The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

As a story, I really liked the concept of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Keep in mind that this is the *original* story. The first few movies were based on this story, and the anime is a sort of sequel to it. The sentences are a little bit choppy, but this book was translated from Japanese to English, so that's either how Japanese grammar and syntax work, or the translator didn't do the best job.The characters are developed a little bit at the beginning, but overall I found that the book was more plot-based. It's not exactly a book that you can analyze in-depth, but the story is good overall.You also get a second story in this book (or at least I did) that is about facing fears. It doesn't go particularly in-depth either, but it's still a good read.I do recommend at least reading the book if you are at all interested in science fiction. Yasutaka Tsutsui is supposedly very famous in Japan, and this is a good book to use as a jumping point into other Japanese literature.

I came to read Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, or as it's officially translated, "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", after first watching part of the (loose) anime adaptation in class and then viewing the book's film sequel (free on Amazon Prime!). I actually liked the sequel; it had a great storyline and really made you think after viewing it. The main ideas of the original story (or specifically, the original film adaptation from the 1980s) are recapped in this one (the protagonist learns about her mother Kazuko's past), but I want to see the source material.I know this may seem a little negative, but my studies involve analyzing text for meaning through word choice, sentence structure, etc., so I was happy to read a book that was geared toward a younger audience so I'd just be able to take in the story without much thought. It reads very easily; one reviewer of the book mentioned that its second half was better written (or translated) that the first, but both are extremely simple forms of writing. Was this the work of the translator, or was this written simply for junior high students...?You may have read that last sentence and thought, "Wait! There's a 'second part'?" The first half of the text is in fact the story of the girl who leapt through time, but the second half is an entirely different story about a girl who explores her fears and tries to learn their origins. Thinking that I'd read a final chapter where the two protagonist girls came together, I was a little let down that the stores were not connected. Other than them both dealing somewhat with time (Kazuko and her time leaping and Masako and learning about her past), these stories are unrelated.I don't know why two short stories are included or why the second one isn't mentioned in the description, but the reader should know when the story ends so as to not form expectations like I did. Overall, this was a fun reading, something I finished in probably less than two hours while commuting to school.If you have seen the anime or any of the other adaptations, I suggest you read this! Even if it isn't the most scholarly thing to look at, you are still seeing where these films came from. I enjoyed it, and so will you. Once you have read it, check out the other films, too! It can be a great experience comparing them all!

This is th original story and I have to say that after watching the movie and reading the manga based on the book and the manga based on the movie, that they didn't give me an ending I was satisfied with. But when I read this book I went through the emotions of being mad, happy, and sad. But I am very much satisfied with how it originally ending. To think a story from 1967 can be this detailed and have interesting imagination of what the future will be like. So this is a must read!!!!

“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.”From the title and back cover one would never know this book is a collection of two novellas. It honestly also over dramatizes things a bit.The Girl Who Leapt Through Time:The titular story is the big draw here, being somewhat famous due to inspiring a successful anime film of the same name (as well as several live action adaptations and spin offs).I adore the anime and was interested to check out the source material. They’re a little closer than I expected since the anime stars the niece of the main character here. It’s as if they wanted to adapt the story but with the freedom to expand and change it so made it about someone else. If you’ve seen/read neither I’d recommend watching the anime first, as it achieves an unfolding sense of wonder that I think would be mitigated otherwise. The book raised some questions about the film, as a couple of details don’t quite gel with what I remember. I want to watch it again with this in mind.It’s a very quick read, partially due to a functional, no-nonsense writing style. Not sure if it’s translation or the original text, but while not bad the style is a bit flat and the narrative would have benefitted from something more engaging. There’re also exposition dumps at times that are awkward. I liked the story overall though, and it was interesting to check out the anime’s inspiration. I think this is one of the rare cases where the adaptation far outdid the original though.The Stuff that Nightmares are Made Of:The second story of this collection features a high school girl dealing with deep seated, seemingly irrational fear. This parallels with her younger brother, who’s ridiculed for being a coward and preferring to play with girls than boys. The core concept and the way everything plays out is fine, but it suffers even more from the plain writing style than the previous story and really needed a little flair to elevate the subject matter. There’s some troubling themes mixed in with the strong ones too.I don’t have much more to say here because it’s not particularly good or bad and thus pretty unremarkable. It’s inclusion feels like padding because the first story was deemed too short to publish alone, especially since it’s not even acknowledged in any way in the title or description. Someone picking this up unaware would have no reason to believe the titular story wasn’t the full 170 pages, when it’s actually close to half that (97 pages of the 170).Overall this is a mediocre collection that’s more interesting in theory than it is impressive in execution, with the presentation holding back a couple of strong story ideas. The titular story (and main attraction) is decent, but if you’re only going to experience that story one way choose the anime.

Kept my attention, which is not trivial. 8th grade reading level. Disjointed. B-

I'd like to leave more of a disclaimer than a review. A lot of comments here describe this as a bad book, written very simply and generally underwhelming. And that's what it is, I can confirm this is a very mediocre book by everyday's standard. There is a reason why this is the case though, and this is not the an issue to attribute to the translator or the author itself. This book is a 1:1 translation of the japanese book, which is a book written in a VERY simple japanese aimed for THIRD GRADERS. This is not a book aimed for adults, this is a book for very young children.

You get two stories in this book, The Girl who Leaped Through Time, and another one about psychological fears.They're surprisingly short but the writing style is very nice to read; its very straight-forward and simple.I originally got this because I love the films based on it, and would recommend this if you're not big on reading/for a younger reader (perhaps late primary/early secondary school)

Its two stories are very easy to read, but so short.

This, at 170 pages is a brief book, so allow me to be equally brief. It comprises of two short stories "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" and "The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of"In the initial story school girl Kazuko finds herself falling through time; in the second two siblings confront their nightmares.These stories are appallingly written, tripe would be the best description. Perhaps it's just a truly terrible translation but it reads like a precocious 13 year old wrote it.It's not just the style of language that makes this poorly written though, it's also the construct of the plot, particularly in the first story.Mediocre on every level, definitely don't read this! 0/10

Der recht schmale Band »The Girl Who Leapt Through Time« umfasst zwei Geschichten: die titelgebende Geschichte mit einem Umfang von knapp 100 Seiten sowie die etwa 60 seitige Erzählung »The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of«. Beide habe ich vorrangig deshalb bestellt, weil sich die Leseprobe sehr einfach und trotzdem ansprechend lesen ließ. Wer auf den ersten beiden Seiten der Vorschau keine Probleme mit der Sprache hat, wird auch das komplette Buch genießen können.Inhaltlich gefielen sie mir größtenteils; sie ließen sich gut weglesen, letztlich hätten den Geschichten aber ein paar Seiten mehr gut getan, da so alles ein wenig skizziert bleibt. Insbesondere bei der ersten Geschichte denkt man am Ende, dass irgendwie der Mittelteil fehlte. Da spürt man dann, dass der Umfang eben nicht 400 Seiten beträgt.Ich kann das Buch all jenen empfehlen, die gerne mal wieder etwas auf Englisch lesen möchten, sich aber an die meisten Bücher nicht rantrauen.Die Geschichten an sich bekommen von mir drei Sterne. Einen gibt es oben drauf, weil sich das Buch super dazu eignet, sein Englisch wieder etwas aufzufrischen.