Review of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) by Ellie E — 18 Apr 2010

Absolutely fantastic.

This film is possibly the most underrated anime film ever made. Although I am an anime freak, I think that anyone could love this film. It's about teenagers, and yet it has a grown-up quality to it. I downloaded this film, but it is definitely worth buying - which I wish I had done.

I love films which associate supernatural powers into real life, which this film does seamlessly. The animation is smooth and fantastic.

It is not clichéd like many love stories, and it captures the every day life of a teenager much better than Hollywood could ever do!

Being a British teenager it is so refreshing to see a school which isn't American - not because I'm racist but because the schools over here are so different to American high schools and it is very hard to relate to the lifestyle. The Japanese school depicted in this film is much more similar to a British sixth form than an American high school, which makes it much mire meaningful to me. The blind look at American high schools which Hollywood films depict feel like an odourless advert to me, films like "A Boy Girl Thing" or "She's The Man" are fun to watch but feel totally unrealistic to me. When I compare this to the pure realistic quality to this film - despite it being an unrealistic plot - I find it refreshing.

I ate this film up because it was so brilliant. The characters are typical teenagers, and the problems between them interrupt the plot of the film in a fantastic way - the typical problems which close friends sometimes hit - it creates a wonderful sideline story to compliment the plot of the film.