THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME (1983)
Time travel stories involving high school students are not a new concept; whether it’s something like the more well known animated version of this same story released in 2006, or a certain 1985 Robert Zemeckis movie. Katsuyuki Motohiro’s 2005 comedy Summer Time Machine Blues is a great example of this concept; using something well known as the basis for a largely frivolous tale in which paradoxes and clichés are played for laughs. Of course this 1983 drama from Obayashi pre-dates all of these takes on the idea that naive and short-sighted kids make for poor time travellers. Does it take the whole thing to some unexpected and original places, or is it simply a missed opportunity to do something creative and exciting?
