The Girl Who Lept Through Time (2006)
Indirectly based on Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel of the same name, this coming-of-age fantasy follows a passive-aggressive (and average) teenage girl named Makoto, unsure of her own future and what she wants to do. After finding a mysterious object in the school lab one day, she then survives a train accident and develops the ability to jump back in time. (Not reversing time itself; there's a difference.) At first, she boasts about her new-found abilities, until consequences on others and herself soon rear their ugly heads.
After directing a few installments in the Digimon and One Piece film franchises, respectfully, director Mamoru Hosoda branched out with this engrossing and slow-stirring YA drama. From the opening credits to a breathless final act, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time includes themes of time, fate, reason, and making things right. It also features some surreal imagery, quirky humor, a dynamic, non-linear story, and some emotionally intense scenes (with a surprising character revelation or two) anchored by Kiyoshi Yoshida's bittersweet score. This is one of the most unique and original entries in the subgenre of time travel films since the 1993 classic, Groundhog Day.
Your Name. (2016)
Writer-director Makoto Shinkai's impressionistic and challenging coming-of-age feature follows a teenage boy in Tokyo and a teenage girl in Itomori (a.k.a. Hida) who miraculously switch bodies at random, with a strange comet apparently at the center of it. Part of Your Name. consists of a series of montages (the prologue feels like a music video), as main characters Mitsuha and Taki learn about each other, lay down ground rules to protect their lifestyles (easier said than done), and ultimately look for each other, despite being separated in more ways than one.
State-of-the-art animé and an ambitious story of memory, time, fate, and human connection, have made this film a standout in recent years (including IMDb's "Top 250"). Shinkai reveals jaw-dropping plot twists halfway through, where the film is at its strongest. At the same time, Your Name. represents Eastern spirituality and philosophy, not to mention secular views regarding changing the past and future. Even the writer-director reportedly considered the final film to be "incomplete [and] unbalanced."
A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016)
Based on Yoshitaka Oima's manga of the same name, A Silent Voice (a.k.a. "The Shape of Voice") tells the heartbreaking-but-poignant story of a young man (Ishida) who tries to make amends with a deaf girl (Nishimiya) he bullied in middle school. Things are never that simple in the world of teenage adolescence, particularly when it comes to school cliques, gossip, and peer pressure. Director Naomo Yamada and screenwriter Reiko Yoshida succeed in immersing viewers into this complicated world where cruelty has dire consequences and kindness and change are possible.
This is one of the most incredible pieces of animé I've ever seen. (Coming-of-age stories seem to be the strongest in this medium.) The adult Ishida goes from being shunned by his classmates to questioning whether or not he deserves forgiveness or love, even as he struggles to make things right. It's a testament to the filmmakers and artists that Ishida's arc is not the only one, with several other characters (including the deaf Nishimiya) having their own hidden intentions, forms of silence over bullying and other trauma, and ripple effects (a key visual motif). A few references to suicide are heart-stopping and difficult. But ultimately, this is a worthwhile story about second chances, as well as what real friendship looks like.
TRIVIAL FACT: These themes would be seen again the following year, in Stephen Chbosky's adaptation of R.J. Palacio's bestselling novel, Wonder.
Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017)
The debut feature film from Studio Ponoc, Mary and the Witch's Flower is a successor-of-sorts to Studio Ghibli. (The celebrated company closed down in 2014.) Based on Mary Stewart's children's book, The Little Broomstick, and written for the screen by Riko Sakaguchi and director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (who also made the beautiful Ghibli films The Secret World of Arrietty and When Marnie Was There), Mary and the Witch's Flower follows the titular and insecure girl (also featured in the company's clock-designed logo) who lives with her great-aunt in the countryside. One day, she discovers a broomstick and a magical flower that blooms every seven years. Soon enough, she's whisked away to a school for witches and wizards, and where the teachers and headmasters are not as they seem--save for the charming fox named Flanagan.
While Mary recalls other Ghibli efforts like The Cat Returns, Howl’s Moving Castle and Kiki’s Delivery Service, Yonebayashi and company succeed in creating a distinctly magical and complex world that could potentially rival J.K. Rowling. Featuring spellbinding animation (the transformation sequences are impressive), high-flying action and adventure, some scary creatures, and thrilling twists, the film also has layered themes of destruction, the misuse of power, friendships, and making things right in the most unexpected ways. The artists and producers behind the scenes deserve credit for starting from scratch and carrying on a legacy (set by Ghibli) in a new direction.
Modest Heroes -- Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1 (2018)
An engrossing anthology of three short films by Studio Ponoc, Modest Heroes showcases distinct stories that share common themes. These include the roles and challenges of parents and children, as seen in Hiromasa Yonebayashi's Kanini & Kanino (about a family of undersea folk, where the titular children learn to face the world on their own while searching for their lost parents) and Yoshiyuki Momose's Life Ain't Gonna Lose (about children with developing allergies). Another key theme is the will to live and the fight to survive, as also seen in Akihiko Yamashita's Invisible (a more mature tale about an unseen adult man who wears sunglasses and carries a fire extinguisher to keep himself grounded).
All shorts feature impressive animation and attention-to-detail, particularly Life's heart-racing sequence where the main child protagonist breaks out into allergies and races for his life, as well as Invisible's eponymous body language and characterizations. My only two qualms about this otherwise remarkable collection of achievements are Kanini & Kanino's shortage of a few animated bubbles (the film also blends hand-drawn animation with CG backgrounds and creatures), as well as respective closing credits that should've been saved until the end of the entire anthology.
TRIVIAL FACT: Ponoc's next feature film, The Imaginary (directed by Momose), is scheduled to be released in Winter of 2023. Stay tuned . . .
Weathering With You (2019)
In this coming-of-age story, a teenage boy named Hodaka runs away to Tokyo (where it apparently rains all the time), finds work at a small magazine editing company, and meets and falls for a teenage girl named Hira, who has the miraculous ability to control the weather and bring sunshine. Director Makoto Shinkai continues his trademark approach of ambitious filmmaking with montage editing, deep themes (some centered around adolescent romance), and state-of-the-art production design.
Unlike his previous film (2016's Your Name.), Weathering of You deals with more mature subject matter, including economic struggles, sexuality (i.e., some references to prostitution are present, as are other suggestive references and images), secrets, spirituality (New Age philosophy?), and scenes of drinking and smoking. So while the film is amazing to look at, its overall story shines a light on characters searching for meaning and purpose, but going about it in rebellious and/or illegal ways.
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