With all of the news about the upcoming US theatrical run of The Boy and the Beast (starting March 4, tickets available now), there’s one major question that anime fans have been dying to know:
Are we going to license The Girl Who Leapt Through Time?
We are absolutely ecstatic to announce today that Funimation has acquired the rights to Mamoru Hosoda’s award-winning film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and we are planning a home video release for this summer, just in time for the film’s 10th anniversary!
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is the first original film not tied to a TV anime series, from the director of Summer Wars, Wolf Children, and The Boy and the Beast. If you love the energetic humor of Summer Wars and the tender emotion of Wolf Children, you’re in for a real treat. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was the first film ever to receive the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year (sort of the Japanese equivalent to the Oscars), an honor shared with three films from Hayao Miyazaki. Director Hosoda himself has been called “rank[ed] first among the Japanese animation directors seen as successors to now-retired industry giant Hayao Miyazaki — and for good reason” by The Japan Times, so see this history-making director at his roots with one of his most classic films.
Additional news and pre-orders for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time will be coming soon— be sure to keep an eye on the Funimation blog for updates!
SYNOPSIS
After waking up late, flunking her pop quiz, embarrassing herself on numerous occasions, and starting a fire in her home economics class, high school student Makoto Konno figures she’s just having one of those days. And just when she thinks she’s made it through, the brakes on her bike malfunction putting her on a collision course with a speeding train. The life-ending accident would have been the perfect end to the worst day ever, but the strangest thing happens—she leaps backwards in time.
After unlocking her new ability, Makoto does what any teenager would do. She re-takes tests, corrects embarrassing situations, and sleeps in as late as she wants, never thinking that her carefree time travelling could have a negative effect on the people she cares about. By the time she realizes the damage she’s done, she only has a few leaps left to make things right.