The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Young Makoto is just like any other young girl. She goes to school only because she has to, when she’d rather be playing baseball or singing karaoke with her two friends Chiaki and Ksuke. She’s kind of a mess, always running late, or doing or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Until, that is, one day when she realizes that she has the ability to leap through time. It takes her a while to master the art of it, but depending on the strength of the leap determines how far back she can go in time. She can go back a few days, to prevent her sister from eating her pudding cup, or she can make an hour last an eternity and sing with her friends until her voice gives out.

One thing she learns, though, is that her power to relive moments in time, or re-do errors of the past few days, can’t make her forget things she wishes never happened and can’t control, and her powers can’t overcome human emotions. When she finds out one of her friends has a crush on her, or that she’s jealous of another friend who has a girlfriend, she must live in the moment. There are no easy fixes for these, and she must deal with them as they are, no matter how uncomfortable they are for her.

For such a potentially complex story involving time travel, and even reliving a certain traumatic event involving an accident that could leave two of her friends (or even herself) dead, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is pleasantly light. It has heavy parts and asks serious questions that its lead must answer by growing up and learning responsibility, but it doesn’t get bogged down by these more serious moments. The film’s most important commitment is to being a fun story with a narrative device irresistible to viewers, who would invariably ask themselves, “What would I do if I had the ability to leap through time?”

Makoto’s power to go backward through time, only in small leaps, adds to the film’s sense of fun, like a version of Groundhog Day minus the inescapable purgatory of a time loop. Mamoru Hosoda wisely keeps the story character-focused and never loses sight of the human connection to the wild goings-on. Makoto is such a relatable and human character, for all her faults, and she’s a great guide to have through a story like this. Our connection to a strong, relatable main character also helps dramatic moments have an appropriate sense of gravity to them. Near the end of the film, when Makoto is unsure whether or not something terrible has happened, it is an intense, beautiful piece of filmmaking, due in large part to the animated and voice performances for her. It’s an earned moment that lands because the story has wrapped us up in the human drama of it all, so that we do care what happens on any scale, both large and small.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time leaps onto 4K UHD Blu-ray in a two-disc release housed in a gorgeous SteelBook case. The exterior of the case features a shot from the film (which has adorned previous-release artwork), with Makoto jumping through the air to manipulate time around her. Inside the case are the two discs, containing the film in both 4K/HDR and HD/SDR.

For this release, Shout! Factory has upscaled The Girl Who Leapt Through Time to 4K from a 720p digital source format, and graded it in HDR10. Bouncing back and forth between discs, there’s not a tremendous difference between 4K/HDR and 1080p/SDR—the film was colored digitally with a lot of simple, primary colors, so there’s not a lot of variance with a wider spectrum of available color. And much of the feature is bathed in sunlight, so there’s not a lot of opportunity to showcase a dynamic range between light and dark, with thick, inky shadows. However, there are a few segments that really benefit from the upgrade: Most noticeably, a shot of a chalkboard with sunbeams striking its surface, and a shot near the end of a sky with intricately detailed clouds. While for the most part, the HDR presentation is nearly indistinguishable from its SDR counterpart, these images do have a certain “wow factor” to them. These segments almost appeared lifelike on the screen. And while both versions are very close, I must emphasize that both versions are gorgeous. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time utilizes a number of animation techniques to tell its story and, like some of the best animated features, uses those techniques to make its filmmaking process disappear. All that matters is the story, and we forget ourselves.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is available in both Japanese and English language versions, both 5.1 surround options, encoded in DTS-HD MA. I gave both options a listen and they’re both terrific, depending on your preference. We’ve come a long way from English dubs of yore that were practically unlistenable. The performances on the English dub and original Japanese track are both great. The overall sound design on both tracks is fantastic. It really takes full advantage of having a front and rear soundstage, with satellite speakers seeing a lot of effects varying from blunt and obvious to subtly engaging. Dialogue cues from offscreen will pipe in from the rears, and in one incredible sequence during a moment frozen in time, dialogue moves throughout the entirety of the soundstage, pinging each channel one by one at it forms a ring of sound around the viewer.

Sadly, there’s not a lot in the way of supplements. It would have been nice to have had interviews with the cast and crew, but there is an audio commentary track on the Blu-ray disc along with optional storyboards.

• Audio Commentary - Director and Voice Cast
• Feature With Storyboards (with optional audio commentary)
• Teasers & Trailers

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a fun, relatable coming-of-age story with a sci-fi twist. It takes the idea of a wish-fulfillment fantasy (what would you do if you could relive a day free of mistakes?) and grounds it in the reality that we can never escape ourselves, or our flaws. Overcoming our failings and our fears is what life is. Shout! Factory’s release, though lacking in special features, looks and sounds great. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is Highly Recommended.