Finally! After 10 months and 11 days of sitting idly, I finally built up the confidence to watch this. All this time, I just didn’t feel like giving it a go. It wasn’t because of a lack of interest either. It’s more… of the opposite actually. I was afraid I won’t be able to enjoy this to the fullest if I watched it right now. I was too excited to watch it. Thus a deep-rooted anxiety manifested inside of me. Now that I’ve watched it, I’m not surprised. I was right to think this wasn’t your average movie. It made me cry twice. It’s not like I shed tears for everything I watch, especially movies.
I found the anime through youtube. I saw a clip of a guy (Kousuke) who was in a hitting stance with a baseball bat in his hands. He was waiting for a ball to be thrown from the direction of the camera. Out of nowhere, a basketball entered the scene from the right and hits our guy. He’s thrown to the ground by its impact.
From the very first moment, I saw that clip. I knew this was a must-watch. Especially because of the way the characters moved and the nuance the animation had. It just felt so… smooth to me. Most anime don’t really go through the gritty process of animating the random movements humans make. We often randomly move our hands when we feel like it. We change the position we sit in every couple of minutes. Our movements aren’t perfectly calculated. They’re filled with chaos. This movie tries very hard to recreate those motions.
Most of the shows out there look too smooth to be human. I’m not saying it’s in any way bad. On the contrary actually. I at times enjoy the graceful and efficient gestures and movements characters make in anime. It’s something that’s uniquely bound to this medium. You don’t really see it anywhere else. However, I do appreciate shows that go the extra mile. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is such a movie, so I can’t help but appreciate it.
I’ve got this allure for old anime characters. I’m not talking about the way they’re written or the way they act. I’m referring to their character design. Their face, their body etc. Compared to modern anime characters. I just like the old style better. I’m not saying I like all of the old design types. For example, I hated the character designs of Haruhi. And that can be considered old… right? Relatively at least. What I’m talking about is the design this movie shares with shows like Lain. With oval-shaped faces and whatnot. I don’t know how to explain it exactly okay… I’m not an artist. I just like it and I don’t know why. Period.