Mini Film Review – The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

I have just been out to see The Girl Who Leapt Through Time; and it was really nice! Directed by Mamoru Hosoda, and starring Riisa Naka, Takuya Ishida, and Mitsutaka Itakura; The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an anime science fiction romance film, and loose sequel to the novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui. The film follows the life of a teenage girl, who gains the ability to travel through time, a skill she uses to fix her everday issues, up until the point where things start to go wrong! The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is pretty much your basic/average time travel story, which focuses in on the initial merits to changing the past, but ultimately the dangers of changing too much. But rather than tell the story on a large epic scale, or reference well known moments in history, the film chooses to keep it localized to the life of the lead character. This helps make it much easier to follow, but also means that when really bad things happen, you can really feel them on an emotional level. So it initially comes across as both fun, and funny, but near the end becomes incredibley serious, and nearly traumatizing too. But by the time the film reaches it’s climax, you realize you are hooked to the screen, and have been for a long time, you just can’t look away, as it’s such an engaging experience. It is a very serious film, with some near horrific scenes of peril, as well as moments of real heartbreak; but it’s a really nice, and pleasant one too!