For the second in a series of twelve anime things I’ll remember from 2007, I’m going to discuss Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, a film I saw back in July that took me on an emotional journey. It started out with mundaneity, expanded with childlike optimism, and then gradually decayed into gloominess and desperation until it reached an acceptance of life’s unforgiving realities. All of those were projected by a combination of great looking visuals, framing, and voice acting.

A major part of making me and other viewers feel compassion for Makoto and her friends was the fluid animation. Madhouse Studios was responsible for the high quality visuals and motion throughout the film. It showed in big scenes such as the first train crash in which Makoto is coasting toward the tracks on a bicycle with broken brakes and the “second” crash with Makoto frantically but hopelessly chasing after Kosuke and his girlfriend riding the same broken bike, enduring through the cuts and bruises that she gets on her way down the busy street. The attention to detail also appears more subtly when Makoto, Chiaki, and Kosuke playing catch after school or the twisting legs of a confused Makoto sitting in a bathtub.

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned a coupled times before, I am a fan of framing that utilizes empty space and usually that technique is used to illustrate loneliness and/or provide a sense of scale between the characters and their environment. The image of Makoto standing on a trail next to a river against a horizon of a sun that has just set after her friend Chiaki kissed her and left is heartbreaking and conveys a sense of meaninglessness. Five months ago I wrote that that moment was “the lowest valley on the emotional trip I took while watching the film”. Although I agree that it was one of the deepest parts of the film, I now think that the Makoto-running-after-Kosuke scene was more effective in evoking a pit within my stomach.

Finally, the voice acting from Makoto’s naivety to Auntie’s calm advice to Chiaki’s stern scolding brought the film to life and gave it a sense that although it was science fiction, the emotions were genuine. I felt awkward seeing Makoto’s classmates amongst each other as her plan to change things for the better really began to crumble, smirking when she got to enjoy her previously eaten pudding, and relieved that Kosuke and his girl actually didn’t crash after all the frantic cutting and yelling in that climactic “false ending” of a scene. Wow, that’s three times I’ve referenced the same part of a movie. Maybe I should wrap this one up since I’m posting this pretty late anyway.

While composing this post, I felt like going back and watching the movie again mainly for the cinematography and technical parts but also just to see it again, something I might do during this winter break. Bandai announced its license of the film last week at NYAF and has a trailer for it up on their Revver page. I’d be interested to see what kind of extras are on the DVD whenever a date is eventually announced after its limited theatrical release in the US.

I just finished watching “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo), a movie I had been wanting to see but hadn’t gotten around it until tonight because a friend bringing it up a couple days ago reminded me about it. TokiKake was a very touching film – made me cry a couple times. My brain is still trying to think about deeper meanings while my hands are typing this so I’m not going to attempt a detailed analysis. (Besides, that would spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, right?)

I went into it knowing only that time travel was involved somehow and not much else. While that was a main component of the plot, what was more interesting was the change that occured within Makoto, the protagonist. A normally lucky girl, she has an abnormally unlucky day that would have ended in a deadly fashion until she unconsciously (and physically) jumps slightly back in time to safety. Her fortune gradually changes from almost dying in a train accident to feeling on top of the world within 15 “screen minutes”. She enjoys her newfound but limited ability by serving herself but then sees her selfishness has made things worse for the people around her. Her earnest attempts to fix her own mistakes make the situation worse until she feels helpless to do anything about it.

Near the end of the film, when everything is back to normal, everyone but Makoto is happy. She wonders why she even tried in the first place. She does gets lifted back up emotionally soon after then and the movie ends on a relatively happy note. That one moment, though, was one of the most depressing things I have ever seen/felt, forming the lowest valley on the emotional trip I took while watching the film. As for Makoto, she overcomes her fear of uncomfortable events and realizes that she has to take the bad times along with the good.

The characters in the film come off naturally and the explanations of the time jump make sense albeit after a seemingly deus ex machina event (or plot twist, if you wish) that leads off the third act. The idea of going back and doing something differently has surely cropped up in everyone’s heads at least once in their life but then if you were asked who would have to suffer in order for you to get your way, the once head-in-the-clouds idea falls to the earth when their sense of reality and moral responsibility hits. The fact that the activity which tied Makoto and her two friends together was playing baseball after school made me like the film more as a fan of the sport.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who has a chance to see it. The movie is actually a sequel of the original novel, in which Makoto’s aunt was the protagonist, and I would really like to read that to learn the backstory.