The number of anime movies I’ve seen compared to anime series is very small so I never had a favorite anime movie but the next time someone asks “What’s your favorite anime movie?” I really won’t hesitate so say “TOKI WO KAKERU SHOUJO!”. Anyway, I downloaded as soon as I saw it on AnimeSuki but I never watched it until yesterday, don’t ask why.

Main cast:Mitsutaka Itakura, Riisa Naka, Sachie Hara, Takuya Ishida
Genre: Slice of life, Drama, Romance, Sci-fi
Length: 98 minutes
Released: 2006 Jul 15
Insert song: Kawarani Mono by Oku Hanako
Main theme: Garnet by Oku Hanako

CG scene

Synopsis
Tsutsui Yasutaka’s novel, Toki o Kakeru Shojo is the basis of the film, but the film is not a movie version of the book. Instead, the film is set as a continuation of the book in the same setting some twenty years later.

Makoto Konno, a girl attending high school in Tokyo’s shitamachi, gains the power to go back in time and re-do things (the time-leap) when she gets involved in an accident at a train crossing one day. A little bewildered with her new powers at first, Makoto uses them extravagantly to avoid being tardy and to get perfect grades on tests, but soon things begin to turn bad as she discovers how her actions can adversely affect others. (From Wikipedia)

TIME TRAVEL TokiKake style

My thoughts
I’ve never seen the original movie or read the novel so the only knowledge I had of the film was the stuff I read in reviews and online. Most of the reviews I read were really RAVING about the film but subs didn’t come out for a while so when they did I thought might as well and THANK GOD I did. TokiKake may be the best film I’ve seen in a while, not just anime but live-action too. I cried at the end of the movie and today while I rewatched it with my sister (yes, again) my eyes got wet once more.

Auntie witch: the original time leaper

The first reason why the film worked was because of the characters. The main characters were Makoto Konno and her two best friends Kousuke Tsuda and Chiaki Mamiya. Their chemistry was perfect and they’re all likeable characters. Makoto is cute and tomboyish without being annoying, Kousuke is the voice of reason between the three and Chiaki is the fun joker but he’s also quite mysterious. Makoto’s auntie is featured in the film too and she was actually the original time traveler in the novel.  All of them are also voice acted apropriately though at first Makoto’s voice annoyed me quite a bit.

She really LEAPS through time

TokiKake is slice of life-ish and I really like slice of life stories. It was a relaxing film and what started light-hearted became more serious as the film progressed but the transition was perfect. The romance and sci-fi elements were mixed in quite well and they didn’t seem out of place in the film, the story was nicely paced and some of the scenes were quite breathtaking.Tsutsui Yasutaka praised the film as being “a true second-generation” of his book at the Tokyo International Anime Fair on March 24, 2006.

Best executed scene, PERFECT

Now what made some of the scenes breathtaking? The animation was good and so were the character designs which came from the guy who did Evangelion designs. All the designs were so elegantly simple and realistic yet anime, the animation was fluid and the backgrounds were great too, I just don’t like the CG. Next is the OST, simple yet beautiful piano pieces were featured in the film and the music during the train scenes really did increase the tension of the scenes and I was literally hanging onto the edge of my seat. The theme songs done by Oku Hanako are also beautiful and the ending theme especially because of the lyrics that were just MEANT for this film.

And I’d just like to say. Although a lot of people would beg to differ, I LOVED the ending! Not really all that “conclusive” but open ended with a little hope (and the couple is great) and honestly this ending made a lot of sense although kind of confusing to grasp at first it’s much better than a Hollywood ‘hug and kiss and hug again as we zoom out to the sunset’ ending.

I’ve never been one for time traveling things but after watching this and Proposal Daisakusen I can say that time traveling isn’t that bad.

The breathing sounds REALLY got on my nerve after a while actually

Final judgement
10 out of 10, it may be perfect. Everything was done so well and this movie did have its charm so I can’t think of any big reason to deduct points. GO WATCH IT NOW, time certainly waits for no one.

BONUS !! BONUS !!
I’m feeling generous
Garnet | Kawaranai Mono

I don’t want to post spoilers