The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a really cool anime movie based on an adult novel from the 60s. I just watched it this weekend at the SF Int'l Asian American Film Festival. The director adapted the original story by 1. making the main character of his film the actual niece of the original girl who leapt through time; and 2. changing details (she's superfast at text messaging on her cell phone, for example) to make it more applicable to modern-day Tokyo.

Besides the fact that happy, time-traveling Japanese fictional characters (think Doraemon, or Hiro from Heroes) have the awesomest adventures ever, this girl is just sooo likable. She's lazy--always late to school, spends way too much time in the bathtub, groans when she has to get up to answer the phone--and a total tomboy, but is also the biggest sweetheart. She spends a whole bunch of her time-traveling power trying to get couples together, for example, or not hurting someone's feelings, just trying to set things right. It's cute.

I don't know where it's showing next, but I highly recommend it.

Comments

[sachi0770]

I really dig this kind of anime...but don't know much about it. Where would I be able to see this movie-- or does anyone have any suggestions for films like this besides Ghibili? I'm not really into the Ghost in the Shell type stuff...more the happy, cute stuff!

...so japanese, i know...

[Greg]

I went through a bit of a hassle to find a copy of this in a format I could play on my Mac (Matroska files suck!) but it was well worth it. I ended up getting the soundtrack too.

[Greg]

I went through a bit of a hassle to find a copy of this in a format I could play on my Mac (Matroska files suck!) but it was well worth it. I ended up getting the soundtrack too.

[nyankobrulee]

I saw this at the SFAAIF as well. Don't forget the hours upon hours of karaoke she was able to do with her time travel!!

I want to suggest Satoshi Kon for sachi0770, in particular, Millenium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers. But he has some quirky stuff too, like Perfect Blue and Paprika which seem to have a bit of a leap into sci-fi.