The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Aaaand to finish off Shout! Studios blitz of Mamoru Hosoda’s 4K re-releases, we get to his best work yet. A movie that somehow managed to push past the boundaries of Otakus to actually hit the zeitgeist of American cinematic culture in 2006. For some reason, the dramatic, slice of life, sci-fi, romance films were able to pull on the heartstrings of American culture and get not one, but TWO returns to theaters due to the support. Originally released on Blu-ray by the now-defunct Bandai (goodness, I miss Bandai releases), the film has been rescued by Funimation (who is also now defunct) and finally Shout! Studios get their turn at it with a classy Amazon exclusive 4K Steelbook release (and a Blu-ray, but the 4K is Steelbook only).

Easily Mamoru’s best work, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is taken from a 1967 novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui, telling the story of a young girl named Makoto who suddenly finds herself with the ability to jump through time. Makota is your typical high school girl with typical high school problems. Loads of homework, a crush who doesn’t return her affections, and accidentally crashing head-on into a train. However, instead of killing her, the train crash activates a latent power to leap backwards through time and wakes her up a few minutes before the crash. Instantly diving on this opportunity, Makoto leaps back through time over and over again, using her newfound ability to bend reality to her will. Now she can pass her exams with a few quick leaps, hang out with friends for 10-hour stints, and generally just serve herself.

Of course, little things that are inconsequential sprout into bigger problems, especially when she realizes that her time jumping and altering events may benefit her, but actually harm other people unintentionally. To make matters worse, her friend Chiaka has been trying to tell her that he’s got a crush on her, and Makota dodges the awkward situations by jumping back in time and heading the conversation in a different direction before he can bring it up again. And just as all gifts are given, they are taken away, as Makota learns almost too late that her ability to jump has a finite number to it, and she has to figure out what to do with her last remaining jump.

For those who have seen the film, I am 100% avoiding the context of the last 30 minutes of the film and ending my synopsis around the 1-hour mark, and for good reason. The film switches gears from a slice of life “kinda” sci-fi film into a full-blown Sci-fi romance drama right around the 1 hour and 3 minute mark. Again, not going to spoil it, but it’s a fairly inventive little twist that actually makes sense of the previous hour of time-hopping fun. And really, this makes it one of the best films of 2006 and one of my favorite Anime films of all time. This is just a wonderfully engaging film that is bafflingly sweet, while still being light-hearted and fun at the same time. Chiaki is a bit dorky and goofy, but Makota is a delightful girl learning about the ways of life and love with a nice coming-of-age twist to it all.

HOWEVER, there is one semi-major “problem” with the film that frustrates me, and keeps this from being a full 5-star film. The ending. In typical Japanese fashion, the ending is one of those open-ended ended bittersweet endings that gives you just enough hope to put a smile on your face, but so much open-endedness that you have to make up a final scenario that fits your particular view. A lot of people absolutely loved the open-endedness of the film as it allowed them to fill in their own happy ending, but as a concrete random personality type, the open-ended final moments drove me nuts. I get some of the twists that Hosoda was going for, and the various interpretations that fans have come up with over the years are incredible, but I really, REALLY wanted that happy ending that we were all going for. But, I fully admit that it is a personal thing, as this is a beloved anime film for a big reason. It just works, even with the bittersweet ending.

The film itself is less of an adaptation and more of a loose sequel to the 1960s novel that I mentioned above, as there are HEAVY implications that Makota’s “witchy” aunt is actually the protagonist from the novel. Even goes so far as to include the time traveler from that story in one of her aunt’s stories. The story manages to blend elements of Run Lola, Run…. Groundhog Day, and Japanese romances all in one weird blending, yet still manage to be a unique telling of the original novel (which has spanned multiple generations, a TV miniseries, a 2-book Manga, and several other serialized publications over the years). All in all, this is a sweet and charming story that has been told and retold over and over again for good reason.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Touted as a 4K restoration (though I’m not sure how much of a “restoration” is needed for a 2006 film), Shout! Studios 4K steelbook release looks quite good in 2160p. The Blu-ray was never the flashiest disc out there, but it looked good for the time, and with a few tweaks, it looks even better in 4K. I will say this off the bat, the clarity upgrades are not massive from the Blu-ray due to the simple animation style. But there are still noticeable upgrades in terms of background object clarity, as well as a lack of banding and other artifacting, cleaning up the image a bit. The HDR application looks good, subtly enhancing the blues and greens of the Japanese summer, and cleaning up the black levels a bit. At the end of the day, this feels like a fine-tuning of the already good-looking Funimation Blu-ray, and a good one at that.







Audio:

There’s no press release info about the audio, but I’m ASSUMING that they used the same 5.1 audio mixes from the Bandai and Funimation release, meaning it’s a good-sounding mix, but one that won’t blow your socks off. The film is not a wild type of film, so the audio for the film is fairly straightforward and front-heavy for about 50% of the time. However, that other 50% is where things get fun. The film replicates summer-time Japan down to a T, with humming Cicadas in the background, a slightly hazy look to it, and of course, the cacophony of a busy Japanese city. Makota’s time jumps are accompanied by some pretty heavy bass drops, and the surrounds get a ton of activity throughout. It may not be an action track, but Hosoda maximizes the capability of the surround system despite that.








Extras:

• Feature with Storyboards
• Feature Commentary with Director and Voice Cast
• Storyboard Commentary
• Teasers & Trailers

Final Score: ​

Mamoru Hosoda is one of my favorite directors, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is probably his best work, followed by Belle. He has a unique texture to all his movies, and he manages to switch genres like most people switch hats. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time happens to be his most accessible and popular film to date, and Shout! Studios has given this a solid upgrade over the older Funimation Blu-ray (sadly, I never got the Bandai disc to compare), and the steelbook packaging is just icing on the cake. This comes as no surprise that I’m giving this a “good buy” rating.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Riisa Naka, Takuya Ishida, Mitsutaka Itakura, Mitsuki Tanimura
Directed by: Mamoru Hosada
Written by: Yasutaka Tsutsui, Satoko Okudera
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Japanese DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Spanish, French
Studio: Shout! Studios
Rated: NR
Runtime: 98 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 7th, 2025

Recommendation: Great Buy

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[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Agree, this is a great movie to own. Highly recommended.

 

[Michael Scott]

Thanks for the review. Agree, this is a great movie to own. Highly recommended.

agreed. Hosoda has some great films, but This and Belle are two that I absoltultey ADORE. Especially since this was his very first feature film outside of just doing run of the mill One Piece type films. He knocked it out of the park

 

[tripplej]

I haven't seen Belle. Will check it out. Thanks