Sunday 22 November 2009

The man who made a girl leap through time.

I believe that all the people who read the manga and anime related parts of the blog, know how much we love Hayao Miyazaki. Hayao has been said to be the Walt Disney of japanese animation and I could never agree more. There is only one problem. Hayao is now over 80 years old, and even though he still makes movies, we have to face the fact that he won't be around for that much longer. He is human, like all of us, and even though I tend to put him on a pedestal, he might soon leave us.

For that sole reason I began my search for the man who could take his place. I read around a lot and that led me to Mamoru Hosoda, and ofcourse, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, his first truly ambitious project. The movie came out in 2006 in japan, but only just now did it make it's way to europe.





One night I sat down with a bunch of my friends to watch the film. Our initial reaction was 'meh, the drawings aren't that great, kind of generic', but as the film progressed, we fell completely silent. The moment we were introduced to the concept of time travel in the film, we understood that this is not going to be your typical anime-love-story-with-cute-girls. Oh no, the movie became a tight gripping sci-fi thriller where the protagonist races against time [and space] to save her friends from mortal danger. The love story in this movie [because that's what this movie essentialy is meant to be, a love story] is so perfectly connected with the sci-fi aspects, that I don't think anyone has done a better job on that. I'd love to say more about the plot, but believe me, if you're going to watch this, you'll love the way it all unfolds. I'm annoyed with the way new movies are, where the plot is so simple that you can anticipate each move of the characters. This is definitely not one of them, you will realise the things that you're meant to realise, exactly at the point where the director wants you to realise them. I don't think I have seen a better anime movie since Totoro by Miyazaki.



Mamoru Hosoda recieved numerous awards for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and went on to make another movie, Summer Wars. The movie is not yet available in Europe *sad panda eyes*, and the only screening of it in United Kingdom is actually tonight at 12 at night in Leeds.

[sorry for being so extremely biased, but I am just in love with Hosoda now]
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