By the way, I do reccomend watching the anime movie of this. It's cute, although it was rather unique in it's adaption.
One of Tsutsui's best-known and most popular works in his native Japan, The Girl Who Leapt through Time is the story of fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Kazuko, who accidentally discovers that she can leap back and forth in time. In her quest to uncover the identity of the mysterious figure that she believes to be responsible for her paranormal abilities, she'll constantly have to push the boundaries of space and time, and challenge the notions of dream and reality. (Pinched from amazon.co.uk. Please don't hurt me.)
The first thing I have to address in this review, before this zoo, is that The Girl That Leapt Through Time is very short, clocking in at just over one-hundred pages, with a bonus story filling the space left. Yet still, this book felt just the right length. Long enough to leave an impression, short enough to be a fast, enjoyable read without become tiring or dull. It felt very straight-to-the point; a bit like my impression of the whole book, really. It tells the story, avoids meandering off in a direction that involves pointless descriptions of Mexican cuisine. And the result is very satisfactory. Actually, it doesn't take time off it's tight schedule to describe any food actually. The poor book needs a meal. Maybe we should get Indian takeout together? Ah, yes. Whisperings in the crowd. I see that this was not the appropriate response. Yes, right, no Indian food.
Oh right, yes. The jury, a rowdy group composed of irritable safari animals, doesn't take well to distractions. Sorry, court. For a bit of a change of pace, I'm going to discuss some of the things that The Girl Who Leapt Through Time does wrong. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is very humble, plot-wise. While there are a few genuinely surprising twists scattered around, especially toward the end, the plot ploughed on in it's determined, unique but not particularly surprising journey. I'm not use whether I can blame this on the translation, which we come to later, but the writing was rather bland, but had a certain charm about it. There's also the small matter of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time being somewhat malnourished development wise. Side-characters often made one appearance to prove a point, and were never heard of again, the time-travelling aspect was slightly under-developed. One has to expect this with a book of this length, and it's not particularly overwhelming.
Although more of a personal nit-pick, I really didn't like who the author resolved the romantic subplot. The much-too-short romantic sub-plot that ended in a way that angers me, myself, and the heavens, judging from the amount of rain that we're receiving lately. Kazuo, dear, have you not a romantic bone in your body? "I love you, but I've got to go and work now! In the future, in secret! So see ya in never!" (Note: a slightly condensed version of the events towards the end of the book.) This rubs me the wrong way because of how anti-climatically it was resolved. It wasn't because it lacked emotion, or was stupid, pointless, or anything like that. Emotionally-charged and carefully planned out it may have been, but I honestly can't believe that Kazuko let Kazuo erase her memories, and then just walk away. This angers and frustrates my inner hopeless romantic to the point in which only low, guttural noises can describe how negatively I feel about it. Noises like that one lion in the audience is prone to making after meals.
Yet somehow, despite it's seemingly fatal flaws, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time just works. Oh. It appears that I will need to elaborate a bit more. I mentioned before that this book feels very straight to the point. And in many ways, it is. But that's hardly a bad thing. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time strives to tell a story, and it achieves that goal with flying colours. Seriously, those rainbows you see are not caused by light and precipitation's random meet-ups, or whatever, or God's colourful output after a few too many glasses of wine and two large plates of Indian curry, but the sheer awesomeness of this book. The story itself is exciting, sweet, gripping, and the tone of the novel bends to the whims of the novel, making whatever strange thing that just occurred feel right at home with both the book, the characters, and the reader.
I also feel the need to commend the author on the pacing, and the handling of the time-travel in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. To state my views on the latter quite frankly, I am very glad that there were no spaceships involved. The way that Kazuko jumped around from time to time differed from your average science-fiction fare in how Kazuko wasn't using a machine, and had absolutely no idea what she was doing most of the time. It was very refreshing, and for the most part, didn't require my brain to get up and do stuff. Now, the pacing. Oh, Miss Pacing. You and I have quite a conversation in front off us. When you tried, you were excellent - leaving me begging for more, keeping up with your rapid advances. Well ... that sounded rather ... dirty. Anyhow, when one doesn't feel inclined to do good, don't just give up! Don't just waver off and ham-handedly shove the material down someones throat when you want to go home. It leaves the book all lopsided, sometimes very nicely paced and exciting, but other times just rushed or rather slow. Please. Try harder next time, as there are some very hungry animals in the audience who are very eager to taste Dramatic Timing.
Kazuko is your average teenager, sometimes confident and smart, baffled at the events happening around her, but still trying to get on with her life. She had brains, a spine and a like-able demeanour. A nice heroine, but rather ... average. Kazuo, her friend and surprisingly enough, the guy whom I previously defined as not having a romantic bone in his body was the character happened to be my favourite. Eccentric and spacey, smart, and despite all of what I said earlier, ultimately quite sweet. But seriously, Kazuo, seriously. You work may be important, but it's not that important. At least stay long enough to take her somewhere nice for dinner. Oh, right yes. I become hippo food if I get distracted. Can't have that. Now comes the time when I talk about Goro, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's unsung hero. The somewhat whiny, slightly boisterous, easily forgotten third member of the main trio. Until, you know, he suddenly disappeared towards the end of the book. Boom! Without a trace. I initially thought he was going to be the one who ended with Kazuko, but since fate likes to punch holes in my predictions, it was not so. But I'd do wonder were he went.
Well. I do believe I'm nearly finished. Simply put, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an enjoyable romp, bittersweet and fast. It's short and sweet, interesting and refreshing. The presentation is shiny, the translation is at least consistent, I can't judge how good it is, because I haven't read the original (in the actual book, I mean. The side story's translation was inconsistent and localised rather oddly.), and the story itself is fantastic. I love this book, and I want to hug it to my chest. I recommend you pick it up, although the hugging to the chest part is optional.
Thanks to Alma Books for sending me a copy to review.
★★★★.5
One of Tsutsui's best-known and most popular works in his native Japan, The Girl Who Leapt through Time is the story of fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Kazuko, who accidentally discovers that she can leap back and forth in time. In her quest to uncover the identity of the mysterious figure that she believes to be responsible for her paranormal abilities, she'll constantly have to push the boundaries of space and time, and challenge the notions of dream and reality. (Pinched from amazon.co.uk. Please don't hurt me.)
The first thing I have to address in this review, before this zoo, is that The Girl That Leapt Through Time is very short, clocking in at just over one-hundred pages, with a bonus story filling the space left. Yet still, this book felt just the right length. Long enough to leave an impression, short enough to be a fast, enjoyable read without become tiring or dull. It felt very straight-to-the point; a bit like my impression of the whole book, really. It tells the story, avoids meandering off in a direction that involves pointless descriptions of Mexican cuisine. And the result is very satisfactory. Actually, it doesn't take time off it's tight schedule to describe any food actually. The poor book needs a meal. Maybe we should get Indian takeout together? Ah, yes. Whisperings in the crowd. I see that this was not the appropriate response. Yes, right, no Indian food.
Oh right, yes. The jury, a rowdy group composed of irritable safari animals, doesn't take well to distractions. Sorry, court. For a bit of a change of pace, I'm going to discuss some of the things that The Girl Who Leapt Through Time does wrong. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is very humble, plot-wise. While there are a few genuinely surprising twists scattered around, especially toward the end, the plot ploughed on in it's determined, unique but not particularly surprising journey. I'm not use whether I can blame this on the translation, which we come to later, but the writing was rather bland, but had a certain charm about it. There's also the small matter of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time being somewhat malnourished development wise. Side-characters often made one appearance to prove a point, and were never heard of again, the time-travelling aspect was slightly under-developed. One has to expect this with a book of this length, and it's not particularly overwhelming.
Although more of a personal nit-pick, I really didn't like who the author resolved the romantic subplot. The much-too-short romantic sub-plot that ended in a way that angers me, myself, and the heavens, judging from the amount of rain that we're receiving lately. Kazuo, dear, have you not a romantic bone in your body? "I love you, but I've got to go and work now! In the future, in secret! So see ya in never!" (Note: a slightly condensed version of the events towards the end of the book.) This rubs me the wrong way because of how anti-climatically it was resolved. It wasn't because it lacked emotion, or was stupid, pointless, or anything like that. Emotionally-charged and carefully planned out it may have been, but I honestly can't believe that Kazuko let Kazuo erase her memories, and then just walk away. This angers and frustrates my inner hopeless romantic to the point in which only low, guttural noises can describe how negatively I feel about it. Noises like that one lion in the audience is prone to making after meals.
Yet somehow, despite it's seemingly fatal flaws, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time just works. Oh. It appears that I will need to elaborate a bit more. I mentioned before that this book feels very straight to the point. And in many ways, it is. But that's hardly a bad thing. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time strives to tell a story, and it achieves that goal with flying colours. Seriously, those rainbows you see are not caused by light and precipitation's random meet-ups, or whatever, or God's colourful output after a few too many glasses of wine and two large plates of Indian curry, but the sheer awesomeness of this book. The story itself is exciting, sweet, gripping, and the tone of the novel bends to the whims of the novel, making whatever strange thing that just occurred feel right at home with both the book, the characters, and the reader.
I also feel the need to commend the author on the pacing, and the handling of the time-travel in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. To state my views on the latter quite frankly, I am very glad that there were no spaceships involved. The way that Kazuko jumped around from time to time differed from your average science-fiction fare in how Kazuko wasn't using a machine, and had absolutely no idea what she was doing most of the time. It was very refreshing, and for the most part, didn't require my brain to get up and do stuff. Now, the pacing. Oh, Miss Pacing. You and I have quite a conversation in front off us. When you tried, you were excellent - leaving me begging for more, keeping up with your rapid advances. Well ... that sounded rather ... dirty. Anyhow, when one doesn't feel inclined to do good, don't just give up! Don't just waver off and ham-handedly shove the material down someones throat when you want to go home. It leaves the book all lopsided, sometimes very nicely paced and exciting, but other times just rushed or rather slow. Please. Try harder next time, as there are some very hungry animals in the audience who are very eager to taste Dramatic Timing.
Kazuko is your average teenager, sometimes confident and smart, baffled at the events happening around her, but still trying to get on with her life. She had brains, a spine and a like-able demeanour. A nice heroine, but rather ... average. Kazuo, her friend and surprisingly enough, the guy whom I previously defined as not having a romantic bone in his body was the character happened to be my favourite. Eccentric and spacey, smart, and despite all of what I said earlier, ultimately quite sweet. But seriously, Kazuo, seriously. You work may be important, but it's not that important. At least stay long enough to take her somewhere nice for dinner. Oh, right yes. I become hippo food if I get distracted. Can't have that. Now comes the time when I talk about Goro, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's unsung hero. The somewhat whiny, slightly boisterous, easily forgotten third member of the main trio. Until, you know, he suddenly disappeared towards the end of the book. Boom! Without a trace. I initially thought he was going to be the one who ended with Kazuko, but since fate likes to punch holes in my predictions, it was not so. But I'd do wonder were he went.
Well. I do believe I'm nearly finished. Simply put, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an enjoyable romp, bittersweet and fast. It's short and sweet, interesting and refreshing. The presentation is shiny, the translation is at least consistent, I can't judge how good it is, because I haven't read the original (in the actual book, I mean. The side story's translation was inconsistent and localised rather oddly.), and the story itself is fantastic. I love this book, and I want to hug it to my chest. I recommend you pick it up, although the hugging to the chest part is optional.
Thanks to Alma Books for sending me a copy to review.
★★★★.5
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