The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006 film)

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (時をかける少女, Toki o Kakeru Shōjo) is a 2006 Japanese-animated science fiction romance film produced by Madhouse, directed by Mamoru Hosoda and written by Satoko Okudera. Released by Kadokawa Herald Pictures, the film is a loose sequel to the 1967 novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui and shares the basic premise of a young girl who gains the power of time travel and repeatedly relives the same day in a time loop, but with a different story and characters than the novel. Riisa Naka voices teenager Makoto Konno, who learns from Kazuko Yoshiyama, Makoto's aunt and the protagonist to the original story, that Makoto has the power to travel through time. Makoto begins using the time-leaps frivolously to fix problems.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Theatrical release poster
Japanese時をかける少女
HepburnToki o Kakeru Shōjo
Directed byMamoru Hosoda
Produced by
  • Takashi Watanabe
  • Yuichiro Saito
Screenplay bySatoko Okudera
Based onThe Girl Who Leapt Through Time
by Yasutaka Tsutsui
Starring
Music byKiyoshi Yoshida
CinematographyYoshihiro Tomita
Edited byShigeru Nishiyama
Production
company
Distributed byKadokawa Herald Pictures
Release date
  • July 15, 2006 (2006-07-15)
Running time
98 minutes[1]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Box office¥300 million (Japan)[2]
₩665 million (South Korea)[3]

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was released on July 15, 2006, and received positive reviews. The film won numerous awards, including the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year. The English version was licensed and produced by Kadokawa Pictures U.S., with dubbing supplied by Ocean Productions, and released by Bandai Entertainment in 2008 and re-released by Funimation in 2016.[4]

Plot

At Kuranose High School in Tokyo, Japan, 17 year old Makoto Konno discovers a message written on a blackboard and ends up inadvertently falling upon a walnut-shaped object. On her way home, she is ejected into a railroad crossing when the brakes on her bicycle fail and is hit by an oncoming train, but finds herself transported back to the point in time when she was riding her bicycle right before the accident. After entering the Tokyo National Museum to meet with Kazuko Yoshiyama, she explains to Makoto after hearing her story that clearly, she now has the power to "time-leap", to literally leap through time. At first, Makoto uses her powers to avoid being late, getting perfect grades, and even relive a single karaoke session for several hours, but soon discovers her actions can adversely affect others.

Consequently, Makoto uses most of her leaps frivolously, to prevent undesirable situations from happening, including an awkward love confession from her best friend Chiaki Mamiya. Makoto realizes that she has a numbered tattoo on her arm indicating the limited number of times she can time leap. Using her remaining time leaps, Makoto attempts to make things right for everyone. When Chiaki calls Makoto to ask if she has been time-leaping, she uses her final time leap to prevent Chiaki's call. In the meantime, Makoto's friend Kōsuke Tsuda and his new girlfriend, Kaho Fujitani, borrow her faulty bike. Makoto attempts to stop them, but because she had just used her final leap, she is unable to rescue them from the train.

A moment later, Chiaki freezes time, telling Makoto that he is from the future. He explains that the walnut-shaped object is a time-traveling device, and he used it to leap through time hoping to see a painting that is being restored by Kazuko, as it has been destroyed in the future. While walking with Makoto in the frozen city, Chiaki also explains why he stayed longer in her time frame than he originally planned. Consequently, he has used his final leap to ensure Kōsuke's existence and has stopped time only to explain to Makoto now that he is unable to return to his own time period, and having revealed his origins and the nature of the item that allowed Makoto to leap through time, Chiaki must leave. Makoto then realizes she loves him.

True to his words, Chiaki disappears once time resumes. Initially distraught by Chiaki's disappearance, Makoto discovers that Chiaki's time-leap inadvertently restored her final time-leap: Chiaki had leaped back to the time before Makoto used it. Makoto uses it to safely leap back to the moment right after she originally gained her powers, when Chiaki still had his remaining time-leap. Recovering the used up time-travel device, she explains her knowledge of everything as she shows the device to Chiaki. Makoto vows to ensure the painting's existence so Chiaki can see it in his era. Before Chiaki departs, he tells Makoto he will be waiting for her in the future. When Kōsuke asks her where Chiaki went, she says he went to study abroad, and she has made a decision about her own future.

Characters
Makoto Konno (紺野 真琴, Konno Makoto)
Voiced by: Riisa Naka (Japanese); Emily Hirst (English)
Chiaki Mamiya (間宮 千昭, Mamiya Chiaki)
Voiced by: Takuya Ishida (Japanese); Andrew Francis (English)
Kosuke Tsuda (津田 功介, Tsuda Kousuke)
Voiced by: Mitsutaka Itakura (Japanese); Alex Zahara (English)
Yuri Hayakawa (早川 友梨, Hayakawa Yuri)
Voiced by: Ayami Kakiuchi (Japanese); Kristie Marsden (English)
Kaho Fujitani (藤谷 果穂, Fujitani Kaho)
Voiced by: Mitsuki Tanimura (Japanese); Natalie Walters (English)
Kazuko Yoshiyama (芳山 和子, Yoshiyama Kazuko)
Voiced by: Sachie Hara (Japanese); Saffron Henderson (English)
Miyuki Konno (紺野 美雪, Konno Miyuki)
Voiced by: Yuki Sekido (Japanese); Shannon Chan-Kent (English)
Sojiro Takase (高瀬 宋次郎, Takase Sojiro)
Voiced by: Yoji Matsuda (Japanese); David Hurwitz (English)

Reception

Release

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was released to a small number of theaters in Japan, taking in approximately ¥300 million ($3 million ).[2] The film received limited advertising as opposed to other animation features, but word of mouth and positive reviews[5] generated interest. At Theatre Shinjuku for days in a row, filmgoers filled the theater with some even standing to watch the film. Following this, distribution company Kadokawa Herald Pictures increased the number of theaters showing the film across Japan, and submitted the film for international festival consideration.

North American distributor Bandai Entertainment premiered the film in North America on November 19, 2006, at the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema and on March 3, 2007, at the 2007 New York International Children's Film Festival. The movie received a limited release in the United States, being shown subtitled in Los Angeles in June, and in Seattle in September. Also, an English dubbed version was shown in New York City in July. Its Boston area showings in August were subtitled. The film has also premiered in the UK as part of the Leeds Young People's Film Festival on April 2, 2008. The film was made available on Cable VOD on December 1, 2010, throughout the United States on numerous major cable systems, such as Comcast, Time Warner, and Cox, among others, by VOD distributor Asian Media Rights, under the Asian Crush label.

In South Korea, it released in June 2007. The film grossed ₩664,964,500 in South Korea.[3]

Critical response

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 88% approval rating based on 16 reviews with an average rating of 6.7/10, and the site's consensus: "An imaginative and thoughtfully engaging anime film with a highly effective visual design. This coming-of-age comedy drama has mad inventiveness to spare."[6]

Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network praised the film for its "absolute magic." Sevakis felt that the film has "more in common with the best shoujo manga than [author Yasutaka] Tsutsui's other work Paprika". He said that the voice acting has "the right amount of realism [for the film]".[7] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe praised the film's visuals and pace. He also compared the film to the works of Studio Ghibli.[8] Nick Pinkerton of The Village Voice said, "there's real craftsmanship for how [the film] sustains its sense of summer quietude and sun-soaked haziness through a few carefully reprised motifs: three-cornered games of catch, mountainous cloud formations, classroom still-lifes." Pinkerton also said that the film is the "equivalent of a sensitively wrought read from the Young Adult shelf, and there's naught wrong with that."[9] Author Yasutaka Tsutsui praised the film as being "a true second-generation" of his book at the Tokyo International Anime Fair on March 24, 2006.[10]

Accolades
YearAwardCategoryWinner/NomineeResultRef.
2006 Sitges Film Festival Best Animated Film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Won [11]
Nihon SF Taisho Award Grand Prize The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Nominated [12]
2007 Japan Academy Prize Animation of the Year The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Won [13]
Tokyo Anime Awards Animation of the Year The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Won [14]
Director Award Mamoru Hosoda Won
Best Original Story/Work The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: Yasutaka Tsutsui Won
Scriptwriting Award Satoko Okudera Won
Achievement in Art Direction Nizo Yamamoto Won
Character Design Award Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Won
2009 Young Artist Awards Best Performance in a Voice-over Role Emily Hirst Won [15]

It won the Animation Grand Award, given to the year's most entertaining animated film, at the prestigious sixty-first Annual Mainichi Film Awards. It received the Grand Prize in the animation division at the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival.[16] It won the Special Distinction for Feature Film at France's thirty-first Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 16, 2007. It played to full-house theatres during a screening in August 2007 at the ninth Cinemanila International Film Festival in Manila, Philippines.

Soundtrack

All music by Kiyoshi Yoshida, except where noted. Piano played by Haruki Mino.

  1. "Natsuzora (Opening theme)"
  2. "Sketch"
  3. "Aria (Goldberg Hensoukyoku Yori)" (Goldberg Variations by Bach)
  4. "Karakuri Tokei (Time Leap)"
  5. "Shoujo no Fuan"
  6. "Sketch (Long Version)"
  7. "Daylife"
  8. "Daiichi Hensoukyoku (Goldberg Hensoukyoku Yori)" (Variation 1 of Goldberg Variations by Bach)
  9. "Mirai no Kioku"
  10. "Seijaku"
  11. "Kawaranai Mono (Strings version)" (Hanako Oku)
  12. "Natsuzora (Ending theme)"
  13. "Time Leap (Long version)"
  14. "Natsuzora (Long version)"
  15. "Garnet (Yokokuhen short version)" (Oku)

The film's theme song is "Garnet" (ガーネット, Gānetto), and the insert song used in the film is "Kawaranai Mono" (変わらないもの, lit. Unchanging Thing(s)). Both songs were written, composed, and performed by singer-songwriter Hanako Oku. "Garnet" was arranged by Jun Satō and "Kawaranai Mono (Strings Version)" was arranged by Yoshida.

Manga
The manga starts with Makoto Konno dreaming about discovering a younger Kazuko Yoshiyama unconscious after having just said farewell to Kazuo Fukamachi.

The film was adapted into a manga by Ranmaru Kotone and was serialized in Shōnen Ace a few months before the film's theatrical release. It received a 2009 English-language release for the Australian region with licensing by Bandai Entertainment and distribution by Madman Entertainment. The manga largely follows the same story as the film with some slight differences. Notably, the manga opens differently, with Makoto Konno dreaming of stumbling in on Kazuko Yoshiyama and Kazuo Fukamachi—the main characters of the original novel—parting ways, and ends with an epilogue of a young Kazuko waking up after Kazuo leaves in her proper time.

References
  1. "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  2. "Tokikake Wins "Animation of the Year" at Japanese Academy Awards: Follow Up". Anime News Network. February 20, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  3. "영화정보". KOBIS. Korean Film Council. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  4. "Funimation Licenses The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Anime Film". Anime News Network. February 18, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
  5. "Gedo Senki Panned by Online Critics". Anime News Network. July 26, 2006. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  6. "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved May 27, 2018.
  7. Sevakis, Justin (March 5, 2007). "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time – Review". Anime News Network. Retrieved January 20, 2012.
  8. Burr, Ty (August 22, 2008). "Time stands still in enchanting 'Girl'". Boston Globe. The New York Times Company. Retrieved January 20, 2012.
  9. Pinkerton, Nick (June 10, 2008). "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's Real Craftsmanship". Village Voice. Retrieved September 7, 2012.
  10. "Tsutsui Yasutaka talks about Toki o Kakeru Shōjo" (in Japanese). Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  11. "Toki wo Kakeru Shōjo Wins at Catalonia". Anime News Network. October 23, 2006. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  12. ""Toki wo Kakeru Shōjo" Nominated for the twenty-seventh Japan SF Grand Prize". November 23, 2006. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  13. "Toki o Kakeru Syoujyo Wins Japan Academy Prize". Anime News Network. February 19, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  14. "Results of sixth Annual Tokyo Anime Awards Announced". Anime News Network. March 19, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  15. "30th Annual Young Artist Awards – Nominations/Special Awards". Young Artist Foundation. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
  16. ""Toki wo Kakeru Shōjo" Japan Media Arts Plaza in 2006". Archived from the original on April 26, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2007.

Further reading
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