“Time waits for no one.” An anime film that brought waves for its director when it was originally released and turns up on many best-of lists is finally coming home to GKIDS, who seem to be where the beloved will thrive from here on out. (It certainly isn’t with Crunchyroll.) While the film will be having its twentieth anniversary this year, its coming-of-age story and striking animation hold up to this day, and ensure it’ll be a favorite among Hosoda’s catalog for years to come.
Makoto is a normal teenage girl facing the normal anime teenage girl struggles – being late for school, keeping her grades up, avoiding awkward moments – until the day she somehow avoids being the victim of a train accident by literally leaping through time. Her aunt explains to her, surprisingly calm or perhaps not taking her niece entirely seriously, that time itself cannot go back – Makoto herself has gone back through time. Despite her experience, Makoto herself is initially unsure that it even happened. Once she manages to do it again and save an uneaten pudding from her sister’s thieving mitts, she begins to take advantage of her special power to make her teenage life a little less hasslesome. But does altering the past truly come without any consequence?
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is one of Hosoda’s earliest works, and his first at Madhouse after facing rocky roads with Toei Animation and even Studio Ghibli. While Makoto’s family does play a role in the story, family isn’t the major focus of the story in the same sense as his later works Summer Wars, Wolf Children, Mirai, etc. The trope of “time travel doesn’t come without consequence” isn’t exactly a new one, but Makoto is a protagonist that you want to root for and hope she somehow finds a way to put everything back together. Without spoilers, it strikes a chord in terms of its realism – there is no magic reset, but Makoto comes to terms with the reality of her seemingly frivolous actions at the time, and begins to realize that time itself is something she should cherish. It definitely has some similarities to a Studio Ghibli film, and after seeing the returns and acclaim that Hosoda’s gotten on his work, I’m sure they’ve kicked themselves once or twice for letting him go.
The science fiction element of time traveling here can come off as a little confused at times, but this isn’t Steins;Gate – the main focus definitely isn’t on breaking down the logistics of how exactly Makoto can time travel and how she manages to break through time. All she ever really figures out is that she can barrel roll into a room and do karaoke for hours. We never quite figure out how much Makoto’s aunt actually knows about time travel either, though her dialogue sounds like she could just think Makoto is having an odd puberty experience. You can get hints of Hosoda’s future sci-fi design he’d use for the world of OZ in Summer Wars in the scenes where Makoto travels through time.
The English dub is a solid production from Ocean Productions, the former Canadian powerhouse for anime dubs. The majority of the VAs aren’t well-known today, but it’s a relief that they were able to get it right the first time, and that Funimation or another license holder never felt the need to go in and fix what wasn’t broken. Escaflowne, I’m looking at you.
GKIDS has put together another mostly stellar release of an anime classic. Compared to Funimation’s previous release, this one features better artwork and even a limited-edition slipcase and steelbook edition. However, GKIDS’ release is missing a few extras that were present on Funimation’s – including a talk with the director, a look inside one of the earliest screening events of the film, and the music video for Hanako Oku’s “Garnet”. These won’t be dealbreakers for the majority of people who just want a nice-looking release of the film, which GKIDS definitely provides and then some – but may be disappointing for the biggest completionists out there.
Overall, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a standout anime film that continues to shine to this day. It’s easy to understand why this was Hosoda’s big break into the mainstream, and why it’ll continue to delight audiences of all ages for years to come. It doesn’t quite feel old enough to call it a “classic,” but sitting on a line next to GKIDS’ other stellar releases of various classic Ghibli films, it doesn’t feel out of place at all.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is available from GKIDS on 4K, Blu-ray, and streaming.
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