Random Review: The Girl who Leapt Through Time

It's another Japanese animated movie. But it was not made by Miyazaki who is known for classics like Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. So I was kinda apprehensive of the movie since it was drastically different from the magic Miyazaki typically captured. Nonetheless, I was pretty optimistic for this film since I love animated movies a lot and I also liked the distinctive anime style that was a feature of the film.

So to start off, the animation was a little jarring. There were moments were the animation was just plain and a little boring on the eyes but there were also some scenes were the animation was truly breathtaking. I don't know if this is just an aspect of anime in general or if Japanese people are used to this kind of flair but it definitely deviated from the creativity and finesse of Miyazaki films or American animated films. It didn't matter in the long run but the entire style seemed mixed.

Next we get to the plot. The whole reason why time travel does not work well in any form of media is that it raises loopholes and paradoxes. This movie exemplifies this as the whole time concept is left ambiguous in the beginning before it is revealed that a nut of all things creates a limited number of time travel and Chiaki, the protagonist's friend/lover, came from the future. Anyways, this boils down to when Chiaki uses his last time jump to save the protagonist and her friend and he freezes time to deliver plot to the protagonist. The protagonist, Makoto, gets a time jump for some reason from Chiaki inadvertently and she goes back in time to allow Chiaki to still have a time jump. So why doesn't this work? Well, how did Chiaki freeze time? How did Chiaki give Makoto a time jump? And how come Makoto goes back and he still has a time jump? Are the two Chiaki's in time distinct or what? Normally, I wouldn't care about the plot in an animated film but this film tries to make its plot "complex" in a way whereas Miyazaki makes his films purposely vague. So this film tries to dump a bunch of information on us that I have little time to process and in the end it really didn't matter. Throughout the majority of the film, the plot just takes a backseat as Makoto is just having hijinks which results in bad stuff happening. So the "ending" just becomes jarring and the resolution is just there to make the audience happy. The non-sequitur style of the film just makes it feel odd and weird. I don't care about the plot yet the film decides to bring some sort of grand scheme to make things complex. It probably would've been better if the film was more like "Groundhog Day" in that it was just a slice-of-life film that involved time travel. Thus, this is my main issue with the film, I was fine with everything up to the point they threw the confusing crap at us that I honestly couldn't care for. In the end I had more questions than when it began.

Then there are the characters. I thought they were pretty engaging. Makoto is your typical schoolgirl who is kind of like Sakura in many respects. Chiaki is the person who likes Makoto and is somewhat head-strong and Kosuke is the other guy who the girls swoon for. The film also introduces Yoshiyama, Makoto's aunt, who is there to sprinkle exposition throughout the film. They don't have distinct personalities but I expect that from an anime film.

Another thing I'd compare this film to is "The World Ends With You." Kind of off topic but TWEWY is a game that deals with death and a game to come back to life. TWEWY also had a complex plot but the game actually focused on the plot throughout the entire game which allowed for the gamers to digest what was going on. In this film, the audience has no reason to be invested in the plot after the whole slice-of-life segment because the audience may assume the film isn't about the time travel. Furthermore, this film is also portrayed in the weird Japanese way (no offense) in which the characters tend to accept things very quickly. Because of that, it becomes harder to suspend disbelief over the whole movie.

In all, the movie tries to go for the artistic side of things but what we get is like two movies mixed into one. On one end it's a slice-of-life comedy, on the other it's a plot-heavy drama. This conglomeration just doesn't work which makes the whole movie fail in the end. I still enjoyed it yet I didn't enjoy it as much as a Miyazaki film or a Pixar film. It just didn't satisfy my interests.

Final Rating: 6/10