is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univ ...

novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui. Originally serialized from 1965 to 1966, it tells the story of a high-school girl who accidentally acquires the ability to

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

, which leads to a

time loop The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition. The term "time loop" is sometimes u ...

where she repeatedly relives the same day. Originally serialised in seven installments in two of

Gakken is a Japanese publishing company founded in 1947 by Hideto Furuoka, which also produces educational toys. Their annual sales is reported at ¥ 90 billion ($789 million US). Gakken publishes educational books and magazines and produces other ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

student-aimed magazines, beginning in ''Chūgaku Sannen Course'' in November 1965 and ending in ''Kō Ichi Course'' in May 1966, and first published as a book in 1967 by

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines ...

, it has gone on to become one of Tsutsui's most popular works and has been reinterpreted in other media many times, the most famous internationally being a 1983 live-action film directed by Nobuhiko Ōbayashi, and a 2006 anime film directed by Mamoru Hosoda. The original novel was first published in English translation by the British publisher Alma Books on May 26, 2011, in a translation by David James Karashima. The title is also that of a song, written by Yumi Matsutōya to be performed by Tomoyo Harada for the 1983 film, which has enjoyed considerable fame of its own.

Plot

Kazuko Yoshiyama, a third-year

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary schoo ...

student, is cleaning the school science lab with her classmates, Kazuo Fukamachi and Gorō Asakura, when she smells a

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and east ...

-like scent and faints. After three days, events transpire around Kazuko, including the burning of Gorō's house after an earthquake. The next morning, at the exact moment of a car accident, Kazuko is transported 24 hours into the past. She relives the day and relates her strange experience to Kazuo and Gorō. They do not believe her at first, but they are convinced when she accurately predicts the earthquake and ensuing fire. Goro also almost gets hit by a truck but Kazuko knows and tells him, so it adds to Goro believing her even more. They go to see Fukushima, their science teacher, explains Kazuko's new ability as "

teleportation Teleportation is the hypothetical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction literature and in other popular culture. Teleportation is oft ...

" and " time-leap". To solve the riddle of her power, she must leap back four days. Finally, Kazuko's determination enables her to make the leap. Back in the science room, she meets a mysterious man who has assumed her friend Kazuo's identity. He is really "Ken Sogoru", a time-traveler from AD 2660. His intersection with the girl's life is the accidental effect of a "time-leaping" drug. Ken remains for a month, and Kazuko falls in love with him. When he leaves, he erases all memories of himself from everyone he has met, including Kazuko. As the book ends, Kazuko has the faint memory of somebody promising to meet her again every time she smells lavender.

Publication history

The novel was first serialized in the Japanese youth magazines Chu-3 Course and Kō-1 Course, from November 1965 to May 1966, and has been regularly re-edited in Japan ever since, notably in 1967 (), in 1997 for the release of the second film (), and in a new version in 2006 for the release of the animated film, including two more stories: ''Akumu no shinsô'' and ''Hateshinaki tagen uchû'' (). The novel is also published in foreign countries, like France (''La Traversée du temps'', 1983), South Korea, and China. According to the scholar Ulrich Heinze, the novel represents the first fully formed version of time travel as an exploration of

self The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhoo ...

. In contrast to other time travel stories up until the 1960s which typically involved expeditions, ''The Girl Who Leapt Through Time'' limited the time jumps to a short period to examine adolescence. It was also an early example of a

narrative, anticipating plot elements of the later

Hollywood film The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Amer ...

Groundhog Day Groundhog Day ( pdc, Grund'sau dåk, , , ; Nova Scotia: Daks Day) is a popular North American tradition observed in the United States and Canada on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges fr ...

'' (1993).

Adaptations

1972 television series

NHK produced two adaptations titled ''Time Traveler'' and ''Zoku Time Traveler'', aired in 1972. Starring Mayumi Asano.

1983 film

The 1983 live-action film is a direct adaptation of the novel, released on July 16, 1983 in Japan by Tōei, directed by Nobuhiko Ōbayashi, with a screenplay by Wataru Kenmotsu, and starring idol Tomoyo Harada in her first film. It's been since released internationally on DVD, with English subtitles, under several unofficial English titles (''The Little Girl Who Conquered Time'', ''Girl of Time'', ''The Girl Who Cut Time'', among others). This film was a major box office hit in Japan. It was the second highest-grossing Japanese film of 1983.

1983 short story

Yasutaka Tsutsui wrote a short story parodying his own novel titled ''Scenario: Toki o Kakeru Shōjo'' in response to the film adaptation.

1985 drama

Adapted to an episode of ''Getsuyō Drama Land''. Starring

Yoko Minamino , also known as Nanno (ナンノ), is a Japanese actress and singer. She graduated from Horikoshi High School. She played Saki Asamiya in the second season of the live action ''Sukeban Deka'' TV series replacing fellow idol star Yuki Saitō. She ...

1994 drama

The second

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video g ...

television adaptation aired as a five-episode Japanese television

TV series broadcast on

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network Sy ...

between February 19 and March 19, 1994. It was directed by Masayuki Ochiai and Yūichi Satō, with screenplay by Ryōichi Kimizuka and music by Joe Hisaishi. It stars the then-rookie

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...

Yuki Uchida in the main role.

1997 film

The second

film adaptation of was released in Japan on November 8, 1997, directed by Haruki Kadokawa, with a screenplay by Ryōji Itō, Chiho Katsura and Haruki Kadokawa, starring beginner Nana Nakamoto in the main role.

2002 TV film

The novel was adapted into one third of the ''Shinshun! Love Stories'' anthology film starring members of the all-girl

J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

group

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

. The segment was written by Toshio Terada, starring Abe Natsumi and directed by Kazuhiro Onohara.

2006 anime film

''The Girl Who Leapt Through Time'' was produced by the animation studio Madhouse and distributed through Kadokawa Herald Pictures, first released in theaters in Japan on July 15, 2006. The film was later released on DVD on April 20, 2007 in Japan in regular and limited editions. The protagonist of the novel is the aunt of the film's protagonist.

2010 film

A third Japanese

film adaptation of ''The Girl Who Leapt Through Time'' was announced in Yahoo Japan and released on March 13, 2010. The theme song of the film was performed by

Ikimono-gakari The romanization of the group's name does not have the hyphen according to Sony's websites for their albums. is a Japanese pop rock duo from Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan consisting of Yoshiki Mizuno and Kiyoe Yoshioka. The group started in Februa ...

. The movie features Riisa Naka, who previously voiced the protagonist Makoto Konno in the 2006 animated film, as the lead character, Akari Yoshiyama, the daughter of Kazuko Yoshiyama. The film is a sequel to the original tale in which Kazuko's daughter, Akari, travels back in time to relay a message to Ken.

2016 drama

A 5 episode live-action television series was aired in 2016, with Fuma Kikuchi of Sexy Zone and Yuina Kuroshima.

2017 stage play

A stage play adaptation of ''Zoku Time Traveler'' premiered in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

in 2017.

Manga

The novel was adapted in 2004 into a two-volume

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used ...

called , illustrated by Gaku Tsugano, and story by Yasutaka Tsutsui ( & ). The manga was released in English in October 2008 by

CMX Manga CMX was an imprint of DC Comics, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment. It was DC's line of manga translations. CMX was known for its censored release of ''Tenjho Tenge'' and the print version of Fred Gallagher's ''Megatokyo'' web manga se ...

. A manga adaptation of the 2006 anime film was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's '' Shōnen Ace'' manga magazine between April 26 and June 26, 2006, illustrated by Ranmaru Kotone; the chapters were later collected into a single bound volume which went on sale on July 26, 2006. Another manga, known as , set as prelude to the 2010 film was serialized in '' Young Ace'' magazine.http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/10/09/toki-wo-kakeru-shoujo-new-movies-manga/ Toki wo kakeru shoujo new movie's manga

References

External links

*
Fansite for the 1972 ''Time Traveler'' TV series adaptation

Review of ''Toki o Kakeru Shōjo''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Girl Who Leapt Through Time Kadokawa Dwango franchises 1967 children's books 1967 science fiction novels Children's science fiction novels Japanese children's novels Japanese novels adapted into films Japanese science fiction novels Japanese serial novels Novels by Yasutaka Tsutsui Romantic fantasy novels Shōnen Teen fiction Novels about time travel Young adult novels Time loop novels Time loop television series