The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” is anime of rare pedigree. Director Mamoru Hosoda, the Ghibli refugee originally slated to helm Howl's Moving Castle, Gainax's master character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and longtime Ghibli art director Nizo Yamamoto coming together at Madhouse to adapt a story by Paprika author Yasutaka Tsutsui. Sounds like it should be absolute magic… and it very nearly is.

We meet Makoto Konno, an outgoing high school girl living a daily life of fun. She's not the best student in the world, but she has two of the best friends in the world - Kousuke, who's the strong, smart dependable type, and Chiaki, who is a fun-loving slacker. They spend their days together goofing off, singing karaoke and playing catch. But on this particular day, things aren't going so well for her. After failing a pop quiz, nearly setting her cooking class on fire, and enough physical accidents to fill a Buster Keaton movie, she gets killed when the brakes on her bike stop working, sending her directly into the path of an oncoming train.

… Except she doesn't die. Rather, she finds herself a few feet away, a few seconds earlier, and more or less, safe. Freaked out, she consults her aunt, who tells her she's simply time-slipped, and that it happens all the time. Soon, she finds she can control her time slipping by taking a flying leap.