Toki o Kakeru Shojo
Alternative Titles: TokiKake, The girl who leapt through time, The girl who cut time
I will now try to convince you to watch this movie. There have been several posts about this one, but I feel it deserves a separate thread. It's rather old, but then again TokiKake wasn't known to be a box-office hit, but rather a movie that gradually gained interest due to glowing reviews and word of mouth. This review is based on the subbed version by Shinsen-Subs.
Time waits for no one.
Makoto is an ordinary high school girl who one day discovers she has the ability to time-travel.
At first, she uses this ability to change trivial events, from acing her tests to repeating karaoke sessions ten times over to rewinding to the meals she enjoyed. Makoto is the time of her life.
However, she soon discovers that her power can have dire consequences, especially on the people she cares about most. With her powers running low, Makoto now must find a way to fix the trouble she's created.
THE SPOILERS START HERE
This show is the emotional ride I expected it to be. It makes me yearn for my high school days, but then again it reminds me that time waits for no one.
The characters are very well developed. Even the character designs suit the personalities they belong to, making this movie all the more believable.
Makoto is a very ordinary girl from any viewpoint, which creates perfect grounding for the story. She is someone you can relate to regardless of gender or personality.
Chiaki is a transfer student and Makoto's partner in crime when it comes to delinquency. Underneath that rough exterior, however, are a sensitive heart and a deep appreciation for art. This is unknown even to Makoto, who thinks that Chiaki will choose sciences as a career path since he sucks at kanji.
Kousuke is the third member of this trio, him being the straight a student. He constantly plays baseball with the latter two. He is known to be gentle and is quite popular with the women.
Makoto's aunt is the perfect guardian, with her uncomplicated accepting nature being the protagonist of the novel that precedes this story. When told about time leap, she calmly says "oh, it happens to a lot of girls your age. Time is irreversible, right? But you reversed it."
The story doesn't dwell on science fiction, and one should be thankful, for it will only serve to mess up the emotional scenes. There are no technicalities or any effort whatsoever to make things complicated. It is light hearted and often funny, and it allows you to suspend disbelief throughout the show.
The cinematography is so good that you can use this movie for one lecture session about film theory. One shot shows the three of them at a crossroads. Makoto can take any road and still get home, but she chose one path that led her to an awkward confession of love. No matter how many times she rewound, the same thing happened to her even if she tried to avoid it. Ultimately, she decides to take the other path, which brings to mind the question of "the road not taken."
Several scenes depicted how unlucky Makoto was. If this was any other anime, it could have been left at that and be forgotten. But each and every one of these scenes was later used to explore how even the tiniest things could make a huge difference. For example, Makoto decides to avoid one event where she burned a little of her bangs. This causes one of her classmates to be bullied by others, another of her classmates to get a shoulder injury and Chiaki to fall in love with someone other than her.
One of my favorite sequences would be Makoto running to Chiaki to make everything right. She ran while the camera moved with her, but at a steady pace. Makoto would often be left behind by the camera, only to catch up with it later and eventually leave the camera behind. This simple sequence demonstrated just how determined she was to catch up with Chiaki.
The audio is also good. It is silent at heights of emotional tension, and the music does justice to the visual quality of the show. One particular track I like is Kawaranai Mono, the song played when she realized she had one more chance to fix everything and to not lose Chiaki. The strings of this particular piece made it all the more powerful emphasized just how climactic this moment was.
There are no high-pitched voices, thank goodness.
My only complaints would be that I wanted more closure, and that Chiaki felt somewhat like a deus ex machina towards the movie's climax (which was quickly taken care of later).
SPOILERS END
The catchphrase may be "time waits for no one", but my favorite phrase is "sometimes all it takes to fall in love is the guts to try".
To anyone who is in high school, misses their high school life, is afraid to tell someone how they feel, hates how life is playing out, enjoys a good love story or enjoys a good story, this one is for you.
Toki o Kakeru Shojo - The Girl who Leapt Through TIme
Reply With Quote
Posting Permissions
