CAPSULE REVIEW 2: The Girl Who Jumped Through Time (aka. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo)

THE GIRL WHO LEPT THROUGH TIME (aka. Toki Wo Kakeru Shoujo)
dir. HOSODA Mamorou
Cast:
Naka Riisa
Ishida Takuya
Itakura Mitsutaka
Kakiuchi Mitsuki
Hara Sachie
Sekido Yuki

98 min.
Format viewed: DVD

Hi Blog, Been a delay in writing and posting more capsule reviews here. While I've still been watching stuff there just seems to be less time to write about it.... Anyway, let's get on with it.

Hosoda Mamorou's Madhouse production and Kadokawa Herald Pictures distributed anime Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (aka. TokiKake) is another sci-fi time and logic bender from the fertile mind of author Tsutsui Yasutaka. Famous for writing the source material for that other anime that came out in 2006, Kon Satoshi's Paprika, Tsutsui's story is about firsts and how despite our best intentions we often squander what is most valuable in our lives only to find that we don't miss it until it's gone. I'm writing, of course, about 'time' more than 'love'-- but TokiKake's story as handled by director Hosoda makes little distinction between the two.

Makoto Konno is a regular high school girl who is best friends with two guys: Chiaki and Kosuke. Though just platonic friends, there's a hint of romantic tension between Chiaki and Makoto. When Makoto stumbles upon a totem item that enables her to literally 'jump through time', she uses it at first to satisfy all of her ingenuous fantasies. These consist mainly of eating her fill of her family's deserts and then jumping back in time to avoid detection, but when she starts using her power to avoid a declaration of love from Chiaki we get the sense that something bigger is about to happen. And it does. Right when Chiaki most needs her ability to jump through time to avert the death of Kosuke and his girlfriend she discovers that she has a finite number of jumps and has used up almost all of them. By using this last one to save her friend's life she soon learns that she has somehow sacrificed her friendship with Chiaki, who must now go away. Though I don't want to explain why, because it is a spoiler, suffice to say that we learn that mop-headed Chiaki is not who he appears to be...

An interesting fact that might not be known to most anime fans and certainly not to most non-Japanese anime fans is that there was an original live-action adaptation of TokiKake done in 1983 directed by Obayashi Nobuhiko (of HAUSU fame!). A hit at the time of its release and still remembered fondly by those who were teenagers back in the day, it has not been disregarded for this anime production. In a neat bit of connectivity, the Madhouse animated version of TokiKake includes the main character of that version, Yoshikawa Tomoko, as Makoto's aunt in this story. The aunt we learn in this film version is somehow key to the plot and she hints that she is aware of the abilities that Makoto has gained. Not to be cute here, but to see how, you'll need to watch the movie.

Madhouse's animation is very good for this production. One of the top animation houses in Japan -- and in the world (to my mind) -- Madhouse gives the animation in the film a clean and (somehow) optimistic air. The color palette tends towards the bright end of the crayon drawer with a unique, almost Evangelion inspired character design by Sadamoto Yoshiyuki. (It should, therefore, come as no surprise that he did character design on various Evangelion series.) Sound design and score are solid and all production values are really top-notch.

In addition, the storytelling is spry and well realized with a good economy. While I wasn't as floored by this anime-- because, quite frankly, I don't think it was aimed at someone like me -- I found it a sweet film that was well worth my time and most likely yours. Bandai Entertainment has licensed the film for US distro. Check this out to find out where you can get your copy. (Bottom right corner.)

Celebrity II

It's been busy days for me here, which is why the blog posting has been lagging. Sincere apologies for that.

What have I been up to? Well, funny you should ask. I spent yesterday morning being interviewed** on-camera for the 2008 release of APPLESEED: EX MACHINA. (Japanese site here.) EX MACHINA as y'all might know is the sequel to Shinji Aramaki's 2004 hit anime, which at the time of its release already had designs for two sequels and a possible Hollywood live action remake. (No news on that latter point, as I can find. Perhaps it's dead in the water?)

Well, round two is finally here and what's interesting about this outing-- perhaps more so than John Woo and Terrence Chang's (imdb) participation in it as Executive Producers-- is the fact that Masamune Shirow has taken a more participatory role in the film. Known as a recluse, Shirow's typical involvement in one of his adaptations typically begins and ends with his name appearing somewhere in the credits. With Ex Machina, Shirow is contributed some new designs and offered his 'insights' during production so with some luck perhaps this time we might actually see more than a cursory amount of his 'juice' in this production. (Though what kind of 'juice' and how potent it is, waits to be seen.)

Other interesting aspects of the film include: fashion impresario Miuccia Prada contributing two outfit designs for APPLESEED's heroin Deunan (is this a first in the history of animation??) and a reformation of the legendary Japanese electronic pioneers YMO aka. Yellow Magic Orchestra (and subsequent group HAS) as a kind of new band concoction called HASYMO, headed by Haruomi Hosono, to compose an original score for the film.

According to press statements, director Shinji Aramki promises new and revolutionary animation in this production. Whereas the previous film was mainly animated with software from out of the box-- with the obvious exception of the 'Toon Shading' software-- this time out he promises something new. We'll have to wait and see.

The Japanese will get this first on October 20, 2007. But for those in the US and abroad, we'll have to wait longer.

Here's the trailer:



Here's the long preview, which includes both the Prada designed outfit and the HASYMO music:



And here's a link to my interview with the director Shinji Aramaki that I did on the eve of the first film's US release.


** The reasons why I was interviewed are still a bit of a mystery to me, but I was filmed for an hour and a half (in HD no less, so now you can see all of my blemishes in glorious high definition!) for the various featurettes planned for the DVD release.