Feature films

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

2006

There's a future  that can't wait.

A story of a girl with the ability to time leap  discovers the meaning of the "Irreplaceable time".

Watch trailer
Story

During the summer in the second year of high school, Makoto meets Kosuke, who hopes to study medicine in college, and Chiaki, who transferred to her school in spring, and the three classmates enjoy spending time together and hanging out with their other friends.

One day, Makoto is hurled into an oncoming train when riding her defective bicycle toward a railroad crossing, but she mysteriously finds herself traveling back in time. She tells her aunt, Kazuko Yoshiyama, about this experience, and Kazuko in turn tells her that it is called a "time leap" and that it happens often to adolescent girls. Makoto enthusiastically starts using her new power to satisfy frivolous desires and relieve small frustrations. Her life suddenly becomes all rosy. However, she soon realizes that there is a limited number of times that she can time leap.

Preventing an unexpected love confession from Chiaki and playing cupid between Kosuke and classmate Kaho, Makoto is finally down to only one more time leap. When Chiaki suspects her of time leaping, she panics and uses her final leap to prevent him from doing so. Then she sees Kosuke and Kaho ride by on her bicycle with faulty brakes. The bicycle hurtles into the railway crossing, and Kosuke and Kaho get tossed up into the air. The instant Makoto cries out, "Stop!!" time stops and Chiaki appears. Chiaki confesses that he is from the future. He tells her that he leapt back in time to see a painting that exists only here during this season in this era. He also tells her that he can never see her again now that a person of the past has knowledge about time leaping, and he disappears.

Makoto gets devastated, and Kazuko tells her a story of how she kept waiting for a boy she had a crush on in high school. She tells her they are different. She reminds Makoto that she is the type of person who would run up to meet the person who was late for a rendezvous.

Makoto realizes that she has regained the power for one more time leap. She uses it to travel back to the day and the place she first met Chiaki. To tell him how she really feels this time and to get back "precious, irreplaceable time."

Main staff

DirectorMamoru Hosoda
Original NovelYasutaka Tsutsui
ScreenplaySatoko Okudera
Character DesignerYoshiyuki Sadamoto
Animation DirectorsHiroyuki Aoyama, Chikashi Kubota, Masashi Ishihama
Art DirectorNizo Yamamoto
CGHiromi Hayashi(Spooky graphic)
Color CoordinatorChikako Kamata

Awards

2006Sitges Film Festival
2006Busan International Film Festival
2007Annecy International Animation Film Festival
2007New York International Children's Film Festival
2008Brussels Animation Film Festival