other than the time-travel itself, for example, the teenage years and friendship. The three protagonists are teenagers and act the part, with their own insecurities and desires somewhere in between the childish and the mature. Makoto is a great example of this, as she doesn't want the moment she is living to end, but also wants to find what to do afterwards.
While the film doesn't have the most complicated storyline, it does portrayal varied things in its 1 hour and 30 minutes run. The movie has two romance subplots, a subplot intrinsically related to the main story and the proper time-travel to deal with, and manages to close every plot thread in a meaningful and, sometimes, tragic way.
The characters are what makes this possible. They are all well realized and show a good amount of depth and emotions. Makoto is usually cheerful, but she can get serious and has to deal with her newly found powers, her future and her feelings regarding the present. Tsuda, on the other hand, is the most reliable of his friends, but hides some of his sides in the various timelines. Chiaki seems to be a very mysterious and a bit aggressive guy, but he opens up to his friends and the viewers get to see who he really is.
The art, however, isn't up to par with the rest of the movie. It portrayals movements with incredible finesse and sense of speed and the backgrounds are impressive, everything else, from the characters to the objects, feels a bit underwhelming and barebones.
Still, that didn't influence my enjoyment of the film heavily, as I was too drawn in by the story. It was pretty enjoyable to see the cast interacting, while still trying to figure out why exactly everything was happening.
I would recommend The Girl Who Leapt Through Time to basically anyone, as it is pretty accessible. also, both fans of sci-fi and slice-of-life romance will find a lot to like in it.
