Tag: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Time Traveler: It’s Cruel but It’s History

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I loved the Girl Who Leapt Through Time, who didn’t? That was a sequel to the original novel story The Girl Who Ran Through Time. This movie doesn’t really have any trigger like leaping or running so I’d call it the Girl Who Fell Through Time, maybe. It also only has one big movement through time as opposed to a bunch of little ones.

Well “The Girl who Drank a Magic Science Potion That Made Her Then Run Through a Weird Blue Screen Sequence to Go Back in Time” does not really roll off the tongue. It is possibly better than what I was going to name this article, “Time Travelers Never Do Nothing For No One” or just have a link to a certain anime song that I use whenever time travel comes up. But I guess that is why we trade-off writing the article names.

But in all seriousness Time Traveler: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is based on one of those stories like A Christmas Carol or Romeo and Juliet that is constantly remade and re-imagined. The original story The Girl Who Runs Through Time is a Japanese science fiction classic. It has been remade in several movies, TV series, and specials. This and the film by Mamoru Hosoda are both sequels that deal with younger relatives of the orignal protagonist. Thankfully you don’t need to have experience the orignal story to get into this movie. While familiarity with the original does add a bit of depth you might have otherwise missed it is not vital. The wink and the nod to the smell of lavender can be caught by fans of the original but are not necessary to anyone watching this as a stand alone experience.  This story stands well on its own as its own time traveling love story.

Akari Yoshiyama seems to have luck on her side. She just got into the school of choice and her life seems on track for a brilliant future. But when her mother is hit by a car it seems that her problems actually lie in the past. Before falling into a coma her mother asks Akari to go back in time and give a message to a young man. As ridiculous a request as that seems it appears her mother has a formula that can make it happen. But when Akari is two years off in her trip back in time she must team up with a young science fiction director to deliver her message. Can Akari find this mysterious man without permanently damaging the time space continuum?

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Anime 101

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There was a formspring question a while back about what anime you would show a class, we liked it so we expanded it into a little post. Imagine you are a professor. You have students who have anime studies as a major. What titles should they be familiar with in their first year that introduces them to the major? Lists like this are never really complete especially when working in some sort of restriction like our 10 TV series and 5 movies but there is only so much time in a semester. It also becomes more difficult as the years go by and more and more shows are produced. But you can still attempt a good foundation. It is important to note that not all of these titles are necessarily the best representations of their genre. Titles were often picked because it helped show the full range of what anime has to offer more than being the pinnacle. The shows here are meant to show what anime can produce in order to help the student decide where they want to focus their studies. So here’s what we thought of, what would be on your list?

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