Girl Who Leapt Through Time, The

Introduction

A screener disc means that I don't have much to tell you about the retail release…

2008 has been a stupendous year for anime feature films on DVD, and that's without a major Ghibli presence this year (expect Miyazaki's Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea next year). We've had 3D CG anime spectaculars in the form of Vexille and Appleseed: Ex Machina, as well as the first two Gonzo features, Origin and Brave Story. They've offered something for all audiences, whether it's an eco message, a fairy story, or some knock down sci-fi action. You'd think that a fifth feature release would be over-egging the pudding, but arguably The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is the best of the lot, garnering the Japanese Academy's first ever Best Animation Award last year. It's a film with a past, based on a 1965 novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, and is in some ways a sequel to that novel, and the two previous live action films that have been adapted from it. If you're going to try and categorise it, it would fall into the sci-fi romantic comedy bracket, but it would be far easier to just buy a copy and decide for yourself.


Makoto Konno is your typical tomboy, an occasionally klutzy and not too smart young girl who's in her last year of high school. But it's summer, and she prefers to spend her time with best friends Kousuke and Chiaki playing catch and swinging at pitches instead of truly thinking about her future. That all changes one day, when riding home from school, the brakes fail on her bike and she's killed in an accident. Except that she isn't. She lands in a heap, back up the hill, a few seconds before she would have been killed. Makoto's discovered her inner power, she can leap back into time, and pretty soon she's having fun, leaping back to snaffle the pudding that her kid sister stole that morning, re-sitting her maths test to get a perfect score, arranging not to look like a ditz in home economics, or spending a whole day singing karaoke. It looks as if the perfect summer will last forever, but things get teen angst complicated when someone confesses his love to her, and she soon learns that no matter how much you travel through time, certain things are inevitable.

The Disc

I got a single layer DVD-R with the film on it (anamorphically presented), along with a DD 2.0 English track.

When you walk into your local anime emporium, you'll get packaging, animated menus, DD 2.0 Stereo Japanese and English, DD 5.1 Surround Japanese and English, English subtitles, the film's theatrical trailer, trailers for other Manga releases, and most substantial, an audio commentary with the director and actors, none of which I can tell you about.

If extras are your thing, you ought to know that there is a 2-disc exclusive of this film at HMV, with a second disc loaded with additional goodies.

Conclusion

I'm wavering between a verbose, burst of loquacity that offers a page or two of gushing appreciation, and an inarticulate squeal of joy that accurately represents how enthused I am about this film, but will make no sense to anyone reading it. I'll settle for a middle road and simply say this is the best new film I've seen this year. And yes, that includes live action. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a perfect peach of a film that tells a charming story, with wonderful characters and with a magnificent imaginative scope. In some ways it's the most accessible sort of sci-fi, where the time travel is a device to tell a very human, heart-warming, comic and emotional story, with the emphasis on character growth.


I'm an inveterate proponent of the original language in anime, but for once I am grateful that I've had no choice but to experience a dub track, as TGWLTT's English dub is spectacular. It's a sign of how far dubs have come since the bad old days of Manga Video. The English voice actors are perfectly cast for their roles, and they capture the emotional strength of the characters, the verisimilitude that the story requires without flaw. They carry the emotional weight of the film and watching it you simply forget that it's animated.


Which is something of a shame, as this has to be one of the best animations that I have seen recently. It's courtesy of Madhouse Studios of course, and they bring an attention to detail and realism to the anime that is simply astounding. The character designs are simple but memorable, and the character animation is detailed and expressive. Placed into the detailed backgrounds, the atmospheric visuals and singular vision of a small town at the height of summer, watching the film is a wholly relaxing experience. CG is used sparingly, or at least it only really becomes obvious during the time leap sequences, when an otherworldliness is appropriate. Otherwise the anime has a wholly traditional 2D feel that suits the story brilliantly, while being just as immersive and 'real' as any 3D animation.


As for the story… well I'm not going to tell you more than I already have. It's a film that deserves to be discovered for yourself. But I will tell you that it does what all the best films do; it runs you through the gamut of emotions in its brief run time. You'll be laughing out loud, cringing in embarrassment, your heart will be in your throat, it will have you in tears, and you'll be uplifted with joy. This is one enchanting family film that ought to be in every stocking this Christmas.


Whenever I get a DVD-R to review, with a cut down low-res version of the film that barely resembles the final retail release, I have an instinctive, knee-jerk, reflex, world-weary, cynical reviewer response to it and knock a couple of points off the final score. I guess that means The Girl Who Leapt Through Time actually gets 12/10.