Toki-o Kakeru Shoujo made a big splash in the anime community, and even some small ripples in the Japanese mainstream. A tiny wave even reached the UK’s arthouses, and thus today I got to see the charming little film on a big screen, albeit not one any bigger than a home projector system would give me, and with an annoying kid who couldn’t chew with his mouth closed, a rather poor flickery transfer and strange subtitles made up of individual strokes you could see crossing over one another colouring the experience.
Such minor complaints about the cinema itself can’t detract from how good the film is, however. It may not be as lush visually as Ghibli’s most ambitious films, but it equals some of their subdued and mature efforts, like Mimi-o Sumaseba and Omohide Poroporo, and has some really excellent visual moments: the final leap through time, for example, or some of the wonderful background animations. At one point, two girls push a third to approach the boy she likes in a piece of charming and hilarious silent comedy done in the background of a scene.
The story is the kind of thing that only anime develops along the lines we see here, a zany idea treated very seriously and made believable, even with increasingly bizarre twists. A girl discovers she can ‘leap’ through time, going back to replace her previous self, making her effectively able to live through an experience and then change it entirely. Although this could lead to a typical sci-fi story along the lines of Quantum Leap or Bill and Ted, because our heroine Makoto is too naive and pure, or possibly too lacking in imagination, to do anything but sweet things like repeating her time in the karaoke room or retake a test she did badly on, she never abuses her new power. Of course, things get more complicated when her two male best friends begin to show an interest in her and in other girls, and her life gets more confusing as their relationships get more and more convoluted by her attempts to get things just perfect.
Drama becomes heightened as Makoto has to encounter life-and-death situations and there are some superb moments where Makoto and the audience realise what is about to happen with grim inevitability while those in the situation are still unaware. The relationship drama is really top-notch, with both boys sympathetic, tomboyish Makoto absolutely adorable and even the minor characters developed just enough, raising fond smiles.
The animation is not superb but it is solid, the aesthetic appealing and the character designs attractive. The music works well and the voice actors have a freshness to their performances reminiscent of Bokura ga Ita. It just about pulls off its more high-faluting parts and there’s only one real problem with the conclusion, which without giving much away is that you can say, ‘Well, just get more once you go back and you can keep going back and forth.’ The story works well and keeps up a brisk pace, although there is a little too much of a lull in the final act between the film’s major climax and its conclusion, which is a bit of a shame.
Nonetheless, this film is cute, well-crafted, mature and still very entertaining. Highly recommended.
(orginally written 29.9.08)
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