PFA Response-The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

The animated film, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, was comical and exciting to watch. The creators generated comedy by using simplistic dialogue. For example, Makato (main character) finds that her sister has eaten her pudding and travels back in time to prevent this from happening. When she does this, she looks at the pudding and pauses; the audience anticipating what she will say finds it funny when she finally utters the obvious, “pudding”! I found it interesting that something so simple could produce humor. A scene that was also very comical was when Mankato’s friend, Chikoti, asks her to date him. She leaps back numerous times to prevent this conversation from occurring. Each time becomes more and more of a joke. She first tries to change the subject completely, which makes no sense whatsoever. The second time she decides to just walk away as he is talking to her. These are both examples of the simplistic nature of the film that ultimately made it humorous.
I also thought the format of the film was very well planned. At the beginning of the film we see random scenes, where Makato runs into some problems. Although these were funny, I had a difficult time understanding the significance of these scenes. Later in the film, these scenes come into play as Makato travels back in time. The creators used them to give Makato a motive to use her time traveling powers to go back in time and change her clumsy acts. The first half of the movie was very straightforward, and was easy to follow, but as the film progressed, conflicts were unveiled.
Makato’s aunt mentions the possibility that others around her may be losing as she gains from time leaping. This caused the viewer to question how safe Makato’s time leaping really is. I thought the creator(s) of the film did a great job of setting up the main conflict, and presenting it in this way (through another character’s observation). Later in the film, Makato realizes that her friend Kosuke and an innocent girl could die because the breaks on her bike had been broken. I found myself wondering if Makato would ever figure out how to fix the mess she was in. Conflict in a film adds to its depth and makes it more appealing. I did not want Kosuke and the girl to die, which caused me to continue to watch due to suspense. The film used a simplistic style at first to create humor and set up the major conflicts, which ultimately make the film more fascinating to watch.