The following assumes familiarity with the reviewed material. Spoilers below. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a film that explores the power of love its limits the inevitability of time the importance of clear communication and the futility of living in the past. Girls premise is interesting though not wholly unique and indeed the movie is in fact a sequel to the 1966 novel of the same name. Highschooler Makoto gains timetravel powers which she later finds out are limited after a particularly terrible day that caps off with her dying by being hit by a train. Inexplicably she wakes up earlier that same morning. From here she uses these abilities to fix mistakes spend time with her friends the brash Chiaki and the studious Kousuke and generally avoid any serious consequences for her actions. The core of her selfish behavior is her desire to remain friends with Chiaki and Kousuke for well forever. Her resistance to change is a recurring point and near the films halfway point she begins abusing her time travel powers to avoid answering a confession made to her by Chiaki who asks her out. Here is where things begin to genuinely unravel. Eventually in the films final third Chiaki is revealed to also be a time traveler albeit one from a distant future. Its a very odd turn for what is up until that point a fairly standard teen romance but with some supernatural element plot but it ultimately works in the films favor. Chiaki manages to bail Makoto out of getting Kousuke and his girlfriend Kaho nearly killed by the same train that clobbered her earlier in the film. Its only here at Girls end where she begins to really face any consequences for her actions beyond inconvenience and awkwardness. Makoto and Chiaki only even begin to resolve the tension in their relationship in the films closing moments and by then it is inarguably already far too late but importantly the film still treats these final scenes as cathartic and they are. Whether or not Chiaki and Makoto can ever actually see each other again is beside the point the tension between them is resolved and that chapter of their lives is closed. Its a fascinating alternative to the usual unambiguously happy ending these kinds of films tend to showcase because the films point it seems is that while we cant change what happened in the past we can control how we react to it and can control our future going forward. Love is powerful but even Makoto and Chiaki cant stop the march of the clock forever. After all time waits for no one delivered in charming Engrish is one of the films recurring key phrases. Is it a touch fatalistic? Yes maybe. But its also liberating theres no point in trying to constantly repair past mistakes because ultimately we all live in the present. If this all sounds rather dry or even preachy it must be emphasized that Girl backs its themes up with visuals that are rarely short of gorgeous. The backgrounds cobbled together from a number of real life referencelocations throughout Tokyo are intricate incredibly welldrawn and perhaps due to being drawn from actual sources feel like real spaces. This combined with solid performances from secondary characters such as Makotos younger sister her aunt who is heavily implied though never outright stated to be the protagonist of the original 1966 Girl Who Leapt Through Time novel a teacher with a peculiar fashion sense an aggravated mother of a small child Makoto runs into multiple times and so on makes the world of the film feel bigger than just the three characters who sit at the center of its plot. The audio warrants more than a passing nod too. The soundtrack is fantasticsubdued and lilting until it needs to be dramatic and bombasticas is the voicework almost every character mentioned thusfar has a specific unique voice that is undeniably their own even minor background characters and when soundtrack acting and visuals come together you get a scene like the one near the end of the film where Makoto bawls her eyes out in one of the most beautifullyanimated cries this viewer has ever seen sobbing uncontrollably as heavy luscious strings swell in the soundtrack. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a film that does almost everything right. It has no major flaws and in the decade since its release has leant a touch of influence to everything from YuruYuri season finale episode The Akari Who Leapt Through Time to the similarlystructured and equally amazing Your Name. Truly it is impossible to not recommend Girl. From someone who doesnt believe in mustsees it comes damn close.