CS Film Club II

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time


It’s always been a struggle to get people to understand my affinity towards anime. While it does have its...odd niches, it isn’t all about mecha battles and fan service. Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon did well in elevating Japanese animation and storytelling beyond its otaku status. Miyazaki was even so bold to say he didn’t consider his work to fit the western description of anime at all, proving over and over again that it is just as valid form of filming making as any other. With his retirement and the sudden downsizing of Studio Ghibli there seemed to be a bit of a talent vacuum forming and animator turned director Mamoru Hosoda might be that person to help fill it. I had just recently seen Summer Wars and enjoyed it enough to put Hosoda on my radar, so I was looking forward to working through his portfolio.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is about a tomboyish high school girl named Matoko who inadvertently gains the ability to time leap. Simple enough, though what’s fun about this is how she chooses to use this ability. At first the reasons seem innocuously selfish; sleeping in before school, acing a pop quiz, my favorite was traveling back to a previous night to eat teppanyaki instead of boring chicken stew. However, her intentions start to turn a little nobler as the consequence of her actions begin to affect the people around her. The writing does a pretty good job of using the time travel trope as a tool to tell a larger story rather than making it the focus. Science isn’t necessarily perfect because it is doesn’t have to be, but remains serviceable enough not to distract overall.

The animation style is the softer more realistic type. There aren’t many special effects showcased but the physical and facial expressiveness of the characters are incredibility realistic and surprisingly subtle at times. The colors are vibrant and action is clean as well. I watched the subtitled version and all of the voice over talent was perfectly fine. No complaints. I particularly liked the actress voicing Matoko. She hit every facet of her personality nicely and her vocal quality matched the person I was watching on screen so perfectly. There is something about the Japanese approach to voice over that really resonates with me. Maybe it’s the rhythms of the language of itself but I have always appreciated it (though I also appreciate a well performed dubbed. I’m not one of those people. ).

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is one of those easily digestible animes that I would definitely recommend to those with misgivings or little experience with the genre as well as to avid fans. It’s whimsical, funny, honest, and sweet, but not to the point of saccharine. It’s also a good example of the broad reach Japanese animation is capable of achieving and where the choice to use animation as its medium actually helps strengthen the believability of the story as a whole. In these changing times of the industry, maybe Hosoda can lead the charge of the next generation.

B+

Naw its alright, I dont mind disturbing films. As long as there good and not cheesy or dumb.

Time waits for no one! Awesome, I'm really glad you liked it.

I finished my movie last night, but I fell asleep. Just got home from work, but me and the wifey are heading out to dinner and grocery shopping. Will post my review before bed tonight.

I'm in.

Ill be out this next round.

I'm in.

I'd like to jump in this round JBond.

Summer Wars

Summer Wars is a 2009 film by Mamoru Hosoda, best known for directing The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, as well as various anime episodes. The story centers around, at the beginning, Kenji, a math genius in the 11th grade, working a summer job, when the cutest girl in school, Natsuki, asks him to escort her to Ueda to visit her great-grandmother on her 90th birthday. When they arrive, Kenji meets the rest of her family, who’s ancestry have a great history in Ueda, as well as her great-grandmother, clearly the leader of her family, as well as a woman of power and influence in her community. Kenji discovers that his purpose there is to pose as Natsuki’s boyfriend, but the family soon finds out he’s not who they say he is. But that’s the least of his problems, for soon enough he solves a math problem delivered to his phone by text, which is actually an AI program that he has now given access to his account, that eventually starts taking over the planet’s largest online social infrastructure, Oz, as well as creating other disasters, like hogging up emergency lines, congesting traffic, and being involved in even greater tragedies. Now the family must come together, use all their resources, and trust and work with Kenji, to defeat the rogue AI.

This is the second film I’ve seen by Hosoda, a man whose name is starting to become associated with directing quality anime. While this, his follow up feature to The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, may not be as layered as the former, what we do get is a film that merges three tales into one. The first is a whimsical, slightly cliché, love story, the second, a hacker vs. hacker adventure, and the third, and most important, is an endearing tale of family. Hosoda effortlessly merges all three tales and presents them in a way that the viewer almost feels like they’re there, in the midst of a grand family reunion. What works is Hosoda’s apparent respect for family, and how they are represented. With a cast this large, one would expect a fair amount of character stereotypes, but Hosoda manages to make each member of the family seem important, revealing more about each character, major or minor, throughout the course of the film. He also provides a lot of detail to Ueda, the city the film takes place in, showing great respect to the city’s history and directly relating it to the family in the story.

The animation is simple, yet each scene seems grand and fresh. While his depiction of life in Ueda is easy and beautiful, it’s the virtual world of OZ, the cyber social network, that Hosoda presents as larger than life. Here is a world where colors come from all directions, cities float, and avatars can come in any shape and size, and they do. It’s also where Love Machine, an Artificial Intelligence that not only tries to take over the network, but evolves to the point where he takes over a portion of the film. The battles between it and our heroes are grand and a spectacle to the eyes.

While Hosoda’s follow up film may not be the best of the two I’ve seen, it's still a grand film, solidifying Hosoda as a confident and creative story teller and keeping him on the radar. This man is definitely on the road to becoming one of the greats and it looks like I’ll be following his journey.

8/10

I remember my professor in film school constantly raving about that movie. She made us watch scenes from it each week. Suffice it to say, I'll never, ever watch it in its entirety.

It's definitely his attempt at telling and more ambitious and multifaceted story. I liked both for different reasons. Plus the gal who voices Al on FMA was the English dubbed for Kamuza.

Need to check of Wolf Children. He also has a new film coming out this year called The Boy and the Beast.