Let's jump out the window with "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time"!

Directed by Mamoru Hosada and story written by Yasutaka Tsutui, this Japanese animated film seems to be targeting the teenage audience, in which we see the main character dealing with the snags of high school, friendship, love, and... time travelling.

Sometimes,don't you just want to turn back time? This thought has always been out there at the back of my mind. Then here comes this girl, Makoto Kono, who's had a really bad day. She failed a quiz, accidentally started a fire, got knocked over by stupid guys "horsing around", and almost, almost got hit by a train. Almost until she went back to where-- I mean, when she was before it could even happen. Actually, previously to the very nearly train wreck, back at school, she was assigned to return notebooks to the chemistry lab where she found (what looks like to me) a time travelling battery in the form of a metal nutshell. She learned that she can go back time by literally leaping. 

Leap!

Soon however, she discovers the consequences of her own selfish advantages over time travelling, how it affects the people around her (especially her friends) and where it came from.

The characters have very simple features in contrast with the detailed work on the stunning backgrounds (the shots on some scenes seem to be made to show off) but they move fluidly and almost human-like, so that's okay. I guess they did it on purpose to make the characters stand-out too and it works. I watched it in English dub and it kinda sucked at times since it doesn't match with their mouth movements (because Japanese) and replies from other characters come off too quickly. But if you think it such a hassle to read subtitles then go ahead and watch the English dubbed version. The translation was not too bad and was actually quite witty. My problem with the plot is that I forget which event was from when she time travels. Did this happen on her yesterday or just earlier? stuff like that. Also, the mechanics of her time travelling. I can't tell if she can only go back or also go forward, and does the distance of how far she jumps have something to do with how far she went back in time? It wasn't actually explained. Overall, the story was interesting and had a lot of humor.

This is not an attempt on suicide but rather on time travelling

This film told me off about my thoughts on turning back time to redo stuff I regret doing. Things happen for a reason, we should accept that time may change people. More importantly, we must treasure the present including our friends, and look on ahead the future with optimism. Now, you go do what you gotta do because...