The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Superior animé caper comedy with wit, energy and mad invention to spare in which time travel is used to soothe the emotional ills of a dynamic, if slightly dizzy-headed, young schoolgirl named Makoto. Frequently irritating members of her family, failing at her studies and unable to recognise the romantic advances of her slacker classmate Chiaki, Makoto finds that life is drastically altered when one day she is bestowed with the ability to leap back and forth in time as a result of encountering… a magic walnut.

The first hour is an absolute hoot, as the constant replaying of scenes lends a zany comic edge to Makoto’s otherwise banal social life. The animation is vibrantly coloured, the action fluid, the editing masterly and the voicework just on the right side of brash. It’s a shame, then, that the final third rejects the light touch of the preceding section to descend into drab moralising and a furious tying up of loose plot ends.