Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo

I think the only hangup I have with the story in this movie is that the guy whom Makoto switched places with in the Tempura thing is just left out of the time travel spiel. Like Makoto's final travel is to her falling over in the classroom on the first day, theoretically, this random guy is still subject to bullying by accident because of her, and Chiaki isn't there to help him out since he leaves at the end of the day. Poor guy. Aside from that, this is an exceptional movie, man.

Makoto really feels like an ordinary person given time travel, she uses it ... to fix innocuous stuff or to redo conversations she has, and she does not see the consequences until it is nearly too late. The fact that she can only move backwards in time and never go to the future beyond what she has lived through is an interesting use of time travel powers since she only got them by accident compared to Chiaki.

6/10 ~ Really not deserving of the hype

This one has been on my watch list for what seems like forever, constantly on the top of most peoples lists and charts, standing the test of time. 2025 seems to be the year I am tackling all the old ones, as this one is now 19 years old, sheeeesh. Im going to start with that this one really isnt for me as I have a general distaste for:
- High school, especially Japanese school setting
- sports ball, especially baseball
- extremely dumb immature love from teens/preteens as I kinda skipped that phase of life and just went into the ... deep end, so I cannot relate

And this movie is almost exclusively just these things I do not like, so it has to be really good for me to get past these 3 things.
If I had to quickly describe this movie it would be as such: Young Japanese girl, obsessed with baseball, ground-hog-days herself over and over to find love.

Pros:
- The MC is pretty likable
- the childish way a young person would use this power is quite humorous
--response to power always amusing
- the 'camera' work on some of those scenes and the way the director used the animation style was fantastic,
--my personal favorite scene is when she pushes the person out of the shot at the end of the movie to signify for them to leave.
- for 2006 the English voice acting was extremely good
- despite the movie getting pretty boring at some points I enjoyed the entire run time well enough

Cons:
- the director did great work, however the animation was Devilman crybaby bad at some points
- the greater cast past the MC was pretty meh
- pacing was pretty bad in the middle, I went to use the bathroom and almost didnt push play when I got back
- See 3 points above I dislike lol

Over all this is a very strange movie as it fits under the umbrella of an anime that is easy to recommend to non-anime watchers, it has a really easy to understand plot and most people can relate to the story one way or another. But its extremely mundane and kinda boring which is not a negative for me but I can see that being a big no for most people. This one is one I can definitely recommend to the right taste. I think objectively this one is between a 7/10 to an 8/10 but for my personal taste I just cannot get past those 3 big points I outlined.

I am honestly at a loss as to why this won so many awards and has such a high rating. This had a promising premise, but didn't match up at all to my expectations based on the ratings/reviews. My 16yo watched this with me and disliked it even more than I did, for the same reasons.

It started out well, with a feel similar to other good anime movies as far as the story buildup, the art, pacing, character introduction etc. But as soon as Makoto learned how to leap back in time at will, it started going downhill fast.

First and mainly, Makoto was just annoying ... throughout. I have watched lots of anime starring teens (which most anime does) and she is definitely the least mature protagonist for her age that I've seen. She was shallow, selfish, completely impulsive and basically acted like she was 12, maybe 13 at most, both in her choices and her mannerisms. Her peers were all far more mature than her and acted like their actual age.

At one point she repeatedly leaped back in time to simply avoid a slightly awkward conversation, which seemed very extreme, especially when it's revealed later on that she supposedly did actually want the direction this conversation would have taken her in her life -- which made her avoidance make even less sense. And even at the end she seemed to not have learned much, wouldn't say what was on her mind, and acted hurtfully immature AGAIN.

As for the plot, there were several plot threads that were left hanging, some things that contradicted each other, and various other things which made the overall story seem like the writers each threw their ideas into a hat and then pulled out a different random idea for each scene.

The visuals were really the only thing I can compliment. And I liked all the other characters, though none were super memorable, except one because he looks and dresses like Kyo Sohma and plays a very interesting role. But I wish I could time leap and get those 100 minutes back.