Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo takes on Studio Ghibli -- and succeeds.
It was not too long ago that I was anxiously awaiting the Los Angeles arrival of Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), which recently screened in New York and San Francisco. The film was already on its way to critical success, gaining worldwide attention from various film festivals and receiving top animation awards faster than you could say its shortened title Tokikake.
However, before the landslide of honors and its worldwide tour, Tokikake was only known as the little film that went up against Studio Ghibli's latest project, Gedo Senki (Tales of Earthsea) during the summer of 2006 in Japan. It was a classic battle similar to that of David and Goliath. However, with famed director Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro Miyazaki, heading the project, it became quite difficult for people to turn down a household name in Japan. Gedo Senki beat Tokikake in terms of box office, but its victory pretty much ended there.
Lucky for me, Tokikake was showcased as a part of "Korean and Japanese Animation Today" at the Egyptian Theatre, thanks to the Japan Foundation of Los Angeles. Director Mamoru Hosoda was present for a Q&A following the screening as well. I had a lot of expectations riding on the film, especially since the director was originally helmed to direct an earlier Studio Ghibli project Howl's Moving Castle (which he only vacated to make room for the master himself: Hayao Miyazaki).
The movie opens to scene of an extended dialogue and a game of catch between three teenagers: Makoto, the film's lead character, and her two male best friends, Chiaki and Kousuke. Simple. Ordinary. I'm thinking: what does the former employee of Studio Ghibli have in store for the rest of the movie? But before I could even pass any more judgment, my attention diverts itself to an alarm clock comes flying out of the sky -- and that, my dear readers, is when the magic begins to take place.
We are introduced to Makoto Konno having the worst day of her seventeen-year-old life: she wakes up late for school, receives a pop quiz from her teacher with a Yakuza-like appearance, becomes the direct target for a round of wrestling gone wrong, is single-handedly responsible for setting off a fire in the school kitchen, and worst of all, her younger sister devoured the last cup of the world's best custard pudding. Oh, and she nearly dies after a collision with two oncoming trains. Pretty bad, yeah?
What is later learned is that Makoto has acquired the power to "time-leap" after an earlier mishap in her science lab. After a brief conversation with her aunt, who confides in her that she is time-leaping, she begins to take measures further by attempting to time-leap again. After she is able to get her lost cup of pudding back, she begins to use her new ability for her own personal gain: excelling on quizzes, rigging baseball games with Chiaki and Kousuke, avoiding further collisions with amateur wrestlers on her campus, singing karaoke for ten hours -- because it is all for fun. What fun-loving seventeen year old wouldn't love to abuse a time-leaping power?
As predicted, her actions result in only trouble for her. One of her best friends asks her out on a date and she is also attacked by fellow classmates. In order to remedy her sticky situations, she continues to time-leap, but that only gets her into more trouble. You see Makoto is affected by the outcomes of her time-leaping escapades. She begins to develop more as a human being -- but not at a rate where she loses her seventeen-year-old self.
The real magic of the film is in the actual production of the film. The production levels of the film are very high. It has a stunning soundtrack -- each piece is selected to fit each situation and scene. On the film's vocal track, Hanako Oku's "Garnet" fits Makoto and Chiaki's relationship perfectly, while the lyrics express their thoughts and feelings word-by-word and flows quite nicely from the melancholic (yet also quirky) soundtrack. Both anime voice actors and live action actors lend their voices to the voice track, which presents a wide range of skill. The actors bring life to their characters: Makoto's voice actor was refreshing to listen to because she was not a typical squeaky-voiced anime girl, yet she brought out a personality that is not just reflective of Japanese youth today, but one that many can relate to. Hosoda also enlisted animation veterans from both Gainax and Studio Ghibli to set forth the design and direction for Tokikake. Although the animation did not call for anything out of the ordinary, both the scenery and character designs are excellent. Suburban Japan is mapped out with great detail in the film, yet it doesn't take away from the main action in the film.
However, there are some key flaws in Tokikake, which mainly lie in the storytelling of the 1970s novel. The story is not resolved in a manner that may be satisfactory to viewers. The film flowed quite nicely for a majority of the film, but towards the end, it felt like there was a time-limit to the film and it had to end quickly. I had wished there was more explanation behind the time-traveling and the backstory to the other characters as well. Although it was seen more of an individual piece on Makoto's character, I wished that her relationships was developed more in the film.
Nevertheless, I felt that Hosoda did a great job in bringing us a breathtaking cinematic experience. The transitioning from scene to scene was well executed; it was not too problematic to watch a scene with heavy dialogue, but then quickly change into a scene of moving scenery and musical score. It was a treat to watch all this come together on the big screen -- like it's meant to be seen. Hosoda takes us on a magic carpet ride, where he takes an almost ordinary tale of time-traveling and weaves it into something everyone can enjoy, regardless if you're an anime fan or not.
At the moment, Tokikake has not been licensed yet by any distribution companies in the United States. I hope to continue to see more of Mamoru Hasoda's work in the future. Who says you need Studio Ghibli to produce a film of such caliber?