Alternate Titles: Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (TokiKake)
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Based on the novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui

I’m surprised that TokiKake went under the radar for so long, released in 2006, it won several awards for best animated picture in Japan. I would never have come across it had it not been for screenies being spammed in 4chan’s /a/.

Although it didn’t have quite as much hype as a certain Makoto Shinkai movie, I have to say that (for the moment at least) I enjoyed it much more. It was simply amazing, great characters, a good script and a decent plot to carry it through.

TokiKake is a story centered around a trio of friends (from left to right) Makoto Konno, Chiaki Mamiya and Kousuke Tsuda. One day, while dropping off career surveys, Makoto falls on a strange object which imprints a number on her arm.

Later that day she is involved in an accident that should have killed her, however, something strange happened. Moments after the accident she was transported back in time to before it occurred, effectively saving her life.

Although initially skeptical about her newfound powers, some terribly unscientific testing eventually confirms it, she can leap through time, and when I say leap, I mean it in its most literal sense.

At first it’s all fun and games, she uses her power to improve her grades, read her friends’ baseball pitches and extend time at the karaoke box. However, it soon becomes apparent that changing the past has unpredictable and often catastrophic repercussions.

Thoughts

I’ll stop the summary there, as going any further would spoil the movie. Also, as with any movie that packs this much character development and plot into such a short time, it’s hard to compress into a decent summary without basically rewriting the script. Although I won’t be summarizing any further, I will be talking about plot and character elements, so a spoiler advisory is in effect from here on in, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED =)

I wouldn’t say the premise of TokiKake is anything new. It’s a plot that’s been played out hundreds of times before. An unfortunate and pitiable hero is graced with a peculiar power which makes their life a blast for a while, but they soon realize that one person’s happiness is another person’s sorrow.

In TokiKake, Makoto is given the power to travel through time, she uses the power to go back in time and change events that would have otherwise caused her inconvenience. But as she starts to play with time, she realizes that making things go your way isn’t always straightforward, and doing something that benefits one person will often cause direct harm to someone else.

One of the things that the movie did that many others do is make the character responsible for her actions, even at the end. Most movies of this kind will have a ‘reset’ type ending where the character realizes her wrongs and goes back to before it all happened, effectively setting everything right once again. Sure the character learns her lesson, but it isn’t reinforced by any sort of consequence. In TokiKake, Makoto isn’t fully relieved of her pain. Although things end up more or less the same, she still has to cope with the loss of a close friend, it’s a bittersweet ending that almost made me cry manly tears like a little girl.

Another brilliant path the movie took was in the way that Makoto used her power. A lot of movies take the high road and have the main character try and do something for the good of humanity, like going back to WWII and killing Hitler, or something. But no, Makoto uses time traveling in the way that most selfish, greedy, self-concerned human being would, for her own benefit.

My only real complaint with the whole movie is Chiaki’s handling of the ending scene. Srsly, what was that, “I’ll see you in the future”? No you won’t, she’ll be dead. Should have kissed her while you had the chance! Isn’t it sad Makoto ;_;

On the technical side of things, the animation was decent. Not exactly KyoAni or Shinkai level animation, but it was a style that suited the tone of the movie very well, and succeeded in putting more focus on the characters themselves, rather than the designs. There were a few breathtaking shots though, most notably the scene where Chiaki freezes time, that was brilliant.

The music was great! I usually pay little to no attention to background music and insert songs, but in this case they were very fitting and added an extra punch in key scenes. I’m not about to run out and buy the OST, but I will admit that they did a great job using it to maximize the effect.

So, to summarize: excellent plot and pacing, good character build up (minus Makoto being slightly annoying sometimes), fluid animation and a great soundtrack. What are you waiting for, go watch it, nao!

“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see…”

Oshi-…wrong movie.

~ Shirukii ~