The girl who leapt through time

I wasn't expecting much from this movie due to its weird title and what I felt was an awkward animation style. Plus I was an avid Hayao Miyazaki fan, and I did not believe any anime movie could overcome the feel-goodness of his movies in general. I was very wrong.

"The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" (or "Toki wa Kakeru Shoujo") is about a girl named Makoto Konno who, after a strange encounter in a lab after school discovers she has the power to "jump" through time. Literally.

Makoto Konno is a slightly clumsy tomboy whose priority is hanging out with her two best buddies - cheeky but endearing Chiaki Mamiya and evenheaded, gentlemanly Kosuke Tsuda. One day, her bicycle brakes won't work, and she finds herself about to be killed by crashing into a train passing her lane. Fortunately, a miracle occurs - and she finds herself having time-jumped backwards safe and sound.

After talking to her aunt, who had a similar experience, she experiments and finds that she can do it again, beginning with small things like preventing the poaching of a snack by her sister. The things she went back to change were trivial things, like a test she failed, or when her friend Chiaki confessed to her. They are all things that ordinary, idiotic people like ourselves would do if we had that power.

But when things start progressing to slightly more serious matters and she takes a series of jumps in a panic when she realizes that one of her best friends is about to say something to her privately that will take them to a place from which they can't come back that she isn't sure she's ready to go, things take a dark turn and spiral out of control - and she finds that this time, she might not be able to fix what she's done...

I think this movie is way up there with Miyazaki's films. The perfect blend of fantasy and feel-goodness, along with some dry humor as well makes for an excellent film. I also felt myself warming up to the animation style as well, which was very contemporary, so I wasn't used to it, but I'm now completely in love with it. "Time waits for no one" so go watch this movie!