The Girl Who Leapt Through Time won the award of Special Distinction, one of the three awards for features at Annecy this year. Its merit lies in the execution of the time jumping story which, instead of dealing with vast movements of history, concentrates in the small movements in the emotional lives of its Japanese urban high school protagonists over several days. Trivial moments in a triangle of high school students are lived and re-lived in an attempt by the heroine, Makoto, to get it right in the simple choice of which she will have for a boyfriend or a friend.
The distances we place...
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time won the award of Special Distinction, one of the three awards for features at Annecy this year. Its merit lies in the execution of the time jumping story which, instead of dealing with vast movements of history, concentrates in the small movements in the emotional lives of its Japanese urban high school protagonists over several days. Trivial moments in a triangle of high school students are lived and re-lived in an attempt by the heroine, Makoto, to get it right in the simple choice of which she will have for a boyfriend or a friend.
The distances we place between each other are fluidly represented in catch and batting practice for baseball, sequences gorgeously executed by the animators. When the consequences of her actions catch up with the heroine, the banality of everyday life is exalted, and the story teeters between tragedy, romance and comedy.
There are a few flaws. Generic norms of manga animation like ridiculous postures whenever veering toward comic relief, or using the pulsating eyeball once too often to represent emotional intensity, or the tears which flood out of the girl's eyes in a fashion more appropriate to a Peanuts cartoon strip, tended to undercut the hard work that the authors had done in getting the audience involved in the characters.
This writer, however, found himself deeply moved by this feature animation directed by Mamoru Hosoda (which opens July 4, 2007 in France) and asked him a few questions.
Russell Bekins: The Girl Who Lept Through Time manages an emotional intensity in part because the story works well. What did you and your writer Satoko Okudera do to adapt the well-known Tsutsui book?
Mamoru Hosoda: In the first place, the main character in original novel was classic beauty, intelligent and quiet. We decided that she should be something of a tomboy. She should not be beautiful nor ugly, clumsy nor coordinated, neither stupid nor intelligent. The reason was that youngsters nowadays are more intelligent and smart, but they don't move quickly and lack enthusiasm and rarely move before thinking. Nothing starts if you don't move. Actually, Tsutsui has seen many adaptations of the book and considers this one more of a sequel to the original.
RB: In terms of the animation, what decisions did you make to get us closer to the characters? Did that run counter to the traditions of Japanese animation?
MH: Makoto is 17 years old. Sometimes she acts young and sometimes an adult. It's not that she's all that special; we all have some adult and child in us. In order to give the character the emotional depth required, we had to make the design very simple. In Japan, nowadays, it has become popular to make faces very decorative and complicated. It becomes hard to manipulate; there are too many surfaces. With a simple design you can move the face and create the expressions that can communicate with the audience.
RB: Were you looking back on your own school days when you made the project?
MH: In fact, when making the film I was not thinking of my own school days. I am very fond of young people and want to do something to encourage young people. I want them to look forward and feel positive about their lives.
