Review of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) by Pruthuvi Maheshakya W — 14 Mar 2016

For me, the two strongest points in the narrative of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is the humour and outcomes that are both portrayed in the time travel aspect of the film.

In relation to the humour, the script has a clever way of portraying the funny circumstances that could happen if somebody were to use time travel for their own desires, which is exactly what happens to Makoto and her friends in the 1st half of the film.

In regard to the outcomes portrayed in the events of the film, what I love the most about The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is the way it portrays time travel from a very negative perspective, particularly in the 2nd half of the film. I feel like Mamoru Hosoda is saying that the tough circumstances we face in life could always be worse and that affecting them for our own benefit could lead to possibly worse consequences than we ever anticipated, which is exactly what happens to the people surrounding Makoto, so it's almost like we live in the best of all possible worlds and that we should appreciate the life we have now. This all leads to some good emotion and twists in the narrative during the 3rd act.

Overall, while I do prefer Hosoda's two later films, Summer Wars and Wolf Children, a little bit more, I do still really love The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It has an excellent balance of comedy and drama and I think it's a very strong start to the director's career of feature length Anime films.

I really can't wait for his next film, The Boy and the Beast. With Studio Ghibli potentially not making any more films, the works of Mamoru Hosoda are the next ones on my radar for now.