The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Today I will be reviewing a movie that I watched yesterday.  I've been sleeping strange hours lately, I'm trying to get back on schedule.  Anyway, my friend Dave gave me this movie a while back and I didn't get around to watching it til now.  Glad I did though.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

This Science-Fiction Romance Anime is an extremely well produced feature length film based on an old Japanese Novel first serialized in a magazine in the 60's, I believe.  The premise is pretty self-explanatory.  The girl begins abusing the time travel as most teenage girls would if they came upon the ability, but learns that her actions can have unseen consequences.

Presentation - This movie's artwork is amazing.  The scenery is beautifully animated, the character's animation is smooth and very expressive, and the imagery used when time travelling gives a sense of grandeur that expresses the vastness of time itself.  The sound track is not very varied, but the pieces they do include are so well composed that some people would go to tears just listening to the music. (*ahem* not me, of course, too... manly for that, yea)

Presentation gets full marks.

Minor note, I watched this in Japanese with English subtitles.

Plot - The time travel appears simple at first, but as new rules arise and other characters become involved, the science fiction aspect of the story thickens.  The premise of the time travel is interesting too, as the girl physically leaps through time and can't do it unless she has a good running start.  However, the main focus of the story really centers around the relationships between the characters, especially the romantic ones.  I won't lie, it's kinda mushy and the characters act their awkward age.  However, I found the way the relationships interacted was very compelling, love triangles, etc.

Plot gets full marks.

Acting - Normally this quality will be more self-explanatory.  In an animated film like this one I will be discussing the characterization and the voice acting since these components basically replace the acting you would have in a normal movie.  In this movie, the characterization was well done.  The characters look like normal people so it may be hard to tell some characters apart at first.  Especially the girls for some reason.  As the movie progresses there shouldn't be any confusion.  Every character is well developed, except maybe the main girl's parents, they don't get much screen time.  She confides with her Aunt, whom she calls Auntie Witch, the most of any adult.
I thought the voice acting was good, but I don't speak Japanese.  None of the characters voices grated on my nerves and some of the characters inflections added to the humor.

Acting gets full marks.

Respect - This movie is not well known and didn't even sell very well in the box office in Japan.  However, the movie received several awards in the film festivals in which it was released and I bet if they released it here in the states, the anime crowd would eat it up.  I'll be giving this hidden jewel half-cred for being well respected among the critics who have seen it.

Time-Leaping Girl you get a little Respect, (0.5)

Overall
Great movie, really touching, but not all sad, kinda mushy, with a cool premise.  Find it on the internet, well worth the time.  Also, I just found out, it's available on Netflix, dubbed and subbed too probably, if you have dub you usually have sub.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time gets 3.5/4 paradoxes.


Btw, time paradoxes never come up in this movie.


I am now going to get a soda from the kitchen.

And then...

I chowed down on the generous portions of Japaneseish seafood native to Kattox.  I assumed I was on Kattox having landed in the middle of Ash's family.  I made up a story about how my merchant vessel had been attacked by pirates, ironically, and I don't remember much after that.  They all seemed to buy it.  Lee especially agreed with me, making logical conclusions about why that story made sense.  Sayoko seemed to innocently place her faith in my story and Ash didn't seem to care.  Her father was the only one who actually seemed to consider it, but I think he came to the conclusion that I didn't seem dangerous.

They told me about Fraction industries and growing concerns with the planet Reeva.  I wondered if I should attempt to stop the massacre of the people of Reeva.  That would be a big time paradox, which I may have mentioned before can cause severe emotional and psychological trauma.  On the other hand, it was an entire planet of people going to die.  Later that night, Lee asked to talk to me on the deck of the boat.

"Captain Bob?"

*snicker*

"Yes Lee?"

"I need your help.  My father is dying."

This was a half-shock to me.  I realized that Lee had inherited Fraction Industries from her father in the future, but the man looked in perfect health.  He was the spitting image of the American dream: wealthy, muscular, and father of two hot teenage girls.

"I know he doesn't look like it, but he has a rare disease from Reeva that we have no cure for."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Well I... I was kind of hoping that... I dunno, I don't know how to ask this."

"I'm listening."

"Research for this disease is well-funded and new ways to treat the illness are advancing rapidly."

"That's good."

"Not fast enough though.  The cure for the disease is unlikely to show up before my father kicks the bucket."

"You shouldn't give up."

"I didn't, I'm not I mean.  Even if it was impossible to come up with a cure in time, I wasn't going to let that stop me from keeping my father alive."

"What exactly are you getting at?"

"I was hoping YOU could get me the cure."

"Me?"

"I was hoping they had it, you know...

...in your time."

Until next time fellow pirates.