In Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s time-traveling teen movie, there’s nothing to be fixed about the past. After staying late at school one day to help clean up, Yoshiyama (Tomoyo Harada) sniffs the wrong lavender potion in the chem lab and gets caught in a time loop. (Whom among us?) As she gains awareness of her new ‘ability’(?), she sometimes helps her friend Goro (Toshinori Omi) stay out of danger; but most of the time, she spends the extra time growing increasingly conflicted about her growing feelings about her childhood friend Fukamachi (Ryōichi Takayanagi).
Its lack of focus on science fiction is just one of the ways THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME is unlike other time travel movies. It’s got the characteristic Ôbayashi touch, veering between overwhelming sincerity and knowing absurdity, depending on how he wanted his audience to feel. In this episode, we discuss how Ôbayashi put his own spin on Yasutaka Tsutsui’s original novel, how to make young people nostalgic for things they’ve never experienced for themselves, and try to remember Cody’s trivia questions from previous episodes.
References:
'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 4: HIS MOTORBIKE, HER ISLAND (1986)
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Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Toki wo Kakeru Shojo” composed by Yumi Matsutoya and performed by Tomoyo Harada from the THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME end credits.
Timestamps
0:00 - Episode 356: THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME (1983)
7:43 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary
10:22 - Seeing this as an Ōbayashi fan
19:36 - Ōbayashi’s unique interest in the mechanics of time travel
25:45 - The timey wimey stuff matters, but not in the way you think
29:31 - The stylistic development of the movie
38:13 - Emotional idealism vs. realist cynicism
49:35 - The ending and the grandparents
1:08:01 - The Junk Drawer
1:15:53 - Cody's Noteys: The Love that Leapt Through Tryme (trivia from previous Trylove episodes)
