is a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

novel by

Yasutaka Tsutsui is a Japanese novelist, science fiction author, and actor. His ''Yumenokizaka bunkiten'' won the Tanizaki Prize in 1987. He has also won the 1981 Izumi Kyoka award, the 1989 Kawabata Yasunari award, and the 1992 Nihon SF Taisho Award. Writin ...

. 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 hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

, which leads to a

time loop The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby Character (arts), 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. Time loops are co ...

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 are reported at ¥ 90 billion ($789 million US). Gakken publishes educational books and magazines and produces othe ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

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 is a Japanese film director and animator. He is known for the short films that made up '' Digimon: The Movie'' (2000), '' The Girl Who Leapt Through Time'' (2006) and '' Summer Wars'' (2009). He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category ...

. 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 is a Japanese actress, singer, and lyricist, and was a popular idol in the 1980s. Career In 1982, Harada participated in a movie audition with the reason of wanting to meet Hiroyuki Sanada, and received a special award. In July of the same ...

for the 1983 film, which has enjoyed considerable fame of its own.

Plot

Kazuko Yoshiyama, a third-year

middle school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...

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 perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...

-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, who 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 and fantasy literature. Teleportation is often paired with tim ...

" 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 In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...

. 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, primarily associated with major film studios collectively referred to as Hollywood, has significantly influenced the global film industry since the early 20th century. Classical Hollywood cinema, a filmmakin ...

Groundhog Day Groundhog Day (, , , ; Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia: Daks Day) is a tradition observed regionally in the United States and Canada on February 2 of every year. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if ...

'' (1993).

Adaptations

1972 television series

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

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

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 is best known for playing Saki Asamiya in the second season of the live action ''Sukeban Deka'' television series. Though currently independent, Minamino was previously unde ...

1994 drama

The second

live-action 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 feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

television adaptation aired as a five-episode Japanese television

TV series broadcast on

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

between February 19 and March 19, 1994. It was directed by

Masayuki Ochiai is a Japanese film director. His films include '' Kansen'' and ''Saimin''. Biography Masayuki Ochiai was born in 1958. Ochiai grew up in the Western Tokyo suburb of Setagaya, where the studios for Toho, Nikkatsu and Daiei Film were located. He ...

and Yūichi Satō, with screenplay by

Ryōichi Kimizuka is a Japanese screenwriter and director for television and film. Career Kimizuka first entered the Japanese television industry by working on variety shows under Kin'ichi Hagimoto. He then began writing screenplays for television dramas, inclu ...

and music by

Joe Hisaishi , known professionally as , is a Japanese composer, musical director, conductor and pianist, known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. Hisaishi's music has been known to explore and incorporate different genres, inclu ...

. It stars the then-rookie

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a devotional image of a deity or saint used during puja ...

Yuki Uchida (born November 16, 1975) is a Japanese actress and former idol singer. Following her debut in the drama '' Sono Toki, Heart wa Nusumareta'' (1992), she received her first lead role in the 1994 drama adaption of '' The Girl Who Leapt Through Tim ...

in the main role.

1997 film

The second

film adaptation of was released in Japan on November 8, 1997, directed by

Haruki Kadokawa is a Japanese entrepreneur and filmmaker. He is the son of Genyoshi Kadokawa, the founder of the publishing company Kadokawa Shoten. He took over as president of the company in 1975 after his father's death. He entered the film industry as a pro ...

, with a screenplay by Ryōji Itō, and Haruki Kadokawa, starring beginner 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 (often stylized in all caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in trad ...

group

Morning Musume , formerly and commonly known as and colloquially referred to as , is a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most to ...

. 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 The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

on April 20, 2007 in Japan in regular and limited editions. The film features

Riisa Naka is a Japanese actress. She was given a Best New Talent award at the 2009 Yokohama Film Festival. Naka became famous by appearing in ''Hachi One Diver'' (2008) and played the lead, Hana Adachi, in '' Yankee-kun to Megane-chan'' (2010). Naka also ...

, who later voices the protagonist Akari Yoshiyama in the 2010 live movie Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, as the lead character, Makoto Konno, the niece of Kazuko Yoshiyama, who is the protagonist of the novel, and cousin of Akari Yoshiyama.

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

, who previously voiced the protagonist Makoto Konno in the 2006 animated film

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006 film) is a 2006 Japanese animated science fiction romance film, directed by Mamoru Hosoda, written by Satoko Okudera, and produced by Madhouse. It is a loose sequel to the 1967 novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui and shares the basic prem ...

, as the lead character, Akari Yoshiyama, the daughter of Kazuko Yoshiyama and cousin of Makoto Konno. 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 Timelesz (stylized as timelesz, formerly known as Sexy Zone) is an eight-member Japanese boy band managed by Starto Entertainment (formerly of Johnny & Associates). As Sexy Zone, the group consisting of Shori Sato, Kento Nakajima, Marius Yo, F ...

and

Yuina Kuroshima is a Japanese actress, model and TV personality. Personal life On January 16, 2024, Kuroshima and actor Hio Miyazawa jointly announced through their official websites that they were expecting their first child together. They also revealed th ...

2017 stage play

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

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

in 2017.

Manga

The novel was adapted in 2004 into a two-volume

manga 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 history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

called , illustrated by Gaku Tsugano, and story by

. 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 ...

. 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 is a monthly ''seinen'' manga magazine in Japan published by Kadokawa Shoten, started in 2009. A spin-off web manga magazine titled ''Young Ace UP'' began publication in December 2015. Series ''Young Ace'' *''Akuma no Ikenie'' ('' Devil's Sacr ...

'' 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 20th-century Japanese novels 1967 science fiction novels 1967 fantasy novels 1967 children's books Japanese science fiction novels Japanese fantasy novels Japanese romance novels Japanese children's novels Japanese serial novels Science fantasy novels Romantic fantasy novels Time loop novels Children's science fiction novels Children's fantasy novels Young adult science fiction novels Young adult fantasy novels Young adult romance novels Shōnen Novels about time travel Children's books about time travel Novels first published in serial form Works originally published in Japanese magazines Works originally published in children's magazines Japanese novels adapted into films Science fiction novels adapted into films Fantasy novels adapted into films Children's books adapted into films Japanese novels adapted into television shows Children's books adapted into television shows Japanese novels adapted into plays Novels adapted into comics Children's books adapted into comics Novels by Yasutaka Tsutsui Kadokawa Corporation franchises Romantic science fiction novels